Anyone who has ever been to China knows that there are two Chinas. One that is madeup of glittering Shanghai type cities, and a second (much larger) underclass China. Which is kept away from the gaze of western media.

The same is true for its railways too. (1/n)

https://twitter.com/introvert_hu_ji/status/1918986999953862660

While China's high speed railway has been much talked about. It represents only a part of China's railway map. The underclass, poor peasants and farmers use conventional slow moving "green" trains. Look at the map below to understand how wide is the "green" train network (2/n)

Guess what is taught in schools as part of Hindi syllabus.

Tulsidas ke dohe in Awadhi
Surdas ke dohe in Braj
Kabir 's dohe had Khari Boli

Bharatendu the father figure of Hindi literature was a writer of Khari Boli. But apparently Hindi has killed these languages 😁 Hindi is not a puritanical language. It evolved from a mixture of multiple languages and dialects Khari Boli being the most prominent one after Sanskrit. And it has constantly evolved borrowing from (and finishing off) dialects such as Braj, Awadhi, Khari Boli and yes Farsi (other than Sanskrit of course).

You will soon see a new hitjob against Kumbh. The results of a questionable survey that claims that the waters of Ganga at Kumbh are contaminated badly with coliform bacteria and hence bathing is best avoided.
1/n What this article and similar such clones at NDTV, NEWS18 etc don't mention is the unique scientific property of Ganga. coming from ancient Himalayan glaciers, Ganga is teeming with a specific family of beneficial viruses called bacteriophages - viruses that destroy bacteria

Sitaram Yechury was more Pro China than the ordinary oppressed Chinese citizens that I know.

Let's look at the shameful history of Sitaram Yechury (1/n)

PS: No I don't believe that all dead people deserve respect.

https://twitter.com/cpimspeak/status/1834188368319508604

While you and I lost some of our loved ones thanks to Chinese origin COVID virus, Sitaram Yechury wrote flowery tributes about how well Communist China handled the pandemic.
(2/n)

Have seen enough such nonsense. Let's debunk it.

Aviator sir, unlike the mental image in your mind. Nobody was standing on the upper floors to direct sunbeam below.

Let's understand a little bit. 1/n

https://twitter.com/RajBhads90/status/1781377295984316881

Most Indian festivals follow Luni solar calendar. Hence Ramnavami date will keep on varying year to year. So how do you design a non PC based autonomous solution to orient mirrors itself on Ram Navami every year to direct sunrays? 2/n

Madam calls herself a food historian but her knowledge on the topic is extremely shallow. Let's dissect it.

https://twitter.com/preetigulati28/status/1770082452041879565

According to her , "pure vegetarian" is a casteist practice found only in India.

My last trip abroad was to Shanghai - famous for variety of non veg options. Right?

Except that I ate at only "pure vegetarian" Chinese restaurants. There were mostly run by Buddhists from Tibet.

Srirangam is beautiful. For those on TL who may not know, it is one of the largest temples of Vishnu on an island between two rivers near Trichy.

Vishnu ji is resting on Adishesh shaiyya . Pratima is sooooo large that you will likely "miss" seeing it

https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1748698438408217047

If you are wondering how can someone "miss" seeing pratima in a temple then know that Vishnu ji is so big that you can only see a part of him through one of the arches. Only from inside Garbh Griha you see the complete image.

While the Sengol stole the limelight at the new Parliament, there is another less known but beautiful installation in that building - Facoult's Pendulum.

So what is the big deal about it? This pendulum is 22m long and weighs 36 kgs. It is the largest Facoult's Pendulum in India.

Facoult's Pendulum is not an ordinary pendulum. It is a clever contraption that proves that the earth is round and rotates on its axis !!!

But how?

As a science and technology enthusiast, I must tell you about a lot of interesting developments that are about to happen in near future in India:

1) Chandrayaan 3: the launch is on 12th July 2023. Chandrayaan 1 had made breakthrough discovery of ice at Moon's south pole And even though we all saw the Vikram lander tumble and break hearts of a billion people during its attempted landing, Chandrayaan 2 orbiter (not lander) was successful in gathering the data it was sent for.

Chandrayaan 3 will re-attempt to land an advanced rover on Moon

Sagarika, you are lying through your teeth. Not that it is something new.

There ARE ceremonial "mace"/Sengol/Sceptres in many parliaments of democratic countries across the world

Starting with USA. The mace in House of Representatives has been present since 1842

https://twitter.com/sagarikaghose/status/1662358889915113473

No surprise that even a constitutional monarch Democracy in UK choses to place the sceptre in the House of Commons as a symbol of people's power. The seat of real power. It has been there since 1559

The real problem that the opposition (esp Congress) has is that with monuments like Statue of Unity, War Memorial, Central Vista, new Parliament etc Modi will be remembered in the annals of history without having these places named after him. This is in contrast with Cong that named smallest of buildings, mediocre institutes named after everyone in the family. FFS there is a hydro power plant in remote area of Himachal Pradesh named after Sanjay Gandhi!! I bet Sanjay had never even heard of that place when alive.

Today a friend had organised a throwball session for senior citizens in our apartment. Initially there were not many takers. Many seniors in cities reduce down their physical activities to just walking as they age. While that's a good exercise, it doesn't work for most muscles. Slowly a group of senior citizens joined seeing each other, hesitating to pick up the ball, unsure of their own capability. Their throw was stiff initially but as they started enjoying the game, company and some lighter moments together, they loosened up.

There is an interesting story about NAVIC - India's own GPS system.

The GPS system commonly used by us all is owned by US. During Kargil war of 1999, US denied access to detailed GPS data to India which would have helped us in the war. In response to this, India started developing its own "regional" GPS. A full GPS system like that of US uses 24 satellites to cover the entire globe. India's solution focuses on a smaller region. It largely covers only the region around India

#CBG_Thread What connects Hindi metaphors with change of Indian currency in 1957.

History comes in various forms! 1/n In Mughal times, Gold coins were called mohur, silver ones Rupee and copper ones "daam". In Akbar's reign, 1 Rupee = 48 daam. But as industrial use of copper picked up, by 1660 1 Rupee = 16 daam only.

"इसका क्या ' दाम ' है?" The reference to दाम was originally to these coins

Since rain was playing the spoilsport today, we could not visit thein attractions in Ninh Binh, #Vietnam. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we ended up visiting the sprawling Bai Dinh pagoda complex. It is interesting on many counts. Buddhists in Vietnam belong to Mahayana sect. Therefore, depiction of buddha's face is closer to that from Mathura school unlike that from Theravada sect, followed by Tibbetans, Laddakhis etc

Today's thread
Story of India as a floating island, our long lost cousin Madagascar, why Palakkad gap is more than just a break in mountains and how frogs of western ghats are still a living link between India and Madagascar. #CBG_Thread 1/n In ancient times, India, Africa, South America, Madagascar, Antarctica and Australia were lumped together in a single landmass called Gondwana land, which eventually started breaking up into multiple pieces ~180 million years ago 2/n