Remembering our heroes this Kargil Vijay Diwas 🇮🇳

While we complain and whine about all things wrong with our country, which is well within our rights to do so, we also need to acknowledge the cost others paid to get us this freedom. 1. As per British Administration records, about 6000 British died in the Indian Mutiny. The casualty count for Indians is at 800,000. This includes figures for those who died during the mutiny and the subsequent uprising as well as in famines and epidemics that followed in its wake. 2. If we estimate excess mortality from 1891 to 1920, with the average death rate of the 1880s as normal mortality, we find some 50 million people lost their lives under the aegis of British capitalism," they write. "But this estimate must be considered conservative. India's 1880s death rate was already very high by international standards. If we measure excess mortality over England's 16th- and 17th-century average death rate, we find 165 million excess deaths in India between 1880 and 1920. This figure is larger than the combined number of deaths from both World Wars, including the Nazi holocaust. 3. The British colonial regime looted nearly $45 trillion from India from 1765 to 1938. The amount is 15 times the annual GDP of the UK today. Even if it wants, it still can't return India the money it looted to not only build itself as a major global power but also fund much of the development in the today's developed world. 4. The Indian peasantry and workers produced the second largest merchandise export surplus in the world for at least four decades from the 1890s," writes Patnaik. "But India was never permitted to show current account balance, leave alone current account surplus. These enormous exchange earnings, appropriated by the then world capitalist leader, Britain, allowed it to export capital to develop Europe and the regions of European settlement, despite its running large and rising current account deficits with these same regions. The rapid diffusion of capitalism was ensured thereby to what constitutes today's advanced countries. With this amount of human and economic costs paid to attain the freedom that we have, let’s not forget the contributions of those who came before us and let’s not get blinded by party loyalties or religious identities to undermine what we got!

"Beta, your room is always waiting for you." Mom's words echoed in my head as I lugged my suitcases up the familiar stairs of my childhood home. At 29, with a master's degree and five years of corporate experience under my belt, I never thought I'd be back here. Not like this, anyway. The decision to move back wasn't easy. My startup had failed spectacularly, taking my savings and self-esteem with it. Mumbai's sky-high rents suddenly seemed impossible. When Dad suggested I come home "just until you figure things out," it felt like both a lifeline and a step backwards. The first week was a strange mix of comfort and chaos. Mom's cooking was a welcome change from my diet of Swiggy/Zomato. But the luxury of home-cooked meals came with a side of "Why aren't you eating?", "You've become so thin!", and unsolicited advice on everything from my career to my love life. My old room, now Dad's "home office," was a time capsule of my teenage years. Faded cricket posters shared wall space with his collection of business books. At night, lying in my childhood bed, I'd stare at the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling and wonder where I'd gone wrong. The hardest part was the loss of independence. Suddenly, I had to inform my parents if I was going out late. Dad would casually inquire about my job search over breakfast. Mom would remind me to make my bed, as if I hadn't been doing it myself for years. But amid the frustration, there were moments of unexpected joy. Like when Dad and I stayed up late discussing startup ideas, his eyes lighting up with an enthusiasm I'd forgotten he possessed. Or the afternoon I spent teaching Mom how to use Instagram, both of us laughing at the filters. Slowly, I started to see my parents not just as "Mom and Dad," but as individuals with their own dreams and quirks. I noticed the silver in Dad's hair, the new lines around Mom's eyes. When had they gotten older? Had I been too busy "adulting" to notice? There were adjustments on both sides. I learned to bite my tongue when Mom rearranged my carefully organized closet. They learned to knock before entering my room. We all learned the delicate dance of sharing space as adults. The turning point came three months in. I landed a new job, and my first instinct was to start apartment hunting. But as I sat at the dining table, sharing the news over Mom's special biryani, I realized something had shifted. This house, with all its quirks and challenges, had become home again. Not in the same way it was when I was a kid, but in a new, complex, adult way. I ended up staying for eight more months. In that time, I not only rebuilt my career but also rediscovered my relationship with my parents. We argued, we laughed, we shared silences. I learned that Dad makes a mean omelet at 2 AM, and that Mom's got a wicked sense of humor I'd somehow missed growing up. When I finally moved out, it wasn't with the desperate rush I'd initially imagined. It was a practical decision - I'd saved enough, found a place I liked, and felt ready. The send-off was a simple family dinner, where we laughed about some of the awkward moments from the past year. As I settled into my new apartment, I realized those months at home had taught me a lot. Sure, there were tough times - privacy issues, disagreements over household rules, the occasional feeling of regression. But there were also valuable lessons: 1. My parents are people too, with their own lives and challenges. 2. Independence is more about mindset than living situation. 3. Family relationships can actually improve with some close quarters and open communication. 4. I'm more resilient than I thought, capable of adapting to unexpected life turns. Would I do it again? Maybe, if circumstances required it. It wasn't always easy, but it was far from the disaster I'd feared. If anything, those months gave me a new appreciation for my family and a better understanding of myself. So if you find yourself packing up to head back to your childhood bedroom, don't panic. It's not a step backward - it's just a different kind of move forward.

As I'm entering a new stage of life, I'm starting to reevaluate my career priorities. In my 20s, I was all about climbing the ladder and chasing prestige. Now, I'm more focused on finding work that aligns with my values and allows for a balanced lifestyle. Have any of you gone through a similar shift? How did it change your career trajectory? And how do you define success for yourself now versus when you first started out?

It's getting dirtier by the day and sure some orgs are still up to their dirty tricks. The models: - Appraise and then Lay Off: Why bother putting bandaid on a stab wound? Anyways the folks are going to fight how to answer the ..why were you laid off war, and now you are adding another twist.. why were you appraised and then laid off? - Low appraisals to force quit: Undervalue them so they leave on their own. It’s a leeches way to cut costs. Kill morale 100%. Severance penny spent $0. - Trap them in PIP: Dress it up however you want - very very few escape this death sentence. - Silent treatment: No assignments, No meetings. Watch them spiral into anxiety and leave to save their sanity. - Workload overload: Drown them in work until they break. No need for layoffs list until they make it to your collapse list first. - Strategic reorg: Re-organize them out of existence. Offer a demotion or a proxy role in a random team that you know they dont want as an alternative. - Sudden policy changes: oh! I have seen so many I can't keep up with this one. New policies that make their life hell. People leave to escape your pettiness. - Mandatory relocation: Demand they move to an undesirable location. Then you treat remote employees like outsiders. Exclude them from key projects, conversations until they feel like foster care kids, second-class citizens. You know the outcome from there on. - Use the "Culture Fit" excuse: Call out how they’re not a culture fit. Vague, unchallengeable, and forces them out without severance. And don't sell me "the org has got to do what it has got to do to survive" line. I don't buy that If you have seen this being done, I understand your silence, but I don't value it. If this has been done to you or someone close to you, I am sorry. Orgs and the people failed you. We could be 1000x better than what we are operating as.

..unless either of the two mess up insanely bad We'll probably get to the #3 spot if things go well. But it seems impossible that we'll ever go beyond that. Internal reasons that are very hard to fix:- (1) Our population TFR fell below standard replacement rate in 2023. This means we will not be able to follow the same economic growth trajectory required to reach developed status before population stagnation or declination. This is not a death knell but definitely very VERY bad news. (2) Our blue-collar workforce skill levels are not only subpar but are slowly falling behind the world standards every year. Much of our youth aim to join government orgs like the Army or the Railways which train for the job later, not before. Despite a national shortage of skilled plumbers, electricians etc, our vocational training orgs have been unsuccessful in attracting people towards these careers as well as churning out skilled workers. (3) Our bureaucratic environment is extremely slow with pathetic turnaround times on initiatives. This is not government specific and has always been the case so it seems like this will always be. This is not even a problem unique to India as many other countries have been facing this too but it is still a factor that negatively impacts our growth massively. I wish it was just internal reasons but a large part of it also comes down to both China and US being aggressively great at ensuring their successes:- (1) Chinese manufacturing seems nearly impossible to overcome - not just for India but also for the US. Yes, we might win over some industries and companies like the US, Vietnam, Thailand etc. have been doing but the amount of autocratic control in China allows them to crush competition easily. Case in point - the recent tussle between India and China on solar manufacturing which China won by autocratically lowering their prices. (2) If de-dollarisation succeeds, it will benefit China the most because (contd. in comments)

These are my thoughts that go through my head as I work towards a healthy and happy life. I wrote them down to never forget them, and come back to them whenever I lose sight. I am sharing this here in hopes that this might help someone else too, as a lot of us are going through something or the other since we got into adulthood. This is written in first person, so read it as something you are telling yourself :) ---------------------------------------------- It happened, it's in the past. There is nothing that I can do to change it. I can only learn and grow from my mistakes, from the wrongs that happened to me. I can change where I am, how I am and how I live my life. I have that power, and no one can take that away from me. . This time would never come back. If I don't like how my life is today, my standing, then I need to work on changing it. I need to ponder on the question "Do I want to be at this same place a few months down the road?" Yes, I am talking about months and not years, because if I don't like where I am today, I shouldn't be liking it ever, and it doesn't have to take a long time for me to realise this. . I won't ever have everything figured out, such is the nature of life. It's not a script; instead it is unscripted and spontaneous. There would always be something new, something that would demand my attention, something that is unfamiliar and uncertain, and I have to learn to live in the flow of it all. . I don't know where I am going, what will happen, what life has in store for me. I don't know anything, but isn't that beautiful? That this is that mysterious book, whose pages turn with time. But at the same time it isn't a mystery at all because what would happen to me would be the result of my work and efforts, at least to some extent, to the extent where things are under my control. . And if something went out of control in the past, till when should I punish myself over it? Till when should I keep doubting myself, keep being afraid? I am wiser now, and my future self would be too. I need to have faith in myself and believe that I am going to make the right decisions. I have a sensible head on me; I am intelligent, and aware. . Also, what is going to happen is unknown, uncertain, so why do I keep forgetting my own words? That I am not afraid of failing, rather I am afraid of not trying. Let's never forget it ever again. Let's do this life right, let me do right by myself. Let me live this life to the fullest. Let me gift myself the life I would be proud of having lived when I take my final breath and leave this world behind. Let me be present. Let me do it all and more. Let me squeeze life in the tightest of hugs that I could ever give, and not be the first one to let go. Let life let go of me when it's time. So until then, let's do this zindagi!

Saw Fighter trailer and the f* are the dialogues?! India 'maalik' of Kashmir Hum Pakistan ke 'baap' hai (the PM character says this) India Occupied Pakistan I have all the heart for soldiers who have given their lives saving us, but why have they made it pop culture But majority of India still thinks this way and will love the movie Plus, it has the most gorgeous cast, if nothing else people will go for them

In 2018, I was doing my BBA from Delhi University, when the cultural fest of our college invited ‘The Local Train’ band for a live show. Of course, they performed Choo lo, Aoge Tum Kabhi, Dil Mere, Bandey, which had all my heart (in 2018 and today). But I chose not to attend the fest. As a 20-yr old, I never reflected why I would have done that...But as a 26-yr-old, I did it today. For a long time, Aalas ka pedh had remained my favorite archive of emotions, feelings of coming of age & loneliness when I had not yet stepped out of the borders of my ‘home’, semblance of how a breakup feels like when I didn’t know what a relationship stands for (let alone being in one), longing for love when I couldn't distinguish it from the romantic movies of SRK. And yet, I chose not to attend the fest. It was a conscious choice. It didn't bother me. “I was not into live music or experiences”. Why? I was not sure about my reasoning then, but now I think it was because I didn't value the very feelings I got from listening to those songs - emotions, coming of age, loneliness, breakup, relationship or love, all of the feelings I got from listening to those songs. My mind was flooded with the thoughts of achieving “objective” metrics - marks, ranks, admission in xyz college, because they were right there, easy to understand and calculate; the input was the attention and hours I put and output were grades. To my mind, that seemed “easier to achieve” than going through the process of defining and valuing those emotions. 4 years after this event, I would have just started my 2nd job, when I heard that the Local Train had unofficially disbanded when the lead singer, Raman Negi, left the band for a solo career. I didn’t feel it that much - because the “objective” bug hadn’t left me, and the value I placed to those emotions - coming of age, loneliness, breakup, relationship or love - still couldn’t be “calculated”. 2 years later, today, I realized 2 things. 1. I will never be able to hear The Local Train “live”. I lost the multiple chances I had. It hits me every time I hear the album again. To “objectify” it, I exhausted my attempts (like in UPSC) and clearly failed. 2. In the past, I have mis-forced “trade-offs”. The decision to not attend had no positive implication on my “success”, but negative implication on who I am today. Those moments and experiences are the attempts to make memories that will form a major part of the brain, when you grow old, shape who you are. While you are doing trade-offs, you value the non-objective things by the number of attempts you have to make. It isn’t that difficult to count the attempts, just uncomfortable. If I had that effort of valuing those experiences and emotions “objectively” better and not forced the trade-offs, I could have been a different person today. 1. Attended those live concerts with my friends 2. Got the chance of dating my crush in MBA 3. Worked with a co-founder closely who I looked up to as a operator 4. Would have watched one of my favorite stand-up comics perform live 5. Many more… Hence, my request to young folks in their 20s to incorporate this method of valuing non-objective things and avoiding forced trade-offs.