Karthik Gopalan retweeted
While growing up in my hometown Cuttack in Odisha there was a skinny rickshaw puller Koteshwar who on a good day of income would drink desi rice liquor (chauli) and challenge the big burly pan shop owner to a fist battle. Shouting, screaming for an hour or so he would fall asleep. Babuli the pan shop owner would never engage and just smile.
On evenings when Koteswar would do this people would simply say “Koteswar had a good income today”, smile and go on their way.
This reminded me of Koteswar’s escapades.
Rahul Gandhi challenges PM Modi to a one-on-one debate
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that his phone contains evidence supporting all his allegations and claimed that the Prime Minister has tapped his phone.
He further said that a one-on-one debate would reveal who is controlled by foreign powers, who is anti-national, and since when, adding that he has several other details on his phone.
@RahulGandhi
All these intellectuals close their comments! I wonder where their love for FoE and exchange of ideas goes when they feel like being openly vile. The irony of a Congi talking about comprehension is a whole other thing.
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Why don't you open replies if you want to post this, @kafkasbluebug
teapaw.org/kafkasbluebug/status/2…
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Karthik Gopalan retweeted
A blue whale’s anus can stretch up to 3.5 feet, making it the 2nd biggest ass*ole on Earth…
Liv Doc still remains #1.
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Karthik Gopalan retweeted
Imagine a scenario where India was brokering this “peace deal.”
The opposition & Left-Liberals would be having a field day with the endless ceasefire violations, constantly poking the eye of the government in glee (perhaps rightly).
But basically none of this from Pakistanis across the political spectrum. Instead pride for Pakistan over repeatedly failing negotiations.
Respecc ✊🏽
Karthik Gopalan retweeted
The problem with being Gandhiwadi is that many things are forgiven simply because the man acknowledged his actions as experiments in truth.
Similarly, Tejpal wrote an apology, so he must be absolved or given a benefit of doubt.
Sanjay Hegde writes;
“Two minutes in a lift. Two storeys of a hotel. Two stories, hers and his, each told with conviction, each carryinga life within it. One court found the first story unproved. Another found it proved beyond reasonable doubt, on the same record. That divergence is not an embarrassment to the system. It is the reason the system builds in a final, full appeal. Let that appeal be heard. Let the analysis be dispassionate. And until then, let the rest of us have the humility to say the three hardest words in public life: we don't know.”
@TheTribunechd @sanjayuvacha
Karthik Gopalan retweeted
they thought he was lying, so 79 companies rejected him.
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Karthik Gopalan retweeted
Interesting perspective here. But what it does not consider is the unique nature of war as fought by the IAF and its personnel as compared to the Indian Army
Let me explain.
The fundamental nature of war changes completely depending on whether you wear blue or olive green. It comes down to distance versus proximity—a reality of modern combat that creates a stark contrast between aerial precision and the reality of ground forces.
The Air Force: High-Tech, Precision, and Distance
In the air, the fighter pilot is the tip of the spear—the modern knight entering the arena. The entire organizational machine exists to put that pilot in the sky. Yet, the operational reality remains strikingly detached from the dirt:
(1) Targets are coordinates on a screen. Whether firing BVR missiles or dropping smart munitions, combat is mediated through glass displays and HUDs. You don’t see the human faces below, nor do you watch the immediate, raw aftermath of impact.
(2) It is a hyper-sophisticated, high-stakes game of systems and sensors—with real-life consequences, but executed from inside a cockpit.
(3) After flying a high-risk sortie, pilots and support personnel often return to base, eat with their families, and sleep in their own beds.
Ground Warfare: Blood, Brutality, and Raw Emotion
Land operations operate under an entirely different set of physical and emotional laws. There are no screens to buffer the trauma of direct human-to-human combat:
(1) Soldiers mobilize into forward zones, living with the constant, nerve-shredding threat of incoming artillery. Operational security cuts off letters and phone calls, leaving them isolated in the arena.
