Me the Sea-captain loved, the River built, Wealth sought and Kings adventured life to hold. Hail, England! I am Asia — Power on silt, Death in my hands, but Gold! -- Calcutta #Poem by #RudyardKipling

Share of population that think their city is beautiful. Cape Town, Edinburgh, and Sydney on top. Makes sense. Chicago at rank 4 might be considered a bit optimistic by some. I for one love the Windy City. Source: visualcapitalist.com/mapped-…

On the night of 14th August 1947, a flag flew on Jawaharlal Nehru's car as it went over Raisina Hill. It was the first time the tricolour we know today was ever flown. That flag had been stitched under the supervision of a 28 year old woman. Her name was Surayya Tyabji. She was born in 1919 in Hyderabad. She was a painter. Her work was later shown in London and in Jakarta. She was married to Badruddin Tyabji, a civil servant who was part of the group working on what independent India would look like. Everyone had assumed the flag was settled. Pingali Venkayya had designed the tricolour used by the Congress, with Gandhi's charkha in the middle. It had been carried through the freedom movement for over 20 years. Then, weeks before independence, a problem was raised. That flag was a party flag. A country that was about to include everyone could not fly the symbol of one political party. So the design had to be redone, quickly. The Tyabjis were given the job. They replaced the charkha with the Ashoka Chakra, the wheel from the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath. The reason was simple and deliberate. Ashoka belonged to all Indians, and to no party. Their daughter Laila Tyabji has written the family's account of it. Her mother drew the graphic version. The printing press at the Viceregal Lodge made the impressions. Everyone approved. The English historian Trevor Royle recorded in his book that the flag which flew on Nehru's car that night had been made by Tyabji's wife. On 22nd July 1947 the design was accepted by the Constituent Assembly. A report in the Times of India in January 1950 described that first flag as having been presented to the nation by the women of India at the midnight session of the Constituent Assembly on 14th August 1947. Before the flag, the same couple had worked on the national emblem. Nehru asked Badruddin to do something about it because he had an eye for these things. Surayya drew the version of the 4 lions that has been on every Indian government document since. She was 28 years old. She died in 1978 in Mumbai. Her daughter has said that neither of her parents ever felt they had designed the national emblem. They felt they had only reminded India of something that had always been part of its identity. Official records of the Constituent Assembly do not name individual contributors, so most textbooks still credit only Venkayya, and his work genuinely came first. But today, when the flag goes up, look at the wheel in the middle of it. A young Muslim woman put it there, on purpose, so that no Indian would be left out of it.

Today, I was back in Floral Park for the Queens India Day Parade — this time as the first Indian American mayor of New York City. It was an experience I will never forget. Mayor David Dinkins once described our city as a gorgeous mosaic. Today, I saw that mosaic in the Hindus and Christians, Muslims and Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs across the Indian diaspora who have helped make our city what it is. To all of them, I say: it is an honor to do that work alongside you. Happy Indian Independence Day!

The 1943 Bengal Famine has been in the news. What exactly was Churchill's role in it? The great @kavpuri who has spent years researching this topic, separates truth from fiction @EmpirePodUK

500 blog post! 14 years and the magical figure 1st post: Jun 17, 2011 100th post: Jun 12, 2013 200th post: July 8. 2015 300th post: Sept 13, 2017 400th post: July 15, 2020 500th post: March 11, 2026 List of all posts: tinyurl.com/ytmt6k77

Barbra Streisand’s tribute to Robert Redford literally brought me to tears. I did not expect her to break out into song but when she did, it totally broke me. This has been an exceptionally emotional #Oscar night but done with absolute class & thoughtfulness. What a moment.