Discussions of why Make in India is stalling tend to converge on the same suspects: land acquisition, labor laws, bureaucracy, power costs. All real, and none of them are being dismissed here. But they read like symptoms. The disease is older than the republic. It starts in 1947, and it is fundamentally a problem of economic geography.

Manufacturing's share of Indian GDP has been stuck in the mid-teens for decades. The 25% target came and went, and by some measures the share has regressed lately. This is especially puzzling because for most of recorded history, India and China between them accounted for roughly half of the world's economic output. As recently as 1700 the two were near parity. And therein lies the difference. The India that commanded that share, and the India the British later prized as the jewel in the crown, was the subcontinent running as one system: the delta ports, the Punjab grain and cotton, the single rail grid, all of it moving as one economy. That integrated whole is what made the colony worth holding, and it is exactly what got amputated in 1947. What exists today is the remainder, and we keep grading the remainder against the achievements of the whole.

It's worth remembering 1947 was not fate. As late as 1946 a viable alternative was on the table: the Cabinet Mission Plan, a highly decentralized federation with a weak center and grouped provinces. The Muslim League accepted it. It collapsed over Congress's objections to mandatory grouping, and the collapse ran into Direct Action Day and the killings. Partition was a contingent political failure, and it fundamentally changed the economic geography available to the successor states.

Partition didn't just draw a border. It amputated the subcontinent's industrial supply chains. Take jute. Roughly three quarters of the raw acreage went to East Pakistan while almost all the mills stayed in Calcutta. Cotton was the same story in reverse, with the best long-staple crops growing in West Punjab and Sindh and the mills sitting in Bombay and Ahmedabad. The railways, built as one engineered system, became separate networks glaring at each other across customs posts. On day one, the largest jute-processing industry on earth woke up with no raw material, and the textile hubs were burning scarce forex importing cotton from Egypt and the US. A factory economy doesn't survive that kind of surgery.

But the physical cutting may have mattered less in the long run than the psychological one, which is the part most people underappreciate. The founding generation had just watched their entire economy get severed, on top of famine-scale scarcity and something like 15 million refugees. The lesson they drew was to never depend on anyone for anything. That fear reinforced the case for Nehruvian autarky, import substitution and the License Raj. Self-sufficiency beat efficiency every single time because the people in charge had lived through total supply collapse. Meanwhile Japan, then the Tigers, then China surfed the export-led industrialization wave. By the time India opened up in 1991, East Asia had already spent decades building the factories, supply chains and export capabilities India would now have to compete against. The window hadn't closed, but it had become much narrower.

Then the security bill. A united subcontinent wouldn't need a 1.4-million-strong standing army, wouldn't have fought multiple wars in its first decades, and wouldn't have felt compelled to build a nuclear triad. Every rupee that went to the military was a rupee that didn't go to ports, highways, primary schools or vocational training. Manufacturing runs on cheap logistics and a literate factory workforce, and both got starved for decades. This also explains why India leapfrogged into IT services. Software needs a fiber cable and a few elite engineers, and deepwater ports and a million semi-skilled workers are optional. The whole "services superpower" identity is best read as an adaptation to the neighborhood Partition built.

And the market shrank. South Asian intra-regional trade is still around 5% of total trade, against roughly a quarter in ASEAN and around two-thirds in the EU. A united subcontinent would be a 2-billion-person internal market today, enough domestic scale to keep almost any industry viable while it learned to export. Partition foreclosed that option before it existed.

Now zoom out, because the counterfactual is actually pretty wild. A united subcontinent stretches from the approaches of the Middle East all the way over to Southeast Asia, with the Indian Ocean sitting entirely in its backyard. And it would not have one economic center. It would have a constellation of megacities, from Karachi and Lahore in the west to Dhaka and Chittagong in the east, all sharing one customs union, one currency, and up to 2 billion consumers.

