The Supreme Court on Monday directed SBI to fully disclose all the information it has on electoral bonds purchased since April 12 2019, including the unique serial number associated with each on March 21. Until then, here is a graphical overview of everything we know, we don't know, and we won't know about electoral bonds even after Thursday.
Inspired by @agasramirez I tried my hand at silog, but with ghee instead of butter or oil, and added curry leaves 🍃 This is partly because for some reason, I don't feel confident enough to make @skinnylatte 's favourite muttai kalakki yet. I think this would be perfect for cold wintry or rainy days, esp. when I need low-effort meals or a change of taste.
Delighted that this is my first attempt at a SE Asian recipe, and a definite W at that! 🥳
Recently I came across an article in Mint Lounge where journalist Shrabonti Bagchi shares the following regarding Mastodon.
I do have an account on Mastodon but even signing up for it feels hard and difficult to understand (what are “instances”?). I don’t want to be on Github, I just want my daily dose of LoLs and fights with men’s rights activists.
It is unfortunate and surprising that Shrabonti Bagchi found Mastodon challenging to understand and signup. She is a senior journalist and her opinions will obviously influence readers in India. It seems likely that her ideas on Mastodon are not isolated. I read and appreciate many of her columns or reports on Mint Lounge.
The best analogy of Fediverse, including Mastodon, is email. If we understand Gmail, GMX mail, Proton mail, Tuta mail, Outlook mail, Yahoo mail etc., then we should understand Fediverse. Fediverse is a collection of interconnected servers, also called instances, that run software compatible with a set of open protocols. Isn’t that similar to email?> Fediverse is a common name for social media sites that cooperate instead of competing. One can sign up for just one site, and follow anyone in the world, just like sending them an email.
In my opinion, the sign up process, in any Fediverse instance, is much simpler compared to X, Instagram, Facebook etc. All one needs is a verified email account, username and password. What further simplification is required?
This article also provides excellent clarity regarding what is Fediverse and how it might affect creators. I will be glad to help anybody get started with Fediverse.
Journalist Jason Koebler reaffirms my thought that an instance of Fediverse is not difficult to sign up and use. Though he talks about Mastodon here, it is applicable for Fediverse.
So, Mastodon:
Not difficult to sign up for
Not difficult to use
Has an app like every other social media network
Not owned by world’s richest man
Not owned by a company whose main platform has been credibly accused of facilitating genocide by the United Nations
Not funded by the guy who made the last place, which sold itself to the world’s richest man
Doesn’t have a crypto thing going on
Free and open source
Administered by a crowdfunded nonprofit
Decentralized, portable, and interoperable
I have been contacting Indian media outlets and journalists via email and private conversations for the past few weeks, asking them to publish their work on Fediverse. They most likely know everything there is to know about Fediverse and Mastodon. Since I value their work and thought that having them in Fediverse would have been advantageous for them in the mid term, I made the requests. My requests were met with silence and nominal response. They prefer Facebook, Instagram, X and Threads since they believe that they can connect with their audience better than those few in Fediverse.
Now, after reading Jason Koebler's article, I have a better understanding of this context.> Anyways, I am using Threads, and I will continue to use Threads, because I am a pragmatic person who wants to connect with readers wherever they are because my livelihood and my reporting relies on it. If Threads "wins," I will submit and use it daily, probably for the rest of my career. Right now, I feel like my brain is falling out of my skull at all times because in order to spread the articles we publish on this upstart website, I need to think about the slightly different ways in which I will share it on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Instagram, LinkedIn, BlueSky, TikTok, etc. All things considered, I’d like to pick one and stay there, but that will result in fewer people reading our work and not meeting our readers wherever they are, which isn’t a smart move at this juncture. So, I’ll keep using Threads, but I will not become an evangelist for one of the biggest companies in the world because it is slightly less bad than the alternative, when an actually moral alternative with none of that baggage exists.
Spicy Kongunad kozhi kuzhambu as per Kannamma Cooks 🫶🏽 a fantastic and quite easy recipe, even for an amateur like me, with measurements meticulously listed.
Got mildly scalded when making the fried spice paste because the mixer wasn't closed right and I got splashed with the hot oily water when I switched it on 🔥 Just Mars squaring the Moon, not a big deal, just enough to make me pay attention.
Tagging @skinnylatte because we were talking about this 🍃
Official estimates show that textiles is the second-biggest employer in India after Agriculture. And yet, it is an under-utilised engine of India’s manufacturing push. Here are five charts that explain this in detail.
The curry tree (Bergera koenigii) in my (presently largely wild) garden had been distressing me all winter. It had become so barren and aphid-infested. Not anymore! Spring has peaked over here, and the trees and weeds are all in bloom 🌿 Quite a number of birds and butterflies, even a few bees, drop by everyday. I want to have nothing to do all morning but garden and doodle ✏️
And maybe cook with curry leaves, too 🍃 thinking of @skinnylatte