CABO VERDE

About: The 23rd FIFA World Cup 2026, is being jointly hosted by three countries-a first in the history of the game-The United States, Canada, and Mexico. To measure the vastness of the game, this time the quadrennial men’s football event expanded into a 48 team format, with matches hosted in 16 cities, across the three countries. The first ball of the Tournament was kicked on 11 June 2026, in Mexico City and the kicking and heading will go-on until the final on 19 July 2026 in New Jersey, US. It is here that I discovered a tiny country called Cabo Verde -which I never heard about until now-skilfully playing the game and winning my heart: this is the story of the country, and how it got here (Image credit: Canva AI)

GEOGRAPHY & HISTORY

In geography, a ‘Cape’ is a stretch of land that juts-out into the sea from the mainland. It marks a sudden, sharp change in the direction of a coastline, hence it is a critical landmark for navigation. Capes are typically smaller and more pointed than ‘their cousins’, the Peninsulas: a Cape can appear on a Peninsula, but the reverse is not typical. Perhaps, the most popular Cape we know is the Cape of Good Hope-the southern-most tip of South Africa- and Cape Town, the city build around it.

The Cape of Good Hope was originally named the ‘Cape of Storms’ by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 due to its treacherous waters. Thankfully, it was renamed ‘Cape of Good Hope’ by King John II of Portugal to give hope to a newly discovered sea route to India and the East. Bend it like the Portuguese?

With all good hope, when you navigate along the Western Coast of Africa you would bump into many more Capes and when you reach Senegal, you hit Cape Verde (French: Cap Vert, meaning Green Cape) the Western most Cape of mainland Africa. Pointe des Almadies, located on the Cap-Vert peninsula in Dakar, Senegal is the exact westernmost tip of Africa.

About 570 kilometres from this point- farther west- is Cabo Verde (or Cape Verde) a 10-Island volcanic archipelago with an area of about 4,035 square kilometres, and these days holding a population of around 530,000. It is named after-you guessed it-Cape Verde. It forms part of the Macaronesia ecoregion along with the Azores and Maderia (belonging to Portugal), and the Canary Islands (belonging to Spain), in the North Atlantic Ocean.

The islands of Cabo Verde are divided into, Barlavento group of islands to the north, consisting of Santo Antao, Sao Vicente, Santa Luzia, Sao Nicolau, Sal, and Boa Vista; and Sotavento Islands to the south, consisting of Maio, Santiago, Fogo, and Brava and the three islets called the Rombos-Grande, Luis Carneiro, and Cima. Nine of the ten islands are inhabited; only Santa Luzia-the smallest-has no permanent population.

Geologically, the islands are volcanic and relatively young-formed over millions of years on the Cape Verde Rise-a swell in the central Atlantic Ocean that elevates the seafloor. The terrain varies significantly across the islands, with the older eastern islands tending to be flatter, sandier, wind-eroded, and arid-ideal for beaches and tourism. The western islands are mountainous, rugged and rocky, with greater elevation leading to more vegetation in the higher areas due to what is called ‘orographic rainfall’. The islands thereby offer a striking contrast: from desert-like beaches to volcanic ‘moonscapes’ and fertile green highlands, all within a compact archipelago. The islands have a year-round tropical weather.

The Cabo Verde islands were mostly uninhabited until they were first colonised by Portugal in the mid 15th century. After centuries of Portuguese rule, Cabo Verde won its independence in 1975 and Praia, on the island of Santiago, became the country’s capital.

Cabo Verde was discovered in 1460 by Italian and Portuguese navigators. Santiago being the most favourable for settlement, colonisation began on this island in 1462. The largest Port is located at Mindelo on Sao Vincente, which is a deepwater harbour and had been used as a fuelling station since the 19th century.

Around the time of the discovery of Cabo Verde, lived Prince Henry, the third son of King John I of Portugal. Prince Henry was driven by a mixture of motives: crusading against Muslims, seeking trade-gold, slaves, spices-and finding the legendary Christian King, Prester John-who is considered a descendant of the ‘Three Magi’(Three Kings or Wise Men from the east who visited the infant Jesus) and ruled a Kingdom full of riches, marvels, and strange creatures. Though Prince Henry rarely sailed himself, his patronage transformed Portugal into a leading maritime power. He died in 1460, and rightfully earned the nickname ‘Prince Henry The Navigator’. The explorations he started continued and helped launch Europe’s global expansion.

Genoa, in Italy, is renowned for its long and influential maritime past. During the Middle Ages, it was one of the most powerful Maritime Republics, alongside Venice, Pisa, and Amalfi-all Italian Towns. Genoese sailors, merchants, and explorers dominated trade routes across the Mediterranean and beyond. Genoese navigators played a supporting, significant role in the maritime expansion sponsored by Prince Henry even though the expeditions were primarily Portuguese-led. Genoa had skilled sailors, shipbuilders, and merchants who often worked for other powers due to political rivalries at home and the then growing opportunities created by Portugal.

One such Genoese nobleman and navigator was Antonio de Noli who was exiled from Genoa due to political conflicts. About 1447, he sailed to Portugal with his family and entered into the service of Prince Henry, for exploring the African coastline. Then in the year 1456 Venetian Explorer Alvise Cadamosto, also working for Prince Henry, along with Genoese captain Antoniotto Usodimare, sighted some islands while sailing towards Africa’s Gambia River. This was probably the first inspiration to find Cabo Verde, lying westward.

Around 1460, Antonio de Noli accompanied by Portuguese captain Diogo Gomes were the first to discover the Cabo Verde archipelago. They explored the main islands, and founded a settlement at Ribeira Grande on Santiago—the earliest European overseas colony in Sub-Saharan Africa. Antonio de Noli was later appointed Governor, and continued as such, for decades.

In the period between the 16th and 18th centuries, Cabo Verde became a key hub for the transatlantic slave trade, due to its strategic location. Enslaved Africans were brought from the mainland, processed, and shipped to the Americas; the islands also served as a provisioning stop. The economy relied primarily on trade, with some agriculture thrown-in, though hampered by the arid climate. Attacks by pirates and rival powers occurred periodically (the famous explorer, navigator and privateer, Sir Francis Drake attacked Cabo Verde in November 1585 during his expedition to the West Indies). The first settlement of Ribeira Grande gradually declined, and Praia, on the island of Santiago, grew to become the largest city and present day modern capital of Cabo Verde.

In the 19th century following the end of the slave trade (fully abolished in the 1870s) Cabo Verde’s economy went into decline and it became a poor subsistence economy.

Meanwhile, the islands having no indigenous people or ancient Kingdoms(with tons of gold), a ‘Creole’ (a blend of community) society, language, and culture emerged from the mixing of Portuguese settlers and Africans. Free Europeans and enslaved people from the African coast merged into a single people, Cape Verdeans, with a unique way of being and living, and Creole emerged as the language of the predominantly mixed-race community. Emigration out of the Islands began due to repeated droughts and famines experienced while the economy was trying to grow.

In 1879, the joint administration of Cabo Verde with the Portuguese Guinea-Bissau ended, making Cabo Verde a separate colony. It stayed a subsistence economy while serving as a coaling and resupply station: coal-which arrived from other countries-was stored in the port of Mindelo on Sao Vicente island, for resale to passing ships.

In the 20th century, up to 1956, Portugal maintained control amid growing African nationalism. In 1951, Cabo Verde’s status changed to an ‘overseas province’, and full Portuguese citizenship was granted in 1961, but this was superficial and could not contain the desire for independence.

In 1956, Amilcar Lopes Cabral, a Bissau-Guinean and Cape Verdean revolutionary leader, agronomist, political theorist, and poet, founded the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde (PAIGC), in Bissau. This marked the start of organized resistance that would lead to full independence in 1975. Amilcar Cabral is one of the outstanding anti-colonial persons of the 20th century and the PAIGC that he founded and led, waged a successful armed struggle against Portuguese colonialism. He is revered as a national hero in both Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde.

On 20 January 1973, Cabral was assassinated in Conakry, Guinea-where PAIGC had its headquarters-by disgruntled PAIGC members. He was shot at a roadblock while returning from a reception with his wife. He was 48 years old – and left behind an ex-wife, a wife, and two daughters.

On 19 December 1974 an agreement was signed between PAIGC and Portugal establishing a Transitional Government. This Government would go on to prepare and hold elections for a National People’s Assembly, which on 5 July 1975 proclaimed independence.

Cabral’s ideas and example outlived him. On Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde gaining independence he is honoured as a founding father in both nations. In Cabo Verde, Amilcar Cabral International Airport, on Sal island, is named after him. There are monuments, streets, the Amilcar Cabral Foundation in Praia, and ongoing cultural tributes. Heroes’ Day (20 January ) commemorates his assassination alongside other freedom fighters.

One of Cabral’s memorable quotes, goes like this:

“Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories”. Cabral remains a symbol of principled anti-colonial struggle, intellectual rigour, and the fight for dignity and self-determination for African peoples—particularly resonant in Cabo Verde due to his personal and familial ties to the islands. His life bridged two nations and helped forge their paths to freedom.

After Cabo Verde gained independence from Portugal, it transitioned to a multi-party democracy in the early 1990s and has since been one of Africa’s most stable and developed nations. While Portuguese remains the sole official language, Cape Verdean Creole (Crioulo) functions as the national/vernacular language spoken by most people and used in everyday life.

The National Assembly -72 members, elected every 5 years by proportional representation- holds legislative power. The judiciary is independent. The country has a strong record of democratic stability, peaceful power transfers, free elections, and high rankings in governance and freedom indices in Africa. Major parties include the PAIGC and MpD (Movement for Democracy). It maintains a policy of non-alignment while fostering ties with Portugal, the European Union, African Union, and others.

A large diaspora -exceeding the resident population- lives mainly in the United States, Portugal, and elsewhere; remittances are economically important.

Cabo Verde has a unique Creole blend of African and Portuguese influences and is famous for ‘morna music’- the national music and dance of Cabo Verde. Morna music is deeply melancholic and poetic, characterized by themes of separation, migration, and a profound longing for home. Cesaria Evora, often referred to as the ‘Barefoot Diva’ is the most celebrated morna singer, globally. She took the soulful island music to international prominence and is a global ambassador.

The dominant religion of Cabo Verde is Catholic, with about 85% of the population identifying with the faith. Religion is generally moderate and tolerant; the Catholic Church plays a visible role in culture, festivals, and social life, with many traditional Catholic saints’ days and processions being celebrated.

Today, Cabo Verde’s economy is predominantly service-oriented, with services accounting for roughly 70-75% of GDP. Tourism is the standout sector and main economic driver along with agriculture, fishing, light industry, and remittances. It has limited natural resources and imports much of its food. It has graduated from least-developed country status and focuses on renewables and tourism. Challenges include drought, climate vulnerability, and limited arable land, but it boasts high stability and development metrics for the region.

Cabo Verde relies on a mix of thermal (fossil fuel-based) and renewable energy sources for its electricity, with a total installed capacity of around 160 to 220 MW. The country is a net energy importer with no domestic fossil fuel resources, so all petroleum products for electricity generation and transport are imported. Electricity access is high, though costs remain relatively elevated due to import dependence. Cabo Verde has no petroleum refineries. It only has storage and distribution facilities for imported fuels-diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, etc. All refined petroleum products come from abroad, primarily through companies such as Enacol.

Cabo Verde’s first President was Aristides Pereira- a founding member and Secretary-General of PAIGC. He was a close associate of Amilcar Cabral and played a key leadership role in the independence struggle. He led the country when it was a one-party state initially, before multiparty democracy was introduced. The first Prime Minister was Pedro Pires – a military commander and an important figure in the PAIGC. Pires worked closely with Pereira and Cabral. He later became President of Cabo Verde and is widely respected for his role in the independence movement and the country’s democratic transition.

In 2013, the country’s delegation informed the United Nations that only Cabo Verde (Portuguese pronunciation: ‘kabu verdi’ )and not other translations should be used for official purposes.

With this illuminated background lets go on to play football, with Cabo Verde.

FOOTBALL: THE 11th ISLAND PROJECT

Football has been played in the Cabo Verde islands since the early 20th century, introduced during Portuguese colonial times. The oldest and most successful football club is Clube Sportivo Mindelense (CS Mindelense), founded in 1919 and based in Mindelo on the island of Sao Vicente. A formal national football team emerged post-independence in 1975, nicknamed the ‘Blue Sharks’.

The team played its first international match in April 1978, losing 0–1 to Guinea in a tournament in Guinea-Bissau. The Cabo Verdean Football Federation (FCF) was established in 1982. It affiliated with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and joined the International Association Football Federation (FIFA) in 1986, enabling official international participation.

In the early years, the Blue Sharks remained low-profile (in the deep waters), with limited matches and poor FIFA rankings-as low as 182nd in the year 2000. They entered Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers in 1992 and World Cup qualifiers in 2003, but progress was gradual. Success grew later through diaspora players and smart thinking, leading to their first real breakthrough at AFCON in 2013 and eventual World Cup qualification.

The Blue Sharks made one of the most remarkable underdog stories in recent football history by qualifying for the FIFA World Cup 2026, which is currently underway. This is their first-ever appearance-and advancing to the knockout stages as the smallest nation ever to do so.

Cabo Verde’s strong diaspora and its brilliant recruitment strategy is the cornerstone of the national football team’s remarkable rise, often called the ‘11th Island’ Project. With a population of only about 530,000 people, the country has a larger diaspora, which is estimated at 1 to 2 million people, living abroad, primarily in Portugal, the Netherlands (especially Rotterdam), the United States (mainly Massachusetts and Rhode Island), France, Brazil, and elsewhere. Many players with Cabo Verdean heritage play in Portugal, Brazil, Major League Soccer (MLS), and other leagues.This global community-shaped by historical emigration due to droughts, seafaring traditions, and colonial ties-has become a vital talent pool for the Blue Sharks – literally, hunting down blood.

The Cabo Verdean Football Federation formalized talent identification and recruitment strategies around the early 2000s, accelerating it after their first AFCON qualification in 2013. They built a competitive squad by scouting talent globally, including through unconventional methods such as LinkedIn.

Global Scouting Networks of the FCF, coaches, agents, and community figures actively track players of Cabo Verdean heritage (by birth, parentage, or ancestry) in foreign leagues. This includes second- and third-generation emigrants playing in Europe and beyond. FIFA funding supported the endeavour.

Under coaches like Bubista, who is in charge since 2020, emphasis was on resilience, organization, and leveraging dual-national players: many are dual nationals or eligible through ancestry. Recruiters emphasized national pride, cultural connection, and the opportunity to represent their roots.

A standout example is defender Roberto Lopes(Pico) (Dublin-born, who played in Ireland’s league and worked in a bank). He was contacted via LinkedIn around 2019; he initially thought it was spam, but joined and became a principal player.

Bubista focused on blending diaspora and homegrown talent into a cohesive unit, fostering brotherhood and shared identity. Many squad members play in European leagues bringing higher-level talent and experience to team Cabo Verde. In the squad for the 2026 World Cup, about 14 of 26 players were born abroad. In one major group-stage lineup, 6 of 11 starters were diaspora players (e.g., several from the Netherlands, plus others from Ireland, France, and Portugal).

Goalkeeper Vozinha (Josimar Jose Evora Dias) is a notable contributor. Players like Ryan Mendes, and others with roots in diaspora hubs made assists – towards the goal of selection.

This approach turned a tiny nation into a competitive side capable of drawing with Spain and Uruguay, reaching the knockouts, and nearly upsetting Argentina. Emigration waves created strong ties and early challenges helped in attracting top talent, but persistence paid off around 2013 onward. The strategy leveraged diaspora communities for not just players but also fan support.

While strong team spirit and tactical discipline Cabo Verde emerged as an impressive football team; recent AFCON performances added momentum. The expanded 2026 format of FIFA was a catalyst, but their group-topping qualification showed genuine merit.

Path to Football World Cup 2026 Qualification:

In the 2026 CAF qualifiers (Group D: Cape Verde, Cameroon, Angola, Libya, Eswatini, Mauritius), Cape Verde topped the group with 23 points from 10 matches (7 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss). Key results included: a decisive 3–0 win over Eswatini in October 2025, in Praia that sealed qualification. Beating Cameroon (a football powerhouse) 1–0. They finished ahead of fancied Cameroon.

Performance at the World Cup 2026:

Cabo Verde was drawn into Group-H with Spain, Uruguay, and Saudi Arabia, and defied expectations in their debut tournament: 0–0 draw vs. Spain – a stunning result against favourites. 2–2 draw vs. Uruguay. 0–0 draw vs. Saudi Arabia. They finished second in the Group with 3 points (all draws) and advanced to the Round of 32 — becoming the smallest nation ever to reach the World Cup knockouts.

In the Round of 32, they faced defending champions Argentina. It was an edge-of-the-seat thriller of a match and one of the finest in this World Cup. Argentina opened the score, but Cabo Verde promptly equalised. Argentina scored again and Carbo equalised, yet again. The match was stretched to extra time and Carbo Verde faced a 2-3 defeat with Argentina scoring to decide the winner. Throughout the match it was a heroic performance by veteran goalkeeper Vozinha, aged 40, who made standout saves. One of the greatest players of all time, Lionel Messi, scored a record goal, but Cabo Verde earned global admiration as neutrals’ favourites.

Cape Verde’s story symbolises pride of a tiny island nation, inspiring fans worldwide and large diaspora communities in the US and Europe. Players like Vozinha have become legends, and the run has put ‘where Cabo Verde is’ on the map for millions. It’s a classic World Cup fairy tale of planning, resilience and joy, from an underdog.

Cabo Verde’s strategy could well serve as a template for other small nations: smart, resourceful recruitment, combined with investment in identity and infrastructure can punch above population weight. The 11th Island has given Cabo Verde global visibility far beyond football-and of many things, pulled me into writing this article.

Cabo Verde, Curacao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan made their World Cup debut in this 2026 event and it’s pulsating to see the world – small and big – join together to celebrate the human endeavour in Sport. Nothing bridges people ‘of all makes’ better than Sports. Three Cheers Cabo Verde!

Good Bye, for now. Te logu / Ti manham.

UNDERSTANDING FOOD

About: This is to bite into a better understanding of the food we eat. Of what goes down the hatch, through our digestive tract, and exits peacefully-and sometimes with the sounds of thunder, and gas to light up the world. And perhaps eat with wisdom to live another day. We have learnt about all of them, in bits and pieces, at school, and this is a grown-up, graduate view of the fundamentals, without much of scientific jargon. This is also to bust certain myths-especially about Proteins and Cholesterol. You can unfasten your belt and eat into the meat of the matter. We are doing this together.