(2) You don't just lose comrades; you watch them get blown to smithereens right beside you. You hear their final screams, feel their blood on your uniform, and later—when the dust clears—you walk the field picking up severed limbs and remains so something can be sent home to their families for final rites.
(3) Against every survival instinct, infantrymen must push forward under relentless fire, close the distance, and face the enemy in tight spaces. Ultimately, victory means killing another human being at arm's length with your bare hands, a bayonet, or a rifle muzzle pointed at their chest.
At this level, survival and courage aren't powered by cold logic. They are fueled by intense regimental loyalty, love for fellow soldiers, raw grief, revenge, and deep anger.
Why On-Screen Depictions Feel So Different
This distinction explains why cinema and media portray the services differently:
Movies about the Air Force or Navy often feel calm, methodical, and composed. Their warfare is defined by strategy, room operations, radar screens, and technological mastery.
Ground warfare cannot be depicted that way. Any story about direct, human-to-human combat is inherently explosive.
It is saturated with high emotion, chest-thumping bravado, raw grief, and jingoistic energy—because when men are forced to conquer the ultimate terror of close-quarters mortality, only intense, visceral emotion can carry them through the fire.
I guess now the rest of the film makers have to up their game as to how they would make films on war without chest thumping and adding Glorified Unspeakable Violence to sell!
varietyindia.com/operation-s…
Karthik Gopalan retweeted
Kawad Yatra of commies
A CPI(M) delegation left for Cuba today to attend the Fidel Castro Centenary Colloquium, which will be held from August 10 to 13 at the Convention Palace in Havana. Apart from taking part in the international colloquium, titled "Fidel: Legacy and Future," which marks the culmination of the commemorations for the centenary of the birth of Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro Ruz, the delegation will also visit a cardiac hospital and a paediatric oncology hospital in Cuba. The delegation will tour worker-peasant cooperatives, a social project for the disadvantaged, the Fidel Castro Centre, the Che Guevara Centre, and historic sites associated with the Cuban Revolution before returning on August 19.
The delegation is carrying several cartons of medicines for the treatment of cancer, cardiac ailments, and other life-threatening diseases. These medicines were collected by the CPI(M) and the CPI in solidarity with the Cuban people. The illegal US imperialist embargo and blockade have caused a grave humanitarian crisis. The Fidel Castro Centenary is also an important occasion to strengthen and renew international solidarity with Cuba and the Cuban people.
The delegation comprises Polit Bureau member Vijoo Krishnan, Central Committee member PK Sreemathi, Karnataka State Secretariat member Meenakshi Sundaram, Chhattisgarh State Secretariat member Dharamraj Mahapatra, Kerala State Committee member N Chandran, Agrarian Sub-Committee member B Venkat, and Central Trade Union Fraction member Anil SS. They were seen off at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi by Guadalupe de Regla Frometa Gómez, Deputy Head of Mission of Cuba.
Karthik Gopalan retweeted
Man writing from a man’s point of view about a man’s (self admitted) crime, endorsed by another man. This was really hard to decipher 😂.
Sanjay Hegde writes;
“Two minutes in a lift. Two storeys of a hotel. Two stories, hers and his, each told with conviction, each carryinga life within it. One court found the first story unproved. Another found it proved beyond reasonable doubt, on the same record. That divergence is not an embarrassment to the system. It is the reason the system builds in a final, full appeal. Let that appeal be heard. Let the analysis be dispassionate. And until then, let the rest of us have the humility to say the three hardest words in public life: we don't know.”
@TheTribunechd @sanjayuvacha
Karthik Gopalan retweeted
Oh, i completely agree. Many of our problems have as bad or worse an effect. Casteism, zero respect for public spaces, terrible justice system, the class system in residential areas, lack of hygiene. I'm just saying, no one has to bring racism in to make the problems noteworthy
Karthik Gopalan retweeted
This week, I finished reading @ramachandranesk's Famous Last Questions. As a millennial woman, who has spent one half of her life try to escape the chaos she was born into, and the second half making sense of it, Sanjana’s book is a cathartic read.
