Welcome to the fifth instalment of TheIdea of India, HuffPost India’s monthly conversation about how we see ourselves as a people and as a nation.

The Supreme Court of India has settled India’s longest running land dispute, ruling in favour of the Hindu parties in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit. A five-judge bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has granted the site where the Babri Masjid once stood to a Hindu trust for building a Ram Temple. Prominent voices from across the political divide declared the verdict as “balanced,” even though it was a clear victory for the Hindu litigants. The Muslim parties will get five acres at an alternative site to build a mosque. 

In effect, 26 years after the Babri Masjid was demolished by Hindu mobs, and communal riots claimed the lives of 2,000 people, the highest court of the land has allowed a temple to be built in place of a mosque. The verdict is a huge political victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been promising a Ram Temple for almost three decades. 

Surprisingly, after the verdict, there were few public reactions from the Muslim community in India.

In a conversation with HuffPost India, journalist Rana Ayyub attributed the silence to fear of reprisal, given the hostile and menacing atmosphere in the country since the Modi government came to power, and the fact that political parties, even the ones which had counted on the minority vote, did not question the verdict. “This silence is of fear, not happiness. It’s only when you are intimidated  that you are silent. We have been asked to shut up. Muslims are numb right now,” she said. 

Leaders from both communities had appealed for peace ahead of the verdict. Authorities also threatened action against anyone trying to spread hate, especially on social media. At some point, however, this appeal for calm seemed to give way to self-censorship. 

Ayyub, against whom the Amethi police threatened legal action for tweeting a “political comment” ahead of the verdict, said, “If they see the Amethi police threatening to take action against me, they will think that if it can happen to her… Not everyone has the bandwidth to take this kind of threat. Not everyone has the support I enjoy.” 

There were a few positives which came out of the appeals for calm and the police vigil. HuffPost India’s Gopal Sathe writes that there were fewer hate messages and less trolling on social media platforms, and even the BJP’s notorious “IT cell” seemed to have toned down its activities around the issue. 

This coerced calm, however, came at the cost of Indian citizens feeling they could not critique the judgment without fear of a backlash. Sathe writes, “... the silence, which almost seemed like an over-correction, seems to have been achieved through self-censorship and threats from law enforcement agencies.”

In an interview ahead of the verdict, Zafaryab Jilani, who represented the “Muslim parties” for 33 years, said that he had hoped the Supreme Court’s verdict would be based on evidence, not aastha (belief). “We are fighting for the rule of law and rule of democracy, not just for one mosque. If we surrender, no mosque will be secure in the country and no minority community will feel safe,” he said. 

BBC’s former bureau chief Sir William Mark Tully recalled the demolition of the mosque on 6 December, 1992. “I saw this sight of a police officer pushing his way through his men so that he could run away faster than the men. And the police just deserted,” he said. 

Faizan Mustafa, a law professor and Vice Chancellor of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, told Nikhila Henry that the Supreme Court seems to have weighed religious belief over the rule of law. Noting that “faith has the last laugh,” he said, “The judgment upholds a majoritarian point of view.”

Henry also reported on Thol Thirumavalavan, a Dalit lawmaker from Tamil Nadu, the only non-minority lawmaker to express his disappointment at the decision. In an open letter, Thirumavalavan wrote, “The faith in Supreme Court is shattered.”

Akshay Deshmane spoke to Madhav Godbole, who was the Union Home Secretary in Narasimha Rao’s government when the mosque was demolished in 1992. Godbole, whose book on the dispute was published in August, had written there that the evidence was in favour of Muslims, but told Deshmane that everyone should accept the Supreme Court’s decision. 

Senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue M.G.Vaidya told Pavan Dahat, “My only wish is that the land for Masjid should be outside five acres of Pradakshina land of Mandir.”

Thank you for your feedback on TheIdea of India newsletter, which looks at differing views in an attempt to draw us back into an even-handed conversation. 

Sharing his “Idea of India”, Manokamana, a 23-year-old lawyer, said that he really thought India was “about to change for the better” when Prime Minister Modi was first elected to power in 2014, but has since then he has “seen a lot that has changed my mind.” 

Raising several points of concern such as “silence and diversion, “never-ending what-about-ery” and the “economy,” Manokamana writes, “It’s like Narendra Modi is the Salman Khan of Indian politics. No matter what he does, how bad it is, how much grave consequences his actions have, he’s the ‘hero’.”  

You can subscribe to the newsletter here. 

Please do share your thoughts: What is your Idea of India? Write to me at betwa.sharma@huffpost.in. 

In a surprise move, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor signed up with Amazon Prime Video to perform a stand-up act for their new show, One Mic Stand. The new series, which dropped last night, sees one comedian paired along with one celebrity, performing in front of a live audience. Tharoor’s 10-minute spot in an episode of 33-minutes was shot preceded with an opening set by comedian Kunal Kamra in Noida in June. 

While Kamra took digs at Arnab Goswami (and generally had a weak, repetitive set than what he’s capable of), Tharoor revealed that he once had a stand-up comic perform in the lawns of his house for a bunch of young leaders when his wife, Sunanda Pushkar, was alive. 

Tharoor, it appeared, had a list of jokes written for him while some of his set was improvised. The politician, known for his sharp wit and exhaustive vocabulary, appeared confident and at ease, with constant encouragement from Verma and Kamra. But once on stage, his voice dried up as he tried to mould himself in a role he had no experience of.

From self-deprecating humour to digs at the BJP, here are some of the highlights from Tharoor’s set:

1. A Dig on Yogi ji

“As you’ve been told, I am an MP and I represent Thiruvananthapuram. Because any other constituency with less than seven syllables would be a waste of my (pauses) linguistic skills... The fact is that I was looking for cities with longer names but Yogi ji was busy changing the names of all cities.

2. This Clever Jibe

When referring to a piece of paper for cues, Tharoor said, “I’ve got my Panama papers right here. 24 hours of preparation”

3.  Peak #DadJoke

“When millennials find somebody attractive, they call them a ‘snacc.’ Now since when was it a compliment to say to somebody that you look like a sabudana vada?”

4. This burn on the BJP-Media nexus

“You get your news from WhatsApp? I don’t blame you... Journalism has gone to the dogs, right? And what are dogs? What do chowkidars rely on when they fall asleep?”

5. Modi and Demonetisation

“They don’t teach a word of colonial history in British schools. You can do A levels in history at the best schools in England without learning a line about colonialism. In fact, they mention colonialism about as often as Narendra Modi mentions demonetisation these days.”

6. The Closing Clincher

“I hope you had a great time. And if you didn’t, I will apologize. But after the British apologize for East India Company and Sapan apologises for East India Comedy. And even if those things don’t work, you can learn from Narendra Modi and blame it all on Nehru.”

President Donald Trump has filed a request with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to stop a subpoena seeking the release of his tax returns, several outletsreported Thursday.

The request his lawyers filed is a last-ditch effort to reverse a lower court ruling directing his accountants to give New York prosecutors eight years of his tax returns, which he has long refused to make public, despite precedent set by every other modern president.

The move comes weeks after a federal appeals court shut down Trump’s claims that presidents are immune from criminal investigation and ruled that his accounting firm, Mazars, must comply with the subpoena from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

Trump is asking the court to decide the case by late June, The Associated Press reported, in compliance with a deal he made with Vance, who agreed not to enforce the subpoena if Trump immediately asked the Supreme Court to hear the case this term. 

Pressure on Trump to release his tax returns, which would shed important light on any conflicts of interest he may have, is at a high this week. On Wednesday, an appeals court ruled in a separate case that Congress has the right to access his tax returns. 

Given Wednesday’s development, The Washington Post reported, chances are high the Supreme Court will agree to hear the case. However, it cannot make that decision for another month.

If the court declines, the accounting firm will have to hand over the documents to Vance, who is investigating whether Trump made alleged hush money payments to two women prior to the 2016 election who said they had sexual relationships with him ― something the president has vehemently denied. 

SATARA — India’s dependency on cash may slow the country’s transition to digital payments despite large numbers of internet and mobile phone users.

For many citizens living in rural areas, cash is still the bedrock of daily existence because of a lack of facilities.

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Sudhir Shinde, a farmer from Satara district in Maharashtra says he withdraws more money from his bank than required as the money vending machine in his village has not been operational for months.

“If I need money urgently, I must make a 32 kilometre (20 mile) trip to Satara town, which is not always possible,” said the 37-year-old sugarcane farmer Shinde, while buying fertilisers for his winter-sown crops.

