The Union Budget 2026–27 has been presented at a moment when the global economic and political environment remains deeply unsettled. Wars continue to disrupt trade routes, financial markets remain sensitive to interest rate movements in advanced economies, and supply chains are increasingly shaped by geopolitics rather than efficiency alone. For an economy like India—integrated withContinue reading “A Budget of Consolidation in an Uncertain World”
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The “Mother of All Deals”: India, Europe, and the Re-Making of Global Trade
When India and the European Union concluded what leaders on both sides have described as the “Mother of All Deals” in January 2026, the moment marked the end of one of the longest and most tortuous trade negotiations of the modern era—and the beginning of a new geoeconomic alignment in a fractured world. Negotiations forContinue reading “The “Mother of All Deals”: India, Europe, and the Re-Making of Global Trade”
A Star on The plate-Part IV
Beyond the Star — India, a Culinary Continent, and the Limits of Measuring Taste If the Michelin star began as an act of classification, and matured into a global language of culinary excellence, its encounter with India feels less like an arrival and more like a reckoning. India is often described as a country, sometimesContinue reading “A Star on The plate-Part IV”
A Star on The Plate-Part III
The Star Arrives in India: Presence, Practice, and the Limits of Adoption If the Michelin star’s journey across continents demonstrated its ability to travel, adapt, and recalibrate, its encounter with India introduces a different order of complexity. Here, the question is not simply whether excellence exists—few would doubt that—but whether a system designed to recogniseContinue reading “A Star on The Plate-Part III”
A Star on the Plate-Part II
The Star Travels — Globalisation, Translation, and Cultural Friction When the Michelin star left France, it did not merely cross borders; it crossed cultural grammars. Within France and much of Western Europe, Michelin’s judgments unfolded inside a shared culinary imagination. The idea of a restaurant as a distinct public institution, the figure of the chef asContinue reading “A Star on the Plate-Part II”
A Star on the Plate-Part I
From Tyres to Tables A Question That Refused to Be Small It began, as many serious inquiries do, with a child’s excitement. My nine-year-old grandson had gone out to dinner with his parents in Manhattan. The meal, by all accounts, was memorable. But what animated him afterwards was not merely the food. It was theContinue reading “A Star on the Plate-Part I”
Between Flights, Between Glasses
Airports are curious theatres of waiting. They are not quite places yet not entirely passages either—thresholds where the world pauses briefly before moving on. When I was in Helsinki, stopping over for a few hours on my way from New York to Delhi, that sense of suspension was heightened by the snow. It fell incessantly,Continue reading “Between Flights, Between Glasses”
अलविदा—शॉर्टहिल्स
शॉर्ट हिल्स का मेरा प्रवास अब समापन की ओर है। लगभग छह महीने का यह समय अनेक दृष्टियों से आरामदायक, आनंददायक और स्फूर्ति देने वाला रहा। मेरी दिनचर्या जैसे कोमल, संवेदनशील अनुभूतियों की एक सतत शृंखला बन गई थी। पौत्रों के सान्निध्य का सुख तो निस्संदेह अतुलनीय रहा, पर प्रकृति ने भी खुले मन सेContinue reading “अलविदा—शॉर्टहिल्स”
By The Window, After Snow
The universe outside my window has been gentled into whiteness. Snow lies everywhere—on roofs, on branches, on the grass now indistinguishable from sky’s reflection—softening edges, quietening intention. In such weather, it seems almost instinctive to remain indoors, to honour warmth as one honours safety. Why would anyone willingly step out into this hushed severity unlessContinue reading “By The Window, After Snow”
Four Heads, One Tradition – The Generational Haircut
Is going to a hair salon still relevant—for men, for boys, for anyone at all? In an age of trimmers, mirrors, online tutorials, and the quiet confidence of self-maintenance, is the periodic haircut still a marker of civilised life? Or is it merely one of those habits we carry forward unquestioned, like shaking hands orContinue reading “Four Heads, One Tradition – The Generational Haircut”
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