#hindu new year reason

[specialagentartemis]

Inspired by @clonerightsagenda’s thoughts about the Ambiguously Brown Spacefuture trope, I kinda want to see more creativity with how Earth is treated in spacefuture sci-fi.

There are plenty of examples where Earth is the center of everything. Star Trek is the obvious one: it’s a bustling interstellar multispecies space society, and Earth is where Starfleet is headquartered and it’s often reflexively and unthinkingly treated by the narrative like it’s the most important planet in the Federation. (Most of our main viewpoint characters are Human, so it’s the most important planet to THEM because it’s their home, but even beyond that, Earth is treated as critically key to the Federation in a way that, say, Betazed is not.)

More recently, the common trope is that the centers of society and culture and economy and politics are elsewhere. Other planets are important, and Earth is either an unimportant backwater that no one really cares about, or galactic humanity has nearly forgotten about it entirely. This is explicit in Becky Chambers’s Wayfarers, strongly implied in The Murderbot Diaries, and one line in Ancillary Justice suggests that too. Ofc this isn’t entirely new—from what I understand it’s what’s going on in Dune too.

And they do this for obvious reasons: the authors are all interested in social and political worldbuilding that is not tethered to real Earth nations, politics, prejudices, and general baggage. Second-world fantasy authors are allowed to do this with no strings attached, but sci-fi authors who want to do social worldbuilding from the ground up have to justify why people don’t appear to identify as Chinese or Latino or Hopi or American anymore (and more often than not, not Jewish or Catholic or Muslim or Hindu or Baha’i or whatever either), why those identities don’t come into conflict with the new planetary identities and spacefuture religions the author wants to write about. It’s been so long that the origin of humanity is forgotten or irrelevant.

Star Wars is honestly underappreciated for the bold, creative, unique choice to have a bustling interstellar multispecies space society with lot of humans… and no Earth. At all. Where do humans come from? Irrelevant. Not Earth though.

And honestly I wish more sci-fi that wants to write in this space took more of a cue form Star Wars to just own it. (I actually thought the Imperial Radch HAD done the same thing—functionally a second-world fantasy, but in a spacefaring setting—until Kat pointed out the reference to arguing over which planet was the real origin of humanity.) If you posit your space future as our future, but Earth is no longer relevant and is generally forgotten… I guess it depends on how far out it is, but it strains my credulity that no one remembers or cares! The Jews in the spacefuture don’t know/remember/care where Jerusalem is? Muslims in the spacefuture decided that going to Mecca just kinda isn’t worth it? The spacefuture Papal seat is no longer in Rome and the future Catholics don’t know or care that it was ever anywhere else? All the Hopis left the Three Mesas and all the Navajos left Dinétah and all the Māori left Aotearoa and then just… forgot about it? Really? That isn’t true after hundreds and even thousands of years today; why would it be true hundreds or even thousands of years in The Spacefuture?

There are some works that do a little more complexity with spacefuture planetary societies and cultures vs. memory of Earth—the Vorkosigan Saga positions Old Earth as a culturally important memory even if it’s not a politically important planet, and The Locked Tomb makes Earth a holy center place that is mythicized more than it’s known or inhabited, for magic necromancy reasons.

I’d like to see more of that, Earth holding some sort of unique place in spacefuture humans’ culture in a historically informed way, even if you actually want to write about other things. Or go the Star Wars route and proudly proclaim that this takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, don’t worry about it.

[srbachchan]

DAY 6101

Jalsa, Mumbai Nov , 1, 2024/Nov 2 , Fri/Sat 12:08 am

🪔 ,

And the wishes to the Ef ..

November 02 .. birthday wishes to Ef Erlika from Indonesia 🇮🇩 .. Ef Abhijit Jagtab from Pune .. and .. Ef Dipagala Gala .. 🙏🏻❤️🚩

November 01 .. birthday wishes to Ef Vishan Lal 🪈 from Gurugram .. Ef Honey Aishu from Bangkok - Thailand 🇹🇭 .. Ef Nouranne Achraf from Egypt / France 🇪🇬🇫🇷 .. Ef Pankaj Shukla from Indore .. Ef Shubhra Rattan .. and Ef Somraj Mane from Kolhapur .. 🙏🏻❤️🚩

..

may this new year in your lives bring greater joy and prosperity ❤️🌹

Govardhan Pooja ... नमस्कार 🙏

and the festivities continue .. as do all the rituals .. and among all this Australia declares the month of October as a heritage month of Hindu festivities .. grace and divine blessings ..

But the intimacy of soft celebrations and the adherence to the control of many environmental obligations is revered .. as another year of the year of Lights ends , to another day of light ..

The intrigue of religious festivities .. their time and date and occasion still brings a wonder to many .. indeed to a great many .. and the readings of our Ef Sudhir and his dedicated research on the subject does evoke curiosity .. and awareness ...

The Calendar

There are two lunar calendars in the Jyotish Shastra… One is Purnaant and the other is Amaant…

There's a gap of 15 days between the two, although the order of the months are the same…

For instance, Deepavali's Lakshmi puja is on Purnaant Kartik Amavasya… while the same day is Amaant Ashwin Amavasya in some states…

So, the festival has a different reason in each region, and one common reason at the national level…

Like, the South, where the Lakshmi puja night of diwali is to recall the victory of Krishna over Narakaasur… In the North, it's for the return of Shri Ram to Ayodhya…

The concept of a civilisation made of many cultures dates back to the Treta Yug…

Diwali is celebrated for different days in different places… One day, three days, five days and eleven days… depending on the local history…

Yes… the different calendars, different cultures, but the same festivals, and the same civilisation…

You know, what… I think it's always an advantage when we do something that has no precedence… when there is nothing to refer…

This organisation of a nation is first envisaged in the chronicles of the satyug… each kingdom was called a country… group of countries was a region… the collective of regions was called a nation…

In Hindi - देश, प्रदेश तथा राष्ट्र…

What calendar do I follow?

I follow Rishi Varāhamihira's Brihat Samhita… In that, there is no need of dividing time into months and years…

The movements of cosmic objects don't need a calendar to have months and years… Only days are enough… Just count the days from a no-moon or a new-moon… the patterns are measurable and predictable…

Like,

The diwali always happens on the same no-moon night… regardless of which month in which state…

Thus, all the differences are dissolved in the universal medium… 🙂

About the light…

Darkness is not displaced by light… darkness is eliminated by light…

तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय।

Easiest way to do it is: Use one lamp to light the next… A series of lamps… Hence, Deepavali… Deep + Aavali - strings of light…

एक ब्रह्म है… एक सत्य है… एक ही है परमात्मा… प्राणों से प्राण मिलाते चलो.

my obsessed gratitude ..

my love and regard ...

Amitabh Bachchan

[zvaigzdelasas]

With a history of short-term governments in Nepal’s 15 years of democratic progression, the current reconfiguration is no surprise, and it will be no surprise if the Maoists get back again with the Nepali Congress in months and years to come.

