CAPTURED: BLAZES

About: This is the third in my Captured series; about capturing various stories that blazed the world. Call it Season 1, Episode 3. While actual Wild Fires engulfed Europe – especially in France and Spain, India was blazing on another level – in Transport, Space, and Sport. And a quick short story about Independent India’s first scandal. (Image Credit: Canva AI, 1 August 2026).

WILD FIRES

The month of July 2026 has gone-up in flames, with Wild Fires ignited in France and Spain getting out of control. The reason behind the French fires is accidental -with one linked to a brush-clearing machine; Spanish origins were, extreme heat, drought, dry vegetation, and winds that rapidly spread the fires. Nothing to do with the heat of Spain winning the FIFA Football World Cup 2026 or France losing to Spain in the semi-finals.

Successive, sweltering heatwaves since late May, and a very hot June in Western Europe severely dried vegetation, perhaps inviting the Fire Gods for sumptuous meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner served. The previous wet winter and spring season promoted abundant plant growth that then became ready fuel, on drying. Strong, shifting winds and low moisture accelerated the spread.

‘Rounding up the usual suspects’ of the ‘fire weather’ conditions is, human-caused climate change.

Typically, these fires become so extreme they create their own giant fire thunderstorm. A rare weather event, storms like these are formed when heat from the wildfires makes the air above the fire rise rapidly, carrying smoke, ash and water vapour high into the atmosphere. As the air rises, it cools, and the water vapour condenses into a cloud. If the fire is powerful enough and the atmosphere is unstable, that cloud can grow into the same type of cloud associated with thunderstorms.

This year’s Wild Fires were centred in southwestern France, especially Gironde near Bordeaux/Cap-Ferret and Landes; and Central Spain, west of Madrid, including Avila and related areas. The fires smoked-out over 200,000–300,000 people forcing them to evacuate, ravaged tens of thousands of hectares, and prompted European Union aid, military support, and emergency declarations.

Fires are also burning in Portugal, in the north-eastern district of Vila Real and also in Greece, on the island of Paros in the Aegean Sea and the southern town of Trifylia on the Greek mainland.

Both France and Spain are now seeing another sharp rise in temperatures, with peaks of 41 to 42 Degrees Centigrade expected in France.

In the United Kingdom, the London Fire Brigade had its busiest 24 hours of 2026 on 29 July, tackling 63 grass fires across the capital as temperatures topped 30 degrees centigrade. Control officers took over 1,300 emergency calls and crews rushed to more than 500 incidents. Almost 1,000 calls about grass fires have been made in the past week. It’s a European rage.

Investigations into the exact causes continue. Most wildfires require an initial spark-lightning is possible, but less common here than human causes, which then becomes catastrophic under the dry weather and plant fuel conditions.

The vast blazes that ripped through southwestern France burned so intensely they created a powerful, fire-generated thunderstorm. This rare phenomenon is sometimes seen in the Megafires that afflict the United States and Canada, but was unprecedented in France, until now. And it’s just one sign that Europe is entering a new fire era.

Europe has always had Wild Fires, but they are becoming increasingly frequent and extreme. Firefighters in France and Spain are currently trying to tame blazes more ferocious and more erratic than anything they have tackled before.

This follows the Europe’s record-breaking fire season last year and enduring back-to-back extreme fire seasons is becoming the norm. Experts say, “We have entered an era of fires that cannot be extinguished. These are fires that burn with the intensity of several atomic bombs.” Who needs Atom Bombs?

A BLAZING INDIA

There was a different kind of fire in normally ‘heat-friendly’ India, with a standout period in mid-to-late July 2026, during which India made spectacular advances in clean transport, private spaceflight, and women’s sports. Fuelling the tracks, burning the courts, blazing the field, and scorching the skies!These triumphs will be etched in India’s history, forever.

On 17 July 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s first indigenously designed and built hydrogen-powered passenger train under India’s Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) mission. It is a 10-coach hydrogen fuel-cell based trainset powered by a 1,200 kW hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system, and currently the world’s longest of its kind. The fuel cells combine hydrogen and oxygen to generate the train’s own in-house electricity, with water vapour (and heat) as the primary emission-making it a zero-carbon alternative. The system rides with a dedicated hydrogen storage, refuelling and other necessary technical systems. It is especially useful for routes that are hard to fully electrify.