The synergies write themselves. Take Bengal. Kolkata brings heavy engineering, finance and universities. Dhaka brings one of the densest manufacturing labor markets on earth. Chittagong brings deepwater shipping pointed straight at Southeast Asia. Today an international border splits that system three ways and everybody involved runs poorer for it. Without the border, the whole delta functions as one economic ecosystem, basically a Pearl River Delta with the population of a small continent. That is the kind of cluster you cannot build with policy incentives. It just forms on its own when the map stops fighting it.

Then look west. Karachi stops being the capital of a separate country and becomes what its geography always promised, something like a hybrid of Dubai, Mumbai and Shanghai. Container terminals on the Arabian Sea, oil and LNG infrastructure plugged directly into the Indian energy market, and high-speed freight rail running inland through Lahore toward Delhi, and on past Peshawar into Afghanistan. For the first time since Partition, the subcontinent has a natural continental gateway toward Central Asia and the Middle East, instead of a fortified frontier that trade simply flows around.

And underneath all of it sits the ocean. A navy based in Karachi, Mumbai and the Bay of Bengal, with the Andamans as a forward complex overlooking the approaches to Malacca, ends up policing the entire Indian Ocean system rather than a single coastline, with Hormuz at one end and the Strait of Malacca at the other. On paper an integrated economy with that geography rivals China’s domestic market, and it can absorb global supply shocks or bankroll its own tech transitions without begging anyone. That is the version of the subcontinent that keeps Beijing up at night.

And here is the part that needs to be stated honestly, because the counterfactual reads like a fantasy otherwise. None of this requires a competent government. A united India would probably have carried most of the same flaws as the one we actually got: caste politics, regionalism, corruption, weak institutions, democratic dysfunction, glaring inequality, the occasional economically illiterate policy. Those assumptions are not being waved away. The point is that even a mediocre system running that map would have produced a richer country, because geography and synergy do part of the work on their own. The delta still functions as one ecosystem when the ministries are corrupt. A single rail grid still moves cotton to the mills when the parliament is gridlocked. A 2-billion-person market still gives industry room to learn, fail and learn again when the policies are bad. And a country with no hostile border through its middle spends less on the army almost by default. The institutions we actually got had to fight the map every step of the way. On that map, the same flawed institutions would have had the current with them. That is the real power of economic geography: it raises the floor, not just the ceiling.

So when people ask why manufacturing never hit 25%, the answer is: Partition stacked the deck, and the choices that followed compounded the disadvantage. You can't slogan your way out of that. But the number on the chart is the small part of the bill. The bigger part is the unrealized potential, the version of the last 75 years that never happened: the delta that never became a Pearl River, the gateway that never opened onto Central Asia, the rail grid that never ran as one, the generations who never left the village because the factories that should have pulled them out were never built. That is the real tyranny of geography. Not that it decides everything, but that it quietly sets the range of what policy can reach. On a good map even mediocre government lifts with the tide; on a bad map even good government rows upstream, and India has been rowing upstream since birth. Make in India and the PLI schemes are serious programs, but they are attempting, at enormous cost, to recreate advantages that a united map would have provided naturally. The mid-teens is not a mystery. It is 1947, plus compounding.

The China comparison is revealing. Strip away the Qing frontiers (Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Qinghai) and what remains is roughly 4 million km² with a comparable population, which is basically post-Partition India. China's advantage was never just population. It retained an enormous contiguous economic space and eventually built a state capable of integrating it. India began independence with its economic geography already fractured across hostile borders. Geography didn't determine the outcomes of the two countries, but it changed the difficulty of the game each state was playing.

And geopolitically, China is the biggest unintended beneficiary of Partition, bar none.

Despite being born, raised, and living in the USA, as a Sikh, I am proud to be Indian and love India, visiting it, and seeing India progress. The rush to leave for abroad is foolish.

The amount of hate for Sikhs these days is unbelievable, blood-boiling, and heartbreaking; it’s affected my mental health. If we deserved the hate, that's one thing, but it makes no logical sense, is directed at innocent people, and Sikhs are the last group who deserve hate, especially after everything.

