#indian motorcycle people

[hink1]

The ad that led him to his bike!

[peteryanphotography]

Go & Masumi Takamine's Indian & Yamaha

[vintagegeekculture]

The Hall of Amazing Men: Branscombe Richmond

A new admission to the Hall of Amazing Men, Branscombe Richmond is best known for being an actor where he played Lorenzo Lamas’s friend, the Lando Calrissian-like sharpie Dallas Sixkiller, or as Moki, the smartmouth Hawaiian friend of Magnum, P.I. But behind the camera, as a tough as nails stunt coordinator and stuntman, Branscombe Richmond created and developed nearly all the eccentric and eye catching events in the TV series American Gladiators: Atlasphere (the one where people roll around in giant balls), Powerball (done simply because they needed a sport that could be created cheaply because they ran out of money for development) and all the various ones where musclemen shoot tennis balls at people, and where you have to avoid muscular women by jumping on a bungee cord. I don’t think it would be inaccurate to say that with his development (on a really thin budget, no less) of memorable, eye catching sports and events that, with his stunt training he knew could be done safely enough so that even kinda-sporty housewives from Illinois could do them without injury, Branscombe Richmond created American Gladiators. He turned an idea into a realized, practical show that can be done – I don’t think it is inaccurate at all to call him the uncredited creator of American Gladiators.

In his career as a stuntman, Branscombe Richmond, meanwhile, is another one of those faces that shows up over and over playing evil henchmen, members of motorcycle gangs in rough biker bars the hero brawls with karate (if there’s ever a rough scummy biker bar out there, you can bet Branscomb Richmond is in it), and hordes of nunchaku wielding ninja, to the point where if you are, like me, an 80s-90s action aficionado, his face makes you go “oh, hey…it’s that guy!” Can you really call yourself an action fan if you don’t start identifying “your” evil henchman? His IMDB page is mostly roles that are named “Gunman In Jeep,” "Biker #2," and "Terrifying Clown."  

If there is a Evil Henchman Hall of Fame, Brandscomb is there alongside the great Al Leung. You can spot his face as a henchman in Never Too Young to Die (with John Stamos), Action Jackson, Batman Returns, the Hidden, Iron Eagle III: Aces High (objectively the best one as it had Ms. Olympia Rachel McLish), and Star Trek III, where he was a Klingon henchman to Christopher Lloyd who almost got disintegrated and had to feed his disgusting slimy monster dog-salamander. It's comforting to know the profession of henching is alive and well 300 years in the future.

On television, Brandscomb Richmond was on every single cool show from the 80s: Tales of the Gold Monkey, TJ Hooker, Manimal, Airwolf, Knight Rider, Baywatch, and many times attempted to kill the A-Team, especially from motorcycles. Like Chiba, another stuntman-actor, Branscombe Richmond specialized in motorcycle stunts, and he was admitted to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2003. He is, to this day, the guest of honor at whatever motorcycle rally your embarrassing hick uncle attends. I have no evidence for this, but I have long suspected that the reason Richmond was hired to be Dallas Sixkiller in Renegade with Lorenzo Lamas was so they could get his unpaid advice on motorcycle stunts (much like how I have always suspected Warner Brothers hired Ben Affleck as Batman as a "backdoor" way to ask him to direct).

He also played the older brother of the Rock in the Scorpion King, which is an interesting choice because despite getting roles as American Indians (and being beloved in the American Indian community, who, as a whole, deeply love characters who are smartmouth, wiseass sharpies/scammers who get one over on everyone), Brandscome Richmond is in fact, like the Rock, of Hawaiian origin. His first major role in television, that of Moki in Magnum PI, was in fact Hawaiian.

Why are there so many Pacific Islanders in stuntman careers, MMA, and professional wrestling? The answer is surprisingly pedestrian. It’s because Pacific Islanders are a sizable ethnic population in Los Angeles, where movies and television are made, so if you need someone in L.A. that are tough as nails and can take a hit, a Samoan or Hawaiian is a good choice.

Happily, Branscombe Richmond is alive and well, mostly retired as a traditionally large Hawaiian family patriarch. He does occasional voice work, as Gibraltar in Apex Legends, a character physically based on him as well. I imagine he is relieved to be working in showbiz and no longer risking brain damage to do it.

[libraryofgage]

Harlequin Prince (2)

Part of: Steve Deserves Good Parents, Actually

Debbie and Fester Addams One | Two | Three | Four Rick and Evelyn O'Connell One | Two | Three Harley Quinn One | Two (you're here!) 10th Doctor and Rose One | Two (on the way!) Scooby Gang (there are plans for this one lmao, so plz be patient with me orz) Jedidiah and Octavius (from Night at the Museum) One Queen ClarisseRenaldi One | Two

This part was line-jumped on Ko-Fi, which means y'all got it sooner than I originally planned!

If you want to line jump your favorite series, you can learn more here

Ironically, even tho the post says about a week of turn around, I get so excited that somebody wants to line jump that I just write it immediately lmao

Steve finally gets a good fight in this one, but it ends way too soon the poor boy. Either way, he also gets to meet some of the party!

As always, if you see any typos, no you didn't ;)

-------

Steve knew his dad wasn't in the picture, but he never knew why. He never asked, but he started to get this horrible feeling after a while. Harley Quinn's past was well known to Steve, her previous...associate and her relationship with him isn't exactly a secret, no matter how much his mother tried to keep them from him. She couldn't protect him at school, and she couldn't protect him from hearing people talking on the streets.

So, yeah, from the age of nine, Steve walked around with this horrendous knowledge in his gut, a knowledge that he wanted to think was just him being paranoid. But it wasn't. He knew it wasn't. He just couldn't admit that to himself, and he couldn't ask his mother because he didn't want to send her down that particular lane of memories. So it festered, and Steve pretended it didn't exist at all.

Until, that is, his 13th birthday. It was held at Uncle Bruce's mansion because his mother wanted to go all out. It was as much a celebration for her (a full three years without getting sent to Arkham!) as it was for him (managing to stay alive for 13 years in Gotham with Harley Quinn for a mother). Steve hadn't minded, either, especially when he saw the absolute joy she had when picking out the hugest bounce-house she could find with Uncle Bruce's sleek black credit card.

The party was catered by Steve's favorite Indian restaurant, the guests were limited to immediate friends and family, the bounce-house was extra bouncy, and a table was practically buckling under the weight of the gifts piled on top of it. It was, by far, Steve's best birthday, surpassing even the one he spent in Arkham after letting Poison Ivy out of her cell.

"Hey, Dumplin'!" his mother shouted, waving at him from the top of the bounce house she'd managed to climb. When Steve looked at her, she grinned even brighter and jumped, launching off turrets and rolling down sloped walls before landing on her feet on the ground. "Let's get to them presents!"

Steve laughed, looked at the table eagerly, and nodded. Her grin somehow getting wider, Harley turned, cupped her hands around her mouth, and shouted, "GET YOUR ASSES IN GEAR, EVERYONE! STEVIE'S OPENIN' PRESENTS!"

Soon enough, Steve was standing in front of the table, surrounded by everyone, and not at all sure where to start with the mountain of presents. "You should open mine first," Jason said, grinning as he gestured to a bike-shaped package.

It was, in fact, a bike. A motorcycle, specifically, with a red and black helmet and the promise of lessons from Jason whenever he wanted. Steve loved it immediately and ignored Uncle Bruce muttering about driving laws and how Steve couldn't operate any motorized vehicle until he was fifteen. "Well," he said, "as long as I don't get caught by Batman, who's gonna know?"

That had earned him a laugh and his mother's hand ruffling his hair. "Go on, Dumplin', choose another."

Dick got him a literal outfit's worth of Wonder Woman merch, accessories included, that made Bruce look ready to pop a blood vessel. Tim gave him small tracking pins and a hacked handheld game console to watch the trackers with the promise of free upgrades anytime he wanted. Damien gave him daggers since he "wasn't good enough for real swords, but everyone should have a blade" on them, just in case. Cass, Steph, and Barbara pooled their skills together (and Alfred, they borrowed Alfred a lot) to make him an Unofficial Robin costume, complete with shorts only slightly less scandalous than Dick's original costume.

Bruce, when he finally stopped glaring at the three of them, gave Steve a fingerprint panic button shaped like a bat and easily attached to a key ring. "For emergencies, Steve," he said, "Just hold your thumb to it for three seconds."

"This is perfect for the next time we run out of ice cream," Steve said, grinning as he attached it to his key chain.

"Emergencies."

"Oh. So if we run out of mint chip, specifically. Got it."

Bruce merely sighed and let him return to opening gifts.

Alfred gave him a tin of homemade cookies that Steve immediately had to protect from the others. Poison Ivy gave him a Venus flytrap and the promise to help him grow it properly. Selina couldn't be there, but Bruce passed along her gift: a pair of goggles Bruce had handed over with a sigh and quiet request for him to use them responsibly.

Steve opened Duke's present last, eyes widening at the red leather jacket. "Wait, seriously?" he asked, holding it up as he looked at Duke.

