Scoring goals in a global power play

Kicking ball as a game was not limited to a particular time or place in human history. Called cuju, back in the third century BCE, people used to play it in ancient China. How did a simple kicking game conquer the world? The antiquity of game shows that there is something very human about kicking a ball around. That it will grow to become the planet’s most popular sport could not be imagined. More than just a ball game it has turned out as a cultural and economic juggernaut of unimaginable proportions. The World Cup is not only the most-watched sporting event, but it also even has the power to sway elections and topple governments. The event has often been employed to promote policies and ideologies.

The ninety-year history of the coveted cup has many such instances of its popularity being politically appropriated. Italy under Benito Mussolini had hosted the World Cup in 1934 to showcase his fascist regime and promote its policies. The authoritarian hereditary monarchy of Qatar could sportswash the world with the regime’s exploitative action and policies during the World Cup 2022. Nations like Saudi Arabia which will host 2034 event believe that associating with football will encourage the world to see the kingdom in a more positive light.

It is more than just a kicking game. There was little commercialization in the early years which now has become a money guzzling event. Making money was not a priority which now is the main motto. FIFA, the self-regulatory governing body of football, has cash reserves larger than independent countries like Kenya or Cuba. With the fan following for the game growing exponentially, efforts to raise revenues and increase profits has continued to expand. It is ‘a pleasure that hurts’, a poetic expression that refers to game both to the fan reaction who watches his team play and the despair over how autocrats mint money instead. 

Sports historian Brian D. Bunk who teaches at the University of Massachusetts traces football’s meteoric rise as a game. Drawing on historical and contemporary events, from famous victories to backroom deals that now power the game, The Shortest History of Football shows how a game continues to influence global politics and economics. Although many people see football as an escape from everyday life, the sport has never been divorced from its share of violence and power. However, it is also enriched with both glories and tragedies.

The history of football is concise but comprehensive, revealing several aspects about the way sport has been played and understood. 1994 World Cup match between Columbia and the US is worth mentioning in this regard. Much to the dislike of fans, the Columbian defender Andres Escobar scored what is called ‘self-goal’. Little over a week later, Escobar returned home and was murdered by people linked to drug cartels. The tragic incident revealed the ways in which drug cartel had inserted itself into the country’s football culture. In addition, the repeated incidence of stadium deaths and hooliganism persistence haven’t been kicked away. 

People are passionate about the game and results on the pitch have often led to tragedy. Such events are sometimes the result of deliberate acts and other times, sheer accidents. They make up the darker side of the game. Fans have grown strong attachment to certain players and have created interesting ways of demonstrating their allegiances. Bunk has profiled the best players in the game, from the Brazilian football star Arthur Friedenreich in the early 20th century to the best ever Argentinian player Lionel Messi in early 21st century, but wonders if the star players can win a game on their own?

From school football to club football, the game has come a longways. Women football has kept pace in emerging as an international event. While people wish that game remains separate from politics, the history of football shows it otherwise. Individual players and clubs are fighting to achieve such an autonomy, but national governments are using football as a tool to bolster the regime and policies, including right wing governments. FIFA itself has its own interests to bolster its revenues and influence. 

2026 World Cup seems squeezed between self-aggrandizing interests of FIFA President and the host country’s President. While FIFA wants to maximize revenue as its chief bids for re-election next year, the host country is seeking to meet its political interests. Not without reason football remains the world’s most popular sport. 

The Shortest History of Football
by Brian D. Bunk       
Pan MacMillan, New Delhi. 
Extent: 247, Price: Rs. 599.

First published in Deccan Herald on June 28, 2026.

Tracing the malware path

What began as a revenge action by Harvard educated evolutionary biologist Joseph Popp - who was not considered for a permanent position at the World Health Organization - turned out to be the malicious step towards institutionalizing the dark economy of hacking. With computer connectivity and data sharing gaining new interest during late 1980s, Popp conveniently used the computer software for promoting AIDS education in 1989. It was so designed that the malware shocked the user but without any data being lost. The victim’s computer hard drive was restored after the originator was paid to unlock it. Popp used a payment mechanism system that was easily accessible to the victim but not the police.

Anja Shortland, a professor at the King’s College, traces the malware path that was paved in 1989, and which has now fully grown into a ransom industry worth $1 billion each year. The cost to global business in 2025 has been a whopping $74 billion. “It is like trashing a car to steal a pair of sunglasses,” quips Shortland. But Popp had to prove his worth to two adversaries: the organization that didn’t acknowledge his credentials for a permanent position, and the arrogant ‘masters of the universe’ of the business world. Popp’s plot to extract payment for data hostage didn’t last long but before falling into obscurity he could bequeath a blueprint for ransomware for later generation of hackers.

Since its first appearance in the late 80s, ransomware has gone through many astonishing changes. No sooner the criminals’ payments problem was resolved, ransomware quickly advanced from a low-level nuisance to a problem touching all facets of society. A ransomware attack is a cybercrime in which hackers use malware to encrypt data and charge a fee to receive a decryption key. In financial terms it might seem an inefficient form of crime, but is still growing all across in the internet connected world because it’s much cheaper to cough up incentive then minimize its devastating disruptions.

Shortland, a leading expert in cybercrime peels many layers of digital underworld that is reshaping our online existence in her latest book We Know You Can Pay a Million, which seeks to explore the large corporate set-ups that have grown up around the ransomware industry. The most amazing aspect of this industry is that the havoc wreaked by ransomware is many times over the amount collected by cybergangs. Such has been the psychological cost of the recent attack that the production of the Jaguar Land Rover has been set back by weeks. The British Library has yet to fully recover from the hacking it suffered in 2023.

The astonishing aspect of ransomware attacks is that every attack inspires further attacks. Despite the effort and creativity that goes into taking every attack down, the threat of ransomware to companies and individuals gets greater than ever. The number of arrests and takedowns lead to proliferation and splintering of ransomware brands. For instance, security experts could spot as many as seventy-five ransomware strains, with an average of forty-five groups active each month in the recent past. Leading group LockBitSupp asserts: “This business works…and will always work…takedown isn’t an indication of a systematic problem with ransomware.” 

Shortland says that ransomware became a real problem from 2013 onwards when internet became widespread. The challenge is transboundary and indeed global. Between 2021 and 2024, the US alone counted some 4,900 attacks leading to at least US$ 3.1 billion in ransomware payments. For anyone tracking the daily stream of global ransomware attacks, the extreme vulnerability of global and local supply chains, public services, transport and critical infrastructure is abundantly clear. With ports, trains and airports been subject to temporary shutdowns, the vulnerability of cyber connected infrastructure is glaring.

Need it be said that artificial intelligence will ease ransomware gangs to target a country. It will have serious repercussions to national security and peoples’ lives. Costa Rica was attacked in 2022 and has valid reasons for promotion of higher standards of cyber-hygiene. Shortland has proposed the counter-ransomware dashboard with four interconnected features including penalties and resilience. She further suggests that the ransomware be brought into the sphere of broad political debate. Politicians must be pressed to formulate clear cybersecurity strategies. This book may not be interest to the average reader but must get the attention of the right people to avoid unimaginable catastrophe.

We Know You Can Pay a Million
by Anja Shortland
Hachette, New Delhi
Extent: 293, Price: Rs, 699.

First published in Hindu BusinessLine on June 15, 2026.

Unearthing forgotten queer pasts

Our society may forbid transgressive desires, but it has non-hesitatingly preserved such expressions in murals, paintings and artifacts since time immemorial. While Shiva’s Ardhanareswara captures the synthesis of masculinity and femineity, the stone carvings in Khajuraho temple reflect proto-feminist past that is quintessentially queer. The fascinating thing about queerness is that it permeates time. Whether it is suppressed by societal norms or expressed as myriad human desires, an ounce of femineity or masculinity is present in each one of us. Curiously, queerness is as normal as breathing because human bodies and minds do not fit into prescribed templates. 