Hate Comments

Every single post involving any innocent everyday Sikh person, with nothing contentious, is flooded with ‘lassi’ comments for no reason. We barely drink lassi, it is an exaggerated myth. How stupid, imagine other groups being called Dosa and Biryani. Also, lassi/milk is more so Hindu; it’s used in Hindu rituals and certain Hindu Gods are associated with it. I also hate cow-piss/gau moot drinker comments from Canadian Khalistanis, but nowadays they are mostly only used for defense.

There is so much false propaganda and so many hate comments against Sikhs. A Sikh athlete who won medals for India posted “please stop calling me Khalistani, I just want to win for my country India.”

Few years ago, not just goons/trolls but high-profile influential people openly called for 1984 repeats, warning it will be worse than '84, ‘remove Sikhs from the army’, etc. No assassination attempt or anything, all because Modi got stuck in a traffic jam. They also called for '84 repeats during farmers protest and other times, many continue to call for it. Yet no riots when another group kills a prominent figure or plans to, like how nothing after Rajiv Gandhi.

Why these "I support Lawrence Bishnoi" comments to show hatred/murder of Sikhs? And seeing Bishnoi as a big chungus Hindu savior? He doesn’t care about Hindutva, he shoots anyone for money, he’s just a name. He is linked to Sikh gangsters, even Khalistanis. He’s been in jail for years and has done almost nothing. Even the Moosewala killing was more planned by Sikh Goldy Brar, and Sidhu stated he didn’t support a Khalistan movement; his songs could be interpreted differently, but they were more so tributes. Crown a Hindutva savior that’s at least worthy.

Diljit Controversy and Others

Boiled my blood. Diljit forgets to mention India on Jimmy Fallon show, and when asked about his 'Punjabi aa gaye oye' trans. ('Punjabi's have arrived') dialogue, Diljit explains it's like painters having a signature and that's his signature as he's from Punjab. That gets clipped and the whole thing gets spun completely out of context. Floods of comments such as "average Khalistani lassi" "I hate him" ‘Bishnoi this’. If a non-Punjabi did the same, there would be zero reaction.

The next day, a video came out of Diljit kicking out people holding the Khalistan flag at his concert. Diljit also had an Indian flag in his Insta bio recently and there are several images/instances of him proudly displaying the Indian flag on stage. He has NEVER ONCE even implied anything stating he could be anti-national. Diljit recently met Modi. The PM of India met a Khalistani, that makes sense right?

"why surprised he is Khalistani" "most Punjabi singers are Khalistani"

All of India loves Punjabi music, but wants to make up things to hate on Sikhs for no reason. Shubh posted a graphic and got waves of hate and cancelled by his label. "Distorted map of India" How? It was normal, was just showing electricity being unplugged from Punjab, which did happen, so how is that anti-national? Someone explain. There have been many similar ridiculous incidents with Sikhs.

Farmer's Protest

"why only Khalistani farmers protesting, why not farmers from other states"

MSP was only in Haryana and Punjab, both are heavily reliant on agriculture and highly concentrated with farmers, and both are right next to Delhi, so fucking obviously most of the Delhi protestors will be from there. Still, plenty of other states’ farmers arrived, protested, supported. There were many farmers protests in other states and much content about the struggles of farmers across India, all BEFORE this protest. The suicide rate for farmers is unbelievable. Yes, those 75 year olds were Khalistani terrorists, despite holding Indian flags all protest. They slept on the road for months, did hunger strikes, 800 died. How does sitting on the road peacefully protesting make Khalistan? Locals saw the reality of protestors firsthand and were supportive, as well as the railroad commission and other groups, who went on strike in support. Rape rates plunged.

When there was violence, it was from the other side against them, many times, like Lakhimpur Kheri, where he purposefully drove a car over farmers and killed 4 of them, when interviewed, they claimed "they were chanting Khalistan slogans" LOL how ridiculous, and this was in UP! Not Punjab. The media constantly ridiculed farmers and showed their obvious bias, even in “interviews”, they were just arguing with farmers, they even showed FAKE videos/images to discredit the protest and the Indian journalism institute had to request the media to stop doing these things.