The ‘hydrogen train’ ran on the about 89 km Jind–Sonipat section of the Northern Railway in Haryana, covering the route in about two hours with intermediate stops. It has a passenger carrying capacity of 2600 people and operates at a speed of 75 kmph -the top design speed being 110 kmph.

From tracks on land to the free Space above.

On 18 July 2026 Skyroot Aerospace successfully launched Vikram-1, India’s first privately developed orbital-class rocket, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, in its very first attempt. The mission was called Aagaman (meaning ‘arrival’ in Sanskrit) and Vikram-1 lifted off around midday Indian Standard Time and effortlessly reached the designated Low Earth Orbit- about 450km from the Earth’s surface. It then perfectly deployed technology demonstration payloads from over three customers, and Skyroot’s own satellite.

This made India only the third country (after the US and China) to successfully build a private orbital launch capability. And announced its ‘arrival’ into the commercial space business.

The name Vikram is in honour of Vikram Sarabhai, the father of India’s Space Programme.

Vikram-1 is mostly manufactured from carbon composites, which is five times lighter and stronger than the best rocket steel. Each stage is powered by the Kalam-series of Engines with a single Kalam-1200 engine being used for the first stage. The engines are named after India’s top Rocket Scientist and inspirational Ex-President of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. The engine of the orbital vehicle, that enables orbital insertion, is 100% 3-D printed. The rocket stages are perhaps the longest monolithic carbon composite made in India, and combines with the first of the kind ultra-low-shock pneumatic separation systems. They all worked to perfection.

Skyroot Aerospace is a Hyderabad-based startup, founded in the year 2018 by two scientists-turned-entrepreneurs Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka. They asked themselves a simple question, “What if launching into space could be as accessible and routine as commercial air travel?” Skyroot was born from this vision.

A highlight of ‘team Skyroot’ is that the average age of its engineering team is 28 reflecting blazing young talent – Pretty Young Things, rooted to the ground but aiming for the skies.

Skyroot plans to increase launch frequency to one mission every month from next year onwards, while developing heavier launch vehicles and eventually, reusable rockets. And they hope, to be in the next wave of the space economy beyond satellite launches to include satellite broadband, direct-to-mobile communication and space-based computing. Elon Musk has ‘X, to the power India’, competition. Mind it!

Women’s Sports

Several high-profile successes by Indian women athletes clustered around the last weeks of July and called for a bonfire celebration.

On 19 July, India’s ace badminton player P V Sindhu won the Japan Open 2026 women’s singles title (a Super 750 event), defeating Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in straight games. She became the first Indian shuttler to win the Japan Open crown.

Then on 26 July, in a rare moment, 18-years-old Anahat Singh hailing from Delhi, who is also the top seed, won the 2026 World Junior Squash Championships women’s singles title in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada. She defeated Egypt’s Ruqayya Salem 3-0 becoming the first Indian ever to win the junior world title and ending 15 unbroken years of Egyptian dominance in the event. Egypt climbs down from its pyramid top!

A day earlier, 31-years-old Manipuri Mirabai Chanu completed a hat-trick of Gold at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, claiming her third consecutive title in the women’s 48 kg weightlifting event with a record-breaking total lift of 190 kg. It was also India’s first at the ongoing Games.

Then came Sharmila Dhankar, who at age 40, won Gold in the women’s shot put with a season’s-best throw of 9.81 m, becoming India’s first-ever Commonwealth Games gold medallist in Para-Athletics. She ended a 20-year wait for a Para-Athletics medal at the Games. Her climb to fame is heart-wrenching: a trail burnt with fire.

Sharmila Dhankar grew up in a poor farming family in a drought-prone Chitrauli village, Mahendragarh District, Haryana. Her father was a small-time farmer, and her mother was visually impaired. At age 2, a high fever led to polio that permanently affected one of her legs, leaving her with a lasting physical impairment. It was an extremely difficult childhood marked by poverty and limited opportunities.

Like many girls in her region, she was married off young at 18 years. The marriage involved severe domestic abuse, including physical violence linked to dowry demands and pressure for giving birth to two daughters, rather than sons. She was beaten for hours (one episode was from 11 pm to 3 am) and thrown out of the house at night. Thereafter, reaching a peak of despair, she left her husband’s house and returned to her parents’ home clutching her daughters.

To support her family she took various jobs, including as a maid, cleaner, and security guard; she briefly worked as a bus conductor during a transport strike.

She later remarried Ajit Singh, a businessman from Rewari, who encouraged her to venture into Para-Athletics, after learning about the immense opportunities. Sharmila then began training in shot-put and discus throw. Financial pressures continued; in the year 2023, the family sold their house in Rewari to fund her training and career. Sport gave her a ‘second birth’ and she hopes to buy a home again while providing better opportunities for her daughters-who are themselves budding athletes in javelin and long jump.

Earlier in the month, the Indian women’s cricket team achieved a landmark 270-run victory over England in the one-off Test at Lord’s—the first women’s Test win for India at the historic ground. Maybe, that heat was too hot for England to handle!

India is now powered by a new Nari Sakthi, which is blazing the tracks of progress and development. Bharat knows to handle its fire.

India’s First Scandal

With Glasgow becoming a Sports Inferno hosting the Commonwealth Games, there is another sidetrack story. I digress to another topic – nothing connected with Sports- that burned well in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

India’s first High Commissioner to the United Kingdom(UK), V K Krishna Menon earned, among other degrees, a Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Glasgow during his extensive higher education in the UK. And once upon a time he was the centre of Independent India’s first scandal, called the Jeep Scandal of 1948.

During the first Indo-Pakistan war, over the ownership of Jammu & Kashmir, the Indian Army found itself in urgent need of 2000 battle-ready Jeeps. India’s then High Commissioner in the UK, V K Krishna Menon bypassed standard procurement protocols to sign a ₹80 lakh contract with a small dubious, little-known firm, Anti-Mistantes, which had a capital of just £600. And India went out of the way to pay 65% of the total amount, upfront. Ultimately only 155 Jeeps were delivered and none were in usable condition. The best part is, then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru shielded the fire than came upon Menon; the case was officially ‘dozed with water’ in 1955, and V K Menon was later appointed (rewarded?) as India’s Defence Minister. Strange are the ways of India’s Grand Old Party -the Indian National Congress (INC).

Today with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)- supported by the INC- firing up New Delhi’s streets, protesting ‘Exam paper leaks’ and calling for accountability, demanding (and obtaining) the resignation of India’s Education Minister, the hypocrisy is there for all to see.

After the Blaze come cooler things to capture. Tomorrow is another day.

ABOUT TAGLINES

About: Advertisement taglines, straplines-often with an attached logo- are short, memorable phrases that hope to capture a brand’s distilled essence; some becoming cultural touchstones. Many endure and linger for decades due to their simplicity, emotional resonance, aspirational tone, or clever wordplay. Others achieve massive cultural impact with strong emotional bonding or humorous recall. Here’s an exploration of some of the most iconic ones in India and the world, and also some that have gone horribly wrong. I’m not going too deep into the Agencies- with some exceptions- behind the creations, but the products they advertise. Let’s, Just Do It (credit: Nike).

Product advertisements are delightful examples of human ingenuity, and clever expression: like a juicy worm that draws a bird to swallow it whole, or perhaps pick it up and serve it as a meal to fledgling chicks; or, in these modern times, share on the ‘Bird WhatsApp Group’. Often the advertisement is better than the product itself. And we worm towards making buying decisions influenced by them in mysterious ways. Smell the coffee?

INDIA

Amul stands out with its cheeky one-liners, almost always showing a little girl dipping her paws into butter, cheese, or ice cream, with her tongue curled into the taste, and enjoying the moment. The Amul Girl is a staple mascot, since the 1960s, evoking national pride and buttery joy, and has become as epochal as the silent, watching-from-behind-the-scenes, ‘Common Man’ of the irresistible R K Laxman Cartoons.

The Amul Girl was created in 1966 by advertising executive Sylvester da Cunha and art director Eustace Fernandes as a witty, playful counterpoint to a competitor brand. Known for her red polka-dotted frock, blue hair, it was a response to rival, Polson’s more ‘proper’ butter-girl mascot. Amul’s then Chairman, Verghese Kurien wanted a mischievous child that was easy to draw, and memorable for outdoor hoardings. And he gave the creators complete slippery freedom to do mouth-watering campaigns.

Polson’s butter is no longer available in the market-disappearing in the early 1970’s- losing its monopoly to Amul. These days, Mother Dairy – ‘Like a Mother, and Happy Food, Happy People’- is one of Amul’s biggest rivals in the packaged milk and daily dairy segment.

Amul is an acronym for Anand Milk Union Limited, a cooperative society based in Anand, Gujarat, India, which has become the world’s largest milk producer through the White Revolution (Operation Flood). Amul was founded in 1946 and is the brand name used by the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., (GCMMF), which is India’s largest dairy of its kind.

Its classic advertisement Amul -‘The Taste of India’ or ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious’-coined on a prompt by Sylvester da Cunha’s wife, Nisha, teases us to this day. Amul’s first advertisement showed the Amul Girl kneeling in prayer, ‘Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread’, alongside the slogan, ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious’ buttered on the pack.

These days Amul comes out with frequent advertisements, on various media, to reflect the times and events. I caught a recent one, ‘Your ODYSSEY to Great Butter Ends Here. Amul in Every Homer’. It showed film director Christopher Nolan and Actor Matt Demon (dressed as Ulysses) eating a slice of buttered bread, but sadly I missed the Amul Girl-they could have ‘peneloped her’ into the scene, showing her waiting at Ithaca -loaded with tons of butter.Despite being born in 1966, the Amul Girl has not aged at all. Wonder what is the secret of her youth? Your guess is as good as mine!

Adding salt to the butter, India’s sleeping giant, the Tata Group, came up with its iodised salt brand, plainly called Tata Salt, ‘Desh Ka Namak’- declaring it, ‘The Nation’s Salt’. It was simple patriotism tied to an everyday essential.

Evolving with the milk, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Chocolate ran the line, ‘Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye’ (Let Something Sweet Happen)- which linked chocolate to celebrations and everyday happiness. Mind the tooth!

In the days before Coca-Cola and Pepsi ‘cola-ed’ into India, Thums Up ruled with its slogan, ‘Happy Days are Here Again’. But when Coca-Cola entered (actually re-entered) India, it drank-up the brand – to counter Pepsi- and came up with the fiery slogan, ‘Taste The Thunder’ and its, ‘Aaj Kuch Toofani Akrte Hain’ (Let’s Do Something Stormy Today) kicked up many a nerve. Then, Coca-Cola swallowed success and rolled out fun and youthful punchlines such as, ‘Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola’ (Cold Means Coca-Cola). It made ‘thanda’ synonymous with refreshment.

If Coca-Cola is near, Pepsi cannot be far behind, and it yelled, ‘Yeh Dil Maange More’ (The Heart Wants More) and ‘Yeh Hai Right Choice Baby’ (This is The Right Choice, Baby)- making an energetic appeal to the youth of India.

After eating butter, chocolates, tasting thunder, and doing stormy things, eventually something spills on to your clothes. India’s washing detergent King, Hindustan Unilever’s, Surf Excel spotted the ‘dirty opportunity’ and actually said, ‘Daag Achhe Hain’ (Stains Are Good): clean reverse psychology that turned messy play into positive parenting moments (the advertisement showed kids returning home to their Moms, dirty from playing). It completely transformed detergent advertising by shifting the focus from a ‘cleaning power’ to emotional storytelling and positive values. Surf Excel became an enabler allowing kids to live freely, because the brand will handle the mess afterward.

Today, Surf rules again, but once upon a time, between the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was challenged by a brand new ‘dirt-cheap’ brand called ‘Nirma’.

Surf had positioned itself as premium, a high-quality, detergent powder and a convenient alternative to traditional washing soaps. It was expensive, making it unaffordable for most middle and lower-income households. Detergent powders were still a somewhat premium category, and Surf enjoyed a near-monopoly among those who could afford it…until Nirma walked in, well actually danced in.

Karsanbhai Patel, a chemist, founded Nirma in 1969 in his backyard-all great things happen in the backyard– in Gujarat. He named it after his daughter Nirupama, who died in a tragic road accident. Karsanbhai Patel developed a phosphate-free synthetic detergent that cleaned well, without being too harsh on hands, and was affordable for the low and middle-class.

The game-changing advertisement, ‘Washing Powder Nirma’, the classic jingle that first on radio in 1975 and Television in 1982, was a real disruptor. ‘Washing Powder Nirma, Doodh Si Safedi Nirma Se Aaye… (Milk-white Brightness Comes from Nirma) featuring a joyful, dancing little girl (in a white frock) and happy housewives spilling its benefits in an upbeat, filmy style with singing and dancing-completely different from Surf’s serious, functional advertisements. It made washing clothes look fun and turned Nirma into a cultural phenomenon. The jingle became one of India’s longest-running and most memorable advertisements, creating massive brand recall and emotional connection across all income groups.

Nirma dominated through the 1990s but declined later due to competition from Surf Excel, Tide, Ariel (better technology), and changing consumer preferences toward premium products including the advent of Washing Machines. Nirma stuck too long to its low-price positioning without enough innovation – missed many dance steps.

Moving to something more solid and stain-free.

The ‘Dimag Ki Batti Jala De’ (Light up Your Brain) campaign is one of India’s most celebrated and long-running advertisement series for Mentos, launched by Perfetti Van Melle-a global leader in the confectionery and gum industry. It transformed the brand from a simple mint into a cultural symbol of clever, quick thinking and witty problem-solving. Imagine the Amul Girl quitting butter, popping a Mentos, and suddenly growing-up!

Mentos entered India in 1999 as ‘The Freshmaker’-its global positioning- focusing on refreshment. It struggled initially in a competitive market. In 2003, the Advertisement Agency, Ogilvy, Mumbai, adapted the global idea into a locally resonant, famous slogan, ‘Dimag Ki Batti Jala De’ . This shifted the focus from physical freshness to mental sharpness.

The core concept became, ‘Aam Zindagi versus Mentos Zindagi’ (Ordinary life versus Mentos life): showing the same problem solved in a dull way, versus a clever, humorous way, after popping a Mentos. A catchy jingle and a glowing lightbulb visual reinforced the brain spark idea.

In the year 2005, it ran the brilliant classroom advertisement: a student arrives late to class and as he tries to sneak in, the teaches catches him and yells, “Coming Now? Get Out”! How often we, or our friends, typically in College, have been in this situation. The student leaves defeated by ‘Aam Zindagi logic’. In the exact situation the student pops a Mentos mint, sparking a moment of genius-Mentos Zindagi logic. Instead of walking-in forward, he walks backward in the classroom. The teacher spots him and thinking he is sneaking out (this time) shouts, “Where are you going? Sit down”! It went viral, boosted sales dramatically, and gave Mentos entry into many a mouth, in India.

Then in the year 2008, evolved another stunning Mentos advertisement, based on Evolution. A monkey, which is bullied by a donkey eats Mentos, evolves through human history (hunting, fire, wheel…), and returns smarter to make the donkey pull a cart. It perfectly captured, ‘Evolution Through Smart Thinking’.

Fevicol — ‘Fevicol ka Mazboot Jod Hai, Tootega Nahi!’ (Fevicol’s Strong Bond Won’t Break) — Humorous, unbreakable glue advertisements made this a household phrase for anything solid. The sticking 1999 Fevi Kwik (instant adhesive from Pidilite-same family as Fevicol) is the most legendary.

The setting is a peaceful lakeside showing a Camping Tent. A well-dressed, Urban-looking man with a fancy fishing rod, reel, bait, etc. sits patiently for a long time, looking frustrated and tired. He hasn’t caught anything despite all his flashy equipment. He even shushes anyone making noise to avoid disturbing the fish.

