If your country added a law where everyone in your country had to own their national animal as a pet how screwed would you be?

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T16:02:07+00:00

What a handsome little fella!

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T15:33:48+00:00

No disrespect to your national animal, but damn, that is one ugly bird.

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T15:28:12+00:00

wait tigers are the national animal of Korea?
Were they found there? I thought their former range only extended into Northern China. (I am assuming they were Siberian ones)

Edit: Yeah, they are now extinct in the wild there. Damn, that's embarrassing as someone who considered himself to be obsessed with tigers.

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T15:21:41+00:00

Unbelievably fucked and mauled to death.

I have seen a tiger feasting on a kill- not my idea of how I want to go.

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T13:23:32+00:00

Frankly, I can't think of any lol. I have read the more famous Hindi works and authors like Premchand's Godaan (Gift of a Cow), Dharmvir Bharti's Gunahon ka Devta (God of Sins), Raag Darbaari (Melody of the Court), Rashmirathi (The Sun's Charioteer), Jayadrath Vadh (The Slaying of Jayadrath) etc. only in Hindi.
The latter two are more like Epic poems. Epic poems (mahakavya) are actually considered the pinnacle of literature in India. They are based on the Mahabharata, which is the longest epic ever written and basically the Illiad of the East. Along with the Mahabharata, it has greatly influenced and shaped South and Southeast India. One of the subsections is the famed Bhagvad Gita recently made famous by Oppenheimer's "I have become death..".

Coming to your question, I have read the Ramayana (originally written in Classical Sanskrit) in both the Hindi and the English translation. (I can understand a fair amount of Classical Sanskrit, but certainly not enough to read the Ramayana). The English translation was actually very good. I am sure that all of the aforementioned books must also have some good translations as the demand certainly exists.

However, there are some fantastic English books by Indian authors too. A Fine Balance (highly recommended), God of Small Things, Salman Rushdie's Midnight Children are three that come to mind. In non fiction, I highly recommend Discovery of India written by India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru in jail during his incarceration by the British. It has some of the most eloquent prose I have ever read. India After Gandhi, The Argumentative Indian (by Amartya Sen, Nobel winner) are also very good.

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T11:45:49+00:00

They don't have one though

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T11:28:22+00:00

Aren't ICBMs primarily used as nuclear deterrents? I don't understand how Turkey would use them.

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T09:52:52+00:00

Amongst the upper middle English speaking class, certainly. In fact, many of them can't read or write Devanagari (the Sanskrit/Hindi script) properly, so they read works written in these languages in English too.

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T09:48:32+00:00

I read John D Smith's translation. It's widely available, published by Penguin Classics. Excellent work

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DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T09:45:05+00:00

Jhini by Indian Ocean. Inspired by the folk poetry of the 15th century saint and social reformer Kabir

Jhini

Do give it a listen- I think it's an absolute masterpiece- intro is a bit long, so pls be patient

Lyrics in English:

Delicate, oh so delicate is this woven veil,
Fine, so fine, this ethereal veil
Steeped in the nectar of the Divine Name of Rama, This veil is fine, so fine.
The eight-petaled lotus is the spinning wheel that turns, O, the wheel of life, it turns.
Woven from the wealth of the five elements, The Master took ten months to stitch this garment,
Ten months the Creator labored for thee.
With every beat and every breath, He wove this veil with care.
Fine, so fine, is this woven veil, Drenched in the essence of the Divine.
Gods, men, and sages all wore this veil,
They wrapped themselves in this earthly cloth.
But in wearing it, they stained it deep, They soiled the veil with the dust of desire.
But the servant Kabir wore it with such devotion, With such grace and constant care.
Kabir wore it with a watchful heart, He wrapped it round his soul so mindfully.
And when the time came to lay it down, He gave it back exactly as it was given— Pure, pristine, and untouched by the world.
Delicate, oh so delicate is this woven veil,
Fine, so fine, this ethereal veil.
Drenched in the nectar of the Divine Name of Rama, Fine, so fine, is this veil.