Power sharing, political discontent, ideological differences, underperformance, and pressure to restore Nepal to a Hindu state – a long list of reasons reportedly forced the Maoists to sever ties with the Nepali Congress. While the Nepali Congress expected the Maoist leader and current prime minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal (also known by his nom de guerre, Prachanda) to leave the alliance, it did not expect an overnight turnaround. [...]

Dahal reportedly conveyed to the Nepali Congress chair, former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, that external pressure forced him to join hands with CPN-UML and form a new government.

If this assertion is true, China emerges as a plausible factor, given its historical inclination toward forging alliances with leftist parties in Nepal. This notion gains credence in light of China’s past efforts, such as its unsuccessful attempt in 2020 to mediate the conflict between Oli and Dahal.

On the other hand, India has enjoyed a comfortable working relationship with the Nepali Congress and the Maoists. Although Maoists were a challenging party for New Delhi to get along with when Dahal first gained the prime minister’s seat in 2008, the two have come a long way in working together. However, the CPN-UML has advocated closer ties with the northern neighbor China; Beijing suits both their ideological requirements and their ultra-nationalistic outlook – which is primarily anti-India. [...]

India faces challenges in aligning with the Left Alliance for two key reasons. First, the energy trade between Nepal and India has grown crucial over the past couple of years. However, India strictly purchases power generated through its own investments in Nepal, refusing any power produced with Chinese involvement. With the CPN-UML now in government, Nepal may seek alterations in this arrangement despite the benefits of power trade in reducing its trade deficit with India.

Second, India stands to lose the smooth cooperation it enjoyed with the recently dissolved Maoist-Congress coalition. During the dissolved government, the Nepali Congress held the Foreign Ministry, fostering a favorable equation for India. Just last month, Foreign Minister N.P. Saud visited India for the 9th Raisina Dialogue, engaging with top Indian officials, including his counterpart, S. Jaishankar.

As concerns arise for India regarding the Left Alliance, there is also potential for shifts in the partnership between Nepal and the United States, a significant development ally. Particularly, there may be a slowdown in the implementation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) projects. Despite facing domestic and Chinese opposition, the Nepali Parliament finally approved a $500 million MCC grant from the United States in 2022, following a five-year delay.

China perceives the MCC as a component of the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific strategy, countering its BRI. Hence Beijing aims to increase Chinese loans and subsidies to Nepal to enhance its influence.

To conclude, the re-emergence of Nepal’s Left Alliance signals a shift in power dynamics, impacting domestic politics and regional geopolitics. With China’s influence growing, Nepal’s foreign policy may tilt further toward Beijing, challenging India’s interests. This shift poses challenges for India, particularly in trade and diplomatic relations, while also affecting Nepal’s partnerships with other key players like the United States.

[[The Author,] Dr. Rishi Gupta is the assistant director of the Asia Society Policy Institute, Delhi]

6 Mar 24

[burningcheese-merchant]

Wake up, BurningCheese/GoldenSpice babes, new poorly drawn blorbos just dropped

They look cooler in my head, I swear.

the images didn't show up the first time wtf lol

The kids are finally here, yay. I promised I'd show you them, and I finally stopped being an asshole and followed through. Almost got 200 followers and I'm very grateful for it - really, I'm nobody. I'm just some clown who says dumb stuff and makes dumb memes and writes cringey stories, and yet I convinced almost 200 people to tune in. Thank you all so much, users on here and anons in my inbox alike. As a token of appreciation, you can all endure my rambling about my OCs and witness a person in their early 20s draw like a 12 year old.

The boy is Pepper Jack (or Pepper Jack Cookie). He's the firstborn and older than his sister by a few years. He takes after his mother in a lot of ways, primarily in her appearance (save for nabbing his father's red eyes). He's incredibly bright (and a smartass lol), preferring to think his way out of conflict rather than fight his way out... not that he's above violence at all, if that glaive doesn't give it away lol. He harbors a deep sense of love and loyalty towards his family and his peoples, and carries the weight of his responsibilities and heritage with as much confidence and poise as he can muster. (There are/will be times where he stumbles, of course. He's not perfect. He struggles a lot more than he lets on, really. But he tries his best, for everyone's sake.)

The girl is Matar Paneer (or Matar Paneer Cookie). Again, she's the younger one by a few years. She was all but made in her father's image, save for inheriting her mother's eyes. She's a little firecracker: lively and fun-loving and stubborn as a mule. She doesn't ask "can I have/do this thing", she tells you "I'm going to have/do this thing". Golden is proud as anything to see her daughter be so greedy... until that greed comes into conflict with her and Spice's authority lol. But she's a good kid, despite being such a handful. She has an enormous heart and is not afraid to stand up for others/what's right, and she loves her parents and brother more than anything in the world. She might doubt her own capabilities, she might secretly fear that she's not strong enough to do what she needs to... but she keeps pushing anyway, because she'd honestly choose death over quitting.

Your eyes are not deceiving you, Pepper Jack's wings are blue lol. There's an actual reason for that. And that USO (Unidentified Sitting Object) in Matar Paneer's hair is a lotus (the cheese one in the GCK decor set lol). There's a reason for that, too. I thought it would be cool to give Jack a glaive and swap out the normal blade for that of a khopesh sword (glaives are not Egyptian, they only saw use in Asia and Europe, but I just HAD to give him a glaive), to add that Egyptian touch. Paneer's supposed to be wearing a pattu pavadai, it's a traditional Indian dress for young girls. It's a blouse plus a skirt. She's holding katar, Indian knives (Cilantro Cobra has them, too). And her hair's supposed to be in a low ponytail.

Merchant thinks that if they explain what their terrible drawings are supposed to convey, people will understand their intended vision and the pain will stop

I sat down and did research into both Egyptian and Hindu mythology for the sake of drawing inspiration for them both. I'll explain in detail in another post, but basically: both of them take after one Egyptian god and one Hindu god each. Golden takes after Ra and Spice takes after Shiva, so I figured I'd follow along that line.

Please flood my inbox with questions about them now. I've really been dying to talk about them for ages now. I've drafted extensive character sheets for them both, I even made up in-game descriptions for them lol. They're my little fankid blorbos and I love them :') I hope you all come to love them, too

(Also, I'm sorry they're on lined paper. I'm visiting family rn and that's the only paper my grandmother has in her house. I'd have to drive to a stationery to get printer paper and I'd really rather not drive in this particular country lol (shit roads, even shittier drivers). I'll doodle them on printer paper whenever somebody remembers to bring me some)

[macgyvermedical]

Do you know how our understanding and treatment of diabetes has changed through history?

Oooh good question, anon!

As you may guess, diabetes mellitus is not new.

We've known about it since at least the Ebers Papyrus (1550 BCE) when the disease and a treatment was first described. This treatment was: "a liquid extract of bones, grain, grit, wheat, green lead and earth." I did not look these up, but I would guess they did not do a whole lot for the treatment of diabetes.