The human body needs to be fed with nutritive food for it to be kept well-oiled, to function efficiently, and keep us alive; with the least amount of destabilising forces-diseases. We have come a long way from the hunter-gatherer mode of living, when we obtained our daily bread as foragers-running all over the place- to the present day method of producing food by quiet farming and clever cultivation. Now, the food we require arrives on our table from every corner of the world, labelled and packed with names of the nutrients, the energy they provide, and much more-if we dare to thoroughly read the Lables stuck on them.

When man first learnt to make and use Fire, things changed like never before: cooking was born, which gave us all kinds of benefits such as, killing toxins in the food, improving taste, making tough substances easy to digest…and the kind. Cooking freed up a lot of time for us humans, while other animals in the Kingdom spend as many as seven hours a day just chewing food-wish they could learn to cook?

We do not need to eat constantly to survive. Unfortunately, we eat more of less constantly anyway-and that’s another big story in itself. The objective, after all that chewing is to mix it with enzymes in the saliva, and other ‘juices’ down the tract, which the body itself makes, to digest the food and break it down into a form the body can handle. And provide energy for us to walk, run, and dance, and fight each other and other kinds of animals, on dear Planet Earth.

To drive on the road ahead, here are a few science basics we need to refresh ourselves about. Everything in the Universe, including us, is made of Atoms – the smallest unit of matter with a central dense nucleus of protons(and neutrons) and a cloud of electrons spinning around. And going even higher, we can say we are all made up of ‘star dust’. What we call ‘element’ is made up of only one kind of atom – elementary? There are about 118 known elements, but our body is constructed from just 59, and 6 of them account for 99.1%. When two or more atoms are chemically bonded they form a molecule, which can be of the same element or different elements. A compound is a molecule made up of two or more different elements chemically bonded in a fixed ratio. Our body is built with such compounds.

Moving back to Food, let’s strip-down it down, peel-off the layers and see it gloriously naked.

The fundamental components of the food – call it nutrients- we eat, is divided into two broad categories, 1-Macronutrients: Water, Proteins, Carbohydrates, and Fats, and the 2-Micronutrients: Vitamins, Minerals, and elusive Trace Elements. The macro food is required in larger quantities; the micro food is required in smaller quantities and is essential in keeping us living the good life. Let’s digest them one by one. I am leaving-out the water we drink, and the air we breathe, which need space of their own. Let’s drink, and smoke to that!

PROTEINS

Proteins are large, complex molecules that are indispensable for life. A fifth of our body weight is made up of them. They are the ‘building blocks’ of our body and also the hard-working craftsmen- mending and repairing wear and tear. Basically, Proteins are long chains of tiny building blocks called amino-acids. Think of them like different coloured beads strung together into a beautiful necklace.

Proteins are made from just 20 amino acids-organic compounds-even through hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, which can do the job just as well. It is a mystery why evolution has married us, for life, to just these 20. And we simply cannot divorce them! And the best part is, we break down all the proteins we consume only to reassemble them again, into new proteins. LEGO toys of the body?

Eight, out of the twenty, amino acids cannot be made -synthesised-in the body and we must find and consume them from the outside world. And the factor to consider is their digestibility. In general, proteins from uncooked vegetable foods are less digestible than those from animal foods. Hence, cooking is awfully important. Glad we know how to start a fire.

There is a never ending debate about Plant-based proteins and Animal-based proteins: which one is best for us. Animal proteins are typically complete proteins-contain all essential amino acids-with very high digestibility and bioavailability. Plant proteins are often incomplete: missing or low in one or more essential amino acids, but we can achieve complete profiles by combining different sources, e.g., rice & beans. Animal World or Plant World, we can achieve great protein balance, but we need to work harder and wider on the plant side.

Common protein foods are: eggs-with near-perfect amino acid make-up; fish-salmon, sardines, mackerel; meat-chicken, pork; organ meat-liver, heart, kidney. On the plant side we have soy products, lentils, chickpeas, nuts & seeds, almonds, peanuts, beans, brown rice, legumes, pumpkin seeds, and others.

CARBOHYDRATES

Carbohydrates are compounds of Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen, which are bound together to from a variety of sugars: glucose, fructose, maltose, sucrose, deoxyribose(the stuff found in DNA), and so on. Some of these are chemically simple such as monosaccharides, some are complex known as polysaccharides, and some in between known as disaccharides. Carbohydrates are basically a class of energy yielding substances and almost all of them come from plants, with one exception: lactose-from milk. Foods like cane sugar and table sugar are simple carbohydrates, and those like starch are a complex. These are completely digested by the body, and the end product is sugar-glucose-which is absorbed and metabolised to provide the energy required for all body functions.

Besides the digestible carbohydrates of sugar and starch, there are other non-digestible carbohydrates like cellulose, hemicellulose, gums, pectins and lignins ‘legally designated’ as ‘Dietary Fibre’. They are necessary superfluous food, as most of them are not digested and sent marching out, through the stools. We do not have the enzymes to crack and break them down, though the bacteria in our gut can feast upon many of them. Why then the Fibre? They facilitate the process of digestion and elimination of waste. The contraction of muscular walls of the digestive tract is stimulated by fibre counteracting the tendency to constipation. They cause food to linger in the stomach for longer periods, helping wholesome digestion. And to alleviate hunger and prolonging the feeling of satiety. When food without fibre is consumed it gets processed too quickly, leading to ill effects such as spiking in blood sugar. Fibre acts like a sponge, absorbing and holding water, making us feel full, with a lesser quantity of food.

Back to some definitions: Constipation is a condition wherein stools are hard, dry, or painful to pass and leave a feeling that not all stools have passed. Enzymes are biological catalysts: molecules that accelerate chemical reactions without being consumed or permanently altered themselves. They are mostly proteins.

Common carbohydrate foods: whole grains, legumes, fruits, starchy vegetables, and some dairy. Others in the whole grain family are oats, brown rice. And Legumes-beans, chickpeas, peas. Starch Vegetables-potatoes, corn, and Fruits- Bananas, Apples, berries, oranges, mangoes, melons, are other sources.

FATS

Fats are also made up of Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen, but in different proportions – in a more clever way than the ‘serious looking’ carbohydrates – making it easier for fat to be stored in the body. Helping us get fat? Looking at it in another way, fat is a concentrated source of energy, and it supplies per unit weight more than twice the energy than can be supplied by proteins or carbohydrates.

Words such as Oils, Fats, and Lipids are used interchangeably to describe Fats. Broadly, we use the term Oils for liquids, and Fats for solids at room temperature. And we talk about oil or fat in relation to the food we consume; and Lipids while talking about them inside the body. To give more meaning to Lipids, think about Neurons- the cells that make up the central nervous system of the body- they have a layer of lipids called the myelin sheath, which protects the delicate nerve cells and helps electrical impulses travel quickly between them. If this sheath is damaged, we can go crazy. About 60% of our Brain is made up of fat. Hence, we have to make sure we treat fats with respect.

Oils and fats are made up of units called fatty acids, like bricks in a wall-much like amino-acids are the building blocks of Proteins. Fats are broadly classified as: Saturated Fats, mostly solid at room temperature-predominate in animal based fats, and Unsaturated Fats-mostly liquid at room temperature- predominate in vegetable based. Fats derived from vegetable sources provide what is known as Essential Fatty Acids, which has Vitamin(that’s coming up ahead) like functions in the body.

There is another kind of fat we often read about: Trans Fats, also known as hydrogenated oils, which are artificially produced. They are created when vegetable oils, typically in liquid form, are processed (hydrogenated) to become solid fats. They were touted as a healthy alternative to butter or animal fat, but we now know the opposite to be true. To put it bluntly, Trans fats are essentially a form of slow-acting poison. Do not look in their direction.

Then there is Cholesterol, a waxy, fat-like molecule that is vital for life and present in every cell, giving it its structure through the cell membranes. It also enables production of certain Hormones and Bile Acids-to digest food, and for synthesis of Vitamin D. The Liver, the largest organ in the human body, produces almost all the cholesterol required by the body. Other body cells produce some and anything else required is from the food we intake. Cholesterol is not strictly classified as a fat. And it is not found in plants. Cholesterol has earned a bad name, for the wrong reasons, and I am out to pin some medals on its chest.

Getting to the fat of fats, something called Triglycerides makes up 95% of the fat we eat. They consist of one glycerol molecule attached to three fatty acid chains. In the body, they store unused energy and release them when needed. The remaining 5% consists of other types of Lipids. When you see ‘total fat’ on a nutrition label, it’s mostly triglycerides. The other lipids are present in much smaller quantities and often have important roles.

When fats are broken down in the body, they team-up with cholesterol and proteins in a new molecular avatar called Lipoproteins, which act like delivery trucks for distributing fats and cholesterol through the bloodstream. Fats cannot dissolve in the blood, hence they need to be carried by this cleverly designed transport mechanism. Lipoproteins consist of cholesterol and triglycerides in equal proportions.

Fats in the food that we eat are primarily digested in the small intestine and converted into fatty acids, among others. Intestinal cells reassemble them again into triglycerides and hitch them to cholesterol to form the lipoproteins. And due to their low density-when first formed, innocently- they are called Very Low Density Lipoproteins (VLDL). Fats made in the liver are then loaded on to the VLDL truck and sent for circulation in the bloodstream, delivering triglycerides and cholesterol to all parts of the body. As the VLDL loses triglycerides, the lipid-to-protein ratio changes, becoming denser and the VLDL becomes Intermediate Density Lipoproteins (IDL). As the process continues and triglycerides and cholesterol are delivered to further cells in the body, IDL is gradually converted into Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL). This LDL returns to the liver to be reloaded and sent again for circulation. The liver then sends High Density Lipoproteins (HDL), that it produces, along with some support from the small intestine, to collect any ‘spilled’, remnants, or excess cholesterol and triglycerides and bring them back to use for the next circulation, or for disposal. We can call HDL a scavenging or recovery truck. They do it by a process called Reverse Cholesterol Transport. Its structure, especially its high protein-to-lipid ratio enables this function, making it denser and smaller than LDL. Talk about sending the good guys to catch and jail the bad guys – that’s what ‘Sheriff Liver’ does in the Body County.

Keep in mind the fact that the Liver is the ‘super-man’ of the body performing over 500 mighty, vital functions. And it has this insane ability to regenerate itself: if up to 70% is damaged or surgically removed, it can grow back to its full size and function within weeks. Wow! We never look under the hood, do we? And how clever! The home lizard must be envious: it easily lets go of its tail -to sidetrack a predator-and then cooly grows it back. What the lizard does externally we do internally-but for healthier reasons!

Most of the cholesterol in our bodies is locked up in our cells where it is doing useful work. Just a small part, about 7%, floats around in the blood, out of which one-third is good and two-third is bad. Though we call LDL, bad cholesterol- the bad guy- and HDL good cholesterol- the good guy-Cholesterol is not fundamentally evil as we tend to think about it. It is vital for a healthy life and the trick is to maintain it at a balanced level. One way is to eat a lot of Fibre, which contains no energy or vitamins, but helps to lowering cholesterol and slows the rate at which sugar gets in to the blood and then turned into fat by the Liver.

The best food sources of fat are unsaturated fats and a limited amount of saturated fats. Some are, Avocados, Olive oil, Nuts- Almonds, Hazelnuts, Walnuts, Peanuts, Seeds-Pumpkin, sesame. Others-Canola oil, Peanut oil, Olives, Soyabean, whole Eggs, Dark Chocolate.

VITAMINS

Vitamins are simply organic compounds- from things that are or were once alive, like plants and animals. They are quite a new concept, becoming famous only in the 1920s, when naming them in a kindergarten style alphabetical order began. Somewhere down the line numerals stuck to them. Now we are swarmed with, A, B, B1, B2,…B12, C, E, D, K… etc.

Vitamins play a vital role in utilising the proteins, carbohydrates, and fats we intake as food. They mostly act as co-enzymes. Our body uses vitamins to convert food into energy, build and repair tissues, support immune function, enable nerve signaling, maintain vision and bone health, among other functions. Unlike carbohydrates, or proteins, vitamins are needed only in tiny amounts, but without them, normal metabolism stops or becomes inefficient, leading to deficiency diseases.

Vitamins do not provide energy or building blocks themselves, instead they are the tiny ‘keys’ that unlock and drive the body’s various compartments of the core metabolic machinery.

Vitamins are broadly classified as Water Soluble and Fat Soluble. Water soluble are not accumulated in the body and are easily excreted, while fat soluble ones are stored. B-Complex Vitamins and Vitamin C- Ascorbic Acid are Water Soluble, while Vitamins A, D, E, K are Fat Soluble.

Common Vitamin Foods: whole, minimally processed foods like fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, lean proteins, and dairy or fortified alternatives. Citrus fruits (oranges, grapefruits), Strawberries, Kiwi, Bell peppers (red or green), Broccoli, Tomatoes, Potatoes.

MINERALS

Minerals are inorganic, and come from soil or water. Let’s call them the cousins of Vitamins. Altogether there are about 40 of them that we must get from our foods because we cannot produce them in the body.

Minerals perform critical structural and regulatory roles. Unlike vitamins, minerals often serve as building blocks, electrolytes, and catalysts. E.g., Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium build and maintain bones & teeth (99% of calcium is in the skeleton); provide rigidity and strength. Iron is the core of haemoglobin-carries oxygen in blood- and myoglobin-in muscles; essential for energy production.

Common Mineral Foods: this is Home Work No-1, search them out and keep them.

Dairy, canned fish with bones, leafy greens, fortified plant milks and orange juice, and almonds, are some sources.

TRACE ELEMENTS

Beyond the Big THREE and the smaller TWO of Vitamins and Minerals, completing the list, a large number of elements are required in trace amounts for a wide range of functions, to keep the body in ‘top condition’. They are mainly, Iodine,Zinc, Copper, Chromium, Manganese, Molybdenum, Fluoride. And finally, there are many unknowns, such as Selenium, Cobalt, Silicon, Arsenic, Nickel and Vanadium, which use is yet to be established. For sure we know arsenic is a toxic element and whether it indeed has any nutritional value is yet to be discovered – at our peril?

Common Trace Element Foods: This is Home Work No-2, we have to hunt them down. I suggest you consult ‘Doctor Know’ and perhaps a Bounty-Hunter too.

The problem with the micronutrients of Vitamins, Minerals, and Trace elements is that the risk of taking in too much is a great as the risk of taking too little. To give examples: Vitamin A is needed for vision, healthy skin and fighting infections. Eggs and dairy products have a lot of them, hence easy to obtain. The recommended daily level is 700 micrograms for women and 900 for men; the upper limit for both is about 3000 micrograms, and exceeding that ceiling can become risky. Vitamin A is fat-soluble, so excess gets stored in the liver and can accumulate, leading to acute or chronic toxicity. Iron similarly, is vital for healthy red blood cells. Too little iron, and we become anaemic, but too much is toxic, leading to lethargy. Too much of iron can accumulate in our tissues causing our organs ‘literally to rust’.

Armed with this understanding – and after testing the state of parts under the body bonnet-we must challenge ourselves, our Spouses, Partners, Cooks, Doctors, Dieticians, and Nutritionists… to eminently balance the food we eat. Spare parts are not an option-with exceptions. We are not House Lizards.

Ultimately, I can sign off saying, “We Built This Body”.

Bibliography: The Body, by Bill Bryson; Craft your Wellness, by Dr Gauri Rokkam; Nutritive Value of Indian Foods, by C Gopalan, B V Rama Sastri,and S C Balasubramanaian, Indian Council of Medical Research, National Institution of Nutrition, Hyderabad. These are excellent reads with lots of ‘nutritive value’-for the brain.

BETWEEN THE LINES

About: a ‘write-down’ comedy on the news of the world. Who watches stand-up comedy?

The United Kingdom is beginning to see more Prime Minister(PM) changes than the infamous English weather. Is there an umbrella for this one? The UK is fast kangaroo-leaping into Australian style politics, where it is awfully hard to remember who the Prime Minister is-or was-with slick changes that’s peculiar only to Australia. Ask the duck-billed Platypus on what’s going on. Football Field player changing -with the name-board number always remaining No. 10-has been put to shame.

British PM Keith Starmer after over two years of wretched, mangled governance decided to quit-another one bites the dust in British Politics. He lost the ball of support of his Labour Party Members of Parliament (MP) and informed team Manager, King Charles that he is resigning-cannot clearly see the goal-post, any longer. Now, the Labour Party will labour to elect a new leader and therefore PM. His likely successor is Andy Burnham-calls himself more British than English-who recently screeched into Parliament in a By-Election and was officially sworn in as Makerfield’s new MP in the House of Commons. The 56-year-old made the right noises about leading the Labour Party and an orderly transition to becoming Prime Minister. There is some history here, when Andy Burnham tells that the ‘turning point’ in his political life came in 2009, when he was booed at a football ground in the north-west of England. Now, it’s three cheers!

The joke doing the rounds is that Airbnb is sponsoring No 10. Downing as perfect for short stays. I am garnishing that: cats and dogs are allowed, at no extra charges

Meanwhile, in a gilded hall at Versailles, Paris, United States President Donald Trump signed a 14-point Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU)with Iran, to halt the ongoing war. Israel never noticed, and not known to playing world-class football, went on with business as usual, trying to kick the militant Hezbollah out of the field. They, who are sprawled all over Lebanon. The Strait of Hormuz opened, closed, opened, closed, open, closed…leaving people in a tizzy and heading to the bar to open a bottle of Hormuz whiskey instead, and drink the Arabian spirits. I wonder, why should Iran bother about Lebanon when it has its own hair to keep and cover safely? Any why does the MOU not include any provisions requiring Iran to stop massaging the butts of the Hezbollah, Hamas, or the Houthis? Unalloyed support-call it bad refereeing? Show the Red Card.

India’s National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) exam finally got off the air on 21 June 2026-after a mid-flight scare, the previous time. And India’s Prime Minister, who had just landed from the air, smiling like a Cheshire cat, stayed off the road, parking himself in the Airport, until the Exam started. What an idea, Sirji-helping heavily stressed students reach the exam centres without a sweat. Strange are the ways of India, with the Army, Airforce, among others, called-in to protect the exam question papers. If there is still a leak, the Navy might have to sail-in to plug, provide reinforcement and do further straight shipping.

