Lakshmi M Puri
@lakshmiunwomen • 39,062 subscribers
Former @UN Assistant Secretary-General; Deputy Executive Director @UN_Women & Amb of India; Commentator on #National & #International Affairs, Author
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There's only one truth: #Pakistan is the #perpetrator, #patron, and platform of cross-border #terrorism. Proof lies in two undeniable facts: 1. The Pakistani State creates, aids, and abets terrorist groups and their infrastructure hubs against India. 2. The #PakistanArmy has morphed from a professional force into one that directs, participates in, and now even visits wounded terrorists in hospitals and attends their funerals. This isn’t opinion — this is admission. The Defence Minister says the quiet part out loud. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar admits “communication” with the attackers. At the UNSC, Pakistan blocked even the mention of #TRF — shielding its own proxy. And where does this terror ecosystem operate from? #Bhawalpur — residence of Masood Azhar. The 2019 Pulwama attack was planned here. #Muridke — Lashkar-e-Taiba HQ. The 26/11 attackers were trained here. Built partly with ₹10 lakh from Osama bin Laden. Both are headquarters of the United Nations-proscribed terrorist organisations — and yet they thrive in plain sight on Pakistani soil. This is not a rogue element problem. This is state-integrated terrorism — with official rank, public infrastructure, and diplomatic protection. The #world must stop indulging a state that bleeds its neighbours for strategic relevance. And the people of #Pakistan must rise —to throw off the toxic yoke of military rule and emerge as a true democracy. Only then can there be peace and mutual benefit with an ascendant India — the world’s largest and most vibrant democracy. #PakistanExposed #Terroristan #IndiaAgainstTerror #UNSC #OperationSindoor #IndiaPakistanTensions
Lakshmi M Puri315,071 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce
When stories travel, they find their soul in new tongues! Feeling truly overwhelmed and humbled by the love and warmth at the #Teluguedition launch of Swallowing the Sun in Vijayawada. Hon’ble Shri Pawan Kalyan Garu, Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, graced the occasion as Chief Guest and moved me deeply with his heartfelt call for women and youth to read this book — a story of awakening, courage, and change. My heartfelt thanks to Shri Y Satya Kumar Yadav, Hon'ble Minister for Health & Medical Education, for his gracious presence, and to Shri Vijay Kumar Garu of #Emesco Publishers for his unwavering belief in bringing this edition to life and to Ms Kuppili Padma for her eloquent and heartfelt introduction of the book. A special word of gratitude to Shri A. Krishna Rao Garu, whose sensitive and evocative translation has kept the soul and spirit of the novel alive in Telugu — allowing Swallowing the Sun / #ఆమెసూర్యుడినికబళించింది - to shine in yet another beautiful language. The affection and energy of the people of Andhra Pradesh made me feel not like a guest, but as though I had always belonged to this land — connected through shared stories, culture, and light. 💛 JanaSena Party Pawan Kalyan JanaSena Shatagni Telugu Desam Party JanaSena VeeraMahila #SwallowingTheSun #TeluguEdition #LakshmiPuriWrites #PawanKalyan #AndhraPradesh #WomenLead #Emesco #KrishnaRao #VijayawadaLaunch #FromDiplomacyToLiterature
Lakshmi M Puri114,325 görüntüleme • 9 ay önce
From the Flying Sikh to Punjab’s newest lightning bolt — the legacy of Milkha Singh races on. Punjab — the land that gave India the legendary Milkha Singh, the Flying Sikh — has once again produced a runner who has set the track on fire. Gurindervir Singh has sprinted into history, becoming the first Indian to breach the 10.10 barrier in the men’s 100m with a blistering 10.09-second run in Ranchi. His gripping duel with Animesh Kujur was not just a race for a record, but a glimpse into a bold new era for Indian sprinting. Video & Images Credit-:The Tatva #GurindervirSingh #MilkhaSingh #FlyingSikh #PunjabPride #IndianAthletics #100m #SprintRevolution
Lakshmi M Puri20,860 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
रामाय रामभद्राय रामचन्द्राय वेधसे। रघुनाथाय नाथाय सीतायाः पतये नमः॥ When the dharam dhwaj rose to the pinnacle of the majestic Ram Mandir, it did not just mark a physical event, it was the culmination of a cosmic saga written in the stars and brought to fruition by the collective yearnings of a billion hearts. The struggle which began 500 years ago, and the people’s movement that lasted a few decades should be seen as divine channels created by आपदामपहर्तारम् प्रभु राम to enable the faithful to connect directly with ancient timelessness - with a cultural renaissance and awakening in an era of unprecedented development. True to the spirit of ‘Virasat Bhi, Vikas Bhi’ when India is on its way to become the third largest economy in the world under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi Ji, yet it’s an India that is firmly rooted in its millenia old cultural and civilisational ethos. Defined by architectural brilliance, this temple at the exact birthplace of Prabhu Ram, will be the spiritual compass for the devotees, the symbol of victory of dharma over adharma. The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra stands as a testament to India's civilisational continuity and the power of faith upheld by law. This magnificent edifice not only revives Ayodhya's spiritual heritage but also drives holistic development, and resurrects it as the original pivot of Aastha and Teerth while enhanced infrastructure like the Maharishi Valmiki International Airport, highways, modern amenities will play a great role in fostering pilgrimage and economic growth. It will forever beckon the श्रद्धालु and be alive with the chants of श्री राम जय राम जय जय राम till eternity. #Ayodhya #ayodhyarammandir #RamMandir #PrabhuRam Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Ayodhya Darshan
Lakshmi M Puri58,196 görüntüleme • 7 ay önce
When a story returns to its roots, it doesn’t just speak - it sings.✨ At Mumbai’s Yashwantrao Chavan Centre, the evening unfolded like a symphony — of words, emotions, and heritage. The Marathi launch of #SwallowingtheSun – #TeeneGilileSuryashi was not just an event; it was an awakening — a story finding its mother tongue, its people, and its pulse. Luminaries from Maharashtra’s artistic, literary, and cinematic world came together — Padma Shri Dr Mohan Agashe, Atul Kulkarni, Achyut Godbole, Dr Narendra Jadhav, Shaina NC, Parinay fuke, Indira Bhargava, Sharad Ashtekar, and Vikram Malhotra — each adding their voice to this collective celebration of culture and courage. As the conversations flowed and the hall resonated with laughter, pride, and nostalgia, I felt an inner stillness — the quiet joy of seeing a creation come home. For me, Teene Gilile Suryashi is not merely a translation — it is a return. To my roots, to the language of my parents, to the ethos that shaped Swallowing the Sun. This video captures that essence — the faces, the fervour, and the feeling of a story reborn in Marathi, embraced by the land that first inspired it. 💛 #TeeneGilileSuryashi #SwallowingTheSun #LakshmiPuriWrites #MarathiLaunch #BookRecap #CulturalHomecoming #WomenInLiterature #EpicLoveStory #MarathiPride #IndianLiterature
Lakshmi M Puri45,905 görüntüleme • 8 ay önce
When Hardeep Singh Puri and I fell in love in Mussoorie during #IFS training and went on a village visit next to a lake, I remember singing this maudlin yet uplifting love song sung by #GeetaDutt for him, sitting on a swing under a tree wondering whether we have a future together. This #song of restless hearts coming together as if they were never apart and then each being transformed but getting lost as they took two steps into the future on the same path had captivated me since I first heard it. #Bekraar dil is tarah mile jis tarah kabhi hum juda na the, tum bhi Kho gaye, hum bhi Kho gaye ek raah par chalke do kadam. Geeta Dutt ‘s voice has a way of touching lovers as no other can with soulful verve and a burning intensity! #ThrowBackThursday #nostalgia #trainingdays #Songs