Later during the 6th century BCE it was first given a name when it was described by Hindu physician Sushruta as madhumeh or "honey urine."

Honey urine is a very apt descriptor for diabetes. In any type, one of the most measurable symptoms is that the person urinates a lot, and the urine tastes sweet (or, if one didn't feel like tasting, that it ferments, or that it attracts ants). This was also the first test for diabetes.

The reason for the sweetness of the urine (as well as a lot of other general info about diabetes) is spelled out more clearly in my "Don't Be That Guy Who Wrote Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" post.

A Greek physician Apolonius of Memphis named it Diabetes, meaning "to siphon" (referring to the large amount of urine lost).

Roman physician Aretaeus later made the first precise description of diabetes. This included the classic symptoms of incessant thirst, copious urination, and constant hunger leading to emaciation and death. He also notes that if deprived of water, the patient will continue to urinate until they become so dehydrated that they die.

The term "Mellitus" was not added until the 1600s by an English physician Thomas Willis. This was again due to the sweetness of the expressed urine. Willis prescribed a diet of "slimy vegetables, rice, and white starch. He also suggested a milk drink which was distilled with cypress tops and egg whites, two powders (a mixture of gum arabic and gum dragant), rhubarb and cinnamon". Supposedly his patients improved if they kept to this diet, though few managed it long term. I honestly don't know how it would have worked, even temporarily.

A major breakthrough came in 1889 when it was discovered that if you removed the pancreas from a dog, the dog would become diabetic (particularly, that it would urinate large quantities of sweet urine). Up until this point it was thought that diabetes stemmed from the kidneys and bladder, or perhaps the lungs. This was the first time it had been shown experimentally that the pancreas was the problem.

Speaking of this, this was also part of a series of experiments where an English physician named Merkowski implanted a small amount of pancreas in the pancreas-less dog's fat, which reversed the diabetes temporarily. This proved that the pancreas was making something that helped regulate blood (and thus urine) sugar.

What this was wasn't figured out until 1921, when Canadian scientists Banting and Best (with help from McLeod and Collip) isolated something they called insletin (after the islets of langerhans, where the substance was being produced). It's important to note that all of these scientists hated each other so much they almost refused a Nobel Prize over it. Later, Collip would refine the substance and McLeod would rename it insulin.

Prior to insulin existing there was basically 1 vaguely useful treatment for diabetes. Unfortunately, that was starvation. So you could either die a slow and painful death by diabetes or you could die a slightly less slow but still painful death due to eating about 500 calories per day. Either way, diabetes was fatal, usually within a couple of years of diagnosis.

By 1923, the first commercial insulin product, Iletin, had been developed. Iletin was a U10 insulin (10 units per 1 milliliter- less potent than today's U100 and U500 insulins) and was made from pork pancreases. It took nearly a ton of pork pancreas to make 1oz of insulin. Fortunately, as a byproduct of the meat industry, pancreases were readily available.

Now, you might be thinking- no one has mentioned type 1 or type 2 yet in this entire post!

Well, you would be right, because diabetes wouldn't be split into 2 forms (insulin-dependent and non-insulin dependent) until 1979, and wouldn't be classified as types 1 and 2 until 1995. That's right- some of you were alive when there was only one kind of diabetes out there.

Now, there's more about the types in the Hansel and Gretel post, but essentially type 1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas itself stops producing insulin, usually in childhood. When this happens, the body stops being able to use sugar (insulin, a hormone, acts as a "key" to let sugar into cells for use). Without replacing that insulin, the person dies because their cells starve.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the pancreas still produces insulin, but the cells stop responding to it correctly. This causes high sugar levels in the blood, which causes longer-term complications (infections, ulcers, blindness, neuropathy, heart and kidney disease, hyperosmolar syndrome, etc..) which eventually lead to death.

We started discovering oral drugs that worked on what would later become type 2 in the 1950s. Particularly those that worked by increasing the insulin output of the pancreas, but only when the pancreas was still producing some insulin.

Predicting which diabetics would benefit from oral therapies was challenging, but it was recognized that when the onset of diabetes was slow and came on in adulthood, the oral agents would work, while if it came on suddenly in childhood, the oral agents wouldn't. Terms like "adult onset" and "maturity onset" were common:

(Side note: if you have ever read Alas, Babylon (1955) there is a diabetic character who by today's standards clearly has type 1 diabetes, but wants to switch to the "new oral pill" (called "orinase" in the book, though they are likely referring to diabinese pictured above).)

From 1923 into the 1980s, insulin was given once or twice per day, and not particularly titrated to blood sugar. This was probably just because we didn't have a great way to measure blood sugar in real time. Pre-1970s, there was no way to test blood sugar outside of a lab setting.

Urine testing was common starting in the 1940s, but was cumbersome as it required a flame for heating the urine. By the 1950s, a test had been developed that didn't require a flame, but was still not practical for home use. In the 1960s, paper strips were developed that changed color for different amounts of sugar in the urine. The problem with this was that the strips couldn't change color until there was sugar in the urine- a blood sugar level of over 200 by today's measurements. Low blood sugar readings were impossible at this time, and had to be treated based on symptoms.

In the 1970s, blood sugar could finally be measured by putting a drop of blood on a test strip, wiping it off, and matching the color of the test strip to a chart. While less cumbersome than urine tests, this was still something that would generally only be done at a doctor's office.

In 1983, the first home blood glucometer is developed. Finally, it was practical to take one's sugar multiple times per day, and it becomes possible to experiment with "sliding scale" insulin injections that keep tighter control of blood sugar. By the late 90s, continuous glucose monitors became available- though unlike today's CGMs that allow readings in real time on a smartphone or monitor, these had to be downloaded to a computer at regular intervals.

The 1980s were the first decade where insulin pumps become widely available. The very first pump was large and had to be carried in a backpack, but it represented a huge step forward in glucose control, as it more closely mimicked the function of a working pancreas than once-daily injections.

For the next 30 or so years you really had to work to qualify for an insulin pump, but recently it's been found that pumps greatly improve compliance with blood glucose control whether or not the person had good compliance before getting the pumps, and insurance has gotten better about covering them (though CGMs are still a pain to get insurance to cover).

The 1980s was also the decade that recombinant human insulin (insulin made by genetically modified bacteria) was first used. Up until that point the only insulins were pork and beef insulins, which some people had allergic reactions to. Recombinant insulin was closer to regular human insulin than beef or pork, and represented a big change in how insulin was made.

Today for people who take insulin to manage their diabetes, insulin is usually given as a single injection of a long-acting basal insulin, coupled with smaller doses of ultra-short-acting insulins with meals or snacks. This is the closest we've gotten to mimicking the way a pancreas would work in the wild, and keeps very tight control of blood sugar. This can be done by fingerstick blood sugar tests and individual injections of insulin, or it can be done with a CGM and pump- it just depends on the resources available to the person and their personal preference.

