True story of the only private coaching I took in school in Pune.

It was for 10th Boards English.

This story will lay out many systemic issues with the Indian one shot exam model.

I went to a school that had us read Macbeth in 8th & write about it!

My English was great!

https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/1832008762594328950

At age 16, entering 10th standard, I was in fact extremely proficient at the English language. As well as all my friends who joined that coaching class with me.

Because scoring well in 10th Boards English had nothing to do with being good at English.

It was about exam hacking

Doing lecture prep for Fall & adding this new story in the product development strategy session. Thought it would make a nice 🧵

Did you know that a lot of calculators & music equipment we have is the result of cigarettes not having filters during world war 2?

Fun story! Cigarettes back then came like this. A fully white paper tube filled with tobacco that you lit at one end and smoked from the other.

This inevitably meant that you "wasted" some tobacco at the mouth end while throwing it away.

Tadao Kashiyo in WW2 Japan saw an opportunity!

One thing Rajnath Singh said in LS that stuck with me

"Such schemes are there even in US and they don't complain so why do you complain?"

That made me sit up.

What?

Surely someone would fact check this cos what is he even talking about?

US military agnipath?

So I checked.

https://twitter.com/thewire_in/status/1808812784089751939

There is NOTHING in US military remotely resembling Agnipath!

At the 18-22 age, the US military actually wants you to enlist for life if possible. And will happily keep you on for life if you serve honorably.

The short term stints are like Indian Short Service Commission.

Very interesting conversation with a gujarati bodega owner nearby.

"I support Modi but something is wrong in gujarat. There are more gujaratis taking the risky border routes in the last 2 years than the 20 years before, from my observation. And they all say, no jobs in gujarat" "Until recent years, gujaratis wanting to move either came through family visa or arranged marriage or student visa or at the most, overstay tourist visa. But risking life and limb like this in such big numbers? Modi needs to pay attention to gujarat. It's in trouble."

"Wherever you go in this world, you will find a t̶e̶a̶ s̶t̶a̶l̶l̶ great school founded by a Malayalee."

K.T. Behanan was a brilliant Yale educated social scientist & Indian bureaucrat who landed in NYC with his doctor wife & 5 year old son.

Ran straight into systemic racism./1 The year was 1947 & Behanan, a Syrian Christian from Kerala's influential Kovoor clan was a 45 year old superstar in the Babu circles of the brand new India.

He accepted a position for India at the brand new UN, working on education policy with the Trustee Council.

Ironic.

I'm at that age where a lot of my friends are starting to send their kids to college. So getting a lot of queries on US college as an option.

So I'm going to do this reference 🧵 with the basics to avoid repetition. And send it to them before further more specific questions. I'll start off by saying that if you have ₹3 crore that you can spare, it is a nice lifelong gift for your child.

An undergrad education in the US is an amazing enriching experience beyond just the academics & the jobs after. I envy my students a little they get to live it.

India & China are almost half of humanity, 2 of the oldest cultures, sharing one of the longest and most iconic borders on the planet.

But how little we really know each other!

Recently, a Chinese grad student shared her love story with me. I repeat it here with her permission. She grew up the only child of two people who were only children of parents who were also only children, in the South of China.

He grew up in a similar configuration, in the northeast of China.

They both followed the well set academic excellence route to US grad school.

My hypothesis about why hindus are uniquely frequent in false flagging by pretending to be minorities in numbers not seen from other ethnofascists, is that Sanghism is unique in not being based on any reality at all. Other fascists at least exploit *some* reality.

https://twitter.com/zoo_bear/status/1721774944697336153

Hitler rode to power by exploiting the very real discontent against the treaty of Versailles & economic ennui.

Trump rode to power by pointing to millions of migrants. I think they are a net positive, his view is wrong. But it is a reality, at least, that he's misdiagnosing.

In the state of J&K where you can barely finish singing yeh haseen vaadiyaan before running into 3 check points, a dude managed to ram an explosive filled vehicle a long distance away from the LoC.

We never heard how those logistics worked tho we know all details of 26/11. Oct 7 raises similar questions that Netanyahu seems to be trying his hardest to distract from. Of course the attack was horrific. But how did the attackers manage to do all this, given the extremely overwhelming Israeli security apparatus? Sourcing paragliders in blockaded gaza?

A lecture 🧵 that's very close to my heart cos my students' eyes get slowly wider the more I talk. Cos no one has explained reality to them from this perspective. 😂😂

Imagine a country with 200 states. One state has 4% of the population but 16% of the GDP!

1/many This state is THE biggest market in the world by a huge margin.

And it has this huge chunk of the GDP tho it imports more than it exports!

That actually helps the other states. Cos they keep selling it stuff.

But here's the funny part. Most of that 16% GDP is internal!

This #2000sBollywoodBracket has me doing something unimaginable.

I'm going to rewatch Kal Ho Na Ho. A movie I absolutely loathed when it came out.