Lakshmi M Puri80,858 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce
🇮🇳🤝🇨🇦 A statesmanlike and forward-looking meeting between PM Narendra Modi ji and PM MarkCarney on the sidelines of the #G7Summit - signalling a much-needed reset in India - Canada relations. PM Modi’s principled leadership and commitment to democratic values, sovereignty, and a rules-based global order stood out, as did the resolve to turn the page and restore full diplomatic engagement. This renewed partnership holds vast promise - from secure and diversified supply chains to cooperation in clean energy, critical minerals, digital innovation, and the Indo-Pacific. India, under PM Modi’s visionary leadership, remains a steadfast force for global good - anchoring peace, prosperity, and pluralism. Let this be the beginning of a relationship shaped by mutual respect, strategic clarity, and shared purpose. #IndiaCanada #G7Summit #ModiCarney #StrategicPartnership
Lakshmi M Puri54,405 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce
India’s democracy holds up the torch — it is #alive, #adaptive, & #aspirational. 🇮🇳 According to Pew Research Center 2025 Global Attitudes Survey, 74% of Indians are satisfied with democracy - second only to #Sweden. 🔻 By contrast: 🇺🇸 USA – 68% dissatisfied 🇬🇧 UK – 70%+ dissatisfied (est.) 🇯🇵 Japan – 76% dissatisfied 🇬🇷 Greece – 81% dissatisfied Across 23 countries, the median satisfaction is just 42% - but India towers above, buoyed by belief, participation, and pride in its democratic processes. While democracies across the West face disillusionment, India shines as a democratic outlier - plural, participative, and future-facing, its electoral feats awe-inspiring. While the West debates democracy, India - the world’s oldest and largest democracy - keeps faith with it 🇮🇳 Most importantly by practicing it, by setting its own templates as a populous civilisational state, by mastering the art of managing the complexity of its social, cultural and geographical diversity and federal structures while powering on the path of development on such an unprecedented scale and scope, #India validates for the world the democracy model!
Lakshmi M Puri47,745 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce
From a civilisational light to a global light! As the first recipient of the Diwali Power of One Award, I was honoured to attend this year’s 9th ceremony at the United Nations / United Nations — an initiative shaped by the remarkable vision, perseverance and dynamism of Indian American community leader Ranju Batra, ably supported by distinguished attorney Ravi Batra. Ranju’s seven-year-long sustained campaign led to the historic ‘Forever Diwali’ US Postal Service stamp in 2016, whose record-breaking sales revealed how powerfully the quintessentially Indian festival — Diwali’s message — resonates across societies and cultures. Inspired by this recognition, several U.S. states, cities and school districts — including New York City; Edison and Jersey City in New Jersey; and cities and districts across Texas — have since declared public holidays, school closures or excused absences on Diwali, further embedding the festival in America’s civic calendar. For this alone, they deserve the gratitude of Indians everywhere. Building on this momentum, Diwali Foundation USA, established in 2017, instituted the Power of One Awards — often described as the Oscars of Diplomacy — to honour serving and retired diplomats and global leaders who have advanced peace, security and multilateral cooperation. This year’s awardees — Ambassador Jonathan Raphael Cohen, Dennis Francis, President of the 78th UN General Assembly, Ambassador Darja Bavdaz Kuret, and Ambassador Magzhan Ilyassov — exemplify diplomacy anchored in principle and purpose. The recent United NationsESCO recognition of Diwali as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity affirms what India’s civilisation has long offered the world — light over darkness, dialogue over division, and hope and solidarity as a moral force in global affairs. 🪔
Lakshmi M Puri21,223 görüntüleme • 7 ay önce
Intrigued by how contacts and diplomacy can sometimes yield unexpected insights? In our recent interview with Hindustan Times, Hardeep Singh Puri ji recalls a moment from 1978–79 when a fragment of sensitive information, passed casually through a family connection, suddenly set off a ripple of excitement. A reminder that in diplomacy, even the smallest link can open the most revealing window. #TrueStory #Diplomacy
Lakshmi M Puri21,185 görüntüleme • 7 ay önce
“Two sleepless nights—your book is to blame!” That’s how Rahul Shivshankar opened our conversation at the Delhi Lit Fest. I took it as the highest compliment. When asked about my literary influences, I said—yes, Tolstoy, the Brontës, Austen, Woolf, Kamala Das… but above all, my parents. Prophets in their own right, they belonged to a remarkable generation—Western-educated yet civilisationally rooted, awakened to India’s rational, moral, and cultural greatness. #SwallowingtheSun is their story. And in many ways, it is all of ours. #SwallowingTheSun #DelhiLiteratureFestival #IndiaInTransition #WomenInFiction #CivilisationalAwakening #LegacyAndLiterature
Lakshmi M Puri28,830 görüntüleme • 11 ay önce
When Gurgaon Draped Itself in the Sari. In the Millennium City of India—where ambition shapes every skyline—it was refreshing to see Gurgaon come together for something far more timeless. In conversation with Shibani Sethi —an inspiring, multi-faceted professional who seamlessly bridges corporate life with literature, theatre, and media, and the founder of #ChaptersByShibani—the dialogue moved through the many layers of The Sari Eternal: from a personal love affair with the sari, to its deeper life as a civilisational gesture, rich with memory, symbolism, and the sensual play of the five senses. With JJ Valaya as Guest of Honour—one of India’s most celebrated and internationally acclaimed couturiers, whose work has carried Indian textiles and heritage onto the global stage—the evening found its perfect creative resonance, mirroring the sari’s own journey of timeless reinvention. But what truly defined the evening was the audience. Women—and men—from the worlds of tech and finance, stepping out of their everyday roles into a shared cultural moment; the women in saris, each drape a confident statement of identity, continuity, and style, and the men, equally present in that celebration of elegance and tradition. For a moment, Gurgaon didn’t just host a book launch—it became one.
Lakshmi M Puri10,957 görüntüleme • 3 ay önce
Some affections don’t strike like lightning — they gather, glimmer, and gently take hold. What grew between us wasn’t the fabled “love at first sight.” Ours unfolded more slowly, almost shyly — a feeling that deepened with the second meeting, then the third, until it quietly became something undeniable. Every encounter added a new layer, a new warmth, as though the heart was recognising what the eyes had only just begun to see. And yes, one of those early dimensions was impossible to miss — he was an exceptionally handsome man. I still remember my mother’s reaction when she met him for the first time at our home, by which time we had already decided to marry within a few months. The moment he stepped out, she turned to me with a sparkle in her eye and said, “Kasa Adonis aahe re!” Sometimes love begins just like that — gently, steadily, and sealed by a mother’s delighted astonishment.
Lakshmi M Puri19,455 görüntüleme • 7 ay önce
Some beginnings tiptoe into your life with a smile of their own! Our first little encounter in Mussoorie came with a tiny German–Japanese muddle — the kind of mix-up that still makes us laugh. But what he remembers most is not the languages at all, but me — the quintessential Keen Type Probationer, forever eager, forever earnest, and already on the cover of Eve’s Weekly before I had even stepped fully into the Service. Our real meeting unfolded later in the quiet Ministry corridors, when I went to submit my Assumption of Charge. A small, unremarkable moment to the world — yet to us, it became the gentle beginning of everything that followed.
Lakshmi M Puri18,117 görüntüleme • 7 ay önce
Honouring a legacy that flows through centuries, coastlines, and consciousness. There are moments when a place stirs something wordless in you — not memory, but an undercurrent carried through generations. The Konkan has always done that for me. Its shores, especially Murdeshwar, were the landscape my father spoke of with a warmth that shaped my earliest sense of belonging. So when a towering 77-foot bronze figure of Lord Ram rose in Canacona, it felt less like news and more like a quiet summons from a coastline that has forever threaded itself into my life. Crafted by Ram V. Sutar and unveiled by PM Narendra Modi ji's during the Math’s 550th-anniversary celebrations, the statue now stands as the world’s tallest representation of Lord Ram. Its presence within the historic Shree@Samsthan Gokarn Partagali Jeevottam Math feels both fitting and profound, anchoring centuries of devotion in a commanding new silhouette. The addition of the Ramayana Theme Park Garden enriches the precinct further, creating a space where narrative, landscape and faith speak to one another with quiet harmony. Together, they form a cultural landmark that bridges personal memory and collective heritage — a reminder of the enduring spirit that continues to define the Konkan and all who draw strength from it. Video credits-; IndiaToday
Lakshmi M Puri17,875 görüntüleme • 7 ay önce
Different notes, shared cadence! There was always an aesthetic relationship between us — a shared love for beautiful things, for literature, for the sensibilities that shape how we see the world. I would often tease him that he was the prosaic one, while I was more poetic, and our conversations would playfully dance around that difference. Yet sometimes opposites do attract, and somewhere along the way, you find yourselves converging despite the contrasts. That, too, was part of our story. And through it all ran a quiet spiritual thread — subtle, steady, and deeply binding.
Lakshmi M Puri18,024 görüntüleme • 7 ay önce
यत्र ज्योतिः तत्र शिवः Where there is light, there is Shiva Tirupparankundram Deepam is a living expression of faith — where flame, hill and devotion merge into one timeless moment. As the Deepam is lit, the sacred hill itself becomes a beacon, reminding us that light is not merely seen, but felt and carried within. Rooted in ancient Shaivite and Murugan traditions, this ritual symbolises inner awakening — the triumph of consciousness over ignorance, stillness over chaos. The lamp does not just illuminate the landscape; it awakens memory, continuity and belonging across generations. To witness Tirupparankundram Deepam is to be reminded that faith in India has always been experiential — lived through light, shared through community, and sustained through quiet reverence.
Lakshmi M Puri17,013 görüntüleme • 7 ay önce
महाकुंभः जहाँ श्रद्धा, संस्कार और सनातन सत्य का संगम होता है। यह चमत्कार, यह विरासत, यह पुण्य केवल भारत में ही मिलता है। One of the eternal - #Sanatan moments where one is grateful to be born an Indian and to be the legatee of a great spiritual tradition! As I walked with Hardeep Singh Puri as his सहधर्मिणी and he as my सहधर्मी, I felt our shared faith and confidence guiding each step—a reflection of the deeper journey we walk together. Standing and dipping my being for the Mahakumbh स्नान into the holy waters of the Triveni Samgam where Ganga, Yamuna & the Saraswati rivers meet. I felt blessed to have the benediction from the cosmic churn of the Samudra Manthan. The amrit that once spilled here does not promise eternal flesh, but an immortal spark within. As the sacred waters washed over me, I shed the old and rose into a new, timeless self - a spiritual rebirth as potent as the legend itself. #MahaKumbh2025 #MahaKumbhMela2025 #Mahakumbh #PrayagrajMahakumbh2025 #PrayagrajMahakumbh #trivenisangam
Lakshmi M Puri31,498 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce
In his riveting address commemorating the novel Swallowing the Sun becoming a national bestseller, at the historic Dara Shikoh Library building—now home to the Partition Museum that chronicles the seismic events of 1947 which reshaped the very fabric and demographics of Delhi—LG Delhi Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena ji reflected that #SwallowingtheSun illuminates the socio-economic and political dimensions of India’s freedom struggle, particularly through the fearless journey of its protagonist, Malati, who boldly challenges patriarchy. He appluaded the author’s elegant language and storytelling, observing that it brings a distinctive literary richness shaped by a career in the foreign service. He commended Lady @kishwardesai1 for founding the award-winning The Partition Museum in Delhi and Amritsar, preserving the memory of 1947’s displacement of millions. He further praised Dr. Jyotsna Suri, former President of FICCI & Chairperson of Bharat Hotels, for her leadership and philanthropic endeavours. May the stories housed within this museum and in these pages continue to guide us towards empathy, resilience, and the timeless pursuit of unity.
Lakshmi M Puri29,780 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce