2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

[darshan]

To legal eagles: why not resort to social media with a live recording and naming of people? This magistrate route hardly works. In Tomar's case, there is a clear video and still there's no movement.

Punjab police books Shiromani Akali Dal leader and 6 others for keeping a girl confined for 8 months, raping and selling her
https://www.opindia.com/2021/02/akali-d ... -8-months/
...
The victim’s brother informed that on June 24 last year, a female tenant staying in their house took his sister to the house of an Akali Dal leader’s brother. At that time, around 20-25 people were present at the house, including the SAD leader, a godman, and a few women. They had allegedly offered the victim a spiked drink, post which she lost consciousness. On the same day, she was gang-raped by the accused SAD leader, the godman, and several others.
...
The family members then took her to a government hospital where she underwent a medical examination. The victim has also given her statement before the Magistrate. Fearing threats to their life, the family has demanded protection from the district administration. They alleged that the Station House Officer (SHO) at Barnala police station demanded money from them. The family members then requested to meet the Superintendent of Police but it was turned down. Meanwhile, the case was handed over to another SHO. They alleged that three police officials intimidated the victim to give a statement in favour of the accused.
...

[Mukhi]

I was stunned when The CM VR was talking about Love Jihad and stuff recently. Gujarat Population does not have this issue as their top priority at all. NaMo won on Vikas and his hard work. BJP for last two elections is just winning on that Legacy as well as NaMo‘s name only. They really don't have much to show. Its only a mater of time before the tide turns.

[Mukhi]

Good to confirm that it's still the business as usual and BJP hasn't changed and is still sleeping with liquor.

Thats a given. Liquor taxation is a state subject. The amount of liquor consume in Gujarat is a monumental figure. If I were to guess, my village Alone would be consuming 2 to 3 Cror worth every year. Multiply this with the rest of the state and you get an Idea of how much tax revenue is left on the table.

This tax revenue is not lost. It just goes to the Pockets of you know who. And the gullible Gujaraties take pride in being dry state because Gandhiji.

[darshan]

Modi had been called doglo multiple times in GJ when it comes to his statements about being clean but not doing anything about GJ BJP taking over all congress money rewarding outfits and pretending to not be corrupt. Drugs to liquor to education outfits. GJ BJP is well versed in taking in and filling pockets. GJ BJP could have easily accomplished many things but have not. No one in GJ would have kicked them out if they legalized the liquor. GJ BJP has also consistently looked away when it comes to islamists. They only chirped about love jihad due to Yogi and civic body elections. If it weren't for Yogi leading charge in UP and GJ people taking notes due to social media, these drunk buffoons in GJ BJP wouldn't have said anything on that subject voluntarily. I have seen more penetration by islamists in all ways of life in last 20 years in GJ than many decades before that. islamists retooled after 2002 in GJ and changed their strategy but GJ BJP has been drunk figuratively and literally since 2002.

[Vips]

India's political landscape may change forever INC is still a force to reckon with in KAR, MH, HR , RJ and PJ , there.

Please add Gujarat into this list. INC came very close last VS election. After NaMo left, INC has stately gained in GJ. I am not sure what impact not having Ahmed Pated have on INC though.

The latest Corporation election results have shown that congress is a lost case in Gujarat. With AAP and AIMIM making inroads it is the congress which will be the loser more and more in the future.

Shekar Coupta has explained (with a constipated face) the demise of congress in Gujarat and its KHAM strategy and the advantage to BJP due to AIMIM and AAP fighting elections in his recent cut the clutter program( available on Youtube)

You can pretty much assume the same scenario to happen in Punjab where you can expect the SAD and AAP to join hands to fight (and win) the next assembly elections.

[Kati]

I think we badly need temporary separate threads for upcoming each state election, at least for WB, AS, TN+PD and KL.

Chetak Saar, from your archive please dig out that wedding invitation card where the great CPM comrade Md. Selim invited the guests for his son's wedding reception in the name of Allah. I need that for a fresh round of circulation.

[Kati]

To rule us, they need to include us as a data point in the vast ocean of surveillance web. To shut it down is against Human Rights. To question and expose is sedition.