“I always keep money in hand assuming family emergencies like hospitalization or any other such urgent requirements”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi backed a shock ruling in November 2016 to outlaw 86% of cash in circulation to target undeclared “black money” and fight corruption.

The demonetisation got rid of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes and Modi said that would boost the country’s digital economy, unearth unaccounted wealth and reduce the use of cash.

But 99.3% of the junked currency is back in the banking system, suggesting that only a minuscule portion was unaccounted illicit money or fake currency notes, and India’s addiction to cash is now, perhaps stronger than ever.

CASH WANTED

One of the key objectives of the note ban was to discourage the use of cash, but India continues to see a surge in currency in circulation even as economic growth has slowed to a six-year low.

Central bank data shows that since the controversial demonetisation gambit, currency in circulation has grown, rising 17% to Rs 21.1 trillion ($295.7 billion) as of the end of March 2019.

The ratio of currency in circulation to GDP has risen to 11.23% as of March 2019 up from 8.69% at the end of March 2017.

To be sure, digital transactions have grown, rising 19.5% in value in 2018/19 and 22.2% in 2017/18, the Reserve Bank of India said in a report.

On whether India’s efforts to move to electronic payments has been slow, the central bank noted what it said in a statement last week.

To promote digital payment, the RBI has established “state of the art payment systems that are efficient, convenient, safe, secure and affordable” that has resulted in a rapid growth in retail digital payment systems.

Meanwhile, it will promote the use of e-payments for parking, fuel and toll collection, and has ordered banks not to charge bank customers for online transactions in the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system from January 2020.

Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests people in Asia’s third-largest economy prefer cash for various reasons, including to avoid paying higher taxes after a national sales tax was implemented in mid-2017 and higher charges from retailers.

Smaller stores who don’t enjoy high volume sales often charge customers extra, to make up for what they must pay the service partners for electronic transactions.

Higher operating costs have also led to a slowdown in opening of new ATMs, which has led to cash hoarding.

India has the fewest ATMs per 100,000 people among BRICS nations, according to the International Monetary Fund. Banks hobbled with bad debts have struggled to absorb the cost of software and equipment upgrades mandated by the central bank last year, along with higher land costs in the cities.

Other factors such as the country’s rural-urban divide have also affected the migration to electronic payments.

“Digital economy has certainly gained momentum in metros, cities and to some extent in semi-urban belts. But it has not spread to rural belts or the informal sector where financial illiteracy is the issue,” said Rupa Rege Nitsure, chief economist at L&T Financial Holdings.

“It is difficult to predict when the shift would happen because general education and financial education are different things,” she added.

India is the world’s second-largest internet and mobile phone market by number of users, trailing only China. However, a survey conducted by social media firm LocalCircles shows a large number of people still prefer cash transactions over digital with an average of 27% people having paid for 50-100% of purchases over the last 12 months without a receipt.

With the start of the goods and services tax (GST), tax on goods such as gold and silver was raised, prompting buyers and sellers to opt for cash transactions.

“Many small jewellers sell gold without receipts and consumers are also happy as they avoid paying 3% GST, which is a huge amount in the case of gold,” said a Mumbai-based jeweller, who declined to be identified.

India raised import taxes on gold to 12.5% in July from 10%, which increased margins for gold smugglers. Many small jewellers sell smuggled gold in cash at a discount and pocket the profits, the jeweller said.

A glittery tampon sparkles from the corner and everywhere I look, I see vulvas. I’m at the Vagina Museum, the world’s first bricks and mortar educational space dedicated to all things vaj. 

Almost half of the world’s population have one, but myths and secrecy still surround the humble vagina, so museum director Florence Schechter decided to do something about it. 

After a successful crowdfunding campaign, with more than 1,000 people collectively donating almost £50,000, the doors of the museum will officially open to the public on 16th November – and HuffPost UK got a sneaky preview.

Although the Vagina Museum previously operated as a pop-up, this is the first time it’s had a permanent home. 

The end result isn’t a high budget wonderland of dreams; if you’re expecting to ride a vagina-encased escalator, Millennium Dome-style, you’ll be disappointed.

But the room, which is 50% shop, 50% exhibition space, does offer up a lot of free facts about the vagina – and some fun merch to boot. 

Here are six things you can learn from the museum’s first exhibition, Muff Busters: Vagina Myths and How To Fight Them. 

Our anatomy is seriously complex 

Almost three-quarters of women (73%) don’t know what a vulva is, according to research published by Bodyform – and the Vagina Museum is here to fill in the gaps left over from Year 8 biology. 

Writing about women’s health is my day job, so I thought I knew my stuff when it comes to anatomy, but even I was surprised by the complexity of the clitoris illustrated in one diagram – could you label the corpus cavernosum? How about the bulb of the vestibule? 

One fun display includes a series of clear plastic layered squares, with each key anatomical feature labelled. The idea is to peer through the display and get clued up on your body – because let’s face it, the old “look down there with a mirror” advice that we all got in sex ed posed more questions than answers.   

There’s no shortage of vagina-themed merch 

From jewellery to guitar plectrums, t-shirts to ‘Merry Muffmas’ Christmas cards, the museum is packed with more vagina and vulva-themed products than I ever knew existed.

If you want to wear your vagina on your sleeve, you can purchase a vulva-emblazoned t-shirt. Or if you’ve always dreamed of labia in your lounge, there’s artwork available to buy from the museum’s rotating “artist of the month”. 

The store is also filled with feminist and vagina-themed books, ranging from ‘What We’re Not Told To Talk About’ by anti-FGM campaigner Nimco Ali to Eve Ensler’s classic book, ‘The Vagina Monologues’, first published in 1996.

If nothing else appeals, the museum is selling branded pencils as small souvenirs (something has to pay that extortionate Camden rent once the funding runs out, after all). 

You don’t have to be a woman to have a vagina 

More of a reminder than a learning: you don’t have to be a woman to have a vagina and not all people with vaginas identify as women. The museum is proudly trans, non-binary and intersex inclusive and its first exhibition is built around the principle that biological sex is different from gender. 

The information boards scatted around the room use refreshingly neutral language throughout, with phrases such as “people who have periods”, rather than “women who have periods”.

Glitter doesn’t have to be anti-feminist 

The boldest display in the room is perhaps one of the more surprising – it’s a “period love sculpture” with a centrepiece titled The Glampon.

Considering the backlash against using blue liquid and glitter to represent period blood in recent years – with brands including Bodyform praised for using real period blood to end stigma – the display may not be the obvious choice for an empowering feminist space. 

But the museum’s curator, Sarah Creed, explains that fun is at the core of what the museum is trying to do and its aim is to show vaginas and periods are something to be celebrated. 

“One of the things we really want to instil is for people who menstruate to really own that,” she says. “To understand that it isn’t something that’s dirty, it isn’t something that’s toxic, it’s not something that’s a result of something going wrong or being unwell.” 

‘Virginity is a social construct’ 

Back in July, Miley Cyrus made headlines when she said “virginity is a social construct” in an Instagram post. The singer wasn’t the first to use the phrase, but the museum features a display unpacking what is actually means.  

“When an individual has sexual intercourse for the first time there is no physiological or biological change that takes place within the body, meaning that the idea of virginity has been instigated by society and not science,” the display reads.

Core to this concept is removing misconceptions about the hymen and what it does and doesn’t do – namely the myth that that the hymen is an accurate marker of virginity (it is not). A timely topic, considering the recent T.I. debacle.

Coca Cola is not a contraceptive  

Okay, so I definitely already knew this one and hopefully, you did too, but the museum had one display on the social history of contraception – and it was wild.

Apparently, American women in the 1950s and 1960s came up with some outrageous “home remedies” when contraception wasn’t widely available – and it was a common myth that Coca Cola would do the job instead.

Women who didn’t want to become pregnant would shake up the bottle and propel the liquid inside themselves, believing that that fizzy fountain would act as a spermicide. Spoiler: this is a bad idea and would not work. 

“Fundamentally, if you think about the fact that you can remove rust off metal with coca cola, imagine what’s happening if you put it inside your vagina,” Creed explains.

The museum plans to run future exhibitions focusing on the bizarre history of vagina myths and senseless products. Considering Goop-culture is alive and well today, we’re guessing they’ll have a lot to say.

The Vagina Museum opens to the public on 16 November with free admission at Unit 17 & 18 Stables Market, Chalk Farm Road, Camden, London, NW1 8AH.

Kathleen Turner has admitted she wouldn’t accept the role she played in Friends were she offered it in 2019.

