What is happening in Manipur?
Who is fighting with whom?
Why?
The answer involves history & geography.
A simple explainer 🧵
Manipur is full of mountains. And one large valley in the middle called the Imphal Valley.
The mountains are mainly populated by the Kuki people and the Naga people.
The valley is populated by a third clan - the Meitei people.
2/n
Jul 20, 2023 • 24 tweets • 7 min read
#OnThisDay 54 years ago, July 20th 1969 - humanity landed on the moon with Neil Armstrong taking the first step for man and a giant leap for mankind.
Join me on a story to revisit this momentous occasion through photos published by NASA!
A moon landing 📸🧵
Commander Neil Armstrong,
Mother module pilot Michael Collins and
Lunar module pilot Edwin Aldrin
were chosen as the astronauts for this iconic mission.
Jul 15, 2023 • 17 tweets • 7 min read
#OnThisDay July 15th, 1799 - A remarkable discovery of a single slab of stone changed our understanding of human history!
It was the finding of the 'Rosetta Stone' by Napoleon's army while trying to build a fort!
Join me on a history tour to visit this crazy story! 🧵
The story starts all the way around 3000 BC when the ancient Pharaonic Egyptian civilization started. We know the Pyramids & the Sphinx but another major relic from then are the Hieroglyphics - an advanced pictorial script that the Egyptians used in their wall inscriptions!
2/n
Jul 9, 2023 • 19 tweets • 8 min read
Lets say you've a simple well in your backyard. One day suddenly you find out that it's hiding a 1000 yr old historic monument!
Imagine the shock & thrill you'll feel as it unravels
Join me to hear one such actual wonder story in Ep3 of #ArtTreasuresofIndia
Rani Ki Vav! 🧵
First the story. 11thC AD. Modern day Gujarat was ruled by the Chaulukya Dynasty with Bhima I as it's king & Udayamati as it's queen. The landscape was part desert & arid like. Water management was a key priority & creating water bodies was a very royal act! 2/n
Jul 1, 2023 • 18 tweets • 6 min read
Welcome to Episode 2 of #ArtTreasuresOfIndia
This time we travel back 1000 years ago to look at an artwork of astounding beauty commissioned by Rajendra Chola, the all conquering Chola emperor
Join me on a tour to visit the 'Chandesa Anugraha Murthi' - an Indian art marvel
🧵
First the story. In the Chola country, along the banks of the river Vanni in a small village a pious man Yajnadatta is blessed with a son who is named Vicharasarman.
Vicharasarman was very intelligent & one day he sees the village cowherd beating the cows.
2/n
Jun 27, 2023 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
India is facing a poor monsoon this year with many states with deficit rainfall 😰
One of the main reasons for this worrisome situation is the 'El Nino' weather system which has set in this year
Join me in this Geography Explainer on what El Nino is & how it impacts you! 🧵
First lets understand how monsoons form due to winds from the pacific ocean. The Pacific covers almost half the surface area of earth & affects global climate
In a normal year, warm winds blow across the pacific in western direction - from South America to Aus to Asia
2/n
Jun 25, 2023 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
#ArtTreasuresOfIndia Hi, Welcome to a new series where we will learn great stories about some fantastic art treasures of India!
You may know Monalisa, David etc better than Indian Art! Its time to change that one thread at a time
Ep1 - Shaddanta Jataka, a 2200 yr old classic!🧵
First the story. This is from Jataka Tales which is about Boddhisattvas - noble beings(human or animals) who came before the Buddha & could have become Buddha themselves
Shaddanta was a 6 tusked elephant king who lived in a forest & had 2 wives - Mahasubadda & Chullasubadda
2/n
Feb 4, 2023 • 20 tweets • 8 min read
Today, Adani's stocks are in the news for all sorts of wrong things. But this is not new.
Something eerily similar happend 25 years ago - thanks to a devious stock market operator - Ketan Parekh.
#TimeTravelWithMe to revisit a scam that brought India to a standstill
1/n
The story begins in the late 90s when the Internet was a new phenomenon & people were waking up to its possibilities.
The stock market buzz for companies that dealt with the internet was crazy & there was a large demand for the next big thing in the country 2/n
Jan 11, 2023 • 15 tweets • 7 min read
#OnThisDay 11th January 1966, India's 2nd Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri died in Tashkent unexpectedly.
Was it a heart attack? Was he poisoned? Was foreign forces at play?
#TimeTravelWithMe to revisit the biggest unresolved Indian political mystery ever.
A chilling 🧵
The story starts on May 27th 1964, when Pandit Nehru, India's 1st PM died. A succession battle ensued. A faction wanted Indira Gandhi to be named the PM.
But the Congress President Kamaraj intervened to name Lal Bahadur Shastri as the next PM. A silent kind personality.
2/n
Jan 9, 2023 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
Do you know of the insane piece of history when China tried to kill all the sparrows in their country?
Join me on a #HistoryTour to revisit the Four Pests Campaign a mind bending action by Mao Zedong & the Chinese that resulted in disaster!
A crazy history 🧵
This story starts in the early 1900s when China was under Japanese occupation & in continuous civil war & high rate of poverty & hunger.
At this time, Russian Revolution had already succeeded & Communism was seen as a success story amongst Chinese Intellectuals.
2/n
Dec 10, 2022 • 15 tweets • 7 min read
#OnThisDay 121 years ago on Dec 10th 1901, the first ever Nobel Prize Awards were given out amidst a lot of tension, drama and secrecy.
Join me on a #HistoryTour to revisit that memorable day that kickstarted a global tradition of excellence.
A brief thread🧵
Alfred Nobel was born in 1833 into a family of engineers & was an inventor himself. He bought the now infamous 'Bofors' steel mill to develop multiple weapons - most famous of which was the Dynamite.
