Dear Gen Z, You’re scrolling through Instagram, watching election results live on your phone, ordering food through an app while discussing voting patterns in your WhatsApp groups. Tomorrow, you’ll drive to wherever you want, whenever you want. Elections are background noise to your regular life—an inconvenience at most, requiring you to stand in a queue…
When Democracy Bled: A Millennial’s Letter to Gen Z on Bihar’s Electoral Past
Dear Gen Z voter, You walk into a polling booth today with your smartphone, your voter ID, and perhaps a selfie ready for Instagram. The biggest worry on your mind might be the queue, or whether the EVM will work properly. That casualness, that comfortable complaint—it’s a privilege. A hard-won, blood-soaked privilege that my generation…
The White Patches: Understanding Vitiligo’s Silent Epidemic in India
A Disease That Doesn’t Spread, Yet Appears Everywhere In the narrow lanes of Saran district in Bihar, Rajesh Kumar first noticed the small white patch on his son’s hand when the boy was just seven years old. Within months, similar patches appeared on his face and neck. “At first, I thought it was a fungal…
When Mothers Became Warriors: The Untold Strength of 1962
I work in cybersecurity for India’s intelligence apparatus. My job is to defend digital borders that most people don’t even know exist. But recently, I saw a photograph that reminded me what defending borders truly means. It’s from 1962. Tezpur, Assam. A woman stands with a rifle, her child beside her, preparing to face the…
Chhapra is Drowning: A Town Where Everyone Knows Someone, But Nobody Knows Accountability
I grew up in Ranchi. When it rained, water flowed where it was supposed to—into drains, not into shops, homes, and lives. Then I moved to Chhapra, Saran district, Bihar. And on August 5th this year, I watched a town drown in its own dysfunction. When the sky opened, the ground swallowed everything It wasn’t…
The Cry for SATIVA: When Voices on X Turn Into a Digital Protest
In the ever-buzzing world of X (formerly Twitter), chaos is routine, but sometimes, chaos carries a heartbeat. On September 29, a small group of users erupted in collective frustration — pleading, tagging, and shouting into the algorithmic void for one simple thing: “Bring back the SATIVA account.” That single request turned into a miniature protest,…
The King’s Halo: Deconstructing the Iconic Mahabharata Crown
You’ve seen it a thousand times. On television, in comic books, and in countless modern depictions of Hindu deities, the elaborate, often gold, crown with a distinctive circular disc rising from the back. It’s the definitive headgear of a legendary king from the Mahabharata era. But when you stop to think about it, a question…
How I Lost Everything to a WhatsApp Message (And Why You’re Next)
I spent six months feeling like a beggar. Not because I lost my job. Not because of medical bills or bad investments. Because I believed a text message. It started innocently enough “Congratulations! Your loan of ₹2,50,000 has been pre-approved. Zero paperwork. Instant disbursal. Click here.” I wasn’t even looking for a loan. But the…
The Rise of the Forgotten: How the Children of the Poor Are Redefining Power
In a world where privilege once dictated destiny, a quiet revolution is taking shape—one led not by the scions of power, but by those born in its shadows. Across India, especially in post-election Bihar, the sons and daughters of daily wage workers, small farmers, and rickshaw pullers are scripting a story that challenges centuries of…
Proxy Wars: From Gaza Strip Flickering on My 90s TV to Cryptocurrency Battles in My Digital Wallet
I remember it vividly—sitting cross-legged on our living room floor in the mid-1990s, watching grainy footage of the Gaza Strip conflicts on our cathode-ray television. The news anchor’s voice droned on about “regional tensions” and “international backing,” but what fascinated my young mind was a phrase that kept recurring: proxy war. Even then, without fully…
In a Herd of Ideas 