Sunday Posts

It was fascinating to watch the very public breakdown of US-Ukraine relationship yesterday. It was realpolitik in real time. There are many explanations on offer, but I shall reject both the extremes. Trump was not standing up for the American people, and neither is he a 'Russian asset'. In this season of conspiracy theories, I have one to offer: That he pushed for a minerals deal, putting American business interests ahead of anything, and his administration realised that either such a deal is not on offer (without security guarantees) or not practical, and perhaps both. In that sense, US-Ukraine relationship did not break down in that extraordinary press meet at the White House, it had broken down much earlier when this quid pro quo was established. There is obvious moral outrage in Europe about Putin winning. But there is a practical side of it too: For too long, Europeans, and particularly Western Europeans, have enjoyed a lifestyle whose burdens were borne by other people. ...

Are we witnessing the end of an imperial era? Usually, these periods are fraught with violence and uncertainty. Empires are power structures, which crumbles from inside, and everything that stood on its edifice, values, ideas and systems, go down with them. Empires are stable - that's their raison d'etre! Even those who are disadvantaged by the empire support its existence because people would rather tolerate tyranny than anarchy. The end of any empire is therefore accompanied by instability. I know it is odd for me to think this is the end of an empire. The second Trump Presidency is as imperial as it gets. The United States, the world's overlord, is throwing its power around, threatening other countries with tariff and even invasion. It has approached major world issues unilaterally, pulling out of multilateral institutions or conventions, sitting down with Russia without other parties around and proposed to turn Gaza, in defiance of the all norms and wishes of everyone...

Grow up. Don't fall for an American trope.  For my generation - I would be Gen X by label - United States of America, its style, its messages and what it passed on as its values, provided the model. Older now, I see the deception. It is not subjective view of a post-colonial - the Americans themselves have elected Donald Trump and let us know that they don't believe in what they preached.  I am not just a Gen Xer, but one that grew up in a post-colonial nation. So, United States was not our first disappointment. We already knew the trajectory with Soviet Union. Claims of universal values that come to nothing. I know this bitter disappointment and learnt its lesson - universal values don't work! Don't import the ideas about how life should be from a dominant culture, look deeper and look wider, look inside and challenge everything! Therefore, do not fall for the infantalised version of yourself. Be attentive - there is no glory in being scatter-brained and attention is, ...

Dear me Is this the slow march to the end of the world?  Joe Biden, the forgettable 46th, was right when he said that whatever happens in the next 2 to 3 years may shape the next 50 to 60 years. He may have meant different things, including the coming of Agentic AI, the convergence of biotech with it, ascendancy of Trump, the reconfiguration of geopolitics or a final destruction of the global monetary system of the post-war variety! Perhaps all of it, all at once!  History is usually invisible, buried deep in everyday life. Until such moments when we completely forget about it and our 'death instincts' get better of us, we don't get it to see it. But we see it then, in its terrible flourish! The only metaphor that I can think of is of a flash flood, which turns a gentle and friendly stream into a sudden death trap, carrying all before it, but then the force vanishes and the tranquility returns as if nothing ever happened. Those who know of such terrible possibilities live i...

Dear M Bitter cold - Arctic freeze has arrived in Britain! While Toronto is warmer, I am told. I would love to think that this is caused by climate change, but this is perhaps no such thing, just an English winter as it should be. This cold is, therefore, raising my hopes for a white Christmas. The last Christmas snowfall I remember was in 2010. That was a special Christmas season for me, which started with me getting pickpocketed in Covent Garden and ended with my brother passing away on the 3rd January! This also included a very special Christmas evening to remember forever. Yet it is the snow that came to my mind, first! This cold and the customary darkness are making me feel lazy too. I didn't do much today and fell asleep in the evening, which is unusual. It has been one of those years that tested me, and I can't wait for it to get over. And yet this psychology of imaginary ends and beginnings - what would really get over -  fascinates me. Why wait for the end of the year?...

Dear M Do you believe in dragons?  I know many people who doesn't. Because they are grown-ups, and it is not fashionable for grown-ups to think about dragons. But I would like to believe that they are real. At least as real as the things we believe in. For that matter, we call investors dragons in some countries - in Britain, start-ups go to the Dragons' Den - while the other countries have Sharks (India) or Tigers (Bangladesh) for that. The investors changing the world for better as real a story as my having a dragon which can fly me from one country to another, coming to my rescue when bad guys really corner me. You would say that is literally not possible. I would say - cliché but true - that literal is a metaphor. Language creates the world we live in, in our minds: That indeed the only world which matters to us, the only one we can ever know. In reality, there could be other worlds - one where dragons fly around, for example - but we live in our own literal bubbles, where ...