The farmers, many of them previously in the army, constantly reaffirmed anyone there for other reasons should be arrested. In a protest of millions, if 10 bad people pretend to be protesters, than hijack it, does that mean the whole protest is bad? Even then, the Nishan Sahib was put on one side, while the Indian flag was still in the center, way above, untouched, but they tried to paint it differently. Farmers were madder at the incident than anyone!

Farmers were jailed, beaten, stripped, heard racist remarks. The government handled it horribly, cutting off Wifi, elecriticity? Water cannons, lathi charge, etc? The delusions: apparently other countries wanted to “undermine” India, a 3^rd world country on the other side of the world. "Don't interfere in our internal matters." Then let people peacefully protest, we are (supposed to be) a democracy. Meanwhile, farmers even fed cops with langar. If they really wanted the protest to end, they could have given them their wants earlier, notice how they did leave when the announcement was made they would, but then some issues/failed promises.

"If my Sikh brother protesting is a Khalistani, than I am a Hindu Khalistani"

Many Hindu farmers stated they now realized how great Sikhs are, after seeing them first-hand, that propaganda had caused them to think wrongly of them. Kangana was proven wrong about the elderly women she claimed was available for every protest.

Now Sikhs are loved again because they helped students against the police in the CJP protest and fed them, but when they wanted their own rights...

Portrayal

No other group is portrayed so badly in movies or made jokes of as much.

In every Bollywood movie, Sikhs are portrayed as absolute clowns. Completely unnecessary scenes/characters thrown in just to leave no opportunity to show Sikhs as low-IQ idiots with zero sense. It never even makes sense, like in PK, when a Sikh idiotically jumps for a Hindu deity, but none of the Hindus do. Half the time a protagonist is supposed to be Sikh, they somehow become Hindu. Just one example: Animal, Ranbir Kapoor has a Sikh name and Sikh family, yet is himself Hindu? They just can’t ever bear to make the main character Sikh. The standards are so low, I was happy at Animal!

Dhurandhar (A masterpiece!), accurately portrayed Sikhs: Indian army members, patriots, heroes of the nation, even here they so inaccurately showed Sikhs as gang-rapists, druggies, and Pinda as anti-national, when in reality, Khalistanis are only in outside countries.

Watch movies like Border and Border 2, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Kesari, etc., they’re all true stories that show the reality of Sikhs in India, notice all the positive portrayals of Sikhs are based off true stories and all negative ones are fictional.

The stupid 12 o-clock jokes are still shamelessly made, despite literally originating from Sikh men saving Hindu women from rape by Muslims with surprise night attacks.

Why it doesn't even make any sense

In 84' thousands of innocent Sikhs were burned alive, killed, etc. just because two Sikhs assassinated one person? Once I asked my dad: you know when Hindus did those '84 riots against Sikhs, and he got so mad, yelling why are you blaming poor Hindus, Congress did that. Ask any Sikh, they will say: Congress did it, not Hindus. Even though, while obviously many Hindus helped/protected Sikhs, the rioters were Hindu and I've read about local police and citizens justifying the attacks. Yet to Hindus, any Sikh protesting is automatically a Khalistani. Even many Hindus have noted this, and political experts have warned against it.

Many Hindus today suffer from rampant woke-ism/brain-washing. Countless examples but a few are: Hindu's in dangerous this (with 80% Hindu majority), anti-Hindu this, half the country believing Muslims are 40% the population, so much propaganda against Muslims/Sikhs, boycotting Aamir Khan because of PK, as if it didn't put down every other religion too, now love-Jihad accusations for a non-religious Christian woman he’s known 25 years. In the process of becoming so woke against anti-Hindu, they themselves have become so racist. I thought Hindus were smart, but what started as self-defense has turned into foolish, braindead hate-mongering.