During the hit sitcom’s seventh series, Kathleen starred as Chandler’s dad, Charles Bing, in two episodes.

Although Chandler’s dad’s gender identity is never discussed fully in Friends (the character apparently uses “he” pronouns, and presents as female at Chandler’s wedding), many modern viewers watching Friends for the first time have held him up as one of the show’s most problematic aspects, suggesting jokes about him are transphobic.

In a new interview on Watch What Happens Live, Kathleen shared her view, revealing she doesn’t think she would take on the role of Chandler’s dad now.

“Of course, I wouldn’t do it [today] because there would be real people able to do [the part],” she explained.

During the interview, Kathleen also reveals she was attracted to the role because she felt she would be a “woman playing a man playing a woman”, joking: “I [hadn’t] done that before!”

She also suggested that her on-screen son Matthew Perry “still calls me dad”, although she had a rather different version of events fairly recently.

In an interview with Vulture last year, Kathleen recalled that the show’s six stars were “unwelcoming”, claiming: “I remember I was wearing this difficult sequined gown — and my high heels were absolutely killing me. I found it odd that none of the actors thought to offer me a seat.

“Finally it was one of the older crew members that said, ‘Get Miss Turner a chair’.”

She continued: “The Friends actors were such a clique - but I don’t think my experience with them was unique.

“I think it was simply that they were such a tight little group that nobody from the outside mattered.”

Jennifer Aniston recently suggested that she and her former co-stars were working together on a new project, with reports claiming it would be an unscripted one-off reunion special.

MUMBAI — Music composer Anu Malik, who has been accused of sexual harassment by singers Sona Mohapatra, Neha Bhasin and Shweta Pandit, on Thursday denied the allegations, saying he was “being cornered” for something he did not do and may take legal action to safeguard himself.

Malik, 59, was first accused of misconduct last year during the #MeToo movement and was briefly dropped as a judge of a singing reality show on Sony channel. The allegations resurfaced with his reinstatement on the channel this September.

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GAZA/JERUSALEM, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad and Israel declared a halt to hostilities across the Gaza Strip border on Thursday but a lasting ceasefire appeared tenuous as they differed on terms.

Islamic Jihad said an Egyptian-mediated truce went into effect at 0330 GMT, about 48 hours after Israel triggered the exchange of fire by killing the Iranian-backed faction’s top Gaza commander in an air strike, deeming him an imminent threat.

Occasional rocket fire from Gaza and a retaliatory Israeli air strike broke the calm, but the ceasefire largely held.

Gaza medical officials have put the death toll from the two days of fighting at 34 Palestinians, almost half of them civilians and including eight children and three women.

Hundreds of rocket launches by militants had paralyzed much of southern Israel and reached as far north as Tel Aviv, sending entire communities to shelters. Dozens of Israelis were hurt.

Hamas, Gaza’s dominant faction, appeared to have stayed out of this round of fighting. That may have helped stem escalation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military operation was drawing to a conclusion with its goals met. “Our enemies got the message - we can reach anyone,” Netanyahu said, as he visited soldiers at a missile interception battery.

Islamic Jihad said Israel had accepted its demand to stop both the targeted killing of militants and sometimes lethal army gunfire at weekly Palestinian protests on the Gaza border.

“The ceasefire began under Egyptian sponsorship after the Occupation (Israel) submitted to the conditions set by Islamic Jihad on behalf of Palestinian resistance factions,” Islamic Jihad spokesman Musab Al-Braim said.

But Israel said it would observe only a limited quid pro quo. “Quiet will be answered with quiet,” Foreign MinisterIsrael Katz told Army Radio.

MISSILE STRIKE

In the deadliest incident of the two-day hostilities, eight members of a Gaza family were killed by an Israeli missile strike shortly before the truce took hold, said medical officials and residents.

They said all were civilians. But Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Avichay Adraee said the head of the family, Rasmi Abu Malhous, who was among the dead, was the commander of Islamic Jihad rocket crews in the central Gaza Strip.

Neighbors left their homes to help rescue workers pull out the bodies of the family, some of which were completely buried in sandy earth. Civilians tried to test the pulse of one body before pulling it out.

Israel’s allegation about Rasmi Abu Malhous could not immediately be confirmed by Reuters. Islamic Jihad did not claim him as a member.

Neither the hostilities nor efforts to halt them shifted the dynamics of the underlying core conflict.

While Hamas has been open to long-term truces, it refuses, like Islamic Jihad, to accept permanent co-existence withI srael.

Gazans are seeking to end years of an Israeli-led blockade. Refugees from the 1948 war of Israel’s founding and their descendents make up most of the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza and want the right to return to their families’ former lands.

Israel rejects that as demographic suicide and sees no means of making peace as long as Hamas and Islamic Jihad are armed.

Katz said there would be no change to Israeli military policy in Gaza, contradicting the assertion of Islamic Jihad.

Targeted killings “will not cease,” he said, and “the open-fire policy for which the Israel Defence Forces is responsible (at the Gaza border) will not change.”

Markets in Gaza reopened as life returned to normal, although people expressed mixed feelings about the truce.

“We responded and made clear our blood was not shed in vain. Also a truce is good because we don’t want our people to suffer more under the blockade,” said one resident, Mohammad Al-Smairi.

U.N. mediator Nickolay Mladenov said the Gaza situation remained fragile, tweeting: “All must show maximum restraint and do their part to prevent bloodshed. The Middle East does not need more wars.”

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Gareth Jones andAlex Richardson)

Jennifer Lopez said a director once asked to see her breasts off-set prior to a nude scene she was shooting for a film. 

“A director at a fitting asked me to take my top off. Because I was supposed to do nudity in the movie,” the “Hustlers” actor said during a Hollywood Reporter roundtable discussion published Thursday. 

“He wanted to see my boobs,” Lopez continued. “And I was like, ‘We’re not on set.’”

Lopez, who shared the roundtable with fellow actors Scarlett Johansson, Lupita Nyong’o, Awkwafina, Laura Dern and Renée Zellweger, said she was able to shut down the director, but the moment has stayed with her. She didn’t name the offender or say when it happened.  

“I said no, I stood up for myself,” she said. “But it was so funny because I remember being so panicked in the moment. And by the way, there was a costume designer in the room with me. So there was another woman in the room and he says this and I said no.”

She added that “a little bit of the Bronx came out” and she was able to unequivocally refuse him. 

“If you give in, in that moment, all of a sudden that person is off and running, thinking they can do whatever they want,” Lopez continued. “And because I put up a little boundary right there and said no, he laid off and then later on apologized. But the minute he walked out of the room the costume designer was like, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry that just happened.’” 

Nyong’o added later that the Hollywood culture has, hopefully, changed enough that situations like that don’t happen as often. 

“The difference now, though, is that because of the conversations that are happening in public, it’s easier to tell when something is inappropriate,” the “Us” actor said, alluding to the Me Too movement. 

“Because in that moment, if the costume designer had said something, it could’ve changed. If she had supported you in some way, had spoken up, it would have changed the dynamic,” Nyong’o said to Lopez. “So now we are programming the younger generation to know what’s OK and what’s not. To know that it’s not OK to be in a costume fitting and for a man to ask that of you. Even though those things might happen, our defense would be sharper in those moments.”

Head over to The Hollywood Reporter to read the full roundtable discussion. 

A National Statistical Office survey showed consumer spending fell for the first time in more than four decades in 2017-18, Somesh Jha reported on Friday in an exclusive for the Business Standard.

The report on the NSO survey was approved for release on June 19, 2019 but withheld due to “adverse” findings, Jha found.  

The survey was held a little after demonetisation and during the period in which GST was implemented.

It found that consumer spending fell by 8.8% in villages in 2017-18. 

Consumer spending rose in cities by 2% over six years, the report said.

Experts told Jha the most worrying trend in the NSO report was the decline in food consumption, which implied increased malnutrition.

Sources told Jha the government has appointed a committee to look into the data and had been told there was no defect in the report.

You can read the full Business Standard report here.

Previously, the government had withheld the release of the NSO report on India’s unemployment rate. Jha published a scoop in January based on numbers from the report which showed that the unemployment rate stood at a whopping 45-year high of 6.1% in 2017-18.

Two non-government members of the National Statistical Commission (NSC) had resigned, partly because of the government’s refusal to release the report, which the body had approved in December.

Earlier this month, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s data showed India’s unemployment rate in October rose to 8.5%, the highest since August 2016, and up from 7.2% in September, reflecting the impact of a slowdown in the economy.