[everything-is-crab]

Whenever a femicide case occurs in India, first thing people question is the religion of the victim and the murderer.

Was the girl Hindu? She must be.

Was the guy Muslim? He must be.

Otherwise this case isn't worth debating about as an alarming social issue.

According to Hindu men, only Muslim men possess a threat to us. Femicide is a love jihad case. Not a patriarchal one that Hindu men are responsible for too.

After that recent incidence where a 16 year old girl in Delhi was killed by an adult male she was in a relationship with, people only cared that the guy was Muslim. Same for Shraddha Walker's case.

Nobody gave af that the people who witnessed the murder of the minor girl literally just walked away from the scene. Were those people Muslim too? Nobody gaf about how the police didn't take Shraddha seriously. Were they Muslim too?

Nobody gave af about the incidence in Thane where another minor girl was murdered by her brother when she had her first period. Nobody gave a fuck in 2021 when a husband murdered his wife on a main road in Delhi in broad daylight (and nobody stepped forward to save the woman) because she wanted to do a job and earn by herself.

Even now, another recent incidence in Mumbai that made the news where both the victim and murderer were Hindus, Hindu men are crying victim because the name of the man was revealed and according to them Muslim men's names aren't revealed (which we all know is a big fat lie but imagine feeling victimized when one of yours who murdered an innocent woman is publicly recognized).

Men of all kinds are sick and inhumane. They see that our lives are taken away by them when we choose to trust them as lovers, fathers, brothers or whatever (it's not stranger men attacking us). But the patriarchy doesn't exist. There must be some other politics like race or religion involved.

It is more important now than ever that Indian feminists start taking cases of femicide seriously considering the media talks only about these isolated cases that stand out most due to their disturbing descriptions of the crime and we don't have any idea about the stats because femicide isn't counted as a different crime (it comes under homicide). So many women get murdered or driven to death for marrying out of their religion,caste or for dowry related reasons. Our sex ratio isn't skewed just due to the female infanticide and sex selective abortion cases.

[dhalsimxhonda]

HONSIM ; TALK ABOUT OLD DAYS (REWRITTEN)

SUMMARY … the rewritten version of the old “talk about old days” prompt except lukejamie is only featured there . for reasoning, please check out this post .

CW … mentions of trans pregnancy .

CHARACTERS … edmond honda, dhalsim, luke sullivan, & jamie siu .

SETTING … street fighter 6 .

A/N … this is to make it up for my inactivity there .

the sumo wrestler chef took a look at the beautiful skyscraper around edomon and its cozy surroundings. he couldn’t believe how amazed everyone was when they took a shot in there. he could even watch the statue of liberty and it felt like a dream. all dressed up with his turtleneck, he already felt warmth and wind at the same time. it was all interrupted by his workers telling him that two couple’s orders were ready and he should be serving it. “thank ya as always for letting me know. please take a break while i do my work, sir!”

edmond smiled and left the view as he began carrying the meals with his other mates. towards the couple, he placed all of the respective plates onto luke sullivan and jamie siu. “and there ya have it, please enjoy all of yer foods, fellas. all done from recipes by me!” the trainee smiled and gave edmond a handshake as an honor. “no worries, we enjoy spending time in your restaurant watching those sumo matches!” the sumo wrestler chef chuckled from luke’s encouragement. “why thank ya! we should spare some time soon, sullivan!”

after leaving the two of them alone, he then went to supervise the sumo match from the heya, crossing his hands. “yoga!” behind him, the yoga master who was also dressed up with a turtleneck placed his hands onto his husband’s shoulders. “did you miss me, darling?”

edmond turned his head towards dhalsim and gave him a big hug while spinning around. “oh, dhalsim-kun! how much i miss yer embrace!” the hindu man laughed as he gently caressed the japanese man’s cheeks. “do ya know that you’re my #1?”

“yes, my dear edmond! but please calm yourself.” dhalsim tried to snap his husband’s pda out of it. the sumo wrestler carefully placed the yoga master down as he kissed him on the cheeks. “i know i shoulda calmed myself down, but seein’ ya makes me happy! i’m so glad to see ya, dhalsim-kun!” the yoga master chuckled while kissing his husband’s lips. “glad to see you again, my darling! please, tell me what are you doing?” the couple went back to the view. “i had to serve the couple seconds ago!” he replied. “ya know they love to spend time here on edomon!” he laughed as dhalsim embraced his arms onto his husband’s shoulders. “what couple?” he asked as edmond turned around and looked at the four men. “sullivan and siu.”

dhalsim blinked, all eyes on his husband. “hm, the two rivals?” he asked as he turned around. the sumo wrestler chef glanced at his husband. “yep.” he replied. “plus, seein’ them together just reminds me of us when we’re younger.” his smile grew softly as he held dhalsim’s hands. “do ya ever miss our youth back then?” the yoga master thought and remembered memories from eighteen years ago.

back when they both met in mumbai, and became good parents with datta and sanjo edmond honda received his transition goals and dhalsim carried and gave birth to anishk. from taking down shadaloo as many times before, traveling from japan to india endless times until they finally reached their new chapter in metro city. they lost count of how many times they make love and would do anything to kiss birthmarks, bodypaints, or scars. all of the difficulties of becoming street fighters and protectors of their three children ended when honda decided to establish his restaurant in metro city. sanjo has been training sumo wrestling, datta is studying to become a doctor, and anishk enjoyed studying in his elementary school with his friends.

eighteen years of being together have been the best decision that dhalsim and edmond took and their respect for each other is so special that they deserve each other. their fate with each other was meant to be after all. dhalsim remembered everything…

“i indeed miss our youth. and the day that we met changed everything about us. you were so handsome when you were on your late twenties, and you still are nowadays.” dhalsim recalled as he held his husband’s hands back. “i love you, darling. i still love you after nineteen years of our first fight.”

as luke and jamie watched both of them in awe, the coach wrapped his arms around siu. “y’know, meathead.” he spoke. “they really could be us when we get older.” jamie blinked and laughed with a slight blush. “you mean these two guys? it will not happen ever! how do they even get together in the first place? do people really know that they were together back in the 90s or some shit?”

luke sullivan chuckled as he kissed his boyfriend on the cheeks. “it’s sometimes hard being a street fighter and being together. but we’ll work things out together, just you and me, siu.” he replied as jamie agreed and both continued to enjoy their food and companion.

[reveriedraffs]

I think i know why Christian was set to Marry Devi... (My theory i uploaded on reddit was removed by the admin idk why?)

It was bugging me from the moment when Christian said that he wanted to marry Devi from the very beginning although dozens hid this fact from her to spar her to get married to Christian. But why he wanted to marry her? Christian didn't know Devi and the latter came way before Devi met Ian. so what was he insisted to marry on marrying and devi only. also if it was because he show her portrait then he could've remember her when they meet for the first time.

After thinking about it so much i couldn't come to theory or connect the dots that not until i was sitting with my dad watching the news (I am Indian btw) and suddenly the news was talking about the most famous and precious jewel of india "Kohinoor" i am not sure how many of you know about this but this diamond it very "precious", "Priceless" and "CURSED" yes this diamond is "cursed" it was called cursed because of that soley diamond in the past war has fought for 500 years or more. and it has killed everyone who tried to posses that diamond the biggest empire has collapsed because of this mere diamond although it's not a mere diamond. because in reality, this diamond belongs to the gods.

The Koh-i-Noor Diamond isa a 186-caratt diamond with a curse affecting only men. According to folklore, a Hindu description of the diamond warns that “he who owns this diamond will own the world, but will also know all its misfortunes. Only God or woman can wear it with impunity.” Throughout history, the gem traded hands among various Hindu, Mongolian, Persian, Afghan and Sikh rulers, who fought bitter and bloody conflicts to own it. Every prince whohadf the diamond would ultimately lose his power if not his life. For over 500 years the stone changed hands in gruesome battles and vicious coups.

The kingdom of Golconda(current day state of Telengana,India), The khilji Empire,The Tughlaq Empire,The Lodhi Empire,The Mughal Empire,The Maratha Empire,The kingdom of Persia,The Durrani Empire,The Afghan Khanate,The Sikh Empire all collapsed one behind the other while owning the Koh-i-noor Diamond.The height of the curse can be seen in the fact that even World level Empires crumbled below the weight of the curse.The British East India company owned the Jewel since the Annexation and Disbandment of the Sikh Empire. But only 7–8 years following the looting of the jewel,the revolt of 1857 literally destroyed the east IndiaCompanyy from its roots.

Historical records indicate the diamond was acquired by the British in 1849 and given to Queen Victoria in 1850. To heed its legend, the diamond has since only been worn by women, including Queen Alexandra of Denmark, Queen Mary of Teck and the late Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, wife of King George VI.

In 1936, the stone was set into the crown of the wife of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth (later known as the Queen Mother). The British Royal family was aware of the Curse of the Koh-i-Noor, and from the reign of Queen Victoria the Kohinoor diamond has always gone to the wife of the male heir to the British throne

Currently, it is set as one of the jewels within a British monarchy crown that is kept at the Tower of London Jewel House.

I am telling you the whole story because?

here is the dots to this theory:

Sharma owns the mines for gemstones, diamonds, and crystals not only in Bengal but in very different places on all over India.

Devi's brother died while trying to save the bride.

Those who came to kill people talked about letting "Women alive and killing all the men" A simple person may think they said it to use them later on. if so then why was Rati killed?

Devi becomes the heir of the Sharma household, and Kamal insists on making Devi the heir why? i understand that is because Kairas was his best friend but he could've easily let Devi's uncle become the heir.

For some reason Kamal agreed to marry off Devi to Ian suddenly? like that man fought for 5 years against everyone then why did he turn his back suddenly?

Also I personally thin Ian chose devi for specific reasons too, like right now she is the head of Sharma's house but even when she wasn't he wanted to marry her and only her.

The Koh-i-noor might be found on devi's mine. as it holds the power of god and specifically it is cursed. As it said that "Only God or Woman can wear it with IMPUNITY" where Impunity simply means exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action.

Or Devi personally is or is the koh-i-noor itself. Or Maybe British knew about the diamond and it's real power. They have stole diamonds from Taj Mahal too but they knew that the diamond who belongs to god holds its own power so they might need someone for that. Devi. Not only she is related to Maa Kali, she is girl and if they choose Devi and then found diamond form her mine then they can ask her to give it to them as in original i mean in reality that's how the koh-i-noor to the queen, they manipulate the royal family livin' in the England making them into thinking it was a simple diamond was given to the queen but in reality it was more then that!

I think they knew about the mines or something similar related to it.

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

Men ain't the problem grow up 🤣🤣 white women voted trump

Well, yes and no.

Yes, white women are an example of a demographic the majority of which voted for Trump. They've done so three times in a row now and we've been hearing for eight years that there's a problem here. Everyone knows it and it isn't really new or productive information, especially since they did not move towards Trump in this election, which most other demographics did. It was something like 55% for Trump in 2020 and 52% this time,* and yet in the nationwide popular vote he gained four points. That's a pretty significant leftward shift in an increasingly right-wing electorate. Those 52% of white women still need to take a hard look at themselves, though, as does everyone who voted for Trump, because fascism offers nothing of value to anyone. (Even the so-called captains of industry like Musk and Bezos have to live in fear of getting on the ruling clique's bad side, and the ruling clique in turn have to live in fear of one another.)

The reason a lot of people are focusing on men and gender with this election, even though the overall gender gap didn't really grow that much, is that the groups that moved the most towards Trump are types of men with a preexisting reputation for being fixated on masculinity and perceived threats to it--Latinos, Gen Z men, men in some other ethnic and age groups as well but those are the two big ones. Whether or not this is a fair reputation is another question, but both campaigns acted as if it was while the election was ongoing. The Trump-Vance campaign was explicitly misogynistic and masculist.† Even the Harris-Walz campaign often seemed to be thinking as if the median voter was some kind of softcore MRA and Walz had to act as macho as possible to win them over, rather than touting his progressive accomplishments in Minnesota, which are considerable. This seems to have been true, because these are, again, the groups that shifted towards Trump by enough to yield a different election result nationally. If Candidate A gets 47% of the vote one year and then 51% or so four years later, the group that went from 55% to 52% is, mathematically, less at fault for that than are groups that went from 36% to 55% (Latinos) or 45% to 60% (Gen Z men). Those are massive, massive lurches towards Trump, and there's compelling evidence that, among some of the smaller subgroups of men that I alluded to above, it was even worse.

This isn't to say that that 52% of white women is off the hook; again, fascism ultimately offers nothing good to anyone, and therefore anybody who votes for it is a world-historically malicious and/or gullible motherfucker, regardless of who they are and why they did it. But it is to say that we've been discussing the political woes of the dang dirty white women for eight fucking years now, and now we have plenty of other groups full of bad faith and false consciousness to worry about too.

*Everything I'm saying about how different demographics shifted is an estimate, because this isn't an exact science. You can't scrutinize people's ballots based on their race or gender or religion. You have to make educated guesses based on how different geographic areas voted and how people claim to have voted in exit polls. For once, the US makes this easier than some other countries, because we report vote totals with more geographic specificity; we can see how neighborhoods voted, not just cities or counties or Congressional districts.

†In addition to manipulating resentments between different minority groups, something Trump had never successfully done before; he improved with Hindus by bashing Muslims, improved with Muslims by bashing Jews, improved with Orthodox Jews (but not non-Orthodox Jews, who held the line for the center-left despite the serious tensions of the past year) by bashing Muslims...Vance even tried to improve with gay men by bashing other types of LGBT people, although it's not clear if this one worked or not.

[mariacallous]

Bangladeshis made history in July when a mass uprising, led by student protesters, toppled Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League’s government, which had become increasingly dictatorial over the course of 15 years in power. Before she fled to India on Aug. 5, Hasina oversaw the killing of thousands—at least 90 people were killed by the police on the day before her departure alone. Children were not spared.

The end of Hasina’s dictatorship has turned a new chapter in Bangladesh’s history. The country’s lone Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, now heading an interim government, called it Bangladesh’s second liberation. But Bangladesh has to step carefully over the mess Hasina has left behind—both in domestic and foreign affairs.

And the mess is huge. Historically, Bangladesh’s politics has been a game of pass the parcel played between Hasina’s center-left Awami League and Khaleda Zia’s center-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), with the two regularly exchanging power for years—until Hasina broke the norms of democracy in 2011. That was the year she abolished the caretaker government system, where neutral civil society leaders headed an interim government to conduct the elections in a free and fair manner. Since then, the country has witnessed one rigged election after another. The BNP said about half of its 5 million members faced legal charges.

The democratic institutions that have been destroyed over the years can’t be rebuilt overnight. In his first speech to the nation, Yunus talked about bringing back the “lost glory of these [government] institutions.” The country effectively has no police force left. Hasina used members of the Border Guard Bangladesh, who were supposed to be posted at the border, against the protesters. Now they are facing widespread public anger too.

The damage is everywhere from administration to law enforcement to the military. Nothing has been spared. Hasina destroyed the country’s judiciary by handpicking judges. In 2017, the chief justice of Bangladesh’s Supreme Court, Surendra Kumar Sinha—a Hindu in a Muslim-majority country—was forced to resign and seek asylum in Canada after being threatened by the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, the country’s military intelligence service.

The economy is in tatters, and corruption is rampant. Hasina herself has said that her manservant is worth $34 million and commutes via helicopter. According to Transparency International, around $3.1 billion is laundered from Bangladesh every year, which is more than 10 percent of the country’s total national reserves.

With the Awami League now hated by most of the public, the only political force left this political vacuum is the BNP. Zia, the party chairperson, is 79—and she is now gravely ill and was hospitalized multiple times since this summer. Tarique Rahman, her firstborn child and deputy, is 56. Rahman, often seen as his mother’s successor and the future head of state, has been living in a self-imposed exile in the U.K. for the last 16 years and the extent he is in touch with the country’s new reality is a question up for debate. He faces a slew of corruption charges—although these may not stand up in a fair trial as they were trumped up by Hasina.

After 15 years of autocracy, most of the remaining politicians are greying, while the median age in Bangladesh is a little over 25. The uprising that saw Hasina’s rule crumble was spearheaded by mostly by members of Generation Z. Their leadership of these supposedly apolitical groups in the July revolution has caught the politicians off guard, proof that Bangladeshi politicians are not capable of reading the pulse of the young.

Amid this chaos, the West needs to start playing a far more positive role. One of the reasons Hasina’s rule lasted so long was because the U.S. turned a blind eye to her misrule. Months before the one-sided elections in January, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken threatened to “restrict the issuance of visas for any Bangladeshi individual, believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh.” But after the polls, no punitive measures materialized. On the contrary, U.S. President Joe Biden wrote a letter to Hasina, expressing his government’s wish to “work together on regional and global security” and “commitment to supporting Bangladesh’s ambitious economic goals.”

U.S. complicity depends in part on its desire for India, a close ally to Bangladesh, to contain China in the Indo-Pacific. According to the Washington Post, last month Indian officials told their U.S. counterparts, “This is a core concern for us, and you can’t take us as a strategic partner unless we have the same kind of strategic consensus.”

India supported successive Awami League regimes due to its own security and strategic concerns. India’s landlocked northeastern states, also known as the Seven Sisters, are linked to the rest of the country through the narrow 60-kilometre-long Siliguri Corridor. This tiny passage, known as the Chicken Neck, separates Bangladesh from Nepal and Bhutan. The strategically important Tibetan Chumba Valley controlled by China is only 130 kilometers away.

The Seven Sisters are inhibited by 220 ethnic minorities and are home to active insurgent groups, especially in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland. India also has the world’s fifth-longest land border with Bangladesh. All this gives India a potent stake in Bangladesh—but instead of making new friends or giving Bangladesh’s democracy a chance, India placed its chips entirely on Hasina and the Awami League. Anti-Indian sentiment now runs high in Bangladesh—the Indian Cultural Center in the capital was torched within three hours of Hasina’s fall.

India has a long way to go to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Bangladeshis, and blaming Pakistan and its intelligence agency, the ISI, for every problem won’t help. India’s old narrative is dead, and New Delhi must realize this.

The U.S. must stop seeing Bangladesh through India’s eyes. Time and again U.S. policymakers have misread Bangladesh’s importance, looking at it as an extension of India instead of a state in itself. Bangladesh is potentially crucial to containing China in the Indo-Pacific. It has a young population who hold their ethno-religious identities close to their hearts but are pro-Western, too, with more than 13 million Bangladeshis living abroad.

Hasina herself was playing both sides, turning herself into China’s closest ally in South Asia. In July, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning described the relationship between Bangladesh and China as “good neighbors, good friends, and good partners.”

China dislodged India as Bangladesh’s top trading partner nine years ago. Bangladesh imports more goods from China than from any other country, and is in debt to China to the tune of $17.5 billion, which was mainly invested in white elephant infrastructure projects. After Hasina’s fall, China’s reaction, however, has been muted—hoping to build a relationship with whoever emerges afterwards.

The U.S. and the European Union have welcomed Yunus and his interim government. Mathew Miller, a State Department spokesperson, said last month the U.S. wants the interim government to “chart a democratic future for the people of Bangladesh.” The best way to do this is for the U.S. to offer support to U.N.-led efforts to support order and democracy in the country.

The interim government immediately needs to establish law and order. It can start by bringing the perpetrators of the July carnage to the book. A national office of missing persons should be established to look into all the incidents of enforced disappearances. It can seek technical support from the United Nations, which should lead an independent U.N.-led fact-finding program into the revolution and fall of the Hasina regime. Western nations should support the establishment of a new, fairer constitution that takes the range of Bangladeshi identities into account.

The presence of torture cells inside Dhaka cantonment and the alleged involvement of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence tells us that a section of the armed forces were involved in crimes against humanity. Bangladesh has been a major contributor to U.N. peacekeeping—but that needs to stop until responsibility for these crimes has been established.

The ongoing civil war in Myanmar is also an existential threat to Bangladesh’s national security. With Bangladesh’s security forces in disarray, the U.S. should support Bangladesh by setting up a temporary base that will provide the Bangladesh Armed Forces and intelligence agencies with arms, training and other logistical support, while maintaining a firm emphasis on the political neutrality of the army and its support of human rights.

Bangladesh has survived a dire time to potentially chart a brighter future. Washington should see it not as an extension of Indian interests, but as an independent country that is capable of making its own decisions, an important ally, and a partner in the Indo-Pacific.

[clatterbane]

That was some more excitement we did not need.

Dumbass here just managed to short out a 21700 battery, of all fucking things, a little while ago. They are relatively big, they hold a lot of energy by Li-ion cell standards, and they are potentially VERY full of fire and explosion.

So yeah, working with loose Li-ion cells all the time and knowing my battery safety? (Seriously, if you want to learn a lot about that, check out that guy's YouTube channel. If you ever mess with loose lithium cells for any reason, this electrical engineer is your new best friend.)

I did notice a tear in the insulator wrap on one, but did I replace it immediately? 😩 "It'll be fine for the moment."

It was not, in fact, fine.

I then compounded this error by proceeding to charge the thing. On the way out of the charger, freshly refilled with spiciness, was when I managed to short it. Because of course I did.

No actual harm done, though, and no dramatic video like with that power bank incident years back. I was right there holding the charger when it started venting and starting to smoke. I unplugged the charger as soon as I heard worrying noises, and carefully carrying the whole thing at arm's length toward the bathroom and its big solid containment vessel just in case. In the absence of any convenient bucket of sand.

This is a slightly more complicated task when you're using a manual wheelchair, do not have a Hindu iconography number of arms, and also need to pop small wheelies over thresholds in your house. So, I called for Mr. C as calmly as my excitable ass could manage, informing him that we had a battery situation andto PLEASE bring first himself and second an extinguisher. (Which I know he has somewhere in his little lair. I couldn't safely get to the kitchen one right then.)

So yeah, then we played pass the threatening charger, and he promptly ferried it and dislodged the battery into the tub. After it had calmed down enough after a couple minutes, he actually settled on taping it to the end of a wooden stick to carry it down and temporarily stash it in one of the grills outside until he was sure it was safe to dispose of more properly.

I did appreciate the prompt cool response and assistance from someone who knew what they were doing. And the lack of bitching after things had calmed down enough for me to say what had happened. (Which I probably would have just kept to myself, if I was not expecting that kind of reception.)

As it was? There was no need for the extinguisher, or eventual cleanup from that. I don't think there were actual flames at any point. Nobody got hurt. .

That charger is toast, we needed to open some windows for a while in chilly weather, and everybody here got jolts of adrenaline they weren't looking for. That was thankfully the worst that happened.

I guess any moral of this little story would have to be that, if you're going to be handling high-powered especially loose Li-ion cells? Please be careful and educate yourself about how to do it as safely as you can. Please DO NOT do like me and turn overconfident.

Also, please make sure you have some plan in case things should suddenly go south. If you manage to catch a problem promptly, it might hopefully just turn into an unwanted adrenaline and toxic fumes situation like this one, rather than something much worse in potentially painful incendiary ways.

[world-of-wales]

I was looking into where COP is going it be hosted because it can tie in to earthshot, and of course Brazil is next year. COP31 (2026) is likely to be in Australia which is also a strong contender for earthshot, India is bidding for COP33 in 2028….

My reasoning on a potential Indian Earthshot is below this.

India better stay away from cop33 & Earthshot, especially after their latest 'achievements' in the conservation sector. The govt is fantastic in making bold claims but in reality, can't do shit. And I for one don't want william anywhere near that dumpster fire of hypocrites.

There's so many examples of their sheer incompetence, there's a polluted river in india - yamuna. Between 2017 - 2021 (or 22) I believe more than ₹6,800 crores of taxpayer money was spent on cleaning that death trap and it still is as dirty as it was when all this first began. There's actual toxic foam of ammonia and phosphates that floats around it 24/7.

Then just this week news came out that 25 Tigers, (which are an endangered species btw and also part of a very ambitious conservation project 'Project Tiger' started in 1973) have been untraceable from a state run national park for the past year. The only reason this came out was because another tiger was found dead from that forest.

And just yesterday, it came out that 10 elephants died in another state run park last month because they were fed...fungal infected millets.

Heck, Delhi? The capital? It's consistently been one of the most polluted cities of the world for years. It's a literal gas chamber, which gets the worst around the current time coz of various issues. Now diwali falls around this time and because of the air quality, the Indian supreme court banned any sort of crackers/fireworks to be burnt in the area? Sounds amazing right? But guess what since crackers have come to be associated with Diwali which is a hindu festival. So the members of the ruling party within their agenda have turned this ban into an attack on religion and consistently provoke their supporters on this ground urging them to burn crackers and make delhi insufferable for all.

This is just 4 examples, there's so many that if I start listing them, we'll be here for a long time.

Moreover, the current ruling party will only twist the visit to fill into their own agenda of hate mongering & political capital as they have been known to do with every such visit.

Also the govt quite literally cordoned off low income neighborhoods that fell on route of the attendees in Delhi with plastic barriers and police personnel during the G20 in 2023, to make sure no world leader saw anything other than the rosy picture they were putting out.

Now imagine what would happen in case of something like COP33. Ofc they would do similar repulsive things then also and imagine how harmful being attached to something like this with a potential Earthshot will be for William and his public image!

I would love for him to come here, Earthshot is such a fabulous initiative, and there's such a booming environmental startup sector in India like Phool (I personally am aware of their situation. My mum's cousin runs a marketing firm and she's the one who handles everything for them, and she's told me so much about how Earthshot has helped them since 2022 with linking them to investors, other similar businesses, exposure etc) or Kheyti etc etc which deserve to be highlighted.

But in the past 10 years buisness and government have become so intrinsically linked in india that no matter what the ruling party will hijack the contributions of these organizations like they do.

So yeah maybe I'm being a narrow minded idiot but Earthshot in India rn? Will only lead to credibility issues.

Now let's hope I don't go to jail for putting all this here by exercising my fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a).

[propheticpotato42]

I’ve been thinking a lot about the potential of religion in the fallout universe.

We’ve seen a lot of local cults throughout the series but really only two religious “institutions” and those are Mormonism and Catholicism. The reason why I single out these two is that they both seem to have a larger reach than any of the other cults or practices while also maintaining a level of stability and uniformity.

The examples of Mormonism we see in Honest Hearts shows, through the New Canaanites, that the Mormon faith is still alive in post-apocalyptic South West and still has many devotees and followers. The many is implied.

The examples of Catholicism are less overt. We only ever meet a handful Catholics in the modern Fallout games and they are all in Fallout 3. Father Clifford runs a church and is aided by Diego who wants to join the Priesthood. The only other Catholic is Marcella who is a missionary sent from “The Abbey of the Road” and you met her in Point Lookout. What I think is interesting about this is the consistency. What I mean is that when Marcella arrives at Father Clifford’s church she immediately recognizes all of the prayers and the two engage in the same rituals and prayers. This means that Father Clifford uses the same language and ritual as the Abbey, which makes sense if they are both Catholics, but it also means that there is no massive drift going on after 200 years. Either that or Father Clifford is associated with the Abbey. Furthermore the rule of Clerical celibacy also survived the 200 years as can be seen by the Diego missions, and celibacy is the kind of thing you could see not surviving the post apocalypse.

