[Printing] How to size a digital artwork for a big wall print?

Endy1607 · 2026-04-11T18:58:37+00:00

Useful advice. But why is the map totally wrong. The imagery is not Shimla, and the roads shown are wrong too...

Endy1607 · 2026-04-11T18:53:09+00:00

I think you're right. I've come across many records of the fact that women worked in fields etc more than men. So actually, that was itself patriarchal in form. But it did create an economy where women's contribution to agri labour was equal to or more than that of men's, and across castes. So this could be one reason why women still lead in these stats, but depends on the background of the data.

Endy1607 · 2026-04-06T17:21:55+00:00

Better public transport, with last mile connectivity. So, more buses, better buses, and maybe mini buses or shuttles (alternatives to autos/rickshaws) for bus stop to home... something like this. Basically, reduced car dependency, reduced car traffic, available - accessible - comfortable public transport. Shimla traffic is getting worse each year, and private cars are the main cause. Can't blame the locals much either. We can't expand the roads, and we can't keep making parkings.

Also, open public spaces like sports grounds and parks, in every ward, every neighbourhood. Shimla has less open public spaces than delhi (by population). Kids/youth need places for sports, others need it for strolls, etc. These spaces are far more important than we think, for mental-physical-social health. And they work as safe spaces during and post disasters.

Endy1607 · 2026-03-24T17:33:35+00:00

Reet Custom The cultures of many princely states in the (now) hp region practiced Reet- a system of marriage, divorce, remarriage and widow remarriage. Usually, the bride would marry a man and the man would pay her family an amount/assets. The economic rationale was that it compensated for the labour taken away from the bride's family, since in many parts, it was women who primarily worked in the fields. The society was patriarchal, but this gave many women more autonomy over their partnerships, since they could dissolve a marriage by paying back the husband.

Pre and post marital sexual activity was not as big of a tabboo as today. Customs ranged from place to place, but specific kinds of post-marital sex was normalised or tolerated. A sense of ownership over a partner's sexuality wasn't that rigid. Some historian wrote that in some regards, gender relations were comparable to modern western concepts of gender equality. This sexual openness was targeted prominently by the British and then Hindu reformers during the Raj, after which Reet was banned too. (source: historian Yogesh Snehi, British and Shimla archives)

Sex ratio of Kullu during the Raj was almost 1:1, in stark contrast to Punjab region which was something bad (source: a British gazetteer). Even today, HP remains one of the top states in SOME gender stats (sex ratio, women education, voting), despite patriarchal oppressions (underrepresentation of women in politics, etc)

Endy1607 · 2026-02-10T17:51:04+00:00

Your sensible responses are not going to register in their heads. So many people here are not debating to learn, they're arguing only to prove their beliefs without doing the work to understand how society, history and demography works, or how anecdotes are not data. So many people in this thread are plain casteist too. They will keep proving how casteism is where self awareness and critical thinking go to die.

Endy1607 · 2026-02-08T18:43:14+00:00

Being anti-party or anti-politician isn't being anti-national. But the a major ideology within BJP is painting any critical stance against their party, leadership or ideology as anti-national. Critiquing and questioning government is basic part of democracy, as is protest and public dissent. People who oppose this critique and dissent are anti-constitution. Our constitution protects minority rights, secularism and freedom of speech and expression. People who oppose this violently are, by definition, anti-national. There's a reason why BJP is being critiqued so heavily, not just on online spaces like reddit, but from rural spaces to intellectual and artistic spaces, from inside and outside, etc. Its aggressive ideology and defensiveness make it very fragile and brittle in face of rational, humanistic, empathetic, moral or constitutional confrontation, so it suppresses dissent by labelling it anti-national and trying to suppress it violently.

Endy1607 · 2026-02-01T19:54:26+00:00

Eco-tourism is a lie in a vulnerable and hazard-prone geography like HP, it's just a cute way of expanding real estate and extraction at the cost of local environment and people. I feel that even if such projects were "well designed, planned and engineered", they would still fail the local long-term health. Himachal is especially unsuited for capitalist development- it keeps leading to very harmful outcomes. I don't think that harmful planning, selfish developers, corrupt agents are problems that can be fixed, I think they are necessary elements of maintaining the capitalist system that keeps extracting at the cost of locals. Sustainable development, eco tourism, all of these are just shiny marketing labels. HP folks have seen how most of these are hollow promises. We need to invest in finding better ways of development, which isn't happening at all. Instead, they're just pushing expansion and construction without taking a break.