On Thursday, Moody’s revised its forecast for India’s GDP growth down to 5.6%. This is was the third straight downward revision by the credit rating agency.

“India’s economic growth has decelerated since mid-2018, with real GDP growth slipping from nearly 8 per cent to 5 per cent in the second quarter of 2019 and joblessness rising,” it said.

Economist Arun Kumar, widely considered to be an authority on black money in India, told HuffPost India’s Akshay Deshmane that Indian economy has entered a full-blown recession.

India’s Former Chief Statistician Dr Pronab Sen had said in September the “principal source” of India’s current economic slowdown was the “liquidity crunch” that resulted from demonetisation in 2016.

The Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday to refer the Sabarimala case to a seven-judge constitutional bench has split Kerala politics along religious lines and revived the controversy at what appears to be an opportune time for the BJP.        

Though the five-judge bench of the court, which was acting on a batch of review petitions, did not stay its original September 2018 order that had done away with the shrine’s age-old practice of denying entry to women of menstruating age (between 10 and 50), several BJP leaders hailed the decision as a vindication of their stand. They also declared they would not allow any woman inside the shrine dedicated to the celibate deity Ayyappa during the pilgrim season, which begins with the mandala poojas on Saturday.  

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This is the second time this month that Hindutva supporters have celebrated a court verdict in a religious matter. On November 9, the Supreme Court had pronounced its final verdict in the Ayodhya case, paving the way for a Ram temple at the site where the Babri Masjid stood before it was demolished, while allocating an alternative plot for a mosque. 

The BJP’s call to action spells trouble for Kerala’s Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led government. It faces the daunting task of keeping the peace at Sabarimala, which has already received requests from 36 women seeking entry during the poojas, according to the Travancore Devaswom Board. The board, a government body, is in charge of the temple’s administration.

Government cornered

The CPI(M) remembers all too well the months of protests and violence against women that followed last year’s landmark verdict. The unrest ensured it was only in January 2019 that Sabarimala received its first women visitors under the age of 50. Kanakadurga and Bindu Ammini, both in their 40s, made history by entering the sanctum sanctorum, till then forbidden to women of their age. 

“The priority of the government will be maintaining peace at Sabarimala,” said A Vijayaraghavan, convener of the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front coalition.

According to media reports, the government has deployed 10,000 police personnel at Sabarimala for the duration of the pilgrim season.

However, a law-and-order crisis is not all the government had to contend with after the 2018 verdict. In this year’s Lok Sabha elections, held in Kerala in April, the LDF won just one of the state’s 20 seats, down from eight in 2014. The Sabarimala crisis was cited as a major reason for the poor result. The remaining 19 seats went to the Congress-led United Democratic Front.

What’s more, the CPI(M) does not seem well-prepared to deal with the coming storm. The party is divided. While Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was an early advocate of allowing women inside the Sabarimala shrine, some party colleagues who toe a soft Hindutva line have reportedly urged him to go slow on the matter. They are wary of a Hindutva backlash and fear this could help the BJP make a foothold in the state.

Despite being a major player in the Sabarimala agitation, the BJP failed to win its first Lok Sabha seat in Kerala in the general elections. It has also won just one Assembly seat here so far, and hopes to use Sabarimala has an election plank to improve its tally in the 2021 Assembly polls. 

Responding to the court’s latest decision, Vijayan said his government would “need more clarity on this judgement”. India Today quoted him as saying, “We understand the SC judgment of September 28, 2018, is still in place but we are unclear about the implications. We need to understand the impact of this verdict and will seek legal opinions.”

Several CPI(M) leaders, who spoke to HuffPost India on condition of anonymity, said they were awaiting clarity on the judgement and that the government might file a plea in this regard. But when asked how they planned to tackle any trouble that may arise during the mandala poojas, they had no answers.

Temple Affairs Minister Kadakampally Surendran told reporters he would comment only after studying the verdict. “It would be premature to say anything now,” he said. “I request everybody, including the Opposition, not to attempt [to get] any political mileage from the verdict or make comments that can spark tension and violence.”

N. Vasu, who takes charge of the Travancore Devaswom Board as chairman on Friday, said a new situation had emerged. “A new bench would review the old verdict. Let our lawyers study the judgement and discuss it with the board members first. Then we will decide on future course of action,” he said.

BJP, Congress on one side?

As the government waits for clarity, the BJP appears ready to go into action.

Party leader K. Surendran, the face of last year’s anti-women protests, said that from Saturday, BJP workers would set up camps along the shrine’s route and stop women from entering, forcibly if they had to. He warned the government of serious repercussions if it acted before the court had delivered its final verdict.

Surendran had contested the Lok Sabha polls from Pathanamthitta seat, where Sabarimala is located.

Senior BJP leader Kummanam Rajashekaran echoed Surendran, saying, “I urge the government to show restraint. Lack of clarity regarding today’s Supreme Court decision must not be used as an excuse to facilitate women’s entry into the shrine.”

In an unlikely but not unexpected outcome of Thursday’s development, the Congress found itself on the same side of the political divide as the BJP. The party’s state unit warned the government against acting in haste. 

“The state government must not be in a hurry,” said Ramesh Chennithala, Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly. “Any illogical action would have repercussions with far-reaching implications. The government must consider the sentiments of true devotees who may take much more time to accept the changing realities.’’

Welcoming the decision to refer the case to a larger bench, Congress veteran and former chief minister Oommen Chandy agreed that any attempt to facilitate the entry of women into the shrine would lead to violence. He also warned that this would be advantageous to Hindutva forces.

Nothing’s changed, say women

In the face of the growing political divide, activists and women devotees pointed out that the Supreme Court’s original verdict remains valid.   

“It is true the Supreme Court referred the Sabarimala case to a larger bench with a 3:2 majority. But it did not stay the judgement passed on September 28, 2018, that lifted the ban on the entry of women between the ages of 10 and 50 to the temple,” said Mridula Devi Sasidharan, a Dalit rights activist and key campaigner against gender discrimination at Sabarimala. “Any woman can visit the temple till the larger bench decides on the matter. I don’t know the logic behind the arguments of the Congress leaders.’’

Kanakadurga, one of the two women to enter the shrine in January, told HuffPost India, “I plan to make a pilgrimage this mandalakaalam. The court has not revoked its earlier verdict ending gender discrimination at Sabarimala. It has just referred the issue, along with other issues involving women and religious faith, to a larger bench. As long as the court’s order of last year exists, I am open to visit Sabarimala.”

She added, “As there is no stay [on the earlier order], the government has an obligation to protect the democratic rights of women. It must not forget its duty in the face of threats and intimidation from communal forces. I will continue to visit the temple with police protection.’’

Among the 36 women who have applied online to the Travancore Devaswom Board for permission to enter the shrine during the mandala season is Pune-based activist Trupti Desai. A prominent face of campaigns demanding entry for women at Sabarimala and several other places of worship, Desai had made an unsuccessful bid to enter the Sabarimala temple last November. 

However, the temple may not be ready to welcome women devotees. “The Supreme Court decision vindicates our stand, gives us hope and confidence,” said Kantararu Rajeevaru, chief priest at Sabarimala and one of the review petitioners.

As for the chief minister, the coming days will be a test of whether he can continue to be seen as a leader who places women’s rights over matters of caste and community. Any dilution in his stand now would weaken his position as a champion of women’s rights.

NEW DELHI — A thick layer of toxic smog engulfed Delhi as the air pollution level continued to remain in the ‘severe’ category for the fourth consecutive day on Friday.

The high pollution can be attributed to low wind speed, which has led to stagnation of pollutants in the air and slowed down the dispersion process, authorities said. 

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The air quality index (AQI) in Delhi was in the severe category at 467 at 10 am. All the monitoring stations recorded severe air quality, according to the Central Pollution Control Board.

Levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10 were nearly eight times higher than normal at several locations. Schools remained closed on Friday as the thick smog enveloped Delhi and neighbouring cities.

In the National Capital Region, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida and Gurgaon also recorded severe air quality, the CPCB said.

Ghaziabad recorded the highest pollution level at 480, remaining points away from going off charts, the CPCB data showed.

An AQI between 201 and 300 is considered ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air quality monitor, SAFAR, said flushing of pollutants was almost insignificant due to stagnation and very low mixing height.

Scattered rainfall is expected over Punjab due to the western disturbance. It is likely to lead to very low stubble burning incidents over the next two days, the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research said.

“Also, transport-level wind direction is not favourable for intrusion. Hence, stubble contribution is estimated to reduce significantly by tomorrow to around 5 per cent,” it said.