"You're gonna be a troublemaker, Steve," Duke said. "Might as well make sure you're bulletproof for it."

Steve grinned wider and pulled on the jacket, swimming in the leather but eager to grow into it all the same.

There was nothing from his mother in the pile, but Steve figured the party itself was his present since she'd done all the planning. When she pulled him away to a secluded room in the manor after they'd all had cake, Steve realized it was just because she didn't want to share this moment with anyone.

She smiled at him, reaching up and gently tucking a few strands of hair behind Steve's ears. "You grew up so fast, Dumplin'," she said, sighing softly.

"Ivy says I'm like a weed."

"Ives is right," Harley said, nodding once before looking away. "Okay, ready for your present?"

"Wasn't the party my present?"

"No, no, Dumplin'. The party was for fun," she said, grinning as she reached behind her and pulled a comically-large mallet from seemingly nowhere. "This is your present."

Steve blinked, leaning over to look around Harley. "Where'd that even come from?" he asked.

"Jester Logic, Dumplin'. Don't worry about it. I'll teach you the trick later," she promised, holding the mallet out to Steve with an expectant expression.

When Steve took it, the weight threw him off. He frowned, shifted his grip, and suddenly had no problem holding it up. He took a closer look, noting the scratches and marks on the mallet and the faded paint. "This was yours," he said.

"Yeah, it was."

"I've never seen it before."

Harley sighed, tugging on one of her pigtails with a slight frown. "Yeah, well, I wasn't exactly a great person when I used it, Dumplin'. Tried to forget about that Harley and all," she explained.

"Then why give it to me?"

Harley looked back at Steve and smiled, reaching out to cup his cheek. "Cuz you're so much better than me," she said. "I think you'll do some great things, Dumplin', and maybe all the good you do will erase most of the bad this mallet's got."

Her words were so serious, her smile was so bittersweet, and she looked ready to cry and deny it. This was the closest he'd ever gotten to learning about her past straight from the source, a past he knew about it, a past that involved a certain person that haunts Steve's mind with terrifying potential. Suddenly, he had to know.

Steve didn't really think before blurting out, "Is the Joker my father?"

Harley froze, her shoulders tensing and her eyes widening as she stared at Steve. "You don't got a father, Dumplin'," she finally said, her voice quiet and her expression conflicted.

"Fine. Was he the sperm donor?"

With a sigh, Harley stepped closer and placed her hands on Steve's shoulders. "I won't lie," she said. "He is, but that don't mean a thing. His crazy ain't hereditary, Dumplin', and he's never gettin' anywhere near you."

"Does...does he know?" Steve whispered, "About me, I mean."

"It don't matter," Harley said, her voice firm and her eyes more serious than Steve had ever seen them. "I'll kill him before he gets near ya. Ives will kill him. Hell, Brucie wil---no, wait, he's got those pesky morals. Fine, Jason will kill him before he gets near ya. Actually, Jason'd kill him anyway, but the excuse will be good if Brucie scolds him for it."

Steve couldn't help laughing at that, feeling a little lighter when his mother smiled back at him. When his laughter trickled to nothing more than a smile, he asked, "Then, was I the reason you left?"

Harley nodded and gently tugged Steve into her arms, holding him to her and cradling the back of his head. "Yeah, you were," she said, her voice soft and soothing. "I was excited to tell 'im when I learned about you, but then I heard him talking to some goons. He was laughin' about running a kid over, breakin' their legs, and I realized...you wouldn't be special to him. You'd've been like his goons, all expendable and not even worth a glance. I couldn't put you through that, and I couldn't put me through it, either. So, I got us out the only way I knew how."

"By finding Uncle Bruce," Steve said.

He felt her nod. "By finding Brucie," she agreed. "He tried to deny bein' the Bat and all, but your mama ain't dumb, Dumplin'. I'd done my homework, and the butts matched. Once I explained it all, once I told him about you, he agreed to help."

Steve nodded, listening to his mother's heart beating against his ear. He glances down at the mallet again, tightens his grip, and takes a deep breath. "Thank you," he said, "for the gift and for telling me. I'll do good with it, I promise."

"That's my boy," Harley said, pulling back and ruffling his hair. "Now, lemme explain that Jester Logic to ya."

----------

Hawkins remains boring even after meeting Eddie. After all, Eddie's in high school (his second attempt at senior year, apparently), and Steve...isn't. He should be, probably, but there's no way he's stepping one foot in that suburban nightmare of a building. He can feel the normalcy, the utter boredom, oozing from the place, and he'd rather not subject himself to that.

So, he spends his day wandering around Hawkins, getting a feel for the little town until he could navigate the place blindfolded. He can do the same in Gotham, but it's more impressive there with the winding streets and sprawling sidewalks. Here, it's nothing special.

The most interesting part of his day is when he's sitting on the roof of a video store, one leg dangling over the edge with the other pulled to his chest so he can rest his arm on his knee. He's about halfway through a cigarette when a cop car pulls into the lot and a middle-aged man steps out.

He looks up at Steve, frowning as he calls up, "You shouldn't be there, son."

"I ain't your son," he calls back, grinning as he takes another drag and blows smoke out as the guy rests his hands on his belt. It reminds him so much of Gotham PD rookies trying to posture that Steve can't help laughing. "Is that supposed to intimidate me?"

"I'm serious, kid," the cop says, apparently ignoring Steve's question. "It's dangerous up there. If you don't come down, I'm gonna have to call the Fire Department to bring the ladder."

Steve sighs and puts his cigarette out on the roof. He gets up, stretches his arms above his head, and stands on the ledge of the roof. He grins at the cop, casually stepping into empty air and hearing the guy shout as he falls. He lands in a crouch on the awning over the door, swings to hang from it, and lands on his feet on the sidewalk.

It wasn't even much of a fall, but the cop looks like he's about to have a heart attack. Steve glances at the badge on his chest. "We done now, Officer Hopper?" he asks.

"Don't do that again," Hopper says, pointing a finger at Steve, "Or I will drag your ass to the station and call your parents."

Steve snorts, doing his best to hold his smile back. "I'll keep that in mind, sir," he says, giving a mocking two-finger salute before turning on his heels and walking down the street.

After a few blocks, he veers off into the forest, figuring he'll wander around the trees for a while before going to the Hideout to bother Bev and stare at Eddie and quietly pray someone else is gonna look for a fight.

Did he mention Hawkins is boring? Because it's fucking boring.

Steve sighs, kicking a stick as he shoves his hands into his jacket. He idly notes the forest is healthy. Sure, a few pieces of litter are strewn around, but it's not as bad as the parks in Gotham can get. Poison Ivy would find this place barely passable, which is hard to manage, and he's tempted to call her when he gets home to tell her about it.

He hums softly as he walks, enjoying the sounds of the forest until they just...stop.

The entire forest falls silent, which is weird; forests are too full of life to go silent. Even the bugs seem to have frozen in place, too scared to risk making a sound by moving. Steve stops, looking around him with a frown and trying to figure out what's caused this.

He gets the answer a second later when he hears a scream. The voice sounds young and cracks slightly, so it definitely belongs to a child. Despite himself, Steve can't help grinning as he takes off in the direction of the scream.

This is the most exciting thing to happen in the four weeks he's been stuck in Hawkins. As he runs through trees and easily jumps over bushes to take the shortest path, he makes guesses on what he'll find. Maybe Hawkins has a villain that's only now showing up. Maybe the town has a secret alligator or something that's decided to have a midday snack. Hell, maybe someone just decided to be a dick today.

He realizes every guess is wrong when he slides into a clearing to see a few kids (two boys, one girl) surrounded by some weird dog-looking...things. They have heads but no faces, crouched low to the ground and growling at the kids they've cornered. There's around ten of them, which would normally make Steve hesitate, but he's so desperate at this point for a real fight that he doesn't care.

Instead, he reaches over his shoulder, thinks about how fucking hilarious it's gonna be to jump out of nowhere with a giant mallet, and grips the handle as he swings it over his shoulder. "Hey, monster mutts!" he shouts, grinning when all the monsters and the kids finally notice him. "Let's play."

Pure, unfiltered joy rushes through him when the first monster-dog jumps at him. Steve's eyes are bright and his grin is positively feral as he swings the mallet and sends it flying into a tree. He roundhouse kicks another dog, using the momentum to bring his foot down on the head of a third before smashing its body with the mallet.

"Are you insane?!" one of the kids shouts.

"Certifiably!" he shouts back, watching as another monster-dog jumps at him. He waits for the perfect moment to back flip, bringing his feet under the dog to send it flying. He brings the mallet up as he lands, clocking another monster under the jaw. It yelps, crashing into another dog.

"Where'd this guy even come from?" the girl asks, turning to look at the boys with her.

"I don't know, but I'm happy to let him deal with the demodogs."

Oh. That's what they're called. Steve hums softly at the name, grinning as he twirls the mallet and swings with all his strength at one of the demodog. He rests the mallet on his shoulder like a baseball bat, watching the demodog arch in the air with an appreciative whistle. "Solid air," he says, nodding once before looking at the remaining demodogs.