Nobel amassed a fortune by selling all of his ammunition inventions
2/n
Dec 2, 2022 • 19 tweets • 8 min read
#OnThisDay 2nd December 1984 - one of the world's greatest industrial tragedies happened in Bhopal
A mix of bad luck, small acts of carelessness, human negligence led to the deadly Bhopal gas leak
Join me on a #historytour to revisit that unforgettable crazy night
🧵
Union Carbide India Ltd set up a pesticide plant in Bhopal, MP in 1939. It was owned by an US company UCC & produced the pesticide Sevin.
The plant produced a gas Methyl isocyanate(MIC), a highly deadly component, which combined with Naphthol produced the final pesticide
2/n
Nov 20, 2022 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
A commercial flight from London to NewYork takes 8+ hours today. But a few decades ago this trip took less than 3 hrs!
Made possible by The Concorde, the supersonic flight! Join me on a #HistoryTour to know how it was to fly in the greatest plane ever made & how it all ended
🧵
The Concorde was a collaborative effort between the British & the french. It was researched to become the first supersonic flight which could reach 2000+km/hr & reach altitudes of more than 60,000ft
Normal planes dont fly more than 800km/hr generally to get a perspective! 2/n
Nov 4, 2022 • 20 tweets • 8 min read
#OnThisDay Exactly 100 years ago, Nov 4th 1922, the world witnessed one of the greatest archaeological finds - the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen - the boy pharaoh of Egypt!
Come join me on a #HistoryTour to witness the thrilling story behind this amazing find 🧵
The story starts way back around 3000 BC where the earliest Egyptian kings called Pharaohs came into power. Called the 'Old Kingdom' a series of kings built one of the oldest civilizations known to us in history.
And one thing fascinated all Pharaohs.
Death.
2/n
Aug 12, 2022 • 16 tweets • 7 min read
#IndiaAt75 In 1926, British Archaeologist Ernest Mckay dug up a small bronze statue in Mohenjodaro and it changed the way the world looked at India's history!
Join me to know the story of the 'Dancing Girl' from Mohenjodaro - the greatest find of the Indus Valley Civilization 🧵
The first Indus Valley major find was the discovery of Harappa in 1829 on the banks of Ravi river in Punjab. It excited the British a bit but the find was still largely academic that they had found an ancient inhabited town that no one knew existed. 2/n
Aug 6, 2022 • 17 tweets • 8 min read
#OnThisDay 77 Years Ago, Aug 6th 1945 at 8.15AM, America dropped the Nuclear Bomb on Hiroshima.
The war came to an end. But a new nuclear world emerged overnight.
Join me on a photo tour as we travel back to that fateful day and what happened post that!🧵
Germany had surrendered by 1945. Hitler was dead. But Japan was still waging war as leader of the Axis powers. USA had a personal vengeance additionally due to the Pearl Harbour attack 4 yrs earlier
It decided to use its new found mega weapon - the Atomic bomb to end the war 2/n
May 29, 2022 • 18 tweets • 7 min read
#OnThisDay 29th May in 1953 at 11.30AM, one of the most daring acts of human endurance was accomplished!
Edmund Hilary & Tenzing Norgay summitted Mt.Everest, the world's tallest mountain!
Join me to travel back in time on a short history tour to revisit this amazing story! 🧵
Mount Everest was identified as the world's tallest mountain in the 1850s by the British Geographical Survey and was named after Sir George Everest, the Surveyor General of India
At a massive height of 8848m, it was widely believed that it was impossible for humans to summit it
May 11, 2022 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
#OnThisDay May 11th 1997, 25 years ago, IBM's Chess supercomputer Deep Blue beat Gary Kasparov and created one of the biggest landmark moments for Artificial Intelligence.
Join me on a history tour to revisit this fascinating iconic battle between man & machine🧵
The story begins at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA where a doctoral student Feng Hsu began developing a Chess supercomputer called 'ChipTest'.
It slowly started winning chess tournaments in USA & Feng upgraded to a new version called 'Deep Thought' in 1988
Apr 19, 2022 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
#OnThisDay April 19th, 1975 India launched its 1st satellite 'Aryabhatta'
India & ISRO joined the space age & hasn't looked back ever since!
Travel with me back in time to witness the thrilling story of Cold war politics, sudden setbacks & more that led to our 1st satellite 🧵
By 1969, Vikram Sarabhai was the face of Indian space science and rocketry. He had a dream to fabricate an indigenous satellite in India & launch it
Vikram found Udupi Ramachandra Rao, the only Indian scientist who had worked in NASA on 2 satellite launches, to drive this dream!
Apr 13, 2022 • 18 tweets • 7 min read
#OnThisDay April 13, 1919 - The most brutal imperial massacre happened at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar
It shook India like never before & brought to daylight the British cruelty & barbarism
What happened before, during & after this massacre?
A simple history explainer 🧵
The 1910s was a tough decade. First the WW1, where British forced us to fight for them without equal pay & discrimination & the subsequent Spanish flu where the British let millions of Indians die without a care had already led to a lot of unrest & anger across the country
Apr 10, 2022 • 16 tweets • 7 min read
Hi! Time for another Sunday history tour!
A story of how the 3000 year old monument of Abu Simbel in Egypt was about to be destroyed & was saved just in time
Travel back with me in time to witness an engineering marvel & a thrilling adventure that pitted man vs nature!🧵
Ancient Egyptians lived very close to the Nile. Just a few kms away, it was the Sahara desert. So only the areas close to the Nile had water & fertility
All the temples also came on the banks of the Nile. One such was the temple of Abu Simbel, built by the Ramesses II in 1244 BC