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CBG San

@OnlyNakedTruth

Jul 27, 2018 • 9 tweets • 4 min read Twitter logo

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Once upon a time Hindi's Devanagari script was written in 2 different ways...

Then a few missionaries in Danish colony in Bengal and their rival press in Bombay changed it forever !

Read on.

#CBG_Thread
1/n

If you read old manuscripts of Sanskrit / Hindi you would notice many strange characters in them. Characters no longer used in modern Hindi.

They were called the Calcutta style of Hindi. While the modern form is called Bombay style.

Why these names? Herein hangs a tale.

2/n

In late 18th century, Baptist missionaries led by William Carey wanted to setup a press in Bengal for printing church literature locally. Denied permission by East India company who feared a backlash, they found haven in Danish colony of Serampore. 3/n

"Serampore Mission Press" produced many English works. But didn't have a "typeset" (wooden engraved block letters) for Hindi. They hired Panchanan Karmakar from Wilikins' press in Calcutta who created Bengali and later Devanagari script typeset. 4/n

Panchanan Karmakar was an ex blacksmith and the Hindi typeset created by him (called Calcutta style ) at Serampore press became popular as the press produced thousands of books .

Carey's book on Sanskrit Grammar was the 1st book printed in 1803 with this typeset.

5/n

Marathi was originally written in two scripts - Balbodh and Modi scripts.
Modi was more popular for business and other day to day works.

Balbodh was a slight variation of Devanagari. This difference is what is now called Calcutta vs Bombay style of writing Devanagari. 6/n

Some letters like अ, ण, झ in Bal bodh script etc are similar to Modi script than Devanagari

Economic need to have a common Devanagari typeset that could serve both Marathi and Hindi led to popularization of Bombay style Devanagari especially among printing presses in Bombay.

The demise of Calcutta style Hindi script was precipitated by three more events. Arrival of Hindi typewriters, computer fonts of Bombay type and eventually keyboard used in mobile for Bombay typeset.

Languages and scripts like living beings evolve, adpat or die out. Modi script, Calcutta style Hindi script are testament to that. The need to connect with people doesn't die out however. So keep the language wars in check

End.

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CBG San

@OnlyNakedTruth

Sep 29, 2018

One day, mother nature read Karl Marx and became a communist.

She felt guilty that she had created inequality in topography. "Haves" tall mountains and "have nots" ocean floors.

BOOM! A just revolution then levelled the mountains and the oceans.... 1/n

The oceans were gone and so were hills. A blob of a great swamp replaced them all.
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CBG San

@OnlyNakedTruth

Sep 15, 2018

Today's thread.
How an ancient Danish King, who united several warring clans, inspired modern Engineers to create a unified wireless standard.

Bluetooth: one protocol to rule them all

#CBG_Thread #EngineersDay 1/n

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CBG San

@OnlyNakedTruth

Aug 25, 2018

There are so many problems with this thread.
1) Assumes dark skinned premise for Asuras. Hence as per him Keralites were asuras.

Many "North Indian" Gods are proudly dark like Krishna, Rama, Vishnu and Kali. So flawed premise.

https://twitter.com/AnandRM_/status/903619562385506304

2) As per Bhagvatam, Mahabali performed the yagna on banks of Narmada and not Kerala so any appropriation of Bali is by Malayalis and not vice versa

3) Bali wasn't killed by Vishnu for a reason. Because barring his ahankar and usurping 3 lokas, he was dharmic. In fact as per the story Vishnu grants him a boon and Bali asks Vishnu to stay with him in Sutala.

CBG San

@OnlyNakedTruth

Jun 10, 2018

Today's thread:

The legend and history of a trader king, his city state and a clan.

King Agrasen - Agrawals - and the archeological excavations of Agroha, Haryana.

1/n

As per the legend, King Agrasen ruled over the kingdom of Agroha 5000 years ago.

He was a trader king and his 18 sons eventually led to 18 gotras (actually 17.5) of Banias that form the umbrella "Agrawal" business community. 2/n

He established the city of Agroha where everyone was welcome to come and establish business.
The original startup capital.

Everyone contributed one brick and one coin to new trader to help him setup his house and start a new business.

Talk about ancient angel investing! 3/n

CBG San

@OnlyNakedTruth

Apr 29, 2018

Before the Wire, Quint and The Print gang starts talking about how village electrification means nothing as it's not household electrification, just two cents that I learnt from my father who was an engineer with state electricity board.

Electricity is transmitted at very high voltages to cut down wastage. E.g. pinjore shimla line is 132kv.
So village electrification means adding poles, cables to connect to high voltage transmission and then down transformers to bring it down to 220V used at homes.

Once this infrastructure is ready and 10% households +panchayat etc gets electricity it's a proof that the village CAN now receive power. Hence it's deemed electrified

CBG San

@OnlyNakedTruth

Apr 22, 2018

Mr Shekhar Gupta allow me to respond to this pathetic article with facts and not vague insinuations. 1/

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Crackpot science 1 : Supercomputing.
Does the esteemed journalist know about "National Supercomputing Mission" started by Modi Govt with an outlay of Rs 4500 Crores? 2/
business-standard.com/article/pti-st…

Modi's Supercomputing mission is about delivering perceivable results. Like addition of 70 supercomputers to premier research institutes. Still crackpot? 3/

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