There's only three, the others scattered in the clearing. He can't tell if they're dead or not, but he could always smash them to mush when he's done. Steve grins at the remaining dogs. "C'mon, then," he says, only to be filled with disappointment when they creep back, turn heel, and run.

"Damn, that's no fun," Steve says, sighing as he rests the mallet on the ground and leans on the handle. He looks at the kids. "You guys okay?"

The girl has orange hair pulled back into a messy braid. She's staring at him like he's got two heads but is kind of impressed by it. One of the boys has curly hair being smothered by his hat, and the other is wearing a basketball jersey. They're also staring at Steve like he's crazy. "Dude," the curly-haired one says, "that was awesome!"

"Where'd you get that mallet from?" the girl asks.

"Jester Logic," Steve explains, shrugging as he picks the mallet up and walks over. "Wanna hold it?"

When the girl lights up, he passes the mallet to her, snorting when she immediately staggers under its weight. "How do you hold this so easily?"

"Jester Logic. Again. It's funnier when other people find it heavy."

"That makes no sense," basketball jersey says.

"Who are you?" curly hair asks.

"Steve. Moved here recently. What about y'all?"

"Dustin," curly hair says.

"Lucas," basketball jersey says.

"Max," the girl says, her voice strained until Steve takes the mallet back, twirling it like it weighs nothing.

"Great. Nice to meet y'all. Now, what the fuck were those?"

"How much time you got?" Dustin asks.

Steve grins, thinking he's finally found something that can keep him entertained when he's not hanging around Eddie. "Plenty."

---------

Tag list (let me know if you'd like to be added!)

@nectandra, @y4r3luv, @just-a-tiny-void,

[demigod-of-the-agni]

#LongPost: A Few Hyper-Specific Things About India for India-Based Stories and Art

No this isn't a cry for more Indian-rep in Spider-Verse stories. (It is.)

Anyway. I recently went to India, and after returning to my hometown in Tamil Nadu, I reintegrated a whole slew of memories and collated new facts.. And considering I've been wanting to do one of these for quite some time (and because I need a new variety of Pavitr Prabhakar content), I thought it'd be cool if I shared some of my experiences and ideas with you.

It's best to take this with caution, though: the only places I've been to are Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, and a few towns located close to the Eastern Ghats, so my knowledge is heavily South India-based. I know for a fact that there are various similarities and differences between other geo-cultural areas of India, which is I why I've linked the other cool India Resources here as well.

In Which I Ramble About Pavitr's Character Design and the Indian Cultural Stuff Related to It by @chaos-and-sparkles (+ my addition + @neptune432's addition)

A culture post for the girlie pops (and non-girlie pops) looking to write Pavitr Prabhakar accurately by @summer-blues-stuff (+ my addition + @fandomsfeminismandme addition)

Also a timely reminder of @writingwithcolor's wonderful resources on writing about South Asian characters respectfully and sincerely

Now, for the things I've noticed in South India..

ANIMALS

There are a lot of street dogs. Like... a lot of them. And honestly it's so hard not to go up to one and give them a snack or two. The most notable dog breed is the Indian pariah and they can be found all over India. Mixed dog breeds are also common and results in a variety of features like differences in build and coat colours.

There are also other types of animals are pretty common to see alongside the roads.

Cattle are seen a lot (cows and bulls are easy to distinguish; cows (left) have udders and a small hump on their back, while bulls (right) are generally stockier and have a super-defined hump on their back). I'm pretty sure the specific cow breed is the sahiwal cow. They are either herded into paddocks for grazing or can be found wandering city streets on their own.

Goats are often herded by farmers into large masses of wool and horns and are guided to paddocks to graze. Sometimes, like cattle, they'll be found wandering city streets on their own.

Chickens are usually kept close to stalls and homes. These chickens are not plump and fluffy like most Western chickens, but are quite skinny. Mottled feather colours are usually a result of mixed chicken breeds. In Tamil Nadu, the most common chicken breed is the asil chicken.

Various birds are often seen flying around traffic if they’re not disappearing into the sky, the most common being crows, pigeons and mynahs. (The chart below on the right is not an inexhaustive list of birds; you best search them up yourself.)

TRANSPORT

There is obviously a huge amount of trucks and lorries and buses. They all have beautiful designs or crazy LEDs or large detailed fluorescent / iridescent stickers that are impossible to ignore, whether it be at high noon or midnight.

Expanding on that, the most common method of transport are motorcyclse or scooties, cars, and autos.

Also, as expected: traffic is insane. It’s horrible. It’s exhilarating. Western honking is akin to swearing, but here? Honk whenever you want. Honk if you’re happy or if you’re sad. You get a million dollars if you honk. You need to honk. It’s more important than breathing

Similarly, road rules don’t exist. Well, they do, and the Indian government does everything it can to make sure people do follow the rules, but based on the aforementioned honking, most people don't. Everyone just drives. Most bikers and motorcyclists don’t wear helmets. Only a few people wear seatbelts. Cars and motorcycles drive on the wrong side of the road and right into oncoming traffic. The chance of someone dying is 99% but it’s countered by desi stubbornness.

ENVIRONMENT & INFRASTRUCTURE

Houses and buildings are painted different colours!!! Pastel pinks and purples and deep teal hues, either plain colours or decorated with elaborate murals. This also applies to interiors. I reckon it was surprising to a lot of people when they were confronted with Mumbattan's vibrant colours, but honestly: coloured buildings slap, and it's based on the real thing. They are a sight to behold. Couple that with the architecture and oh boy- you've got such a beautiful environment.

From @jettpack's concept art for Mumbattan buildings

jettpack's concept art of the Mumbattan collider

From @chenfelicia's concept and colour keys of Mumbattan

Don't be shy to really immerse in crazy descriptors - that's how you capture the liveliness of cities like Madurai and Mumbai and ultimately, their physical manifestations like Mumbattan.

Funny enough, movie posters and political banners and flyers are EVERYWHERE. They’re huge and take up entire billboards, or congregate along walls so it becomes practically a collage. It's impossible to ignore the image of "Makkal Selvan" Vijay Sethupathi about to beat some poor loser into a pulp with a stick, or the political parties roasting each other on paper with impressive photoshopped graphics.

To tie in to the point about transport: there are hundreds of coffee stalls and snack shops and one-of-a-kind food stands. You can’t go 200 metres without running into one, either on the highway or in the city. I remember having jaggery coffee on my first night in India, and guys- it tasted so fucking good. I only wish I can transfer the taste to you. Absolutely splendid.

The climate in India is generally very humid and warm, but that doesn't mean we don't get cooler days; it is obviously cooler on winter nights. Also I've heard from many conflicting sources on India's seasonal weather (probably due to India's geograpghy), so you will have to talk to someone who is from India to really confirm. I've somewhat boiled it down to five seasons:

Summer - May-Jun; very hot (35-45ºC/95-113ºF), characterised by shrinking water bodies and droughts if there aren't any rainfalls; this time is good for plant growth/harvest if you've successfully managed water supplies

Monsoon - Jul-Aug; (34ºC/93ºF) very variable in terms of timing, characterised by torrential rains and floodings; the raining itself probably lodges somewhere in Jun-Sept but the aftereffects are felt long after the rains have stopped

Autumn - Sept-Nov; cooler but humid (25-35ºC/77-95ºF), and generally much drier since it transitions from autumn to winter

Winter - Dec-Feb; much colder, but the extent is dependent on geographic regions (20-25ºC/68-77ºF)

Spring - Mar-Apr; humid (33ºC/91ºF), sudden downpours, only occasionally do you get pleasant weather in this time

PEOPLE AND CULTURE

For some reason, there are still loud speakers blaring out music across the roads and as far as a few city blocks. I honestly thought that that had died out by the time my parents had graduated university, but it still seems like people like hearing music played at 120 decibels.

This is a complicated issue but people are not piss poor. Yes, India is a developing country, and yes there are slums and there are homeless and there are those who are stuck in a horrific sociocultural cycle, but people are rapidly getting into high-paying jobs at much higher rates than before. Overall, India is getting better; do us a favour and not have us be represented by the same poor struggle-riddled Indian stories that Hollywood and Western media is are fond of portraying.

