The morning was glorious like no other, for the August Sun was shining on Nehru-ji as it had never done before.

Wearing his trademark jacket, not a crease or a spot, and a lusty rose in the buttonhole, Nehru-ji looked as fresh as the morning dew, and this despite the midnight.

The school reopened and after the rigmarole of logging in, the first class of the first day started.

"Good morning, children," beamed Padmaja, the Science teacher for the 5th standard. "How were your vacations?"

"I wrote a letter to the PM," said one with the screen name Marky.

Padmaja wondered why Maharshi became Marky, but she let it be.

"What did you write, Maharshi?" she asked.

"I wrote to him asking why constitutional provisions for freedom of speech were violated by his ministers, vitiating the principles of democracy."

Padmaja spilled her tea.

Before she could respond, Davey piped up with the lisp of a nine-year old, "A letter? So last century, Marky."

"Devi?" asked Padmaja, peering into the screen to take a good look at the kid.

"I recorded a HD video," said the kid, "asking the PM to reduce the GST on ambulances."

Padmaja took a deep breath and wondered whether she was in some cute but sinister nightmare.

"Anyone else?" she asked mockingly.

"I set up my YouTube channel," said Robby. "In my latest episode, I talked about minority rights during COVID-19."

"Roopini too?" thought Padmaja.

"I speak for those who cannot speak up," said Robby, "like my friend Safia."

Safia had not changed her screen name. She did not speak up.

"You speak for me too?" asked a voice.

"Shut up, Dinesh Jain!"

"Enough!" said Padmaja, exasperated, and said, "What did you do, Karnika?"

Since Tharoor has let the feline out of the Fendi, here are some of his daily routines that we know now.

* Perform Surya Namaskār so that the Sun has to rise
* Survey land to find out patches where not even a blade of grass grows
* Concoct new dishes by adding paneer to them

On the last one there's an adorable legend about Nehru that even Nehru would be surprised if he hears about it.

Nehru, rooted to the ground beneath his feet, was a nationalist at heart. While toying with green peas in his salad, he had an idea about national integration. Paneer.

Nehru, using his tremendous knowledge while discovering India (this was post-Independence, so no need to use _____), said that paneer could bind the nation together.

So he suggested adding paneer to dishes across India: paneer parantha, paneer pakoda, paneer idli, paneer khaman.

In an era when culinary creativity was a flatland, it was Nehru who raised the lone peak by adding paneer to biriyani, bisibele bath, basundi, uthappam, undhiyu, and sambar.

Soon, paneer began to proliferate with a culinary concupiscence (Tharoor's own words) not seen elsewhere.

Nehru, ever the international man of history, also realized the importance of paneer against the growing Chinese influence of tofu.

In a courageous display of cultural takeover through culinary conquest, Nehru added paneer to dumplings, fried rice, noodles. India 1. China 0.

A few thoughts on Tooter, since it's trending and being discussed.

The landing page makes the indigenous angle quite apparent: "MADE IN INDIA" under the logo and "A Swadeshi social network" as the tagline.

It only accepts a Gmail or Yahoo! email address, for whatever reasons.

Tooter has taken to heart the indigenous angle, even comparing the American Twitter India with the British East India company.

I have no problems with this, for this is a pitch that Tooter has decided to grow.

Tooter is forked from Mastodon, which, to me, has been a sore point.

Mastodon has been around for some time, and if you remember, had become temporarily popular as left-liberals had infested the place.

After some trolling Mastodon went rogue and suspended accounts (yes, mine too).

Inditoot was based on Mastodon then, but was eventually shutdown.

While I agree that Tooter is a fork, and probably not dependent on the whims of Mastodon, the wholly indigenous part becomes simply a marketing pitch.

Someone knowledgeable can explain what a fork carries over and depends on.

Even the app is based on existing Mastodon apps.

Tooter started out on the wrong toot, I mean foot, by creating and verifying accounts of Prof. Vaidya, and making people automatically follow that. In fact, newly created accounts also automatically follow the founder, Nanda.

Prof. Vaidya has now said that he is NOT on Tooter.

"Who likes to fire crackers during Diwali?" asked the teacher.

About half of the nine-ten year olds in the classroom raised their hands.

"You should be ashamed," chided the teacher. "Crackers are harmful to our environment!"

The ones who did not raise their hands felt proud.

It was raining heavily, and the fear of each battering raindrop erasing his memory little by little somehow breathed life into the mask.

The mask remembered the sound of a sewing machine hemming his edges, and plop! The memory got erased! The old woman selling him for...plop!

The right loop was frayed, as it was hung on one ear more often.

The top was worn out, worn below the nose, as if it held the nose from running.

The bottom was frazzled, bristled by the beard.

The specks of dust, the stains, the creases...they held memories of months. Plop!

The mask remembered being thrown away into the bushes, his loop caught in a twig as he fluttered in the winter wind like a broken wing.

A cow had sniffed him, and sensing remnants of her butchered sisters, had moved away with a start. The mask, however, was caught in her horn.

Repulsed by the perversion, the cow had charged ahead, as if trying to escape the horror on her horns.

People fled from the way, dogs yelped and disappeared, crows followed the frenzied cow like bikers slithering behind an ambulance, even as other cows grazed on the green grass.