Desh
Feb 26

kindly share the link of this article , google not throwing any results

Please see if this works or not:

https://drishtikone.news/p/insightful-n ... blYpaFdZtw

[Mukhi]

The population of Muslims and Christian Combined is about 12% (My Estimate as I don't trust Wiki). With those being taken away, the contest is to get Non Upper Cast votes which is lot higher. But yes, it does make INC’s life harder. Only issue is, Muslims may vote for AIMIM. But Christians will be for INC. And, AIMIM can always become JR partner with INC if the INC is within striking distance like last time.

[putnanja]

I believe Rudradev and Suraj had mentioned this earlier

Many jittery after Disha arrest

After Disha Ravi’s arrest, historian Ramchandra Guha said the government was sending out a message not just to the youth but also to their parents. A cross-section of young people and their parents say the incident has instilled fear in them when it comes to expressing their political views.

[vimal]

You can pretty much assume the same scenario to happen in Punjab where you can expect the SAD and AAP to join hands to fight (and win) the next assembly elections.

Can't help laughing at the terrible word combo of those two SADAAP or AAPSAD.
For non-Hindi; aap = you; sad = rot

[disha]

I had a chance to visit Gujarat in 2018.

The best place to get liquor in Gujarat is at the police station. You will get good certified quality. Also people line up properly and are in discipline. And nobody over buys. Also they put on the best behaviour. That is they do all the drinking at home or at places hidden away from civil areas.

I thought that is actually a good thing. If you buy liquor and misbehave and are caught, the police person is in trouble. Also the person who took the liquor. Next time they may get a danda before liquor or cost of the liquor goes high.

The liquor economy has evolved ins such a way that it ensures:

1. Low crime
2. Less amount of people breaking their budget behind liquor (police wants repeat business!)
3. Free movement of women at night. Number of women driving scooters and cars at night to congregate at chaat and other places was high.

So all in all, I think the same liquor policy implemented in Gujarat must be encouraged across India. Starting with Keral.

The bigger menace BJP needs to fix in Gujarat are the following:

1. Women driving on the wrong side of the road.
2. People spitting paan each and every where. Paan must be banned. Oral tobacco must be banned.
3. More and more of clean toilets in public spaces.
4. Proper disposal of garbage including construction debris. The construction debris is the worst.
5. Diversify the industrial base. Chemicals in Vadodra. Diamonds in Surat and pretty much that. No it-vity anywhere. To many ingliss courses.

Everyone in Gujarat wants to escape to Australia or Canada after learning ingliss. Particularly scions of 'doodh dairies'. People who cannot run are busy setting up hospitals. I ran into another scion (10th fail but foreign returned - went to Doobai and Singapur for shopping) who has setup a hospital using his father's money and wanted to staff it with cardio-thoracic surgeons! The business idea is good. His take was that every Gujarati will require a by-pass surgery by the age of 60. So 3 crores (since some would be beyond 60 etc) will require surgery in next 30 years. Worst case, he himself will be using the hospital. I negotiated a discount for myself. If I can stage a cardio-thoracic surgeon for his hospital from my it-vity circle, I will get 50% off.

So the hospital is still there. Well equipped. No surgeons. Or even Doctors. I would not recommend any patient to that hospital though. Not sure what plumbing will be fixed. And then there will be customary negotiations over bill. That itself will lead to heart failure.

6. Banning of all sweet dishes with ghee, sugar. There should be food tax.

7. High taxes on all sweet dishes made with milk. Too much of milk everywhere. Particularly that shrikhand, once or twice in a week is good. But not good for breakfast, lunch, dinner and post dinner. In between there is fafda-jalebi and as one person explained people even eat "bhusu". Someone explained that "bhusu" is given to cows and buffaloes.

8. Better driving habits. Going from Vadodra to Ahmedabad was scary. The freeway was pleasant and reminded me of US. Though the moment we entered city, I was shit scared!

I told the driver that the auto driver in front of the car will turn right, the car driver told me I am a moron from US and he said that the auto driver will turn left, since he was spitting pan on the left. But I saw the auto drivers leg was sticking out on the right. That was a curious signalling mechanism I presume not known to my car driver.

Will he take left or right! Classic Kabir moment from chak-de with a twist. My car driver decides to take right of the auto while the auto takes right, so my car driver speeds up straight into incoming traffic.

Thankfully a boulder was put by AMC right in the middle for such situations and the car drives over it. The wheel is twisted. And I am praying that the big car is seen by all sides of the traffic.*

And yes, for all of the above MudiMustRezine.

*My kids do wonder why I do not watch horror movies. And I have not told them about the discount option at the hospital yet.

[Suraj]

I believe Rudradev and Suraj had mentioned this earlier

Many jittery after Disha arrest

After Disha Ravi’s arrest, historian Ramchandra Guha said the government was sending out a message not just to the youth but also to their parents. A cross-section of young people and their parents say the incident has instilled fear in them when it comes to expressing their political views.

I don’t want to take any credit , that was all a detailed post from Rudradev onlee

[Atmavik]

8. Better driving habits. Going from Vadodra to Ahmedabad was scary. The freeway was pleasant and reminded me of US. Though the moment we entered city, I was shit scared!

I am guessing you are lucky to have not driven in Hyderabad. the rest of ur post is quite informative and in sync with what my gujju friends in US have shared.

[arshyam]

From my observations, Gujarat's driving is no better or worse than habits elsewhere in the country. So overall, countrywide improvements are needed. Roads are excellent, of course.

[chetak]

Under @narendramodi’s able leadership every opposition leader is turning furiously Hindu. @RahulGandhi is reading Thirukkural, @priyankagandhi is washing her sins in Ma Ganga, @MamataOfficial is doing a yagya. #ModiHaiTohMumkinHai

via@ShefVaidya

[darshan]

From my observations, Gujarat's driving is no better or worse than habits elsewhere in the country. So overall, countrywide improvements are needed. Roads are excellent, of course.

+1.

Dishaji's notes are less than 50% accurate.

There are no dairy scions. Amul and it's variants do not make you rich but your land ownership. You could be running mega dairy farm right in Anand. That's where Elecon is by the way. Most in dairy rarely made any money till starting to pivot to native cows. He's most likely referring to land holders. Even for rabaris money would be traced back to land holdings acquired thru legal or illegal means. In southern Gujarat, it's the same story with the land owners. chiku to mango vadi owners.

Also a person acquiring legal liquor would not know how illegal one flows, how to acquire it and who runs that circuit. Same with drugs circuit.

Lot of assumptions and stereotypes with sweets and shrikhand thing. One can trace shrikhand to maratha. I suggest watching more YouTube videos on food tours. Each part of Gujarat has different pattern. So much so that Vadodara would eat differently than Anand while they border each other. Papad from uttarsanda would differ from what surati would eat. Sweetness level in kadhi and dal would change depending upon which community you grew up in even in the same neighborhood. Six gaam Patel would be different from 27 gaam Patel in terms of eating habits. Same with usage of chaas and oil in food. Surati, kathyavadi, charotar, etc. all would differ.

Bhusu means mixed namkeen. A mixture. Hence a concept of food mixture in general applies to all animals.

It's very common to see investment fashion patterns and you happened to see hospital one. Just says more about not clamping down on black money than not more than that. Many with money choose not to dump and waste on pocket searching education institutes requiring ungodly sum for donations. Comes with the business way of handling things. Seen many times and nothing wrong with it. They correctly identify as brainwashing institutes. For example, my grandmother had put her foot down and said not to spend any money to send me to English medium and christian school. A good decision that I'm thankful for. And I have out competed many while being in US MIC with my broken English that I'm always proud of. I actually get upset if someone thought that I have good english skills.

In my opinion, IT work doesn't succeed there for various reasons. Non coolie IT work would succeed. If not having IT industry keeps many ailments like crypto christians out of GJ then it's a good thing for GJ.

Almost 18 years ago I had a need for a particular variant of USB board and I could only find it from India and it was designed and shipped from 388001 to US. One man shop was handling all due to Elecon and other nearby industries.

Being in GJ for a moment won't allow you to pick up activities of islamists either to comment on why GJ BJP should be held accountable or not.

I do lament that GJ is moving away from the 10th standard gujarati medium failure stereotype. And I'm in agreement with Pushpendraji that GJ will pay heavy price for this. More and more Hindus are dumping their hard earned money in GJ in various education institutes run by EJs and politicians. Starting from shishu vihar many are spending tens of thousands of rupees to turn their kids into world citizens.

If you do want to follow thought process about holding GJ BJP accountable for food scene then it is not a bad idea as it has become lot worse over last 20 years. Though it's not about ghee and chini. It's about moving away from it and intro processed food: fructose syrup, emulsified oils, palm oil, etc.. Even company like Amul sells many utter garbage things. I'll take real dairy products any given day including shrikhand which didn't use to be as sweet as today. Though even for majority of Gujaratis who haven't grown up eating a real thing can't tell the difference. Chili, sweeteners and salts are overused when someone's feeding you garbage to overpower your senses.