@neptune432: One thing I think it's important to acknowledge though is how your experience in India changes depending on your caste. I feel like most of the indian voices talking online are savarna (I'm not an exception) so this doesn't get brought up as much. It's a complicated issue and one that I don't think non-indians (or savarna indians) should worry about tackling in their work, but it's worth saying because what's assumed to be everyday aspects of indian culture are actually specific to things like caste, class, and what region you're in. ex: in kerala, there are also examples of people eating on banana leaf with lots of vegan food for special occasions (namely during onam). but veganism is heavily tied to brahmanism so most of these people will be savarna. even if they eat meat otherwise, the specific interest in eating vegan for special occassions has clear implications. Though many people of different castes eat meat, it's a practice that gets discriminated against, being treated as barbaric and unclean. this is because of brahmanism and is usually only strictly followed by brahmins. dalits/bahujan usually face the worse treatment for their eating traditions. there's also the fact that hinduism is more of a recent term and a broad umbrella where many different gods and cultures have been put under (and usually done forcefully). a lot of local dieties and specific cultural practices come from outside the vedic traditions of aryans (upper caste north india), but now are treated almost as one thing. ex: kali is a south indian (dravidian) goddess who's still heavily worshipped there and who later got adapted to brahminical traditions. that's also why south indian practices of worship are different from the north and are discriminated against ex: north indians getting angry at the idea of worshipping kali by drinking alcohol and smoking even though it's an older tradition than theirs. these traditions are often connected to dalit/tribal cultures as well, which adds to why these traditions are attacked. Now, I don't feel comfortable with non-indians writing about india in general but I feel it's important to mention these things cos most people don't even realize they're only getting shown certain perspectives. How many people don't even know they're a north/south divide, for example? People are fed narrow viewpoints on India and assume that's everything to know. it's a problem cos that's what the brahminical forces in india want. This is all very general info too and I'm no expert so it's worth more research (like reading what dalits have said on their experiences). I'm not trying to criticize you btw, I just wanted to add some things cos this has been on my mind for a long time now. Couldn't have said it better myself, neptune!! (I barely mentioned it at all lmao) The caste system despite it being "abolished" still defines many traditions within India, and almost always in harmful ways. Like @summer-blues-stuff and I have mentioned in their post A culture post for the girlie pops under the Religion and caste section, it's best to leave the caste and social hierarchy alone even if you've done your research. That doesn't mean you shouldn't talk about it, it's just that people, especially those of non-South Asian decent, have to be extremely careful about it. Introductory resources on the caste system can be found on ABC, Pew Research and The Conversation.

Furthermore, the automatic assumption is that people living in shacks or remote villages have no access to greater populations and resources, which I'm happy to completely disprove. Guys: majority of the people living in my village, a rather remote village, have phones on them. Ranges from iPhones to Androids to good ol' Nokias.

(And, side note: as an Indian, I get amazingly pissed off when people's ringtones are set to maximum volume and play the same famous part of a famous song every time they get a call. Like shut the fuck up. At least quieten down? Please??)

(Also this might be a South Indian thing but Man some people are so entitled. Dudes you do not need to rub your ego into my face. Dudes you can, you know, keep all the cool things you think will get other people jealous out of the public eye. At this point I'm not jealous of what you Have, I'm pissed off at the Audacity To Think You Can Make Me Feel Bad About Myself With The Things That You Have).

Alright. Moving on.

Tiny temples and shrines are everywhere, dedicated to broad-Hinduism deities like Ganesh, Shakthi, or Vishnu; other times, they are shrines built for local deities that protect a particular village. For example, my village dedicated a little plot of water-logged land to a benevolent spirit called Subbamma, where people would leave offerings or place their sick/injured animals at the water's edge so that Subbamma could heal them. These tiny temples are almost always super colourful and amazingly detailed despite their small size

It could be a whole month before a celebration like Diwali but it’s the perfect time to set off hundreds of fireworks and firecrackers. People are just inconsiderate in many ways, it seems.

Some women wear strings of jasmine flowers in their hair. This might be completely regional-based, but most if not all women, ranging from little kids to old ladies, will wear these strings of jasmine in their hair. It's supposed to represent good fortune and beauty, and it smells wonderful.

@esrev-redips: #i usually only visit the north side of india (went to banglore and or chennai once) but im pretty sure most women in mumbai wouldnt wear #flowers in their hair unless they were of an older generation #they dont in new delhi at least and i t h i n k you can compare them but im not sure since i dont live in india either Thank you esrev!!!!! glad to see an old hunch be confirmed!!!

Normally you can wear any type of jasmine, but the common subtypes in Tamil Nadu are ஜாதிமல்லி (jathimalli; "Spanish jasmine"; left) and மல்லிப்பூ (mallipoo; right).

Eating food from a plate made from a banana leaf is more than just an aesthetic, and is often reserved for certain occasions; other times we eat from metal or ceramic plates. I can't vouch for other areas of India but I've been told the reason why banana leaves are predominantly used for large gatherings is because they can signal to diners if the food is rotten or has been poisoned; supposedly the leaf itself starts rotting and releases liquid, but I personally have never seen this happen. But of course, there are also other reasons as to why banana leaves are used (all of which are valid) ranging from being an eco-friendly disposable plate, offloading nutrients into food, or even to make the food taste better. Pick whichever reason you like.

I'm literally so hungry looking at this. (Realises this is a Pavitr thing to say.) Anyway.

FOOD RECS!!!!!!

Reblog with your favourite foods >:) The list will be routinely updated...

JAGGERY COFFEE (from me) - GOOD FUCKING STUFF. ACTUALLY. if you see it.. GET IT IMMEDIATELY

PANI PURI (from @esrev-redips) - #also you forgot to mention the PANI PURI STANDS AHHHHHH YUMYUMYUM | RRRR YOU'RE SO RIGHT. PANI PURI FOR LIFE ACTUALLY.

JASUBEN PIZZA (from @the-witch-forever-lives) - okay this is specific to Ahmedabad | okay but as specific as it may be that sounds and looks delicious??? hello??????

DABELI (from @the-witch-forever-lives) - this too???? also it LOOKS wonderful i need it right now actually

VADA PAV (from @the-witch-forever-lives) - Also Vada pav from Mumbai is so one of a kind | you are absolutely correct. vada pav is truly something magnificent

I think that's about all I can give you right now. This took me a while to type out. Feel free to ask any questions, or if you have anything you would like to add on, like anything I might have glossed over or your favourite desi foods, please do!!! I'll be sure to reblog your addition and update the original post.

The point is that this post can become one of those few other reference posts that artists and writers and other creatives can use if they ever want to make anything related to India, because it's genuinely so cool to see your culture represented so well in popular modern media.

(And in fanfic and fandom. Especially in fanfic and fandom. you have no idea how many times I've gone insane reading a Pavitr-centric fic or reading comments on Pavitr-related posts and it's just outdated ideas and harmful stereotypes and all sorts of sick bullshit, and it's always to the point where I physically have to go outside and bite into a fresh rhizome in order to ground myself. Like damn, people, you need to know things before you start creating)

So uh, I hope this was helpful if not interesting! Happy early Diwali everyone! Knowledge-over-ignorance and all that; hopefully this post does that notion justice!

[wosowrites]

The Jacket (Alexia Putellas x Reader)

Warnings: None

A/n: based off requests from a few people.

Prompt: in which you love to ride motorbikes, and Alexia always steals your leather jacket. One day, after a game, she comes onto the field wearing it proudly.

Alexia was incredibly proud of you, proud of what you were accomplishing as a striker, proud of what kind of person you were. So the reason you kept your relationship private from the public eye wasn’t because she was embarrassed- she had had to reassure you about that once- it was because of how rapidly you were both growing, and how adding the painful, but expected homophobia to that list of things that came with fame, wasn’t a good idea. You had been together for nine months now, and both the spain and the canadian squad knew, as well as the barca squad. Alexia’s family knew too, and proved to be parent figures to you. You had never been close with your parents, them being conservative and homophobic. But the Putellas’ had taken you in, and that was how you liked it.

There were five things in life that you loved to no end. In no specific order, although you told Alexia she was first- you loved your beautiful ballon d’or winning girlfriend, football, indian food, stupid looking dogs and your motorcycle. Your vehicle was your pride and joy, along with a leather jacket that you wore a bit too much. The specific jacket Alexia had decided would go perfectly with todays outfit. Barcelona was playing against Real Madrid, and you left to go meet the team and the bus at 2:00, the game was set to starts at 6:15, meaning a number of things, but mostly that the bus left at 3:00 to be at the stadium at 4:00. You quickly kissed Alexia goodbye, who was still in bed due to her having gone out with childhood friends and only coming back at 1:00 in the morning.

"Im going now baby." You said to her, gently pressing a kiss on her temple. Her eyes fluttered a bit, and you knew not to say anything important to her right now because she was barely awake. "Mhm… will I see you before the game?" She asked, mumbling the words. "Probably not love," you said, brushing her hair out of her face. "Good luck then. I love you." She said gently. "I have an alarm for you for 3:30. Don’t sleep too late." You told her. She nodded sleepily and you pressed your lips to her half open ones gently. She smiled slightly, and then drifted back to sleep.

You arrived at the training ground at 2:30, parking your car and walking towards the group of players waiting outside. Barcelona was perfect weather right now, you loved it, it reminded you of home. You headed towards Lucy and Keira, two of the only other players who were native english speakers. You loved your team, but sometimes miss communication got the best of you. But they all knew that when you stated cursing and yelling in french, a language almost no one else on the team spoke, to either stay away from you or come save whoever you were mad at because shit was about to hit the fence.