However, an increase in wind speed is forecasted by Saturday and it will likely to slightly improve the air quality, but it will still remain in the very poor category.

“Further improvement is expected by Sunday,” the SAFAR said.

Hyderabad, TELANGANA — Days after a 19-year-old humanities student at IIT Madrasdied by suicide, student representatives said the institute’s administration had ignored a long-standing demand to institute a study into the growing number of suicides and mental health concerns on campus.

The parents of Fathima Latheef, who was a first-year student, have alleged that the student was pushed to take the extreme step due to harassment and religious discrimination by faculty members.

The students said the recommendations had been proposed by an independent student body called Chintabar, and later approved by IIT Madras’s Students Legislative Council (SLC). Chintabar calls themselves a “collective of students who engage in discussions on socially, economically and political relevant topics”. 

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On 5 February, 2019, Chintabar put forth the recommendations to the SLC, which later took up the matter to the Board of Students and passed a resolution in the same month: “The reasons for committing suicide or undergoing mental health problems can be many for a student. It is at the culmination of many reasons that the student ends up in a state of clinical depression or even takes the drastic step of committing suicide. These reasons can include academic pressures, personal/relationship issues, familial pressures, loneliness…”

The resolution, which addresses the marginalisation of students in the institute, also asked the administration to understand the “underlying patterns” of suicides and mental health problems, instead of probing each case “at an individual level”. 

“Social backgrounds like caste/tribe status, rural schooling and upbringing, being women, LGBTQI, poor or lower middle-class households, weaker grasp of English etc can individually or together have detrimental effects on the psychology of students in campuses like ours,” it added, asking authorities to identify the backgrounds of earlier suicide victims. 

HuffPost India has written to IIT Madras asking about the students’ claim that the administration did not take up their demand, and will update this story if they respond. Communication officers from the institute, however, shared a media statement from the administration that read, “IIT Madras faculty, staff and students extend their deepest condolences to the family, friends and other near and dear ones of the deceased student. This is indeed an irreparable loss to the institute and the family. May her soul rest in peace. The police has been informed and the institute is cooperating with the authorities”. 

Four student suicides were reported on the campus in the semester in which the resolution was passed. The total count for the year has reached five with the death of Latheef. 

Latheef’s case was referred to the Tamil Nadu police’s crime branch division on Thursday. 

A student representative from the humanities department, who was part of passing the resolution in February 2019, told HuffPost India that student protesters have petitioned the administration to conduct an immediate probe into Latheef’s death. 

“We have also asked the administration to conduct a study into the cases of suicides and mental health problems faced by students of IIT-Madras,” the person said on condition of anonymity.

The resolution had also pointed out that “it is essential for a professional study to make sense of the complicated problems…it is important for the administration to understand the reasons for the academic pressures faced by the students”. 

On Thursday, a collective of student protesters sent a petition to the director of IIT-Madras, demanding that the administration implement the SLC resolution in full.

“(The resolution had asked) to set up a body of outside experts to study the overall mental wellbeing of the students in the institute and on the effectiveness of the existing platforms and mechanisms to tackle all the issues faced by the students,” the petition said. 

This committee should include sociologists, psychologists, mental health experts, educationists, faculty of IIT-M and other professional stakeholders, the petition read, adding that they should also look into the “pressures faced by students, especially those from marginalised backgrounds”. 

The students have also asked for a complaints and grievance redressal committee in all departments, and that friends of the students who died by suicide, especially those of Latheef, friends should be counselled to cope with trauma. 

Apart from petitioning the administration, student bodies staged protests on campus even as the hashtag #JusticeForFathima trended on Twitter through Thursday. As per the notes which Fathima had allegedly typed out on her phone, she has accused three faculty members of the humanities department of the institute of harassing her for being a Muslim. 

Her parents, who arrived in Chennai to petition the police, told reporters that Latheef stopped wearing a hijab because she didn’t want to be identified as a Muslim.

Latheef’s phone notes, copies of which are with HuffPost India, also seemed to express a sense of alienation on campus. “I want to go back (home) please,” a note read. Another, which named a faculty member, accused him of being “the cause of her death”. 

Latheef’s parents have also alleged that the student, who was a topper in all subjects bar one, was given low marks because of the alleged bias.     

Every marketer knows an effective advertising campaign can help increase brand awareness. But spending truckloads of cash on traditional media is not necessarily the most effective way to get the maximum bang for your buck! In today’s day and age if you aren’t thinking click-through rates, digital campaigns and ROI, are you running an optimized campaign? No! So, if you want to target someone who is best suited for your brand, here are a few tips that will get your digital campaign over the edge:

    1. Diversify:  When marketing digitally, don’t put your eggs in one basket. In order words, experiment with different platforms. The digital world is constantly changing and that means the users on these platforms are constantly exposed to new products. While Facebook might work for a certain sect of people, Instagram could give you a better ROI. Mix up your marketing plan and diversify your budget into various platforms.

    2. Make web push notifications your best friend: Customer engagement is not something which can be achieved in a jiffy; it requires persistent efforts. To make a greater impact, re-engagement is the key and push notifications are the way to do it. The adoption of push notification is rapid across industries including e-commerce, content publishing, retailers, B2B SaaS, travelling, Banking, Financial, and Insurance. Push notifications are quick, small-sized updates that are pushed by the website publishers to the website users on their desktops and mobile devices. When visitors arrive on the site, they will receive a prompt to subscribe. If accepted, visitors receive notifications even when they are not on the site and when clicked it will take the user to the sender-specified landing page. Also, did you know that a push notification platform like Truepush provides more than 5-10 times better user engagement than emails for free? Learn more about Truepush here.

    3. Create a persona: One of the biggest advantages of new-age marketing over traditional marketing is that in digital you can get into the nitty-gritty of your ideal customer. Don’t feel shy about getting into details of gender, age, location, likes and interests, political views, etc. The more details your persona has, the easier it gets to target him/her. And a targeted campaign not only yields better results in terms of ROI but also helps improve your position in the algorithm (that means more organic views!). Targeted campaigns could be achieved through Audience segmentation feature provided from the Truepush notification tool.”

    4. Don’t forget to email: While ads on search engines and social media platforms are great, don’t forget to engage your customers where it matters the most, in his or her inbox. Use mailing tools like MailChimp to create eye-catching emailers to secure a spot in the primary inbox instead of the spam folder. Emails are also a great way to inform your customers about ongoing promotions and discounts

     5. Remember, budget is king: The best thing about a digital marketing campaign is that no budget is too small and a larger budget doesn’t necessarily guarantee you success! So experiment with budgets and keep altering it as you go on. Continuous alter your budget (in real-time) to get the maximum engagement from your target audience. Free tools like Truepush are great for budgeted marketing campaigns and offers user engagement for free that would be great for any brand! 

Need more to empower your business? Get free push notification from  Truepush.

“Tell me about yourself” may seem like an easy job interview question that your whole life has prepared you to answer, but the open-ended nature of this question leaves job seekers stumped on where to start. Does an interviewer actually want to know about your entire employment history and personal life?

This common question is actually a critical test of a job candidate’s communication skills, so you don’t want to wing it or screw it up. The good news is that if you can pitch the story of your career, it can help prepare you for any question that follows. “It’s at the heart of the entire interview,” said Judith Humphrey, founder of the Canadian communications firm The Humphrey Group. “What you’re really doing is you’re pitching yourself as an ideal candidate for that position.” 

Sabina Nawaz, a global CEO coach who worked at Microsoft for more than 14 years, said it is the first question for which she preps people when they come to her for interview guidance. “It’s the opportunity for the candidate to take control of the narrative and tell their story in a way that really matters to their audience,” Nawaz said. 

It takes hard work and extensive preparation to answer this question well, but it can be done. Here’s how: 

Avoid this major trap. 

When you go to a job interview, your interviewer has presumably read your résumé, so don’t repeat the information.

In other words, don’t just say, “I have experiences with this, or I got my education at that place, or I have this degree, or I did this kind of special project,” said Josh Doody, a salary negotiation coach and former hiring manager. “That’s what most people will do. It’s easy. It’s your instinct to recite things that are already on your résumé.” 

By doing this, you’re missing out on a key opportunity to give a hiring manager new information about yourself. “You don’t want to give an information dump,” Humphrey said.

Give a clear message. 

Humphrey suggested forming the answer around a compelling message about yourself and having a set of three points to prove this message. If your main message is that you’re an entrepreneur, your points could be something like, “I believe I have the qualities [of] a good entrepreneur. I have some experience in this area. And I’m looking forward to this next position that will give me an opportunity that will hone my skills,” Humphrey said. 