[Mukhi]

I had a chance to visit Gujarat in 2018.

The best place to get liquor in Gujarat is at the police station. .... about the discount option at the hospital yet.

I assume 99% of your points are correct, sarcastically of course, except one. The best place to get liquor, good quality, and fir free is during NRI season (September To April) and at NRI’s home and Parties

[Cyrano]

To legal eagles: why not resort to social media with a live recording and naming of people? This magistrate route hardly works. In Tomar's case, there is a clear video and still there's no movement.

Punjab police books Shiromani Akali Dal leader and 6 others for keeping a girl confined for 8 months, raping and selling her
https://www.opindia.com/2021/02/akali-d ... -8-months/
The family members then requested to meet the Superintendent of Police but it was turned down. Meanwhile, the case was handed over to another SHO. They alleged that three police officials intimidated the victim to give a statement in favour of the accused....

This is the lament of Bharat ! Ram Mandir is nearly there, but Ram Rajya will not come until serious Police & IPC reforms happen. Justice is India is mostly for the rich & powerful... sometimes.

Not sure its on BJP/NaMo's agenda anytime soon.

[Kati]

I had a chance to visit Gujarat in 2018.

The best place to get liquor in Gujarat is at the police station. You will get good certified quality. Also people line up properly and are in discipline. And nobody over buys. Also they put on the best behaviour. That is they do all the drinking at home or at places hidden away from civil areas.

I thought that is actually a good thing. If you buy liquor and misbehave and are caught, the police person is in trouble. Also the person who took the liquor. Next time they may get a danda before liquor or cost of the liquor goes high.

The liquor economy has evolved ins such a way that it ensures:

1. Low crime
2. Less amount of people breaking their budget behind liquor (police wants repeat business!)
3. Free movement of women at night. Number of women driving scooters and cars at night to congregate at chaat and other places was high.

So all in all, I think the same liquor policy implemented in Gujarat must be encouraged across India. Starting with Keral.

The bigger menace BJP needs to fix in Gujarat are the following:

1. Women driving on the wrong side of the road.
2. People spitting paan each and every where. Paan must be banned. Oral tobacco must be banned.
3. More and more of clean toilets in public spaces.
4. Proper disposal of garbage including construction debris. The construction debris is the worst.
5. Diversify the industrial base. Chemicals in Vadodra. Diamonds in Surat and pretty much that. No it-vity anywhere. To many ingliss courses.

Everyone in Gujarat wants to escape to Australia or Canada after learning ingliss. Particularly scions of 'doodh dairies'. People who cannot run are busy setting up hospitals. I ran into another scion (10th fail but foreign returned - went to Doobai and Singapur for shopping) who has setup a hospital using his father's money and wanted to staff it with cardio-thoracic surgeons! The business idea is good. His take was that every Gujarati will require a by-pass surgery by the age of 60. So 3 crores (since some would be beyond 60 etc) will require surgery in next 30 years. Worst case, he himself will be using the hospital. I negotiated a discount for myself. If I can stage a cardio-thoracic surgeon for his hospital from my it-vity circle, I will get 50% off.

So the hospital is still there. Well equipped. No surgeons. Or even Doctors. I would not recommend any patient to that hospital though. Not sure what plumbing will be fixed. And then there will be customary negotiations over bill. That itself will lead to heart failure.

6. Banning of all sweet dishes with ghee, sugar. There should be food tax.

7. High taxes on all sweet dishes made with milk. Too much of milk everywhere. Particularly that shrikhand, once or twice in a week is good. But not good for breakfast, lunch, dinner and post dinner. In between there is fafda-jalebi and as one person explained people even eat "bhusu". Someone explained that "bhusu" is given to cows and buffaloes.

8. Better driving habits. Going from Vadodra to Ahmedabad was scary. The freeway was pleasant and reminded me of US. Though the moment we entered city, I was shit scared!

I told the driver that the auto driver in front of the car will turn right, the car driver told me I am a moron from US and he said that the auto driver will turn left, since he was spitting pan on the left. But I saw the auto drivers leg was sticking out on the right. That was a curious signalling mechanism I presume not known to my car driver.