You did a handshake with Lucy and the same one with Keira, the three of you having gotten very close over your year and a half at barcelona. You smiled at the rest of the girls who waved and smiled back. "Alexia coming today?" Lucy asked. "Yeah. She’s sleeping though. Long night." You answered. Lucy and Keira shared a look, then looked back at you with a teasing smile. "Wha- No! No not like that! Not like-" You looked around, blushing furiously. "Not like sex…" You whispered to them. "So you guys haven’t had sex?" Keira said rather loudly. You basically pounced on her, covering her mouth with your hand. "Shush!" You squealed.

You had always been a private person, and the girls all liked to embarrass you any way they could. "So you have or you haven’t?" Lucy asked, earning giggles from the other group of girls beside you guys, including Alexia’s close friend, Mapi. "We- of course we’ve done it. We’ve been together for months!" You said to them, earning claps and cheers from the group beside you. "I hate you all!" You yelled at them, a smile on your face betraying your words. Mapi translated to some of the girls who laughed. You threw your hood over your head, your cheeks still bright red. "Ahh, we’re just teasing! We love you." Mapi said, coming over close to you and throwing her arm over your shoulder, looking at you and laughing.

You arrived at Johan Cruyff stadium on time, the entirety of the team pooling out of the bus and into the grounds. You examined the pitch, talked with the group and then went inside to go over the game plan. You changed into your training jersey and shorts, put on your socks and cleats, tied your hair and did your pre game routine which consisted of listening to your hype playlist and walking through the stands before the fans got there. You did a full circle of the stadium in the top row by yourself and then came back down. Only 15 minutes later, music started playing loudly, and 15 minutes after that, fans started arriving.

The team walked out onto the field, Lucy upholding her tradition of going out last, and when you ran out because you were a bit slow, you ran out with Lucy, her grabbing your hand. You walked towards the right side of the field where two groups were doing a rondo to warm up. But as always, since Alexia got injured, you found her in the crowd and nodded at her. She nodded back and you smiled at her softly. It was your thing. You wished you could blow her a kiss instead, but you weren’t public.

Then, sooner than you knew it, the game had started.

1-0 win, goal by you. A crazy headed that you had dived to get, ending up in the back of the net. It was perfect, the crowd went wild, your team was ecstatic, and Alexia was looking at you with so much pride you thought your heart would burst.

"That was quite the goal," Alexia said to you, walking up to you, and hugging you in the least 'I’m in love with you' way possible. You smiled at her as you pulled away, but you were quickly distracted by her outfit. Blue jeans, a white top, and your leather jacket. "Ale…" you started saying, smirking at her. "That’s my jacket." You said. "Yes it is. I thought it looked good." She said, smirking back. "It looks very good. But I wear that jacket all the time. And there are people taking pictures of us… right now." You said, finding a camera and pointing at it. " Everyone’s gonna know. The fans- they’re…" You started saying. "Stalkers?" She joked and you barked of laughter. "No! Well… yes. But they’re intuition is good. They’ll just know." You said. "Does it matter? I mean I know it’s not what we wanted by I want to be with you and have everyone know you’re mine. The whole world. Fuck what they say, mi amor." Alexia said. "Really?" You said. "Yeah. But let them figure it out first. For… what’s the expression you always say?" She asked. "For shits and giggles." You smiled. "Yes. I dont underhand it. But for that."

You were scrolling on your phone, it was a day after the game and your head head was on Alexia’s lap as she looked through her own phone. You were scrolling through your for you page on tik tok when you saw a video. It was a video of you that Ingrid had taken as you walked down the street wearing black jeans, a white cropped tank top and the leather jacket. Following that came a few pictures of you wearing the jacket. Then, was a video a fan had taken of you and Alexia talking on the field, followed by pictures from Barca’s instagram of Alexia on the pitch. The caption read: sharing clothes are they now? I think they’re dating.

All the comments were agreeing, and just to be a little cocky, you liked the video. "Hey, Ale. Look at this." You said.

She watched the video and when she was done, she smiled down at you and pressed a kiss to your forehead. "They know." She said.

"They know."

[digitaldoeslmk]

do you have any nezha hcs? either from lmk or form investiture of the gods, he’s my fav and i’m curious what you think abt him

i love him sm just in general!!! and i got a few HCs that go for Nezha in my JTTW au and for the by the book au!

he does Indian classical dances as well as peking opera roles like wu xiaosheng or changkao wusheng

he has very frizzy and rebellious hair, wearing it in anything but buns is a nightmare for him

he's positively insufferable when it comes to pranks, he never stops or even lets up. absolute menace.

him and his brothers are often meeting up to do whatever in big cities, just having a fun time and vibing. they'll absolutely never let each other live down the stuff they did when they were younger, but they also never stop loving each other in their own weirdass way

they didn't know what "cain instinct" was for the longest time, but once they did that had a big laugh about it in a "hahaha we do that!" way

picky eater. dear LORD he's a picky eater and will throw a FIT over it

as an older god, past FSYY and JTTW, he's more serious and focused on his duties, but he still loves a good practical joke

him, Ao Bing and Yang Jian are banned from a few heavenly pavillions and halls due to... past misdemeanors (Partying Too Hard)

him and Wukong are thick as thieves. if you tell one something, the other will hear about it in a matter of seconds really

he has no issues whatsoever with killing, but he really struggles with or even being around for butchering animals. if he does, he has nightmares of his suicide for a few days

he rarely works up a sweat in general, but when he does, it smells like lotus perfume

he can also grow actual lotus flowers as hair decorations for fancy occasions

he can shapeshift between his child, youth, and older man appearances as needed, though more often it depends on his mood for the day

for the by the book au in specific:

he masks his wheels as rollerskates and wheelies, but sometimes as a motorbike

fashion style is punk but make it hanfu, with some techwear influence. it screams "DTF (Down To Fight)"

loves Chinese rap and rock, and modern poetry

celebrates Buddhist holidays and meditates, and he often joins Hai'er and Wukong to gatherings and lectures

he takes a liking to MK and Mei both, and often tips the scales in their favor when he can

follows Mei online and watches her livestreams, and he often gets in discussions with her about motorcycle mods and specs

has an online persona so people don't flood his inbox with prayers (it happened before with Wukong, he'd rather avoid that happening to him)

his body was made with pink and white lotus flowers, but he always prefered the blue-purple ones. he only told that to Ao Bing and Wukong, and they both often give him blue lotus-themed gifts on special occasions

[rrcraft-and-lore]

Monkey Man and why I loved the heck out of it

At it's core, it's a Bollywood flick presented to the West with familiar nods to previous action films - I definitely picked up hints of Tony Jaa's influence on Asian action flicks throughout.

It's heavily focused on police corruption, something commented a lot about in India, and here, more importantly, Indian films. Just like America has its love affair with mobster flicks, Bollywood has a long history featuring films that showcase police corruption, sometimes tied into political extremism, fanatical or greedy religious leaders, and Monkey Man comments on all this as well and pays nods to that commonality. We've got televangelists and religious leaders in the states funnelling money, preaching prosperity gospel, and using it to influence politics and fund lavish lifestyles here.

Monkey Man shows this happening in India, and is filled with Indian culture and symbolism through out. The focus on Hanuman, the god and one worshiped by the strong, chaste, wrestlers, champions, and fighters. It's a common thing to have a household deity if you will. Some families might choose to focus worship on Ganesh, others Hanuman, some might do Mata Rani or Lakshmi. Here, it's the divine Vanara (monkey people race) - one of the Chiranjivi - immortals/forever-lived.

Hanuman. Themes of rebirth, common in South Asian history and mythology are present from Kid being a ringer, beat up fighter getting whooped for money to being reborn and facing his trauma through a ritual/meditate process that I don't want to get too much into to not spoil the movie. Post that, he begins his own self alchemy to really become the true Monkey Man. Nods to Ramayama, and an unapologetically Indian story featuring dialogues throughout in Hindi - don't worry, there are subtitles.

And of course a love for action flicks before it, all the way back to Bruce Lee. A beautiful use tbh of an autorickshaw (and you might know them as tuk-tuks in Thailand) which are popular in India with an added kick...I swear, that thing had to be modified with a hayabusa motor. Which is an actual thing people do - modding those dinky rickshaws with motorcycle engines, and considering they weigh nothing at all, they can REALLY FLY once you do that.

Monkey Man brings to the big screen other elements of India people might not know about, such as the gender non conforming and trans community that has a long history in India, presenting them as action stars as they go up against a system of corrupt elites oppressing part of the city, marginalized communities, and minority voices as depicted in the film. I'm not sure if people are going to get all of that without having the context, but I love that it does it without holding anyone's hands.

It's a fun action flick to see in the age of superhero films, and I say that as an obvious superhero/sff nerd. Also loved that Dev included a little bit about Hanuman's own story in the film, and the loss of his powers - almost mirrored by Kid's own loss of self/skills, strength until he confronts his trauma and is reborn, and in fact, remade (not necessarily the same). Also, the use of music was brilliant, including one scene with a tabla (the paired hand drums of south asia) - and Indian music is central to Indian stories.