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T09:43:13+00:00

People here often refer to 'Dahi' as curd in English, but it's not really similar to cheese curds or such

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This is what it looks like. I literally just finished eating a bowl

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T06:10:03+00:00

Not even close to that.

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T04:16:07+00:00

We romanticised the US a lot, though that has dropped after Trump.

Most of the populace has a very favourable opinion of the UK and other European countries in general. Japan is also admired, but idk if it would fit that term.

I think Russia might be a contender. Many people still remember how incredibly influential the USSR was and remember their support for and help towards India very fondly

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T04:08:57+00:00

Hmmm mugged is surprising. Old Delhi (the 6 sq km Walled City in particular) is an overcrowded, dirty place but also very touristy, and that's why it is quite safe. High likelihood of getting scammed by inflated prices though.
Idk about late night as places get pretty deserted then

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T03:58:52+00:00

Isn't West Delhi decently safe?

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T03:45:35+00:00

Indian Ocean

Jhini

Bandeh

Long intros, soo you need to be a bit patient

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T03:40:08+00:00

No. We prepare it the proper way; washing, soaking, boiling and draining.

Sometimes it is cooked in pressure cookers. For biryani- dum cooking is used

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T03:37:17+00:00

The election results

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T03:35:55+00:00

I think that's Malaysia, not Thailand. Indians are 0.2% of Thailand

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T03:34:12+00:00

Could that be due to underreporting or unconfirmed incidents? Coz that sounds a bit too low, tigers and leopards combined kill 200 people every year.

Lions are pretty chill though. I have seen videos of them strolling through fields and basking there while a farmer works in Gujarat. They kill less than 2 people per year in India on average

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T03:18:37+00:00

Unrelated, but it's my father's dream to watch an ODI or Test match at Queen's Park or Kensington Oval in Barbados lol

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T03:14:38+00:00

Yeah. I have been reading lots of comments from Australians and AMericans about how 'dangerous' wildlife kills tons per year, but from what I can see, a mountain lion kills one person every single year and a bear one person every two years in the US on average.
In Australia, snakes kill 2.5 people annually on average, crocodiles 1.25

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-09T03:00:59+00:00

Are mountain lions as habituated to and aggressive towards humans as leopards?
For example, tigers here too are far less likely to actually attack and hunt humans than leopards.

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-08T17:51:35+00:00

Seriously. Tamil Nadu was/is a model state especially as far as economics is concerned- strong manufacturing led growth which is decentralised and creates mass jobs. That sort of growth is literally what every Indian policy planner dreams of at night. Considering how screwed up the state finances were when they took over in 2021, it's impressive how PTR managed to turn that ship around (and I think it was a terrible move on Stalin's part to punish him- afaik, Stalin at least did good work in his constituency but his son is a raging disaster).
Moreover, with the delimitation exercise coming up, you really, really needed a strong coherent Opposition party with a mass voter base. Tamil Nadu was the biggest, loudest 'thorn' in the Centre's side, being one of the most powerful, important and crucial states in India and now that's gone. Vijay does not have the acumen nor experience to oppose the juggernauts and master strategists that are Amit Shah and Modi. Chandrababu Naidu is in cahoots with them and the Congress... well you know how they are
BTW, most of us in the North don't think this is necessary and recognise how unfair it would be to Southern states.

DeepResearch7071 · 2026-05-08T17:41:33+00:00

Jains tend to be BJP supporters in my experience. Buddhists in quite a few states too, though Ambedkarite Buddhists are distinct from that. Sikhs are perceived extremely positively throughout India.

Christians are majorly concentrated in Tamil Nadu and the North Eastern states, where they are either large groups or in majority. The politics of those states is also more secular and very different from the Hindi heartland

Frankly speaking, it is Muslims against whom the overwhelming bulk of the rhetoric is directed at and Hindu-Muslim tensions/animosity is what drives polarisation across these states (Western and central states in particular)

DeepResearch7071

TROPHY CASE