Due to rapid social, economic and political change the world is going through, many of the traditional gender binaries have been rendered increasingly dysfunctional and obsolete. Even in ancient, medieval, and early modern times, polyamory, polygamy, and polyandry were well recognized. Draupadi may seem the only polyandrous woman in mythology, however, the polyandrous practice has been real across many communities in the subcontinent. Polyandry, the keeping of multiple husbands, was permitted in the remote mountain regions as late as the 19th century. Anthropologists have come up with socio-economic reasons for such arrangements, but ‘human desire’ has been the pivot that sustained these relations.

Ancient mythology is full of gender fluidity. Gods have been included; divinities transcend their gender. Shiva is often depicted as hyper masculine whereas Vishnu is quite feminine to start with. 

These are predominant examples but social practices relating to gender identities had a subculture that persisted through ages. Indian society was pretty cool about it but to the prudish Victorian eyes this was scandalous. As a consequence, the colonial rulers erased south-Asian queer sub-cultures. Colonial authorities passed a posy of laws to criminalize them, and we were indoctrinated to think of the past as necessarily regressive.  

A doctorate from the University of Strathclyde, Sindhu Rajasekhran considers herself ambiguous and acknowledges the decriminalization of Section 377 which spared the headache of justifying her being what she claims to be – sapphic, fluid, ambiguous, bisexual. Digging deeper into the subject of gender identity she found that gender fluidity is not a foreign fad and the fact that it doesn’t easily fit into the Victorian idea of gender binary led to its decolonization. Forbidden Desire places the categories of gender identity in cultural perspective. It further argues that queerness has the potential to dismantle patriarchal patrons and perhaps the reason for the new gender identities (LGBTQ+) yet to gain social acceptance. 

It goes without saying that patriarchy is petrified of gender fluidity, because it alone has the potential to dismantle hierarchical pyramids. The patriarchy is built on a solid foundation of masculine thinking, which fetishizes the feminine. As androgenic expressions are gaining currency, there is a reason to believe Rajasekaran’s assertion that future is turning femme. In this context, mxn is a gender fluid expression that is neither man nor woman. With this being the new perspective, everyone is free to express in a manner that reflects their true selves.

Queerness isn’t out of the ordinary. It doesn’t confirm to prespecified choices and neither confine to established customs. It is a period of destabilization in traditional gender roles and relationships. Forbidden Desire is a new way of approaching big questions about existence and the societies we create(d), then and now.

Forbidden Desire 
by Sindhu Rajasekaran 
Simon&Schuster, New Delhi. 
Extent: 238, Price: Rs. 799.

First published in Deccan Herald on June 14, 2026. 

Life, lived beyond life

Spine chilling stories about ghosts are tales of the supernatural, which exist in only our imagination but are no less intriguing and compelling. These stories are reflections of our history and reflect our unending connection to those who came before us. Every haunted place follows a human story of the bygone era - a tragic love affair, an unsolved murder, or a miserable life. Ghosts may not be seen but are echoes of human emotions and have unwritten history of not just about dates and events but about people. Digging into these stories uncovers lives that are not to be forgotten. 

Eric Chopra, the founder of Itihāsology, journeys through the capital’s most beguiling sites Jamali-Kamali, Firoz Shah Kotla, Khooni Darwaza, and Malcha Mahal to unearth the stories and legends that seem wrapped around these heritage structures. Between the living and the lived, there is an in-between world of paranormal (in)activities which are either inhabited or haunted - ‘jinn's are noble souls who inhabit eerie places whereas ghosts haunt the dilapidated structures.’ 

Ghosted emerges from these never-ending curiosities, which wanders through unending conversations sustained by horror aficionados. And it’s this enduring appetite for the other world that sustains the enigmatic inhabitation of jinn's and ghosts. Human fascination with the other world is old and persistent. Chopra showcases the layered, multi-hued history of our unwritten past. And whether one believes on the paranormal, Ghosted makes for so compelling a read that one is nudged to visit the sites to see for oneself.

It is part history and part hearsay that has been weaved together into an absorbing narrative. It isn’t the academic history but popular history, that is mystical no less. It blends archival research with myths without any attempt to settle what, when, and why of a past that persists till the present. Instead, it acknowledges how ordinary people relate to them without questioning and how handwritten pleas and petitions are filed by numerous believers. Far from judging these beliefs, the claims of getting the pleas fulfilled are frequent. Rarely are such claims authenticated but help in reinforcing the beliefs.

Chopra is one of his kind of researcher, holding the tradition of enriching popular history that has been kept alive since antiquity. Ancient societies are known to have written letters to their dead relatives, have been filing written petitions for seeking requiem from their earthly troubles, and have kept alive rituals and practices. The haunted refuse to leave the cultural imagination, which are revered in tombs and dargahs. The city remains the palimpsest history of sages, sultans, poets, and lovers who linger in human memory. 

Ghosted talks about how humans relate to the haunted but not the other way round. Who knows that the haunted may harbor a story? The case of Kate Morgan, who haunts the Hotel del Coronado since 1892, reflects the challenges women faced in her era: social stigma for unwed pregnancies, limited resources for independence, and little tolerance for scandal. Many believe her ghost lingers in a hotel room, a haunting reminder of the struggle's women endured, and the quiet tragedies often lost to history. There are stories on what’s lost and what endures, to understand the many ways the haunted may tell their stories.

Chopra is a natural storyteller, combining his passion for public history with archival research. This makes him a compelling writer of narrative non-fiction which connects with the current generation. Such writings bring the joy of discovering the past to new and old readers and may help explore new facets to the haunted stories. With the city landscape littered with fabled apparitions, there is much to choose from. 

Delhi is rich in haunted geography, and people engage with history through heritage walks. Only tourists help in maintaining the haunted structures. Even menswear collection, Jamali Kamali, has contributed to enhancing interest in haunted structures. Ghosted is an engaging read, weaving a relationship with these historical sites. Each site has an engaging public history.

Ghosted: Delhi’s Haunted Monuments 
by Eric Chopra 
Speaking Tiger, New Delhi. 
Extent: 280, Price: Rs. 480.

First published in Hindustan Times on June 5, 2026. 

When curiosity does not kill the cat

Why the banana peel prompts a comical slip? Why zebra alone has black stripes? Why don’t woodpeckers get headaches? Why a toast lands butter-side down by the time it hits the floor? These amusing observations do raise playful curiosity that makes people laugh first and make them think later. And there is no dearth of such cases worth taking note of. The criteria of laughing first and thinking later clicked with Marc Abrahams, who firmly believes that science can be serious and ridiculous at the same time. For cultivating a culture of playful skepticism and attention that blends humor and academic rigor, Marc instituted Ig Nobel Prizes in 1999. ‘Ig Nobel’ is an antinode to the idea that science must always be serious and somber. 

These prizes highlight the absurdities of human endeavors but without mocking the embedded science in it. It celebrates its quirks, its questions and its capacity to illuminate the edges of human understanding. The Ig Nobels bring attention to work that might have otherwise been ignored forever. That is true of the 2006 Ig Nobel Prize in Ornithology awarded to Ivan R, Schwab and late Philip May. As early as 1976, May had argued that woodpeckers were nature’s living experiment on head injury prevention. But it took three decades before the value of the headstrongness of woodpeckers – without getting succumbed to brain injury – was accepted as an engineering idea which lay trapped as an evolutionary mystery.  

Following several years of research in the quest for Ig Nobels, science writer Upasana Sarraju has put together a thoughtful and reflective compilation on weird science and scientists for whom the curiosity tugged along to bag the coveted prize, which disproves the proverbial expression curiosity killed the cat. Curiosity of twelve extraordinary scientists is presented as unusual stories in search of science. Scientific achievements having a curious property get the award, both celebrating the enjoyable side of science and enticing people to become interested in science. 