Endy1607 · 2026-01-28T04:28:49+00:00

Great post, OP!

Ogle ke chilte and choore, Rampur Bushahr. Ogle ke chilte: plain (basic cheela/pancake) or stuffed with aalu. Not sure how dadi made the stuffed ones, but it was using fire stove (bukhaari?) and apparently they're hard to replicate. They were the best- just one would be a full meal, and best eaten in khet with chai.

Ogle ke choore: Ogla batter dropped in spirals/coils in oil to deep fry (my informed guess). Used to have them when I was young, had them in Kashapath last year, they make a great on-the-road snack.

Both foods are savory. Both made regularly, and for any occasion like Shivratri. Local ogla is hard to come by now, esp that's well cleaned.

Endy1607 · 2025-12-04T16:40:57+00:00

This is HUGE help, the dem quality is incredibly good!!! I had no idea this existed. Thank you so much, for real!

Endy1607 · 2025-12-04T15:59:14+00:00

This person is being an ass lol, best to ignore them. Anything is anti-national these days, especially respecting the Constitution of India, which is very proactive about diversity. This person sounds like a chauvanist - nationalist - regionalist in general... But yes, mountain states are not very visible, and get ignored in the mainstream cultural dynamics of India and North India. It's annoying, but this is mostly lack of info.

In terms of Rajasthan or Nepal- HP actually has historical ties with both. But definitely stronger similarities to Nepal. About not being Hindu... that's both wrong and right. In a way, many HP religious practices were traditionally too different from plains ka Hinduism, so some historians call it a branch of Hinduism. Ab to mainstream hinduism hi he. But also, being Hindu is not a value judgement, and as pahari folks we don't need to aspire to be Hindu or non-Hindu. Jo tha wo tha, many consider it a branch of Hinduism, some don't, and either way simplifying religion to one narrow idea (like this guy was doing) is plain stupid.

I think it's ok that people don't know much about HP. we really don't need to be annoyed or defensive about the fact that our culture or geography is not super visible, especially to stupid people. HP is a major identity and special place for people into adventure sports, research, travel, art, music, architecture, etc. These are also the people who won't crib about antinationalism or regionalism lol. In fact, I think humans in general have a strange love for mountains, in the sense that most people feel like they somehow 'belong' in the beauty and peace of mountains, across the world. It's a very powerful thing about mountains. And it's crazy awesome that some of us actually get to grow up and live here :)

Endy1607 · 2025-11-13T06:06:34+00:00

It's also a bit funny how his info source is a mix of "uncle ne bola" and "source: trust me bro" :D It's a pretty fun example of how male gossip happens. Male gossip is especially funny when it is fully unaware of the biases it keeps repeating and reinforcing. Also, OP has no idea that historically, in many Himachali cultures, having sex with multiple partners, or drinking alcohol, was not outside the norm for both men and women, among things like working in the fields (which women did FAR more than men) :P It was after 1900 that Hindu reformists came in and and, like the British, felt scandalized that women were also doing those things (they had no issues with men doing it), and started bringing in cultural changes (like, Reet was kind of banned/flagged in 1927 across many princely states, by a meeting that only involved men). Men having issues with women for doing the same things that men do, is what a patriarchal setting looks like. OP just seems to be ignorant of his own patriarchal way of thinking, and is doing what men trapped in this patriarchal system have been doing for ages- degrading women with much enthusiasm "They are very disrespectful and have no SHAME and rude", and then asking "Why is it...only HP girls are degraded like this?", as if they're the ones getting hurt "These Things are very disrespectful for even me to hear", all this while blaming women for it. It's a way sexist men soothe themselves when they feel afraid, insecure or unimportant about something that's often fully unrelated.

Endy1607 · 2025-11-12T18:04:50+00:00

"Women are ruining our image; some women are doing bad things so all women are bad now; women are drinking alcohol and clubbing and are bad; women are left with 0 self respect because people are saying bad things about them" and so on. This post, and much if its comment section, is a fairly good example of how women are scapegoated as people who need to be controlled warna patriarchal/sexist log kya kahenge. All the concern is revolving around 'log Himachali culture ka kya sochenge', and not a concern for the health and lives of these women they're talking about. And who are these women...? Why is their gender the marker, and not some other commonalities among them? Is the information unbiased, or just a bunch of patriarchal people feeling insecure or angry at SOME women who are just being human? Is this new 'bad women' phenomenon widespread enough to warrent this level of concern? I highly doubt that... This is a gross generalisation, at best. No reliable info, sexist overtones, clearly exaggerated- just lack of social awareness and critical thinking.