Moving on to other things, in India, everyday 1200 to 1220 people die in accidents and there is no prize for guessing the killer cause: road accidents. It’s hard to swallow, but the fact is, the price of life in India in ZERO. Remember, India invented the zero, and we cannot help ourselves living up to it- and dying for it. What, with 1.4 billion people in bumper-to-bumper life. There is a story about the high density in the West Bengal’s capital of Kolkatta such that even dogs cannot wag their tail in the usual sideways swagger; instead they are finding space vertically-up and down. Dogs too are learning. Anybody making a movie called, Planet of the Dogs?

Then there is this particular species of Homo Sapiens, which thrives on driving a BMW, an Audi, or a Mercedes-Benz on the pavements meant for the walkers and putting people on them to sleep, forever. Never knew population control can happen this way. The Gates of Heaven are always open.

The Devil is definitely lurking in the details: in the pot-holes, on the great highways and the speed-breaker infested streets; in wedding dowry; in building collapses, in construction sites, in bridge failures; in the railways, trains going berserk, and especially unmanned crossings; in high-rise building fires; animal(street dogs included)-bites; death by suicide, rape, murder…it’s an endless, ever expanding list. Once, a Google Map route took a driver to the end of an unfinished bridge, and there was no looking back.

On 22 June 2026, 15 people, mostly students, were charred to death after a fire broke out in a 3-storey building in the heart of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. A day earlier, 8 died in an Ammonia Gas leak in a Food Export company in Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu. Exporting death?

Joining the blood stream, The International Labour Organization says, every year more than 8.4 Lakh people die globally from health conditions linked to the workplace. It is a dangerous world we live in. We do not need Aliens from Space to conquer us: we are our own best beasts.

I recall a cousin of mine, now permanently living in the United States and making frequent strips to India saying, “Once you step out of your house, there is no guarantee that you will return home alive”. I reckon every day is an adventure! If Christopher Columbus was living in India, he would not have been able to cross the street alive, leave alone sailing through an open sewer. Oh, Santa Maria!

Nothing beats gossip about the Film World-Hollywood, Bollywood, Kollywood, Tollywood-in India and abroad. A top headline is, Actresses getting pregnant, and showing-off that glamorous well-rounded, shining baby bump. Recently, Actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu who was married to a popular Telugu actor and separated, tried again, married Raj Nidimoru-a Producer, Filmmaker Businessman, Writer- and now the home-production has been successfully rolled out. She is in the family way. Sure business works wonders and bumping into the right person definitely produces results. However, we are yet to see that magnificent bump, though the media went crazy over a tiny one, they thought they spied, when the wind was doing the only job it knows-blowing. These guys are unbelievable, in spotting curves and angles you and I just are stone and wind blind to. Hope, a full one appears soon-and the expectations are indeed Space High. Maternity leave is around the corner.

In another part of the world, across the oceans, working hard to keep Samantha company is Hollywood Actress Anne Hathaway-the Princess who kept a Diary. She is married to Actor Producer, and Jewel designer Adam Shulman and the couple probably heard Elon Musk’s clarion call to launch more babies-the American population is seriously declining-and two, they already have, not being enough, went back to production, and a third jewel is on the way. More entries in the Diary?

That’s already two bumps- that I know- to look-up to, all happening in June 2026. And this being football season, it’s raining goals everywhere! Move over Messi & Co.

The FIFA World Cup is kicking about in the United States of America, and it is a fabulous Discovery of America, and of football. Discovery Channel and the National Geographic have lost their footing. There is magic everywhere, on the American streets and on the football grounds. Probably the Greatest of All Time (GOAT), Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi, scored a hattrick, and then in another game scored two more to become the highest goal-scorer in World Cup history. It’s time they make the goal-posts smaller?

I am riveted to watching football and chasing all the clever goals- especially those going between the legs. And between the lines, I have an eye on that speed-breaker, baby-bump. I’m sure there’s much more to come. The dice is heavily loaded.

ANNAMALAI

About: The beginning of the adventure of Annamalai in bringing deep change in the straight-jacket, parochial, Tamil chauvinist politics of Tamil Nadu State. And perhaps galvanise a far-reaching new kind of Movement across India.

Disclaimer: This is not a promotional essay; just fact-based for you to make educated choices. (Image Courtesy: Canva AI)

“Adventure is the vitaminizing element in histories, both individual and social. But its story is unsuitable for a Sabbath School prize book. Its adepts are rarely chaste, or merciful, or even law-abiding at all, and any moral peptonizing, or sugaring, takes out the interest, with the truth, of their lives.

It is so with all great characters. Their faults are not mud spots, but structural outcroppings, of an indivisible piece with their personality. Adventure is the irreconcilable enemy of law; the adventurer must be unsocial, if not in the deepest sense anti-social, because he is essentially a free individualist.

The adventurer is within us, and he contests for our favour with the social man we are obliged to be. These two sorts of life are incompatibles; one we hanker after, the other were are obliged to. There is no other conflict so deep and bitter as this, whatever the pious say, for it derives from the very constitution of human life, which so painfully separate us from all other beings. We, like the eagles, were born to be free. Yet we are obliged, in order to live at all, to make a cage of laws for ourselves and to stand on the perch. We are born as wasteful and unremorseful as tigers; we are obliged to be thrifty or starve, or freeze. We are born to wander, and cursed to stay and dig”. These are resonating lines from William Bolitho’s masterclass book, ‘Twelve Against the Gods – The Story of Adventure’.

If the adventurer of this story, Annamalai, keeps the faith, and succeeds like Alexander the Great, or Christopher Columbus, or perhaps the closest, Woodrow Wilson-an adventurer in politics-perhaps William Bolitho will rise again, to make it thirteen. Maybe, this essay is a Trailer?

In India, it’s almost a family template to put children in the best schools-assiduously coaching them off-school, hoping it becomes the gateway to great Institutions and then the stairway to well-heeled jobs in famous Companies; a career in India’s top cities, or abroad. And last but not least, find a suitable match, often chosen by the family based on tons of mind-boggling criteria -from the education, societal hierarchy, caste, creed, colour, and the shape of things!

In the 1980’s when I finished school, Medicine was the most popular choice of career, and almost at par was the Civil Services: Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service(IPS), and the kind. Next in the pecking-order was, cleverly an Engineer, arguably a Lawyer or for the account, even a Chartered Accountant. Each career choice had a dream College: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) for Engineering, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and top Private and Government Colleges for Medicine, and mostly Private Colleges for the Arts & Sciences. After graduation, the most sought after career-builder course was management in the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM), or a Master of Business Administration(MBA) abroad, say Harvard. The combination of IIT and IIM was deadly: they better hire you on the spot!

On the sidelines, for many ordinary folks, getting into a Government Public Sector job was the most wanted: for job security and the steady, ’settled life’. The moment one gets into such a Public Sector job and the Government Quarters is taken possession of, the family begins the hunt for a bride or groom to fill the space. Girls typically studied ‘Home Science’ and an Engineer or Doctor boy marrying a Home Science girl ensured delicious food on the table and a well-kept tidy house, not to mention the ironed, and missing-button-mended clothes. Of course, times have changed. In fact it’s now shared, or even the other way around. Boarding Schools boys were in great demand, “hey, marry one and he makes the bed, brews coffee, is awfully independent, and says, I love you, everyday”.

The hero of my story, Shiva Senthil Kumar (Annamalai), was born in 1984 in Thottampatti Village, Aravakurichi, Karur District, Tamil Nadu, into an agricultural family of the Kongu Vellalar Gounders- a farming community. His father, Kuppusamy, and mother, Parameshwari, tilled the land to put their two children-Shiva Senthil Kumar and a sister, both of whom were first generation graduates to earn a College degree, and the former being the first in the family to pursue higher education.

Schooling was in the local schools in Karur and Namakkal districts. During this time, in Class 10, Shiva Senthil Kumar found his name to be too long-for official records and certificates-and if you added Dad’s name Kuppusamy, as the initial, it grew even longer. Time for some action: Shiva Senthil Kumar changed his name to Annamalai – full name Annamalai Kuppusamy. He chose ‘Annamalai’-an angry incarnation of Lord Shiva-lucky to have selected his own name. Of course, early-on, the hero showed great academic promise, with the rural setting inculcating in him hard work and iron discipline.

Annamalai graduated in Mechanical Engineering-Bachelor of Engineering Degree-from the top-notch private PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, in 2007. He then cracked the awfully tough Common Admission Test to join IIM-Lucknow for a Post Graduate (PG) Diploma in Management (equivalent to an MBA), which he completed in 2010. While at IIM, he prepared for the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) Civil Services Examination. And also did a short political internship, in 2009, with Tamil Nadu’s Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK)- a political party founded by Actor Vijayakanth-gaining early exposure to politics. He cleared the UPSC exam shortly after studies at IIM, and went on to become an IPS Officer.

That’s it, Annamalai had a dream run in every noteworthy Institute in India and let’s say, he forged himself in the fire of the flames of India’s best education system. Isn’t it time to deploy it in cutting-edge use?

Annamalai joined the 2011 batch of the IPS in the Karnataka cadre where he was, Assistant Superintendent of Police(ASP) in the Karkala subdivision; Superintendent of Police in Udupi and Chikkamagaluru districts; and Deputy Commissioner of Police(DCP) South Bengaluru. Annamalai earned a reputation for strict, no-nonsense policing: cracking down on crime, conducting anti-drug awareness programs, obtaining ISO quality-certification for police stations under his control, and managing sensitive communal tensions. His toughness got him the nickname ‘Singham’ (Lion).

On the personal side, in the year 2013, Annamalai married Akhila Swaminathan, a corporate professional who now works as a Director at Core Talent and Leadership Development Private Limited in Bengaluru. Previously she held a managerial position in Hewlett Packard. Akhila is also an IIM-Bengaluru PG-Diploma holder. They must have met somewhere on common-ground? The couple have two children. And Annamalai keeps his family life strictly private. Obviously, Akhila keeps the home fires burning, leading at home. He has taken-up organic farming, does yoga, and participates in sports events such as triathlons and Ironman. He maintains a disciplined lifestyle and engages in discussions in international forums.

Annamalai resigned from the IPS in May 2019, while DCP of South Bengaluru, to return to his village, to re-wire himself. Some incident must have stung him in his policing career that pushed him into entering Government to solve problems he could not as a top-order Police Officer.

A visit to Kailash Manasarovar helped him set right his priorities in life and reset his moral compass. The passing of a colleague who was a major influence, senior Karnataka IPS officer Madhukar Shetty in 2018 after prolonged illness, prompted re-examination under the premise that ‘all good things have to come to an end’. A specific incident, the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in his jurisdiction, highlighted that systemic political-level changes were needed beyond what a police officer could achieve. Policing alone had limits in addressing root causes of crime and societal issues.

Madhukar Shetty was an outstanding 1999-batch IPS officer of the Karnataka cadre, known for his uprightness, integrity, anti-corruption stance, and pro-people approach during his about 19 years of service. He rose to the rank of Inspector General of Police and served as Deputy Director at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad at the time of his death. Madhukar, as SP of a Special Task Force provided intelligence and efforts during the final phase of the police operation against forest brigand and notorious sandalwood smuggler Veerappan, ending with Veerappan being shot and killed, in 2004.

After the soul-searching phase, Annamalai moved back into farming, to check if the goats on his farm would still listen to him. And started a non-political foundation called ‘We The Leaders’ to ingrain leadership qualities in youth. However, he soon learnt that social change required political change, and decided to join India’s ruling party at the Centre, The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in 2020. Also inspired by India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

About this time Annamalai wrote a memoir, ‘Stepping Beyond Khaki: Revelations of a Real-Life Singham’, which was published in January 2021. The book is a tell-all account of his decade-long policing career, covering his transformation from a rule-obsessed officer to one with a more humane approach; how he earned the nickname Singham, his leadership style, encounters with real heroes in the force, systemic issues like corruption in policing, and reflections on public service, politics, and governance.

On joining the BJP, his rise was rapid. He was appointed Vice President of BJP Tamil Nadu in 2020; State President in July 2021-one of the youngest at the time- holding the position until April 2025. As President, he boosted the party’s visibility in the Dravidian Parties-dominated Tamil Nadu through aggressive campaigns. The ‘En Mann, En Makkal’ (my soil, my people) padayatra (journey on foot – covering all 234 Assembly constituencies), and anti-corruption efforts like the ‘DMK Files’ stirred the people to notice the BJP.

To grasp the nature of Tamil Nadu politics, let’s take a detour, leaving Annamalai on his farm, with his goats, go back in time, and delve in to the deep waters of local history.

Once upon a time, the Indian National Congress, a pan-India party, held sway in Madras State (later re-named Tamil Nadu) from India’s independence in 1947 until its ouster in 1967. An uninterrupted run of 20 years, when the party at the Centre was also the Congress. The notable Chief Ministers at that time were, C Rajagopalachari (Rajaji), 1952 to 1954; K Kamaraj, 1954 to 1963; and M Bhaktavatsalam, 1963–1967 – also the last Congress Chief Minister.

During Congress Rule, former President R Venkataraman, as Industries Minister under Kamaraj, laid a strong foundation for industrialisation of the State and is rightly called the Father of Industrialisation in Tamil Nadu. He championed industrial estates- the first one at Guindy, attracted private investments, such as Ashok Leyland, Hindustan Motors, Enfield, and helped bring in major public sector units like the Integral Coach Factory, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, and the Heavy Vehicles Factory.

On another front, the tenure of the Congress, especially that of Rajaji, ignited fierce regionalism, opening-up fault lines, which would determine future politics of the State. ‘Kulakkalvi Thittam’ – a caste-based education scheme- which required students to learn their parents’ traditional vocation was planned to be introduced. Hindi was sought to be made the sole Official Language, once its equal status with English, expired as per the Constitution, and learning Hindi was intended to be made compulsory. This was called ‘Hindi Imposition’, which was pounced upon by regional parties to yell from the roof-tops that the great Tamil language is in danger of being wiped out. The situation provided a launch-pad for the emergence of social reformer, Periyar E V Ramasamy Naickar, C N Annadurai, and others, fighting for regional rights, above all Tamil pride and against domination of particular castes in Government jobs. Following the uproar and state-wide agitations, Kulakkalvi Thittam and Hindi Imposition was abandoned.

Kamaraj was the most successful and popular Congress leader of the era. A powerful organizer, from a humble background, he won elections in 1957 and 1962. He resigned in 1963 under the Kamaraj Plan- his own making- to revitalise the Congress Party by having senior leaders step down from office-holding roles and dedicate themselves to full-time party work.

The rule of the Congress was seriously challenged by home-grown regional outfits, with a breakthrough achieved by C N Annadurai, who founded the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and served as the first DMK Chief Minister (CM) of then Madras State from 1967 to 1969, until his unexpected death, due to oral cancer, on 3 February 1969, at age 59.

Annadurai joined the Justice Party in 1935, a movement focused on social justice and equality, and opposing (upper caste) Brahmin dominance. In 1944, when his mentor Periyar, E V Ramasamy renamed the Justice Party as Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) and withdrew from electoral politics to focus on social reform, Annadurai became a key figure in spearheading regional politics.

Differences with Periyar grew over participation in elections and the demand for a separate Dravida Nadu (Dravidian homeland country) among others. Periyar was against India’s Independence and wanted Madras State to continue under British Rule; he called Tamil a barbarian language and insisted all learn English, ‘talk to your maids in English’, he said. Periyar’s personal life, caused further anguish and disagreement when he married a woman younger than him by 40 years.

On 17 September 1949, Annadurai split from the DK, to form the DMK. He served as its first General Secretary-with the presidency kept vacant, initially as a mark of respect to Periyar. Annadurai used oratory, writing plays, and Tamil cinema for propaganda, bringing in talents like M Karunanidhi and later, hugely popular film star M G Ramachandran (MGR). Annadurai first became a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in 1957, elected from Kanchipuram. And was a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1962, holding it until 1967.

In the February 1967 elections the DMK-led front won a landslide: DMK alone secured 137 (out of 234) seats while Congress came a distant second, at 51. Annadurai became Chief Minister, ending Congress rule and ushering in Dravidian party dominance that continued up to the current Elections in 2026 -a total of 59 years. Under DMK rule, Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu in 1969.

Annadurai shifted Dravidian politics from separatism to federalism, social justice, and Tamil identity. He remains revered as a scholar-orator and champion of the marginalized.

MGR had been a prominent, participative DMK member and held the position of Party Treasurer. After Annadurai’s death in 1969, tensions grew with party leader M Karunanidhi, over corruption, financial mismanagement, and ministerial roles. MGR challenged Karunanithi to come clean on the accounts and ended up being suspended from the primary membership, and later permanently expelled from the DMK.

On 17 October 1972, MGR founded the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) as a breakaway faction. It was later renamed All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). MGR positioned the AIADMK as a true follower of Annadurai’s (‘Anna’) ideals. The party gained rapid popularity, especially leveraging MGR’s massive film-star following. In the first contested Assembly Elections of 1977, the AIADMK won 130 seats on its own, dethroning the DMK, with MGR going on to become Chief Minister. This was a decisive victory for MGR, just five years after founding the AIADMK and fundamentally altered Tamil Nadu politics, creating an enduring, well almost, DMK versus AIADMK bipolarity. All other local parties aligned with either one of them, often switching loyalties, during election time.

MGR died on 24 December 1987. The aftermath saw a power-tussle between one faction under AIADMK Propaganda Secretary J Jayalaithaa – MGR’s heroine in many of his films- and a faction, which propped up his uninterested wife Janaki, who briefly became the first woman Chief Minister of TN, for 24 days. Janaki’s government faced a controversial confidence vote in the Assembly on 28 January 1988, amid chaos and pandemonium and was subsequently dismissed on 30 January 1988. President’s Rule was imposed in Tamil Nadu, which lasted until January 1989.

In the subsequent 1989 Assembly elections, the DMK, led by M Karunanidhi returned to power, defeating both AIADMK factions, which contested separately.

Janaki later quit active politics and the AIADMK factions merged under Jayalalithaa’s leadership. And she became Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly-the first woman in that role. A controversial incident in the Assembly when during a heated discussion, she was heckled and her saree torn in the melee culminated with her taking a vow, “I will return to the Assembly only as Chief Minister”.

The DMK government did not complete its full-term and was dismissed, by the President of India, on 30 January 1991 on the grounds of failure of Law & Order in the State and suspected links with Sri Lanka’s terrorist outfit, The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), leading to President’s Rule.

When Elections were announced- Assembly and Lok Sabha- during the campaign phase former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on 21 May 1991, by the LTTE, at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu. The DMK was perceived as being responsible, in a tacit collusion with the LTTE.

In the ensuing June 1991 Assembly elections, the AIADMK-Congress alliance won a landslide and on 24 June 1991, Jayalalithaa was sworn in as Chief Minister at age 43 -Tamil Nadu’s youngest at the time- and went on to become the first woman in that role, to complete a full term. And, above all, she fulfilled her vow.

Jayalalithaa’s Government successfully caught the killers of Rajiv Gandhi in a nation-wide man-hunt, which was an outstanding feat; so was killing sandalwood smuggler Veerappan-who evaded capture for decades- during her second term in 2004 (after yet another DMK Term).

There after, it was the two Dravidian parties ruling Tamil Nadu alternatively. I call it Tom & Jerry politics. Jayalalitha died on 5 December 2016 at the beginning of a back-to-back, breaking the sequence term for the AIADMK. After a brief power struggle, Public Works Minister, Edappadi K Palanisamy became the Chief Minister and completed the tenure of Government, doing a reasonably good job. DMK chief Karunanidhi died on 7 August 2018. And with the passing of these two Dravidian Party stalwarts the political field was suddenly wide open for a new entrant. However the tempo was maintained and in the 2021 Assembly Elections, the DMK returned to power and M Karunanidhi’s son M K Stalin became the CM. It was heartbreak for the AIADMK which admirably managed the early days of the COVID-19 crisis and launched many developmental projects.

Though apparently the DMK dropped its demand for a separate country to remain in mainstream India, it never seemed to have given-up the idea, and in the name of greater freedom for the states and federalism, engaged in, what I call, constant ’subterranean separatism’. And for a period even flirted with the Sri Lankan Tigers of Tamil Eelam-fighting for a separate Tamil homeland.

The Government of M K Stalin went on overdrive in building a hate-Modi, anti-BJP propaganda, creating a North-South divide, and opposing almost anything the Central Government announced. It was like Don Quixote fighting imaginary battles. A divisive ‘Belongs to the Dravidian Stock’ narrative was set with the CM himself wearing such a tagline in his social media- X profile. To make things worse, the Govt adopted a visible anti-Hindu stand and even talked about eradicating Sanatana Dharma as they would dengue and malaria.

With all of this in the background, I return to Annamalai, who wanted to provide an alternative to the Dravidian parties of the DMK and AIADMK, having spied a vacuum after the death of their charismatic leaders. He contested (and lost) the 2021 Assembly election from Aravakurichi in alliance with the AIADMK and the 2024, Lok Sabha election from Coimbatore – with the BJP ditching the AIADMK and going it alone. It was a disastrous adventure, with the BJP failing to win a single seat, but garnered an impressive vote share of about 18%, bringing it up from 3%.

As President, Annamalai boosted the party’s visibility in Dravidian-party-dominated Tamil Nadu through aggressive campaigns, the ‘En Mann, En Makkal’ padayatra (covering all 234 assembly constituencies), and anti-corruption efforts such as, ‘The DMK Files.’ In the just concluded 2026 Assembly Elections, Annamalai wanted the BJP to go it alone avoiding any truck with the Dravidian Parties. However, the BJP central leadership decided to form a National Democratic Alliance with the AIADMK projecting Edappadi K Palanisamy as the CM of the NDA front. The idea was to defeat the ruling DMK, at any cost. Annamalai stepped aside as President of the State BJP.

In the meantime, popular Film Actor, C Vijay Joseph founded a new party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) occupying the space opened by Annamalai for an non-DMK, non-AIADMK alternative. The TVK campaigned against the DMK, calling it an Evil Force, and did not consider other Parties as any kind of a contest. The TVK won the Assembly Elections in an unexpected Black Swan event, but only as the single largest party with 108 seats, falling short of a majority of 118. Vijay hardly campaigned, not moving out of his palatial house in the traditional way, relying instead on social media. Unknown candidates who stood in his name won. Why, even a donkey could have won. And people, egged-on by Vijay movie fan kids- flocked to him like a Pied Piper, fed-up with the Government of the DMK; and to rid the rats of corruption and the squirrels of poor governance, hoping for ‘sudden change’ in Tamil Nadu. For the first time it seemed just about anybody could become an MLA, or a Minister, or why even a Chief Minister-all in the name of change. No one saw it coming, but Annamalai did predict such a situation with a large base of young voters falling for Vijay on his massive star appeal. What works in the movies will not work in the real world of politics. Tamil Nadu now has a clueless untrained leadership, which has to learn on the job. A return to, ‘why did the Apple fall down, and not up’.

Annamalai resigned from the BJP on 5 June 2026 desiring a broader, more inclusive approach to Tamil Nadu politics beyond party constraints. This was after days of camping at New Delhi, discussing with the BJP Central Leadership. Attempts were made to keep him in the BJP party fold, and the parting of ways was in a professional, mature manner.

Starting on his own Annamalai expanded his existing ‘We The Leaders’ Foundation into a broader political movement, focussing on leadership, ethics, and talent development. He announced plans to contest future elections under this platform, emphasising anti-corruption, ethical politics, unity across castes, regions, and ending ‘cult and dynastic’ politics. He has embarked on, an A P J Abdul Kalam Centre for Ethics and Politics, where people will be trained to deliver as representatives of the people in various roles, from the bottom most Councillor to an MLA or MP. The movement has gained significant early support. And it evolving into a Political force is to be seen in the coming months and years.

Annamalai’s journey, from rural roots and top-tier education to civil service excellence and bold politics, embodies self-made ambition. He will be a prominent voice in Tamil Nadu, known for his assertive style and appeal to educated voters.

I believe he should be even bolder, stand-up for a new direction, say show what true secularism is, by freeing Hindu Temples from Government control; accept India’s New Education Policy 2020 and the three-language formula…etc., meaningfully collaborate with the Centre to develop India, and wear the National colours. He should not entangle himself in the quagmire of parochial State and language politics.

I started with a quote from William Bolitho’s, ‘Twelve Against the Gods’ and end with another about Democracy and former US President Woodrow Wilson’s adventure in America’s Democracy – and later, the League of Nations, which was the precursor for today’s United Nations.

“In the smaller sense of a system of government it is based on the ground of a hope; like all human hopes, its ultimate base is a wish that every individual man is wise enough to know his own interest, and good enough to make it that of his fellowman. It is also taught that all these wills can be summed up by simple arithmetic into one single will, which is the called the Will of the People and found to be always just, right and wise”.

Will this adventurer conquer? Most adventurers have.

Dheeran Chinnamalai

About: This is a fabulous story about one of India’s forgotten heroes, Dheeran Chinnamalai hailing from the Kongu region of western Tamil Nadu, South India. He is an early genuine hero, who fought the British, just when they were beginning to colonise India. The British stung by his courage and aura of invincibility-they finally got him-ensured Chinnamalai’s story did not become a household name by banning books or any re-telling of his challenge to the British, for a long period of time. They feared the example Chinnamalai had set.(Image Courtesy: Canva AI)

The British first arrived on India’s shores in the year 1608, at the port of Surat, Gujarat. India was renowned for its cotton, silk, calicoes, and muslins, and other textiles, which were hugely popular in Europe. As was Indigo, and saltpeter (potassium nitrate)-used for gunpowder-critical for Britain’s military needs. Add spices such as pepper from South India, and the British wanted to trade. They established the East India Company (EIA), as a trading company, to obtain goods from India and send them to Britain for gainful commerce.

The East India Company found its way to the Court of the then Mughal Emperor Jehangir and obtained permission to build trading factories and Forts in costal India, beside roads and bridges to facilitate movement of their goods.

Gradually, over the 1700s the EIA’s focus shifted from trade to political dominance: they spied many an opening to India’s riches. And at the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the British led by Robert Clive defeated a combination of the French East India Company and local Nawabs gaining control of the rich region of Bengal. Clive won by making a secret alliance with Mir Jafar, the Army Commander of the then Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah. Mir Jafar deliberately held back his troops enabling the British to sneak through a victory. Mir Jafar was installed as a puppet Nawab, marking the beginning of British political dominance in India. Siraj-ud-Daulah escaped the battlefield, but was captured and later executed.

Mir Jafar’s name become synonymous with treachery and betrayal for enabling British colonial expansion through internal conspiracy. If he had not sold his soul to the British, maybe they could have been vanquished and sent back to Britain or at best continued functioning as a trading company. On the sidelines, the British learnt the art of pitting one Indian against another and using it as a vicious weapon to subjugate India. The multiple small Kingdoms, often at war with one another, in India suited that style.

Bolstered by its clever win, the EIA became a ruthless war-machine enjoying unbridled power in India, which eventually led to the first uprising against the British, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, also called the Sepoy Mutiny or the first war of Independence. The British Government watching the East India Company go roque, stepped -in, dissolved the EIA and assumed direct control of the Indian Sub-continent as the British Raj. Thereafter, it was the British Raj, all the way, that further colonised, ruled, and plundered its riches, until India’s independence in August 1947.

In the South of India, during the Robert Clive era, the British East India Company had only small trading enclaves, especially in Madras-now called Chennai. South India was ruled by independent regional powers such as, the Nawab of Hyderabad, the Maratha Confederacy, the Nawab of Carnatic, and the Kingdom of Mysore. These Kingdoms were the fragmented splinters of the glorious dynasties before them: The Vijayanagara Empire and The Chola Empire, to mention a few.

For around 300 years, a large part of present-day Tamil Nadu was ruled by warrior chieftains known locally as ‘Palayakkarars’ (heads of districts) or the Anglicized ‘Polygars’. Forgotten over time, these regional formations produced outstanding warriors who were probably the first to seriously challenge the British in South India, between 1700 and 1850. One of them being, Dheeran Chinnamalai. Others are, Maveeran Alagumuthu Kone -one of the earliest-the indomitable Veerapandiya Kattabomman, the courageous Puli Thevar, the amazing Rani Velu Nachiyar, and the remarkable Maruthu Brothers.

How did the Polygars come into being, who are they?

The Polygars were part of a unique three-tier administrative system created by one of the greatest Vijayanagara Emperors, Sri Krishnadeva Raya, who ruled between 1509 and 1529 CE. This simple but effective structure consisted of the Emperor at the top of the pyramid; the Nayakas or Viceroys, at Madurai, Thanjavur, Gingee, and other regions, forming the second tier; and the Polygars comprising the grassroots leaders, in the hierarchy. This one-of-a-kind system facilitated efficient administration of revenue, as well as created a mechanism for raising an army to meet the King’s war requirements, besides keeping generals, warriors, vassal rulers, and nobles gainfully occupied.

‘Palayam’ in Tamil and ‘Palamu’ in Telugu means an ‘army camp’ later stretched to mean an Administrative Division. At that time in Tamil Nadu, there were about 72 Palayams, each headed by a Polygar, who in turn reported to the Nayaka of Madurai. The Polygars functioned as semi-independent rulers operating from fortified centres, with a standing army-for the King- palaces, forts- in certain cases; they collected taxes, had private estates, dispensed justice, maintained law and order, held durbars, maintained water bodies, while expanding the land under cultivation, built and managed temples, and indulged in philanthropy. Over time, the Polygars became local rulers, ‘little Kings’. The paraphernalia of royalty was maintained by retaining a quarter of the collected revenue, while the rest was sent to the Nayakas.

The Polygars, also at times, founded villages, built dams, constructed tanks and built temples. They taxed regions according to the cultivable nature and fertility of the land. Their armed status served to protect the farming communities, trade & craft artisans, and ordinary civilians from robbers and dacoits who were rampant in those regions. And from invading armies, which often resorted to pillaging the villages and the countryside.

By the 18th century, while the northern Polygars fell under the Kingdom of Mysore, those in southern Tamil Nadu had to deal with the revenue demands of the British East India Company. The Nawab of Arcot had borrowed money from the EIA and had given the Company the right to collect taxes. All the Polygars, except Veerapandiya Kattabomman (1760 to 1799 CE) of Panchalankurichi, submitted to the East India Company.

While the year 1857 is often regarded as the first large-scale revolt against British rule in India, there were many localised revolts that broke out earlier. And one of them was the Polygar Wars, down South, between March 1799 and July 1805. These were some of the bloodiest revolts ever faced by the British, fought primarily in Tamil Nadu and the Malabar region. And the British did not have an easy run. The Polygar Wars were the most serious and deadliest challenge to their dominance in India. The 6 long years, saw a large number of losses on the British side, and they were defeated in many a battle. And the major players in the Polygar Wars actually challenged and outwitted the British, head to head. On the British side, in most cases, it took cunning, deceit, and treachery to capture and execute these warriors: they simply could not match their valour -directly.

The war between the British and Veerapandiya Kattabomman is called the First Polygar War (1799), while the second Polygar War (1800–1805)was fought by a much bigger coalition over the whole of western Tamil Nadu headed by Dheeran Chinnamalai and Maruthu Pandiyar.

In these times, on 17 April 1756, was born Theerthagiri Sarkarai Uthama Kaminda Mandradiaar, also called Theerthagiri Gounder, and later called Dheeran Chinnamalai, at Melapalayam in Erode district. His parents, Rathinaswamy Manradiaar and Periyaatha belonged to a noble, land-owning family of the Palaiyakottai Pattakarar (Mandradiaar title). He was the second of six children: elder brother, Kulandaisamy, younger brothers Thambi, Kilothar, and Kuttisamy, and a sister, Parvatham.

Theerthagiri’s grandfather, Kottravel Sarkkarai Mandradiaar, was one of the largest land owners, in the Kongu region, in present-day western Tamil Nadu. He was childless from his wife and took a second to beget children. However, he was childless from his second wife too; and thereafter he adopted two sons, first Senapathy and second, Rathanasamy, who he entrusted to each one of his two wives for upbringing. Both the sons were educated at the palace. In course of time, Senapathy and Ratanasamy got married and were given separate farm land regions to manage. As was the custom in those days, the first son Senapathi took the title of Manradiaar and continued to control the lands from Palaiyakottai. Rathnaswamy moved out-could be some kind of a partition plan between the Brothers-to a nearby village named Melapalayam and managed the family farm lands in that part.

During his childhood days, Theerthagiri attended the school within the Fort/Palace and was a bright, obedient, and disciplined student, excelling in Tamil literature, poems, and patriotic themes. He was introduced to the Tamil epics and the history of Tamil kings (Chola, Pandya, Chera), bravery, warfare, and governance, which inspired and instilled in him deep patriotism for the land, and leadership qualities from a young age.

Theerthagiri’s brothers, Kulandaisamy and Kuttisamy joined their father in farming, while Theerthagiri, with his other brothers, Thambi and Kilothar took on the responsibility of administration and safety of the villages under their jurisdiction, as Polygars.

The sister Parvatham was given in marriage to Ulagapuram Muthi Thirumalai Gounder, which strengthened the local Kongu Gounder network. Marrying into another Gounder family from nearby Ulagapuram (in the same Erode region) was typical for building alliances among chieftain families. The elder brother Kulandiasamy and the younger, Kuttisamy took wives, while Theertagiri, Thambi, and Kilothar never married, probably given the nature of their responsibilities.

The family managed extensive agricultural lands and ran the local administration. From a young age, Theerthagiri and his brothers received training in martial arts, including silambam, archery, horse riding, and techniques of warfare. Theertagiri gained experience in village panchayats, resolving land (and family) disputes, which further honed his leadership skills.

People of Kongu region traditionally practiced Hinduism under Shaivism- devotion centred on Lord Shiva. They followed Saiva Siddhanta traditions, emphasising Shiva as the supreme deity, along with associated rituals, temples, and philosophical teachings. They worshipped clan-specific kuladeivams (family or lineage deities), avatars of Amman (e.g., Mariamman, Periyachi Amman, or local protective goddesses), alongside major deities like Shiva, Murugan, and village guardian gods (e.g., Ayyanar or Karuppu Sami).

The then Kongu region, in the later half of the 18th century, was part of the Mysore kingdom, under Sultan Hyder Ali. The Diwan, Muhammad Ali, who was in charge of tax collection, followed unfair and unethical practices. He often humiliated farmers by confiscating their lands- their only means of livelihood – when taxes were not paid on time.

During one such tax-collection exercise, Theerthagiri and his brothers confronted Muhammad Ali, in an area between the hills of Sennimalai and Shivanmalai, recovered the forcibly collected taxes, and distributed them to the affected farmers. A furious Muhammad Ali, threatened Theerthagiri with severe consequences, once the Sultan learns about the incident. Theerthagiri shot back, saying Kongu Nadu will not accept Hyder’s rule, and it is capable of governing itself. He famously told the Diwan: “I am Chinnamalai, who reigns between Sennimalai and Shivanmalai” ( I am a small hill between two larger hills). And this was when he got the name of Chinnamalai, which means ‘small hill’ He earned the prefix ‘Dheeran’ meaning brave or valiant, for his courageous defiance.

Enter, Dheeran Chinnamalai.

Hyder Ali, as expected, sent an army to Kongu to teach Dheeran Chinnamalai a lesson. However, Chinnamalai met the Army on the banks of the Noyyal river and routed Hyder Ali’s forces. This only further enraged Muhammad Ali, and he vowed vengeance. Knowing Ali’s intentions, Chinnamalai began to build his own army. However, Hyder was preoccupied with the Nizam, British, and the Marathas, with whom he was in constant conflict, hence the return attack never happened.

Hyder Ali died in 1782 at his military camp near Chittoor during the Second Anglo-Mysore War, while actively fighting the British East India Company. Tipu Sultan, his eldest son, who was away on another military campaign, returned to Chittoor, assumed command, and took over as ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore.

Tipu Sultan adopted an even more aggressive policy towards the British and requested the Tamils of Kongu, to join forces with him to drive them out. Dheeran Chinnamalai responded, along with his brothers and trusted commanders, Velappan and Karuppan. Chinnamalai himself was made the commander of the Kongu regiment in the Mysore Army, and took active part in the 3rd and 4th Mysore Wars that initially helped repel British attacks on Tipu Sultan’s capital, Srirangapatnam. During his stint in Tipu Sultan’s Army, Chinnamalai received arms, combat, and battle training under the French, which served him well in the years ahead.

However, Tipu Sultan died in 1799, valiantly fighting the British, sword in hand, refusing to surrender. With the fall of Tipu Sultan, the British firmly declared, “India is ours”. And Dheeran Chinnamalai retreated home, along with Karuppan, as Velappan was captured by the British and he later became their agent.

Following Tipu Sultan’s defeat and the execution of Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Dheeran Chinnamalai emerged as a key leader in the Second Polygar War (1801 to 1805).

On his return to Kongu, Chinnamalai built a fortress at Odanilai, near Arachalur, south of Erode, Tamil Nadu, and began making recruitments and training his army, waiting for the right time to repeal any attacks by the British. He prepared his troops to use guerrilla tactics, especially hit-and-run warfare, to evade superior British firepower. He also reached out to the rulers of Malabar and Salem, hoping to build a larger alliance against the British.

Recognizing that Chinnamalai was a clear and present danger to their India ambitions, the British attempted to force him to sign a pact, where he was promised favours in return for accepting British sovereignty. He refused, knowing fully well that it would result in war. He mobilized and trained thousands of Kongu youth- up to 40,000-across religious and caste lines with loyal followers.

Chinnamalai’s bold defiance annoyed the British: a man with no title, technically not a ruler, yet refusing to accept their sovereignty, at a time when most of the Rajas, Nawabs, and Sultans had surrendered with much of a whimper.

In 1801, the British sent a troop of soldiers under Colonel Maxwell to tackle Dheeran Chinnamalai. However, Chinnamalai, having got advance information of the attack, defeated the British, again on the banks of the River Noyyal. Maxwell returned in 1802, and after a long siege of Odanilai fort, ended in yet another comprehensive defeat for the British, with Maxwell himself being killed-beheaded.

The British by this time were furious and waited for an opportunity to make a calculated assault. It came in the year, 1804, when having learnt that Chinnamalai and his followers would be attending the Arasalur Amman Temple festival, on a particular day, they made plans.

An army was dispatched to capture Odanilai Fort, under General Harris, who had led successful campaigns in Mysore. Chinnamalai through his network of spies learnt about the plan, and stayed back at the fort, with his main Army, while others went to join the temple festival. General Harris was taken by surprise when he attacked the fort, and Chinnamalai stormed-out, forcing him to retreat.

The British were now more determined than ever, and built a huge army to take down Chinnamalai, with cannons brought over from Madras. With 140 cannons and 30,000 men, Harris came back, attacked Odanilai, and surrounded the fort, demanding that Chinnamalai surrender. However, they found that the fort was abandoned, and that Velappan was acting as a double agent for Chinnamalai, while on the British side. Harris promptly had Velappan executed, and also razed Odanilai fort to the ground-the cannons were put to use.

The story goes that Dheeran Chinnamalai had a personal habit of wearing a new pair of slippers/sandals every day. Loyal informers and messengers exploited this routine to deliver secret notes/chits hiding them inside the soles of the sandals. Velappan would write critical intelligence – details of British troop movements, attack plans etc on a these chits. When he put on the new sandals in the morning, he would take-out and read the hidden messages and promptly destroy them.

One key instance involved storming the Odanilai Fort with cannons. Chinnamalai received the note and evacuated the fort to hide in the forests of Karumalai. After reading the secret note, Chinnamalai accidentally left it behind in the sandals, in the Fort. When the British arrived at the abandoned Odanilai Fort and while searching for Chinnamalai, they came across the discarded pair of sandals. Frustrated at finding the fort empty, General Harris picked up and threw the sandals against a wall in a fit of rage. The sandals broke open, revealing the hidden note. He then had the message read, which clearly pointed to intelligence information passed from Velappan warning Chinnamalai about the British attack plans (including cannons and timing).This exposed Velappan, leading to his execution.

Chinnamalai was deeply hurt by the incident, blaming himself for being careless, leading to the death of a true loyalist. The importance of spying is of paramount importance is getting the better of an enemy, in the asymmetric warfare of those times.

Chinnamalai, his brothers, and soldiers, now lived in exile, at a place called Karumalai near Palani, often disguising themselves to venture into towns. During such forays they became friendly with a local cook called Nallappan, who willingly offered them food, water, and refuge. It turned out that Nallappan was a traitor. He was enticed and bribed by the British to provide information on Chinnamalai’s whereabouts. He secretly informed the British about Chinnamalai’s daily routine of having meals in his house at the foothills. The British dug an underground tunnel leading to the house and waited for Chinnamalai.

One evening, following the usual routine, when Chinnamalai entered Nallappan’s house along with his brothers, and Nallappan proceeded to serve them. This time he cunningly asked all of them to keep aside their weapons as there was no danger while dining. The brothers trusted him and agreed, as they also did not sense an imminent danger. Once their weapons were taken away from them, Nallappan signalled the British who stormed the house both from the underground tunnel and from outside. A total of two hundred soldiers surrounded the house. The British soldiers quickly locked-on to Chinnamalai and his brothers. An enraged Chinnamalai managed to break-free, pounced upon Nallappan and strangulated him to death, on the spot.

The British arrested Chinnamalai and his brothers and kept them in a prison in Sankagiri Fort. Their loyal commander Karuppan who was in hiding at Melapalayam, also surrendered. A four person British Tribunal was formed, which demanded he accept British sovereignty and pay taxes. They also offered him amnesty if he tendered an apology. He refused defiantly and was sentenced to death.

On 31 July 1805, Dheeran Chinnamalai, his brothers, and Karuppan were hanged at Sankagiri Fort. He was about 49 years old. His body was brought back to Odanilai for burial.

The story goes that preparations were made to hang them by rope tied to a Tamarind tree located at the top of the Sankagiri fort. Chinnamalai, his two brothers and Karuppan were brought to the spot on the day of hanging. They asked the escorting British soldiers to move away, and each one tied the rope around their own necks and jumped to embrace death.

The whole of Kongunadu wept for the heroic deed on that day. The British ensured that Chinnamalai did not become a household name by banning books or any information on Chinnamalai for a long period of time.

Dheeran Chinnamalai symbolizes Kongu pride, valour, and early resistance to British rule. Today, statues and memorials stand in places like Odanilai, Sankagiri Fort, Chennai, Erode, Tiruchirappalli, and elsewhere. A commemorative postage stamp was issued by India Post in 2005. Though details vary across oral recounts and sources, his defiance remains a powerful part of Tamil and Indian history.

The story of Dheeran Chinnamalai, and his heroic battles with the British and the eventual sacrifice of his for the cause of freedom would have been completely consigned to oblivion, but of the tradition of oral story telling that existed in Tamil culture. The singular credit goes to Pulavar Kulanthai who heard this story from his grand father during the early 1900s and wrote it down, keeping the story alive.

I started with the treachery of Mir Jafar and ended with another kind of treachery by cook Nallappan. A brave, indomitable India (and sometimes casually over-confident) was defeated mostly from enemies within, rather than for those outside. Indian History is filled with them- like termites in the woodwork. Look around today, the story continues, albeit in different forms, wearing various political labels and colours.

Dheeran Chinnamalai, by any measure, was an extraordinary, fearless hero. He was against subjugation of any kind and stood-up for freedom, on his own free-will. He had no known mentor, nor was he of royal lineage. There is still so much we do not know about him. And the idea of Bharat- however loose it might appear with the many independent small Kingdoms-was long ingrained. Dheeran Chinnamalai could have been selfish ‘sticking himself to reigning between two large hills’, but he dared to fight the British along with Tipu Sultan. It’s now upon us to become our own chinnamalais, be counted, and stand up for India, always -in our own ‘chinna’ way. Small can actually be big. Jai Hind.

CAPTURED: COOKED

About: This is the second in my Captured series; about capturing various stories that rocked the world. Call it Season 1, Episode 2.

I have cooked this tongue-in-cheek account of events over the past few months, in a unique flavour and garnished it with special herbs. Hope it tastes good.

It looked like just the other day in the year 2022 that Russia invaded Ukraine and we called it a War- a new front opened in the War Business. Then the terrorist Hamas brutally attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, and took Israelis as hostages, who they painfully released in drops until the finals on 13 October 2025. In-between, Israel raised Gaza to pulp, millions starved, and it took the US President to squeeze out a peace-plan. And then this war dried-up.

However, despite biting efforts, the Russia-Ukraine war ‘drones on’ without an end in sight. Maybe it will end only when Russia’s President thinks it should end, when he has had his full. What are the objectives? Is it an ever-shifting goal-post? Meanwhile, Ukraine has become an expert in Drone-making, and if it actually wins, can re-write Sun Tzu’s, Art of War.

While all this was happening, Iran which was hiding behind the skirts of Hamas-Gaza Strip, Hezbollah-Lebanon, the Houthis- Yemen first tasted America’s bunker busting bombs targeting its nuclear facilities. The taste wasn’t finger-licking and the United States of America (USA) and Israel came to dinner loaded with food on the table. Iran’s Supreme Leader choked and was killed.

With an intent of widening the conflict, Iran retaliated against other Gulf countries, who were enjoying their meals silently for decades and never dreamt of being hit. But they were hit and became hungry for revenge. Now this war meanders on endlessly, joining the ranks of Russia-Ukraine.

Back home, the US President survived an assassination attempt – a fully loaded-with-arms man, hungry for action, simply charged a dinner hosted by the President. He did not get to eat the food on the table, though, and was whisked away from the scene by Secret Service Officers. He lived to feed himself another day.

How many more need to die for man to realise the futility of war? And the importance of eating good, healthy food to stay alive!

In India, Elections to State Assemblies was served to the people. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) scored a hat-trick in Assam: people liked the local food, I guess. In the State of West Bengal a ferocious, fish-eating lady was finally, comprehensively decimated by the BJP, after 15 years of fishing in troubled waters. She lost her seat refused to accept the results, did not resign and had to be dismissed by a clever, no-nonsense Governor imported from the State of Tamil Nadu. The BJP was dumbfounded and stunned, as all it took was for the Prime Minister, during the election campaign, to walk unannounced in to a road-side sweet shop to enjoy the traditional jhalmuri- served well. After winning, it was a burst of sweet jhalmuri, all over the state. Jhalmuri is Kolkata’s most popular street food snack. It is a crunchy mix of puffed rice tossed with vegetables, spices, and a signature pungent mustard oil.

Going South on to Tamil Nadu the ruling Don Quixotic Government, which spent its entire five years fighting against the Centre, at the drop of a reason; building statues of its late Chief- and naming everything they built after him; and whipping up Dravidian Stock divisions, was bushwhacked by a reel Film Star. Tamil Nadu feeds on, and nourishes itself on film stars yet again. Kids – who could not vote-literally coaxed their parents and grandparents to vote for the Star in the name of change: else they said they will starve themselves. Some food for thought. But some wise, old, well-fed elders – without anyone to intimidate them – could not digest a rookie piloting a plane in a mid-air change and pulled back. Result, the Film Star’s party fell short of majority. And riding on horseback, the Star rode to the Governor a couple of times – trying to make hay while the sun shines. Meanwhile, the Opposition, which ran a brilliant campaign and hoped to come back to power found it was stamped out of food in the overall unbelievable scenario, which many called a Black Swan Event. Then, they began eating themselves.

Finally, the Star was fed support from people from across the table of the Evil Forces he had campaigned against and with a lovely ‘suit & boot’ took oath as Chief Minister.

In the State of Puducherry – previously colonised by the French- the BJP Alliance baked well, returning to power in the Assembly Elections. One of its Members, on being disallowed to take ‘Oath of Office’ in French, took it in Malayalam.

In the neighbouring state of Keralam- where they speak Malayalam-which shared its Governor with Tamil Nadu, the Congress Party Alliance, that opposes the BJP at the Centre, won a banquet meal and became so stuffed with it that it took a whole ten days to get it down their throats to their stomachs, an elect a Leader. Talk about stomaching a victory, after a decade in the Opposition!

In the meantime, the US President flew to China and noodled its President to work together as fantastic pals. In the US President’s world everything is great, fantastic, exemplary. Talks focussed on trade, the Iran conflict, Taiwan, and broader US-China relations. Packed like sardines, the US President brought along top US Business CEO’s and high-profile executives, about 17 of them -from technology, finance, aerospace, and other sectors to show economic muscle, and for the meat of trade opportunities in China. And to pressurise China to open-up and gobble up more of US Businesses – breakfast, lunch, and dinner served.

Not to be left behind, India’s Prime Minister(PM) decided he needed some pizza and lean-in on a melody with Italian PM Meloni. He gifted her a pack of the home-grown toffee brand Melody. And it was ‘Melodi’ in the air sang Social Media, where such events fly off the shelves as viral. But he kept the best for the last. And the Indian manufacturer of the Melody Toffee went Instagram with ‘Sweetening relationships since 1983’.

In a 5 nation tour, India’s PM started with the United Arab Emirates where he made clever plans with the Oil Sheiks to strengthen energy ties and storage of precious oil for India, amid the West Air tensions – in the process enabling gas-cooked food on the table, for Indians. In the European leg of Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and finally Italy, he set out to deepening partnerships in trade, technology, Artificial Intelligence, innovation, green growth, and defence. At almost all the places enthusiastic foreign dancers, after probably eating spicy Indian food, danced to Indian tunes, to Indian dances.I would have loved to see Indians living abroad, after eating foreign food, dancing to foreign tunes, foreign dances!

India’s PM not only had food on his mind he also had plates as well. While in the Netherlands, he charmed them to handing over Leiden (Aanaimangalam) Copper plates one of the first Copper plates to be discovered about the great Cholas of Tamil Nadu. They were excavated by the Dutch, while in India, in the year about 1700 and brought to the Netherlands by a Pastor whose descendants donated it to Leiden University in 1862. The plates were deciphered in 1886 and found that Rajaraja Chola I had issued them and consisted of 21 copper plates held together by a bronze ring with the regal seal. The first 5 plates are in Sanskrit, rest 16 are in Tamil. They weigh about 30 kilograms and are numbered. Plates 2-21 mentions the lineage of Cholas. It also records the historic grant by Rajaraja Chola to the then Ruler of Sri Vijaya, Indonesia, for constructing a Chulamanivarma Vihara in Aanaimangalam of Nagapattinam District of Tamil Nadu. Interestingly, boundaries of the Vihara were determined by the ceremonial circumambulation of a female elephant.

In the summer of 2023, India had submitted a request to Leiden University to return the Chola Plates – with or without food on them.

These plates will now be kept by the Archaeological Survey of India in the capital, New Delhi. Never mind Tamil Nadu cried it wanted it back on its table.

Finally, India’s PM returned with more medals on his famous 56 inch wide chest – enough to make an Army General jealous. What, with many a nation gushing and rushing to honour him with their heaviest medals. I reckon it was wide, on purpose. And a Museum piece?

WAYFINDING

About: Once in a while, or many a time, we may feel we are losing our way in life, or are stumped in making a choice-taking a decision, or are driven mad in a relationship, or are almost on the verge of giving up. Enough is enough. And then, we search for something to latch on to – anchor our thoughts- to keep going. For most of us it is, faith-religion, family, friends, books, movies, music, love, inspirational quotes… goes on. But then, what’s the meaning of life? Is life some awesome rewarding treat? How do you find your way through the complex world we live in? How do we keep ourselves together and pull-through? This is an attempt to put together facts and some tales, from Books that I have read, or seen or heard, and my own experiences- to find our way. Consider this a Guidepost when you find yourself at the crossroads.

When I was a Project Manager working against many deadlines to modernise New Delhi’s horribly congested International Terminal-2, in the year 2007, one of the things that fascinated me was Signage. The Signage in an Airport Terminal is meant to be so simple that even a child is able to find his way from Check-in, through Departure to Boarding the Aircraft, without actually having to ask anybody for help. The colour scheme and placement is purposely designed for easy visibility, reading, understanding, and following directions in a commonsense manner.

Often, as we travel through life, we find ourselves at crossroads-with or without signage-and the road that we take is what matters. Robert Frost famously wrote in the Poem, ‘Road Not Taken’, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference”. Hidden in the woods, beneath the leaves, the signage is, the necessity of choosing. Robert Frost creates a multiplicity of meanings and describes how choice is inevitable.

Of course, we broadly need to know where we want to go. Reminds me of that iconic scene in Lewis Carroll’s, ‘Alice in Wonderland’, when Alice comes to a forked road and does not know which road to take. She spots a Cheshire Cat sitting at a nearby tree and asks, “Where does this road go”. “Where do you want to go”, asks the Cat. Alice replies, “I don’t know”. The Cat replies, “In that case any road will take you there”. Well, the story humorously explores direction, purpose, and sanity in life. If you don’t have a destination or goal in mind, any road will do.

Viktor E Frankl in his brilliant, must-read book,’Man’s Search for Meaning’ says we all experience what is called, The Existential Vacuum – a feeling of total and ultimate meaningless of life. No instinct tells us what we have to do, and no tradition tells us what we ought to do: sometimes we do not even know what we wish to do. Instead, we wish to do what other people do-conformism-or we do what other people wish us to do-totalitarianism. Typically, we fall in to this vacuum on weekends, when cut-out from a job that we are tied-up throughout the week, we sometimes feel listless and aimless.

Viktor Frankl goes on to say Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life. This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance. Each situation in life represents a challenge to man and presents a problem for him to solve. Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognise that it is he who is being asked. Every man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to the life he can only respond by being responsible.

The meaning of life is to be discovered in the world, rather than within man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system. We can discover the meaning of life in three different ways: (1) By creating a work or doing a deed: these are the people who have passion and fire in their bellies to something outstanding, like a Bill Gates, a Steve Jobs, a Jeff Bezos, a Elon Musk, to name a few; (2) By experiencing something or encountering someone: say sublime love. Here each one helps the other in actualising the potential that they saw in each other, when truly falling in love; (3) By the attitude we take towards unavoidable suffering: say, when someone in terminally ill and the only option is taking care of them as best as we can, to challenge death head-on.

Goes the famous saying by German Philosopher, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, “There is nothing in the world that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life”. He who has a ‘why’ to live for can bear almost any ‘how’.

Famous author, Ayn Rand with her philosophy of objectivism presents us the ‘Ideal Man’. She says, “It is not the nature of man – nor any living entity- to start out by giving up, by spitting in one’s own face and damning existence; that requires a process of corruption whose rapidity differs from man to man. Some give up at the first touch of pressure; some sell out; some run down by imperceptible degrees and lose their fire, never knowing when or how they lost it. Then all of these vanish in the vast swamp of their elders who tell them persistently that maturity consists of abandoning one’s values; practically, of losing self-esteem. Yet a few hold on and move one, knowing that that fire is not to be betrayed, learning how to give it shape, purpose and reality. But whatever their future, at the dawn of their lives, men seek a noble vision of man’s nature and of life’s potential”. Ayan Rand’s novel, The Fountainhead is easily a rare guidepost, as well as, ‘Atlas Shrugged’, which is even better.

Ayn Rand goes on, “Man cannot survive except through his mind. He comes on Earth unarmed. His brain is his only weapon. Animals obtain food by force. Man has no claws, no fangs, no horns, no great strength of muscle. He must plant his food or hunt it. To plant, he needs a process of thought. To hunt, he needs weapons and to make weapons- a process of thought. From the simplest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the highest skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from a single attribute of man-the function of his reasoning mind”.

Lisa Feldman Barrett in her brilliant book, ‘Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain’, writes, “Have you ever noticed that many newborn animals are more competent than newborn humans? A newborn snake can slither on its own almost instantly. Horses can walk shortly after birth, and an infant chimp can cling to its mother’s hair. In comparison, human newborns are pretty pathetic. They can’t even control their limbs. It takes weeks before they can swat their tiny hands with intent. Many animals emerge from the egg or womb with brains that are more fully wired to control their bodies, but little human brains are born under construction. They don’t take on their full adult structure and function until they finish their principal wiring, a process that takes about twenty-five years. And these writing instructions come not only from the physical environment, but from the social environment, from caregivers, and people like you and me. Cleverly summarised, on how the living environment shapes a child, and wires his brain.

Most of us consider the Brain’s job as, ‘thinking’. But it does not work that way, says Lisa Feldman Barrett. Your Brain is not for thinking, but running your body that has become extremely complicated. It does what is called ‘Body Budgeting’-automatically predicting and preparing to see the body’s needs before they arise. Your brain runs a budget for your body that regulates water, salt, glucose, and many other biological resources inside you. When it comes to body budgeting, prediction beats reaction.

An especially useful feature of the mind, and one of the closest things we have to a universal mental feature is Mood – the general sense of feeling that comes from your body. Scientists call is affect Feelings of affect range from pleasant to unpleasant, from idle to activated. Affect is not emotion: your brain produces affect all the time, whether you’re emotional or not and whether you notice it or not.

Affect is the source of all your joys and sorrows. It makes some things profound or sacred to you and other things trivial or vile. If you’re a religious person, affect helps you feel connected to God. If you’re a spiritual person but not necessarily religious, affect becomes the transcendent feeling of being part of something larger than yourself. If you’re a skeptic, affect is what drives your certainty that others are wrong.

Affect is like a barometer for how you’re doing. Remember, your brain is constantly running a budget for your body. Affect hints at whether your body budget is in balance or in the red. Ideally, evolution would have given you something more specific, like an app or a smart-watch to regulate your body budget precisely. Unfortunately, affect is not so precise. It just tells you, Beep! You feel like crap. Then your brain must predict what to do next to keep you alive and well.

Even though every human culture produces minds that feel pleasure, displeasure, calmness, and agitation, we don’t necessarily agree on what makes us feel these things. What the brain does to regulate the body may be universal, but the resulting mental experiences are not. Your kind of mind is just one among many, and you are not stuck with the mind you have. You can modify your mind. People do it all the time. For longer-lasting modifications, you can try new experiences or learn new things to rewire your brain. A particularly challenging way to modify a mind is by moving it to another culture-Acculturation. You change cultures when you switch between work life and home life, and when you change jobs and have to learn different norms and jargon of your new workplace.

In a pretty straight book, ‘Thinking Straight’, Darius Foroux says, you have the ability to decided what you think. And since the result of your life depends on your thoughts, it’s the most important thing in life. When we improve the way we think, nothing is impossible to achieve. That simple realisation changes everything. You become what you think all day long. And you must develop a Free Will – the sustaining of a thought because I choose to when I might have other thoughts. The first act of free will is to believe in free will. Change your thoughts; change your life.

Darius’s focus is on having useful thoughts. Only think about things you can control. That automatically eliminates about 99% of our thoughts because there’s very little you control in life. He makes a case of Thinking Straight at all times by staying grounded, looking at facts, listening to other people’s perspectives and then drawing practical conclusions. Thoughts should serve a useful purpose. If they don’t, they are useless. That’s thinking straight. Darius warns his about Cognitive Biases – a systematic thinking error that impacts judgements, and therefore, our decisions. And finally, thinking is not enough, you must put thoughts into action.

One of the most challenging things is for man to live with another of his species.

That’s where the importance of relationships, kick-in. And the best way to do it peacefully is defining and setting boundaries. Mark Manson’s book, ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F-ck’ is a must read to delve into the art of staying cool and living your life the way you want to.

He says, Boundaries mean delineation between two people’s responsibilities for their own problems. People in a healthy relationship with strong boundaries will take responsibility for their own values and problems and not take responsibility for their partner’s values and problems. People in a toxic relationship with poor or no boundaries will regularly avoid responsibility for their own problems and/or take responsibility for their partner’s problems. The setting of paper boundaries doesn’t mean you can’t help or support your partner or be helped and supported yourself. You both should support each other. But only because you choose to support and be supported. Not because you feel obligated or entitled.

Entitled people who blame others for their own emotions and actions do so because they believe that if they constantly paint themselves as victims, eventual someone will come along and save them.

People can’t solve your problems for you. And they should’t try, because that won’t make you happy. You cannot solve other people’s problems for them either, because likewise won’t make them happy. The mark of an unhealthy relationship is two people who try to solve each other’s problems in order to feel good about themselves. Rather a healthy relationship is when two people solve their own problems in order to feel good about each other.

For a relationship to be healthy, both people must be willing and able to say ‘No’ and hear ‘No’. Without that negation, without that occasional rejection, boundaries break down and one person’s problems and values come to dominate the others. Conflict is not only normal, then: it’s absolutely necessary for the maintenance of a healthy relationship. If two people who are close are not able to thrash out their differences openly and vocally, then their relationship is based on manipulation and misrepresentation, and it will slowly become toxic.

Trust is the most important ingredient in any relationship, for the simple reason that without trust, the relationship doesn’t actually mean anything. For more, read Mark Manson’s book – a No 1 International Bestseller. It’s worth your time- build a ‘relationship’ with it!

Another book which enables you find direction and meaning is The Bhagavad Gita, which oozes with timeless wisdom. Every time you read it another window of thought opens. And it only enriches you. How did I miss that one?

It begins with a warrior prince on the battlefield, ready to fight a war to the regain his Kingdom denied by his blood relatives, who dishonoured an agreement to this effect. Seeing the Battle Array of the armies of both sides, his mind wavers and ponders on whether it is worth fighting to kill people he had grown up with and known all his life: friends, relatives, teachers, gurus. He is comprehensively overwhelmed by the situation, becomes a moral wreck, says he would rather renounce, retire in quietude, and throws down his arms, refusing to fight.

This is a classic existential crisis combining empathy, guilt, confusion about right and wrong, and loss of purpose. Lord Krishna later calls it a form of delusion born of ignorance (though he addresses it with profound wisdom).

Lord Krishna is the Charioteer of Prince Arjuna and the Gita is all about one’s calling, duty, maintaining equanimity of the mind and how to overcome such listlessness, in what is called the ‘Arjuna Affect’. At the end of the discourse Arjuna wakes up the reality of the situation, abandons regressive thoughts, realises his duty is to find fulfilment as a warrior on the battlefield, and fights to destroy evil – the enemy. That’s living true to his nature, and skilled and trained in the art of war.

Going back in time, in Homer’s Iliad, Achilles slays his life with honour, glory and immortality in battle. “If I remain here, continuing the fight against the Trojans’ city, that means I won’t be going home, but my glory will never die. But if I go back home, my fame will die, although my life will last a long time—death will not end it quickly”.

We all face the Arjuna Affect in various stages of our lives, say, when we are in a situation, where blinded by kinship, love or other factors, we are unable to decide on a course of action, feeling tied down. Leaders freezing before a necessary but painful decision then questioning just about everything and being swayed by various factors of the situation that we find ourselves in, and abandoning action. This was the same Arjuna who when aiming for the eye of the fish from a reflection in a mirror saw nothing but the target and hit it spot-on.

The Gita says, always perform actions without attachment. Do what is obligatory in your present social status, in your domestic situation, as a member of your community, and the nation, in a spirit of detachment and self-dedication. Do the work for the sake of the work. It is so important that one focuses on enjoying the journey, fully presen, rather than dreaming about the outcome or beneficial results of actions.

That which determines one man’s personality as distinctly different from another- it is very well known- is the texture of the thoughts entertained by him. To act according to one’s own inborn nature, is the only known method of living in peace and joy, in success and satisfaction. To act against one’s own inborn nature is fraught with danger. It’s dangerous to suppress one’s one personality and copy the activities of someone else, even if he is living a more noble and divine life. Be unapologetically authentic, says the Gita. Dharma essentially means the ‘the Law of Being’, of anything in the world and one has to find his own Dharma, his innate qualities and nature, and courageously live by it.

There is another directional story from Ayn Rand’s, The Fountainhead, which has always stayed with me. Remember, a man’s self-dignity is the fountainhead of human progress.

A young man had just graduated from College and in a moment of desperation he was riding his bicycle down a forgotten trail through the hills of Pennsylvania, where he had never been before. And he hoped he would not have to die (he was planning exactly that). He wanted to decide whether life was worth living. His thoughts were only to find joy and meaning in life-and none had been offered to him anywhere.

He did not like the things they taught him in College: about social responsibility; about a life of service and self-sacrifice. Everybody said it was beautiful and inspiring. Only he had not felt inspired. He felt nothing at all. So he felt anger that he should find exultation only in the wilderness, that this great sense of hope had to be lost when he would return to men and men’s work. He thought this was not right; that a man’s work should be a higher step, an improvement on nature, not a degradation. He did not want to despise men; he wanted to love and admire them.

He had always wanted to write music, and he could give not other identity to the thing he sought (apparently his family wanted him to do something else)

He saw a blue hole ahead, where the road ended on the crest of a ridge. He reached the edge and closed his eyes. But instead of being swallowed by the blue emptiness ahead, he woke up to find himself on the ground. He opened his eyes and stood still.

In the broad valley far below him, in the first sunlight of early morning he saw a town. Only it wasn’t a town. Towns did not look like that.

The sight was stunning. There were small houses on the ledges of the hill before him flowing down to the bottom. He knew the ledges had not been touched, that no artifice had altered the unplanned beauty of the graded steps. Yet some power had known how to build on the ledges in such a way that houses became inevitable, and he could no longer imagine the hills as beautiful without them. It was as if a series of changes, over centuries, that produced these ledges had waited for their final expression, which was these buildings, part of the hills, shaped by the hills, yet ruling them by giving them meaning.

There were many houses, they were small and they were cut off from one another, and no two of them were alike. But, they were like variations of a single theme, like a symphony played by an inexhaustible imagination, and one could still hear the laughter of the force that had been let loose on them, as if the force had run, unrestrained, challenging itself to be spent, but never reached its end. Music, he thought, the promise of the music he had invoked was there before his eyes. He did not see it, he heard it in chords. He thought that there was a common language of thought, sight and sound, and then it dawned upon him: ‘Architecture is music in stone’. The sight shocked him, it was unreal. In a way, it seemed proper; this was not part of known existence, and it made him dizzy.

A few steps away he saw a man- tall, gaunt, and with orange hair- sitting on a boulder, looking down at the Valley, fully absorbed in the sight. He walked over and asked him, pointing down, “That isn’t real, is it?” “Why, yes, it is, now”, replied the man. “It’s not a movie set or a trick of some kind?” “No, it’s a Summer Resort. It’s just been completed. It will be opened in a few weeks”. “Who built it?” He asks. “I did”, says the man. “What’s your name?” Howard Roark, came the reply. “Thank you”, said the young man. He lifted his bicycle and wheeled away-gaining the inspiration and the courage to face a lifetime. Ayn Rand strings the music so beautifully that you feel, this is the only way man should live, as a Creator, an Inventor, for which he requires independence. No man can live for another. Man’s fight duty is to himself.

I end this essay with the haunting lines from Donna Tartt’s bewitching masterpiece, ‘The Goldfinch’.

“That life-whatever else it is-is short. That fate is cruel, but maybe not random. That Nature (meaning Death) always wins, but that doesn’t mean we have to bow and grovel to it. That, maybe even if we’re not always glad to be here, it’s our task to immerse ourselves anyway: wade straight through it, right through the cesspool, while keeping eyes and hearts open. And in the midst of our dying, as we rise from the organic and sink back ignominiously in to the organic, it is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn’t touch.

THE RISE & FALL OF EMPIRES

About: This is the fourth in a concise series of essays from the beginning of our world, from primitive life through civilizations, small Kingdoms, large Empires to the doorstep of our modern world of nations. It’s about memorable stories of conquerors and adventurers who wrote their life in blood and sweat. The tale of Genghis Khan is a fascinating one, so is that of Prithviraj Chauhan; the wealth of Mansa Musa of Africa; the rise of the Ottoman Empire; the grandeur of India’s Vijayanagar Empire; the founder of China’s Ming Dynasty; and last but not least, not an Empire Builder, but a hollowed adventurer called Christopher Columbus. (Image is Canva AI generated. 25 April 2026)

About the year 1175 CE, somewhere in Mongolia, a fatherless boy, abandoned by his tribe in the harsh environment of the Steppes with his mother and six siblings, was out hunting. Clutching a bow in one hand, he was inching his way, on his stomach, towards a deer. He slipped out an arrow with a curious hole in its point and sent it flying. The cunningly designed arrow made a distinctive hiss, causing the deer to look up startled-at exactly the right moment ‘to invite’ the arrowhead through its throat. The boy was fearless, brutal, exceptionally clever, and had a talent for reading others minds (perhaps, animals included). And he learnt most of these skills from his mother, Hoelun, in the grind of hard life in the forest.

Hoelun was an extraordinarily resilient woman of great courage and determination who single-handedly kept the family alive through extreme poverty. They foraged for wild fruits, roots, and plants; hunted small game like marmots, rodents, and fish in the Onon River area; and even scavenged ox carcasses. The boy, Temujin, was born in the year, about 1162 CE, near the Onon River in Khentii province, Mongolia. Eventually he would grow up to be called Genghis Khan, a genius Mongolian warrior-ruler, one of the greatest conquerors known to man, in the history of the world.

When Temujin was 9 years old, in better times, he was betrothed to a 10 year girl called Borte of another tribe, in a political alliance, as was the norm. The actual wedding would be held when they came of age. His father, a Tribal Chief, had made the arrangements, leaving Temujin to stay behind and become friends with the tribe of his future in-laws. On the way back, the father was killed by a rival Tribe, resulting in Temujin, Hoelun, and the siblings landing in the forest.

After about seven years in the wilderness, Temujin set out to reunite with Borte and marry her, by garnering the support of the relatives he could find. However, soon after the Wedding his family was attacked by yet another rival Tribe and they abducted his new wife. Temujin’s organised extraction of Borte, in a daring raid, is one of the key events, which set him on the path to becoming a Conqueror-and a ruthless one at that. He exterminated the Tribe that abducted his wife. And enslaved their women. He then rallied and built alliances to get back his father’s title and was soon elected a Khan of all Mongols, and given the title of Genghis(Universal) Khan (Ruler).

Over the years, Genghis Khan stayed loyal to his first wife Borte, even though he took multiple other wives and had hundreds of concubines over his lifetime. Loyalty then was very different from modern Western monogamous ideals: it was rooted in deep respect, political partnership, emotional bond, and unique elevated status, rather than exclusive sexual fidelity.

Genghis Khan united and consolidated nomadic tribes into a unified Mongolia and then extended his Mongol Empire across Asia and the Adriatic Sea in a brutal and devastating manner. His armies killed about 1.25 million people over two years!

Going in another dimension, Genetic researches say that the genetic material from a single male, around 900 years ago, was shared by one in 200 of all men alive, some 16 million men scattered across Eurasia. And that super-successful progenitor was most likely Genghis Khan. The great invader took women from his vanquished foes wherever he went, never mind his legitimate children and those of his concubines. Genghis Khan died in his early sixties-with eyes set on new victories in China.

His successors spread the Mongol Empire to its farthest extent, taking all of China and Korea and in the West, defeating the Poles and Hungarians, whose army included French, and German too.

While Temujin was still hunting to become Genghis Khan, in India, a young Prince, Prithviraj Chauhan / Rai Pithora, had just begun his rule as a Rajput King with his capital at Ajmer, in present-day Rajasthan. He ascended the throne as a minor in 1177 CE again under a mother’s watch, after his father’s death. Despite his young age, he quickly took control and proved himself a capable ruler and military leader. He expanded his kingdom through campaigns against neighbouring powers and ruled over a territory that included Delhi as a secondary holding, but with his main capital and base at Ajmer. He is called the last Hindu King of Delhi, as his passing paved the way for the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate under Qutb-ud-din Aibak-the first Sultan of Delhi, in the year 1206 CE.

One of the most enduring tales of Prithviraj is, his romance with Samyukta/Sanyogita, the daughter of King Jayachandra, the Gahadavala ruler of Kannauj, in present day Uttar Pradesh. While for Genghis Khan, Borte was a turning point for the better, for Prithviraj, Sanyogita was actually a downfall.

Popular legend says that the two fell in love after seeing each other’s portraits painted by an artist who travelled between the Court Kingdoms. Sanyogita admired Prithviraj’s heroic deeds; and he was captivated by her bewitching beauty. When King Jayachandra organized a Swayamvara – a ceremony where a Princess chooses her husband– and deliberately excluded Prithviraj due to their political rivalry, Sanyogita defied her father. She placed a statue of Prithviraj at the entrance and garlanded it instead. Prithviraj, who had arrived in disguise with his forces, eloped with her on horseback. This act intensified the feud between the Kings contributing to disunity among Rajput kingdoms at a critical time when invaders were knocking at India’s then boundaries. It’s unclear whether this story is fact or fiction, but remains a cherished symbol of love and defiance in Indian folklore.

During Prithviraj’s rule, Muhammad Ghori, a ruler from Afghanistan sought to expand into India, and attacked. Prithviraj led a united Rajput confederacy and decisively defeated the invader. Ghori was injured and forced to flee; the Rajputs pursued, but did not capture him (a huge mistake, in hindsight). This victory gave Prithviraj the badge of a defender against foreign incursions. However, Ghori returned with a larger, better-prepared army, employing superior tactics like feigned retreats and coordinated archery. Prithviraj again rallied allies, but this time could not muster a great alliance, especially that of his father-in-law, King Jayachandra’s. Prithviraj did not ask, nor did King Jayachandra offer his army. If they had indeed, India’s history would have been different. This time the Rajput forces were routed and Prithviraj was captured. Ghori’s victory marked a breaking-point, paving the way for the establishment of Muslim rule in northern India and the eventual rise of the Delhi Sultanate.