To differentiate yourself from the pack of candidates, you need to tell a story about how the team you are interviewing for will be better off if you’re hired. That means doing prior research on their goals so that the story you tell is one they want to hear.

Imagine you’re applying to join a marketing team that is trying to use social media more, an example Doody offered. When asked to “tell me about yourself,” Doody said you could say, ”‘I’m really passionate about social media; I’ve been using social for 10 years, personally and professionally. One of my favorite things to do is find new opportunities to reach new audiences with new platforms. And I know that your team is currently branching out and using Instagram as an advertising platform. That’s something I’m really interested in helping facilitate.’ You’ve told them a lot about yourself there, but everything is specifically aimed at a goal or need of that team, as opposed to something that’s only about you.”

By leading with the message of your story up front, you prime your interviewer on what to listen for. Nawaz suggested professionals could start the answer this way: “‘There are three things about me that I have used repeatedly throughout my career that are particularly relevant for this job.’” Then, you talk about how you’ve applied these three strengths, like: “In 2017, we were faced with a crisis. This was the crisis. Here was the problem. Here’s how I used A, B and C to address the crisis. So as you can see A, B, C are really strengths that I rely on.”

Do your homework on two crucial fronts.

You are not just telling someone a fact about yourself. You’re telling a story, and stories take work to create. 

Coming up with a good story means getting reflective about what made your career accomplishments something you’re proud of and what strengths those accomplishments highlight. Nawaz said candidates should ask themselves, “Which of those past strengths do you still want to carry forward with you?” 

Don’t pick a generic strength to elaborate on. “Everyone is going to say, ‘I’m smart, I work hard and I get things done,’” said Nawaz. “[Pick] those that will really set you apart and answer the question why. Why does it matter for this particular job?” 

To come up with multiple career accomplishments or examples for different interview questions, Nawaz suggests talking with others. “I especially encourage them to talk to people who know them. Partners, friends, co-workers who will bring up different stories than the ones you remember.” 

The other part of that research equation means knowing what’s at stake for the company with this job opening. “What they really are asking you is ‘Tell me why you are going to help me,’” Doody said. “If you are a prepared candidate, what you’ve done is you’ve figured out those things.” 

If you are preparing for the first interview in the process, Doody suggested reading the job description, Googling the company, reading the first page of their Form 10-K if they are a public company in the U.S, and reading blog posts and news clippings from the team you are joining. “What you’re looking for is what is the company up to, what are they trying to accomplish, what are the things that are preventing them from accomplishing those things.” 

How long should it take to answer?

Citing short attention spans, Humphrey said a minute should be your maximum. Doody said that under a minute could seem rushed, while over two minutes will start to feel “more like a monologue than an answer to a question.“

The length of your answer is not an exact science. It takes using your emotional intelligence to know when someone is interested or when someone is nodding off. Read the room, and keep your career story focused and tailored to your audience. You don’t want to have a hiring manager wondering if there’s a point to what you are saying. If it becomes a meandering dialogue, Humphrey said, it “implies that the candidate doesn’t have a real sense of herself.”

For many, the pervasiveness of the dick pic has put a bit of a damper on online dating and modern courtship.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with a sexy pic ― it can be incredibly hot if you’re really familiar with your partner or you’re positive they want it ― when it comes unrequested, it’s a little jarring and way too forward.

What’s more, you’re probably not turning on the receiver as much as you’d like to think; many women get more aroused by activating their imagination than by having a visual right in front of them, said Kendra Hamilton, a somatic sex educator with a YouTube channel.

“Being turned on purely by visual stimuli is more commonly effective for cisgendered men, but cisgendered women tend to be more responsive to a story or descriptor ― especially those specific to them ― because it activates them emotionally, which is a huge component of female arousal.”

She added, “Speaking from a heteronormative perspective, I believe dick pics are never the best option for getting her fired up.”

Below, women share the sexts they’d rather receive than another unrequested photo of someone’s dong. Dick-pic-happy men out there, please bookmark this. 

Talk about the, er, effect your partner has on you.

“‘I was just dreaming about you and now my pants are much tighter all of a sudden.’ You’re describing to your partner how you are turning them on and what you are experiencing.” ― Heather McPherson, a couple’s therapist and sex therapist in Austin and Denver

Describe a hot moment you shared. 

“Send your partner a text reminiscing about one of your favorite sexual memories together. Something like, ‘Remember that trip we took to Mexico? And what we did out on the balcony of that one hotel? I can’t stop thinking about that.’ Referring back to past experiences is great because you don’t have to come up with something creative in the moment. You’re just drawing from your own memories! Plus, they’re good memories that should get both of you fired up. You could even do something simpler, like, ‘I’ve been thinking about last Wednesday night all day long today.’” ―Vanessa Marin, a sex therapist and online course creator 

Once you bring up a sexy memory, dive deeper.

“You can never go wrong with texting something hot that’s already happened. That way, your partner can visualize what you’re thinking about, relive the moment themselves, and it lets them know exactly what you loved about that sexual encounter. Say something like, ’I can’t stop thinking about the time when we were at the beach under the blanket, and you slowly started to undress me and touch me all over.’ This gives them a mental note for the next time you’re actually having sex ― you like when they move slow ― plus it serves up plenty of different directions to take the conversation. They can ask why you liked it so much, they can say what they liked about that time or they can add something they’d like to slightly change to elevate it for future encounters.” ― Emily Morse, a doctor of human sexuality and host of the SiriusXM Radio show and podcast “Sex with Emily”

Give a command.

“When I get a sext from a dude, I’m turned off by phrases that start with ‘I want you’ or ‘I need you.’ I don’t want neediness. I want a command that asks for a response, something that’s not too aggressive off the top, that invites my own imagination to engage: Maybe ‘Wear a skirt’ or ‘Tell me what you think about when you touch yourself.’ And when the message is that my pleasure is the focus right off the top, bam, wet.” ― Bryde MacLean, co-host and co-producer of the podcast “Turn Me On”

Tell your partner what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it.

“Here’s the thing about sexting: suggestive is hot, obvious is not. It’s easy to send a dick pic or to throw the F-word around. That’s exactly what makes it a whole lot less sexy than creating a scene that requires the receiver to fill in all the blanks. Say something like, ‘I can’t stop thinking about your hands. About the way my body feels when they’re on me. About the things they do to me. About how electric my skin feels when they glide across it. Tonight I’m in your hands. Completely.’” ― Jenny Block, writer and author of “Be That Unicorn: Find Your Magic, Live Your Truth, and Share Your Shine”

Take a mundane moment at work and make it sexy. 

“Say, ‘I’m stuck in this meeting and all I can think about is you bending me over the kitchen table later.’ Sexting is basically a digital form of foreplay. You’re letting your partner know that you’re thinking about having sex with them while you’re at your day job. This text will give your partner something to think about for the rest of the day. And when you get home, you’ll probably get bent over the kitchen table.” ― Gigi Engle, certified sex coach, sexologist, and author of “All The F*cking Mistakes: A Guide to Sex, Love, and Life”

Ask them about their turn-ons. (And use those emojis!)

“Obviously, don’t send a sext if you’re not sure the person will appreciate it. But if all goes well, I adore getting to know what the person is into: what turns them on, if they’re into any kinks. I like someone I’m sexting to jump straight in and ask if I’m ‘Into anything kinky?’ or one that really grabs my attention: ’What you searching in your porn browser these days?′ It gives you a really clear idea if you’ll click sexually or not.

“But I would only type these if you’re 100% positive they want to chat dirty, otherwise it could come across creepy as hell. With sexting, please type with caution, as many people are very private about their turn-ons and it can make some uncomfortable to talk about it. So, if they’re not enthusiastically replying then take the hint! If they are, go for it and do use emojis. (Though no excessive use of the eggplant!)” ― Reed, co-host of the YouTube channel Come Curious and a podcast called “F**ks Given”

If you’re more of a tame sexter, that’s OK, too. 

“I’d rather receive a sext instead of a dick pic that goes something along the lines of: ‘Chatting with you is making me all hot and bothered (hot/sweating emoji).’ People want to receive something that activates their mind and encourage sexy talk without coming across seedy. Also, if they’re not in the mood to sext, you don’t want to send something too jarring.” ― Florence, co-host of the YouTube channel Come Curious and a podcast called “F**ks Given”

If you’ve been together for a while, R-rated humor is fine.

“It’s at moments like this when I’m not sure if being married has hampered my ability to flirt or just severely changed it. But my favorite sexts are funny. In real life, my partner might never say something like, ‘Haaaaaay gurl, wanna bang?’ or ‘Just to let you know, I washed my junk,’ but if he texted those, I’d consider jumping into bed after I stopped laughing. Look, sex gets different after you’re married.” ― Yvette d’Entremont, a public speaker and science blogger

Tell your partner how much you love their body.

“‘I can’t wait to come home and explore your curves, just thinking about your body turns me on. I want to show you how much it turns me on.’ You’re telling your partner why you are turned on. Instead of sending a dick pic to show that you’re turned on, you describe why. And this provides reassurance to a body-conscious partner that you find their body not only sexy but also arousing.” ― McPherson 

“Send texts that tell your partner how much you want to honor/worship/explore her entire body. Many women crave this as they are so used to receiving touch that goes right for the genitals. Write something like, ‘I can’t stop thinking about how I want to worship every inch of your body the next time I see you.’ When my lover says this to me, I feel like a total goddess. The word worship suggests my queendom, as well as how much my lover reveres me. And his desire to explore every inch lets me know that he sees me as a whole and wants to give me as much pleasure as possible for me as opposed to for him.” ― Amy Baldwin, sex educator and co-host of the podcast “Shameless Sex”

NEW DELHI — The internet blackout and mass arrests of Kashmiris, including children, emerged as points of concern in the second hearing held by U.S. lawmakers on Jammu and Kashmir since the Narendra Modi government abrogated the former state’s special constitutional status on 5 August. 

Other issues discussed included Hindu nationalism, in the context of the lynching of Muslims since the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, how the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is being implemented in Assam, and the palpable increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric in India.

In the three months since its shock decision to abrogate Article 370, the Modi government has attempted to court support from the international community, most recently by organising a controversial visit by a delegation of predominantly far-right European MPs to Kashmir. 

The US lawmakers, who had convened the meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C on Thursday, are members of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bi-partisan body. The speakers included James P. McGovern, a Congressman from Massachusetts, Sheila Jackson Lee, a Congresswoman from Texas, Christopher H. Smith, a Congressman from New Jersey, and Pramila Jayapal, a Congresswoman from Washington, who is also the first Indian American woman in the U.S. House of Congress. 

The panelists included three Kashmiris living in America — Sehla Ashai, a human rights lawyer; Yousra Fazili, a human rights lawyer and the cousin of Mubeen Khan, a businessman who is detained at the Agra Central Jail; and Sunanda Vashisht, a Kashmiri Hindu and a political commentator. The non-Kashmiris included Arjun Sethi, a human rights lawyer based in Washington D.C., Haley Duschinski, a law professor from Ohio University, and John Sifton, who specialises in Asia advocacy for Human Rights Watch (HRW). 

The US lawmakers said they had constituents who were “worried” about their relatives in Kashmir. 

“We are here because we are genuinely concerned about the human rights situation in J&K. We have constituents, who are our friends, people we care deeply about, who have relatives, who they can’t get a hold of and are deeply concerned about their health and wellbeing,” said McGovern, who chaired the panel discussion. 

While internet is still unavailable in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, postpaid mobile phones were made operational on 14 October.  All mobile phones are functioning in the Jammu Division and Ladakh, where there is also broadband internet. 

The testimonies

HRW’s Sifton disagreed with panelists who had previously claimed that very little information was coming out of Kashmir. Reports from Kashmir, he said, are why the public knows that thousands were detained without due process in August, there is no internet in Kashmir, and the mobile phones which have been restored do not carry data.

“As a result of all that people cannot do a lot of things. Business people cannot send orders or invoices or money if they need a web-based app to do that. Doctors cannot send an x-ray as an attachment to an email because they cannot send an email,” said Sifton. 

This, he pointed out, is having an “extraordinary effect” on not just freedom of speech, but also the freedom of health, work and education.

He added that while there is a “legitimate security concern” about militant groups backed by Pakistan operating in Kashmir and carrying out attacks, this does not absolve the Indian government holding to account security forces responsible for human rights violations. 

“India has absolved itself of blame by blaming everything on Pakistan and militants supported by them,” he said. “Until the Indian government acknowledges and addresses how their own abuses have fuelled this situation, all these problems are going to endure.”

While there was a lot of impassioned testimony from the Kashmiri panelists, the US lawmakers doubled down on two immediate concerns: restoring the internet and allowing international journalists and United Nations observers into the Kashmir Valley. 

A major concern for the Indian government is whether lifting the ban on the internet could facilitate mobilisation of people who are unhappy with the abrogation of J&K’s special constitutional status and the manner in which it was done, potentially leading to widespread violence and killings. 

Human rights activists say that shutting the internet for lengthy periods of time — now more than 100 days in Kashmir — is disproportionate, even in the face of legitimate concerns about law and order. 

Speaking to HuffPost India in August, David Kaye, U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Speech and Opinion, said , “It’s clear that the government has a legitimate interest in public order and public safety. My only point is that shutting down the internet is disproportionate to that end. It ends up interfering much more than is necessary in order to prevent violence.” 

Sifton said, “A government cannot derogate from the freedom of expression and assembly so broadly and open-endedly and for so long. It is simply indefensible under international human rights law.”

On the issue of detentions, Sifton said, “It is a standard principle of human rights law that you cannot detain someone without due process except war time, which is not applicable here. International humanitarian law does not apply to the ordinary situations in J&K. And even if they did, there are rules about that too. You cannot just detain so many people without bringing them to court and explaining the legal justifications for their detention .”

Ashai, the Kashmiri lawyer, said that while the issue of preventive detention had escalated since 5 August, the problem had been systemic to the  cycle of human rights violations in Kashmir for decades. 

Last month, HuffPost India reported that hundreds of Habeas Corpus petitions in the J&K High Court were filed by anxious and frustrated relatives, some of whom do not know the whereabouts of their detained family members, but no relief was coming their way. 

Even while Indian journalists have been reporting on Kashmir for national and international publications since August, including freelancers, the US lawmakers and panelists insisted that it was important to allow “international journalists” to report in Kashmir. 

McGovern, who hosted the meeting, said there wasn’t “unanimity on all the basic facts”.

Lee said, “Why not allow members of the U.S. Congress to visit both parts of Jammu and Kashmir.”

Vashisth, the Kashmiri Hindu, said that while foreign journalists were not allowed in Kashmir, Indian journalists were writing and filing reports critical of the government. “Who is going to be responsible for the safety of international journalists?” she asked. 

Sethi, the human rights lawyer, shot back, “You should ask international journalists. International journalists go to Syria, they go across the world, it’s on them. I trust international journalists and their institutions to protect themselves.”

On the broader human rights concerns in Kashmir, Sifton said the Indian government needs to repeal draconian laws like the Public Safety Act (PSA) and the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), which allow preventive detention and for the security forces in Kashmir to operate with impunity.

“The impunity and abuses are also fueling the conflict and until India comes to terms with that we are going to see this going on,” he said. 

Internationalising  Kashmir

There was also a discussion on whether the way forward was to internationalise the Kashmir dispute. India has for decades insisted that Kashmir is an internal matter, and a bilateral issue that needs to be resolved with Pakistan. 

At home, the Modi government is facing flak for having dealt with Kashmir in a manner which has opened up it up for unprecedented international scrutiny.

In a bizarre move, last month, the Modi government allowed 26 lawmakers from European Union countries, some of whom made remarks that are insulting to Muslims and Islam, into Kashmir on a “private” yet tightly controlled visit.

This led to the European Union clarifying this was not an “official” visit, and a British lawmaker revealing that he was taken off the list of visitors when he insisted on speaking with Kashmiris and assessing the situation on the ground for himself. 

In September, this year, Pakistan managed to get the U.N Security Council to discuss Kashmir, for the first time since 1965. 

In October, U.S. lawmakers had a similar hearing to the one on Thursday, with human rights issues in Kashmir taking centre-stage. 

Analysts say while Pakistan is lobbying to raise Kashmir on Capitol Hill, India is pushing back by reaching out to US lawmakers to leave Kashmir to New Delhi. 

Sifton said, “Things have changed in Washington with respect to the U.S. Congress and India. They can’t just wiggle their way out of it by trying to pressuring Congress, which translates them into thinking that we have to change our behaviour. We can’t just keep pounding our fists and saying this is a domestic issue that you can’t tell us about or say it’s all about Pakistan…”

When McGovern asked if there was one thing the panelists could agree on, Khan, the Kashmiri whose cousin is detained in Agra, said, “I would like to think that we can all agree that children should not be detained. I’d also like to think that we can all agree that adults should not be detained without due process.”