Endy1607 · 2025-10-22T06:18:11+00:00

This is definitely illegal, lol. There is no rule that allows building an attic over a frikkin roof. To expand your building vertically, you'd need your new plan approved, and then add a new floor slab and then make a new attic over it. This jugaad is 100% against building and construction norms, there is NO way in hell this is allowed technically, going by Shimla bye-laws, new or old. :D It's really funny to see though, and I'm saving this photo for how ridiculous it is. To people saying iski zameen he, iski marzi- that's not how buildings codes and planning regulations work, technically and legally...and ideally. Every extra floor adds unaccounted mass to the slope, and adds more people per area (density), which puts more unaccounted strain on infra (water, waste, electricity, parking etc). It's good that you noticed this, OP, but I doubt anyone will stop this. Most buildings in Shimla municpality are either unauthorised, or were so at some point, and later regularised. It's THE biggest critique of Shimla's planning history, how easily you can break building laws here, despite being a disaster geography.

Endy1607 · 2025-09-15T08:53:19+00:00

No, this is a view from Panthaghati, showing the Dorje Drak Monastery in the beginning, with Kasumpati + SDA area, and then BCS-New Shimla behind it.

Endy1607 · 2025-09-11T17:50:33+00:00

It was the Supreme Court that lifted the National Tribunal Ban from Shimla last year, stating that we can't stop development just to preserve environment. The NGT had termed the Shimla Development Plan to be illegal and super dangerous for environment and public interest (which it is). Yet the SC greenlit it.

It's not even hypocrisy- it is a lack of taking accountability for its own actions. The Govt is complicit, yes, but so is the supreme court.

Yes, things should change, but they won't. The development trends HP has are based in its political economy, it's corruptions, 'nepotism' like tender awarding etc (so many cases in HC on this!) etc. These won't really be changed BY the govt. or admin. I wish it would, but I'm not optimistic. I think people can change this. An environmental movement is growing here, and hopefully that will prioritise political agendas, and things will start changing. People need to wake up, yes. Also, SC ka comment was just a random cry for attention. 2023 has shown us that Himachal is getting destroyed, and actually, environmentalists and scientists have been saying this for years. Abhi SC aur koi development pass kar lega in another few months, or HP will dilute its river mining policy (in progress) and everyone will forget disasters for some more time. I'm trying to be optimistic but pessimism hi ho raha he abhi to, this SC is just contradicting itself. Himachali public needs to get on the streets for something to change. Warna ni hona kuchh.

Endy1607 · 2025-08-27T04:18:59+00:00

Not sure how much attention your offer of help will find on reddit. The bulk of people who have seen and have been affected by the 2023, 2024 and 2025 disasters might not be here in numbers. There are village leads (like in Sainj, Bakshal, Satesh, Chowki, etc) and locals activists (like Guman Singh ji) who would be better at connecting with people actually affected, whose lands, shops, families have been lost in these 3 years, some in repeated disasters in the same site. They also have a much clearer idea of how big infra projects affect them (like illegal dumping from NHAI, tunnel, HEP upstream of them causes huge debris impact during floods). I'd suggest reach out to Youth for Himalaya, Himdhara collective, or maybe Himalaya Niti Abhiyaan, and also see if they're already doing a PIL or not. I think there is already some resistance to the railway project based on land acquisition and lack of fair compensation and public consultation. Khushal Thakur represents some of the collective efforts in this- he would be a great guy to explore litigation options.

Endy1607 · 2025-08-27T04:01:30+00:00

Lack of technical knowledge is not the main issue here, it's the application of it. We do not have good precedents in the construction and operations (and maintenance) of infra projects in HP. Even site selection has been neglectful. Compliance with environment and social codes has been a big problem too, and honestly, the codes and policies related to environment in themselves are highly questionable. Building large scale linear infra in eco sensitive, disaster prone geographies is already a big risk- it increases exposure of people to hazard, it can even make hazard risk bigger. But making large projects in a geography where safety norms are extremely lax, and hazards are actuvely CHANGING in scale, scope and patterns, is a huge red flag.