This is a culture with evidence going back to the Paleolithic with cave murals showing art of Indian dance nearly 30,000 years ago. Yeah, that far back. As well as Mesolithic period art depicting musical instruments such as gongs, lyres, and more.

Indian music is some of the earliest we can find that has high developed beat and rhythm structures such as 5, 7, 9 and now the extremely common and known 4/4 and 3/4 - which so much of Western music is built upon. The foundations and experimentation of/in Jazz. John Coltrane and John Cage were heavily inspired by Indian music and incorporated a lot from it into their works. And Monkey Man blends Eastern and Western music through the narrative as comfortably as it does an Indian story in a very familiar Western accessible structure.

Dev did a wonderful job. And thanks to Jordan Peele for bringing it to screens.

[masked-disciple]

so I had the WILDEST drive home from work and the only way I can explain this is 4chan greentext so let's go. longish post sorry about that

>be me, call centre employee

>10min to closing

>some lady calls in two hours too late for tomorrow, on a conference call w/ me and her friend

>takes sixty seconds from going about what she wants me to do, to telling me about her murdered four year old son who died in 1985 because of arson

>it's gonna be that kind of evening isn't it.png

>finish that, start to drive home on my motorcycle

>nice full moon, lots of visibility

>no less than three bonkers ass people who flash their blinker once before zooming into the other lane

>oh strife these people are going to kill me.png

>get near my offramp

>SOME ASSHOLE IS SHOOTING FIREWORKS OVER THEIR FENCE ONTO THE HIGHWAY

>OH STRIFE WHAT THE FUCK

>surprise motorcycle obstacle course at 110km/h dodging lit ass fireworks

>survive, turn onto main street

>fucker in front of me pulls over at a bus stop

>asshole pulls right back out right in front of me

>oh shit

>throw on my turn signal, shoulder check to see if I can move tf out of that guy's way before I hit him

>NOPE guy right beside-behind me

>fucker zooms up and cuts off the other lane about six car lengths up

>guy beside-behind me backs off, flashes his high beams to let me in

>cheers mate

>switch lanes at the light because other lane's empty, salute that guy again

>give fucker the finger as I pass him, notice his stupid ass custom license plate

>turn towards the store

>fucker's right behind me also turning in, consider seeing where he parks so I can yell "BRO PLEASE LOOK NEXT TIME" at him

>eh. park at bicycle rack beside a sweet ass honda, the posts, and a pillar

>security immediately pops me to tell me to park elsewhere

>"nah man bike goes at the bike rack. I'll be back in ten, good luck getting a tow here before I'm out"

>in and out in five, the other biker's there, compliment his bike

>two minutes later on other, badly lit main street, five pedestrians all wearing all black cross the road real slow right beside me

>guy behind me has to slam on the brakes to not hit them

>make it home somehow

>call the fire department about the asshole firework people on the highway because fireworks are illegal

>complain about this to my family, fireworks are apparently because it's some Indian holiday tonight

>apparently the local Indian separatist movement is why some guy got knifed recently

>apparently the leader guy who got murdered at the gurdwara was murdered by the Indian government

>apparently the Indian government funds half the local gangs????

>what the fuck man

>friday night full moons make everyone go crazy I guess

[zelihatrifles]

Motorcycle Diaries

Che Guevara was not very different from your average young adult. He also wanted to travel the world, had a charming wit, made pretty bad choices, took quite idiotic life risks, and he too experienced the immense joy of being young and free. He was initiated into the beauties of remote nature, and was assailed by the ever-present desire to escape the worldly woes and live in the Andean lakes, like Lacar lake (Argentina) and Lake Osorno and its volcano (Chile):

"Perhaps one day, tired of circling the world, I'll return to Argentina and settle in the Andean lakes, if not indefinitely then at least for a pause while I shift from one understanding of the world to another."

But he was not an ignorant brat. In his motorcycle trip with Alberto, he met countless underprivileged people, and wondered miserably at the absurd conditions of mine workers:

"The only thing that matters is the enthusiasm with which the workers set to ruining their health in search of a few meager crumbs that barely provide their subsistence."

He came across and was welcomed by marginalised people like lepers, Indians, drunkards, poor people. Steadily, his journey paved his life-path too, to his persona that we know today, the revolutionary. Revolution must come, "... and there is nothing that educates an honorable person more than living within a revolution."

He underscores the importance of humanity and kindness and how they form an integral part of the revolution:

"In fact, the revolution today demands that they learn, demands that they understand well that the pride of serving our fellow man is much more important than  good income; that the people's gratitude is much more permanent, much more lasting than all the gold one can accumulate."

[hink1]

[peteryanphotography]

Go Takamine at Glen Helen

[orange-demons-deactivated2024]

Nayshall's clothing (pt. 1)

I'm gonna be 100% honest with ya'll. I was writing a Bosch smut and for the life of me, I didn't know the names of the clothes he was wearing. But I didn't want to put "Robes" and move on, so I did a deep dive into Nayshall's clothes.

Nayshall is a blend of multiple cultures in one, but the general consensus of forums on Reddit and other forums was that Nayshall was inspired by Bhutan, Nepal, Indian, and Tibet cultures.

This is going to be split into multiple of parts because Nayshall has a lot of different types of clothes so I won't be able to cover it in one sitting. I barely even scratched the surface here.

If anyone is more knowledgeable than me and sees that I got something wrong please tell me in the comments. But I'm posting this because I want people to see the hard work the street-fighting devs put into this and the world of Nayshall.

Chuba 

The chuba is a floor-length, left-crossing loose garment that is adjusted at the waist with a wide, usually red cloth belt, and pulled up to different degrees according to sex, rank or region. It is an extraordinarily adaptable garment worn by town dwellers, farmers, nomads, men and women alike, and is equally wearable on horse or motorcycle.

Chubas are pocket-less and held together with a waistband, with room in the front that serves as an “inside pocket” or inner pouch to store necessities such as food items, money belts, amulets, personal things, and even an infant in the bosom.

The chuba can be worn in different lengths, and the shorter the chuba, the more voluminous the pouch resulting from the overhanging material used to hold small items. Women wear their chuba ankle length, while men mostly pull them up the mid-calf or above the knee. Tibetan weather is fickle and temperatures can rise and fall within minutes.

Half-chupas: Just the skirt

Full chupas: Can be worn with a shirt

One-piece chupas: A one-piece dress

Town women: Wear their chubas floor length with pumps or high heel boots

Farmers and nomads: Double them over trousers 

Ex: Rewancha, Yua, and Bosch all wore a form of chuba as their gown.  The Chuba had 2 sleeves, but the locals usually only wear one sleeve and leave the other hanging loose. This is a way of adjusting the body temperature. When it gets hot, they take off one sleeve to cool down a bit. But if the temperature keeps rising they remove another sleeve too. We can actually see in Bosch's picture that the other sleeve is tucked in the back.

They often have soft fur, pulu, or colorful cloth on the collar, front, cuff, and lower hem of the gown.

5 types of robes could be made out of, Pulu woven fabrics, lambskin robes, sheepskin robes, woolen robes, and light robes.

Woolen robes are made with inner layers of sheep fur, so they are light and warm, making them popular in warmer, agricultural areas like Nayshall.

Pulu, the traditional Tibetan wool fabric, is made by fluffing and combing the wool into a thread by fingers, then weaving it with a wooden shuttle loom. Pulu robes are a favorite in pastoral areas as well as farmland.

Lambskin is ranked by degree, according to the length of lamb hair, curliness, and quality of the skin. 40+ lambskin is necessary to make a medium-class lambskin robe.

Shirts

pants

Modern and traditional

A growing trend among young Tibetans is blending traditional and modern casual clothing. Young Tibetans often try to find a balance between modern styles and their cultural heritage. It is not uncommon to see some Western-style clothing like jeans and t-shirts

The classic chuba robe is still everywhere, but Tibetan youth will make stylish adaptations. The cut of the fabric or the embroidered designs will be changed to something more contemporary. These changes show the desire to keep old traditions alive while making innovations to express personal style.

Ex. Same with the people in Nayshall they blend traditional and modern together. Shopkeeper Tsanpa wears jeans with his gho (Bhutan) tucked in. Yua wears modern shoes that resemble Tibetan boots, and Kina wears a beanie on top of her head.

note that Kina may also be wearing a Kora Yushu hat.

The Kora Yushu hat is made from a blend of yak and merino wool, and its fabric originates from Tibet and China. Kora sources the wool directly from Tibetan communities to ensure its quality and origin. The hat is lightweight, warm, and thin enough to fit beneath a hood or helmet, making it suitable for winter and mountain use.

Hairbeads

Tibetan hair jewelry, including braids and hair beads, is used to mark life milestones like birth, marriage, adulthood, and death. The jewelry often reflects the colors of nature.

Tibetan hair beads can be used by both men and women. In Tibet, long hair was recommended for both men and women, except for monks and nuns. Tibetan braids can signal a woman's marital status, social rank, and tribal affiliation. Tibetan men wear hair beads but there is no male equivalent. 