Each prize justifies for being funny and radical at the same time. A 2012 Ig Nobel Prize was awarded to a team of researchers for their study on the dynamics of spilling coffee from a cup as you walk. On the flip side, the team paid attention to walking speeds and the quantity of coffee initially in the cup. However, the interplay between the complex motion of a cup, the biomechanics of walking, and the low-viscosity-liquid dynamics came under scientific scrutiny. One wonders if this research has direct implications but other awards on fluid dynamics and even the viscosity of the fluid determine how the liquids behave under varying conditions.  

The surprisingness of a banana peel may seem frivolous for a scientific inquiry but 2014 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics led to discussions about the design of safer flooring materials, which is particularly important in public spaces like hospitals and shopping centers. In eleven chapters, Sarraju explores strange corners which winners of the Ig Nobel Prizes have selected and curated science that is cool, interesting and real. These inimitable Prizes are windows into the strange, wonderful and sometimes hilarious world of asking questions just because.   

Weird but chaotic, predictable but laughable, discovery is in itself a great thrill. The safest way to transport rhinos is by lifting the animal upside down. It may seem a wild joke but in reality, that is the fact which can hardly be ignored. Even that may be true for transporting even pigs. What does this all mean? It means that the world is full of scientists who are funny, odd and endlessly curious. It also means that scientists are eccentric, mischievous, and deeply weird.  

Written with delightful insights and interests, Sarraju explores what lies beyond the heart of scientific discovery. It explores how a laughable beginning becomes an idea that can change the world. Each award is first understood as an idea before it is developed as a concept for further exploration. In doing so, the author leaves the reader with possible questions for additional insights. For instance, open the smelliest thing in your fridge and reflect does your brain lights up with disgust, hunger or a primal urge to throw it far. Our ability to imagine and seek out more mysterious reality drives us towards an incredible future.

Unruly: The Ig Nobel Prizes 
by Upasana Sarraju
Penguin RandomHouse, New Delhi. 
Extent: 318, Price: Rs. 499.

First published in Deccan Herald on May 31, 2026.

The King who did not win any war but excelled in dancing

Given his creative urge and innovative temperament, Wajid Ali Shah enriched thumri as a style of song, sitar as a musical instrument, and kathak as a dance. Such was his aura in the realm of arts that those who were considered proficient became minnows before him. Even in exile from his beloved Lucknow to far away Calcutta, Wajid Ali Shah used the farewell of a bride from her father's home as a metaphor for his banishment while singing his own creation babul mora naihar chhooto jaye, a timeless classical thumri in raag bhairavi. 

Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was neither a ruler of a huge empire, nor did he rule for a long period of time. The erstwhile ruler of Awadh in Lucknow is embedded in popular imagination as the ill-fated king, an opulence-loving character who lost his throne to the British. Known for his eccentricities, Shah never wielded his sword but painted the canvas of his kingdom with rich colors of music and dance. History often prefers narratives filled with battles and braveries, and that is perhaps the reason the British dethroned the king who pursued arts and aesthetics instead.

It remains a mystery till date why Wajid Ali Shah had his left breast and nipple artistically exposed between the gold borders of his royal dress all the time. Shah’s portrait in the picture gallery near the Husainabad Clock Tower in Lucknow was reportedly kept behind a curtain, because it is said that a British lady had fainted after seeing it. Such eccentricities only contributed to justifying the nefarious designs of the British who didn’t waste time to dethrone him.  

British historian Rosie Llewellyn-Jones constructed the imagery of the king through many facets of his personal and political life in The Last King of India. She wrote that the actual reign of the poet-ruler had lasted only nine years (1847- 56) but the erstwhile ruler spent the last 30 years of his life as a deposed ruler (on pension from the British East India Company) at Garden Reach near Calcutta, ruling a mock-kingdom with 6,000 subjects. Even in exile against all odds, he had continued pursuing his interests in arts and culture.

However, a deep dive into the realities of the 19th century reveals the real persona of the misunderstood king, who was undoubtly less of a king and more of a poet, and an author and a creative person par excellence. Dr Kaukub Quder Sajjad Ali Meerza, the great grandson of Wajid Ali Shah, challenges colonial narratives and highlights his artistic contributions that positions Awadh's last ruler as a major cultural force. By bringing his literary and poetic contribution into scholarship, Wajid Ali Shah reveals that the king was a multifaceted artist. 

Originally written in Urdu, the 600-page volume has been translated by Dr Talat Fatima, the great-great granddaughter of Wajid Ali Shah, to widen its reach and correct historical misunderstandings. It introduces readers to Shah's lesser-known talents in poetry, drama, and architecture, and restores a neglected voice in rich cultural heritage.

As the book suggests, Wajid Ali Shah excelled in many fields of art and creativity. A teetotaler all his life, he had a fascination for Lord Krishna, and was sometimes referred to as Kanhaiya, which was reflected through his passion for grand theatrical events. Had he been born a century later, Wajid Ali Shah undoubtedly would have found a career in the film world, with the chance to realize, on an epic scale, rahas or dance drama he had directed in Lucknow – some of which lasted for over a month. History has seemingly been unkind to him, not crediting him as one of the most important cultural icon of his day and for the ebullient creativity he represented.

Wajid Ali Shah was born with remarkable creative abilities. He loved writing masanvi (free from rhyming), the longest of which has as many as 48,150 couplets. Amazing! He composed Ishq Nama to express his temporal love at the age of twenty-six and expressed his divine love at the age of sixty-two named Sabatul Quloob. Though written in persian, both of these reflect class. Wajid Ali Khan was a man of strong character and did not allow any woman to serve him unless she was married to him. No surprise, he ended up marrying some 375 women in his life. 

It is a brilliantly told historical account of a creative King who remained woefully mis-understood during his time, but one who comes out as a man of character who lived his life on his own terms.  

Wajid Ali Shah

by Kaukub Quder Sajjad Ali Meerza

Translated by Dr. Talat Fatima

Hachette, New Delhi

Extent: 629 pages. Price: Rs. 1299

First published in raagdelhi.com (The king who did not win any war but knew how to dance)  

Meditation on overcoming odds

Even in the face of hardship, parents rarely hesitate to bestow a meaningful blessing upon their newborn. Cradled with the hope that he would one day reign like a king, Rasangam, in reality, spends his days cycling back and forth to the small grocery shop he manages in order to support his widowed mother, aunt, siblings and cousins.

Unable to pursue his dream of higher education, he often laments his fate. How can he explain the untimely burden of patriarchy thrust upon him?

Rasangam possesses a quiet eloquence, yet, as a soft-spoken man in a female-dominated household, he can never command the respect he yearns for — neither within the confines of his home nor across the village. He struggles against the many forces that shape his life: faith, family and tradition. Even after buying a car and a motorcycle, his social status remains unchanged. What must he do to break all shackles and earn respect? Tamil writer Salma’s new novel, The Binding, is a quiet meditation on overcoming such odds.      

Salma is the pen name of poet, novelist and activist Rajathi, whose courageous voice has become central to contemporary Tamil literature. Her career is marked by several seminal works that have earned both critical acclaim and a devoted readership, particularly within the Muslim community in Tamil Nadu. Now as Rajya Sabha MP, her literary insight is poised to gain a wider political resonance.

Though not fully content with his life, Rasangam finds strength in the deep bonds of his extended family. Mutual care and nurturing sustain the household, yet women continue to occupy a secondary place within the social order. There is little he can do to elevate either their status or his own. Gradually, he feels drawn more deeply towards faith, devoting himself to religious service and undertaking the Haj pilgrimage. Once he returns, Rasangam renounces worldly indulgences in pursuit of the social esteem he has always longed for.

