India’s fertility rate has gone below replacement. Two people aren’t producing two people to replace them.
Most metro couples are opting for just one kid. Not coz of a lifestyle choice, but sheer affordability.
Such is the school fees that having two kids is like having two home loans. The EMI for which will keep increasing. The love of the sibling is being replaced by a dog or the Internet. We are going to be old as a nation, before we get rich. Tough.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has become the youngest player ever selected for the Indian cricket team, breaking Tendulkar's 37 year old record.
A new dawn breaks.
One day, Vaibhav will score a 300 in ODIs and a 200 in T20s. Sounds absurd today. Then again, so did the idea of a double century in ODIs until Sachin Tendulkar shattered that ceiling. Then came Rohit Sharma and turned the impossible into routine, doing it three times.
Every generation arrives with a player who redraws the boundaries of what is considered possible. Vaibhav looks like he could be that player. Behold the rise of a new star, one of the brightest world cricket has ever seen.
2010, New Delhi, I was driving home late one night around 1 AM after a family gathering.
I stopped at a red traffic light in Green Park. There were no other vehicles around, just our car.
Suddenly, a BMW pulled up behind us and started honking aggressively, demanding that we drive through the red light.
I pointed to the signal and stayed put.
The driver got out, dressed in a suit, hurled abuses at me, and ordered me to move. When I refused, and picked up my phone, he banged on my window. Eventually he backed off, got back in his car, and sped away by cutting across in front of me. I drove off when the signal turned green.
This is the reality of India, even today: owning a big car, a big house, or having formal education is no guarantee of basic civility, class, or moral character.
This was just one of many road rage incidents in New Delhi/NCR, I experienced before I finally decided to pack my bags and leave the country.
A truly civilized society is one where people follow the law even when no one is watching, and do what is right without needing supervision.
When I moved to Singapore, this is exactly what I saw, people naturally did the right thing. The same held true when I later moved to Europe.
Regarding the recent dancing incident at the airport, many people defended it by saying, “The authorities didn’t have a problem, so why do you?” That’s exactly where they miss the point.
You never know who is sitting on the same flight, someone mourning the loss of a loved one, a person who just received a cancer diagnosis, a parent who lost a child, or someone who just lost their job. When you show such insensitivity in shared public spaces and don’t care about other people’s emotional state, that’s where a society fails.
People often abuse me for raising these issues and quickly brush them aside by saying, “Every country has problems.”
That’s true, every country does have its issues.
But the scale is vastly different. Other countries have 99% civility and 1% assholes. In India, it feels like 99% assholes and 1% civility.
Yes, I agree that no country is perfect, but the proportions make all the difference.
To those who defend such behavior and treat every public place like their personal living room: fuck off.
A Swiss hotel once displayed a list of special rules exclusively for Indian guests which I personally saw and was appalled.
Today, videos of garba in restaurants, loud conversations in airports, and turning aircraft cabins into picnic spots keep doing the rounds. Even in Davos, an Indian businessman blasted Punjabi music in a club so the whole town could hear it, calling it “soft power” but to everyone’s annoyance.
Japan earned global admiration through their courtesy and civic sense. If India wants to be a true global superpower, the world should remember Indians for its excellence, consideration and respect for others.
Our civic sense seriously needs to be upgraded.
When you start making good money, save it. Especially in the beginning. Save as much as you can. You'll desire things. New car, new watch, designer clothes to show the world you made it. And dumb philosophies will try to justify it. YOLO, life is short. Don't pay attention. Don't change anything. Save for a few years. And one day you'll notice, the urgency is gone. The anxiety... gone. You go to a restaurant, and you stop looking at the right side of the menu. You plan a holiday and you don't wait 3 weeks for cheap flights. Someone made you an offer that doesn't feel right, and you say no without thinking twice. That's what happens when you overcome instant gratification. It will give you peace to move at your own pace. A little patience, that's all you need. And it will give you something that no material object can ever match: a calm nervous system.