Headdress

Tibetan headdresses vary by region, age, and marital status. For example, unmarried girls wear a single braid with a red hair string, called Xia Jiu in Tibetan. 

Tibetan women wear headdresses on special occasions, such as festivals and their comings-of-age. Headdresses can be colorful and made of coral, turquoise, or other materials. For example, a "Bazhu" is a deluxe headdress made of coral or turquoise with gold or silver earrings. Tibetan women also wear silver bracelets on their left hand and white conch bracelets on their right. 

Jewelry

Tibetans traditionally wear jewelry, which is often made from gold, silver, and precious stones. The most common gems used are turquoise, coral, and pearls, which are used in necklaces, earrings, hair ornaments, and to decorate ritual objects. Tibetan jewelry can also be made from cow bone, amber, shell, and agate.

Tibetans wear a variety of jewelry, including ornaments made of gold and silver, as well as jewelry made of amber, agate, jadeite, pearl, and ivory. Tibetan jewelry traditionally features materials from across South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, and the symbols on Tibetan jewelry are usually from Himalayan Buddhism. Tibetans like to wear many ornaments and jewelry, such as Buddha beads, hair bands, hair accessories, belts, prayer beads, and necklaces.

Jewelry is a symbol of status and wealth in Tibetan culture, and each design has a specific meaning. For example, ornaments with symbols of animals, flowers, and stones are often given to commemorate special occasions. Some also believe that wearing gold enhances spiritual power over evil spirits. Offering jewelry to holy statues is thought to generate positive virtue for the donor. 

This article also goes into the types of ornaments they use in their jewelry

Jewelry can also serve as a talisman, with different amulets protecting against disease and harm. For example, coral and turquoise are said to ward off evil spirits and illness. 

Many Tibetan jewelry pieces are passed down from generation to generation. For example, some Tibetan-style pendants are used in Buddhism as ritual instruments to subdue demons, which are believed to dispel sins and bring people power, intelligence, and courage. Many of these pendants also have Sanskrit inscriptions of a religious symbolic nature.

Braids

Braids are also a symbol of strength, wisdom, and identity for some indigenous men and boys. They can also represent a connection to the earth, ancestors, and the creator. For example, in Native American tradition, hair is a signifier of spiritual practice, and braiding demonstrates strength in unity

boots

sumba shoes

Tibetans typically wear boots, which are more cultural representations than practical clothing. However, due to the prevalence of mass-produced shoes, traditional Tibetan boots are no longer the daily footwear for ordinary Tibetans. Instead, they are now usually part of ceremonial attire.

Tibetan boots are a significant part of the Tibetan way of life. They are more cultural than practical, and are worn to represent different regions and environments. For example, boots with a pointed toe are suitable for different types of terrain, and can be worn with a garter in cold weather. Boots from different regions of Tibet have different styles and qualities. For example, boots from Chamdo and northern Tibet are simple, while boots from Shannan and Xigaze are more delicate.

Tibetan boots are commonly made from cowhide, pigskin, corduroy, and pulu, a traditional woolen fabric. Other materials used include cloth, canvas, velvet, leather, and felt. The original boots were made from yak hide, and the soles were embroidered with patterns like dragons and snakes, and the shoes were decorated with red and green woolen cloth.

Tibetan boots come in two general types: short leg and long leg. Most Tibetan boots are lined or padded, though some may be unlined. The heads of corduroy boots are made of cowhide, and many kinds of pulu boots have cowhide soles.

[zephywolf0]

the unfortunate origins of the “greaser” label

i’ve seen many a version as to how the greaser subculture got its name, from the most obvious being “hair”, to machinery grease associated with motorcycle customs, to the word “greaser” being a general synonym for “tough guy” at the time; however, in actuality the circumstances may not have been so whimsical. despite being associated with the mid-century, the subculture didn’t get its name until the 1960s, and more than that - the name was not self imposed. so what exactly happened?

the origins of the word greaser can be traced way back to the 1850s, or even earlier. i will go over them as i learned about them (feel free to correct me as i’m not exactly a historian or an american) and tie them back to the subculture eventually. it’s like a trip through time. please keep arms and legs inside the ride at all times

a striking use of the word greaser is found in the 1855 anti-vagrancy act, known as the greaser act at the time. as california was assimilated into the united states, and as the gold rush progressed, an effort was made to push "vagrants” out (including california - born mexicans, not just immigrants), creating the foreign miner’s tax - a whopping 20$ monthly fee to be granted mining rights at all (in today’s dollar this would be about eight hundred bucks!) it also leveled mexicans to a degrading, laborous job that there was available for them at the time - greasing mining carts;

 The word "greaser" (a vestige of the Mexican–American War) was a derogatory term used to refer to Mexicans and Mexican Americans referring to "the practice of Mexican laborers in the Southwest greasing their backs to facilitate the unloading of hides and cargo,"...

the word, despite existing beforehand, was popularised by its usage in an official document, and quickly spread. a scrambled effort was made later to rename the document, the damage had already been done.

as any word does, the word greaser and its meaning has mutated from then, going from a word referring to labourers to being essentually a slur, existing to futher degrade mexicans based on their appearance, as well as assumptions made about the culture and hygiene of mexicans:

They considered Mexicans to be “half-n*gro” and “half-Indian.” They called the Mexicans “greasers.” As one defined it: “A ‘greaser’ was a Mexican—originating in the filthy, greasy appearance of the natives”...

the slur persisted. the stereotypes did, too. the words “greaser” and “greaseball” were, as far as i can see, a popular staple of the american lexicon.

a popular stereotype about POC has, from my understanding, always been promiscuity and a “lack of class”. latino men have been stereotyped to be dim-witted and sexually agressive, while women have been objectified, reduced to their “exotic” appearance - a common stereotyping problem.

this is where we come back to the greaser subculture. 

despite its emergence in the late 1940s- early 1950s, the subculture did not earn its name until the 60s, for reasons unknown to me. what’s more interesting - and disturbing - is that it appears the 50s greasers did not name themselves that. 

a fact to keep in mind as we discuss this topic is that the subculture consisted of working class people, both POC and white - though of latino and white immigrants primarily. 

i believe the stereotype of mexican promiscuity is what influenced the label so much. the 50s greasers made a noticeable effort to distance themselves from the gender roles of the time, standing against marriage and traditional american living for the most part - an un-american behaviour;

Following World War II, most of American culture could be described as conforming. There were a lot of traditional gender roles, such as women taking care of the homes while men went off to work. However, the 50s greasers rebelled against conformity. 

this, undoubtedly, intimidated the “good, conforming americans” of the time.

with their desire to rebel against being boxed in came a stereotype of being somehow sexually agressive and vile, dirty in some way. the fact that the subculture housed and gave comfort to many latinos at its start made this notion even stronger. i think the use of the word to describe this subculture was comparative at first - maybe you’ve heard the phrase “acting like a greaser” before. i believe this was a comparsion made to point out this supposed differing expression of sexuality and gender for the greasers that were not outwardly latino.

“you’re acting like a greaser”, i.e., “you’re acting like a mexican.”

overtime, the phrase perhaps shortened, and as the subculture persisted, instead of comparing one to the other, the young men and women (primarily men, as i believe, since the ladies were named “greaser girls” derivative of their male comrades) were being directly labelled as greasers.

 i find it hard to pinpoint exactly when its meaning shifted. as far as i can see and understand, the word “greaser” is no longer used as a slur; at least, not popularly. nowadays, it’s almost exclusively associated with the subculture and its portrayal in popular media. it’s not my place to definetively state this, but it seems that now the term has been divorced from its racist origins. i’m definetely not trying to make anyone feel bad for using it - it now refers to your favourite slick-back boys. you can breathe easy.

thanks for coming along with me on this wordy post!

race, sexuality and gender expression among the subculture is a different topic for a different day.

p.s. i apologise on not being able to provide a clear source on some of the claims i make here - such as the naming of the subculture taking place in the 60s. feel free to take any info i can’t definetevely prove with a grain of salt. this topic is surprisingly difficult to research (as if this is something the people back then didnt want us to know or something!) and sources tend to contradict each other and even themselves - 

this is the same article (also what the actual fuck is that “white middle class females” comment???) 

bit of a tangent but this frustrates me quite a bit haha

[thistransient]

How was Ladakh? I heard it's very scenic, I've been meaning to visit.

I've been mulling this over for a while, because this trip to Ladakh was also my first time in India, and thus the two things are a bit intertwined. Also one must take into consideration that most of what I saw outside of Leh, I saw while clinging to the back of a motorbike, often wondering if I was sustaining brain damage. I suspected the natural wonders were twice as awe-inspiring when observed with the knowledge that they could be the last thing I ever saw. If you want to go on two wheels, do get proper gear and think twice about riding pillion.

That said, it really was gorgeous out there.

