Proof that there is no g0d: The religion that self-identifies as the chosen ones along with the religion that provided the blueprint for the miltary of a war-as-business country are committing genocide in a part of the world that is currently fasting for religious reasons.

North Indian masculinity isn’t about heroism fighting against evil. It’s about the rage that the system didn’t favour him specifically the way it favours richer/fairer/higher caste/more privileged men. It is very much a fight to retain the systems of privilege, just long as he is included too.

This joke is on par with mine telling North Indians who ask for ‘mulga-podi’ why they want boy powder.

The bad news and the good news are the same: it's never world war 3/it's always world war 3.

Parents of male children, teach them about the validity of disappointment and how to deal with it. Otherwise they will never learn about consent and it will be your fault.

People are full of shame in their youth and then full of regret as they get old. What a waste of living.

It’s been liberating to realise that I don’t have to seek closure or completion. The other person can do some work at it too or it can fall by the wayside. Life goes on and it’s generally better without the people who don’t reciprocate the effort.

Meeting some family after many years and in the mutual exchanges of our lifestyles, I realise how far away I’ve gone from theirs. I used to feel pity & judgement in these conversations but now it feels like interest. Age mellows.

The only people one needs to be protective about are babies, very young children, animals and plants. Oh and one’s own boundaries.

Hot takes, hotter oatmeal.

Steaming hot oatmeal with raisins at half past midnight > Panipuri at the chaatwala in the evening.

Elif Shafak books are the new zodiac signs. I’ll know if we get along based on which of her books you like. If you say 40Rules, you’re as good as a cinephile to me. Go find overwrought drama with somebody else.

Where were these men when I began crushes and looked for a former Baby Fatso?

It’s definitely called the liver because you need it to go on living. Speaking as the person battling an acute liver infection for months and it’s the hardest I’ve gone through, including CSA, abuse, glass ceilings, bullying and double COVID with depression and anxiety.

What luxurious narcissism men have to want to leave behind legacies after their death when the other genders are just trying to get through this life without being killed.

People will disrespect you and say they’re comics and you just don’t have a sense of humour. When you do them one back, they’ll complain that they’re depressed/socially anxious/neurodivergent so you’re a monster for mocking them (back). Cute.

I wonder what ‘going abroad for better prospects’ means for Brits. No, wait I know already. I’m Indian.

Every reskeet helps more weird art to exist in the world!

Pull this up the next time someone claims that they never have to use maths in real life so they don’t have to learn it.

Now I’m that person on a massive WhatsApp group who replies with fully formed sentences that run into 10 lines, then deletes.

If you only read one thing today, let it be this. It’s only 400 words. www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/third-chair

This gives me hope. I’ve been learning to curate my media consumption, in content & platforms. I’ve been both dismayed by and intrigued by the newer kinds of readers, different from me. This gives me structure to think. aeon.co/essays/what-...

It's really OK to not be the main character at every point of life and just read and watch stories about other people without turning it into some fulfilment ritual

The hateful spiritual of this country are really outing themselves with how quiet they’ve been this week.

A short half decade ago, the world had to stop in its tracks. For two years. And we’re already back to following powerful narcissistic men in committing genocide, wage war & threaten nuclear annihilation. Not sure why evolution is tolerating this tomfoolery.

This week I spoke to a relative who had to go on a hunger fast to be allowed by to study, outperformed her husband, was brutalised for it before she managed to get divorce, custody and migrate abroad. First blood relative I’ve spoken to that I can actually relate to.

Autowalla tried to give me three Rs10 coins instead of Rs3 because he thought I’d given him 100. Counter lady lectured me about hospital best practices till I told her I needed to go for my appointment. I think most people are just stumbling about dissociated.

Why is “We will not be missed.” funny? Because we are laughing in relief, not mirth. To be missed is to live with the crushing weight of having to live up to endless expectations. If you’re an Indian woman, oblivion is better. jessicadore.substack.com/p/offering-f...

Japanese artist Masayo Fukuda hand-cut this life-sized octopus from one sheet of paper. Known as Kirie in Japanese (translated as “cut picture”), the art form involves cutting intricate forms from a single sheet of white paper and then contrasting it against a black background to reveal the design.

Most peaceful Indian families are that way because only one person (usually but not always the patriarch) is allowed to be a person and everyone else is props or furniture for them.

“Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Quite bold for a yard fence in Lancashire

It is such an odd thing to read a story from the POV of a protagonist who believes that you are the other, especially in a vulnerable way. This is why reading builds empathy. This is why hate politics incite book burnings & censorship. #Books

It’s croptops everywhere, even when you look for regular sized tops. What are you folks with not-flat stomachs doing? And before anyone suggests it, I refuse to stop eating rice and I’ve been a swimmer for 35 years so this stomach is staying as it is.

The passive aggression of the desi “I guess that..” when they mean this is my truth so it is absolute truth.

What the RW does is provide a sense of purpose and womb-like comfort to adult men who are struggling to function beyond their Raja beta worlds. So they have an excuse to be absent fathers and produce even more people like themselves. Smart model.

Proof that a story does not need to be trauma p0rn to win a Booker prize. Enough with the Netflixisation of stories. This one is slow though, which is part of its beauty. #Books

After being the tallest girl/woman since 14, it’s odd to meet women who are eye-to-eye with me or taller. Each generation of women seems to be getting taller, maybe because of better nutrition. The men don’t seem to be growing correspondingly, which is both literal and metaphorical.

Women would shame each other on their choices of boyfriends & dates in a “this is not a high status choice” way. Just realised this was capitalism as well as women apeing how men spoke of women as trophies that needed to have a certain value (rather than how one felt about them).

The Raja betas of my generation frittered away their privileges while their sisters struggled to be allowed to study & work. And now they’ve weaponised the guard dog internalised misogynists that they married.

“We didn’t vote him in! He cheated!” - the US political system allowed for that man to win power either way. I’m sorry but American power monopoly has been a scourge on the world for a LONG time. A country that has been at war for most of its 250 years of existence is not innocent.

Says the country that colonised and massacred an entire subcontinent.

I went looking for a light read and found this. Isn’t this cover art delightful? I love reading about readers and this is the first time I’ve come across an Indian author fan club. #Books

Please remember before you repost: 1) Israel has an extremely strict military censor that vets reporting it deems sensitive and 2) western media, which regularly report Israeli sources uncritically, has been consistently shown to be biased on anything related to Israel. War propaganda is not news.

Crossing a thin red line? Europe defined the nature of inhuman crimes by enacting them on every other continent in the world. This is barely a surprise.

Why worry about anything when the country whose primary export is war and the country founded on narcissitic entitlement are going to burn us all down anyway?

Many US politicians are freakishly obsequious towards Israeli interests but make no mistake: Israel is a crucial FOB for US ruling class interests. The US always holds the leash. Not the other way around. Even if we seem subservient, we are not.

Was Pankaj Tripathi ever a young man? Like AK Hangal, some people seem like they were always a particular age.

Who approved the ad for Wicked at NMAAC? Take the screechiest note when the singer is making a terrible face and keep replaying ads of it every 2 minutes on a 21 minute episode show. Every episode. I won’t watch this even if you get me tickets.

Doesn’t it tell you something that in desi culture, women are expected to cry at their weddings, to fear their wedding nights and the performance of good parenting of daughters is to ‘let them smile and relax for a little before they have to go to their husbands’ homes’.

Been craving apple pie with cheese since yesterday. Couldn’t find it. Had a lemon tart instead. Good substitute.