Reading this nuanced novel is like peeling an onion, layer by layer. Rasangam may appear to be the central figure, but the secondary characters enrich the narrative with immense cultural depth. According to translator Janani Kannan, a U.S.-based architect who has won awards for translating Tamil novels and short stories, the structure of the novel resembles the texture of lived experience itself. And is it not, ultimately, the lived experience of growing up with the suffocating constraints of a conservative religious family?

Rasangam’s dutiful son, Imran, fulfils his father’s unrealized dream by going to college. Leaving the village behind, he joins an institution in a sprawling city and initially struggles to adapt to its vibrant and broad-minded atmosphere. Yet, he soon realizes how deeply prejudice against his community runs, and how urgently his society must evolve with changing times. Securing a government job appears to him one credible path toward dignity and acceptance.

As he steps into a more diverse social world, Imran also encounters the growing anxieties surrounding interfaith relationships. Such expressions of love are frequently stifled by political propaganda, raising troubling questions about the true nature of social progress. Imran is disturbed by this contradiction and feels the pain of a society whose progress remains conditional and selective. But the novel also reminds us that perspectives on progress are never absolute; what appears progressive to one may seem regressive to another, depending on time, place and context.

Salma approaches the fraught subject of “love jihad” with remarkable care and restraint. Rather than arriving at definitive conclusions, she presents its many complexities and contradictions. Broad-mindedness and progressive ideals alone, the novel suggests, may prove inadequate within an increasingly polarized political climate. The narrative comes full circle as Salma extends it into the next generation, juxtaposing evolving modern struggles against enduring social prejudices.

The Binding
by Salma
Translated by Janani Kannan
PanMcMillan, New Delhi
Extent: 272, Price: Not mentioned.

First published in The Hindu on May 13, 2026.

Can we eat without devouring the earth?

Is farming the world's greatest cause of environmental destruction? Even as a thought experiment, it may be hard to imagine. With fossil fuel on top of the climate story and anxious fossil fighters claiming curbs on its usage, farming still nowhere features prominently in the climate story. Even if the world weans itself from fossil fuels, it will still find itself slouching toward disaster as the fossil fuel story remains only two-thirds of the climate story. The rest of the climate story is about the food we eat and the farms that produce it, but which is not without frying the world. 

The core issue is the expanding agricultural footprints. Already the size of all of Asia plus all of Europe have been converted into farmland and that is not without a cost – biodiverse habitats destroyed, pristine forests compromised and the nature’ footprints have shrunk. The farming sprawl is thirty times that of the urban sprawl. If current trends unfold, the world farmers will need to convert more area to fill nearly 10 billion human bellies by 2050. That would wipe out more forests and other natural carbon storehouses, our best defenses against climate change. And on top, some millions would still go hungry.

The food system itself is not climate friendly and probably the most destructive. Award-winning journalist Michael Grunwald dives into We Are Eating the Earth to show how the biggest of our dilemmas about feeding the world can be resolved without devouring the planet. Land is our most precious resource, because it has the twin-task of producing much more food and absorbing much more carbon to save us. Crops, like us, are carbon-based life forms that grow on the earth and as Mark Twain said, they’re not making more of it.

Land is the vast reservoir of carbon, holding three times as the atmosphere and four times as much as above-ground vegetation. If the Paris climate summit targets have to be met, the world will need to eliminate three-fourths of food-related emissions by 2050. But soils have not yet been prepared to sequester such emissions, extractive agriculture instead depletes soils. Four Per Thousand global campaign, to increase the carbon content in farm soils by 0.4 percent, can trap 89 percent of agricultural emissions. That’s lot of carbon, at least on paper. 

Grunwald has evidence to argue that every piece of land needs to be valued either as a potential food source or a potential carbon sink. Only by efficiently using the land can ‘eating the land’ remain only an imagination. The book cleverly frames the solution around efficiency: pointing out that the more food we can produce on less land, the more land we can keep in its natural state.  

Quitting fossil fuels can only be part of the solution, the challenge is the need to preserve ecosystems that store carbon.   

Grunwald takes guidance from a brilliant scientist Tim Searchinger, a senior research scholar at Princeton and senior fellow at the World Resources Institute, who began his career as a lawyer to navigate how science and politics influence agricultural interests. Is meat really that bad? Searchinger’s answer boil down to this: ‘It’s land….meat uses too much land, just like ethanol.’ One cow meat is as much as 100 chickens, emitting 50 times more greenhouse gases than coal, But who cares as more animals suffer and die before reaching our plates. 

Food is now as big a climate challenge as oil and coal. We Are Eating the Earth is a warning to the present generation to keep the planet habitable for the next generation. The production of our food harms the environment in more than many ways. While the farms that feed the world might not consume the entire earth, two-fifths of our planet’s land area remains vulnerable. More sobering still, that figure is growing as the global population continues to grow and more people become wealthy enough to eat meat. 

Most of what Grunwald narrates is realistic. Clearly, eating ‘plant rich diets’ is the best opportunity to reduce carbon pollution. Need it be said that only systemic changes can stop frying the planet. Guilt-tripping ordinary people into individual actions may have modest impacts which distract from corporate and government actions with disastrous impacts. We Are Eating the Earth is strongly recommended as one of the most important works on climate this decade. Read the book and decide for yourself what needs to be done! 

Grunwald has recommended four steps: Produce more food per acre; Protect key habitats and keep them off limits to food production; Reduce demand for meat, biofuels, and other land consuming products; Restore unproductive lands to nature. In conclusion, he advocates both systemic change and personal action. Each of us is eating the earth and how we eat matters. 

We Are Eating the Earth 
by Michael Grunwald
Simon&Schuster, New Delhi
Extent: 379, Price: Rs.999.

First published in the Hindu BusinessLine on May 11, 2026.

Life is more about inner exploration

Dear Alyne: My Years as a Married Virgin conveys something intriguing but pretty personal and somewhat mischievous. The author asserts it to be a work of non-fiction, with all events and experiences truly represented in this autobiographical memoir. With a little more than four million followers, Alyne Tamir is a digital nomad and a content creator.

Tamir was a childhood loner and goes somewhat into her background as the daughter of a blonde Mormon and an Israeli Jew. Her parents divorced when she was 11, her father returned to Israel and has not been back to the U.S. since, so she spent her summers with him there, becoming fluent in Hebrew. She spills a fair amount about growing up Mormon, including things she’s not supposed to reveal, like the goings on inside the temple. That was interesting. However, she continually states the obvious and the writing is fairly sophomoric. 

She graduated from Brigham Young University, got married, and by age 25 was a divorcee. Before you wonder how she considers herself to be married virgin, simply put she learnt to love instead of having sex. "Without even realizing the real Alyne hid closed off from the world, from herself, deep inside me in a little box no one could find." Brimming with honesty and confidence, she overcame her sexuality, and an endless cycle of existential crises. But for 25 years, she put everyone ahead of herself, repressing things that didn’t fit the traditional story. But in reality, she was miserable struggling to reconcile her flawless image with shame around her sexuality, infidelity, and an endless cycle of existential crisis. Dear Alyne is a one of a kind coming-of-age story that is still being worked about. 

"I don't know how other girls were, but the truth was, I had never wanted to have sex and had never been even slightly tempted." Alyne spent her whole life being inundated by confusing, problematic messages about her body. But the reality was, neither the pills worked nor any of the therapies. Whenever she thinks back, it made her feel sick. Anything vaguely sexual, even conversations, had a huge negative stigma around her.

Alyne could never think about her past with ease. It made her feel furious and horrified. She felt ashamed of her own natural feelings, punished for expressing affection, and self-policing her sexuality as a crime. That having sex meant that she would become literal trash, dirty and discardable weighed heavy on her mind. But divorce opened a new door for her as she found herself finally-free the expectations of her family and faith. 

A divorce or a breakup, Alyne learnt, may seem like a death sentence, but is often has a bright beginning. One learns that profound connection(s) is worthy of exploration, and not something to be fearful of. Sex is temporary but Love is permanent. "I'm realizing that perhaps the most important thing in life is to explore the world within.