The cow, hearing the clanging of temple bells, stopped herself outside as if calmed by the rhythmic sound. A kind old man came out, shook his head at what he saw, removed the mask from the horn, and threw it into the mud.

It was in this mud that the mask had breathed to life.

KILLMONGER'S DIARY

Fuck Africa. I'm American. Any African mad at dem words, kick rocks. Don't like it, jump ship. Back 2 Africa. Need receipts. How much yall made off us? U think we didn't know? Mafucka, we the vibranium that made Africa pop. We werent stole. We were sold.

Yall sold us. Then yall hv the audacity 2 come here, pass as American niggas, lecture us about racism & white supremacy, police our emotion, critique our anger & then U have the bravado 2 lecture us about fighting when yall let Europeans come & take yall shit? Fuck out of here.

Immigrants by nature unpatriotic. When times got tough, you left your country. You abdicated the responsibility to make your country better. You didn't fight. You ran. We didn't leave. We stayed. We fighters. Yall runners. Ain't know runner can tell a fighter about a damn thing.

"Erik U dont understand. We wouldve been killed." So the fuck what. We died fo our shit, but yall weren't willing 2 die for yours & now U come here trying 2 cut the line & take our place & Bitch, dont be calling me by my 1st name. We aint cool like that. Thats Mr. Killmonger 2 U.

& we ain' family. I dont play crayola politics so I dont care we got da same skin color. I ain't got no Melanin infatuation like the rest of deese niggas. I's knows what yall done did to us. I gives as much afuck about Africans as George Jefferson gave about Archie Bunker.

Chile is the poster child for extreme economic inequality in a developed country. I spent time there last year for my book (which has a chapter on Chile) and what I found hardest to understand is why there wasn't more political unrest. Now there

A few choice facts about Chile and inequality:

In Chile, the social security system is basically designed to redistribute wealth from the masses to the rich, because workers are required to put their savings into private investment funds that charge ridiculous fees.

The commitment to private industry runs deep. If the available water is sufficient either for drinking or growing avocados... well, you get the idea.

The result in Chile is two worlds, side by side.

And what is most remarkable is that, for the longest time, even the ostensibly left-wing parties were on board. Chile's socialists basically don't like socialism.

Why I am disgusted by the human species.

Speciesism Part 2: Marine Life

It is estimated that up to 3 trillion fish are caught from the wild & killed globally every year: This doesn’t include the billions of fish that are farmed. Fish account for 40% of animal products consumed

Fish farming is forecast to overtake wild-caught fish production in 2021: For context, farmed fish accounts for 70% of all farmed animals worldwide. This presents a host of problems. For example, shrimp farming has led to the destruction of three million acres of coastal wetlands

Like all captivity of sentient life fish farming is creating disease. This ends up in the wider ecosystem damaging and polluting wildlife.

Worldwide demand for seafood is expected to double in the next two decades A recent global survey in has estimated that we could see sea life vanish altogether by 2048. Due to the relentless fishing and relentless pollution. The corals are dying.

Whales:

Despite a moratorium on commercial whaling and a ban on international trade of whale products, three countries-Iceland, Japan, and Norway—continue their commercial whale hunts.
16,000 whales have been murdered every year for 83 consecutive years.

#Yemen is a very active topic on Twitter these days, with a number of online campaigns underway, some of which are trending globally. What’s new and interesting is the massive participation by Yemenis using these hashtags #HouthiTerrorismInYemen & #StopHouthiTerrorismInYemen 1/13

These hashtags were started by a group called “Aqyal,” an emerging social movement that fights Hashemite supremacy and calls for equal opportunities for all Yemenis. It’s widely supported by Yemeni youth, including those affiliated with the existing political parties. 2/13

Aqyal was able to rally people across the political spectrum against Houthis for the first time, and this success was due to 1) their independence, 2) all of them are volunteers, 3) transparency in organizing, and 4) the fact that it’s a just cause. 3/13

On the other hand, Houthi supporters have rallied behind these two hashtags #YemenCantWait & #DayofAction4Yemen
These hashtags were originally started by NGOs& independent activists, but their goal coincided with the goal of t Houthi, which is ending support for Saudi Arabia 4/13

The top goal of Houthis since 2015 is to neutralize Saudi Arabia, so the group can more easily take control over the rest of Yemen. Therefore, Houthis hid behind these campaigns, taking advantage of NGOs’ anti-Saudi message.5/13

We're kicking off the Irish National Integration Conference this morning, with the first of 9 migrant-led discussions on Irish identity & integration, beginning with: INTEGRATION - LEARNING FROM THE PAST, LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE.

#INIC2021

@BriKi

CEO of @immigrationIRL @BriKi, kicking things off with his call to 'truly see the true diversity of Ireland 100 years on'.

Chair of the @immigrationIRL Board, Dr Roja Fazaeli, now delivering opening remarks for the conference, acknowledging the huge contribution of immigrant communities to essential services in Ireland through the Covid-19 pandemic. 🙌

Roja - Institutions such as direct provision continue to disfigure Ireland as an inclusive place to live... Ireland still has a long way to go until we're a fully inclusive society. We want to build a country where no one is left behind.

We're delighted to welcome Minister @joefingalgreen now to deliver the key note address for our opening session. Minister O'Brien was a past team member of the @immigrationIRL, and is now Minister of State with special responsibility for Community Development and Charities.