Note: This post was first published on August 5, 2024. Watching the event celebrating Roger Federer’s induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame at the Arthur Ashe stadium reminded me of the second time I met him. It’s been a while since I shared this, and with the recent celebrations, it felt like the right time to republish.

It’s almost Christmas in 2010. The wife and I are dressed in our best and driving to Zurich for the Roger Federer charity event on the eve of the “Match for Africa”, where he was scheduled to play Nadal.

"I think we may be the only Indians there tonight", I said as we get closer to our destination.

The wife works for a legal firm, and is always game for a debate; so she immediately responded saying "you think Credit Suisse has no other Indian clients?"

"I think there will be no other Indian clients there tonight."

"How do you know? How can you say that?"

"I must be wrong. There probably will be many others. Let's see if we know anyone." I give up easily. This discussion was not going to result in anything useful.

CS has done a good job in organizing this event. The Park Hyatt parking lot had been closed off except for invitees. We have to walk into the hotel through the front entrance (where a carpet had been laid) so that somebody could stop us and take an "official" photo. The lobby, bar and restaurant seemed to have been closed off to the general public and reserved for the Federer event. That's where we checked in at about 6:15 PM on Monday the 20th of December, 2010.

Through the grapevine (read Edy) we had heard that there would be about 350 people invited. The objective was to collect money for Roger's charity for children in Africa. It seemed that many of the 350 were there already. People were milling about, imbibing from an impressive list of drinks and picking up little snacks from trays. And did I mention the service staff? They were absolutely brilliant and impeccable. First Class.

Roger made an appearance at about 7 PM and stayed there until 11. He was charm personified. He mixed with everyone, fielded all kinds of questions, posed for photos (with us too), signed a thousand or more autographs. An amazing person. You can argue that it was a high end charity event for him, so he could not afford to be otherwise; but he said no to nobody and was in good humor for all 4 hours. Could tennis or Switzerland wish for a better ambassador? If we did not love him so far, this evening would swing us fully into his camp.

Those of you who knew me at the time and were followers of mine on Facebook may have seen (and remember) our pictures of this event, but the crowning glory was his contribution to Kiran who would have given her life to be there.

He signed the invitation with a personalization for her after we told him that she (with me) had met him in Rotterdam in 2003, and then he agreed to speak to her by phone a couple of hours later (I told him it was her birthday the next day). To crown it all, he remembered and mentioned the meeting in Rotterdam. I think she fainted after he hung up. And I was the best Dad in the world that evening.

Hats off Roger. We loved meeting you and will be your fans forever.

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Endnotes (not in the first published post):

1. The full event is available to watch on YouTube.

2. We were the only non-whites at the event.

3. And it’s not just Roger that one doffs a hat off to. At one point, we were watching him on stage but with poor visibility standing behind taller people and his sister came up, parted the crowd and got us to the front.

“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp.” — Robert Browning

Apparently, I was not done with my Welsh travel tales.

After the last post about the Prince of Wales, I realized that I had two other stories that needed telling. The experience and knowledge of our London hosts, the Gulatis, led us to two other notable places in Wales, which I recommend highly!

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct: A Stream in the Sky

Located in the Vale of Llangollen, Sir Walter Scott famously called it “A stream in the sky”. Built to transport coal, limestone, iron and other essential raw materials found in Northeastern Wales, it played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution and is considered as one of the most remarkable engineering achievements of its time.

At 307 meters in length and 38 meters in height, the aqueduct was the highest and longest of its kind. Building started in 1795 and the aqueduct opened to traffic on 26 November 1805. What is even more remarkable is that it doubles as a pedestrian and boat bridge. We walked across it and witnessed narrowboats gliding high above the valley floor—the channels are so narrow that I could have easily hopped from the towpath onto a boat and jumped off on the other side.

We saw families holidaying on these canal boats and learned that one could sail unto Manchester (and beyond) on the British canal system from Llangollen in about two weeks. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct remains fully operational today, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009 due to its historical significance and pioneering design.

It also remains the longest and highest individual elevated navigable canal structure in the world.

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Snowdon Mountain - and a Swiss connection

Located in Snowdonia (of course!), Northwest Wales, the summit of Snowdon at 1085m asl is the highest peak in Wales and the highest in the British Isles outside of the Scottish Highlands. One can reach the top by hiking up or taking the railway. We took the “lazy” option due to time constraints and the 30C heat!