But sitting in 2023 NYC, I do feel very curious to watch a 3 hour movie set in the city right after 9/11. First I watched the title song.

I haven't watched it start to end in 20 years.

It's not a bad song by any means. It is very pleasant. And SRK is cute charming max in it. Manhattan locations are extremely limited! So much is Bethesda Fountain.

This! So much this! As someone who generally grew up doing a lot of chores, I've never understood how hiring people to do my laundry & clean my toilet equals "quality of life".

What makes life in the West more "quality" is not just the wealth but the room for personal growth. /1

https://twitter.com/soorajchandran_/status/1706978151128064220

Growing up, my parents had me do stuff like washing clothes... Proper squatting with Rin... doing dishes, scrubbing floors for my "pocket money". Very American style. And also to teach self sufficiency. Dad & Grandpa were always totally handy everywhere including the kitchen.

This is a trivia post that also starts a lecture 🧵

Today I told my students about the marketing history of Tupperware, which covers so many topics from generational consumer behavior to distribution innovation to gender prejudice in industry.

Earl was a serial inventor.

https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/1704937017816092825

For years, he tried a lot of product innovations, but nothing stuck.

Finally, he invented something genuinely useful. A kind of plastic container that locked in an air tight way, making food storage easier. It saved money, made life easier, and he was sure would be a big hit.

This should be a movie!

A 19 year old college student writes a paper for his Poli Sci class arguing that an arcane forgotten amendment from almost 200 years ago is technically still live & can still be ratified. He gets a C grade from the TA. The student appeals to the Prof... Prof upholds the C grade, saying come on bro, it's been too long! That amendment was passed by Congress with the Bill of Rights!

The student is adamant. He says that amendment can still be ratified.

So adamant that he pumps $6000 into a letter writing & awareness campaign!!

The most compelling scholarly & intellectual takes I've read on this are that xenophobia is a natural default state of human society. Democracy is an extremely fleeting phenomenon.

So if once in a while, free societies get complacent, someone comes along to stoke that instinct.

https://twitter.com/ayosup7/status/1697510849525477476

This piece by @adamgopnik, written the month before Jan 6, is very profound.

"Lurking behind all of this is a faulty premise—that the descent into authoritarianism is what needs to be explained, when the reality is that . . . it always happens."

newyorker.com/magazine/2021/…

This broad point.

A hunger for dictatorship over democracy that pervades Indian culture.

That has been ignored cos we got democracy as a package deal in 1947 thanks to Ambedkar & Nehru rather than grassroots demands.

Indian society has never had that debate, really.

https://twitter.com/Punit_Pania/status/1681234259812708355

India is the world's largest democracy, but it got its democracy without explicitly and ardently fighting for democracy.

All other major world democracies fought for it.

India fought for sovereignty.

India never really fought for democracy.

Now it has to.

#trivia
This US chain is mainly known for its buffet & huge salad bar.
60+ years ago when it was started, it got its name from a gimmicky way it served its steak combos.
It stopped serving steaks that way in the 90s. But its legacy continues in a far away land.

What chain? Correct! This trivia comes to you from a lecture prep. Where I give students examples of how global food today is in the randomest ways.

Sizzlers, the US chain, has had a random ongoing influence on Indian food. Cos it once served steaks on hot plates.

https://twitter.com/nonedonetwtr/status/1678812541068406786?t=-Nn7GwmNNXtkFwCHU6mC7w&s=19

This tech bro resentment about free buses for women in Bangalore reminds me of a Desi tech bro I know in NYC whose only complaint with subway & path system is flat rates. And he tried to convince me using my own example. 🤦 Like *I* should feel outraged at the "subsidy". "you almost exclusively travel within Manhattan?"

"Yes"

"You are subsidizing people who come from outer boroughs or NJ. Isn't it fair that there be resident discounts for people like you?"

This was the direction his brain went in on encountering our pretty good train system 🤦

US debt ceiling crisis is always a fake crisis cos nothing fundamental about the US Treasury changes, incl US credit worthiness. Literally the only thing stopping us from always honoring our debts (70% of it to ourselves) is Republicans and their selective fiscal conservatism. "If I have to balance my budget at home, then why can't the federal government?"

Is an incredibly shallow sentiment, and also not true. Most households in the US have debt.

But regardless, maybe the biggest central bank in the world is different from your household? Maybe?

#trivia
Which country is named after a planetary feature of Earth, because it was first demarcated by scientists in that country? Yes indeed, Ecuador.

Today's big US politics headline, pertinent to @cricketingview's question a few days ago, is Nikki Haley coming out and saying, if what is in the indictment is true, then Trump was indeed reckless. And she brings up her military husband.

She's no longer running to be his VP! Also, tho not surprising, the Chris Christie attack is also going to have an impact in the long run. He was once a US Attorney who put a lot of rich corrupt people in jail including Jared Kushner's dad. And he's a good communicator.

This is the beginning of the end of Trump.