Will he take left or right! Classic Kabir moment from chak-de with a twist. My car driver decides to take right of the auto while the auto takes right, so my car driver speeds up straight into incoming traffic.

Thankfully a boulder was put by AMC right in the middle for such situations and the car drives over it. The wheel is twisted. And I am praying that the big car is seen by all sides of the traffic.*

And yes, for all of the above MudiMustRezine.

*My kids do wonder why I do not watch horror movies. And I have not told them about the discount option at the hospital yet.

Good read....
But I think pretty much what has been said about food and road traffic (lesser extent) applies to West Bengal / Kolkata.
There is an urgent need to tax sweets / sugary products. Half of the bongs are having heart blockages, hypertension, diabetic and a host of other health issues. The remaining half have no clue about good dietary habits. Very few are going to gyms, but after doing the workouts they are gobbling up rosogollas / rasmalais / cham-chams, etc left and right (their argument is - 'that's why I go to gym'!).
No matter how expensive the sweets are, and such shops are at every street corner, people are lining up to buy them with any and every excuse. It is just sickening to watch people visibly unhealthy are buying dozens of such stuff. On top of it, fried stuff - less said the better.

City traffic - umm...some improvements are seen in the two terms of Mumtaz Begum's tenure, and this is one of the bright spots. Drivers are hauled up by the cops due to small violations. People are now obeying traffic lights diligently which was something outlandish under the Left rule. But spitting is everywhere. There is a general lack of hygiene sense.

[V_Raman]

For the first time in Modi’s reign - I am feeling uncomfortable. Why did they have his image on the IsRO rocket that was recently launched?

[darshan]

Good application of green test to identify the burqa clad knife.

[Ambar]

Khan saheb's bias is nothing new. His videos are 80% political and 20% educational. These guys are extremely sophisticated, they build a large follower base by claiming to impart knowledge, education, training, coaching etc. and slowly but surely begin poisoning young minds by introducing politics, leftist social justice propaganda, religion etc. Their target is almost always those of impressionable age, and their politics will always wear the cloak of "social justice, equality, labor rights, womens rights" etc. A more dangerous form of Khan GS is Zakat foundation which trains peaceful students to crack IAS exams and interviews, ofcourse it also helps that the interview panel has former zakat alumni.

[Ambar]

But I think pretty much what has been said about food and road traffic (lesser extent) applies to West Bengal / Kolkata.
There is an urgent need to tax sweets / sugary products. Half of the bongs are having heart blockages, hypertension, diabetic and a host of other health issues. The remaining half have no clue about good dietary habits. Very few are going to gyms, but after doing the workouts they are gobbling up rosogollas / rasmalais / cham-chams, etc left and right (their argument is - 'that's why I go to gym'!).
No matter how expensive the sweets are, and such shops are at every street corner, people are lining up to buy them with any and every excuse. It is just sickening to watch people visibly unhealthy are buying dozens of such stuff. On top of it, fried stuff - less said the better.

If its sugar in GJ and WB, then it is butter and cheese in rest of India. As we've seen in the western countries post ww-2 and China in the last 3 decades, as nations get wealthier their consumption of calorie rich food goes up exponentially. Most Indians today are probably 50% larger than an avg. Indian 3 decades ago. Wasn't there an article here sometime back that an average Indian man is around 2 inches taller than compared to early 90s and the average paki has lost 2 inches ?

That said, when i watch random Indian street food videos on youtube i find it incredible how much processed cheese gets added to everything, from Indianized western food like sandwiches,wraps,paninis to mundane Indian food like naans, parathas, kulchas etc. Even austere food like dosa is not spared from getting crushed under mountain of cheese, butter, mayo etc. For someone who grew up in the 70s-90s India, cheese in food (with the rare addition of paneer ) was unheard of. No wonder we have 12 yr old kids who look like they are in their 20s already and a super-specialty cardiac hospitals in every city and town.

[darshan]

That GJ, sugar, blocked arteries stuff always cracks me up. My generation grew up in GJ with much better food and diet. However, things have gone downward in steady manner and politicians aren't being held accountable.

Need to move past the stereotypes and focus on health ministries sleeping on processed food industries of the west.

[Tanaji]

For the first time in Modi’s reign - I am feeling uncomfortable. Why did they have his image on the IsRO rocket that was recently launched?

