Here’s why we are the worlds most polluted city. We don’t care. It shows in how little we compost. If we did, this massive landfill fire would not have happened.
Dear
@ArvindKejriwal
In this brutal cold, pls request empty schools at least to open their doors to the homeless.we know it’s possible coz if Sheila Dixit convinced them then so can you. Why waste infrastructure?
At
@fortis_hospital
Vasant Kunj yest, walked up ramp
in much pain. Did an ECG, told cardiac event. Askd for 50K to shove me into ICU. Escaped to AIIMS. My 40 somethng yr old heart found perfect. Moral- Don't go alone in a med crisis. Patients have to fight illness + robbery.
"The thing abt elephants," explains this truck driver, "is they don't harm if you don't threaten. I've seen so many herds. Once everyone complained coz they stood on the road for 6 hours. But what's the problem? Just stop and wait. If you are in a forest, you're in their home."
Akbar’s Church, Agra. Mughal India’s first Roman Catholic Church, 1600. Rebuilt a few times. The Portuguese frm Goa wanted to convert him. He funded this Church instead. They followed him 8 yrs later frm Agra to Lahore to try again. Failed. Yet, Akbar visited this Church on Xmas
We are bursting w pride at
@ChintanIndia
. Ankush, son a wastepicker, resident of Bhalsawa, just scored 81% in d 12th board exams. Next? Hindi Honors at Delhi University. Ankush has been a student at our No Child in Trash project for the last 5 years.
Other parts of India are enjoying spectacular skies right now. Like Chiuluam village, Manipur, roosting site for lakhs of Amur Falcons on their annual migration to S Africa. One of India’s most exciting conservation successes in recent times. Thanks to Mahesh Singh for this video
Ever the undaunted trekker, my sister sends us this photo of herself from Bali Pass in Uttarakhand. Whiteout and snowstorm at 16000 feet, she later says. Nature is so grand!
News summary : India is struggling to breathe, people have died for lack of oxygen, jobs and incomes have dissolved, sole bread-winners have died, grief shrouds us. And one of our best known citizens is taking about sponsors for a sports team. Chalo, let them eat cake and bread
It brings me great joy to welcome MPL as KKR's principal sponsor! It's been great to see you grow alongside the
@KKRiders
. Ab akal lagane ki baari meri hain, let me check out these new games you have on your app
@PlayMPL
Missed the 5 am Amritsar flight today. No flight till 1.40. Zero train tickets. Raced to d Rly Stn. PleadedX100. Got the TT's seat. Crossed the border into
#Pakistan
at 2.36. Drove 4.5 hrs to India House
#Islamabad
. Saree etc-12 mins. Reached destination-our Iftar party. Phew.
Friend went out to party a few days ago. Everyone, everyone there, tested positive for
#Covid_19
after that. Friend is a civil servant. Tasked w managing policies. What can one say?
Ratangarh in Rajasthan has got to be the cleanest Railway Station in India. Not a speck of dust at 4.55 am. The town really swacch too. Congratulations to all involved.
@PiyushGoyal
@HardeepSPuri
From the City of Saints, this spectacular voice sings a qawali, a gift to us from the 13th c poet n Sufi Amir Khusro. He came here abt 838 years ago at the invitation of Delhi king Balban's son. Khusro buried in Nizamuddin, Delhi. Many
#Multan
-
#Delhi
connects.
Delhi’s elite n middle class have a short memory. I’d have expected them to demand and campaign for better heath care for all, after the mass deaths of the second wave. Instead they’ve gone on a holiday. Jai Ho!
This is true. I love that these women MPs dress as they choose to instead of adhering to conventional expectations. We need to stop talking of what women wear to work so it can slowly becme a non-issue. Women everywhere-even teachers-pushed to dress codes. Out w it!
Dear
@mimichakraborty
and
@nusratchirps
, firstly many congratulations for your debut in the parliament and secondly I loved what you both are wearing, in tune with the changing times :)
Keep rocking!
This meat munching vulture chick may never have bn born, bt for d
@BNHSIndia
vulture conservation centre, Pinjore. Vultures declining. Hats off to pioneering scientists Vibhu n Nikita Prakash who run d centre. They are frontline workers for birds.
@ParveenKaswan
Appeal to Whoever is in-charge of Delhi Government: Give free WiFi in every slum. Parents don’t have the money to recharge net. Kids need it for homework. Women need it to keep in touch w families. Everyone needs it for mental health. Reassure our poor.
#COVID19
@msisodia
First walk in 60 days. Such a feeling of triumph. The painkillers help but mainly it’s the need to walk aimlessly, looking at the spectacularly life-laden trees, that has helped me get here.