Prithviraj was taken to Ajmer, where he was executed in early 1192 CE, at about the age of 25. There is also a story, probably fictional, that Prithviraj was blinded by Ghori as punishment. Chained and humiliated, he demonstrated his mastery of shabd-bhedi baan (shooting arrows by sound alone). With guidance from a Poet, Chand Bardai (who recited verses hinting at Ghori’s position), the blinded king shot and killed Ghori. In reality, Ghori survived until 1206 CE, assassinated later by his own men. Meanwhile, Sanyogita committed Sati (burning in the funeral pyre) as was the custom those days to prevent Queens from becoming sex slaves of the Invaders. Ghori was furious with King Jayachandra, who actually helped him in the second invasion. “Whatever the differences, if this King did not go to the aid of his own son-in-law he should be treated as a Traitor”. And promptly had him beheaded. Indian Kings lacked this killer instinct and using the excuse of ‘war dharma’ and ‘large-heartedness’ they let off their enemies easily.

If you go back into the history of India, despite having fantastic warriors, fighters, heroes, and a great civilization, India was repeatedly invaded only because it failed to stay united and collaborate against an invader. Often, after momentarily joining together to repulse an attack, the Kings would go back to their old ways of infighting.

While Genghis Khan and Prithviraj were using Mom and Wife to build Empires, in faraway Africa, a King, living at the edge of the Sahara Desert, easily inherited power and wealth so much, that he created a never before sensation with this fabulous abundance. Mansa Musa was the ninth Mansa (Emperor or King) of the Mali Empire in West Africa. He ruled from around 1312 to 1337 CE and is said to be one of the wealthiest in history, thanks to Mali’s control over vast gold and salt-trade networks.

Mansa Musa belonged to the Keita dynasty, which roots can be traced to Sundiata Keita, the legendary founder of the Mali Empire in the 13th century. He occupied the throne after the previous ruler disappeared during a large naval expedition to explore the Atlantic Ocean. Musa inherited an already prosperous empire that controlled key trans-Saharan trade routes, rich gold mines, salt deposits, and ivory.

Under his reign, the Mali Empire reached its territorial and economic peak. It stretched across much of West Africa, encompassing parts of modern-day Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Mauritania. Musa expanded the empire by conquering or absorbing territories, including the important trading city of Gao, and secured control over northern Saharan outposts like Walata and salt-producing regions like Taghaza.

Mansa Musa’s most memorable and legendary act was his Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca in 1324 CE, undertaken as a devout Muslim in the 17th year of his reign. This journey put Mali on the global map and showcased its unimaginable wealth and riches. Musa travelled with an enormous caravan of about 60,000 people, including 12,000 servants or slaves, many dressed in fine brocade and silk, 500 attendants each carrying a gold staff, and 80–100 camels loaded with hundreds of kilos of gold bars each (possibly totalling up to 18 tons). His senior wife and her entourage added to the splendour. The procession started at Niana-Mali’s then Capital- through Walata, Tagaza, Ain-salah, Ghadames, Aujila, traversing across the Sahara to reach Cairo, Egypt, and then onwards to Medina and finally Mecca -a total of about 6400km. In Cairo, his lavish spending and gifts of gold were so extravagant that they flooded the market, causing the price of gold to drop significantly (by up to 25%) and disrupting the local economy for about a decade afterwards. He built a new mosque every Friday, along the route. The entire journey took nearly two years during which period Musa’s son ruled Mali. He returned to his kingdom through the same route.

Upon his return, Mansa Musa focused on turning Mali into a centre of Islamic learning and culture. He brought scholars, architects, and jurists from Egypt and Spain. He commissioning the construction and rebuilding of grand mosques, most famously the Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu. And developed Timbuktu and Gao into major intellectual hubs with universities, libraries, and madrasas that attracted students and scholars from across the Muslim world. He promoting Islamic scholarship and encouraging the study of the Quran and law. Timbuktu became one of Africa’s most renowned centres of learning during the medieval period. His reign is called the Golden Age of the Mali Empire.

Mansa Musa died around 1337 CE. While the empire remained strong for a time, it gradually declined due to succession disputes, weaker leadership, over-reliance on gold trade, and the rise of rival powers, which eventually conquered much of Mali’s territory. By the late 15th–16th centuries, the once-mighty empire had broken significantly.

Mansa Musa’s story shows off the sophistication, wealth, and cultural achievements of medieval West African empires, often overlooked in traditional world history narratives. His Hajj remains one of the most spectacular displays of royal power and piety in recorded history.

Coming back to The Roman Empire, officially called the Western Roman Empire, it collapsed in 476 CE, but there was a spin-off. The Eastern Roman Empire continued, staying alive as The Byzantine Empire. It began in 330 CE when Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great re-founded the ancient Greek city of Byzantium as Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) and made it the new capital of the Roman Empire. This shifted the empire’s political and economic centre eastward.

Under emperors like Justinian I (527–565 CE), the empire reached a peak: reconquering parts of the North Africa, and Italy, codifying Roman law (Corpus Juris Civilis), and building the magnificent Hagia Sophia- a Christian Basilica, which remained the world’s largest Church for more than 500 years. The Byzantine Empire lasted for over 1,000 years but faced continuous threats, losing vast territories to Arab Muslim conquests (Syria, Egypt, North Africa) and later to Seljuk Turks, which opened Anatolia to Turkish settlement. Frequent civil wars, economic strain, religious controversies, and reliance on mercenaries weakened the state. The Crusades era particularly, the Fourth Crusade (1204) was catastrophic. The Empire began breaking-up and after 1261 CE, it became a shadow of its former self- reduced to a small territory around the capital Constantinople.

The Crusader Era was a period of religious and military campaigns primarily launched by Latin Catholics against Muslim-controlled territories in the Holy Land (modern-day Israel, Palestine, and surrounding regions), as well as other areas. Ottoman Turks steadily conquered remaining lands. The empire’s end came in May 1453, when Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople after a famous siege. The Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque.

The fall of Constantinople is traditionally seen as the end of the Middle Ages and the last remnant of the ancient Roman world. The Byzantines preserved classical Greek and Roman knowledge, developed Orthodox Christianity, influenced Slavic cultures (especially Russia), and acted as a buffer between Europe and Islamic powers for centuries.

Meanwhile, thanks to the opening provided by the Byzantine Empire, in northwestern Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) a Turkish Muslim nomad warrior, tired of the nomadic life, wanted a permanent homeland and a more settled life for his people. Ertugrul Gazi a leader of the Kayı tribe of Oghuz Turks was fired-up to achieve this, diving deep into his Muslim faith for guidance. Surrounded by the Mongols to the east and the Crusaders and Byzantines to the west; like other Turkish tribes, Ertrugrul’s tribe too was pushed west by the Mongols. He fought valiantly to settle his followers in the frontier town of Sogut, under the declining Seljuk Sultanate of Rum. And also as a ghazi (raider) against Byzantine forces, establishing a small Beylik (principality), about 1299 to 1326, that served as the foundation for his son Osman, who is traditionally regarded as the founder of the Ottoman dynasty, around 1299 CE.

An immensely popular Turkish TV Serial, Dirilis: Ertugrul (Resurrection: Ertugrul), a Turkish historical drama television series inspired by the life of Ertugrul, the father of Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire, tells us the early Ottoman story.

Under Osman and his early successors (Orhan, Murad I, and Bayezid I), the Ottomans expanded rapidly through raids, alliances, and conquests. They crossed into Europe in the 1350s, captured key Balkan territories, and built a centralized state with a professional army. By the early 15th century, they controlled much of Anatolia and the Balkans. A pivotal moment came in 1453, when the 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II (the Conqueror) the Ottoman Turks besieged and captured Constantinople after a 53-day siege. This ended the Byzantine Empire, and Mehmed made Constantinople-renamed as Istanbul- his capital, transforming the Ottoman Empire into a major imperial power bridging Europe and Asia.

The story of the siege and capture of the until-then-impregnable Constantinople in 1453, is legendary for its engineering ingenuity and audacity. Mehmed II faced a major obstacle: a massive iron chain stretched across the entrance to the Golden Horn, blocking his fleet from entering the city’s sheltered harbour and cutting off supply lines. To bypass it, Mehmed ordered the construction of a greased wooden log road over the hilly land of Galata-north of the Golden Horn. On the night before the assault his forces dragged roughly 60–70 lighter warships overland rolling them on the logs with the help of oxen and hundreds of men. The ships were then relaunched into the Golden Horn behind the chain. This outrageous manoeuvre surprised the defenders, allowed the Ottomans to attack the city from the north, disrupted Venetian aid, and greatly enabled the Ottomans to capture Constantinople.

Mehmed II also used a revolutionary artillery force during the siege, marking one of the first major uses of large-scale gunpowder cannons in siege warfare. The most famous was the Basilic, also called Orban’s Cannon- about 8.2 metres long and weighting 19 tons- a gigantic bronze bombard cast by the Hungarian engineer Orban. Mehmed funded it after Orban’s offer was rejected by the Byzantines due to the high cost. The city’s formidable Theodosian Walls (built during the reign of Emperor Theodosius in the 5th Century)-a triple-layered system of moats, outer walls, inner walls, and towers-had repelled invaders for over a millennium. However, Mehmed’s forces breached them through a combination of revolutionary artillery, sustained bombardment, engineering efforts, and a final coordinated assault.

The Ottoman Empire reached its zenith in the 16th century under Suleyman the Magnificent, about 1520 to 1566 CE, who expanded it to encompass the Balkans, Hungary, the Middle East (Syria, Iraq, Arabia, and Egypt), North Africa, and parts of the Caucasus. Sultans claimed the title of Caliph, positioning the Ottomans as protectors of Sunni Islam. It was a multicultural, multi-ethnic state with advanced administration, law, and culture.

Decline set in gradually after the late 16th–17th centuries due to costly wars, inflation, corruption, military stagnation, and failure to keep pace with European technological and economic advances. The 18th–19th centuries saw further retreats, nationalist revolts in the Balkans and internal reform attempts and the Young Turk Revolution (1908), which modernized, but could not fully reverse weakening. By the early 20th century, the Empire-called the ‘Sick Man of Europe’-had lost most European and African territories. It entered World War I (1914–1918) on the side of the Central Powers, allying with Germany. Defeat led to occupation of parts of Anatolia, and the partitioning of remaining Arab provinces. The Sultanate was abolished in 1922, and the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed in 1923 under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, marking the Empire’s formal end, after over 600 years.

The Ottomans rose from a small frontier beylik under Ertugrul and Osman, became a world power with the conquest of Constantinople, peaked as a vast Islamic empire, and slowly declined due to internal issues and external pressures before collapsing in the aftermath of World War I.

Riding back to India, the Vijayanagar Empire, a major Hindu kingdom in southern India flourished from 1336 to 1646, serving as a bulwark against northern invasions and becoming a centre of economic prosperity, art, and architecture. Its capital at Hampi is now a UNESCO site.

Brothers Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, of the Sangama dynasty, founded the Vijayanagar Empire in 1336 on the banks of the Tungabhadra River. They had served under the Kakatiya and Hoysala kingdoms before declaring independence amid the decline of the Delhi Sultanate’s influence in the Deccan. The empire emerged to resist Muslim incursions from the north and consolidate Hindu power in the south. It gradually expanded by absorbing territories of other dynasties and controlling regions from the Krishna River in the north to the southern tip of peninsula India. The empire reached its zenith under Krishnadevaraya (1509–1529). His reign brought military victories against the Deccan Sultanates, the Gajapati kingdom of Odisha, and others, extending influence across much of southern India. This era saw booming overseas trade, growth of agricultural wealth, monumental temple construction, literature, and cultural patronage, making Vijayanagara one of India’s most powerful and prosperous kingdoms.

After Krishnadevaraya, his successors failed to keep the momentum, and ultimately succumbed to a combined Deccan forces onslaught of rival Muslim kingdoms of Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Golconda, and Bidar. The victors then sacked and razed the magnificent capital of Hampi over several months, looting its wealth and destroying temples and palaces. Thereafter, the Empire never fully recovered. Though it lingered until around 1646 CE. It suffered from internal rebellions by Nayaka (Governor) chieftains, loss of territory, decentralization, and further conflicts.

By the early 17th century, successor states like the Nayakas of Madurai and Tanjore, and the rising Mysore kingdom, filled the power vacuum in the south. In short, the empire rose as a defender of southern Hindu polity and peaked through strong leadership and commerce, but fell due to a catastrophic military defeat enabled by overreach and unified opposition, followed by irreversible fragmentation.

To conclude this essay, over to China’s Ming Dynasty, and then Columbus.

The Ming Dynasty was founded by Zhu Yuanzhang, in the mid-14th century. Born into a poor peasant family in Anhui Province during the declining Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty he faced famine, epidemics, and the death of most of his family by age 16. He worked as a cowherd, became a novice monk at a Buddhist monastery, and survived by begging as a wandering mendicant.

In 1352 CE, after Yuan forces burned his monastery suspecting rebel ties, Zhu joined the Red Turban Rebellion-a widespread anti-Yuan uprising. Despite starting as a low-ranking soldier and being physically unremarkable, he demonstrated exceptional military skill, leadership, intelligence, and decisiveness. He quickly rose through the ranks, gained command of his own forces, attracted loyal followers-many of whom became Ming Generals-and married the adopted daughter of a key rebel leader.

By his late 20s, Zhu emerged as a major warlord. He captured key cities like Nanjing in 1356, which became his base. He built a disciplined army, implemented land reforms and administration in controlled territories, and outmanoeuvred rival rebel factions. After capturing key territories and defeating the Mongols, he proclaimed himself Emperor in 1368, and later came to be known as the Hongwu Emperor. He established his capital at Nanjing. The dynasty lasted until 1644 and ended amid a combination of internal and external pressures in its later decades The Ming era is remembered for cultural achievements like porcelain, literature, and naval expeditions.

Zhu Yuanzhang’s extraordinary ascent-from illiterate orphan and beggar to emperor-exemplified the chaos of the late Yuan era in China, and his own ruthless ambition, strategic brilliance, and ability to rally support.

After ruling for about 30 years Zhu died in 1398. Meanwhile, is another part of the world one of the most famous explorers of our time was navigating the high seas and gave the opening for discovering a New World on 12 October 1492. Christopher Columbus-an Italian Adventurer sponsored by Spain’s Royals, Isabella and Ferdinand- and his crew on the ships, Santa Maria, Pinta, and Nina, made landfall in the Bahamas Islands at a place called Guanahani, which Columbus renamed San Salvador. He believed he had reached the East Indies (Asia), so he called the native people ‘Indians’-a term that stuck for centuries. And then to sailed to what is now Cuba, again thinking it was India. Columbus made four voyages to the Caribbean and South/Central America between 1492 and 1504, but he never set foot on the North American mainland -not even Florida, which was discovered by others.

No single person ‘discovered’ the American continents, which had been home to Indigenous peoples for at least 15,000–20,000 years, with ancestors migrating from Asia via the Bering land bridge, and possibly other routes.

The date 12 October 1492 is celebrated in many countries as Columbus Day, or Indigenous Peoples Day, in some places.

This is the end of a series of Essays beginning from Singularity, to Columbus’s discovery of (the way to) America. There are so many hard lessons we can learn from history.

THE GROWTH OF CIVILIZATIONS

About: This is the third in a concise series of essays from the beginnings of our world, the Milky Way Galaxy in the Universe, and in it our Planet Earth. I started from Singularity banged into the Big Bang, gave life to the formation of life and the evolution of living beings, and breathed-in and out- to the arrival of the human species, among other flora and fauna-Dinosaurs included. Then I climbed the rise of ancient human civilisations, of religion, and the kind.

In this essay I battle it out from the early Roman Empire taking you to the threshold of Genghis Khan’s Mongol Empire-the largest contiguous empire in our history.

We left off at the foundation of the early Roman Empire in 625 BCE and arrived at the gates of the Imperial Roman Empire. So often, in the Empires of the world, there is an ‘early one’ and then a greater ‘Imperial one’.If you want to go back to the early stories you can do so at the following link.

https://kumargovindan.com/2026/03/07/the-dawn-ascent-of-civilizations/

Alexander the Great died in 323 BCE. He came up to the River Indus on India’s western boundary, defeated a mighty Indian King called Porus, termed the ‘religious way of life’ practiced by people on the other side of the Indus as ‘Hindu’, and left. Impressed by King Porus’s exceptional warrior skills, amazing courage, and nobility, Alexander made him an Ally and returned to him, his kingdom. Shortly after, his army, tired to the bone, by years of relentless war, refused to move farther into India’s Gangetic Plains and withdrew from northwestern India, creating a power vacuum in the region.

In many ways Alexander cleared the path for the Roman Empire, and many Kingdoms that followed. And also the immense history that branched from him.

About the time, 551 to 479 BCE, Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, teacher, and political thinker, considered the paragon of Chinese Sages, was beginning to impact life in China. He outlined the ethical and social philosophy that became the foundational ‘civil religion’ for Chinese society and that would shape Chinese life and culture for the next 2,000 years. Confucius believed that society functions best when everyone fulfils their roles with virtue, creating harmony between individuals, families, government, and even Heaven. Chaos arises when people neglect moral duties or act selfishly. Confucianism is not an organised religion, but its principles are deeply interwoven with Buddhism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religions. Confucius’s teachings rarely relied on reasoned argument, and ethical ideals were conveyed through allusion, innuendo, and even tautology.

The vacuum in northwestern India, left by the exit of Alexander was quickly filled by an ambitious Chandragupta Maurya, who born in a warrior clan of humble origins, and guided by a brilliant strategist, Chanakya, rose rapidly. He overthrew the hugely unpopular and brutal Nanda dynasty in Magadha (present day Bihar) and established the Mauryan Dynasty and Empire. He then went on to defeat the last remaining Greek General, Seleucus, married his daughter, and secured the western border, while rapidly expanding and transforming fragmented post-Alexander northern India into India’s first major unified Empire.

Chandragupta was influenced by Jainism and in later years abdicated his throne and became an ascetic. He died by fasting unto death at Sharavanabelagola (present day Karnataka), dejected by the tragic conditions prevailing during a 12 year famine in his Kingdom. His son Bindusara expanded deep into India’s Deccan region. And Bindusara’s son, Ashoka, who later became Ashoka the Great, consolidated and expanded East into Kalinga (India’s modern-day Odisha). Now, a quick leap of faith to Jainism.