It was by the satellite maker of the satellite that was doing a ride share. A cube sat sent by some children’s company. Not by Isro

[V_Raman]

Dosa is no austere food. It was always dunked in oil or ghee even in olden days. None of the food items hit the macros in south India. All the fried snacks - murukku at al. Sweets - jaangri, gulag jamun et al. They are all carb heavy. Be it idli, pongal, dosai, poori and the worst offender of all - meals with rice. Totally unbalanced carb heavy diet. As a veggie South Indian - I’m staring at unhealthy in all foods!

There is a saying - fat doesn’t make you fat. Carb is the killer.

[V_Raman]

For the first time in Modi’s reign - I am feeling uncomfortable. Why did they have his image on the IsRO rocket that was recently launched?

It was by the satellite maker of the satellite that was doing a ride share. A cube sat sent by some children’s company. Not by Isro

Ack. Makes me feel a bit better.

[darshan]

Blue on blue. If someone thinks of dosa, shrikhand, rasogulla over processed food then they have won. Indian consumer is being taken to the slaughter house with all non indic things. Your mithaai is killing you but my chocolate would save you. Mayo puri? Chocolate puri? Amul cheese by kg? Amul butter by kg?

[V_Raman]

Last time I came to India on 2 week break and I just stuck to eating idli and plain dosa wherever and meals for lunch. I gained 10 lbs in the 2 weeks I was there....

[darshan]

Madhya Pradesh is preparing to change the names of Bhopal, Idgah Hills, Obedullahganj, Begumganj and others: Report
https://www.opindia.com/2021/02/madhya- ... begumganj/
The BJP Government in Madhya Pradesh is preparing to change the names of numerous places at once, Zee News has reported. The places whose names are to be changed include Bhopal and Minto Hall at the capital city.

The government is planning to change the names of Bhopal, the city’s Minto Hall, Idgah Hills, Obedullaganj in Raisen district, Gairatganj, Begumganj, Gauharganj, Burhanpur, Sultanpur and other places. It is intended that the names are changed in one clean sweep.

The demands to change the names of the places have been gathering momentum for quite some time. BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur had called for the names of Islamnagar, Lalghati, Halali Dam and Halalpura in Bhopal to be changed. Former Chief Minister Uma Bharti had made the same demand.
....

[Primus]

Dosa is no austere food. It was always dunked in oil or ghee even in olden days. None of the food items hit the macros in south India. All the fried snacks - murukku at al. Sweets - jaangri, gulag jamun et al. They are all carb heavy. Be it idli, pongal, dosai, poori and the worst offender of all - meals with rice. Totally unbalanced carb heavy diet. As a veggie South Indian - I’m staring at unhealthy in all foods!

There is a saying - fat doesn’t make you fat. Carb is the killer.

The fundamental fact is easily forgotten, it is the total amount of calories at the end of the day. The poor mazdoor eating just rice all day is rail thin, he gets hardly any protein and minimal fat. For most of my life growing up as a vegetarian I had a BMI under 25 - eating mostly carbs and a little basic protein. The epidemic of obesity around the world has happened because of easy and cheap availability of huge amounts of calorie dense foods. In India all the fried foods and mithai used to be prohibitively expensive. Now most middle class families have a box of mithai in the fridge at all times for the 'unexpected guest'. Guess who gets to eat most of it though. It is the rise in the standard of living that has led to the rise in size of the waistline.

The three core principles to adopt when you want to lose weight are:

1. Portion control
2. Avoid sweets - not just carbs
3. Exercise.

Note, exercise alone does not do the trick, you hardly lose any calories that way, however, it is a great motivator and that's why it works as part of the package.

[vimal]

India is staring at whats called the first world problems. With cars and bikes in every family nobody uses bicycles or walks to work/school. Even my teenage nieces and nephews are overweight and use scootys and four wheelers for everything. I remember in my school days most kids used to walk/bike to school but now everyone uses school bus or a contracted cab. All those muscles and bones built during early childhood stay with you for life.

[Theeran]

Dosa is no austere food. It was always dunked in oil or ghee even in olden days. None of the food items hit the macros in south India. All the fried snacks - murukku at al. Sweets - jaangri, gulag jamun et al. They are all carb heavy. Be it idli, pongal, dosai, poori and the worst offender of all - meals with rice. Totally unbalanced carb heavy diet. As a veggie South Indian - I’m staring at unhealthy in all foods!