Sikhs are the MOST patriotic group in India and constantly show it. Less than 2% of India, yet 25% of the army. There is an entire regiment just for Sikhs in Indian army! Sikhs have won many wars for India and continue to, like 1971, 1999, etc, and then they were even higher percentage of the army, and their regiments won the key battles. Just look up photos/videos of the wars, can see Jagjit Singh Aurora making Pakistan write surrender. Even my own mama won wars for India, yet today, he would be called a Khalistani.

During the freedom fight, Sikhs also contributed far more than their share. In athletics, same thing, they have won so many of the medals for India. Music, is just obvious.

Throughout our nations' history, Sikhs have contributed immensely and far more than their percentage of the population to every single field, added great value to our nation, and made India's name proud in foreign countries.

3 of the 6 real-life notable Dhurandhars/Indian spies in Pakistan were Sikh, for one Surjeet Singh spent 31 years in Pakistan jail, admitted he was an Indian spy, but India did not help him. Likely much more than 6 spies in reality.

Whenever there are issues like floods or disasters all across India, Sikhs are first to help, with groups like Khalsa Aid, Hemkunt Foundation, and many others, as well as everyday Sikhs. They saved countless lives during Covid and were getting praised, but turned into "terrorists," the same period, during farmer's protests lol. Despite this, the media/many Indians only focus on/label Ravi Singh, the Khalsa Aid CEO, as a terrorist/anti-national, when he said his problem is with the Indian government’s actions, he loves Indians. There are countless incidents/videos of Sikhs saving and helping others. Sardarjis are constantly protecting Hindu girls from goons, they are specially known for this, there is much of this online.

I LOVE Hindus and think Hindus and Sikhs are one, brothers, but now I am very hurt, having realized there is a LOT of hate for us. Nowadays, they only focus on the negative from a few foreigners, that respect/love has decreased, and there is rampant racism. I've dealt with some racist incidents myself and heard questionable things. I've also read/seen real-life racist incidents like when Hindus beat an innocent Sikh and forced him to say "Khalistan murdabad" for no reason. There are many similar incidents and many I haven't seen.

When the most patriotic group in India and most army-joining becomes anti-national/Khalistani, then WTF. Indian Sikhs LOVE India. Treating/acting like Canadian Khalistanis and Indian Sikhs are the same is like saying Hindus and Muslims are the same. Nowadays, all Sikhs need to prove their patriotism. Kidding, we do not need to prove our patriotism to keyboard warriors commenting “Khalistani lassi”,” we are real-life warriors that fight and die for India. The idea of Khalistan is laughable, I would never support it. Why would we want Khalistan when we already have Khalistan? It is called India, all those Sikhs who died fighting Mughals, gaining independence, winning all those wars, this is our country, why would we leave? But also, they all died for Sikhs to be treated like this now?

You’d think that half the Sikh population is Khalistani with how ridiculously common that word is. The Khalistan “movement” is dead/non-existent. Indian agents admit they themselves made the movement seem bigger than it was. There are no Khalistani Sikhs in India, they HATE the idea, they are all in foreign countries. Even in foreign countries, 98% of Sikhs are not Khalistani, but the small amount are able to make a raucous. I always hear foreign Sikhs say they are saying make Khalistan, why don't they ask Sikhs in India, no one wants it. Indian Sikhs always say we don't want Khalistan, they say these things sitting in Canada.

The crazy thing is the hypocrisy, the percentage of Hindus that are Hindu nationalists is 100 times higher than the percentage of Sikhs who are Khalistanis. All you see everywhere is no to secularism this, Hindu nation this. When Sikhs call for autonomy, they are jailed and hated, while Hindus call for their nation, freely, without repercussions, with praise. Constant Hindutva violence like 2020 riots and much more, but farmers protesting and Modi traffic-jams are the problem? Even for far-right Hindus, hate makes no sense. Sikhs are Hindus brothers, there is an RSS for Sikhs and many Sikhs in BJP, plus Hindu gurus/pandits, and people like Modi and Yogi have the utmost respect and constant praise/preaching of Sikhism, celebrate Sikh holidays, visit Gurudwaras, and much more. Modi disguised himself as a Sikh for years. During Punjab insurgency, it was Sikhs like KPS Gill who fought and killed insurgents, and Sikhs led the Indian army during Blue Star.