Jainism has no single historical founder, and is viewed as beginning-less and endless: an eternal dharma/truth, reality that is periodically rediscovered and taught by a succession of enlightened beings called Tirthankaras (teaching Gods)- 24 of them. The first was Rishabhanatha, traditionally credited with establishing civilized society and the core principles of Jainism, in the remote past. The 24th and last was Mahavira, 599–527 BCE, a contemporary of Buddha. Mahavira systematised earlier doctrines, added emphasis on a fifth vow of Brahmacharya (celibacy), in addition to, Ahimsa (non-violence), Satya (truthfullness), Asteya (not-stealing), and Aparigraha (no possessions), organized the monastic community more clearly, and spread the teachings widely-making him the figure most people in the modern world associate with Jainism. Jains plainly regard him as a reformer and propagator. All Tirthankaras teach the same eternal truth; none invented the religion. Jainism does not believe in a creator God; and that the Universe functions on its own eternal laws. God is a realised human who has become a perfected soul.

Returning to the Mauryan Kingdom, Ashoka the Great, ruled from 268 to 232 BCE, and made the remarkable transformation from a conqueror to a promoter of peace and moral governance. After the bloody conquest of Kalinga, Ashoka is said to have experienced deep remorse and ‘converted to Buddhism’. However, Ashoka was already a follower of Buddhism before the Kalinga War, but the war marked a major turning point in deepening his commitment to Buddhist principles.

Ashoka renounced offensive warfare and introduced his policy of dharma—a code of moral conduct emphasising non-violence, tolerance, compassion, truthfulness, respect for all life. He built rock and pillar edicts across the Empire to promote his policies. He pioneered stone architecture in India with iconic pillars, like the Lion Capital of Sarnath-now India’s National Emblem- and other notable monuments that survive to this day. The four lions of India’s National Emblem face the four cardinal directions, symbolising power, courage, and the spread of Dharma.

Meanwhile, in Southern India, it was the beginning of the Sangam (assemblies of Tamil poets and scholars patronised by kings) Era, which started about 300 BCE (and went on up to 300 AD – total of 600 years). This is called the Golden age of Southern India marked by a flourishing Tamil culture, vibrant maritimer trade with the Rome and China, among others, and the rule of three dynasty Kingdoms: Cheras-Westen Coast/Kerala, Cholas-River Kaveri Delta, and Pandyas-Madurai, Southern India. The era is defined by Sangam literature, classified as Melkannaku (narrative) and Kilkanakku (didactic) works. Tolkappiyam, one for the 5 great Tamil Epics was written during this time. It also established the first rules of Tamil grammar and provided insights into the then social and political conditions.

Returning to the Roman Republic, it is about 50 BCE, and the mighty General and Statesman, Julius Caesar, hailing from a patrician family, rose through a combination of brilliant military success’s, political manoeuvring, and alliances to greatly expand Roman territory, gaining immense wealth, and building a loyal veteran army. The famous line, Veni, Vidi, Vinci – I came, I saw, I conquered– attributed to Julius Caesar, dramatically announces his arrival on the scene. Caesar was appointed and named dictator for life giving, him supreme, indefinite power by the Senate.

The Senate was created by Romulus, the first King of Rome, to advise the King on affairs of the Kingdom. The first 100 men appointed senators by Romulus are referred to as ‘fathers’ and the descendants of these men became the patrician class. Over time the Senate became the highest assembly of Ancient Rome constituting its aristocracy, and stayed that way up to the end of the Roman Empire.

Caesar had named his grandnephew and adopted son, Octavius, as his heir. Octavius defeated all of Caesar’s assassins-mainly Brutus and Mark Anthony (and, of course, the Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra) and consolidated power. The Senate granted him the honorific title Augustus (the revered one), which is the start of his rule as Rome’s first Emperor. The period of the Roman Empire from 27 BCE, marked the start of the Principate and the Pax Romana, through roughly the 6th century CE and encompasses a fascinating era of large-scale empires and civilizations across Eurasia.

On his part, Caesar introduced the Julian calendar, expanded citizenship, restructured provinces, initiated public works, and centralized authority-changes that laid the groundwork for imperial governance.The Julian Calendar is a solar-based calendar with a 365-day year, adding a leap day every four years. It was a major reform of the old Roman system, setting 12 months with a 365.25-day average year. It was largely replaced by the Gregorian Calendar in the year 1582, due to a minor drift in the number of days.

Fearing that Julius Caesar would plant himself as a Monarch and destroy established Roman traditions, a group of Senators colluded to assassinate him in the Senate House, on the Ides of March -15 March 44BCE. He was stabbed 22 times and is said to have uttered the iconic, “Et tu, Brute?” (“You too, Brutus?”) upon seeing his close friend Brutus among the conspirators-though this is likely from Shakespeare’s play rather than historical fact. The conspirators claimed they were defending the Republic, but the assassination plunged Rome into chaos.

The history of Roman is incomplete without the story of The Catilinarian Conspiracy in 63 BCE, which happened under the Consuls, Marcus Tullius Cicero and Gaius Antonius Hybrida. During this time Julius Caesar was just beginning to rise through the ranks.

Lucius Sergius Catilina-Catiline-a Roman patrician politician and soldier was the central figure in one of the most dramatic failed coups of the Roman Republic. Catiline is also singled out as ‘one of the most interesting possibilities in the history of the world’ viewed not just as a failed traitor but as a charismatic, high-stakes gambler who embodied the raw potential of a different path for Rome-and, by extension, for Western civilization. Catiline fascinates because he stood at the crossroads of the Republic’s death throes. He was a talented, ambitious aristocrat who chose open rebellion against the system that denied him the status he believed was his birthright. His failure helped preserve the Republic for a few more decades-but it also highlighted the fractures that would soon destroy it. That tension between personal ambition, social unrest, and constitutional breakdown makes him not merely a footnote in Roman history, but one of its most tantalizing ‘roads not taken’. In the end, Catiline was killed in war, trying to overthrow the Republic.

Now, to the Common Era-CE-(or AD-Anno Domini, in the year of the Lord, Jesus). Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, was born around 6 to 4 BCE in Bethlehem, and raised in Nazareth, Galilee. He was a Jewish teacher and a religious leader considered to be the Son of God, who taught a message of love, forgiveness, repentance, and the coming of the Kingdom of God, performing miracles and gathering disciples in Roman-occupied Judea. Jesus was crucified in CE 30 or 33 in Jerusalem under the Roman Empire’s Governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate. Jesus is said to have risen from the dead, forming the foundation of Christianity as the Son of God and Saviour.

The Romans themselves practiced a polytheistic religion simply called ‘Roman Religion’, worshipping many Gods and Goddesses heavily influenced by Greek mythology.

Jesus taught in a direct, often parabolic style- using stories, metaphors, analogies, focusing on the heart, love, and the Kingdom of God rather than complex rules. Some of the best are: Love your neighbour as yourself; do to others as you would have them do to you; forgive others just as God forgives you, be merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful, judge not, and you will not be judged; the greatest in the Kingdom is the servant of all, be humble like a child; the World belongs to the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, and those who hunger for righteousness; have childlike faith and trust in God as a loving Father; do not worry about tomorrow.

Jesus often used parables about lost sheep, prodigal sons, good Samaritans, and hidden treasures to show that God’s love is for everyone-especially the outsiders, sinners, and marginalized — and that true life springs from a personal relationship with God rather than religious performance.

While Jesus was spreading his message of love, we return to the Sangam period of South India. In about the 1st century CE, a Chola King, Karikala Chola won a famous battle defeating a confederacy of the Cheras, Pandyas, and other chiefs, marking the rise of the Early Chola Empire (Another Chola Empire called the Imperial Cholas would rise in 848 CE). He is the greatest early Chola King. He built the engineering marvel, the Kallanai (Grand Anicut) Dam, an ancient dam across the Kaveri River near Tiruchirappalli. This structure, still functional after 2,000 years, regulated floods, prevented droughts, and boosted agriculture in the delta-one of the world’s oldest functional water-regulating structures. The dam is constructed from rough stones, cleverly placed to withstand the river’s flow without the use of binding modern-day cement. The design was a simple, yet ingenious check dam that runs parallel to the riverbank, diverting water rather than storing massive amounts like modern reservoirs.

Karikala Chola enhanced trade, irrigation networks, and prosperity. Poems like Pattinappalai glorify his rule, his port city, and his generosity to poets. The early capitals were Uraiyur or Tiruchirapalli and Kaveripattinam.

About this period, also in the 1st century CE, Kaundinya, a legendary Indian mariner, regarded as one of the earliest Indian sailors, undertook a long-distance sea voyage across the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia, sailing from present day Odisha.

Kaundinya was probably a merchant seeking opportunities in the lucrative maritime networks of the time. He cleverly used the monsoon winds to cross the Bay of Bengal, carrying goods like textiles and jewellery. Upon reaching the Mekong Delta,Vietnam, he was attacked by pirates and local forces led by a formidable warrior princess, Soma, a member of the indigenous Naga clan. Kaundinya fought back successfully and fended off the attackers. But his ship was breached and had to be grounded for repairs. Rather than escalating into prolonged conflict, the encounter turned into one of mutual respect and admiration. Soma, impressed by Kaundinya’s prowess and wisdom, proposed marriage. He accepted, and their union symbolized a cultural and political alliance. Kaundinya became her consort, and together they co-founded the ancient Kingdom of Funan, with its early capital at Vyadhapura (in present day Cambodia). The dynasty drew inspiration from Indian models of governance, law, and brahmanical traditions, marking the beginning of significant Indian cultural influence in the region-through trade, Hinduism, and administrative practices-while blending with local customs. Kaundinya was the first Indian mariner to have made such a impactful transoceanic journey and left a lasting historical footprint. Funan became a prosperous trading hub, facilitating the exchange of goods, ideas, and religions between India, China, and beyond.

Recently, Kaundinya’s legacy was revived in India through the INSV Kaundinya, a modern Indian Navy sailing vessel built using ancient ‘stitched-plank’ techniques (inspired by Ajanta cave paintings) and inducted in 2025. It honoured Kaundinya as a symbol of India’s forgotten seafaring heritage, with a voyage retracing ancient Indian Ocean routes. It highlighted him as a pivotal figure who demonstrated India’s early maritime capabilities at a time when long sea voyages were rare and often viewed with caution.

While Kaundinya was settling down into a happy married life, the Roman Empire was under decline, on its last wobbly legs. And in India, about 380 CE, a new Empire was rising, with the establishment of the Gupta Dynasty under Chandragupta II. The Gupta Era is known as a the ‘Golden Age’ of ancient India for advancements in mathematics, astronomy, literature, and art.

Chandragupta II, also known as Chandragupta Vikramaditya, 375–415 CE, was the greatest emperor of the Gupta Empire. He was the son of Samudragupta, who vastly expanded the Gupta Kingdom founded by his father Chandragupta I. Samudragupta is often called the ‘Napoleon of India’ -due his military strategies-and remained undefeated in battle, until the end of his reign. Chandragupta Vikramaditya built upon his father’s successful military campaigns and expanded the empire significantly defeating the Western Kshatrapas (Shakas) in Gujarat and Malwa, which brought vast wealth and access to western trade routes. His reign marked the peak of Gupta prosperity, with flourishing art, literature, science, and culture.

Kalidasa, who was a poet in the Gupta Court wrote the epic Sakuntala. He is often regarded as the greatest Sanskrit poet and dramatist of classical India- also called the ‘Shakespeare of India’. The play tells the romantic story of King Dushyanta and Sakuntala and explores themes of love, separation, and reunion. Their son, Bharata, becomes the legendary ancestor of the Bharata dynasty (after whom India is named). Mathematician Aryabhata lived in the period. Zero was invented. The ancient Gupta text Kamasutra by the Indian scholar Vatsyayana is widely considered to be the standard work on human sexual behaviour in Sanskrit literature. Nalanda University was established. Chess was developed during this time. The outstanding paintings in the Ajanta and Ellora caves came into being, and it was a period of revival of Hinduism and tolerance of Jainism and Buddhism.

The Roman Empire collapsed in 476 CE. And about a century later, a new religion came into being, ‘invented’ by Mahomet, in the manner an adventurer, say Columbus, discovered a new continent, say America. Mahomet, later becoming Prophet Muhammad, laid the foundation of Islam in 610 CE. He took off from the Kaaba- the cubic building, often called the ‘Cubic Temple’- in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which today remains the central shrine of Islam. It houses a reddish-Black Stone, semi-circular, six inches high, eight broad (said to have fallen from a meteor, from the sky) Hobal, a prominent pre-Islamic Arabian deity, among roughly 360 pagan images housed in or around the Kaaba, before Islam. It included another Idol, Al-Lat, or Al-Lah or was probably another name for Hobal. A few feet from the Cube was the well, Zem-Zem, rediscovered by Mohamet’s grandfather. This well with its brackish and luke-warm water is said to have been first discovered by Hagar, Abraham’s maid servant who gave birth to his son Ishmael (Ismail) and had to flee the wrath of his wife Sarah.

According to the Bible, Abraham (known as Ibrahim in Islam) is widely regraded as foundational patriarch of both Judaism (Jews) and Islam, as well as a key figure in Christianity. He is the central ancestral and spiritual figure linking the three major Abrahamic religions. Abraham’s descendants through Isaac and Jacob inherited the land of Canaan(modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan). Jews traditionally trace their lineage and national identity directly to Abraham as the founder of the Jewish people. He is often called ‘Avraham Avinu’ (Abraham our father) in Jewish tradition. Muslims trace the Arab people and, by extension, the Prophet Muhammad’s lineage through Abraham’s firstborn son Ismail. Islamic tradition holds that Abraham and Ismail rebuilt or founded the Kaaba in Mecca as a house of worship.

When Prophet Muhammad-after establishing Islam- along with his followers, conquered Mecca in 630 CE, he ordered the removal and destruction of all idols and images from the Kaaba, rededicating the structure to the worship of the one God (Allah) alone. No pre-Islamic idols, including Hobal, remain inside or associated with the Kaaba today. The site is under Saudi Arabian management and continues to host millions of pilgrims annually. The Kaaba has been rebuilt and renovated many times over history (due to floods, wars, etc.), but its core role and the Black Stone’s placement remain unchanged in Islamic practice.

Prophet Muhammad’s companions wrote and compiled the Koran-consisting of about 114 Suras (Chapters) based on oral revelations to him by Allah, through the Angel Gabriel. When Mohamet was 25 years old he accepted a marriage proposal from a rich widow, Khadija, 40 years old, who helped him with the revelations. Previously he had worked for her as a driver in a caravan expedition. These revelations occurred over about 23 years. Muhammad, who was illiterate, recited the revelations to his companions, who memorized and wrote them down on materials like palm leaves, bones, and parchment. After Muhammad’s death in 632 CE, the revelations were compiled into a single book- the Koran-under the first Islamic Caliph, Abu Bakr.

Prophet Muhammad first launched Islam in Mecca, where he faced stubborn resistance and persecution and had to migrate to Medina (the Hijra). Later he returned to conquer Mecca. The original intent was to get back business to his home town as the rich caravan cities had fallen into abandonment and ruin. The people at that time lived off the transcontinental road traffic: lodging, feeding and robbing travellers. But then, the change Muhammad imposed upon the world through Islam outstrips that of many Adventurers, Explorers, Kings, Emperors in history, and shows the difference a single man can make. And one of the biggest Empires to rise with Islam at the core was the Ottoman Empire.

Returning to India, the Cholas under Vijayalaya Chola, a descendant of Karikala Chola- of the Early Cholas- rose again from obscurity to run a memorable second innings of the Chola Dynasty. He exploited the intense rivalry and frequent wars between the Pallavas and Pandyas, which weakened both major powers, creating a power vacuum in the fertile Kaveri delta region. Vijayalaya quickly filled it, when around 848–850 CE with a well-organized military force he captured Thanjavur and then there was no looking back. His son Aditya Chola I, who succeeded him expanded further laying the foundation of the Imperial Chola Empire. After Aditya’s death, his son Parantaka took over and ruled for about 48 years. He was one of the most powerful early Imperial Cholas. He comprehensively defeated the Pandyas and earned the title ‘Maduraikonda’ (Conqueror of Madurai).

And after a brief period of weak Chola Rulers, emerged Arulmozhivarman who later became Rajaraja Chola I (985–1014 CE)- the real Architect of the Empire and the greatest ruler of the early Imperial phase. He consolidated and vastly expanded the Chola Empire conquering the entire Pandya and Chera kingdoms. He also defeated the Sinhalese King Mahinda V and occupied northern Sri Lanka. He launched successful naval expeditions to the Maldives.

The Cholas were followers of Hinduism, specifically the Shaivite (Shiva-worshipping) tradition. They were great patrons of Shaivism, building magnificent temples dedicated to Lord Shiva. Rajaraja Chola built the iconic Brihadeeswara Temple at Thanjavur-now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and architectural marvel. He took the title Rajaraja (King of Kings).

His son Rajendra Chola I (1014–1044 CE), an equally powerful Chola emperor, continued and even surpassed his father’s achievements. He completed the conquest of Sri Lanka-annexing the entire island; launched a massive naval expedition against the Srivijaya Empire (present-day Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sumatra); defeated several Southeast Asian kingdoms and secured trade routes. He Conquered Kalinga, and parts of Bengal in the north and reached the Ganges River- earning the title ‘Gangaikonda’ (Conqueror of the Ganges). He founded a new capital called Gangaikonda Cholapuram and built the magnificent Gangaikonda Cholapuram Temple (another Brihadeeswara style temple) in present day Ariyalur District of Tamil Nadu. His reign marked the peak territorial extent of the Chola Empire: from the Ganges in the north to Sri Lanka in the south, and with influence across the Indian Ocean.

One of the last Cholas, Rajaraja II generally ruled in peace up to CE 1173. In total, the Cholas ruled for about 400 glorious years.

For more angles on the Great Cholas read:

https://kumargovindan.com/2025/08/13/freewheeling-9/

In my next adventure, I take you through Genghis Khan’s Mongol Empire, India’s Prithviraj Chauhan and the rumblings of the invasion of India. And the great Ottoman Empire, ending this series of essays.

Kumar Govindan's Words

This is my Blog where I essay stories on life about and around me, on subjects that stir and shake me up, as I turn, and make life's pages count: hoping to inspire you to live your own story!