An interesting factoid — the train line to the top as well as the hike to the top are both about 5 miles long! An hour by train translates to 5-6 hours walking up. We saw families with children doing the “gentler” path and more hardy groups scrambling up exposed ridges. Whatever rocks your boat! There is a hut about halfway up (“The Halfway House”, since 1873) where one can get refreshments and rest — the owner/manager has a quad bike and is the only person allowed to ride up to that point.

An interesting bit of history: the railway took 14 months to build and was commissioned in 1896, relying entirely on Swiss engineering. The Abt rack-and-pinion system it uses was invented by the Swiss engineer Dr. Roman Abt, and was the only safe technology for moving trains up steep mountain gradients. The historic steam locomotives (there is also diesel now — tickets for the the steam we wanted to take were sold out) that famously ply the route were manufactured by the Swiss Locomotive & Machine Works (SLM) in Winterthur, Switzerland. Even the track gauge (800 mm) matches standard Swiss mountain railway specifications!

While on the train, the guide pointed us to a peak that was used by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary to train for their historic ascent of Mt. Everest. It was just one of many spectacular views—whether you choose to walk the path or take the train.

Endnotes:

1. Alert readers may recall the mention of Llangollen in my first post on Wales.

2. British canals form a massive, interconnected network spanning over 2,000 miles across England and Wales.

3. The stone pictured above stands at an entrance to the basin. It has a quote from Sir Walter Scott, who called the aqueduct ‘the stream in the sky’. Scott wondered at how fishes could swim above flying birds and the sculptor Anthony Lysycia has made that the central image of this sculpture. More info on sculptures at the aqueduct here.

4. This video of the aqueduct is worth a watch

5. For the nerds, the Aqueduct of Constantinople (Turkey/Byzantine Empire) reached an estimated length of over 426 kilometers (265 miles), combining channels, bridges, and subterranean tunnels.

6. If you, like many, decide to walk the mountain one way and take the train the other, make sure you book a ticket well in advance!

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and if you can, someone else too.

My views were, as I perceived them, firmly in favor of open markets, free trade and prosperity for all. Admittedly, I rambled a bit and flitted from economics to politics and back again.

Recently, a discussion made me dig up that old post and ask a hard question: What has actually happened in the last 16 months, and have my views changed?

Re-reading the piece, I was reminded of a premise I laid out back then:

I believe that a tyrant always falls, though history tells us that the revolution that topples a tyrant puts another one in its place, more often than not.

This was how the subject came up — starting the conversation, I posited that some of the “autocrats” running democracies may be in trouble. To boot, on top of all their previous actions, is the last straw approaching for:

1. Donald Trump, following his war on Iran

2. Narendra Modi, following the test papers leak and the CJP protests

3. Benyamin Netanyahu, as his war becomes increasingly unpopular

4. Recep Erdoğon, as the government crackdown on the main opposition party leads to pro democracy protests

5. Gianni Infantino, following the attempt to sell parts of FIFA to private interests

OK, I admit that I am not a fan of any of the people listed above and downright despise some of them.

But putting politics aside, how did business & economy perform under these figures over the past year?

Good economic growth for all. FIFA, by all accounts, also had the most successful World Cup ever. With the exception of India, the main stock indexes of these countries also show strong positive returns over the last one year:

• USA S&P +22.2%

• India NIFTY Flat

• Israel TA-35 + 41%

• Türkiye +25%

By these two simple metrics, things are going pretty well for these leaders.

Yet, I can’t shake the feeling that the weight of the last straw is getting heavier. It’s got nothing to do with my political or economic views — I still believe that I sit comfortably right of center — I value free trade and open markets. But at some point of time, economic numbers can no longer hide social problems and tyrants will and must face reality.

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Endnotes:

1. The Economist famously named April 2, 2025 “Ruination Day”.

2. India: The Modi government was slow to act after the NEET paper leak protest, but has since moved decisively to attempt to correct the situation.

3. FIFA: Infantino appears to have thrown in the towel on his attempts, but will that still lead to his ouster?

4. From all accounts, the other figures mentioned seem to be doubling down.

As usual, I have drawn on publicly available sources for facts; but any errors, omissions and interpretations are entirely my own.

