Karthik

What a shameful exercise in performative religiosity and piety 😳

Landau *named* India (and China) specifically. Jaishankar did not name any country. And this is a "sharp rap"? 🤦‍♂️

"A "multi-polar" world needs a convening point. Dubai is the likeliest candidate. Even the most open of the major western cities have a foreign-born % of not much more than 40% (as does Singapore). In Dubai, the foreign-born are 90%. There is no competing with the Gulf's porousness to outsiders"

4/4 But I guess we have crossed such a stage long ago.

3/4 to erode the game’s spirit even if it technically avoids hate speech.

2. If you showed this to a young fan from the opposing country, would it feel like friendly rivalry or like their identity is being mocked? If it’s the latter, then the line is probably being crossed.

2/4 By those standards, these ads would actually seem 'mild' 🤷‍♂️

A useful lens to think about ethics in advertising in this regard would be,

1. Does the creative celebrate my team, or does it mainly belittle the other? When the balance tilts strongly toward ridicule and symbolic harm, it starts

That such humiliation and conquest style messaging in cricket advertising is the new baseline that barely evoke any surprise is evident due to the far worse rivalry-based ads that even the official broadcaster has been releasing regularly (and withdrawing, when there's adequate backlash). 1/4

Didn't BJP discuss the move with its own allies before imposing this performative, superfluous showcase in nationalism and religiosity? This is a so-called "double-engine" state with no opposition, at that 🤷‍♂️

Why does BJP use unnamed, anonymous "sources" to talk about a more powerful USA? Do they fear that a named person may need to be fired if it annoys Trump and his flunkeys? This news seems like the anonymous handles on Twitter 🤷‍♂️

'Ancient Seed'? Yes, I did, but it didn't register at all so far. I'm going to give it some time and listens.

Very good read on Arijit and the state of Hindi film music. On the highlighted part, though, I have a counterpoint: S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, as a singer (and Ilayaraja, as a composer). Can easily fill many many days, many more moods, life stages, etc.

Milliblog Weeklies, Week 297 tinyurl.com/MAR08-2026
A solid list ft. Vaisakh and Nivas K Prasanna's impressive albums, Rahman's best in recen times, an Odia film song (!), good new music by Vijai Bulganin, Sai Abhyankkar, Shamir Tandon, Hiphop Tamizha, D.Imman & more.

What would have been BJP's reaction if this dire "conflict-zone" situation was in Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Kerala or Telangana, or any non-BJP state and NOT in double-engine (triple-engine, including President's rule?) Manipur?

Only Indian Express reports that India had proactively offered safe harbor to IRIS Dena! All other papers are talking only about IRIS Lavan seeking docking in Kochi due to technical issues.

"All lawmakers will claim that they are [enacting age verification] to protect youth from some harm, but they fail to mention the convenient power it hands to government to control and chill speech they oppose, and even punish their critics".

What happened to the Mast Kalandar chain of restaurants that were so ubiquitous and popular at one point in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad? Why did it shut down? Wouldn't that food do well via home deliveries, these days?

An illuminating comment, in Financial Times: www.ft.com/content/8f1b...

"Hum thode khamosh kya huye, aap toh atyachari ho gaye!"

"Billionaires are amazing. You think your money gives you superpowers. You don't like traffic, you buy a helicopter. You don't like strangers, you buy an island. There's only one thing that can fix this. And it's the one thing even you can't buy - Time!" (Paradise S02E03)

Go ahead - crack more jokes about Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean, and teach strangers on the internet about "international waters" like completely shameless stooges of BJP. The world doesn't see it that way.

We are good only for cracking "jokes" like "Just coz it’s named Indian Ocean, we don’t get to own it" and "Hope some Indian journalists don't think that Atlantic Ocean belongs to Hotel Atlantic, Juhu". That has become our aukaat.

New rule added by United Airlines on February 27, 2026: "UA shall have the right to refuse transport... Passengers who fail to use headphones while listening to audio or video content"! Hope Indian airlines (and railways, Metro, public buses) follow suit.

Indian Ocean: "Mohe bhool gaye sanwariya, bhool gaye sanwariya...".

"Even If I am in the back seat of a car and a puppy (kutte ka bachcha) comes under the wheels, isn't it painful? It is. Whether I am a prime minister or not, I am a human being - I will be sad if something bad happens anywhere."

The individual flower is tiny and unassuming, but together, the many flowers of Petrea volubilis (Queen's Wreath) really put up a spectacularly colorful show!

Truly terrible :(

Was India aware that an Iranian ship that was returning to Iran after being India's guest for an official event was sunk by an American submarine in our own backyard? I hope India musters courage at least now to speak up, and protest against US, the bully.

The Prime Minister of Spain teaching Raj Dharma to many countries, including the Mother of All Democracies - India, even when it is deeply inconvenient to speak the truth to a powerful, notorious bully.

Well, what else would one expect? US (and Israel) is still inventing excuses to why they bombed and killed their leader, making it a massive ego problem for the country. Iran was already treating its own people poorly. Now, they have nothing to lose by going berserk in response.

Reminds me of the many reasons BJP kept on inventing for justifying demonetisation.