A simple, local villager-in dhoti and exposed torso with a towel strung on his shoulders, looking excited and carefree-arrives, humming to himself. This irritates the urban man who asks him to stay quiet.

The villager takes a steel rod-with a round at one end, pulls out a Fevi Kwik tube, which he had tucked behind his right ear, and applies four small dots on the rod while cheerfully counting, one, two, three, four… (in the vernacular). He casually dips the rod into the water. Within seconds, the rod starts vibrating wildly. He pulls it out-and four live fish are instantly stuck to the exact spots where he applied the glue! The sophisticated Urban guy looks on in complete shock and disbelief. The villager happily walks away with his catch. Tagline (voice-over): “Chutki Mein Chipkaaye, Fevi Kwik”! (Sticks In A Snap / Sticks Instantly, Fevi Kwik!)

Other stand-out taglines are: Raymond Suiting’s, ‘The Complete Man’- defined aspirational masculinity for generations. Life Insurance Corporation’s, ‘Zindagi Ke Saath Bhi, Zindagi Ke Baad Bhi’ (During Life And After Life Too), captured security and legacy perfectly. Hero MotoCorp (formerly Hero Honda)-‘Desh Ki Dhadkan’ (The Heartbeat Of The Nation) or ‘Hum Mein Hai Hero” (There’s a Hero in Us). Airtel’s, ‘Express Yourself’ or ‘Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota Hai (Every Friend is Necessary) actually made people rush to stay connected. But Idea Cellular, captivated with its brilliant ideas, when it said, ‘An Idea Can Change Your Life’ or ‘What an Idea Sirji’!

Once there was a vibrant airline called Kingfisher Airlines, which called itself, ‘the King of Good Times’ with its Owner claiming that he personally selected every air-hostess. And no one doubted his extensive knowledge of women.

Most of these lines succeeded due to simplicity, cultural resonance-emotions, patriotism, humour-and consistent advertisement campaigns. Many, like Surf Excel and Fevicol, became part of everyday Indian conversation. Indian advertising excelled at blending wit, heart, and relatability, in just a few words.

Now, let’s look at how the world is doing.

THE WORLD

Without doubt, Nike’s catchy and inspirational ‘Just Do It’ instantly comes to mind when thinking about a global tagline. It’s a call to overcome inertia; one of the most recognized slogans ever, symbolising Nike’s global dominance.

Let’s swoosh into the interesting story of Nike’s logo and tagline.

Nike is the world’s largest supplier of athletic shoes, sports apparel, and maker of sports equipment based in Oregon, the United States of America. It was originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) and was founded by University of Oregon track athlete Phil Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman, in 1964. BRS officially became Nike, Inc., in 1971.

Nike’s iconic ‘swoosh’ (often called the tick mark) logo was designed in 1971 by a graphic design student, Carolyn Davidson. Blue Ribbon Sports was transitioning from importing Onitsuka Tiger shoes-a Japanese luxury footwear brand started in 1949- to creating its own products. Phil Knight needed a distinctive ‘stripe’ (the industry term for a shoe side logo) that suggested motion, stood out from Adidas’s three stripes, and worked on a shoe profile. Knight, who was teaching an accounting class part-time at Portland State University, had previously hired Carolyn for freelance work after overhearing she needed money for an oil painting class. He ticked her for the job. Carolyn sketched several options, drawing on tissue paper overlaid on shoe sketches. One was a curved, wing-like checkmark that evoked movement and the wings of the Greek Goddess Nike. Knight reviewed them: none were loved, but the Swoosh was chosen as the ‘least awful’ due to tight production deadlines for a new shoe in Mexico. Knight famously said: “Well, I don’t love it, but it will grow on me.”

The ‘Just Do It’ slogan was coined in 1988 by Dan Wieden of the Advertising Agency Wieden+Kennedy for Nike’s first major TV campaign. It was inspired by the last words, “Let’s do it”, of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore before his execution by a firing squad, in 1977. Wieden adapted it by killing the “Let’s” and adding ‘Just’.

Nike, the name, comes directly from Nike, the ancient Greek goddess of victory in war and peaceful competition. She is often depicted as a winged goddess, symbolizing triumph in battle, sports, or competitions. In Green mythology, Nike is daughter of the titan Pallas and the underworld River Goddess Styx and famously ‘ran’ as Zeus’s charioteer.

While Nike was running its shoes, Steve Jobs had just returned to Apple in 1977 and wanted to revive its declining fortunes, especially with IBM thinking it ruled the world of computers. Apple’s, ‘Think Different’ celebrating rebels and innovators, helped to revive the brand.

Art Director Craig Tanimoto created the tagline as a playful contrast to IBM’s ‘Think’ (and ThinkPad) slogan. He paired ‘Think Different’ with black-and-white portraits of visionary people like Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and others who ‘changed things’ by defying the status quo.

Apple’s current logo is the simple, bitten apple silhouette (often in monochrome, today), designed in 1977 by graphic designer Rob Janoff, of the Regis McKenna Agency. The original logo of 1976-used briefly-was a detailed, old-fashioned illustration showing Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree, with a quote from William Wordsworth: “A mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought… alone.” It was created by Apple’s short-lived third co-founder, Ronald Wayne.

In 1977, for Apple’s first personal computer with a colour display, Steve Jobs commissioned Rob Janoff. The goal was a friendly, approachable, colourful logo to appeal to everyday people. Janoff bought apples from a market, sketched many versions, and simplified to a clean silhouette. The bite was added purely for scale-so it wouldn’t look like a cherry or tomato when small. The logo has evolved (e.g., rainbow until 1998, then simplified), but the core bitten apple shape has remained iconic for nearly 50 years. It’s a story of practical design choices rather than deep symbolism.

Much like the Coca-Cola and Pepsi of the cola-drink world we have the Nike and Adidas in the shoe and sports apparel world.

Adidas’s, ‘Impossible is Nothing’ emphasizes overcoming limits and is inspired by Heavyweight Boxing Champion Muhammad Ali. It has been used for years as the brand’s defining philosophy. Adidas’s current global slogan is ‘You Got This’, introduced in 2024 as a shift from the long-running ‘Impossible is Nothing’. The new slogan focuses on overcoming pressure, building self-belief, support from others, and reclaiming the joy in sports for all kinds of athletes.

Adidas was founded in 1949 by German shoemaker Adolf (Adi) Dassler in Germany. Adolf started Adidas after splitting from his brother Rudolf (Rudi), who went on to start Puma(formerly Ruda).

Adidas is a portmanteau derived from the Adolf’s nickname ‘Adi’ added to ‘Das’ (from Dassler) to make it Adidas. He experimented with leather straps on the sides of shoes for reinforcement and stability. After testing different numbers, three stripes showed up best in photographs-key for visibility from the stands and marketing. Adi even called his company ‘The Three-Stripes Company.’ The design wasn’t entirely original: a Finnish brand called Karhu Sports had used three stripes earlier. In 1952 Adidas bought the rights from Karhu, in one of the best deals in branding history.

People often joke that Adidas stands for things like: ‘All Day I Dream About Sports’ or the more sexy, ‘All Day I Dream About Sex’.

USA, McDonald’s, “I’m Lovin’ It” shows simple, upbeat joy that refreshed the brand globally. KFC’s “Finger Lickin’ Good” was sensory and indulgent. M&M’s (USA): ‘Melts in Your Mouth, not in Your Hands’ was practical humour about mess-free chocolate.

Another scintillating tagline is South Africa’s Diamond major, De Beers, with its, ‘A Diamond is Forever’ slogan. It transformed diamonds into symbols of eternal love; one of the 20th century’s forever best ‘shines’.

Driving back to Germany, BMW’s ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’ highlighted performance and driving pleasure, while Mercedes-Benz said, ‘The Best or Nothing’ positioning itself on uncompromising excellence. Audi’s ‘Vorsprung Durch Technik’ (Advancement Through Technology) spelt technical superiority, kept in German for prestige. Then of course Volkswagen came up with, ‘Think Small’ — Honest humility that revolutionized car advertisements and was named the best campaign of the 20th century.

To buy big and small things we may need Credit Cards along with some cash, and Visa said, ‘Everywhere You Want to Be’ about ubiquity and convenience, while Master Card chipped-in with, ‘There Are Some Things Money Can’t Buy. For Everything Else, There’s MasterCard’, which valued priceless moments.

And finally, not to be left behind, Disneyland declared itself, ‘The Happiest Place on Earth’.

GONE WRONG: INDIA & THE WORLD

Some of the worst advertisement taglines and campaigns have backfired spectacularly due to poor taste, cultural insensitivity, bad translations, unintended double meanings, or tone-deaf messaging. These examples from India and the world often went viral for the wrong reasons, leading to bans, boycotts, sales drops, or brand damage.

Amul Macho (a popular Indian men’s inner-wear brand, and nothing to do with Amul butter) wore the slogan, “Ye Toh Dada Toing Hai”, which loosely translates to, “Wow, This Is Quite Bouncy”. In the advertisement, the phrase was used as a cheeky double-entendre to imply that the product enhances a man’s attractiveness and confidence. It featured a woman suggestively washing and stretching a man’s underwear with exaggerated ‘toing’ (repeated movement) sound effects and sensual expressions. It was widely criticised as being vulgar and objectifying, leading to bans and heavy backlash from customers.

Hindustan Unilever’s cosmetics brand, Fair & Lovely (now, Unilever’s Glow & Lovely) spent decades on promoting, ‘Fair Is Beautiful’, for success and marriage, reinforcing colourism and faced massive criticism for promoting harmful beauty standards.

Maruti Suzuki’s hatchback car, Wagon R Stingray was wheeled as ‘My Thing Everything’, which was awkward and vague and actually made no sense at all, as did, of all cars, Mahindra Verito Vibe’s (a non-sporty car) which tried a sporty, ‘Everybody Loves A Sport’. Toyota Etios called itself, ‘The Real Sedan’ – implying others are fake?

Nothing beats the Washing Machine brand Electrolux’s tagline, ‘Nothing sucks like an Electrolux’ – Intended to highlight vacuum power in the US market, but ‘sucks’ as slang for ‘terrible’ made it a punchline.The slogan highlighted powerful suction and worked as a pun in the UK market. In the US, ‘sucks’ commonly means ‘is terrible’, turning the boast into an accidental self-goal.

In China, KFC’s, “Finger-lickin’ good” was translated as, ‘Eat your fingers off’ (or similar cannibalistic phrasing). The iconic slogan became grotesque rather than appetizing. Banking giant, HSBC’s ‘Assume Nothing’, translated to ‘Do Nothing’ in multiple languages. The intended message of precision and diligence flipped into apathy. This reportedly cost the bank around $10 million to fix through rebranding.

When Ford launched its car ‘Pinto’ in Brazil, the car’s name became a running joke. ‘Pinto’ is local slang for small male genitalia. Hurriedly, Ford renamed it Corcel (horse) in that market.

Perfectionist, Mercedes-Benzalso messed-up big, in China. Initially its name was ‘Bensi’ translated roughly to, ‘Rush To Die’ or ‘Rush To Your Death’. It was quickly changed to something more positive, ‘Ben Chi’ (dashing speed).

While India is now grappling with Exam-Paper leaks, the most famous Parker Pen advertisement regarding leaks is a legendary 1980s marketing blunder. Aimed at the Mexican market, the campaign’s English slogan was, ‘It Won’t Leak In Your Pocket And Embarrass You’, but translators mistakenly used the Spanish word ‘embarazar’ (get someone pregnant/impregnate) leading to the tagline, ‘It Won’t Leak In Your Pocket And Make You Pregnant.’

In today’s tightly connected world-with social media amplifying gaffes instantly-what is emblematic or works in one place- in once culture, may not work in another. Getting into the skin of local languages and cultures is awfully important. Else, we may end-up remembering a brand and the tagline for all the wrong reasons. Here’s wishing that you, Think Different.

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.

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!