Hello everyone! This post is to make you guys aware of what's going on in my country. You are not obligated to help but please read up on the literature surrounding it!

Right now, there's a protest going on in Jantar Mantar in Delhi in solidarity for students. This is a movement led by the youth to hold the government and the education minister accountable. Over the recent years, there has been no transparency about and gross mishandling of national tests like NEET which is incredibly important to students. They study for 16 hours a day to crack these exams but because of this negligence, papers end up leaking, and the efforts of students go to waste. The repeat exams have scoring issues where the papers are not being evaluated properly. Many students who are from rural places don't know that they can appeal from re-evaluation, which leads to missed opportunities. This is abhorrent. It had led to student suicides. Sonam Wangchuk, a renowned scientist in India, with support from the Cockroach Janta Party, went on a hunger strike for 19 days demanding that the government have a dialogue with the students but the government has only responded with violence. He was picked up and forcefully taken to the hospital.

In response to this, artists like Diljit Dosanjh have said "I'm an artist bro. Don't put me in this".

Right now, there are people I know, who have boots on the ground who are being beaten and shelled with tear gas. The spokesperson of CJP has been picked up by the police. But the demands of the youth are simple. These tests are unfair. They're so hard that they require coaching classes that cost of millions of dollars, which means it can be mainly afforded by the rich upper caste students. These tests need to be banned and the education minister needs to resign. The government needs to have a dialogue.

I made a list of books that outlines India's history with dissent. This is not just a non fictional list but has works of fiction surrounding caste, religion, nationalism, and are works of dissent in and of itself. You can find it here. India has always been a country that protests and fights back and speaks up. Right now there are 7 protests going on in India, for farmers, against Data centers, for wildlife (led by tribal women )and many more. I urge you to read up on this in the midst of growing racism against India and the blind eye towards the atrocities being committed there.

On the bright side: The Chipko movement was fired up again on Uttarakhand and it succeeded (again)! The CM halted the construction of a highway due to mass protests and the rebirth of chipko movement which saved around 4000 trees from being felled. ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ

Lately choosing a show/movie to watch is so hard. I lose interest after 5, 10 minutes. I used to binge watch shows, it could be k dramas, animes. But now everytime i scroll through netflix and see a mystery i think how a book couldve done it way better. No matter how good the show is.

My experiences reading are almost always better then watching a show. Sometimes reading genuinely feels like watching a show. Books make me feel more then I would watching something, and thats why I prefer it.

Has anyone used the online bookstore BooksRun?

I am on my quest to find Songs from the Seashell Archives Volume 2. Thriftbooks refunded my order because they sent volume 1, and I am hesitant to try reordering from them. Pangobooks has one copy (woohoo) except shipping to Canada costs TWENTY NINE DOLLARS (the book is 5.99). It appears that this book is only found in the USA and BooksRun at least has cheaper shipping......... why is this book impossible to find?! Do I bite the bullet and spend $$$ to secure it? Do I make it my lifelong mission to try to find it at a used bookstore?!

I found it really striking when I realized that in the World Cup practically all the other countries were supporting Spain (ngl, the argentinians behaved...questionably). Anyway, we are winners! ☺️🫶🏻💗 How many of you, my dear readers, watched the match?? You had to give up reading a book that night, if that's what it was, which one?

in my time on PB, i’ve noticed that a lot of people here seem to enjoy making crafts in addition to reading (fabric crafts, diamond painting, etc etc). which is super cool! i’d love to know what everybody else here loves to do that isn’t reading :] for me: i love doing anything outside (the activity doesn’t matter, if i could be outdoors all the time i would be), music (listening to it, playing it, and songwriting!) and drawing

to anyone experiencing the horrible air quality from the wild fires my thoughts are with you!! if you can, take this opportunity to stay inside and READ THOSE BOOKS, stay safe!! 🫶🏻🫶🏻 (our air quality index is 612 right now!! i work from home, but im still going to use the excuse to get lots of reading in 🥰)