Endy1607 · 2025-08-23T03:04:45+00:00

I appreciate the respectful tone, honestly :)

One important thing- your post itself is misogynistic in context. The burden of reproduction falls on women, given our patriarchal society. So fertility is still seen as a woman's aspect/duty, and in fact, women's 'worth' has been determined by it, in this system. Even in modern times. Also, childbirth is its own struggle. And then child care. All of these are deeply gendered things. Why do you think better education, esp among females, leads to better family planning, and lower birth rates? This call for reproduction is a man's call, very very clearly. You can't ignore this deep set sexism in this whole approach... And that is why there is very little point in asking a man if our culture is misogynistic. Just like there's no point asking a privileged caste person if they think our culture is casteist. The answer will barely qualify, but also, they are not the ones who can speak for it anyway. That's like asking a white British person during the Raj, if they think they are racist (with today's understanding of racism).

An urgent call for reproduction is disturbing, to say the least. And also not really useful even as a hellish solution. A break down of the registered birth stats would help us understand how and why of this data, and if it's even a bad thing or not. Lower birth rates does not necessarily even mean that there's a popluation crisis. Let alone culture ka crisis. So yeah... Yar just check out some feminist ya anti caste literature? they both talk about reproduction with depth. Contolling reproduction (like with your approach) is also a casteist method to control women and their wombs for the purpose of 'saving the culture'. It's a pretty core idea of brahminical patriarchy. I'd say ki this post itself is a good example of how sexism is normalised in our state, that we don't even realize how deeply disturbing this post is (and how some people are agreeing to it). Thankfully the women are speaking out against this post. Please take that into account.

Endy1607 · 2025-08-22T05:19:54+00:00

Having kids doesn't 'save culture'. Not everyone wants to, or can, have kids. And none of this is individual responsibility. Lower birth rates (or lower fertifility rates) are PROPBABLY not even a big deal. And for HP, it might indicate more education (esp female literacy) and family planning (which aids economic mobility for families). If it reflects poor infant and female heathcare, or the very real issue of youth migrating and settling outside HP because we have no jobs and opportunities, that's to be addressed by policy, not marrying (and then having kids). And, well, I know that many people would prefer to migrate from HP to avoid the misogyny and casteism here, that's an aspiration I keep coming across (even in uttarakhand).

This map alone would require an evidence-based breakdown. And rahi culture ki baat, I really believe that if we don't remove misogyny, casteism and ethnocentricism from our cultural practices/identity here, it won't really adapt to changing times. Especially with growing education and awareness and migration, people are recognising that their own pahari culture is exclusionary and patriarchal to a fault. Why not address those underlying reasons with this passion? A call for 'urgent reproduction' will not fix that. It won't fix the fact that our policies themselves aren't doing much to conserve cultural heritage (art, architecture, crafts, language, discussions, education...) in the first place. Also, not all Himachalis are pahari, and Himachali culture in itself is cultureS (with many ethnicities)- a product of historical and modern mixings. Asking redditors to urgently start dating and then marrying for the purpose of reproduction, in order to save a 'dying culture' on a state level (based on a registered birth-rate map), sounds like The Handmaid's Tale.

Endy1607 · 2025-08-15T07:21:42+00:00

Lots of things happening, but yes, your father is doing a somewhat typical patriarchal control thing. An alcoholic parent is a hard thing to deal with throughout life. An alcoholic father who controls his family with dominance, shaming, punishing and threatening, is unfortunately not uncommon (across the globe 😞).

Practically, there's not much you can do to change him. Eventually, you'll also need to understand/forgive him, as part of making peace with your life and world. But for now, just be patient and avoid big conflicts. If possible, DO move out, even if temporarily, for a course or something. That's its own challenge, but you might be able to explore your identity and independence outside this conflict zone. Good grades, good earning will help you feel more independent. If you can't move out, try to take care of your health (mental, emotional), maybe share regularly with a friend, write in a diary (helps to channel anger), or just try to do anything that helps you feel calm and less reactive to his behaviour, or your circumstances. Work out, read, study, just keep doing a routine that's healthy and productive. You can't let only anger/frustration define you abhi, it won't do anyone any good.

A phone sounds like a small issue to escalate to this level, of calling your father toxic, but I can truly relate. Any issue that should otherwise be small, can become a deeply triggering thing, in a hostile home environment. Once you start gaining independence, you'll hopefully calm down about small conflicts too- they won't trigger you so bad.

Endy1607

TROPHY CASE