D emocracy is fragile, but in the end, it prevails, it’s said. And the Neroes fall.   Using every tool in the playbook, China has tragically brought all that into doubt. In early October, the Chinese military launched its most threatening moves against Taiwan to date. Between Oct. 1 and 4, China’s air force flew nearly 150 war planes into Taiwan’s airspace; the 56 fighters, bombers and submarine hunters that flew on Oct. 4 were the largest ever one-day contingent sent near the island.  In an increasingly authoritarian Asia, where governments of struggling democracies instead of acting as a counterweight to autocratic influence from countries such as China have themselves veered towards authoritarianism. World’s largest surveillant state is now running the largest genocidal campaign as it tightens its clampdown against the Uighur Minority, and somehow today’s superpower is fast losing its grip to handle the one of tomorrow. But one signal seems to be standing out amidst a ...

COP26 was the last call. What happens to the planet next is up to us.  As leaders from across the globe arrive in Glasgow for a focal Climate summit, the outcomes and the credibility of their commitments will fathom how a planet of nearly 7 billion people functions in the time to come, especially when it is markedly hotter, sicker and more divided than almost anytime before in the global history.  While some fundamental differences ,including over fund allocations and economic concerns, cleave the leaders headed to Glasgow, it's almost certain that they couldn't be more united if they come to  tally the grim scale of destruction which has battered every region heedless of any political and/or geographical boundaries, tragically reminding that no one shall be spared from the perils of climate change.  From deadly floods and wildfires to record-breaking rainfall and temperatures, countries including the United States, China, Germany, Greece, India and Indonesia– among ...

GURGAON: It was the morning of 5th November. The day after Diwali.  But it wasn’t quotidian. Waking up, I felt Congestion, unease and an acute difficulty in breathing. My eyes sored as I struggled with constant sneezing. By all means, the experience felt ominously close to what it would be, being exposed to a gas chamber.  It was exactly that.  The sight outside my bedroom window was numbing. The somber sunlight in a mild winter month as November was replaced by a thick layer of smog- a hazardous mixture combining several toxicants and fog, the vision was completely phased out and what went inside on inhaling was nothing less than poison. This rare phenomenon was now a reality inside a city that is often lauded as the 'Millennium' one.   Air quality Index till 50 is regarded as ‘safe’ and ‘good’. In my city alone, air quality recorded by officials that morning was 442. It was partly because of Firecrackers burnt so as to mark the festival and partly because of s...

P ediatricians, at the Government of Medical College in Kozhikode, wear dismay on their face. "T here is no reason to delay vaccination among children as they were unlikely to get side-effects like elders." They proclaimed. "We must act now, before it is too late." On the 1 st  of May, India heralded its spirit, as the country was ready to pace in exasperation what’s often cited as the world’s largest vaccination drive by permitting all above the age of 18 to get the jab, though slow but steady. India reassured its  adult  citizens of normal times dawning soon amid the peak of a very devastating second wave. Just several months ago when the Indian Healthcare system was on the verge of ruin, reeling under an acute shortage of oxygen supplies, ventilators and beds, Sight of physicians watching helplessly as patients perished from preventable deaths, Indians gasping for breath being turned away from the battered hospitals and social media being filled with urgent reque...

  I t was the dawn of 11 th  of September last year, when a mainstream news channel ran its headlines vilifying Rhea Chakraborty, an Indian actress. Calling her everything from a “whore” to “gold digger” to a woman of “questionable character”, cascading a voyeuristic trial by television, while they ripped apart her career, character and the entirety in between. It was just one array of the multitudinous others where her Innocence or guilt became the ground for cut-throat debates. It was almost as if the fundamental ethics of Journalism ceased to exist or plummeted to a level where they were all but recognizable. Her saga is a lesson on how India loves to hate women. On 14 th  June’2020,The Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput (Boyfriend of Rhea) was found dead in his apartment in Mumbai, he evidently committed a suicide but allegedly was “poisoned” and “murdered” through a systematic plot chalked out by Chakraborty, which was largely unsubstantiated  — also with a highl...

M erkel’s leadership spans 15 years and 4 terms and in that span, she latched on to become TIME's person of the year, Forbes most powerful woman and the Chancellor of what's often lauded as the "free world", However, the girl who would grow up to be called the most powerful woman in the world has tholed quite a journey from being the daughter of a Lutheran Pastor in East Germany to de facto leader of a continent.   Iron Curtain found literal expression in the form of the Berlin Wall, partitioning Germany’s capital into East and West for almost 3 decades, which finally collapsed in 1989 unifying the democratic and prosperous West Germany with the communist and impoverished side of the East, and soon Germany became one of the largest and most populous countries in Europe. This is when Ms. Angela Merkel crossed the confines of the world of Physics and set foot into politics.  First elected to be a member of the new German parliament in 1990, Merkel rapidly rose throug...

T he key to self-love is not, in fact, skin complexion. Those barely tell who gets the only concession to “beauty”. More important is to provide serenity to those who do not fall into the fair category, which is immaterial to the potential they hold from within.  There is poor understanding of how white privilege operates outside the U.S. and Europe. In fact, there is a danger in placing American race-based oppression at the center of global discussions on white supremacy. Let’s be explicit: racial oppression in the U.S. is the tip of the iceberg of a much deeper and more harmful global phenomenon of white privilege that has for too long been conveniently ignored.  For decades, women and men around the world, and even more so in India, have been distinguished, based on superficiality of secondary attributes, pivotally, the color of one’s skin. While this discriminatory, racist bickering threatens to eclipse the self-esteem of all the genders along with pushing them into a st...

T hat moment stays quite vividly in my mind; Shoes polished, uniform all tidy and  clean, and bags packed, A very Joyous looking me was all decked up to spring into  yet another year of the academic calendar, looking forward to the quotidian  interaction with friends and teachers. Last year, the unprecedented declaration of the Lock-down strewed much of the  country into chaos, inviting a massive exodus before the decree took effect,  revolutionizing the social affinity of me and volumes of People across the globe,  for aye, while the uncertainty loomed, but also concomitantly unleashing immense  opportunities and de rigueur for us to recognize our potential in the digital domain  too. On some days, the novelty of being connected online and the increased  feasibility to surf websites concurrently often led to distraction during the classes.  While, on other days, the extended hours of screen time were found to be taking a  toll o...