There is a saying - fat doesn’t make you fat. Carb is the killer.

We have forgotten all the healthy rice varieties in TN. Like mapillai samba, thinai, samai, and millets like kel varagu, solam, kambu. These are healthy than the regular milled rice. In our house we don't use pressure cooker. SHQ boils the rice and filters out the starch and the rice is so good to eat. Eating meals with rice is not carb heavy. The form of cooking and the variety of rice makes it carb heavy.

[arshyam]

Don't blame the diet, blame yourselves (general "you"). Indian food is generally carb-heavy so as to deal with the climate. But it also requires you to be active in order to burn the calories. Sitting in A/C in your living room and watching TV while plonking down idlis by the dozen is never going to help. Fatty sweets like rasagolla or jangiri is of course even worse.

Our lifestyles are to be blamed - use a vehicle (of any number of wheels) to go to the nearby kirana shop, car to go longer distance, A/C at home and office, all combine to take a toll. Not to say these are always bad, but the diet has to be adjusted to account for these lifestyle choices. Or try walking everywhere, take the bus as much as possible, and stairs instead of lift, eat only what you need, not what you want - then Indian food works very well for your health.

Our food traditionally had been so customized that it would differ between a coastal region and a neighbouring inland district. Of course there was a greater difference between places like, say Chennai and Bengaluru. But today, the diet in both these cities is almost identical and heavily rice-based. Add on top the cross-country movement of people who take their diet with them, and you have this problem in your hands.

Solution is not to abandon one's comfort food, but eat properly and have a healthy lifestyle. To the extent possible, take local climactic conditions into account while designing your diet. Anyway, this is all OT here, so will stop.

[sanjaykumar]

Obesity is a middle class problem in India whereas it is a lower economic problem in the west.

At least one American commentator explicitly compares Americans to their farm animals.

We need such an honest appraisal in India. A prime example of morbid obesity is the chief minister of Panjab. The dood could not hold public office in the west.

[vera_k]

Obesity and diabetes are considered signs of prosperity in India. On this front, the chief minister of Panjab has a conflict of interest as the state is a major food producer. A public education campaign is needed to counter this programming caused by the country moving from food shortage to food surplus in a generation. In urban areas some more attention to footpaths perhaps creating dedicated walking plazas will help people get some exercise.

[asgkhan]

I had balooned up to 90 kgs during the pandemic. Hospital-stays/travelling in cabs and work had added tremendous stress. The unhealthy portions of food also piled on to the problem.

Now I have changed my diet completely. No breakfast, afternoon Brown rice or ragi ball, dinner is steamed veggies+ragi dosa @ 8.

Only on Sundays I have white rice + chicken as cheat days. Weight is down to 80 kgs. I am adding exercise now.

Hope to be 70 kgs by end of this year.

Indian food was already loaded with ghee/oil, now on street food, they dunk it with cheese, panneer and mayo. The overpowering combination of sodium+fat does a number on the liver and cholestrol .

[sanjaykumar]

Eat what you like but in moderation.

[chanakyaa]

...
The three core principles to adopt when you want to lose weight are:

1. Portion control
2. Avoid sweets - not just carbs
3. Exercise.

Note, exercise alone does not do the trick, you hardly lose any calories that way, however, it is a great motivator and that's why it works as part of the package.

Little OT to this dhaaga, but I think you missed one key ingredient, "Fasting". I would go even a step further and replace #1 on your list with fasting. I've lived/travelled in over dozen countries. I believe that, when it comes to food (and healing through food), no one/nothing compares (or even come close) to Indian way. Nada...period. That zesty looking South Indian thaali (for example), oh man, it took me decades later to appreciate the science behind balancing acidity/alkalinity of foods.

Proper and disciplined fasting will melt the fat off your body just like hot wax comes of a candle. Personal experience Indians figured out the magic of balancing acidic/alkaline foods long before the discovery of atoms, molecules, pH etc. For those who are sick, recovering or elderly, may need some expert guidance. Anyone interested in the subject, especially those who may believe that if the scientific informations comes from gora's mouth it must be authentic, can watch videos from Dr. Jason Fung and Barbara O'Neill (Aussie). (**they simply confirm what indians knew centuries ago..)

[sanjaykumar]

As with other superstitions of the Hindoos, validation of fasting is developing, it may have potent metabolic effects as well as indirect effects via the microbiome