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V Vinay Profile picture
V Vinay
@ainvvy
A curious academic entrepreneur.
Mar 30, 2023 • 17 tweets • 3 min read
Today is Rama Navami. The birthday of Rama.

Rama and his brothers have an interesting story that some of you may not be aware of. This concerns his father Dasharatha. An important character here is Rishyashringa, who conducts the putrakameshti yagna to help Dasharatha continue his lineage. Rishyashringa himself has a colourful back story, eventually marrying Shanta, the princess of Anga.
Oct 24, 2022 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Today is Deepavali, celebrated as the day Krishna killed Narakasura.

Different regions in India celebrate Deepavali for different reasons. And have different stories. And even on slightly different days. Narakasura was the son of Bhoomi (Earth) and Hiranyaksha (Vishnu had to take the form of Varaha to kill him.)

He ruled the Pragjyotisha Kingdom (in modern day Assam).
Aug 17, 2022 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
When India gained Independence, it continued to use the pre '47 currency of the British until August 1950.

The imperial system was interesting and surprisingly 'modern.' For example, One Rs was equal to 16 Annas -- a power of 2! This made half a rupee as 8 annas and a quarter rupee as 4 annas. And these existed as half a rupee and quarter rupee. In '47 they all had the face of King George VI ... apparently King Emperor!
Aug 15, 2022 • 20 tweets • 4 min read
This may come as a surprise to some, but India was granted Dominion status on this day in 1947. It was not fully independent.

Dominion meant that India was independent within the commonwealth. But the British King was still the head. The first cabinet (and that includes Nehru and Patel among others) was sworn in, not because they won an election, but at the pleasure of the King.

We know the Governor General was Mountbatten.
The army was headed by a Britisher, Roy Bucher, before Cariappa succeeded him.
Nov 4, 2021 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Deepavali, the festival of lights, is here. Lighting of lamps happens on many nights of the month of Kartika (Kartika Masa). Its Chaturdashi (literally, four and ten) leading to the new moon is celebrated as the day Krishna kills Narakasura. Now, Narakasura is supposed to have stolen Aditi's earrings and Varuna's umbrella (among other things).

Aditi is the mother of the Adityas/gods. Dhiti, her sister, is the mother of Daityas. The most famous Daitya is Mahabali.

Stealing from Aditi is, of course, a big deal.
Nov 1, 2021 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
The Indian Map in 1956 is very different from the map you see today.

The basis for remapping the states of India was the linguistic. And it happened in 1956, a full nine years after Independence. Many of the small states became big. Like Karnataka and Kerala. Some states assumed completely new shape, like Maharashtra (but this happened in 1960). Some states shrunk a fair bit, like Madras Presidency and Assam.
Apr 13, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
A new year has started.

ಯುಗಾದಿಯ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು

It signifies the first day after the new moon in the month of Chaitra. Our calendars don't just go by days, they go by tithis: the position of the moon in the waning and waxing fortnights. The moon actually entered prathama/padya yesterday morning and will enter dwitiya/bidige by 10:17am today.

But we celebrate it today because of sunrise!
Mar 11, 2021 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
There are two festivals I have fasted: Shivaratri and Ramanavami. Today is of course Shivaratri.

There is a Shivaratri that can be celebrated every month. But today is special. It is Maha Shivaratri: celebrated on the 14th day of waning moon of Magha (Amanta calendar). There are stories about the day marking Shiva marrying Parvati, etc. But the Shiva Purana does not discuss any of this. Instead, Parvati one day happens to ask what a devotee to should do to attain worldly and other worldly accomplishments?
Nov 1, 2020 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Today is Kannada Rajyotsava. At the time of Independence, the state of Mysore was in existence. Latter, Kannada speaking regions from Bomby, Hyderabad, and Mardas were added to Mysore to create a unified state of Mysore. The map shows something strange: Madras state at one time spanned coast to coast! Today it is smaller than Karnataka in area with about the same population size.
Oct 31, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Laïcité, which roughly translates to secularism in French, is very different from other versions (for example the Indian or American) of secularism.

The concept evolved in the backdrop of the French revolution into a "founding principle." The law was passed in its final form in 1905. It has two important articles.
Article 1: The Republic ensures freedom of conscience, and Article 2: The Republic neither acknowledges, nor pays for nor subsidises any form of worship.

In short the state recognises no religion.
Sep 5, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Today is Teachers' day, in honour of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Sarvepalli, along with Vivekananda, was one of the earliest in modern times to shape Hinduism as a first rate intellectual tradition. His birthday has been celebrated as Teachers' day since 1962 (the year he took over as the President of India). After all, teachers mould young pupils into "fit citizens for the community we wish to build."
Jul 30, 2020 • 21 tweets • 6 min read
Everyone by now knows about the language policy in the National Education Policy 2020. I thought I will focus on lesser reported/known articles that caught my eye. There is a recognition and thrust on Foundational literacy and numeracy.
Mar 15, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
It is amazing we know what is causing the current havoc is a particle that is 100 nano meters wide. That is dividing a mili meter by a 1000 and then further dividing it by 10. This is a mind boggling achievement. Most of it has happened in less than a 100 years.

Now we know many things about this virus, its sequence, how it attaches to a cell, how it gets in, what proteins it generates etc etc. All the more remarkable.
Jan 26, 2020 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
Never in its history has the Preamble of the constitution been more read and recited than now.

The constitution is known for its content but surprisingly for its rich aesthetic form.

This thread is now in its 5th year. We all know of our founding fathers but nothing about our founding mothers. I want to highlight one of them: Durgabai . Image
Dec 17, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
"We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India ..."

If this is what people of India did, why do they now have to prove they are indeed the people of India? To whom do they prove this, if everyone overnight become "We, the questionable people of India?"

Do you eye a paradox? The clerk who collects the forms ... is he/she Indian? Who verified this person? You can't start with an empty set.
Oct 2, 2019 • 28 tweets • 9 min read
Gandhi at 150. Incredible man. We all know what he accomplished. How he got there is less known and more interesting.

1869 was a good decade after the first war of independence and a century into British rule. It was also a most important year in Science: Mendeleev formally presented his Periodic Table on 6th March. This changed Science forever. (This is also the 150th year of the periodic table.)

A few months later, a child was born who would be a Messiah of Peace.
Sep 7, 2019 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Spent the last three hours trying to understand the architecture of the lunar lander.

From the face of it, if it is just a communication problem, the lander still should have descended correctly because the lander navigation should have been autonomous. Now, I do not how how autonomous this system is. From what I read, it seems the lander had a direct link to telemetry/tracking/control (at Bayalalu near Blore is my guess).
Jun 2, 2019 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
This is an interesting question. How much wood does a newspaper consume?

So I weighted a few hindus ... paper that is. And found it weights about 75-90 grams on a typical day and ~130 grams on Sunday. Rounding off, this amounts to about 40 kg a year. A tonne of newsprint uses 12 trees. So 40kg is about half a tree.

If you subscribe to two papers you are probably cutting off a whole tree (of course, other papers may have slightly different number of papers and hence weight).
Apr 6, 2019 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Yugadi (New Year) today in Karnataka and many other places of India.

ಯುಗಾದಿಯ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು

Interestingly, we use the lunar calendar. In a lunar calendar, what is important is the tithi. Unlike the seven day week which we now follow (introduced much later in India), tithi is based on the fifteen days between full moon and new moon (and vice versa).
Jan 15, 2019 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Today, the sun transitions from Dhanur Rashi (sagittarius) to Makara (Capricorn). Hence Makara Sankranti. We have have a Sankranti ever month but this one is special.

Days get longer while nights shrink. Temperature starts to rise.

Winter is going! It also marks the beginning of Uttarayana, the six months when the Gods are awake. Apparently the best time to die. Lot of people hold their breath until Uttarayana (ok ok).
Nov 8, 2018 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
Another day and it is still Deepavali! Today is the first day after new moon, celebrated as Balipadyami in Karnataka and as Bali padwa in MH.

It is the story of two sisters, Aditi and Diti, both married to Kashyapa. Aditi and Diti are children of Daksha. Their sister, also illustrious and well known, is Sati/Uma who married Shiva. Kashyapa is one of the Saptarishis.

Aditi is widely considered the mother of the Gods, because I guess her lineage, the adityas, won out.