The chambers of the Veneto Regional Council in Venice, Italy, flooded for the first time in known history Tuesday night — apparently right after its members rejected amendments to tackle climate change.

Flooding in the iconic Italian canal city has prompted discussions about the effects of climate change and rising sea levels on the city’s future.

In a Facebook post, Andrea Zanoni, the deputy chairman of the regional council’s environment committee, explained the circumstances surrounding Tuesday night’s event.

“The room flooded two minutes after the majority League, Brothers of Italy and Forza Italia had failed our amendments to counter climate change,” he wrote, referring to two Italian right-wing parties and the center-right Forza Italia party.

Zanoni accused regional president Luca Zaia, who is a member of the far-right League party, of presenting a 2020 budget with “no concrete actions to combat climate change.”

Zanoni also blamed Venice’s high tide, which has peaked at more than six feet above the usual level and caused at least one death, on a combination of factors including rising sea levels due to glacial melt. He said that the rejected amendments had included requests for funding for more renewable energy sources, the replacement of diesel buses and measures to reduce the impact of plastic.

“If the voters of Veneto continue to close their eyes, Zaia’s League will bring us all underwater,” he said.

Alessandro Ovizach, a spokesperson for the regional council, confirmed in a statement to CNN that the council chambers flooded following discussion about amendments to the 2020 budget, but did not specify which ones.

Robert Ciambetti, the council’s president and a member of the League party, called Zanoni’s claims propaganda in a statement to CNN.

“Beyond propaganda and deceptive reading, we are voting (for) a regional budget that spent €965 million over the past three years in the fight against air pollution, smog, which is a determining factor in climate change,” he said.

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro tweeted earlier this week that flooding had brought Venice to its knees, describing the conditions as “apocalyptic.”

The highest water levels in the region in more than 50 years will leave “a permanent mark,” he wrote. 

“Now the government must listen,” he added. “These are the effects of climate change ... the costs will be high.”

Ciambetti also shared images of the flooding in the council chambers and around Venice.

Milap Milan Zaveri is that Bollywood boy who has the rare fortune of being a writer/director in films as sensitive and gender-conscious as Mastizaade, Grand Masti, Kya Kool Hai Hum 3 and Hate Story 4. In short, Zaveri’s IMDb page has films with as much depth as the Tinder bio of a Delhi dudebro. 

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His latest outing is Marjaavaan, a film about two men who should’ve probably hooked up and released the tension instead of pretending to be mad at each other for no apparent reason. Other than queering the heteronormativity of the gangster genre, a lot of innocent lives would’ve been spared, including that of the hapless spectator, who has to endure this over 2-hour-long revenge fest.

Sidharth Malhotra plays Raghu, an orphan adopted by Mumbai’s tanker mafia,  (Nasaar) who also runs a prostitution ring. Raghu is a faithful henchman who eliminates Nasaar’s enemies through bombastic dialogues and masculine bravura. However, Nasaar’s OG son, the vertically-challenged Vishnu (Riteish Deshmukh), who, by his own admission is the devil’s incarnate (LOL), feels slighted that Daddy is biased towards the ruggedly sexy Raghu and so he decides to get Raghu’s mute girlfriend, Zoya, (Tara Sutaria) killed.... by Raghu himself. Chaos ensues.

That Marjaavaan is recycled trash from all the terrible movies of 80s is obvious. While those movies still had redeeming qualities, such as being fertile choices for ironic viewing, expect no such heroic deeds from Zaveri’s Marjaavaan, a film so taken by its title that it keeps randomly repeating it in strange places (including the interval point where the title appears instead of the words ‘intermission). So bereft is this nightmare from originality, that it invokes ‘Marjavaan’ (the song from Fashion) in an introductory scene of the sex-worker-with-a-golden-heart (Rakul Preet Singh, wasted). In another instance, Deshmukh’s character is introduced with ‘Teri Galiyan’ the song from Ek Villain, where both him and Malhotra were pitted against one another and a woman was (yet again) violently killed to justify their angst.

It comes as no surprise, then, that Marjaavaan can’t imagine a woman character who isn’t a sex worker or an ‘item girl’ or someone being prepared for murder. Women in the film are devices for men to validate their machismo, vehicles who absorb brutal violence so the men can demonstrate their own. And how long will we keep writing parts where the woman’s sole job is to trigger moral awakening for the tormented hero? Or tolerate repulsively vulgar songs where, before thrusting her body in a manner that satiates the male gaze, she says, “Kal Meri Shaadi Hai, Aaj Azaadi?”

As Marjaavaan’s plot unfurls with the coherence that rivals a drunk man’s gait, uninspiring and exhausting action sequences cover the screen, where Malhotra bashes up everyone, a Muslim man is brutalised in a mosque, and a key character is flung off the ledge of his own house.

In what feels like a surreal experience, the scenes are often disjointed and characters appear out of nowhere to participate in sequences they’ve little contribution to. The background score takes the film more seriously than the film takes itself while Deshmukh, in a performance that’s half-parody, half-lunacy, drops braindead lines such as, “Kabhi volcano dekha hai....” or “bandook kitni bhi badi ho, jaan lene wali goli choti hi hoti hai.”

Sidharth Malhotra, who often looks disappointed in himself, carries a matchstick in his mouth and keeps playing with it as if it’ll enflame his character with angst sorely lacking from his face. His bulging biceps, which the camera makes a point of repeatedly zooming in on, carry more gravitas than his performance or the film’s plot. While everyone in this film only talks in obnoxious parables and one-liners that send mixed-signals, it’s a relief that Sutaria’s character is mute, although she communicates exclusively through  riddles, because, it’s convenient, I suppose.

That she’s from Kashmir and thinks the violence of the valley can be compared to Mumbai’s mafia and how it’s ruining the lives of the city’s youth is the kind of politics you expect from someone who has Satyamev Jayte in his directing credits.

It’s 2019 and we’re still refurbishing archaic 80s trope we thought we were better without. One of the ‘lines’ from the film goes, “Duniya ka sabse khatarnak hathyar— dhai kilo ki bandook nahi, dedh kilo ka dimaag hota hai.” It’s time the filmmakers and writers who come up with such gems actually start believing in them too.

Taylor Swift again slammed her ex-label boss Scott Borchetta and music manager Scooter Braun, this time for blocking her from performing a medley of her songs at the American Music Awards.

In an emotional post on her social media platforms (including Tumblr), the musician said the two music industry giants have now said she’s not allowed to perform her old songs on television “because they claim that would be re-recording my music before I’m allowed to next year.” Swift will be honored with the Artist of the Decade award at the Nov. 24 show.

She also said Borchetta and Braun have barred Netflix from using Swift’s older music and performance footage for a documentary about her, which had yet to be announced. 

Her post comes months after Braun’s Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Label Group in a controversial $300 million deal. Swift had signed with the record label for her debut album and worked with it until 2017′s “Reputation.”

She signed a new record deal with Universal Music Group last year and claims Borchetta has refused to let her own her music. She had plans to re-record the songs from her first six albums next year. 

The documentary and any of Swift’s recorded events through November 2020 “are a question mark,” she wrote.

Borchetta has disputed the claims that Swift couldn’t buy her music back. He previously said that Swift “had every chance in the world to own not just her master recordings, but every video, photograph, everything associated to her career. She chose to leave.”

After the acquisition, Swift was also vocal about Braun, writing that his “manipulative bullying” had targeted her for years. She described Braun, who manages musicians including Demi Lovato and Justin Bieber, as the person who “stripped her of her life’s work” and who tried to “dismantle” her career.

In her latest post, Swift said Borchetta told her team she could perform her earlier hits at the AMAs only if she agrees to stop talking about both Borchetta and Braun and if she agrees not to re-record her catalog in 2020. 

“The message being sent to me is very clear,” Swift wrote Thursday. “Be a good little girl and shut up. Or you’ll be punished. This is WRONG.”

She called on her fans to put pressure on Borchetta and Braun and tell them “how you feel about this.” 

“Scooter also manages several artists who I really believe care about other artists and their work,” she wrote. “Please ask them for help with this — I’m hoping that maybe they can talk some sense into the men who are exercising tyrannical control over someone who just wants to play the music she wrote.”

Swift’s post quickly went viral as she ― unsurprisingly ― received an outpouring of support from her Taylor Nation fanbase. The hashtags #IStandWithTaylor and #FreeTaylor trended worldwide on social media.

Representatives of Braun, Borchetta and the AMAs did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment.