Blogs

The Trump-Xi summit in context One of the most anticipated diplomatic meetings of the year took place in Beijing in mid-May, when United States President Donald Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping. Originally scheduled for March 2026, the summit was postponed to May. Its strategic backdrop, however, had been evolving since January 2025, when Trump…

This World Environment Day, the United Nations Environment Programme has chosen Climate Action as its theme — and the timing could not be more urgent. In 2024, for the first time in recorded history, global average temperatures breached the 1.5°C ceiling that world leaders enshrined in the Paris Agreement less than a decade ago. The…

Julley. In August 2025 I cycled across Ladakh. Five days. To Umling La — the highest motorable road in the world. I was turning sixty. A landmark birthday in anyone’s life. The age at which most people are advised, sensibly, to slow down. To rest. To go on an exotic vacation. To do something considered…

The whole creation is made up of five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and ether (space). Our body is also made of the same elements. We are not separate from nature, looking at it from the outside. And yet we have done tremendous damage to these elements in nature, we ourselves are made of. Among…

There’s no such thing as being too educated for a job, if you want /need that job & do it competently  India produces ambition industrially and then fulfils it homeopathically, in doses much smaller than expected. 10mn new graduates are milled every year, graduates form two-thirds of the unemployed 20-29 year olds. A particular cruelty…

More and more inventions could put Darwin’s evolution in reverse gear Vacationing in Turin, Italy, Bunny and I are confronted with a problem. We need to do laundry in the washing machine in our rented apartment, but the make is unfamiliar to us. The instructions for its use are given on the machine, but they…

In popular perception and media narratives, Jammu and Kashmir has long been imaged and imagined through the prism of terrorism, violence, and political uncertainty. Yet, while these visible challenges have dominated public discourse and captured national attention, another threat was quietly taking root—the growing menace of drug addiction. Over time, substance abuse seeped into homes,…

Indians are showing up in the strangest of places in the strangest of ways. A clip circulating on social media showed some Indian travellers dancing around their hand luggage on the tarmac in Vietnam. Days later, another clip emerged of three individuals, dressed as Indian divinities, parading through the aisles of an Ontario grocery store,…

Sumit Paul The concept of forest bathing is rooted in the idea that immersing oneself in nature can have powerful effects on both the mind and soul. When we disconnect from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and focus on sights, sounds, and smells of the natural world, we can reset and recharge our…

Around 35 days ago, Mamata Banerjee walked 14km through the streets of Kolkata in her final election march for Bhabanipur constituency. Security officials scrambled to manage the crowd of ministers, MLAs, MPs, candidates, and film industry figures jostling for proximity to her. That energy felt familiar, an echo of the street fighter who had built…