My latest learning about
#COVID19
is if your oxygen is low, lie prone. This means on your stomach. And breathe in deep. I've heard that from multiple doctors. I haven't figured out the science but sharing coz we're all trying to save lives. All weapons count in a war.
Kids in this lockdown are missing the whole experience of waking up late, missing the school bus, facing one’s parents. Worse still, the parents insist the kids still go to school and take them there. Scolding them all the way. Essential aspect of Indian middle class education.
The scary one thing abt those arrested in
@BDUTT
case is they seem to be regular folks-chef, student etc. This tells us something abt the normalization of intense violence against women. It's a big, bad, out-of-control problem. What happens to those women unable to fight back?
This herculean effort by one bird to live year after year as nature intended it to, brings tears of wonder to my eyes. See these 20 years of movement data from a single golden eagle tagged with a GPS device...
@Avibase
@CornellBirds
@ra_mki
@GajinderSBains
Thanks for this.
Dear
@ArvindKejriwal
: It’s freezing cold, predicted to get worse. The homeless are miserable, metal boxes set up as temp homes aren’t saving the few who use them. Pls open govt schools n appeal to other institutions to do d same at night. Save lives. Sheila Dixit did it too!
Dear
@narendramodi
: India bans 16 single use plastic items frm July 1st, 2022, thanx to your vision. But many private interests don’t care abt India n don’t want the ban or want to delay it. We got 1 yr to prepare. Pls ban all 16 items. The public supports this!
@byadavbjp
Dear
@yadavakhilesh
: In Jan you declared you wd not take the vaccine. Influenced, Satish Kumar, office peon, who got a free laptop from you, also refused d vax. Pls can you announce everyone must take the vaccine? Including Satish of
@ChintanIndia
? And post a pic of your jab?
Look, dear Anclicized people in your teens and 20s and 30s. Folks 40 and above are absolutely not your aunties. Even if you know them coz yr parents know them coz they all go to the same yoga class. People have names. Use them. Stop boxing pple into archaic relationships.
Police must not not physically or verbally abuse sex workers, says Supreme Court. And nor should society at large. Let’s stop using related words as abuse against women.
#sexworkers
Everyone can't win
#PadmaAwards
but let's acknowledge their contribn. Like Dr Shah Husain, scientist guiding d
#Delhi
Vasant Kunj Biodiversity Park since it's start in 2004. Thanks to him, 100s of species have a space safe in a very noisy, busy city as old mines becme forest.
Dear
@ArvindKejriwal
: Why do you blame farmers n Govt of Punjab for burning biomass 6-8 weeks annually when abt appx 30 percent
#Delhiwomen
burn biomass daily to cook n feed their kids? Their health is compromised n so is Delhi’s air. Solve that first.
#AirQualityIndex
Thrilled to have seen the rare Satyr’s Tragopan -at Sikkim today. Saw 3. Hates sounds. Hides if people whisper. Sitting like a statue in d cold for 3 hrs makes it my hardest birding till date. Pic by Sajan Raju who saw it in 2022 in Arunachal. First described in 1842.
@IndiAves
My mom has sore throat early April, then fever. Insists allergy. Weak. On Day 4, sis forcd a COVID test, came out -ve, despite symptoms. Why nt tell us on Day 1? "Didn't want to be a burden," says mom. We r shocked+sis exposd. What is this bout of un-scientific, parental emotion?
Delhi has suffered enough at the hands of people w no sense of ecology. Why are we getting Kashmir vegetation in the plains? This is a public crisis of imagination. Can we get the advisors’ names pls?
SOS. Something going seriously wrong in
#Rajasthan
Sambhar Lalt Lake. Hundreds of birds being found dead around it by our birder friends in the last 10 days. This pic from yesterday. We need to act. What's wrong? Toxic water? Other?
@CMRajasthan
@SachinPilot
@PrakashJavdekar
I so admire how lucidly people in their 20s talk of mental health. One said he was anxious abt a heart attack after COVID. Own and others. Some say they cry a lot. Some talk of meds, endless panic. Acknowledge this is happening. Humans are fragile!
As many as 1 out of 3 RTPCR tests show a false negative, says a doc. If you have symptoms but are negative, don’t get lulled into relief. Stay isolated, monitor oxygen n don’t infect others. Just spoke to family of 4 where 2 lost their sense of smell n taste but tested negative.
A reusable, washable N95 costs under INR 145. Our domestic workers, dhobis, security guards, drivers- can’t afford two masks cost right now. Spend Rs 300 for them. Buy more if their families need. Invest in the lives of those who keep your life smooth.
@jai_dhar
@ChintanIndia
Call me a compulsive tourist but in between work in Lucknow today, a colleague n I stopped at Lucknow’s famine-time employment project, the Bara Imambara-a Shia religious complex. Built by Awadhi Nawab Asaf-ud-Daulah. Completed in 1784. Serene even on a searing hot afternoon.
My mommy comes home for a sleepover after many years. She was always wary of my dog, who growled when she opened the fridge. It's also her first selfie ever. She laughs so much during this inaugural event tht this is the best we get. She also removes her specs for d occasion.
Yippie. It’s March 31st. Last day of China as Prez of d UN Security Council. Maybe tom they’ll discuss d virus frm Wuhan causng d biggest global disasters since WW2? The world’s top security body silent as 1000s die. Is
#COVID19
nt a security threat? Shame!
#conflictofinterest
The Great Indian Bustard. One of India’s critically endangered birds at about 100 individuals . Watch him strut majestically. This species was a strong contender for the title of National Bird of India. Some say it’s name came in the way.
@IndiAves
@IUCNRedList
Wow,
@Uber_India
! It’s 2.15 am. I’m at the international airport in Delhi. Not a single cab available for the last 15 mins but people claiming to be ‘offline’ Uber drivers offering to take me home. “Have PAN n Aadhar both,” says one. Cars in the parking. Fix your system pls!
The
#Covid_19
jumped from wild animals to people. Wild means bats and pangolins. Not pet dogs. Is it true people are abandoning their pet dogs in terror? Don’t. It’s not just beyond cruel, it’s also poor science.
#COVIDIOT
Sometimes, when I see the insect l-eating Indian Roller on a wire at open land, I wonder what it’s going to do as we urbanise? Will it adapt to fields of concrete? Then I stop such morbid thoughts and push myself to savour the moment of beauty! Pic : Arvind Yadav
@IndiAves
Exhausted. That's the condition of this bhutta-wala in
#Delhi
. His 20 rupees a piece butta earns him 300 to 350 rupees a day. That's for feeding us healthy, seasonal foods. Our lives in cities wd be impossible w/o informal workers, yet their struggle to survive is constant.
Full power to the women naming their sexually harassers. What happens next regardless of legal actn? Will we still read
@chetan_bhagat
? Will he retain his columns? Will the men who knew and stayed silent abt their friends move on? Fierce public boycotts matter.
#MeToo
What's the word for that intense emotion one experiences when one realizes, at the airport, enroute to a brief work-from-outstation, that one has left behind one's laptop? Moreso when that laptop had a whole folder full of things one planned to complete?
Good bye
#Pakistan
! What a fab almst 2 yrs. Hiccups, yes. Affection, warmth, discusn, debates-lots. I'm nt leaving. Just tht I won't be in India House now. Still on
#Twitter
/Del/Ottawa. Stay in touch. Thanks friends + all whose hard work made life happier. Been a privilege.
This girl takes d 12th exams soon. Her street vendor dad died 6 yrs ago. He fed my dog a daily egg. Her mom feeds my puppy eggs in memory of husband. Friend n I fund d education of d 3 kids. I tell her not to panic abt exams, she says : calm my mom. Here we are, doing just that.
By hook or by crook, ‘Bihari Pathan’ Sher Shah Suri is part of my life. 6 yrs ago, visited his tomb in Sasaram. Spectacular, clean monument. Later oft travelled up d Grand Trunk Road frm Lahore. Also loved his Rohtas fort. Now, I keep an eye on d multi-country GT Rd for air polln
Dear
@narendramodi
ji : Thought I’d share this pic of Rani from Purnea. Sells bhel puri in Sikkim. Uses a paper cone for container and cardboard piece for spoon. An uneducated woman who is more educated than many, as she fights plastics using tradition and common sense.
#LIFE
Finally, this 11 year-old has blossomed. It's been watered, composted and let be. No one lamented that an expensive Bird of Paradise plant stayed leafy. Now, at a time of its own choosing, it has surprised us. I wish children today enjoyed the same laissez-faire trust.
For all those who live in
#India
and still lament that every toothbrush they've ever used lies trashed. This man in Delhi is one of many who segregates toothbrushes for recycling. India has its kabaris. acknowledge their work. Thank them.
@safaisena
@PlasticPollutes
@5gyres
Is anyone seeing a rise in Typhoid cases? There seems to be a break out at least in East Delhi? Suddenly seeing cases rise. Don’t let this disease burden healthcare. Pls wash your hands, don’t eat raw food and if you must step out, try carrying water to drink.
@ArvindKejriwal
India is home to more working youth under 30 than most other countries. Like Mr. Mohanana, 27, whom I met at Dilli Haat. A Patachitra painter from Orissa. Keeps an ancient art tradition alive. To keep doing this, he needs buyers who believe the youth are guardians of Indian art.
Early morning walks have many rewards. Including this display, today. I find I am so used to
#India
's national bird in my neighbourhood, that I rarely stop to take in its beauty. Today, I watched it, mesmerised after years.
#peacock
Something very perverse about airports where people of modest means can neither grab a bite nor something to drink. Instead, they watch the other 2 percent glug down their 5 dollar coffees.
#inclusive
#inclusiveairports
He’s selling fresh cherries in 46 degrees, sitting on the granite stairs in the near open. The cherries are on a cold thermocol box. Because “nobody will buy warm cherries.” Nobody was moved to buying cool cherries because a human being was sitting outdoors during a terrible heat
Mo. Or Mohammed. Handling the bags at the hotel, speaking to us in English. Overhears us chatting in Hindi. Are you from India or Pakistan? he asks. He’s from near Lahore. Can you help me get a visa to India? He asks. I have to go see the Taj Mahal once.
Recall as a really young persn wen the
#rupendeolbajaj
case happened that a sr govt officer, family friend, announced: she"s a really loud woman. Clearly not loud enuf to be heard for 30 years. Read her story in
@thewire_in
@svaradarajan
#MeToo
Like many South Asians, I live in reflected glory. Now here's my sister trekking yesterday at 16,000 feet on the Gokyo Lake in Nepal. Since we share our DNA more or less, I am accepting congratulations for this show of fitness and stamina.
#Siblings
Sheikh Haroon is pleased to see us in his footwear shop, Khussa Mahal, in Multan, even though just for a quick 15 minutes. He's proudly put up a photo of the last Indian who visited, abt 15 years ago--Sachin Tendulkar. Check out the frame on the upper right.
#Multan
@sachin_rt
Dehi elites hve lost it. Many WhatsApp messages w horrifid women saying domestic workers refusing loan offers, saying happy to be home w kids. She’s earning frm all of us, hs no lifestyle to maintain, one complains. Wow! The poor banned frm little joys? Inequity here to stay.
Today, my 26 year old housekeeper in Delhi, whose looked after my home all this whole time I wasn’t there, called me. He asked me what ailment I had. Then, after our call, he sent me a message. It said : “Come back home. Everything will become OK. “ How adorable is that?
Is this frm India? I ask the seller of this dupatta in
#Pakistan
. She laughs. Says:This is Tharparker, the interiors. You must only be going to Karachi. This is from the women of rural Sindh..they make figures like the Indians.
I'm not sure what to make of this.
#India
#women
Young gent frm Bihar borrowd Rs. 2 lakh frm d village moneylender in Motihari,
#bihar
. In 1 yr, he’s paid 1,20,000 interest. No bank gave him a loan. I lent him money to close this. The rich steal crores, d poor can’t get a tiny sum to save them frm selling their land n cows.
In the middle of everything regular people are trying to do to help workers, I get this email from a PR agency. Thinks I’m a Journo. Says do a story on our client who is giving ration. Corporate India -stop hiring PR agencies and spend the money on real people.
Sometimes, people frm the past still escort you around. In
#Delhi
my home is half an hour away frm Man Singh Road. In
#Pakistan
, it is an hour and a half frm Man Singh Haveli in Rohtas Fort. Pretty neat to find Akbar's legendary Rajput general present near both my current homes.
Heath Inequity 101 : Friend calls
@Moolchand_Hosp
. Is told pay a lakh prior to admission. She says insurance may take care of that. Is told they have a tie up w Vikram Hotel, so no insurance works. How many have a lakh? 40% Delhi is poor, they deserve life too.
@drharshvardhan
Three women from Lakimpur's tribes. Weaving baskets, bags and hats from reeds at
@DilliHaat
. If you're around, grab a basket. At least it's not plastic. At least it helps women fight poverty. At least it's useful.
Scarlet Finches atop a tree in Uttarakhand. Who needs any other kind of X-mas tree when nature offers this? Thanks Rajesh Khokar for this image.
@IndiAves
What do you see in this picture? Air purifier? Plastic? Climate chnge solution? I see plastic and a the absence of rational, scientific thinking. Instead of wasting money on this, why can't people save a tree nearby instead? Much more useful.
Congratulations
@ArvindKejriwal
n
@AamAadmiParty
. That was big! Now please talk to yourself in both states and figure out how to self-cooperate n stop that stubble burning. So both Delhi n Punjab can breathe cleaner air in October n November. Let us know how we can help.
My doc calls me to say bye. Says: Tell everyone in India if they’ve had COVID induced pneumonia, they must go to a doctor after 6-12 months. Get a chest X Ray, see how their lungs are doing. There can be deterioration of the lung in such patients. Pls help share this science!