Ira Zibbu
@cool_scootre
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237
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Computer nerd/evolution enthusiast | PhD student watching the LTEE evolve at @utexasils | BS-MS @tvmiiser | No science on a dead planet!
Thiruvananthapuram, India
Joined May 2021
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Pinned Tweet
I'm starting this thread for
#opportunity
in the life sciences, including internships, talks, workshops, grants, scholarships that I randomly come across. This is primarily aimed at undergrads/ masters students. I'll keep updating this as time goes on!
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>come to lab
>run a pcr that doesn't work
>write buggy code
>pester PI
>post for clout on twitter
>leave
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Was having a drink with a developmental biologist and I said, "oh yeah you're a cell biologist? name every cell then hahah" and he looked at me dead serious and told me that every cell in C. elegans has a name
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Have unofficially mastered the science. It is now time to doctor it.
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“We should not turn IISERs/IITs into politically active places like JNU!”
Don’t worry you don’t have half the spines those students do to stand up against facism.
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@bielleogy
Can’t explain it but I feel ‘responsible’ to other people around to not scroll through my phone or get distracted (even if they are complete strangers I don’t speak to)
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@agenttwelvetoes
“Sex segregated bathrooms are needed to prevent men from assaulting women.” My sister in Christ if he wants to commit a crime against a woman, a door with a cartoon symbol of a girl is not going to stop him. Gender neutral bathrooms don’t increase the risk of assault.
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@ChenxinLi2
I’ve seen something (fungal?) growing in stripping buffer which has a pH of 2.2 and has SDS in it 😭😭Dude literally found the most inhospitable environment and said “ok time to exit my spore phase and start growing this place will do just fine”
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@TansuYegen
@notyourdalit
I type much, much faster than I write so I have the ability to take more elaborate notes in class so I don’t have to come back 4 months later to try and decipher some short hand scrawled in a margin
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My entire school education was in English. My five year BSMS degree is in English. My MS thesis will be written in and presented in English. I’ve run and worked for English blogs and publications. But please, ask me to give this ridiculous and expensive for profit test
IELTS is such a sham and we don't talk about it often.
Why do the scores expire after 2 years? Because it's a lucrative business that's built on exploiting third world, non-english speaking countries.
My perfect 9 score is set to expire next year. And I'll have to pay and
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Call me the main branch of the GitHub repo, cause I'm the master (of science).
(yes yes I am aware the ceremony was a month ago but I never got around to posting this)
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Accidentally got the CSIR JRF. Didn’t expect it all but pleasantly surprised!
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Here are my notes for the past semester, both as OneNote and PDFs.
BIO311= Adv. microbiology
BIO312= Adv. genetics and genome biology
BIO313= Animal physiology
BIO314= Adv. biochemistry
My tiny contribution to open access!
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Real biologists understand that most definitions in biology (think species, sex, gene) are arbitrary and only exist because we made them up because they are helpful to study living systems, but never forgetting that they are arbitrary definitions to begin with
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The only summary you need to read:
Tuition fee in 2014: ~8000/sem
INSPIRE SHE in 2014: 5000/month
Tuition fee in 2019: 35,000/sem
INSPIRE SHE in 2019: 5000/month
What’s the point of getting a fellowship if you can’t pay your fees with it?
IISERs were started to foster science and research in India. Initially, students had affordable fees, monthly stipends, and project support via the INSPIRE. Currently, there are high fees, delayed stipend and funding disbursement, and fewer students receiving the stipend (1/n)
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Re the redacted MIT cell biologist: the more time I spend on earth I realise that for even the most niche topics in biology, there are likely dozens, if not hundreds of researchers working on it. Whatever you discover, would have likely also been discovered even in your absence..
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People be like come to IISER TVM it’s a beautiful campus but then you go outside at 2am and there are literal eyes from the forest watching you
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Are you an Indian student in the life sciences interested in pursuing funded research internship at a laboratory in the US? The DBT Khorana Fellowship is for you! My cohort and I are here to answer questions you may have.
Register here:
Please RT!
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You ever just rescue a puppy from a gutter and then have a free family member
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In some pleasant personal news, I was accepted into two graduate programs this month, both of which are home to (IMHO) two of the coolest on-going microbial evolution experiments. Internet points for whoever guesses where.
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The Khorana Scholars Program call for Summer 2024 is open now! Stipend/ airfare and insurance to pursue a 3 month internship at a research institute/ university in the United States.
Please retweet. Here is some advice on applying, based on my own personal experiences.
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@MelanieIStefan
@m_wall
@erinkburrell
Some open access journals like PLoS will charge you an APC of 1500-2000 USD.
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@sanjanacurtis
No this Jacana doesn’t have too many feet, it just has its children tucked underneath its wings. Easy and safe transportation of your screaming offspring
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When I first learned about the E. coli Long Term Evolution Experiment, it absolutely blew my mind. Elegant, simple, powerful, open ended observations of evolution. 3rd year me would be shrieking to know I’m joining Prof. Jeffrey Barrick’s lab at the University of Texas at Austin
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My only real barometer for success in life is how many undergraduate and school students tell me I am cool and my passion for science inspires them.
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Me in 12th grade in 2019 attending IISc open day: gosh these people are cool I hope I get to do cool science and tell people about it
Me in 2024 doing exactly that:
Dreamt of attending
@iiscbangalore
Open Day for years, and it finally happened.
Had a great day at
#IIScOpenDay2024
Mind blown by exhibits and demos.
Huge thanks to organisers for such an inspiring event.
So exciting to see a science event draw such a big crowd.
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I want to eventually do a longer piece some day but for today all I want to say is I am utterly grateful for the public education I received at IISER TVM, and for public universities in general.
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every single reason to do a PhD boils down to two things IMO:
1. I like doing research and want to do more research
2. The jobs I want need a PhD
Would save a lot of space on my grad school essays if I could just say this and be done with it lol
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Friends do you prefer Notion or Obsidian? For taking notes for papers, coursework etc
@AcademicChatter
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In case it wasn’t abundantly clear by now: I am, and hence this account is, explicitly anti-caste, feminist, pro-queer rights, anti-racist, pro-reservation/affirmative action. It’s a non exhaustive list, and I do not believe that my work as a scientist is apolitical.
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young indian people ( particularly women)...where do you learn about personal finance? I have some money that I want to invest but have 0 clue how to go about about it or just stuff in general. Who do you trust for advice and information?
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random tip: even if you are a student, have a notebook or document where you write down whatever science ideas/ questions/ experiment ideas that pop into your head, regardless of how silly, unrealistic or strange. I promise occasionally super interesting ideas will pop up
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The student body of IISER Thiruvananthapuram stands in solidarity with the students of IISER Berhampur
@resistance_bpr
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This Sunday my friends and I from
@igem_iisertvm
won the best experimental project at
@GogecConference
!
@bio_iisertvm
is soon going to be home to a brand new
@opentrons
OT2 robot :D
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My family: I bet when she goes there to the US she will eat borgir everyday
Me on the daily: BERRIES BERRIES I CAN AFFORD BERRIES HERE
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@paulish_we
This kinda stuff isn't harmless. I've seen papers like these be weaponized against the queer community by "devil's advocates".
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@fripujols
Bas yahi bacha tha dekhne ke liye. Shame on you all for defending a man who assaults women.
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@memecrashes
@cosminetron
Its been like a few months since I solved in an integral but both are equally easy?? One is just -f(x). Nothing special going on here. Poor maymay 3/10.
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Happy International Day of Women and Girls in STEM! Here is a poem I wrote two years ago:
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One thing I’m very grateful for at
@tvmiiser
: campus is very safe, even at night. Some days late nights in lab happen, and if I didn’t live on campus it wouldn’t be possible. Physical safety is so important to well-being and productivity of scientists.
#WomenAndGirlsInScience
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me asking my PI: how'd you get this good???? tell me your secret!
my PI, shrugging: idk man I did for like 20 years. You've barely been alive that long.
Graduate students: don’t fall for the myth of the genius. It’s all hard work in science, no matter how some people try to make it look easy.
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I don’t think most people realise how crazy it is we can freeze cells at -80C and revive them months or years laters. We do it often enough to be desensitised to it, but like wtf
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the feminine urge to create a biochemistry and genetics version of 3 blue 1 brown
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These summer fellowship requirements are getting out of hand. You need TWO LoRs? You want an English proficiency exam? Jesus Christ. My degree is in English. My entire schooling was in English. Get bent. This is so incredibly idiotic.
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“I missed out X exam by only few marks in general category.” Yeah dude even I didn’t clear the general cutoff for IISc too but you don’t see me harassing Dalit people for it.
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Was thinking about how my PI got to be such a competent and intelligent scientist and then I remembered that while he was a graduate student learning the trade, I was still shitting myself in a diaper. Really put everything into perspective
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@SantoshGupta200
@KalpaIISERPune
Supporting the right to education is part of promoting science education and research.
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I brought pav bhaji to the lab lunch yesterday and people started using bhaji as a dip for chips??? Americans are adorable
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I wish there was an equivalent to a Hippocratic oath for scientists where we vow to ensure that our science does not harm humanity as a collective
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Every train compartment got:
The screaming baby
The 7yo doing gymnastics
The uncle enquiring about your caste
The family bringing full kitchen and 9 course meal
dude editing some Google docs
bf talking to gf on his phone
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The older I grow the more I realise why I would cry each year on Holi. As an introvert, having random people touch me is my worst nightmare. There was so much aggressive behaviour played off as “fun”. This festival isn’t for me
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I don’t think there is an institution more exclusionary, more classist, more sexist and casteist than private “international” schools in India.
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Me in July 2023: Hey! Easy peasy bioinformatics project. Should be done in 2 months.
Me in February 2024, realising the data is a bottomless pit:
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@ChenxinLi2
Did you know proteinase K activity is ACCELERATED by detergents like SDS or triton? All other proteins would have just called it a day but proteinase K goes wild. Underrated enzyme.
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The goal of humanities education in STEM degrees shouldn’t be to teach theory (which they inevitably forget) but instead to show students that they live and work in an unjust society, and to teach them ways to promote equality and justice.
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A little late, but what irks me a little about the panels on women in STEM are usually tenured profs/secured professionals in STEM. And not to discount their struggles at all, but I want to hear the stories of women who quit science because it was unsupportive
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During a biostats course by
@SutirthDey
he said something I’ll never forget: don’t rush to analysis, first just look at your raw data. I didn’t fully understand the implications of this until my current project 1/5
I think software for qualitative data analysis sometimes causes ppl to rush to coding but Braun+Clarke really are correct that data *familiarization* really is an essential 1st step. How do you get familiar with your data, qual researcher friends?
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I sometimes wonder if non-Indian people see the word Thiruvananthapuram in my email signature and become afraid.
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scientists be like 'public should read more scientific literature' and then name papers like 'Target-specific cytotoxic effects on HER2-expressing cells by the tripartite fusion toxin ZHER2:2891-ABD-PE38X8, including a targeting affibody molecule and a half-life extension domain'
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Applications for the National Overseas Scholarship Scheme (NOS) for ST students to pursue Masters/PhD/Post Doc abroad is open till 31st July for the 2023-2024 year.
Please share widely!
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All these lovely 'woke' women tweeting about being offended by the question, "are you married," asked by their ObGyn, let me tell you something as a biologist. Martial status is imperative in the diagnosis and treatment of a patient, especially in OBG. (1/n)
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“He was not able to cope with the stress of X course.” You aren’t a drill sergeant you’re an educator. You’re not supposed to take pride in making a curriculum so hostile.
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You called it 10 months ago? I called it in 2015 when I was 14 when the bastards tried to convince my parents into signing me up.
India's biggest startup—$22B Byju's—is going BUST.
—Deloitte resigned as auditor, FY21 not audited, delayed. FY22 not filled
—Blackrock marked them down to $8.4B (-62%) 4mo ago
—Owes lenders $40m+ unpaid
—All non-family board members resigned
I called it 10mo ago.
🧵
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When I really meant when my resume says I know python is that I am excellent at using stackoverflow and Google
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Being on a first name basis with people both above and below you in an institutional hierarchy improves comfort, openness, accessibility.
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Me at age 13: why do my parents drink so much chai I don’t understand the appeal
Me at 22: 👁👄👁
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My top tips for someone who is starting with computational biology (from someone who has learned the hard way)
1. Learn version control! Git exists for a reason.
2. Make README files, even for yourself. Trust me you won’t remember what any of your code does
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Hey
@iGEMCommunity
and other peeps in the synbio space: what are your favourite resources for an introduction to synbio that would be suitable for 2nd-3rd year undergrads? I’m trying to compile something for students making new
@iGEM
teams.
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Day 5 of Texas: everyone says hello good morning to each other?? It’s really nice but culture shock?? Someone on the street said “Have an awesome day young lady” like thank you sir I actually now am having a nice day.
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@kat_blaque
To the teenage girls reading this: ask yourself why a 24 year old man isn't dating someone his own age. It's because women his own age can see through his bullshit. RUN. "You're mature for your age" when coming from an older man interested in you IS A RED FLAG. RUN FAR.
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.. just maybe sometime later, and no single person is indispensable to science. This isn’t to say individual voices aren’t valuable, but instead to say no voice is so valuable that we must tolerate egregious behaviour to keep them around.
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One of my profs gave us take home exams because he said he doesn't care if we remember things or not. He said if he wanted someone that was good at remembering he would just buy a hard disk, which is cheaper than a graduate student.
i had one prof who gave open-laptop exams, no restrictions. we could access the internet to look things up. he said in the real world, we wouldn’t be tested by what we could memorize. we would be tested on our ability to figure out how to solve the problem
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Early on, you may come up with ideas, only to find out someone else already did work on it and published it. It’s okay. It’s more than okay. It means you came up with an idea that was good enough to be a research project. You’re on the right path. You’re doing well, keep going.
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Please please I am begging you my PI has 9000 better and more important tasks to perform than to write a recommendation letter for whatever trivial event you are hosting that I casually wanted to attend please I just want to attend the lectures don’t do this to her
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Saw an advertisement at IIT X for an internship for Master’s students, but it was for a minimum of 6 months and unpaid. How fun :)
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One of the less fun realisations I’ve had as someone entering their 20s: the birth of my sister and myself significantly derailed my mom’s career path. She says she wouldn’t change a thing, but I can always sense a tinge of regret.
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I have notes for BIO221 (Intro to cell bio and signaling) here. Going to keep adding notes at the end of each semester. Most useful for other IISER TVM students or anyone trying to prep for some exams.
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At the start of the year I made a rule that I wouldn’t work after dinner (unless urgent deadlines). Surprise surprise, it has reduced the amount of work I do but has vastly improved my sense of well being and satisfaction.
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Scientists of Twitter! The world needs more reminders that we're living, breathing human beings.
Quote tweet this with a picture of you doing not-science!
Here’s me on a kayak
Scientists of Twitter! The world needs more reminders that we're living, breathing human beings.
Quote tweet this with a picture of you doing not-science 🤓
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@twinkatonn
Bi means two which means I have two people inside me one of which comes on every second full moon to cheat on my spouse
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Been seeing some anti-reservation sentiments on here so I will reiterate: your response to space on a table being reserved for people who historically have been excluded should not be to fight to take that space away from them, but rather to demand a bigger table.
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Always thought I would be a 🦠🧫🧪🥼 biologist not a !#/usr/bin/env python3 biologist yet here we are
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I’ve put in more effort to understand a topic before presenting in undergrad class then SG Mehta has before presenting to the Supreme Court of India. Of course, a more real and sinister explanation is that the misrepresentation and misinformation is deliberate
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Joining
@tvmiiser
was one of the best decisions I ever made. If you or someone you know is considering a career in the sciences and research, please encourage them to apply. I’m happy to talk to any school students who want to know more. Just comment or DM me.
#Admissions
to
#BSMS
dual degree and BS
#degree
programmes across
#IISERs
are open now.
Visit for more information on how to apply.
@iiserbhopal
@IISER_BERHAMPUR
@iiserkol
@IISERPune
@IiserTirupati
@tvmiiser
@Cbse_official
@KVS_HQ
@CommissionerNVS
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@IITKanpur
@karandi65
@DordIitk
Disappointing. In wake of what has been happening across the country this is extremely disappointing
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That's a wrap on my time at
@barricklab
at UT Austin this summer! I'm immensely grateful to the Khorana Scholars Program for funding this work and for the chance to work with the experiment I love the most. Here's an article I wrote for the LTEE blog:
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I definitely DO NOT have an extensive collection of textbooks in biology. DO NOT DM if you would like a copy. Please LEGALLY purchase a copy from the publisher. I am VERY BAD at finding textbooks. I certainly CANNOT help anyone.
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Who the fuck needs a truck this big? I’m literally 5’3 and they cannot see me if they were driving
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@ake333
Overpay? The auto driver asking you for 50rs more is doing it because the base fares aren’t enough. Inflation and a stagnating economy is hurting the middle class, not some guy asking 20rs extra for bananas because he needs to pay his kid’s school fees
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What’s the minimum number of times I need to be approached in public and asked “Hey you’re Ira from Twitter right?” before I can call myself a Twitter micro celebrity?
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