Anil Suri Profile picture
প্রদীপ্ত মৈত্র (Pradipto Moitra) Profile picture 1 subscribed
Sep 10, 2022 13 tweets 4 min read
#TIL agricultural workers in South India, who typically spent 4-5 hours in the open with >30% of their skin exposed were found to be deficient in Vitamin D!

doi: 10.1093/ajcn/85.4.1062

Since no other factors seem to be at play, I presume timing of sunlight exposure is to blame. The same study (from 2007) on around 1200 individuals found >80% rural and >90% urban people had deficient/insufficient Vitamin D. I suppose the situation is even more alarming now, especially in urban India

This is truly scary as Vitamin D not only promotes calcium absorption..
May 14, 2021 6 tweets 2 min read
H voters don't have it easy,having to choose between a rock and a hard place. When Advani embraced Jinnah and the likes of Sudheen Kulkarni, you can't blame the voters for looking away: had they tribally voted for him, his newfound associates would never have let Yogiji become CM Yes, a Con victory was extremely painful for the country, but arguably less worse than a perpetually approval-seeking Adv. would've been, having cast aside all his old principles. It forced the BJP to rethink its stand, and take some hard decisions.
Mar 12, 2021 10 tweets 3 min read
Erm... probably not the large number of Bengali freedom fighters who were incarcerated in the Cellular Jail? Historian Prof. Saradindu Mukherjee says there were hundreds of them from rural/small-town, specifically Hindu backgrounds, whose role has been completely effaced. If the argument is that they were middle-class and above as OP said, it is certainly not the case.

Feb 13, 2021 7 tweets 2 min read
The spot where Adi Sankara composed the Saundaryalahari and Sivanandalahari. I kid you not. This is in Phaladhara-Panchadhara, Srisailam.

Many have attributed the awful state to poor government maintenance, but it is squarely us, the "devotees" responsible for reducing such a holy spot to this filthy state. There are big signboards describing the place's importance. 1/
Feb 12, 2021 4 tweets 1 min read
The recessed disc mirror is quite like the ones found in other Harappan sites.

I wonder if the recessed shape is to preserve the reflectance of the surface.

Outside India, mirrors were generally always flat. In Harappan sites, metal objects were never left as grave goods, except, interestingly, mirrors. This is why, it is virtually impossible to determine the timing of important metallurgical developments in India.
Jan 8, 2021 10 tweets 3 min read
Am I right in thinking, "No SA ancestry" strictly means, "No Onge ancestry"?

As a materials scientist, I'm even more baffled by Steppe cultures that didn't know the use of tin till the 2nd millennium BCE being proffered as precursors of cultures that used tin-bronzes frm 2500BCE Tin, a rather rare metal, was a very crucial resource. The elites in the European Bronze Age, even into mid-2nd millennium BCE, were those who controlled supply and production of tin-bronzes. Nobles had superior bronze weapons, objects; commoners had to make do with copper.
Oct 22, 2020 12 tweets 3 min read
Tin-bronzes in Bronze Age Europe were made exclusively of Aravalli copper. Based on the fact that only Indus ppl knew use of tin by then, Pernicka hints these immigrants came from there. But I suppose you will be demonised as "Hindu nationalist" if you say OIT - very convenient! Image Lead isotope analysis clearly shows the source of copper in 3rd millennium BCE tin-bronzes to be the Aravallis (Precambrian deposits). Additionally, other trademark Indus commodities like lapis lazuli and carnelian also made their way to Europe via Anatolia.
Feb 20, 2020 5 tweets 2 min read
Brits knew precisely what to destroy: the Indian metallurgical industry. Tiny Khasi dt was exporting tons of steel, yet a puny Bengal Iron (& TISCO) were nearly all we were left with in 1947 - an economy without a spine. But for PC Ray, there would be no chemical industry either. Michael Faraday, of all people, was entrusted with task of reverse-engineering Indian steels. Yet, Brits weren't successful. So they did the next best thing: ban mining by Indians altogether. And this was when the Brits couldn't even recognise zinc in late 19th cent. @somnath1978
Nov 21, 2019 4 tweets 1 min read
Long ago, I had described the research of Clift et al, who argued Sarasvati was a perennial, monsoonal river during the Mature Harappan Phase (2600-1900 BCE), originating in Siwaliks, though it had ceased to be a glacially fed river arising in Himalayas
swarajyamag.com/culture/cowboy… Those conclusions are broadly corroborated by Chatterjee et al, published yesterday: "We establish that during 80-20 ka and 9-4.5 ka the river was perennial and was receiving sediments from the Higher and Lesser Himalayas"

nature.com/articles/s4159…
Jun 10, 2019 9 tweets 5 min read
Did the judge even question at any point why the prosecution tried to frame a student who was hundreds of km away, and that being the case, whether the case against the other accused can at all be regarded as not fabricated? #Kathua This is truly scary, as random individuals could be framed by #jihadi police personnel at the bidding of peaceful politicians.