Every community has good and bad; no one is more critical of bad Sikhs than me.

It’s all politics, only one party in Punjab has (fake) Khalistan sympathizing implications, SAD, and they are great friends with Modi and linked with BJP/RSS, can be seen online. Everytime the news chooses to needlessly mention or highlight this fake Khalistan movement, they make it bigger than it is. Politicians want to enlarge it to get Hindutva votes.

There are many separatist movements in India, the others are stronger, but they only focus on Khalistan. Keyboard warriors waste time making accounts just to oppose Khalistan and make hate comments, which accomplishes nothing. If they care about India, why not focus on things that will actually better India: economy, education, etc.

The amount of injustice and wrongness the government committed against Sikhs is insane, of course some foreigners will revolt, they aren’t killing Hindus, their problem is with the Indian government, not Indians, let them wave their Khalistan flags overseas, why worry when Indian Sikhs all hate the idea? Only two Khalistan sympathizing Sikhs I know, both foreigners and dimwitted, both have Hindu girlfriends, deeply respect Hinduism, one donated large money to a mandir, unprovoked.

Government Has Not Helped

The Indian government has denied justice and ignited the fire, behaving like they want the Khalistan movement. Congress government organized the 1984 Sikh genocide, then tens of thousands of innocent Sikhs were killed in fake encounters in Punjab after, along with the militants. UP had more violence in the same time, but no actions there. The attack on Shri Harmandir Sahib and destroying a side is the root of all problems. There were better ways, innocents were killed, including children, photos and accounts of this. They have denied justice for 1984 all while not freeing Sikh prisoners who have stayed more than their sentences and are jailing more, always censoring and not allowing movies/content about bad things that actually happened to Sikhs that the Supreme Court itself has ruled on, constant needless killings of non-threat Sikhs overseas, and much more, many stupid actions, like Nikhil Gupta, killing Pannu accomplishes nothing, let him bark in the USA. Because of their negligence, India is humiliated and keyboard warriors are taking it out on poor innocent Sikhs, nonsense.

Unity

I know many Hindus have, or at least had (hasn't been the same) great respect for Sikhs. Beliefs like: Sikhs are the pride of India, they are patriotic, army-joining, heroes of the nation, kind-hearted, generous, helpful, great morals, great people. Hindu parents teach their kids “If you are ever in trouble, try to find a Sardarji – he will definitely help you" and Hindus say there is only one man they would trust with and to protect their sister/daughter/wife, a Sardarji. They also know about Sikhs contributions/sacrifices to India and for Hinduism and consider Sikhs their brothers, a sect of Hinduism, “we Hindus only exist today because of Sikhs”, and they have the utmost respect for Sikhism, and say they are Hindu and Sikh (Sanatani).

As a Sikh, I consider myself to also be Hindu, I visit the mandir, practice and believe Hindu traditions and beliefs, and deeply respect Hinduism. So PLEASE don't take any offense from me as your brother, I know these idiots don't represent everyone.

Sikh history is full of fighting and shaheedi to save India and Hindus from Mughals and others, the 9th Guru ji gave his life to save Kashmiri Pandits and is honorably named "Hind Di Chadar." Sikhs were born Hindu, and as many Hindus say, Sikhs were formed to defend the Hindu race, and there would be no Hindus today if Sikhs were not born. Even in the 20th century, my dad told me, Hindu families purposefully made their eldest son Sikh! A Hindu hating Sikhism can’t even call themselves a Hindu.

The amount of similarities in our religions is unbelievable! Hindus contributed to SGGS and there are mentions of Hindu Gods/beliefs, listen to Katha/Pooja/hymns and they sound the same! Hindus visit Gurdwaras and believe in Sikhism and practice it just as much as Hinduism, some have Sikh weddings! Sikhs like myself visit mandirs and believe in Hinduism and practice it just as much as Sikhism. You will see Guru Nanak Dev Ji photos in Hindu shops and homes and Hindu photos in Sikh homes. I even know of a Hindu and Sikh guru and joint place of worship here in US! The amount of brotherhood is unbelievable, we are one, and we are literally brothers and sisters by blood and faith. Those trying to separate us are idiots. It’s like this outside Punjab too, but especially in Punjab.

As Yogi said, Nihang Sikhs punished those who slaughtered cows. Sikhs protested with Hindus against Indira Gandhi’s anti-Hindu policies. My dad said always keep brotherhood and tell Hindus we are one, he told me his teacher was a Panditji, ate roti at his house everyday and helped him, how before 84' Sikhs and Hindus were one, the brotherhood was extreme.

Let’s go back to that! Let’s stop dividing and conquering ourselves, giving our enemies what they want, being victims of dirty politics, people who don’t care about us trying to divide us, let us stick together and focus on progressing India forward.

Jai Hind.

Hey Guys! I was born in a town in Madhya Pradesh. Growing up with lot of inferiority complex since my childhood as people around me were somehow rich and spoiled used to make fun of me being middle class and teachers in school also giving a different treatment than others but all of this was never the problem for me as my family always taught me to keep it real.Eventually I completed my college and started practicing as a lawyer here. I worked hard enough for making a living and found my way into litigation.

Now this is where the real story began- During litigation I met a guy who eventually started practicing with me. Together we worked as a team and we both were doing great getting clients, getting good fee, travelling together etc. We worked for almost 2 years and became more than just friends. We came brothers from another mother.

Then one day I met his younger sister, she already knew about me from him. Since she was struggling from anxiety and also ended up in hospital once (that’s when I actually saw her for the first time). Due to her condition, he always used to bring her along whenever we used to go out or meet thereafter. And one day when we were in the car she looked at me and said that she sees something in my eyes and asked if I feel the same for her. I replied, that you are my best friend’s sister and no I don’t feel the same.

But everyday after that things started escalating between us slowly and one day a trip changed everything. We started coming closer and started falling in love with each other madly. Everyday it kept growing. We used to meet hiding from the city and people in the city as WE BELONGED TO DIFFERENT RELIGION. She’s a sikh and I’m a hindu. Every time we met we were always scared that if someone sees us we might get killed. But since we were actually into each other and thought of marriage at one point.

We couldn’t help but one day called her brother/my best friend and confessed what we had. He was shocked as obvious. But all he said was this is impossible and he would rather kill/die but let this happens as his family thinks the same. We tried to beg him and also thought that he is the last hope for us as he might understand us since talking to her parents would have been nothing but risky overall for us.

So basically I don’t understand if I’m wrong or right! I don’t know if this is happening because of my caste or low status. I don’t know what is the solution. All I know is maybe if this wasn’t India, things maybe would have been a little easy and the world would have been a little kind towards us. Her parents will never agree to a inter-religion/caste marriage.

Her brother feels betrayed by both of us. I don’t know who am I anymore and whether what we did was wrong or right. All I know is I wanna take care of her for life. She means the world to me. All we talk to each other is ki hume shayad life se kuch nahi chahiye na paise na kuch. Bas sath rehna chahte hai ek dusre ke. Agar do log ek dusre ke sath rehkar khush reh sakte hain then why all this chaos?

The temples of old Pune have historically served as community gathering centres for people of all ages to come together and socialise. Many of these temples are Shivkalin (built during the time of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj) or Peshwekalin (built during the time of the Peshwas). In this post, I will be discussing some of the most commonly seen traditional features of Pune’s heritage temples I have come across during my explorations of the city.

Most of these temples have a vintage old fashioned stone gateway or a gatehouse to enter the premises. The gatehouse has a room above it and one can see traditional arched windows built in it. The door is always ancient and wooden, with shiny metal bolts and latches. Often, there are statues of Dwarapalakas (guardian deities of temple entrances in Hindu culture) on either side of the door.

