Writer, producer
Bombay
Joined October 2011
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Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
This Diwali, again I'm seeing way more posts from Indians about what snacks or sweets they dislike and consider "overrated" than what they love.
Our Brahminical culture trains us to take pride in what we don't eat as opposed to what we do eat. Deeply ingrained in all people.
Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
A fantastic insightful piece on Sonia Gandhi by @HannahEP
“Since Modi came to power, she has had barely any interaction with him; he tends to avoid eye contact when they’re in a room together ”.
theguardian.com/world/2026/n…
Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
"Priyanka graduated with a degree in psychology in 1993 from Jesus and Mary College. Rahul graduated with a master of philosophy (M.Phil) degree from Trinity College in 1995. Priyanka and I decided to attend his convocation..." sentence after sentence, you cannot stop reading
‘I’d always disliked politics’ | An excerpt from Sonia Gandhi’s ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’
Read full article: hindu.u9ilnk.me/d/2xsMNggyTX
For the best experience read this on The Hindu App. bit.ly/THNewsApp
Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
What a speech! You cannot negotiate with citizens at gunpoint and then scream 'law and order' issue. Also, a short history of Arunachal Pradesh for those not familiar 👌
Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
the fact that the ultimate victory in an indian's psyche is to make others seethe with envy reveals a consciousness so thoroughly colonised by the gaze of others that even joy has to be performed for an audience. His idea of prosperity is not abundance but comparative humiliation
Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
In Fahrenheit 451, the chief book-burner, Captain Beatty, describes how reading became obsolete because the public demanded increasingly fast-paced entertainments, and those entertainments slowly corroded their ability to think. “Books cut shorter. Condensations. Digests, tabloids. Everything boils down to the gag, the snap ending. Classics cut to fit fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book column … Many were those whose sole knowledge of Hamlet was a one-page digest in a book that claimed, ‘Now at last you can read all the classics.’ … School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work. Why learn anything save pressing buttons, pulling switches?”
In this passage Ray Bradbury foretells the intellectual hollowing out of the working class, the advent of AI-generated “summaries” of classic novels, the attention-frying culture of short-form video, the relaxation of educational standards into non-existence. All of this in a book published in 1953.
Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
Not getting this core thing about Marathi culture is why a lot of North Indians get offended at Marathi people calling them tu.
In Maharashtra, the tu isn't a Hindi "tu tadak" like connotation but one denoting love & acceptance. Only strangers & elders are called Tumhi.
Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
The sea is all we have in Mumbai. It's the only third space where families can congregate without tearing their wallets.
This government, its crony cabal of industrialists is so anti-poor! Had it not been for the nationalist project, we'd have heads rolling by now.
Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
The Sea falls under CRZ-IV
And, commercial & illuminated signboards are not permitted activities under CRZ-IV
And, Maharashtra Maritime Board cannot overrule the CRZ Regulations.
They have to follow them.
It's the Law.
Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
Even a single billboard on the water is one too many.
Light pollution harms human health as much as noise does, and it is regulated in many of the countries Mumbai wants to emulate.
In August 2024, Awaaz sent suggestions and objections to the BMC's draft Hoardings Policy, which allowed unrestricted lighted hoardings across the city. In May, we wrote to the CM objecting to billboards along Bandra's coastal promenades.
We attached policies from the US and UK to our objections.
Yet Mumbai is now facing lighted billboards in our marine waters. Scientists and experts say floating billboards would bring "concentrated, high-radiance beacons right at the waterline, completely erasing natural marine dark corridors." Light from these LEDs can reach 40m underwater and disrupt plankton that feed in darkness, the base of our marine food chain.
India endorsed global guidelines on light pollution for migratory wildlife in 2020. Why are we ignoring them now?
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/… @CMOMaharashtra @mybmc @mpcb_official @timesofindia
Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
And anybody objecting to this disgusting deal with the contractor will be called anti- Maharashtra/ urban naxal.
Zero sense of aesthetics for the city, the regime is not even leaving the sea to loot every bit of Mumbai that they can.
Infact, the number of LED screens put up with their insane brightness at night, should be reduced.
But the regime belongs to those who can buy them out, not to the people!
Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
I spent nearly seven years in that part of India and saw how much Mumbai loved the sea and realised why. You could spend hours staring at the sea and let it soak in your stress and the city’s untiring hustle.
Do not do this, please.
Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
Según leo a los brasileños, la victoria digital de Lula tuvo dos pilares. Primero organizarse en chats y segundo, no interactuar con los trolls de derecha: no responderles, no citarlos, no caer en la provocación y solo bloquearlos. Por eso casi no se vio propaganda de Bolsonaro.
Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
I created this photo using recent research so it relaxes your brain when you pause to look at the details. I'd so love to hear which is your favourite item in this collection (mine are the striped curlew feathers).
As I'm sometimes too unwell to post here & the algorithm punishes creators who don't post every day, it would help so much if you could maybe RT my photo. Many thanks 🌿
Samina Motlekar 🇮🇳 retweeted
Aha, the Iranian speaker is skipping the BRICS meeting in Delhi perhaps because the Modi govt has refused to send medicines to Iran on Iran Air, due to fear of US sanctions. Medicines would be exempted under humanitarian aid.
