Vikram Chandra @typingvanara Twitter profile

Pinned Tweet

Vikram Chandra

3 years

I'm part of an effort to build a next-generation writing environment. Check out our backstory here.

A Code-Obsessed Novelist Builds a Writing Bot. The Plot Thickens

Vikram Chandra, the author of Sacred Games, created Granthika to keep track of complex narratives. It could change the future of storytelling.

www.wired.com

7

16

109

Last Seen Profiles

@swccollege

@LUMHS_Jamshoro

@EdwinRGonzalezM

@usmissionuganda

@HealthFaceApp

@gakusansukiyo

@paskal_ignacia

@OsNovinhosDHoje

@btsxxxpromptbot

@angeliqbxnni

@jjjks_sir

@TrainerMarileen

@otkntfy

@Blinpr_

@JaneVTesla

@emhornerbooks

@IneludibleTruth

@Mans_Lush

@sfgmac1

@sweetkthland

@ChangbaiLi

@ICT_LaurennLund

@StreetFestChile

@halazyeosang

@Undefined_CR

@SoniaMarima

@63acw98txminq

@uffegardel

@crypto__paris

@elaine_frostt

@Gerrygaucho

@Sav0ySix

@SsoziLian

@WitsRHI

@bokeplokalmalam

@rahulsha

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Upper-caste Indians at Google are so terrified of discussions of caste that they managed to get a talk by @dalitdiva cancelled. And thereby Streisand-effected caste into the national news.

Google’s plan to talk about caste bias led to ‘division and rancor’

Thenmozhi Soundararajan was uninvited from giving a talk at Google about caste bias after some employees said such discrimination doesn't exist.

www.washingtonpost.com

60

1K

4K

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

4 months

A man works for @iitbombay for 39 years and is refused his gratuity because they argue that he is a "temporary worker." Two courts tell IIT to pay him, but they refuse and appeal again. He commits suicide. Shame on you, @iitbombay . "Premier institution"?

APPSC IIT Bombay

@AppscIITb

4 months

@iitbombay has pushed it's worker for 39 years, Raman Garase, to suicide, by denying him his rightful gratuity, even after labour courts ordered them to do so. Tragically, on the international labour day, which honours the contribution of workers and labour movements world-wide.

28

692

1K

30

1K

2K

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

10 months

Man without arms is accused of stone throwing and his house is destroyed. Kafka couldn't have come up with this stuff.

People's Archive of Rural India

@PARInetwork

10 months

MP govt is punishing "rioters" who had engaged in stone-pelting by destroying private property. But the idea of Wasim pelting stores is difficult to digest. He had lost both his arms in 2005. Then why was his house shop razed down too? [read ahead]

69

1K

3K

9

702

2K

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

On even days: "We are going to force you to chant 'Jai Shree Ram." On odd days: "We are going to send you to prison for praying in a Hindu temple."

Pradeep E

@epradeep98

1 year

What an insecure nation India has been reduced to.

74

185

519

155

498

2K

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Ah, the impeccable logic of this argument. Nobody should comment on any government'a abuses because some citizens will get their feelings hurt. I wonder if Barkha will now not speak about the Taliban, Pakistan, Bangladesh. Or for that matter, the US.

barkha dutt

@BDUTT

1 year

India’s Democracy Debate -Please Leave it to the Indians. My piece in ⁦ @washingtonpost ⁩ - on how rebukes by western governments or stereotypes by Western Media will make Indians close ranks. India’s democracy has to be strengthened by us & us alone.

677

202

1K

34

189

1K

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Today's tech-bro hot take. Apparently speaking your native language means you know all its literature automatically. And absorb the history of criticism and scholarship from the air. So speaks a man who wouldn't say something so idiotic if he knew anything about literature.

Vinod Khosla

@vkhosla

1 year

Most english majors lack a goal or a purpose. Why else would you major in your native language

1K

332

5K

19

149

982

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

8 months

I've recently felt the desire to re-read One Hundred Years of Solitude. And as I read the first page, I remembered the electric, shattering effect that this novel had on me when I first read it. Thread below, and a new year's wish...

18

84

878

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Susan Sontag: "Reading usually precedes writing. And the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a writer."

5

127

799

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 years

Finally got to watch Gehraiyaan. Oh, you poor sap, do I have some stories for you!

12

29

723

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

We grew up watching my mother Kamna Chandra working on screenplays and stories at our dining table. One of them was Chandni.

Bollywoodirect

@Bollywoodirect

1 year

Celebrating 34 Years of "Chandni" (14/09/1989). This romantic musical drama was directed and produced by #YashChopra , with a screenplay penned by Kamna Chandra, Arun Kaul, Sagar Sarhadi, and Umesh Kalbagh. The film boasts a star-studded cast including #Sridevi , #VinodKhanna ,

22

57

528

7

55

658

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

So, the Mughals are being removed from historical memory. Orwell had it exactly right.

IndiaToday

@IndiaToday

1 year

NCERT removes chapters on Mughals from their textbooks, watch to know more #ITVideo | @poojashali #NCERT

2K

1K

5K

29

198

649

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Indian politicians seemingly wake up in the morning thinking, "How can we regress further into hidebound stupidity?"

The Hindu

@the_hindu

1 year

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has said his government will study the possibility of a system making parental approval mandatory in love marriages if it is constitutionally feasible.

113

55

215

22

107

595

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

I'm happily back on Book Street near Flora Fountain in Bombay. Glad to see that the book stalls of my college days are still thriving.

18

17

456

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 years

These guys are going to freak out when someone tells them about Kalidasa's Kumarasambhavam.

DP

@dpbhattaET

3 years

Breaking #Bajrangdal members burnt copy of #Kamasutra in an Ahmedabad bookstall for “showing Hindu deities in ‘vulgar’ positions” and threatened to burn bookstalls down if Hindu sentiments are hurt in future 1/N

603

941

3K

13

68

440

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Why is The White Lotus so WHITE? We need an evil Indian billionaire to show up with his obnoxious brood. Destination wedding!

20

30

415

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

My father and mother, Navin and Kamna, celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary today. My sisters-- @anupamachopra and @Tanuja__Chandra --and I are lucky to have spent our lives around these two lovely, gracious people.

28

6

383

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

6 months

Excellent. Woman defines untouchability for you and the rest of the world. If you ever need to explain casteism in modern India, please show them this Tweet. I wonder if she runs away from people wearing leather. Or she only wears wooden sandals herself.

Sheetal Jain

@Sheetal2205

6 months

Yes, I do feel uncomfortable when people who eat non-veg sit beside me and eat. I prefer pure-veg restaurants and avoid consuming anything from households where non-veg is cooked. My life, my choices. I don't care if this is considered untouchability to you, Who cares? 🤷‍♀️

1K

10K

70

82

380

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

@dalitdiva These guys argued that "caste discrimination does not exist, that caste is not a thing in the United States, and that efforts to raise awareness of these issues in the United States would sow further division..."

5

46

353

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 years

Yes. Hope this policeman is not persecuted. In this culture, in this environment, it took courage to do this.

saliltripathi (জয় বাংলা!)

@saliltripathi

3 years

A picture worth more than 10000 trolls.

95

2K

16K

6

25

309

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

"Others said people from marginalized castes lack the education to properly interpret Hindu scriptures around castes." Repulsive, ignorant, and so very frightened. Please watch the planned talk here, and share widely.

A Conversation on Caste Equity in US Workplaces, BigTech and News...

Tech worker activist Tanuja Gupta talks with Dalit History Month co-founder, Caste DEI expert and founder of Equality Labs Thenmozhi Soundararajan about how ...

www.youtube.com

7

77

315

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Gazal Dhaliwal and my sister Tanuja Chandra walk with Rahul Gandhi in Kashmir. #bharatjodoyatra ‌

3

27

309

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

20 days

Don't be this guy. He knows what his server makes, and that she needs tips to live, but won't tip and is boasting about it. Indians already have a reputation for being cheap in the US. Delivery people turn down trips when they see an Indian name on the job. Service staff in

Ishan Sharma

@Ishansharma7390

20 days

Tipping is such a scam in New York!💀 Why do I pay extra just because restaurants pay minimum hourly wages? Ordered a crepe, club sandwich and Panini for $45(Rs. 3800). We paid $50 cash and the waiter just took the rest as tip. I asked for change and she said "you have to pay

16K

5K

79K

23

46

277

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

9 months

I am working in a fancy coffee and wine bar in Bandra. They can make me all kinds of fancy espresso drinks, but can't give me a simple adrak ki chai. I am full of cultural outrage. Someone please make chai hip again.

42

13

272

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

@dalitdiva "Some called caste equity a form of reverse discrimination against the highest-ranked castes because of India’s affirmative action system for access to education and government jobs..."

2

32

259

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Just drove past a building in Bandra named "Snow White." And another one called "Mantri Parijat" in Khar. We used to live in Skywalker Apartments in Lokhandwala. I love Indian building names. What are the best ones you've encountered?

126

17

258

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

How the hell is the Gita not a religious text? It embodies a soteriology that is theistic, and which depends on belief in reincarnation and karma. All of which are religious beliefs. Whatever you think of its philosophical vision, this assertion is absurd.

ऋ 🦋

@Ruedhirendra

2 years

Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta to be included in school NCERT syllabus from 2023 session, stated the center. It took 75 years after independence to happen. Best decision ever! 🙏👏 Bhagwat Geeta is not a religious text book; it's a way of life; it is science; Geeta is life! 🙌

36

37

211

15

50

239

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Tried to help my kid with 6th grade grammar and was suddenly caught in a nightmarish flashback.

22

6

220

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 years

Thirty-two years ago, a film written by my mother Kamna Chandra released. I remember her writing it as she sat at our dining table. Chandni lives on.

Yash Raj Films

@yrf

3 years

An iconic love story of three hearts hopelessly in love ❤️ #32YearsOfChandni

14

61

304

11

17

209

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Somebody please educate this ass about the Kothis, Aravanis, Jogappas, Shiv-Shakthis. And also about the blessings of Lord Rama himself to the kinnar community.

Sadanand Dhume

@dhume

1 year

Starbucks does a great job here of ensuring that the vast majority of Indians will never step into its premises. Only thing worse than overpriced, tasteless coffee is overpriced, tasteless coffee with a large dose of extremist American gender ideology.

2

79

478

7

23

191

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Title sequence from Trishna, my mother Kamna Chandra's adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It ran on Doordarshan in 1985 and became hugely popular. Sangeeta Handa (Rekha, Elizabeth Bennet) and Tarun Dhanrajgir (Rahul, Mr. Darcy) became TV stars. On YouTube now.

Bollywoodirect

@Bollywoodirect

1 year

" #Trishna ," a television series that aired on Doordarshan in 1985, was an Indian adaptation of #JaneAusten 's novel "Pride and Prejudice." The show remained true to the characters and their traits from the book, portraying them in an Indian middle-class context.

17

48

305

15

16

186

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

If you want a pick-me-up, here it is. John Mclaughlin, Ustad Zakir Hussain, and Vikku Vinayakram the “God of Ghatam."

Ghatam GiridharUdupa

@ghatamudupa

2 years

The Most beautiful thing happened today!!!! 50 years of friendship! What a blessed moment to witness this! Video courtesy : Swaminathan Selvaganesh.

104

738

5K

6

7

181

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

A gift from my friend Susana Torres Prieto--a Sanskrit translation of part of Don Quixote. I had no idea this existed.

5

35

183

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

At Miguel de Cervantes' writing desk in his home in Valladolid, where he created a part of Don Quixote. For any writer, this is a pilgrimage--the first modern novel was created here.

11

22

179

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Shameless flex coming... This is one of my most precious possessions. I am the proud recipient of a cheque in the amount of $2.56 (one “hexadecimal dollar”) from Professor Donald Knuth.

4

12

165

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Wow. "Hitler was extremely brave, extremely patriotic, extremely hard-working. It is only because he was defeated that he is being vilified today. In reality he was a great man." From the Geeta Press, recently awarded the Gandhi Peace Prize.

Irfan

@irfaniyat

1 year

Mr Hitlar was an Adarsh Purush literally. ~Kalyan, Women Special, Page 772, Geeta Press, Gorakhpur @Akshayamukul

28

295

679

5

88

160

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 years

First morning back at Berkeley and students have barricaded Sather Gate with their bodies, protesting against the university's plan to buy People's Park and build dorms in that location.

8

33

150

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Just got back to my hotel room after a lovely day at the Bangalore Literature Festival. Looked inside the swag bag provided by the organizers and found Mysore pak. Am now caught up in a deadly struggle with my desire to eat it all immediately.

10

1

153

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 years

Current mood: nostalgic. So here are some photos from the Dalhousie location shoot for 1942: A Love Story. Farah Khan @TheFarahKhan and Sanjay Leela Bhansali choreographing on a mountainside.

3

21

146

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Also, this is the same logic that underlies, "Talking about caste/race only strengthens the injustice."

5

13

144

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 years

That was quite a day. First time meeting each other for a lot of us. Big lunch afterwards with lots of writerly gossip, alcohol, and laughter.

Mehul Devkala

@MehulDevkala

3 years

Vikram Chandra, Arundhati Roy, Anita Desai, Rohinton Mistry, Salman Rushdie, Amit Chaudhuri, Kiran Desai, Ardashir Vakil, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, and Romesh Gunesekera! Photograph by Max Vadukul May 30 , 1996 The New Yorker.

6

32

301

3

12

139

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 month

What a woman. "I am fighting for the future generation of wrestlers. Not for myself, my career is done and this is my last Olympics. I want to fight for the young women wrestlers who will come and fight for them so that they can wrestle safely. That's why I was in Jantar Mantar,

2

55

138

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

5 months

Niche audience=almost 2.3 billon people in former British colonies alone? Plus everyone else who learns English as a second language. And if you turn down a "novel idea" because you think the word "delve" is too complicated, maybe you're the midwit?

5

57

137

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

The amount of sophistry and mental gymnastics necessary to argue that caste (jati and varna) hasn't existed in India for thousands of years is staggering. Astonishingly shameless maneuvers that allow caste apartheid to continue in the present.

Citti Media

@CittiMedia

1 year

. @SuhagAShukla Caste is a British creation & alien to Hindu culture. There is no evidence to support Equality Labs' claim of widespread caste discrimination in The US: Suhag Shukla's full interview on Seattle's caste laws premieres now: #Caste #Casteism

192

151

296

3

32

127

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

This man is openly calling for ethnic cleansing. Horrifying.

Alishan Jafri

@alishan_jafri

1 year

I've been following the news from Uttarakhand. What allegedly started as a local campaign against a “Love Jihad" case in Purola is now a protest to evict minorities. Hindutva leaders (Haridwar Dharam Sansad ones) have given the slogan, “Jih @di bhagao, Devbhoomi bachao.”

272

1K

2K

3

75

114

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

8 months

This Mughals-as foreigners trope is beloved of Indian expats as well. I often wonder if they think of their children and grandchildren born abroad as foreigners to the nations they were born in (like the US).

Sturgeon's Law

@Sturgeons_Law

8 months

This is a sub-wikipedia description of Mughal rule. 1. “Foreign power”: ignoring the major issue of what that meant back before modern nations, the 1st Mughal ruler Babur was not born in the region, but 4 gens later, the Mughal Emperor was 3/4ths (Hindu!) Indian by ancestry.

10

29

318

6

43

115

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

5 months

Been there. For a reading for my first novel at a huge Barnes and Noble in Ann Arbor, one guy showed up. We went to a bar and got a beer. It ended up being a lovely evening. Worked a bit on a short story in the hotel room the next morning. Onwards!

Tom Mitchell

@cakesthebrain

5 months

Literally nobody has shown up to my book event. Was worried that my ego and career aspirations were getting out of control, so this is a useful corrective.

2K

110K

2

6

110

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 months

Good god. This was a book I was assigned in my sophomore philosophy class in the US. It won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1970. Every consciousness-raising group in the US in the Vietnam era discussed Gandhi. As did every anti-colonial party cell in the world.

Ricky Kej

@rickykej

3 months

After Gandhiji died in 1948, he was lost soon after from international consciousness. For the next 33 years he was very rarely spoken about or written about in the Western world. He was definitely not mainstream. In the West, the new generation after his time, had not even heard

508

796

3K

5

24

109

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 months

This is one of the dumbest takes I've ever read on this platform. And that's saying something. The Agarwal shop which is mentioned has a clear caste marker in the name. And the belief that nobody cares about caste in contemporary India is so purposefully ignorant. Unbelievable.

Nivedita Ramendu Shukla

@OfRunjh

3 months

@ANI You put up a board, "Chamar sweets", serve terrific sweets, maintain good hygiene, have some signature sweets of your own community... people will come!! I will go, buy and eat. When we order from Agarwal sweets, does anyone ask questions like, "What's the caste of the man who

15

59

364

3

20

101

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Has there been any research done about the practice of burying Dalit people alive in the foundations of forts in India? What are the origins of the practice, and how far back does it go?

9

22

100

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

@prstb Here's a good article about those wild times. One of the best parts: some people wanted VSNL to "show them the Internet so they could burn it down."

The birth of the Internet in India

From Internet evangelists, through unstable dial-up connections, to the smartphone set. The story of Internet in India

www.livemint.com

1

16

101

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Me, too often.

1

9

101

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 years

Facebook fuels the spread of hatred and violence in India. “If social media survives 10 more years like this, there will be only hatred.”

Facebook Services Are Used to Spread Religious Hatred in India, Internal Documents Show

Company researchers identified calls to violence that coincided with the 2020 riots in Delhi that left 53 dead.

www.wsj.com

3

31

92

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

14 days

True. "Humanities are a waste of time." But then, "I know all about history and I have a lot of unquestionable opinions about fiction and poetry and movies."

Jim Fanara

@jimfanara

15 days

tech bros and finance guys make fun of the psych and philosophy majors in school then spend the next 25 years reading basic pop-psych and philosophy books declaring them to be revolutionary

129

3K

27K

5

22

96

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Bloody hell. How does any other husband/boyfriend ever live up to this? Virat is setting too high a bar.

S🤍

@nushstan

1 year

Hahahaha😂😂😂 #AnushkaSharma #ViratKohli 𓃵

70

1K

7K

3

11

96

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 years

Okay, sometimes WhatsApp forwards need to be shared. Sorry.

4

11

92

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

8 months

I was reminded of Borges saying, "One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the great books, not only of our time but of all time." To which I can only say: I agree. I started reading Borges at around the same time, and what an experience that was.

1

0

89

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

The attic discoveries continue. I had forgotten that I used to write fiction in notebooks in Bombay before I had a laptop to take there during MFA grad school breaks in the USA. Something from Red Earth and Pouring Rain pages.

5

4

86

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Wore a safa after many, many years for Prizegiving at my alma mater, Mayo. The spiffy Jodhpuri is by my schoolmate Raghavendra Rathore. I got a big thumbs-up from the young people in my family. For which miracle: thank you, Raghu.

6

5

87

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

This guy has a byline on @CNN . Tell me again how casteism is losing ground in India.

Shubham Sharma

@Shubham_fd

1 year

Hindus should marry within their caste. Inter-caste marriages always lead to violence and conflict. No Hindu unity can be achieved by promoting useless inter-caste marriages.

61

143

508

4

29

84

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 years

My 13-year-old kid Leela is reading Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem. I admire her good taste and am also intimidated. Finnegan's Wake next? When I was 13, I was trying very hard to participate in my boarding school's trading network for tacky thrillers and "erotica."

9

3

80

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

I'm on the Amtrak train to Sacramento. It's been such a long time since I've been on a train, and my childhood was full of long train journeys. Feels great to be back on the tracks. I need to plan an across-the-USA journey soon.

3

0

84

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 months

Watched The Guns of Navarone after decades. It's much darker than I remembered. Gangrenous leg, betrayal, executions, etc. And a long climb up a rain-sodden cliff that had me genuinely anxious. Solid men-and-women-on-a-mission entertainer with an edge.

15

8

83

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

A happy lunch with @iKabirBedi , @parveendusanj , and @ShashiTharoor . And that's The Boss, @NamitaGokhale_ , behind us.

4

5

82

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Please read this: it's happening in the US.

Raqib Hameed Naik

@raqib_naik

2 years

Few weeks back, I posted a thread on Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF), a Texas-based supremacist group fundraising for demolishing churches in India. Today, I'll unpack GHHF's anti-minority operations in India & its connections with Hindu nationalist groups in US. 🧵1/13

35

581

1K

7

34

79

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Jitendra Joshi made me cry, even though I knew exactly what was going to happen. A magnificent performance.

Cine Vichaar

@Cine_vichaar

1 year

5) Jitendra Joshi as agent Katekar in Sacred Games (2018)

2

21

453

4

0

79

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

7 months

Somewhere between 7 million and 30 million pre-modern manuscripts are scattered around India. I quoted Dominik Wujastyk in Geek Sublime. It's a gigantic opportunity and a gigantic logistical and technical challenge. Dominik (among others) is working on it, needs a lot more.

Conrad Barwa

@ConradkBarwa

7 months

Forget about ancient temple manuscripts; even many written sources from the medieval period lie untranslated 😫

1

5

31

3

37

80

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Gary Oldman's spycraft-through-torn-socks is the most magnificent thing in Slow Horses.

8

5

76

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Ha. I lived in Lokhandwala in the early days when only about a third of the current buildings existed. Watching it and Yari Road turn into a paradise for strugglers (bronzed actors, writers, directors, tech crew) was a delight. Wrote a lot of Sacred Games there.

Hindol Hazra

@hindolheroic

2 years

I went to blue tokai versova without final draft installed in my laptop so they took me behind the store and shot me in the leg

19

60

729

2

0

76

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 years

@DalrympleWill A comedian and an actor thrust into history. You couldn't write serious fiction like this and come off as believable.

4

2

77

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

21 days

Grabbing the last mangoes of the season. This is a langda. A good langda is the equal of any Alphonso. This one was.

7

0

77

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Why is it always NASA that is confirming these mind-blowing "facts"? Shouldn't it be some sanskari Indian agency that bases its work on ancient mystical wisdom? There's some serious deep-seated post-colonial trauma at work in these pronouncements of civilizational greatness.

.🍃

@cosmicaz_

1 year

NASA satellite confirms Shiv ji and Parvati meditating on mount Kailash

638

115

330

6

15

73

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

4 months

When I was an undergrad at @pomonacollege , I worked as a night baker assistant at the Some Crust Bakery. I completely messed up my first sheet of dough for croissants, but they didn't fire me. Finally proved to my kids that I actually did this after finding this photo.

7

0

71

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

6 months

FFS. A whole thread about Charles Bukowski that doesn't mention alcohol, gambling, hookers, etc. Written by someone who reduces the man's life and work to cheesy "life lessons" so you don't have to read the writing. Bukowski would have puked if he'd read this.

Tim Denning

@Tim_Denning

6 months

Charles Bukowski's work will change your life forever. His work takes 100s of hours to read. I've gone through it so you don't have to. 11 ideas. 11 opportunities to upgrade your mind.

252

1K

6K

10

12

74

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Stephen Fry on the problem of evil.

1

17

72

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Just listened to this great podcast about Indian Railway ghosts. Featuring a British Colonel who committed suicide because of an erroneous math calculation and a railway station officially listed as haunted by the railways and closed for 42 years.

5. PHANTOM TRAINS

Episode · Rumors: Dark Lore From India · As children, the most common way many of us experienced the world outside our hometowns was through train journeys. During these trips, snacks were shared to...

open.spotify.com

4

12

74

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Damn. I am working on the manuscript of my novel, and asked ChatGPT how high the ceiling of a certain cave is. It gave me the height of the ceiling and the main reference it used (a paper by two speleologists). My AI assistant is here. @OpenAI , I'll subscribe!

7

74

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Got the title for my first novel from this resonant translation by A. K. Ramanujan.

6

5

73

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Azaelias, Berkeley.

0

3

70

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Finally made it to the inside of Museo Chicote, a bar where Hemingway hung out with a motley group of journalists and intellectuals through the thirties. I drank a cocktail invented by him, the rum-based “Papa Doble.” I now must collapse into bed.

2

4

69

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

6 months

Man, if you are making a list of "15 of the greatest epic poems" and don't include the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, you are really limiting your view. And I know the handle refers to the West, but Gilgamesh is in there. And there is no qualifier attached to the list.

ThinkingWest

@thinkingwest

6 months

Before movies or novels, epic poetry was the preferred way of telling a riveting story. The most extraordinary tales were passed on in the form of meter and rhyme. Here are 15 of the greatest epic poems🧵

55

439

3K

10

11

71

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

8 months

In various interviews, Borges repeated various versions of "Wanting to write novels is an impoverishing madness, wanting to explain in five hundred pages something that can be stated in one single sentence."

2

6

68

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Monthly reminder to myself: don't do this.

3

70

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

8 months

The nuclear weapon version of the COBOL problem. I wrote about this in Geek Sublime.

Battle Beagle

@HarmlessYardDog

8 months

U.S. Strategic Command on the Minuteman III "there are also no technicians who fully understand them." "They're not alive anymore."

539

1K

6K

5

13

67

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

5 months

@confusedvichar Would make an excellent cute-meet in a rom-com. Or buddy movie.

1

68

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Coffee, Graham Greene, and a lovely afternoon in Oakland. One more day to be thankful for.

3

0

67

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 years

The implacable cruelty of the state and judicial murder. Watch. From @TheDeshBhakt .

Bhima Koregaon Case | No Trial even after 3 years! | Deshbhakt with...

🇮🇳 SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE VIDEOS 🇮🇳 - https://www.youtube.com/thedeshbhakt ▶️🔔 CLICK THE BELL ICON FOR ALERTS AND LIVESTREAM UPDATES! 🔔It is exactly three...

www.youtube.com

0

17

61

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

"I thought I had nothing more to offer." Every artist thinks this at some point in their lives. Keep working, people.

Film Updates

@FilmUpdates

2 years

Ke Huy Quan accepting his award for Best Supporting Actor at the #GoldenGlobes

657

20K

101K

0

5

64

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

My well-used line: "Writing is a marathon, not a sprint." So, maybe writing smells to me like sweat, a desert (only ever ran long distances in Rajasthan), camel shit, and very occasional fragrance from flowers. You?

What Does Writing Smell Like?

What kind of scented candle will help me face the blank page? Cotton? Piña colada? Oil-smeared rags?

www.newyorker.com

7

8

66

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 years

Ah, war brings out the racists.

Michael Knowles

@michaeljknowles

3 years

It just occurred to me that this is the first major war between civilized nations in my lifetime.

4K

394

6K

2

20

64

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

@Su4ita @simonsaybrams No Hindu propaganda except when he's espousing the worst kind of casteism.

4

15

66

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Caste apartheid, now openly supported by the state.

Advaid അദ്വൈത്

@Advaidism

1 year

“A district collector in Gujarat has directed that all ration card holders of Kanosan village can buy ration from neighbouring village, bcse the villagers won't buy it from a shop run by a Dalit.” Wow. The state is openly appeasing casteism by validating this economic boycott.

49

833

2K

1

28

66

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

My friends and I loved this place. Good food, reasonably priced. And sometimes you dined next to great artists and poets.

Eric Alper 🎧

@ThatEricAlper

2 years

What is something that you loved as a teenager but no longer around?

924

35

385

16

5

67

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

Why is garish vulgarity a common element in nationalist-strongman regimes? Is it a feature or a bug? Discuss.

G20: The Kitsch Tells a Bigger Story

From laser lights stabbing the New Delhi sky out of Bharata Mandapam, the venue of the G20 Summit, to the multi-coloured lighting of the Qutub Minar, kitsch has taken over from culture.

m.thewire.in

8

13

65

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

5 months

My fifteen-year-old has been assigned Gatsby at school. Twenty pages in, she said to me in a tone of hushed wonder, "How can he write like this?" Am re-reading, and every second page something knocks the breath out of me. The language gleams. And this shirt scene... Unearthly.

2

7

65

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

1 year

The insane mix of bigotry, misogyny, and sexual insecurity that suffuses this thread is the most entertaining thing that I have read on social media in a long time. And it's also frightening. The myth of the Virile Other is a harbinger of hateful violence.

Suresh Kumar

@SureshFromIIT

2 years

I would like to take some time today to speak about something that is very close to my heart and is a very huge problem in India. This is called Sexual Jihad. This has poisoned the minds of millions of good, hardworking Hindu men and women. This needs to be stopped immediately.

244

32

87

7

6

64

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

Here's my mother, Kamna Chandra, talking about Prem-Rog Tatha Anya Kahaniyan, a collection of short stories she just released. She's 89.

The Lallantop

@TheLallantop

2 years

हिंदी में यदि उर्दू या अंग्रेज़ी के शब्द शामिल हों तो क्या हिंदी के अस्तित्व पर संकट पैदा होगा या हमारी भाषा समृद्ध होगी? इस पर क्या बोलीं, ‘क़रीब-क़रीब-सिंगल’ की लेखिका, कामना चंद्रा. देखिए, इस हफ़्ते का #Kitabwala .

2

5

50

3

4

60

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

8 months

So, in class, I have the students read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Mystery of Marie Roget" and "The Purloined Letter." In these three stories, Poe creates the form, lays out every one of its elements.

3

61

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

2 years

In Calcutta.

1

6

60

Vikram Chandra

@typingvanara

3 years

Making great art is the best revenge.

Nidheesh M K

@mknid

3 years

2015: FTII under Gajendra Chauhan& Prashant Pathrabe slaps disciplinary action against a student, Payal Kapadia. She had boycotted classes& led the 4-month long protest against Chauhan. Later, FTII cut her grant. 2021: Payal Kapadia wins the award for best documentary at Cannes.

160

3K

11K

0

13

59