By themselves, wildfires in Europe are not an unknown phenomenon, but the recent fires in France—blazing dangerously close to the famous wine region of Bordeaux—and in Spain, near the capital of Madrid, are unprecedented in modern history.

French President Emmanuel Macron described the situation as the worst crisis to hit the country since World War II. For Spain, the fastest growing economy in the Eurozone, this summer in Madrid has served as a brutal reality check. Hundreds of thousands of people have either been evacuated or told to shelter in place.

Wildfires rarely respect borders. Smoke from Canadian blazes frequently drifts down into the United States (witness recent outbursts from the US administration), and agricultural burning in Indonesia regularly blankets Singapore in haze. Australia has long battled massive fires that isolate their impact domestically, while California faces recurring megafires.

Fire has always been an integral part of human life; its discovery shaped human evolution in countless ways. Yet, most of us remain entirely unexposed to its massive, intense and uncontrollable fury.

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What is a wildfire?

A wildfire is an unplanned, uncontrolled fire that burns through natural vegetation across wildland areas—such as forests, grasslands, brushlands, peatlands, or savannahs. Unlike controlled prescribed burns used in forestry management, wildfires spread rapidly and unpredictably, driven by wind, terrain, and dry environmental conditions.

The press is currently flooded with articles analyzing why these fires happen, how they spread, and how to fight them. The familiar blame game regarding climate change will no doubt continue indefinitely. But rather than getting lost in the global shouting match, I wanted to focus on how wildfires manifest in two places I know best: my adopted home of Switzerland, and my birth country, India.

Wildfires in Switzerland

In Switzerland, wildfires are typically referred to as forest fires (Waldbrände). While the country does not experience the megafires seen in California or Australia, woodland fires are a growing seasonal concern. Switzerland averages around 110 to 120 fires per year, destroying roughly 150 hectares of land annually (less than 0.01% of the total land area).

• Primary Causes: According to the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), roughly 90% of all Swiss forest fires are caused by human carelessness or negligence—such as unextinguished campfires, agricultural burning, or discarded cigarettes. Lightning accounts for most natural ignitions, particularly at high altitudes in the mountains.

• The Unique Danger: Because Switzerland is an Alpine country, a major concern is the destruction of protection forests (Schutzwald). Trees on steep mountain slopes act as natural barriers against avalanches, rockfalls, mudslides, and soil erosion. When fires strike these slopes, ground crews are heavily dependent on aerial firefighting support.

Wildfires in India

In India, wildfires are officially classified as forest fires as well. According to the Forest Survey of India (FSI), over 50% of the country’s forest cover is vulnerable to fires, with roughly 10% falling into extremely high-risk categories.

Unlike the high-intensity fires common in North America, most forest fires in India are low-intensity surface fires that sweep across dry leaf litter, grasses, and underbrush. However, as prolonged dry spells and heatwaves intensify, these fires are growing more frequent, violent, and difficult to manage.

• Human Factors: The FSI estimates that more than 95% of forest fires in India are human-induced, whether intentional or accidental. This is compounded by the heavy agricultural burning and shifting clearance practices in Northern India each autumn that choke New Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) in smog.

• Seasonality: The Indian fire season is tightly linked to the monsoons. Peak months are March and April—accounting for nearly 70% of all annual incidents—coinciding with peak leaf fall, soaring temperatures, and low relative humidity just prior to the monsoon rains. In recent years, unseasonably warm Februarys have caused the season to start earlier and drag on longer.

Conclusion

What do we learn from all of this?

Wildfires are no longer isolated to the remote wilderness of Canada, California, or Australia. They are creeping closer to populated centers worldwide, getting closer and closer to us, and more often than not, we only have ourselves to blame.

Endnotes:

1. The Swiss Tradition vs. Reality: A popular family pastime in Switzerland during summer is walking in the forests and grilling sausages over an open fire. Anecdotally, government warnings against this practice have increased significantly. Fireworks have also faced tighter bans, especially around August 1, the Swiss National Day.

2. Recommended Reading: If you read one book about fires and climate change, make it Fire Weather by John Valliant. (Thanks to Randy for the recommendation.)

3. Controlled Mitigation: National parks regularly use “controlled burns” to create fire breaks and mitigate the risk of catastrophic, unmanageable infernos.

