When a food vendor asked for some sauce and curry powder from English Soldiers in Post-war Berlin, culinary magic happened. Here is a thread about a German icon you might not be familiar with. #travellingsOftheIndianCurry 1/n
On a scale of 1 to 10 Berlin Street food must be somewhere at the very top, its various nooks and corners are teeming with joints and cafés serving all kinds of food from the doner kebab to the Japanese vegan waffle. 2/n
The item, however, which can be considered at the center of Berlin’s gastronomic pleasure is something called the Currywurst. 3/n
The magic happens when a grilled sausage is cut into pieces and mixed with curry powder, tomato paste, and other spices and is accompanied by some French fries to form the perfect comfort food. 4/n
The story of the curry powder is an ingenuity of the colonial era and though most Indians would most likely denounce its usage preferring to work with original spices, the powder’s global patronage cannot be denied. 5/n
In 1949, Berlin was a divided city. Filled with construction workers, migrants from other cities and towns, and foreign soldiers, the city was struggling to get back to its feet. 6/n
In the midst of this, a young food vendor, Herta Heuwer from West Berlin, in her bid to add some innovative flavour to her bland fried sausages, traded alcohol with someone from the British sector, for some curry powder. 7/n
Heuwer started selling the curry powdered sausages to the construction workers in the borough of Charlottenburg where it first became popular. It was filling, cheap, and easy to get and soon everyone wanted to taste it. 8/n
Heuwer patented the sauce under the name Chillup. At its height, her shop sold more than ten thousand packs of currywurst every week. Over the years, the snack’s origin has been disputed. 9/n
In Uwe Timm’s novel, The Invention of Curried Sausage, a woman called Lena Brücker is said to have perfected the Currywurst sauce a couple of years before Heuwer did hers. 10/n
The city of Hamburg has also laid claim to the famed snack, saying the ketchup which is integral to the dish landed first in the Ruhr region with the American GIs. 11/n
Whatever may be its origin, there is no denying that the snack is a German icon with its own dedicated museum – the Deutsches Currywurst Museum, including a song by German Musician Herbert Grönemeyer. 12/n
Around 800 million sausages are consumed every year in Germany. The snack’s growth and popularity reflect the German people's mentality to move beyond the past and embrace something new and make it their own. Make sure to have one when you are in Berlin. 13/n
In Vidarbha, Maharashtra, the towns of Yavatmal and Murtizapur share a colonial-era legacy tied to cotton trade, a freedom fighter’s wife, and a rare wedding gift that still echoes through history. 1/19
The year was 1944. A newlywed couple and a retinue of relatives were waiting on the railway platform at Murtizapur to board the next train to Daryapur. 2/19
One half of the pair was Balwantrao Deshmukh, a freedom fighter who had only recently been released from Nagpur jail due to his active participation in the Quit India Movement of 1942. 3/19
Terror isn’t just fueled by hate — it runs on money.
From fake charities to bank heists, hawala to narco-trade—a secret economy powers the bloodshed. How terror groups sustain themselves — and why it matters more than ever.
Explained.
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Militants need money as much as guns. In India’s insurgent zones, groups like LeT & JeM fuel their campaigns through a shadow terror economy — bank heists, extortion, hawala, fake charities. Globally, others follow the same playbook. Here is a simple breakdown. (Data 2002)
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In Kashmir, militants often fund terror the hard way — through theft and intimidation. Late 2016 saw a wave of bank heists, all linked to Lashkar operatives. A three-man team hit J&K Bank branches on Nov 21, Dec 8, and Dec 15, 2016, escaping with ₹13L, ₹13.38L, and ₹10L.
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The heinous Pahalgam attack underscores the chilling reality of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s never-ending menace. But where did this ruthless group come from? The answers lie in a complex web of religious extremism, geopolitics, and strategic patronage.
LeT's dark origins, explained.
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In the late 1970s Pakistan’s military ruler Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq seized power and launched an intense Islamization campaign. He allied closely with Saudi Arabia, adopting a Saudi-backed policy of Islamization that infused strict Wahhabi ideas into state and society.
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Saudi money poured into new madrassas (religious schools) teaching a puritanical Islam, many of them set up explicitly to train fighters for jihad. By the mid-1980s these schools were producing youth steeped in militant ideology as part of Zia’s strategy. 3/23
You may know Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes from 7 Khoon Maaf. But her story began long before the film—a few centuries ago, in Bengal.
In 2021, we followed the trail down a narrow lane off GT Road—and stood before the real Susanna’s tomb.
A Thread.
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In Vishal Bhardwaj's 7 Khoon Maaf, Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes (Priyanka Chopra) marries—and kills—all her husbands in a quest for love. Each marriage ends tragically, but the film only scratches the surface of her story.
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The plot is dark, tragic, and deeply mysterious, but it is based (?) on a real-life figure whose story stretches back centuries. After years of planning, we had finally reached the tomb of Susanna Anna Maria in an winter afternoon.
Larger-than-life cutouts are a staple of Tamil cinema.
A ritual. A spectacle. But the very first cutout wasn’t of a male superstar. It was of a woman in a silk saree. And it stood for something much bigger than fandom. Thread.
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This is a story of one filmmaker’s relentless resistance to caste system. In 1940, Tamil director Krishnasamy Subrahmanyam released Bhaktha Chetha—a mythological film that delivered a message that was anything but mythical. 2/20
The story centered on Chetha, a lowborn cobbler and devotee of Vishnu living near Hastinapur. Played by the legendary Papanasam Sivan, Chetha’s journey to divine grace challenged everything the caste system stood for. 3/20
We all grew up hearing stories about Mullah Nasreddin — the man on a donkey, armed with wit sharper than any sword, who used humour to reveal deeper truths. This very character once became the face of a bold magazine. A magazine that dared to question everything. 1/23
He’s a familiar figure across the Muslim world. Nasreddin appears in countless stories across the Muslim world — sometimes clever, sometimes foolish, always memorable. His tales are rich in subtle humour and gentle wisdom. 2/23
Many of us might also recall Mullah Nasruddin, the beloved TV show on Doordarshan in 1990. Raghubir Yadav played the iconic role, with the legendary Zohra Sehgal as the narrator. The stories made us laugh — and think. 3/23