Friends, some weeks ago I promised you an investigation. So here we go. First we go to Japan. Where they are big fans of the Cherry Blossom. In fact, there is a specific tradition in Japan of watching the blossoms after sunset called "Yozakura". 1/ntokyocheapo.com/entertainment/… Cherry blossoms are a pervasive creative element of Japanese culture. Extending to everything from painting to watchmaking and metalwork. This takes us to the towns of Tsubame and Sike in the 1960s and 1970s. 2/n

Ok fine. Let me tell you about the great macaroni saga of the 1950s in Kerala.

So rice shortages had been a persistent problem during and after WW2. In fact during WW2 the situation became so bad in South India that some of the princely states tried Wheat Propaganda 1/n One princely state set up a department for the promotion of Wheat. Vans went around parts of Kerala handing out wheat samples and recipe booklets.

Did. Not. Work. 2/n

🌟 Interim budget seems like a nice time to do a thread on why the financial year in India starts in April and ends in March, as opposed to the actual calendar that has the decency to start in Jan and end in Dec.

Buckle up for a story of religion, empire and... gynaecology. 1/n The story begins, obviously, in Britain. Where throughout the Middle Ages the calendar year traditionally started and ended on Christmas: the birthday of Jesus. Super convenient. And then... 2/n

The average person hasn’t eaten fruit. I eat 1000s of fruit everyday. Here are 10 fruit you’d be nuts to overlook today. 🧵 1/n Apple

Once many years ago my sister, then a toddler, suddenly went missing from our house in Kerala. We couldn't find her anywhere. Panic turned into alarm into pandemonium. 1/n

https://twitter.com/brclothwrites/status/1617863996190908416

And then suddenly, many minutes later, she was standing in the yard behind the house, soaking wet, shivering. And we had no idea how or what and she refused to speak. Then later that afternoon... 2/n

Welcome to a little thread on Indian media consumption. I have been meaning to post this for several weeks now. A very interesting set of data came out in March. And I was sure someone else would do it instead. But I don't think anyone has. Non-expert disclaimers apply. 1/n Which is not that surprising. Indian media in general has an aversion to reporting any data on Indian media itself. Because, mostly, it looks very bad. This thread is no different. Anyway onwards. I present to you the NFHS 2019-2021 report. 2/n

Quick little thread to get your Thursday going.

So on 24 July 1991 the New York Times put out an edition consisting of 84 pages and costing 40 cents. The main story was about Soviet plans to sell a stake in a PSU car maker. Around the same time, in May 1991, the day after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, the Times of India in Bombay put out an edition of 28 pages costing INR 2.

Ok so this came up during a phone call today. So I am going to do one thread about an old news story I did during Mint days. Everything is anonymised because court case is pain in the back-end. It all starts with an Indian company that was booming until... 1/n ..it stopped booming. But first... in February 2008 it was the darling of the business papers. Founder was giving lectures at conferences and summits. They had opened branches by the hundreds all over India. Things were looking amazing. And then... the tide turned. 2/n

Food memories flooding into my mind. Shawarmas on the weekend in Abu Dhabi with family. Going to Milk Bar in Thrissur during college days and eating steaming porotta and beef. Idlis for breakfast at Annapurneswari, Crosscut Road Coimbatore. Tibetan restaurant in Kodai. Eating that bloody Britannia cake thing on long bus journeys in the middle of the night. Rice and kadala before running to college on wet rainy mornings.