Mary helps get a sense of Trump

Mary Trump, a trained clinical psychologist who holds a Ph.D. from the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, unveils the trauma and toxicity that shaped her uncle, Donald Trump. Fueled by her memories, she shines bright light on the dark history of a family that created the world’s most dangerous man. Too Much and Never Enough is a scathing attack on a person whom Mary has “no problem calling a narcissist – rather a malignant narcissist – as he meets all nine criteria of mental disorder outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-S).”

The author asserts that the book was neither written to cash in nor a desire for revenge, but an effort to let readers know that expecting anything pleasant on the alter of Donald’s hubris and willful ignorance will be at a huge cost. There are specific incidents and patterns that created the damaged man who occupied the coveted office, not once but twice. As the family members were often engaged in questionable business dealings, it allowed Donald’s failures to go unchecked. In fact, only a clinical psychologist could decipher such traits as causes of personality disorders.

Having learnt that ‘lying and cheating’ were legitimate business tactics, Donald built a reputation for success based on ‘bad loans, bad investments, and worse judgement’. Rather than the self-made billionaire he claims to be, he comes across as a beneficiary of his family’s immoral practices. “Donald had only his ability to spin father’s money to prop up an illusion”. Throughout the book, Mary expertly dismantles the myths around Donald’s success.

The book implores readers to recognize how personal histories shape public outcomes, drawing a direct link to Donald’s dangerous leadership. His fragile ego that must be bolstered every moment because he knows deep down that he is nothing of what he claims to be. Curiously, he makes his insecurities and vulnerabilities other peoples’ responsibility. Mary adds “that’s what sociopaths do, they co-opt others and use them toward their own ends — ruthlessly and efficiently, with no tolerance for dissent or resistance.”

Nothing is ever enough. Donald goes far beyond the garden-style-narcissism. He is not simply weak. He makes his insecurities and vulnerabilities other people's' responsibility. Mary’s candid exploration serves a warning. The powerful narrative urges readers to reflect how personal becomes political, and how it influences the global geopolitical landscape. 

There is so much to infer from the narrative, which refers to traits such as chronic criminality, arrogance, and disregard for the rights of others. According to Mary, “Donald’s pathologies are so complex and his behavior so often inexplicable that coming up with an accurate and comprehensive diagnosis would require a full battery of neuropsychological tests.” Till such time such tests are conducted, casual dehumanization of people will continue across his dinner table. More so, he has surrounded himself with sycophants to ensure that his own mediocrity remains concealed. 

But as the pressures of his position continues to mount, his mediocre delusions are emerging more starkly than ever before. Though his character flaws and aberrant behavior have been remarked upon and joked about, his hegemonic behavior is becoming unbearable at the global level. But he doesn’t seem to care. Instead, his approach is: “if he can in any way profit from your death, he’ll facilitate it, and then he’ll ignore the fact that you died.” 

In her compelling narrative, Mary has no hesitation to postulate that ‘a second term to him would be the end of (American) democracy’. 

Too Much and Never Enough
by Mary L. Trump
Simon & Schuster, New York.
Extent: 225, Price: $17.99.

Is it the Era of India?

The India growth story is fascinating. During the middle of the Mughal regime in 1700s, India accounted for 24 per cent of global GDP. In the next 190 years of brutal British colonialism, it had become an impoverished economy accounting for just 3 per cent of global GDP. For half a century after gaining Independence in 1947, India had too small an economy worth taking note of. However, after several years of steady GDP growth since, it overtook Britain and is on track to overtake Japan and Germany as the world’s third-largest economy by 2030.

Using empirical data and research evidence, Minhaz Merchant argues that there won’t be any European country among the world’s three largest economies. The US believes that as India is on economic ascent, it will be the third economy alongside China to drive global growth. Much will, however, depend on how towards the middle of this century, India upgrades itself with digital technologies and artificial intelligence to lead the world. It is expected that by year 2030, an estimated 70 per cent of Fortune 500 companies will have their capability centers located in India. Its technological infrastructure and expanding consumer market will provide a perfect ecosystem for these companies, and through them India to grow.

It isn’t as linear as it may seem. The ongoing trade and technology war between the US and China is recasting global alliances. In such a situation, will India act as a balancing pivot between the two-warring factions? At this crucial time when the US is pushing ‘America First’ policy for seeking revival of its hegemony and China is rising as both an economic and military power, not much can be expected from a third party. The geopolitics of global change is turbulent, with the US playing a vital part in its strategic calculations.

Era of India provides an immensely readable perspective on the social, religious, political and economic history of the world. It traces the rise and falls of civilizations from antiquity to the present. History has been complicated as the weapons of war allowed for invasion and colonization. Much has changed since then; the stockpile of weapons is used instead to influence and enforce change. The book goes a step further to assess the shift in power, triggered by the decline of the West and the rise of the rest. It is an engaging assessment of shifting global power.

History will come full circle, argue Merchant, and apply growth data to prove that three countries — the US, China and India — will exert centripetal force in world affairs in 2050. However, despite economic and military superiority the three may not be without their own weaknesses and vulnerability. Counting India in this global power triad will favor the US. With India being a major consumer of a variety of products, the US will explore the markets by enforcing favorable tariff regime to dump its products. Incidentally, India may not have any choice.

As the title suggests, Era of India narrates all that favors the rise of India. But the questions worth asking are: where does India stand in this emerging world order? how can China’s role in reshaping the world be ascertained? The homogeneity of Chinese society should be an advantage in taking decisions whereas the noisy multicultural societies in the US and India may act as deterrents. Understanding China is critical, strategically. It has not only lifted more people out of poverty faster but is also the only economic power that has moved closer to the size of the US economy.

How India leverages its soft power will determine its status amongst the triad? Merchant leaves it for the reader to take a call. Era of India offers insights on the geopolitical imagination of India’s rise as an economic power. Recent debates around trade have put the spotlight on the deep structural challenges that the power triad may need to address. In addition, it should seek to address equity, territorial resilience and ecological sustainability. Just counting numbers (pertaining to economy) alone would not add value to the power triad.

Without fail, the world will be integrated economically and technically in a way it could be scarcely imagined. Therefore, exerting military supremacy or enforcing trade restrictions may remain a strategy of the past. Will India emerge as an architect of change by leveraging its soft power? Merchant leaves the reader to imagine such a scenario and argues further that nations rise and fall to the levels guided by their history. Need it be said that the balance of global power will shift decisively over the next few years.

Era of India is an ambitious undertaking on the geopolitics of change that the world has gone through in the past. It views history, geopolitics, economics, and demographic sociology from a socio-cultural lens in presenting the civilizational evolution of nation-state. It examines human society as interlinked civilizations set living standards. It is readable as it helps capture the finer nuances of change, but to forecast a future on the basis of the past may remain elusive.

Era of India 
by Minhaz Merchant
PenguinVintage, New Delhi. 
Extent: 501, Price: Rs. 999.

First published in Hindu BusinessLine dated on March 23, 2026.

In defence of a language

As long as a language is yoked to a particular faith—as Urdu often is with Islam—it neither grows freely nor is understood in its fullness. Yet Urdu today is widely seen as a Muslim language, partly because it is the national language of Pakistan. Such identification carries political overtones, though there is little empirical evidence to suggest that Urdu and Muslims are mutually exclusive categories. Can a language belong to a religion? Or can it be claimed by geography alone? Writer Rakhshanda Jalil addresses these questions in Whose Urdu Is It Anyway? a collection of sixteen Urdu short stories written by non-Muslim authors that challenge persistent stereotypes and misconceptions.

A supple and expressive language, Urdu emerged from cultural hybridization in the Indian subcontinent in the eighteenth century. What we recognize as Urdu today carries influences from Turkish, Arabic, and Persian, languages that reached the region through waves of trade, migration, and conquest. Over time, it became the preferred medium for poets and writers, who deployed its elegance not only in literature but also in the performing arts.