For me this screams that both Mormonism and Catholicism are still alive in wasteland, and potentially more widespread than we may think.

I have this theory that the Catholic Church may even still fully exist as an institution in certain parts of the post apocalyptic Americas but warped by time and has incorporated some elements of Folklore Religion.

Also I lied earlier because there is a third religious institution, the Children of Atom. They appear in both Fallout 3 and 4 and show a consistent religious believe and structure. Also they fucking spread from the capital wasteland all the way to Far Harbor. And in the Far Harbor DLC they even start experiencing the beginning of a straight up religious schism. There is a lot of potential there to explore if only Bethesda used it.

What really interests me is the potential for various other religions groups. Are there any Muslims in the wasteland? Hindus? Buddhists? The US is the most diverse place on the planet and it is kinda hard to believe that all of these various religions didn’t survive in some way. I just don’t believe it.

And think of the potential!!!!

Post apocalyptic Amish settlements! Greek Orthodox Churches built in the middle of abandoned cities! A Sikh inspired equivalent to the Followers of the Apocalypse!

I can understand how bringing in real world religion can get messy fast but even in that case why don’t we see any new religions that are more than kooky local groups? Why doesn’t spirituality spread in the wasteland? And again the potential!

There is so much there!!!

[proudhinduforever]

Sanatani Saints

PART 1

I will be starting a new Series on Hindu saints who have inspired many people and guided their disciples towards moksha.

Most of the contents are choosen excerpts from the internet. I will be adding my lines too.

I'm choosing Neem Karoli baba today.

Neem Karoli baba was born in wealthy brahmin family. It is believed that Maharajji had acquired all the knowledge by the time he was 17 years old. It is said that Lord Hanuman was his Guru. He visited many places in India and was known by different names in different states. During his visit to Maa Tara Tarini Shakti Peeth in Ganjam, the local people addressed him as Hanumanji, Miracle Baba.It is said that once Baba was travelling in a train. He did not have a ticket. Due to which the TT officer caught him. Since he did not have a ticket, the officer asked him to get down at the next station. The name of the station was Neem Karoli. The village near the station is known as Neem Karoli. Baba was made to get down from the train and the officer ordered the driver to drive the train. Baba did not go anywhere from there. He sat down near the train with a tong on the ground. The driver tried a lot but the train did not move ahead. The train was not moving at all. Then all the people sitting in the train said that this is Baba's wrath. The reason for making them get off the train is that the train is not moving. Then the senior officer who was familiar with Baba apologized to Baba and asked both the driver and the ticket checker to apologize to Baba. Everyone together convinced Baba and apologized to him. After apologizing, Baba respectfully sat on the train. But he put a condition that a station will be built at this place. So that it becomes easy for the villagers to come by train because people used to come there from miles away. Only then they could sit in the train. They promised Baba and a station named Neem Karoli was built there. From here the miraculous stories of Baba became famous and from this place Baba's name started becoming known all over the world as Neem Karoli Baba. From here Baba got the name Neem Karoli.

He inspired many people such as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. Neem Karoli Baba was a lifelong adept of bhakti yoga, and encouraged service to others (seva) as the highest form of unconditional devotion to God. Baba would say that attachment and ego are the greatest hindrances to the realisation of God and that "a learned man and a fool are alike as long as there is attachment and ego in the physical body." He would advise people to surrender to God's will above everything else so that they might develop love and faith in him and thereby be free of unnecessary worries in life.

He was an ardent devotee of Lord Hanuman.

🙏🙏 JAI BABA NEEM KAROLI 🙏🙏

Below is one of my favorite bhajans which reminds me of him.

[ahedderick]

New scam!

At least, new to me. My daughter was seriously ill earlier in the week (doing much better, now). She had to pick up medicine from a CVS local to her college in Pennsylvania.

This morning I got a call, and the caller id said "CVS pharmacy." While there is certainly no reason for them to call me - an insurance issue? Maybe? - I picked it up. The person on the other end told me, in a heavy Indian* accent, he was calling from CVS (no name, though). He asked for my daughter by her full name. I told him that she was not available, but that I was her mother. He then asked me for her date of birth. "Uh-unh," I told him, "YOU called ME." He spluttered momentarily, and I hung up.

My husband, who is both more patient with phone menus and substantially more confrontational than I, called the CVS. They confirmed that their store had not tried to contact us, and he told them (quite nicely) that they had some kind of data breach, and their patients' names and home phone numbers were compromised. He ended up getting transferred up to their corporate office, to an office relating to that sort of thing. It took him quite a while, but he did manage to get across to them that someone had hacked them in some way and was also able to spoof caller id to pretend more successfully to BE them.

They seemed to be genuinely glad to be notified, and sincere in promising to try to track the issue down.

But. Shit. All these years, one of the only helpful things has been that the caller id of the scammers never matches who they claim to be when you pick up. If they can access pharmacy data, even just names and phone numbers, (which is BAD ENOUGH) and then call right after you've had a visit, how many people ARE going to get fooled by that?

'* I'm aware that 'Indian' is not a language - but I do not know how to distinguish Hindu/Tamil/Urdu/etc accents for ESL speakers.

[whoiwanttoday]

Here is some Deepika Padukone to start your week and excuse me if this post isn't up to standard. I have one of those summer colds that isn't so bad but you know, it's not supposed to happen in the summer and it has worn me out. Anyway, this post is a bit of a celebration as I have been watching the Indian election with great interest. It has been a pleasant surprise as it is a rebuke of a slide into authoritarianism and something kind of nasty. That might get me blowback, I know most of my followers have no idea but I also know that Hindu Nationalists are everywhere on the internet. Go ahead and bring it, I cannot tell you how little I care. Anyway, when the world's largest democracy chooses democracy it is a good thing. Which leads to Deepika Padukone. I won't put any words or beliefs into her mouth, not my place, but last year she was in Pathaan which I saw. It was good, it was also seen as important because it was the return of King Khan and it did very well. Before it came out there was some worry it would not be as there was a big worry of cultural rejection because it was not towing the Hindu Nationalist line. See, Shah Rukh Khan is a Muslim. He also is one of the biggest stars in all of India, the King part wasn't sarcastic. The movie very notably, and it can't be an accident, stared a Muslim Star, a Hindu Star, and a Christian Star. Because Bollywood used to once be dedicated to Indian secularism and this was seen by many as a open rebuke of a cultural shift that was leading to intolerance. The movie did well, that was good. I saw it. I liked it fine. Deepika Padukone looked amazing in it if anyone is keeping track. Anyway, that's why she's here because I thought about that with the election news that came in last week and decided it's not like I need much of a reason to post her. Besides, I assume I am most people's #1 source for current events. Today I want to fuck Deepika Padukone.