Image Credit: Photo by Raneesh Ravi on Unsplash I am a dad - twice over now - and I have years of experience of being the son of my dad. So, I can claim to possess a reasonable level of experience on the subject of fathers and emotion management - and my verdict is that All Fathers are, in general, very poor at emotion management? To begin with, look at the very characteristic constipated expression of the Dad in the photo above. I am sure he is so elated, happy, his heart palpitating, but his face betrays all of that - the contrast being the expressions of the kid on his lap. But many of you in general would agree that most of your dads would be the same - their happiness would be subdued, so would their sorrow; at best some dad's are good at showing off their anger - we often label such dad's as toxic, but I believe (or at least sincerely hope so!) that these are far fewer than the good dad's out there, who are even incapable of dealing with anger as an emotion. As I sto...

Human civilisation has never advanced evenly. Progress has always been lopsided, contingent, and cumulative, shaped less by virtue or intelligence than by geography, institutions, and the incentives societies create for adaptation. To understand why some regions prospered early, why others stagnated, how colonisation emerged as a global phenomenon, and what the present moment implies for the future of humanity, we must look at history not as a moral story but as a systems story — one of feedback loops, compounding advantages, and institutional lock-ins. The earliest large-scale prosperity emerged in Eurasia , not because of inherent superiority, but because geography quietly stacked the deck. The Eurasian landmass runs primarily east–west, allowing crops, animals, and technologies to diffuse across similar climates with relatively low friction. Wheat, barley, cattle, horses, ironworking , and writing spread over thousands of kilometres without encountering drastic seasonal or ecologica...

Image Source: Hindustan Times   The recently concluded Mumbai civic polls mark one of the most pivotal political moments for Mumbai - and the larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) - in over three decades. To fully grasp their significance, one must go back to 1995, when Bal Thackeray and the Shiv Sena first rose to power in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Since then, control of Mumbai’s civic body has been the unquestioned crown jewel of Marathi local politics - whoever won Mumbai, was sure to be the power broker at the Maharashtra state level. That era has now decisively ended. The Fall of the Thackeray Stronghold For Uddhav Thackeray, this election represents more than just a political loss - it is the forfeiture of the family’s most valuable inheritance. The BMC, formerly the Bombay Municipal Corporation but now the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, is not only the richest municipal corporation in India but arguably the largest local body in the world by popula...

On a slightly long-haul flight last night, I found myself watching Superboys of Malegaon  - the film came recommended from interviews of many stalwarts such as Javed Akhtar, Farah Khan, and Siddhant Chaturvedi, reviewers like Anupama Chopra, media personalities like Saurabh Dwivedi, and endorsed by many guests on his show. So it had been on my watchlist for some time now - the long haul flight gave me a chance to clear up my list [ I also started watching an old Hollywood classic Fargo, which has been on my watchlist for years now! Will probably finish the remaining 40 minutes later tonight. ]  What was more of a clear-my-watchlist exercise ended up staying with me long after the screen went dark. The film refused to leave my mind, even though I had started watching another right after. Superboys of Malegaon is an easy film to like - rustic, warm, humorous, and deeply human - but where its stands out is on balancing emotion and inspiration without tipping into sentimentality. ...

I was watching the India-Australia ODI the other day when something curious caught my attention. The stadium façade - its arches, the rhythm of its windows, the quiet dignity of its design - looked oddly Victorian. This was the  Sydney Cricket Ground , which upon research I discovered was built in 1851, so aptly had a Victorian architecture . What was remarkable that while the stadium would have been upgraded and fitted with modern amenities and technology, its architecture was never tampered with, rather maintained to the original Victorian designs. That afternoon, I stepped into a branch of the State Bank of India after several years. Driving towards the branch I prepared myself for an experience I probably last had 30 years back in the 1990s - that soft, sepia-tinted decade with the pace of everything - slower. But as I stepped in the branch, the air felt far different. The air-conditioning hummed gently, queues were orderly, and staff went about their work with quie...