In the collection, stories by progressive writers such as Krishan Chander and Rajinder Singh Bedi, alongside film writers like Ramanand Sagar and Gulzar, reflect the remarkable thematic and tonal diversity of Urdu literature. The careful selection underscores a larger cultural idea: that Urdu literature, vast and layered, still has the potential to reach the far corners of the popular imagination.

The book poses a quiet but loaded question about a hybrid language that drew from many linguistic streams and once served as the elite lingua franca of medieval India. Over the course of its evolution, it was known by several names — Hindavi, Hindi, Rekhta, and eventually Urdu.

Some stories address the notion of proprietorship over language. Jalil’s selection remains largely representative of both the time and the people they depict. Many narratives foreground the small, often overlooked individual living on the margins, struggling to survive in a society where gender discrimination was a norm. Most stories are set in the early years after Independence, when a newly formed nation was grappling with questions of identity, belonging, and nationhood. In many ways, these concerns echo the present moment, when a surge of nationalism shapes public discourse.

The stories also demonstrate that language is shaped far more by region than by religion. Muslims in Kerala speak Malayalam, while those in West Bengal are at home in Bengali. The language, therefore, cannot be confined to a single religious identity. “It belongs to whoever is willing to embrace it,” Jalil writes. She allows readers the space to absorb the essence of these stories at their own pace. Urdu, after all, evolved through the voices of ordinary people.

Whose Urdu is it anyway?
by Rakhshanda Jalil
Simon&Schuster, New Delhi. 
Extent: 180, Price. Rs. 499.

Published in New Indian Express on March 22, 2026.

Empire of extraction

By the turn of the current century, a 3-degree rise in a cocktail of temperature and humidity will make life unbearable for at least 3.25 billion people. By that time the monsoon cycle will be completely unpredictable, and glaciers will be viewed digitally. Much would get changed and doomsday models would erect dreadful scenarios. Nothing of the kind may happen, climate change skeptics argue. For such a change unlikely to occur, the world’s governments had agreed to keep global temperature under check from being heated beyond additional 1.5 degrees C.  

Far from mitigating an increase in temperature, the world has already heated up by over 1.4 degrees from pre-industrial times in only a decade since the world’s governments had agreed to keep heating to 1.5 degrees. Recent unprecedented floods across South and Southeast Asia may have been consequent to rise in global temperature. Much worst seems to be in store as the last two years were second or third hottest year on record. Escape from the emerging devastating reality, that is inching closer, is by no means compelling. 

Abrupt changes in climate have acted on the world being molded to serve human needs and desires. Yale University historian Sunil Amrith argues that the human destruction of nature began a long time before the industrial revolution, and which accelerated thereafter. Seeds of such transformation were sown as early as the year 1200. The Charter of Forests, issued by England’s King Henry III in 1217, acknowledged human freedom to exploit natural resources like the soils, forests, and water. Till the advent of industrial revolution, the benign climate and rainfall allowed both imperial and colonial forces to clear land, expand cultivation, and build cities. 

Industrial revolution fueled the energy-hungry economic systems that turned nature into lifeless commodities. The unshackling of fossil energy bolstered a way of seeing the world in which freedom defied any limits on what is possible for human beings to do and to make. The Burning Earth is an environmental history, in author’s view all history is environmental history, that includes both environmental effects on societies and those societies’ impacts on the environment. Taking an appropriately long view the environmental history, which is nothing short of history of the world, the long and continuous struggle for the want and desire has driven a large part of the human impact on the rest of nature. 

Amrith views the three distinct time zones in global history. From such events as the charter that led to wide-scale deforestation; the invasion of central asia and western eurasia by Mongols; and the importation of rice from China are significant global changes. Around the same time, the colonial powers initiated the slave trade which deprived the enslaved freedom as well as their vital links to land and food sources. Christopher Columbus and other Iberian conquistadors brought with them both war and deadly diseases that wiped out most of the Aztecs and Incas. All this led to many habitats vanished and species declined across the world.

All of these events speak of want and greed. Be it extraction of global trade in gold; the emergence of leading financial center; and centuries of fossil fuel dependence. However, the contest for resources increasingly now includes water. Gaining a handle on the planetary crisis is complicated by the fact that the wealthy nations have precious little moral high ground to occupy in making the case that the poorer nations need to stop their clamoring demand for wealth. 

The Burning Earth presents a far-reaching survey of the central role played by human want and desires in the destruction of the planet. As things stand, the human attempt to script and harness nature would grow more elaborate in centuries to come. In this expansive narrative, Amrith narrates how the humans not only transformed matter by taking control of technology but got transformed in return too. It is an epic exploration on human want and desire, leaves the reader with no real clarity on why everything continue to be like that and how things will ever change.  

Written with passion, the narrative is insightful and empowering. Getting slowly sucked into the world of technology; the compelling question remains whether there would be space and scope for freedom and democracy?  

The Burning Earth 
by Sunil Amrith
Penguin, New Delhi
Extent: 418, Price: Rs.799.

First published in Deccan Herald on March 1, 2026.

The Mughal bazaars were alive

Lot has been written about on the medieval Mughal rule in India in recent years, mostly about the iconic rulers than the ordinary masses. Hotly contested, some see the regime as a benign entity while others as one harmful to India’s long-term development. But by fixating on the king’s actions rather than those of his subjects, much seems to have been missed. Jageet Lally, an associate professor the history of early modern and colonial India, at the University College, London, prisms the business schedule of moneylenders, traders and the related in presenting the dynamic economic life through the Mughal period. To do so, Lally looks through the lives of small trader like the saint Guru Nanak, a failed businessman like Banarsidas and a complaining diplomat like Sir Thomas Roe to weave the daily rhythms of religious and commercial life in that era.    

Through the lived reality of real-life characters of the time viz moneylenders, merchants and middlemen, Badshah Bandar Bazaar examines what has long been taken for granted for the Mughal empire. It identifies the regime as a mighty giant at the apex of both the fledgling markets and expanding ports. It is part of a series of books on The Story of Indian Business that aims to trace the arc of commerce from earliest times, “mining great ideas in business and economics that have shaped commerce.” Despite ups and downs in the Mughal authority, its impact on both local societies and economies remained profound and durable.  

Need it be said that the Mughal power rested upon the state’s ability to set and collect taxes effectively, while ensuring effective spending on defense and expansion of the regime. While day-to-day petty trading went in full steam, the political elite were not disconnected as they depended on participation in rural and urban production cycles in buying and selling. As a result, unprecedented degree of centralization overtly nurtured the state as a mighty hegemon, but in reality, it had a a soft version that made its economy dynamic and robust. 

Interestingly, the day-to-day commercial life had an essential religious element to social life. Religion had a significant role in it. Guru Nanak and his Khatri background influenced trade and commerce during the early Mughal period. Though the guru applied his scribal and accounting skills in his early years before he set off to pursue his spiritual quest, the Khatris remained the core of the Sikh panth in helping expand the regime widen and deepen. The globalization of world economy started steadily after 1500, and with it the shift towards market-oriented production and marketing became relevant. With exotic goods for purchase, and ever more artful ways to make money, businesses became more potent and enticing. Some of the issues addressed in the book resonate powerfully even today. What and how trade expanded and diversified during those times need careful examination from the present perspective?

Badshah, Bandar, Bazaar fuels new life and a fresh perspective into the economic history of the Mughal Empire. fifteen volumes under the series do capture the wide socio-economic-political diversity of the time, the books are no less important for students and others who want to understand how historic currents shaped contemporary realities. The six chapters in the book provide insights on what role trade and business played then and what role it might play in emerging globalization and development of capitalism. 