4. Underground Blazes: The Jharia coalfield fire in Jharkhand, India, is one of the longest-running, most severe underground mine fires in human history. First reported in 1916 at the Bhowrah colliery, the blaze has been burning continuously underground for well over a century. (Thanks to Nihar for leading me to this tidbit.)

5. Azerbaijan has Ateshgah (Baku Fire Temple): Historically fed by natural petroleum and gas seeps, where Zoroastrian fire worshippers traveled for centuries to pray at naturally burning flames.

6. Thanks to KK for asking the question that provoked me into writing this post.

As usual, I have drawn on publicly available sources for facts; but any errors, omissions and interpretations are entirely my own.

This week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a diplomatic campaign to “dismantle” the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Given that both Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu currently have outstanding arrest warrants from the court, my initial reaction was to jump to an obvious conclusion. However, I decided to look past the headlines and educate myself on how this institution actually functions.

A Brief History of the Rome Statute

For most of modern history, international criminal justice was ad hoc—temporary tribunals set up by victors after a conflict ended, like the Nuremberg or Tokyo trials. Post WWII, there was a move to have a more international court for such trials, but the Cold War “froze” the process. Following the atrocities in Rwanda and Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the international community realized that a permanent mechanism was needed.

In 1998, the UN convened a conference in Rome to draft a treaty. When it came to a vote, 120 nations voted in favor, 21 abstained, and seven voted against. Notably, among the “against” votes were the United States, Russia, China, and Israel. India, while supportive of the concept, chose to abstain to keep its options open.

The Four Pillars of the ICC

The Rome Statute was designed around a few core principles:

• Strict Complementarity: The ICC is a “court of last resort.” It only steps in if domestic courts are genuinely unable or unwilling to act.

• Four Core Crimes: Jurisdiction is strictly limited to Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes, and the Crime of Aggression.

• Individual Liability: Unlike the International Court of Justice, which resolves state-on-state disputes, the ICC only prosecutes individuals—from foot soldiers to heads of state.

• No Retroactivity: The court can only investigate crimes committed after July 1, 2002.

(The treaty took effect after at least 60 nations formally ratified it through their domestic parliaments. Today the ICC has 124 members, representing a massive proportion of the global population.)

Why the Resistance?

Why did some nations vote against it? The concerns were varied. Major powers feared the court could bypass UN authority. Middle Eastern nations feared it would become a political weapon. India specifically wanted nuclear aggression and cross-border terrorism included as core crimes, and when they weren’t, they opted for a strategic neutrality.

According to The Economist,

American public opinion on the court is deeply divided—and largely uninformed. A YouGov poll shows that 38% of Americans have a favorable view of the ICC, while 23% have an unfavorable one. Crucially, 39% are undecided. Unsurprisingly, the divide falls sharply along party lines: half of Democrats view the court positively, compared with only a quarter of Republicans.

The Political Theater

So, why this campaign, and why now? Is it to ensure that “friends” like Putin and Netanyahu avoid sentencing, or is it to insulate U.S. officials from potential future investigations into those same core crimes?

In practical terms, Rubio has a difficult road ahead. Given how many nations the U.S. has alienated or threatened over the last 18 months, convincing 124 member states to dismantle a permanent institution will be a massive diplomatic task.

Endnotes:

1. The record of ICC in trying and convicting heads of state is patchy at best. Amongst active leaders, warrants also exist for Netanyahu’s former defense minister, Yoav Gallant and Min Aung Hlaing (De Facto Leader of Myanmar / Military Junta). Omar al-Bashir (Former President of Sudan) also has a warrant against him.

2. Other heads of state targeted have been

   1. Muammar Gaddafi (Former Leader of Libya): Warrant issued in 2011 and case terminated the same year after he was captured and killed by rebels.

   2. Laurent Gbagbo (Former President of Côte d’Ivoire): Surrendered to the ICC in 2011 after losing power, went to trial and was fully acquitted of all charges in 2019.

   3. Uhuru Kenyatta (Former President of Kenya): Prosecutor’s case collapsed due to a lack of evidence and alleged witness tampering, and all charges were withdrawn in 2015.

3. Slobodan Milošević (former President of Yugoslavia) and Charles Taylor (former President of Liberia) were both successfully prosecuted, but this was done by ad hoc UN tribunals rather than the permanent ICC.

