Tag: 2026
Shakuni did not want the Kauravas to win. He wanted the Kurus destroyed.
The Shakuni story begins not in a dice hall but in a prison. Shakuni walked with a limp. He had walked that way for as long as anyone in Hastinapura could remember. Nobody asked why. He was the queen’s brother. He was useful. He kept the Kauravas sharp and Duryodhana focused. He smiled at the…
Lebanon is still being governed by a headcount from 1932
Why Lebanon is broken is a reason most people cannot name. Not the bombs. Not the banks. Not Hezbollah, not Israel, not the politicians who have spent forty years stealing in plain sight. The reason is a census. One census. Taken in 1932. Never repeated. Everything else flows from that. The arrangement In 1932, Lebanon…
Kabuliwala by Rabindranath Tagore: the story about two fathers and one lost daughter
Kabuliwala by Rabindranath Tagore begins with a little girl who cannot stop talking. Mini is five years old. She has been talking since she learned how. Her mother loses patience with the chatter. Her father never does. He finds her silence, when it occasionally arrives, unbearable. This detail matters. Remember it. Because the story is…
Evening Walks in London: What Whitechapel Taught Me About Watching
There is a version of London that only appears after 8pm. Not the tourist version. Not the rush-hour version. The quieter, stranger, more honest version that surfaces when the day crowds thin and the city starts to breathe differently. I have been chasing that version for a while now. Through evening walks in London’s parks,…
Texas just sued Shein. The part about toxic clothing is harder to ignore.
Shein generated $30 billion in global revenue in 2023. On February 20, 2026, Texas sued it. Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit against Shein US Services LLC under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, alleging two things: the company sells products containing Shein toxic chemicals at unsafe levels, and it routes American consumer data to…
What I learnt from a teenage boat skipper in Montenegro
What I learnt from a Teenager with a boat in Montenegro is something that might come as a huge shock to a lot of people. It is all true, lived experience though, and should not be taken as a fictional story, fabricated to tarnish the reputation of a race, country or religion. Last summer in…
Bhishma did not die when the arrows hit him. He chose when.
Bhishma fell on the tenth day of the war. He did not die. The arrows had entered him from every direction. He lost consciousness briefly when he struck the shafts. When he came back to himself, held above the ground by the arrows beneath him, he understood what had happened. He had not been taken.…
Arjuna put down his bow at Kurukshetra. Krishna told him to pick it up.
Arjuna looked across the battlefield to understand his Svadharma meaning as he saw his grandfather on the other side of the field. Then his uncles. His teachers. His cousins. Men he had eaten with and trained beside and grown up knowing. Standing across from him in armour. Waiting. He put his bow down. His hands…
What the Mahabharata knew about being right and being ignored
Vidura was the wisest man in the Mahabharata. He was also the most ignored. Not in a dramatic way. He held a significant position. Prime minister of Hastinapura. Advisor to the king. A man whose presence at any deliberation signalled that the matter was serious. He spoke. People heard him. Then they did what they…
What is Schadenfreude: why we secretly enjoy other people’s pain
You scrolled past something this week that made you feel a small, quiet satisfaction. A person you find arrogant got publicly corrected. A company you dislike announced disappointing results. A celebrity whose confidence irritates you made an embarrassing mistake. An influencer who always appears perfect posted something that revealed they are not. You did not…