In fact, I think it is cathartic for anyone born in the 90s into a traditional, upper-class, Indian home, navigating questions of identity, culture, religion, parents, dating, love, and more.
One of the chapters called, 'Please Get Married Before I Die?' - was probably my favourite one. That phrase is so cruel and so common that I think using it should be a punishable offence under Indian law.
She is incredibly self-aware and introspective in the book - something I kept getting surprised by paragraph after paragraph. The writing is funny, intelligent and engaging in way that it never lets you put the book down.
I’m so glad she wrote it. For herself and for every 90s kid who is going to feel seen and heard reading it. 10/10 recommended.
What an awesome expression of introspection! Truly hope he does something awesome again. The capability has always been there
A SATYA CONFESSION TO MYSELF
—— Ram Gopal Varma
By the time SATYA was rolling to an end , while watching it 2 days back for 1st time after 27 yrs, I started choking with tears rolling down my cheeks and I dint care if anyone would see
The tears were not just for the film, but were more for what happened since
Making a film is like giving birth to a child originating from throes of passion without truly realising what kind of a child I am giving birth to
That’s because a film is made in in bits and pieces without one really knowing what’s being made and when it is ready the concentration is on what others are saying about it and after that ,whether it’s a hit or not, I move on too obsessed with what’s next to reflect and understand the beauty of what i myself created
Till 2 days back I ignored the countless inspirations it sparked by dismissing it as just another step in my journey towards an objective less destination
Coming back to the hotel after the screening of SATYA, and sitting in the dark i I din’t understand why with all my so called intelligence, I did not set this film as a benchmark for whatever I should do in the future
I also realised I didn’t just cry for the tragedy in that film but I also cried in joy for that version of myself .. And I cried in guilt for my betrayals of all those who trusted me due to SATYA
I became drunk not on alcohol but on my own success and my arrogance though I didn’t know this till 2 days back
When the bright lights of a RANGEELA or a SATYA blinded me, i lost my vision and that explains my meandering into making films for shock value or for gimmick effect or to make a vulgar display of my technical wizardry or various other things equally meaningless and in that careless process, forgetting such a simple truth that technique utmost can elevate a given content but it can’t carry it .
Some of my later films might have been successful but I do not believe that any of them had the same honesty and integrity which is in SATYA
My very unique vision that drove me to create something path breaking in cinema also blinded me to the value of what i myself made and I became a man hurriedly running so fast looking up towards the horizon. that I forgot to look down at the garden I’d planted beneath my feet , and that explains my various falls from grace
I obviously can’t make any amends now for what I already did , but i promised myself 2 nights back while wiping away my tears , that every film I make from now onwards will be made with a reverence towards why I wanted to become a director in the 1st place
I might not be able to make a film like SATYA ever again , but not even having an intention to do so is an unpardonable crime against Cinema
I don’t mean that I should keep making films like SATYA but irrespective of the genre or the subject matter the least it should have is the sincerity of SATYA
When Francis Coppola was asked by an interviewer about a film he made after GODFATHER, whether it will be as good , I could see him squirming because i could see that it din’t occur to him
No one asked me about any film I was about to make post SATYA whether it will be as good, but what’s worse is that I din’t ask myself
I so wish I could go back in time and made this one cardinal rule for myself , that before deciding on any film to make , I should watch SATYA once again… If I followed that rule I am sure I would not have made 90% of the films I made since then
I truly mean this as a wake up call to every film maker , who just gets carried away in self indulgence due to his own state of mind at any given moment without measuring it against the standards set by either themselves or others
Finally now i took a vow that whatever little of my life is left , I want to spend it sincerely and create something as worthy as SATYA and this truth I swear on SATYA
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Something tells me we are in for a very nauseating version of Supriya Shrinate for a very long time to come. It's time to spend more time in Netflix and shit.
My greatest regret with these elections is that not ONE party is talking about investing in education. How can this country afford to NOT invest 6% of GDP for the next decade? We have to salvage a generation worth of skillless grads. Use the private sector, hold them to account
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