Infrastructure development for trade and business held the key then, but its relevant even more today. There is much that can be inferred from the historic details. It relates the macro-level political reality with the ordinary lives of people, be it a diamond trader in Surat or a shopkeeper in Chandni Chowk. Badshah Bandar Bazaar draws an engaging connection between the throne and the world of business. The court was definitely above the daily realm of buying and selling, but it wasn’t beyond the ledgers and account books. 

Breaking a fresh perspective into the history of the Mughal Empire, the book takes us on a fabulous journey through its many twists and trails. It not only introduces the empire’s rich but exposes the reader to its fertile countryside. Such times were rich in opportunities and crises alike. All this was possible because the Mughals welcomed the firangis, who dealt with a wide range of economic actors. Their perspectives are difficult to access first-hand, because they left no testimony of their own. Had they been able to do so, they would have rid of some of the pervading myths? 

Badshah Bandar Bazaar is an absorbing study on the kinds of people and pleasures to be found within the Mughal bazaars.       

Badshah Bandar Bazaar 
by Jagjeet Lally
Penguin Business
Extent: 200, Price: Rs. 399.

First published in Hindu BusinessLine on Feb 23, 2026.

Solace from the printed word

The writer has always been an avid reader and a collector of books. But it was a health emergency that made him realize that books have transformative powers.

Books have always kept me company -- during flights, in waiting lounges and in the privacy of a clean toilet. I have never felt lonely in the company of a book. They have helped me visit new places, meet unknown people, and travel to bygone eras. Each book is unique, and each has something different to offer. Indeed, each book, each story, and each character has something to teach the reader.

Collecting books has been a lifelong habit. However, this has resulted in a serious space constraint at home. Still, bookshelves continue to expand at the cost of a shrinking wardrobe. Simply put, they are proud possessions and a new one is added to my personal library every week. I live in a typical middle-class home, one in which books are found in every room. The only rule is that books found in one room should not be shifted to another as space is in short supply everywhere.

But this is not a piece about books as home décor or even as an impediment to it. This is about how books have helped me throughout my life. When I regained my senses after being hit by a paralytic attack in 2024, the first thing I noticed was a book titled One Medicine by Dr Matt Morgan. Concluding that the most time we spend with animals is when they are on our plates, the author suggests that learning how animals survive and thrive be brought into our circle of concerns. At that point my cognitive ability was severely restricted. But I still managed to learn, via the book’s fascinating dive into the physiology of the animal kingdom, that the female kangaroo has three vaginas – two for having sex and one for giving birth.

2025 was a year of recovery for me. During its course, I met many relatives and friends though the numbers shrank as time progressed. Understandably, frequent visits were replaced by convenient phone calls and video chats, which worked as well.

Books, however, maintained their incoming regularity – a book once every week. Since I’m no fan of virtual volumes, I went ahead and kept buying, ending up with about 55 new books in more than 10 genres. They have all been comforting and a few have been transformative.   

My own experience made me think of the devastating accident in Rome in 2022 that left noted writer Hanif Kureishi paralyzed but did not dent his creative zeal. In Shattered, he records his daily ordeal with rare insights from hospital beds in different hospitals, and questions: Why me? Rarely is that question met with a credible answer. Why would it not be you? Though we would like to be acknowledged for our exceptional qualities, it is our ordinariness that comes to the surface most of the time. And this is what leaves us wondering, ‘Who else but not me?’ Though we may be important to one another, according to Kafka, we are not much more than nothing in the universe.

The self, however exceptional, is as best an illusion. Didn’t the Buddha argue that our belief in the self is the root cause of our sufferings? Drawing from ancient Buddhist texts, authors of How to Lose Yourself, Jay L Garfield, Maria Heim and Robert H Sharf, show the reader how to dismantle the notion of the self. I found that it made me forget my own troubles. Yes, physical books smell great, are reliable and informative, and, if you are lucky, are always there when you need them.

And of course, they are always full of information, stuff you never realized you absolutely needed to know before you stumbled upon it in a book. Take the case of the Italian invention once considered an indulgence befitting only the elite that has evolved into one of the most popular mass-market food products ever. In Ice Cream: A Global History, journalist Laura B Weiss embarks on a fascinating journey through the ages to tell the lively story of how this delicious dessert became a global sensation.

Then, there’s The Co-Intelligence Revolution envisions a future in which human ingenuity and artificial intelligence work as powerful allies to co-create ground-breaking innovations and transformed institutions. The book cites the cases of beauty giant L’Oreal and Venkat Ramaswamy, among others, to provide insights on how artificial intelligence engages as both co-worker and coach in generating new processes and products. 

I’ve realized that books on a variety of topics are now essential fodder for me to keep my cognitive faculties meaningfully engaged. I realize that I have been collecting and reading books and reviewing them too for a quarter of a century. Last year, I managed to review 26 books for a range of reputed publications. The neuro-surgeon’s yearly assessment revealed that my progress has been overtly satisfactory. According to the doctor, even in the medical exigency, a positive approach has worked.

Yes, books are essential; I’d say they have saved my life.  

First published in the Hindustan Times on Feb 12, 2026.

Robbed of a childhood

From her debut in 1955, the child artist Daisy Irani acted in over 300 movies. A natural talent with no formal training, she was known for her quick uptake on delivering the perfect performance before the camera. She was most successful and well-known child artist through the 1950s and 1960s – some roles were even written and rewritten specially for her. Daisy was a child star with the short, curly locks, the impish smile and big expressive eyes, for whom the arc lights had become her playground. From Naya Daur (1956) to Kati Patang (1970), she could share screen space with veteran actors Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Vjayantimala and Asha Parekh. 

Behind the Big Screen narrates untold stories of child actors from behind the big screen and delves into the lives of the kids who once lit up the big screen. It explores the joys, struggles, and unique pressures of growing up under the spotlight, The book is as much a celebration as revelation about the young lives consumed under arc lights. Tabassum, Honey, Raju, Khusbhu, Manju, Naaz, Guddu were household names, who alongside many others evoke pleasant memories. Few of these innocent faces were nothing less than a brand.

But the dazzling world of cinema ravaged several childhoods, which to some was a ’never-ending black comedy’. Some felt blessed but many others betrayed. Says late Tabassum, the noted yesteryear child artist: ‘There is no such thing as a child actor. Because when you enter the industry as a child artist, the word child drops off from artist’ life.’ This industry, the Bollywood Industry, has production schedules with limited moral and ethical compulsions, irrespective of one’s age the grilling and grueling remains the same.  

Behind the Big Screen makes compelling reading. The stories swing between opportunity and cost – between glittering fame early in life and to the lifelong scars. Journalists Sunanda Mehta and Suchitra Iyer provide a well-researched narrative on the prevailing ills of the industry and guides what may be correct way to navigate a world basically built for adults. In the makeshift would of cinema, the truth is that the child is uprooted from his ecosystem of same age friends and suddenly pushed into adulthood. Once inside this makeshift world of fiction and imagination, childhood dreams invariably collide with harsh realities.

The book explores the world of child actors and the film industry in its entirety. It doesn’t just skim the surface but examines both the sparkle of cinema and the shadows it casts. It is unfortunate that child rights are not yet formally protected whereas cinema acknowledges animal rights upfront in its credit– ‘no animals were harmed during making of the film.’ With lack of regulations for child artists, it is at the whim of producer-director for making such rules.

The rules of cinema are not strict, have yet to be framed for strict application. As things stand, it is not a rule industry rather still a free for all. Safety on the sets, school attendance, shorter work hours are easy to ensure. Exploitation of kids is an important issue that has yet to be addressed. Child artists Daisy and Honey Irani have openly talked about being exploited, with no one to counsel them as family members are complicit in the crime. When a child becomes a star, the parent-child relationship changes as the child becomes a cash-cow.

There is a refreshing honesty in the way Behind the Big Screen tackles inter-personal and socio-cultural issues. Within the complexity of the issues, the book lightens moments of humor and mischief. The playful memories of on-set pranks, camaraderie among child actors, and the sheer joy of being part of iconic films are insightful reminders. It’s this mix of insight and charm that makes the book such a page-turner.

Behind the Big Screen
by Sunanda Mehta and Suchitra Iyer
Bloomsbury, New Delhi.
Extent: 284, Price: Rs. 599.

First published in Deccan Herald on Feb 8, 2026.

Learning to deal with climate anxiety

If recent tragic incidents across mountain slopes in various parts of the country are any indication, losing sleep at night over uncertain mornings may not be unusual for those who have been dwelling on such mountain slopes, which are now considered vulnerable. Dreadful videos of people and property falling victim to such unprecedented natural catastrophes are nightmarish. People dread physical emergencies like forest fires, landslides and unpredicted floods, but climatic exigencies are no less dreadful with anxiety taking its toll. 

The cause of the imminent change may garner academic interest, be it caused by climate-change or man-made factors, but the climate anxiety induced in the pursuit may make people suffer in many horrible ways. How to think, how to feel, and how to manage stress will depend on what is referred to as ‘individual problems with climate change’ (IPCC). Even then the current crisis to more complicated, tragic, and unjust than we think. 

Dr. Thomas Doherty, a clinical psychologist and mental health therapist, offers a unique perspective about climate change and how should one relate to it, and guides the reader to keep himself equipped with the tools needed for navigation through climatic exigencies. A father and widower, Doherty uses his own life experience, tools, and client stories to help the reader navigate his/her own feelings about climate change and how to take action in a world that is consequentially suffering climate change’s effects.

Another aspect about the book is that it discusses social justice, environmental justice, eco-advocacy, marginalized groups and environmental racism. These are no less important issues, and the intersectionality between all of them is essential to discuss climate change through all levels of advocacy. Doherty also left us with an important reminder that advocacy is needed at all levels—whether front lines or behind the scenes—and our role is so important. 

It is a five-part process, starting with small coping skills, to skills drawn from therapy, to reclaiming happiness, and to taking action. In this book, Doherty promises to help reframe climate anxiety to work for us, rather than against us. It is written with the rare combination of scientific clarity and deep psychological compassion. Rather than pathologizing climate distress, he normalizes it as a sign of moral attunement—a natural response to an unnatural situation. Simple, calm down may not work when anxiety is embedded deep.

Doherty doesn’t think if ‘calm down’ or ‘think positive’ will work in such anxieties. Instead, he thinks to metabolize fear, guilt, grief, and outrage into something usable - into care, connection, and action. In fact, the climate disaster cycle is upon all of us right now; either amid a disaster, recovering from one or anticipating the next. In the words of William Gibson, the harsh reality is that climate-change-fueled disasters are a fact of life now. 

The climatic anxiety in no less prevalent with tragic human stories from different regions piling up. Sita and her family faced storms and wildfires; Jesse and her family were witness to their destroyed homes; there are any number who withstood coastal flooding. Once isolated, such stories are now common for generating sympathetic analysis. Doherty argues that retelling such stories is a way to unburden ourselves from the weights of the environmental transgression people seem to be burden with. 

This book may seem to have been written ahead of its time. But climate change anxiety is one of the biggest mental health threats afflicting growing population, irrespective of its economic and social status. From the geologist haunted by images of melting glaciers to the young couple agonizing over their own survival, Surviving Climate Anxiety provides the tools to cope, heal, and flourish even in such challenging times. This book is different as it is about coping and possibly thriving in the face of climatic change from a psychological perspective.

Ultimately hopeful and profoundly empathetic, Surviving Climate Anxiety is a comprehensive and comforting manual, and Doherty, a competent and benevolent guide. There are moments when the book acts like a gentle reminder to remain both awake and vigilant. If you care deeply about the world and are finding it harder to hold that caring without breaking, this book belongs on your nightstand. .

Surviving Climate Anxiety  
by Dr Thomas Doherty
Hachette, New Delhi. 
Extent: 407, Price: Rs. 799.

First published in the HinduBusiness Line on Jan 3, 2026. 

Is it close to the eleventh hour?

Salman Rushdie needs a new introduction, more so after the fatal knife attack three years ago that had left him blind in one eye. But the writer in him has evolved as an extraordinary imaginative exponent with words since then. The knife incident has given the iconic writer a new identity to stay relevant without repeating himself. It was only a matter of a genius writer like Rushdie that he made positive use of this unfortunate murderous attack on him to explore psychological and philosophical insights on existence.

In contemporary usage, The Eleventh Hour means the moment when it is almost too late. One is therefore advised not to miss any moment to even repent, not later than ten-thirty perhaps. The quintet of stories by Rushdie may seem written in that context, but the outcome is difficult to describe. Isn’t age just a number? Else, ‘why an old man rise helplessly from his chair with his beer in one hand and his sandwich in the other’ in the story The Old Man in the Piazza. It is clear that the old man was witnessed to change, both temporal and generational, but as single person audience only. It is at that age one gets to draw judgement(s) based on insights and experience.

The shadow of death stalks every living being. It is almost involuntary but its realization fuels distinct energy that it reaches a state of wisdom that is close to immortality. The result is open to interpretation. No surprise ‘everyone (else) was experiencing his or her version of the same phenomenon…. before settling back into his/her chair…’ Perhaps, the quintet of stories is Rushdie’s flirtation with ideas that may have eluded his imagination in the past. No wonder, it is a realization now that death and life were always on adjacent verandahs. 

In different ways, the stories are meditations in themselves. The characters are trapped in fateful coincidences, unable to escape the consequences of chance. In the South, Senior and Junior are two characters who are gentlemen neighbors but bicker endlessly. Both would continue to drag the other down to him. As a result, both were too unsteady to trust each other as if trust was a casualty of age. As luck would have it, Junior was sucked in by the dreadful tsunami waves while Senior, who had perhaps asked for death, was left untouched. It made him wonder if life had any meaning other than in the verandah one was occupying. 

In this elegant collection of stories, Rushdie revisits the places that shaped his life and made him what he eventually became. Much has changed in the old places, as these stopped being the old places that these were once known to be. Isn’t it wrong to temper with history? The old name has its inherent relationships to beauty, whereas the new name has more materialistic orientation. Without getting into the nomenclature imbroglio, the author terms his memories as kahani because it gives him a context to write about. The erstwhile city of a certain period comes of age in The Musician of Kahani, rebuilding relationship with an erstwhile city called Bombay. 

The Eleventh Hour is an imaginative parable of the time lived through. Each of the five stories are about how life gets accommodated against death. In Late, the protagonist discovers the remnants of an imperial past by developing friendship with a ghost and pulls out revenge from his tormentor. Oklahoma could easily have been destined as full novel, but Rushdie restricted it as novella and brought in Kafka to build an imaginative/thoughtful narrative. Some or perhaps all stories may seem incomplete, but the writer expects the reader to provide a reasonable closure. Each story has a distinct and engaging plot, leaving the reader to end it differently.   

Rushdie’s spellbound narrative(s) leaves much to the reader’s imagination. Shouldn’t the present ethical decay around the world be a matter of serious concern? Why replacement of ‘knowledge’ with ‘ignorance’ is no longer shameful? In fact, are there not days in which ‘shamelessness’ is king? The stories raise many compelling concerns which neither is anybody listening nor anyone willing to care. The stories, despite their wandering, are a slow-burn of a kind that makes the reader long for respite from emerging realities.

It isn’t clear what we must do now to cut through the crap. Where we are heading and what will become of us? Rushdie, a master of metamorphosis, has conjured up generational concerns for the Gen G to be concerned about. Else, we will remain close to The Eleventh Hour.

The Eleventh Hour 
by Salman Rushdie
Penguin, New Delhi
Extent: 254, Price: Rs. 899.

First published in Outlook on Dec 28, 2025.