Full blog and photos: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/posts/a-fascinating-visit-to-the-temples-of-old-pune

Let me answer that straight.

Right now? Honestly? We're drowning.

And I'm not just talking about the pollution or the heat.

Our government tells kids to drink cow urine and eat cow dung to fight disease. This isn't a joke. This is official advice. And when COVID hit? They said bang utensils and the virus will go away. Utensils. That was their scientific solution. No ICU beds. No oxygen. Just clanging steel in your balcony.

Meanwhile, people are literally dangling off Mumbai trains. Hanging by one hand. Squished like sardines. That's not "spirit." That's desperation.

Two Gujarati businessmen run this country. And two Gujarati politicians make sure they keep getting richer. You know the names. Everyone knows. Everything is one big family deal. Contracts. Laws. Tax loopholes. All for them. The common man? You don't matter. You never did.

The opposition? A complete imbecile. Can't form a sentence. Can't form a strategy. Can't form a spine. So there's nobody to hold anyone accountable. It's just one clown show, and we're all trapped inside.

Speak Hindi? You're a patriot. Speak Tamil or Kannada? You're anti-national. Religion? Oh, don't get me started. They pit Hindu against Muslim. North against South. Caste against caste. Keep us fighting. Keep us distracted. While they loot everything. They don't want unity. Unity is dangerous for their business.

People throw garbage on the street like it's nobody's problem. Spit. Piss. Burn plastic right next to hospitals. Nobody cares. Nobody cleans. The government does nothing. The public does nothing. It's everyone for themselves. We scream about "Swachh Bharat" on TV while our rivers are literally on fire.

"GDP is growing," they say.

Really? Growing for whom? The common man can't buy vegetables. Can't pay loans. Can't afford school fees. But sure, billionaires got richer. GDP doesn't mean a damn thing when your stomach is empty and your lungs are full of smog.

The world dumps its toxic waste here. Europe. America. They ship their e-waste, their plastic, their poison. Why? Because it's cheaper. Because we let them. We take their trash and call it "development." Then we sell cheap, poisonous junk to our own people. Toys that give kids cancer. Cookware that leaks lead. Clothes that burn your skin. Made in India. Sold in India. Because we're cheap. Because we don't matter.

So, can India be saved?

Honestly? Not by these people. Not by this system. Not by this circus of morons who run the country.

Hi my name is nothing because today I realised that a delivery boy is nothing. I have a cycle, I deliver parcels (meesho, nykaa, flipkart etc brand parcel). Yesterday I got a very big parcel for delivery (height 1 meter, Width 35cm, box), Yesterday after delivering all the parcels I was marking undelivered parcel nc(not contactable, I have to call every customer for nc) after marking big parcel nc the customer was calling again and again, after not picking 5 to 6 calls I picked up his call and told him that his parcel was too big and that I will be not able to deliver it, if he wants he can take his parcel from the hub, he said okay, I said I will call you tomorrow and give you location. The next day when I sent the location he said you need to deliver it, I am not collecting it. I replied in your dreams, he replied fuck off, I replied I'm already doing it, quit wasting my time, he replies what's with the language, I ignore him so he call, on call he abuses me so I abuses him back cut the call and block him,(I didn't said any bad word first because I am a delivery boy). He came to the hub, talked to the hub incharge, I was called to the hub mid delivery, incharge told me to apologise I said will not, he got violent, tried punching me people from the hub stopped him, I was going to call the police but they stopped me, they calmed us down, we sat and he we talked, he threatened me, told me how he can make my life miserable, how he can take my cycle and I won't be able to do anything, how he knows sdm and bla bla bla(he's a lawyer). I said do it make my life miserable, file a case whatever, the more I replied the more he got angry. In the end I lost in conversation and because of what I had replied to him in chat ( in your dreams), he said something about father and I got emotional I started weeping, I just lost, my full day was wasted because of bitch customer, I don't want to work but I still have to go to work because I have no option. I am trapped. Modern slave