Imagine a war-ravaged country, food crisis looming large, its desolate children, and a Messiah in the skies. This all came together once in post-WWII Germany when conflict among the Allied nations reached its peak and spawned Cold War's 1st crisis (1/n)
Soviet Union cut-off road, rail & canal links to Western bloc-held Berlin in the summer of 1948. Thus began Operation Berlin Airlift with US & UK air dropping supplies into the starving city. It is estimated that more than 250,000 sorties were flown (2/n)
One of the many pilots engaged in the airdrops was Lt. Gail Halvorsen from Utah. In his spare time, he often flew into Berlin to do some photography. During one of those visits, he came across a bunch of kids in ragged condition across a barbed wire (3/n)
Halvorsen gave them some toffees he was carrying. The kids distributed the toffees in the smallest of pieces - those who still didn't get one took the wrappers and sniffed them. The sight affected Halvorsen strongly (4/n)
He promised the kids he would be back with more. Gail Halvorsen prepared tiny parachutes with handkerchiefs & socks packing candies, chocolates & gums into them and #OTD in 1948, proceeded to drop them over Berlin. (5/n)
He repeated this several times over coming days and was joined by a few colleagues. Halvorsen rocked his plane a few times before the drops - his promised signal to the kids to help them identify his aircraft. (6/n)
Soon, stacks of mail arrived at the base camp addressed to "Uncle Wiggly Wings", "The Chocolate Uncle" and "The Chocolate Flier." In no time, Halvorsen's initiative became a national project with several US confectionary cos. pitching in (7/n)
The Chocolate Bomber Uncle of Berlin had a profound impact on the children of the war. They kept writing letters to him providing a map of their houses and mentioning their most favorite flavors. (8/n)
One such little letter reads, “I'll be in the backyard every day at 2:00 PM. Drop the chocolate there". Gail Halvorsen showed that you don’t need guns, but a only a thriving conscience to win over a million hearts (9/n)
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Four years ago in Kerala, sixteen strangers walked into the Russian House in Thiruvananthapuram. They were from different districts, different walks of life. But they all carried one name that bound them together.
Gagarin. Yes, Gagarin.
So, What brought them together? 1/16
The name needs no introduction, or does it?
On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to journey into space. For the world, it was history. For a section of Kerala’s left-leaning families, it was inspiration strong enough to echo in their children’s names. 2/16
Take P.D. Gagarin from Cherthala.
According to reports in Hindu and New Indian Express, he was born on that very day in 1961, when the Soviet cosmonaut made his historic flight. His father, a communist and space enthusiast, named him Yuri Gagarin. 3/16
Long before she was a global icon, Mother Teresa walked the streets of Kolkata, and when she had nowhere to go, the city’s iconic Kali Temple opened its doors. On her birthday, we remember the unlikely home that started a journey of compassion that changed the world. Thread 1/19
When Mother Teresa began her work in Calcutta in 1948, she had almost nothing of her own. She wore a plain white cotton sari with a blue border and carried little more than conviction. 2/19
Her belief was simple yet radical: that the poor who lay unwanted on the pavements, the sick abandoned in the streets, and the dying left in filth deserved dignity in their final days. 3/19
Why does sugarcane taste so sweet in India today? India’s sugarcane wasn’t always this sweet. The reason it tastes the way it does today goes back to the stubborn brilliance of one woman who fought prejudice, doubt, and even war. Thread.
1/19
Janaki Ammal was born in 1897 in Kerala. At a time when most girls were expected to marry early, she chose science.
Botany became her world.
2/19
Janaki grew up in a large family with 19 siblings. Her father was not a scientist, but he loved tending gardens and writing about nature. From him, Janaki absorbed a way of looking at plants not just as crops, but as living wonders.
Open a Crayola box today and you’ll find hundreds of shades. But if you grew up in the 80s or 90s using Crayola art supplies, you might remember a crayon called Indian Red. And then, one day, it just disappeared. What exactly happened?
1/14
To answer that, you have to travel way beyond the Crayola factory in Pennsylvania…
all the way to a small town in Kerala, India.
In 1807, a Scottish man named Francis Buchanan was surveying the region for the East India Company.
2/14
So, who was Buchanan-Hamilton? think of him as a one-man research institute on foot: surgeon, botanist, surveyor. after Tipu Sultan’s fall, he was tasked to map and describe the south.
3/14
This year, a controversy broke out over a scene in Kesari 2. It allegedly misrepresented one of Bengal’s greatest freedom fighters, Khudiram Bose, by calling him Khudiram Singh. To understand why that name matters, we have to take a train to a small station in Bihar. Thread 1/19
The station has two platforms and is located in Samastipur district, part of the East Central Railway’s Sonpur division. To understand why the name mix-up hurt so deeply, we have to look beyond cinema. This small, unassuming train station may hold the answer. 2/19
It has worn several names over the years — Waini Railway Station, then Pusa Road Waini after the nearby agricultural university was built. Later, Waini was dropped. For decades, it was simply “Pusa Road.” 3/19
Rahul Gandhi’s startling claims of voter list fraud have sparked intense debate over India’s election integrity. Nearly a hundred years ago, a small West African country experienced one of the most extraordinary election frauds in history. What exactly took place? Thread 1/18
In 1927, Liberia went to the polls. On paper, it was just another general election. In reality, it would become a masterclass in how far those in power will go to hold on to it.
2/18
Liberia was small. Tucked away in West Africa. Founded a century earlier by freed African Americans.
Its ruling class — the Americo-Liberians — controlled everything: the courts, the military, foreign trade, and land.
3/18