If you like mountains, it's the place to be. If you like Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, it's also the place to be. I wasn't sure what to expect in regards to human interactions, but on my own in Leh there was basically no hassle from strangers. If anything the hassle was that the tour office the guesthouse recommended did not have anyone going on the route I wanted to take- which was how I ended up on a motorcycle trek with some random guys from the guesthouse to begin with. For the rest of it, they handled everything, for which I'm eternally grateful.

If you get the chance to go, go! I'm glad I went, but if I could go back in time I'd also be better prepared for the elements- despite copious amounts of sunblock eventually I had to accept that I was just going to be sunburnt, cracked, and chapped, with dried out nasal passages. It also gets really cold, even in June. I didn't bring enough warm stuff cause I only had a carry-on and I figured I'd just buy something there (which inevitably I did), but then no one from any airline actually checked my luggage weight at any point, so I kinda wish I'd just brought a whole ass winter coat. Two weeks was also not enough, I stuck around Leh to acclimatise for 4 days (which felt like overkill at first but it was really a good idea), and only ended up seeing Nubra Valley, Pangong Tso, and Alchi Monastery with the guys. I had hoped to also see Tso Moriri and Hanle but was too worn out by the time they left, and spent the rest of my days hanging around Leh feeling rather ill.

All in all, I wasn't really sure what to expect in going, but it exceeded all expectations. I also think if I had not already been on enough terrible roads in various countries in the past, I might have been slightly overwhelmed. If I hadn't been in the company of people who were fond of street dogs (and finally desensitised me), I probably would not have had as good a time because there are a lot of them. They do make quite a racket at night, bring earplugs. In the end though, the pros certainly outweigh the cons (and obviously I survived and came back to tell the tale.) If you're looking for scenic, I give it 11/10, possibly more.

Final note, Indian SIM cards don't work in Ladakh, but the Ladakh SIM card works in India (I'm not sure about Jammu + Kashmir). J+K Bank ATMs did NOT want to dispense me cash with my foreign card (unfortunate because they were the only ones outside the city), but other banks worked fine.

[mariacallous]

Through local papers and word of mouth, volunteer Daya Shankar keeps track of a very specific cause of death. As soon as he receives news of someone being struck by lightning around his neighborhood in Jharkhand, East India, he picks up his motorcycle and heads to the destination. Sometimes he travels alone, other times with a team of five or six from the organization he volunteers for, the Lightning Resilient India Campaign. It’s a task he is undertaking increasingly often.

Last month, he rode to meet the Manjhi family, who lost an 8-year-old boy, Viresh, and his mother, Subodhra, after a tea stall they were sheltering under was struck during a storm. A lightning bolt can generate temperatures three times hotter than the surface of the sun, with a voltage millions of times higher than a household socket. If it connects with a human, it can stop the heart and respiratory system, damage the brain and nervous system, leave major burns, and cause blunt trauma if victims are flung by the force of being struck. On the day the Manjhis died, lightning also killed another person in the village and injured five others.

Each year, an estimated 24,000 people worldwide are killed by lightning. While a significant number, deaths per head of population have fallen sharply over the past two centuries, thanks largely due to urbanization, the protection of more substantial housing, and improved weather forecasting. But India’s large rural population remains badly affected. Between 2,000 and 3,000 Indians die annually by lightning, most of them working class people aged 10 to 50. Fatalities have risen by more than 50 percent since the turn of the century, outstripping population growth. Compare that to the US, where fatalities have been gradually falling and number around 20 a year. India can experience more than that number of deaths in a day.

For every person who is killed by lightning, roughly another nine are struck and survive, often with life-changing injuries. And with climate change making stormy weather and lightning more common, activists like Daya believe the Indian government is failing to protect its people. “A bare minimum would be to at least spread information about all things lightning at local government level,” says Daya.

India has systems in place to predict dangerous storms. These work by gathering a lot of precise data, says Sanjay Srivastava, chair of the Climate Resilient Observing-Systems Promotion Council (CROPC), an intergovernmental institute that works to develop resilience against climate change impacts. Srivastava is also the convener of the Lightning Resilient India Campaign.

“Detecting the precise location of a lightning cloud-to-ground strike is a calculation mechanism where a minimum of three devices are required,” says Srivastava. These are radio frequency detectors, to detect the radio waves produced by lightning; a doppler weather radar, to detect precipitation and wind patterns associated with storms that may produce lightning; and a lightning detector, a device specifically designed to detect the electromagnetic signals produced by lightning strikes.

As of April 2022, India’s National Remote Sensing Center had 46 lightning-detection sensors installed across the country. Another institute, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, has 83 in place. These, along with other private and institutional data, monitor and guide India’s lightning strike warning system.

The data shows that Jharkhand and other neighboring regions in East and Central India are among the country’s hot spots, as they are where hot and dry air currents from the northwest meet moist easterly currents. When clouds encounter warmer air, moist air rises until it reaches the subzero temperatures of the upper atmosphere, where it can freeze into ice particles called graupel. As these then collide with other ice particles, they generate electrostatic charges, which can eventually lead to lightning. Rising global temperatures are increasing this phenomenon.

However, despite advancements in meteorology, the full mechanisms behind lightning’s formation and behavior remain partially shrouded in mystery. The precise triggers, the exact nature of how lightning propagates through the atmosphere, and the factors that determine the intensity of each strike are still not fully understood. The risk to human life can be predicted in only fairly broad terms.

And while these early warning systems exist, their information often does not reach people in time. This is why volunteers like Shankar work to inform people on how to stay safe and teach how to build easy-to-make lightning arrestors—devices that neutralize cloud-to-ground lightning.

The day Shankar visited the Manjhis’ house, it was drizzling. On the way he spotted farmers and locals sheltering under trees. He stopped to inform them that standing under a tree during rainfall increases the chances of getting hit by lightning. But they said there was no other place where they could take shelter.

Lightning strike casualties are more prevalent in rural areas where infrastructure is limited. Concrete houses, which can have protective Faraday cage effects, are less prominent there than in cities, while tall vegetation, which workers might shelter under, can attract strikes. Densely populated areas in stormy regions also see more casualties. “We can say there are two factors behind lightning casualties. There are lots of environmental factors, and then there are socioeconomic factors,” says Anand Shankar, who works at the India Meteorological Department at the Ministry of Earth Sciences in the state of Bihar (Anand and Daya are not related).

Increasingly, attention is focusing on air quality too. In recent research for Bihar, which neighbors Jharkhand and is one of the worst affected states in India, Anand found that particulate matter in the air increased lightning activity in the region. Aerosols such as pollution or dust particles can affect the friction between the particles that generate lightning and make it more common.

But to what extent growing casualties in Bihar can definitively be attributed to pollution or global warming isn’t yet clear, says Ashish Kumar, a colleague of Anand’s at the IMD. “We had no data before 2015–16, so we have not come to the conclusion whether this is happening recently due to climate change.” But Kumar doesn’t refrain from pointing out that a warming planet can lead to increased lightning activities. Research has projected that a 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature can lead to a 12 percent increase in lightning strikes.

When Daya reached the Manjhis’ house, the family told him that Viresh and Subodhra had taken shelter under a plastic-roofed tea stall because a storm had hit on their way back home from their farm. “People consider that saving themselves from the water is most important,” he says, but they fall prey to dangerous lightning strikes if they stand under something that can act as a conductor. “The best option for them would have been to find a concrete shelter.”

Spreading this sort of knowledge is why volunteers like Daya hunt for the places where recent lightning deaths have taken place. “We often arrange talk shows and plays and other things in the rural areas, but people are either too busy or not interested. But when such accidents take place, people get aware and are willing to listen,” he says.

Another way the Lightning Resilient India Campaign tries to reach the masses is through schoolchildren. “They are curious and spread the message in their families and communities,” Daya says. Warnings are also pushed through government hooters and through mobile applications like the Damini app, which triggers a warning notification before a lightning strike.

“It is not like a cyclone, where you have seven days and you are evacuating people,” says Srivastava. “It’s instant. So, those 30 minutes or three hours are the golden hours.” But often farmers who live far away from their houses do not bring mobile phones to their fields and leave very early for work, and might miss the warning alert.

Srivastava and Anand agree that the best solution would be to put up more lightning arrestors. But with limited funds and a lack of government support, campaign volunteers have to resort to promoting the use of DIY lightning arrestors in high-risk areas. These can be made by fixing the metal rim of a bicycle wheel high up on a bamboo stick and attaching the rim to the ground using copper wire. “They are not bad for a small area, but their efficiency is limited when compared with bigger lightning arrestors,” says Srivastava.

In the absence of adequate protections, 16 of the 36 states and union territories in India have started accepting lightning strikes as a state disaster, including Bihar and Jharkhand, and so pay out compensation money of 400,000 rupees ($4,766) to the family of a deceased person. This does something to help families handle the economic shock of losing someone, but still leaves thousands unsupported. “Only 10 percent of people die—90 percent are left with a social trauma,” says Srivastava. “We need to create a psychosocial relief and also proper medical treatment for those who survive,” he says.