As usual, I have drawn on publicly available sources for facts; but any errors, omissions and interpretations are entirely my own.

In my last post I mentioned that we struck up a conversation with a Welsh family at breakfast at our hotel in Llanwddyn. The patriarch of the family was wheelchair-bound, 96 year-old Reginald Jones. Accompanying him were his wife and his daughter who split her time between Canada and Wales.

It turned out Mr. Jones was a career journalist who had covered Wales for several newspapers, including the Daily Mirror, for much of the second half of the 20th century. His daughter overheard me recounting the history of the lake to my friends and initiated a conversation.

What followed was a masterclass in Welsh history.

• The people who inhabited what is now called Wales were the original inhabitants of the island and were called Britons. Over the centuries, invasions by the Vikings, Germans and French fundamentally changed the way the island was governed and inhabited.

• The word Wales or Welsh means “foreign”, which was the designation given the local Britons by the English rulers.

• King Edward I, who formally conquered Wales in 1283, decreed that the King’s firstborn son should hold the title "Prince of Wales." The move was intended to make the conquered territory feel integrated into the kingdom, though historically, none of these princes spoke a word of Welsh.

• The last person to be invested as the Prince of Wales was Charles as a 20 year old in 1969 at the Caernarfon Castle, which was built by King Edward I in the late 13th century as a symbol of English dominance over Wales. Charles is said to have learned Welsh for the occasion and occupied that title until 2022 when he was crowned King Charles III.

• Prince William, the current Prince of Wales, will not have an investiture ceremony (Wikipedia). He explicitly chose to reject this tradition, calling his father’s 1969 ceremony as “ridiculous and medieval” and focused on community work to respect modern Welsh sensitivities.

• Mr. Reginald Jones, obviously an expert in matters Welsh and English, was adamant in believing that he would eventually be invested in Westminster Abbey (not in Caernarfon Castle).

• The other tidbit shared by them was that Edward I built an “Iron Ring of Castles”. Edward I strategically designed this linear network so that each major coastal fortress was positioned exactly one day’s march (or walk) from the next. This provided a logistical safety net — if one castle was attacked, help would not be far away.

This was our only interaction with locals, and boy was it fascinating and informative! Stack up another point in the win column for talking with strangers!

Endnotes:

1. The First Native Welsh Prince: Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (also known as Llywelyn the Last) was the first and only native ruler formally recognized as the "Prince of Wales" by the English Crown.

2. The Jones name: The family name Jones was given by the English to the Iones, as told to us by the family we met, because the English did not like two consecutive vowels. In fact, the Welsh language does not have the letter J in it.

3. A Swiss connection: The German part of Switzerland refers to the French part as Welschland. The term originates from the same root as Welsh — meaning foreigners!

4. A Note on Research: I have used internet research to fill out some details and jog my memory where there were holes to flesh out the conversation.

5. Finally: As reported by the Daily Mirror, Mr. Jones currently resides at home with his family where he is cared for by his daughter, Sandra Hamilton.

When did we shift from the phrase “wish list” to “bucket list”?

The latter was popularized by the 2007 film The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as terminally ill men on a road trip to check off their life goals. Wales, for a long time, has been on my own “list”—a place that felt magical, defined by a language that seemed to have only consonants and a landscape painted permanently in shades of green.

So, when we found that there was an idle window in our London travel, Wales was my first choice. Fortunately, the others agreed. Lata found a perfect spot on Lake Vyrnwy, and we drove up from London. My intention was to spend the days walking, expecting the area to be cooler than London. The dates coincided with a heatwave gripping all of Europe — so it was warmer than we expected.

Despite that, we got out and about and one of the walks we did manage offered a fascinating look at the history hidden beneath the waters of the lake.

The Drowning of Llanwddyn

The story of the lake begins in Liverpool, 68 miles (109 kms) away. As the city grew, it required a constant, reliable supply of water, and the government decided the river Efyrnwy could be dammed to provide it.

Built between 1881 and 1888, the dam was the first large stone-built structure of its kind in the UK. The resulting reservoir is named after the village of Llanwddyn, which once occupied the valley floor. A beautiful stone tower was constructed to strain the water before it began its gravity-fed journey through a pipeline to Liverpool.

However, the construction of the dam came at a high cost to the locals. The residents of the village of Llanwddyn (which was flooded) were never consulted; they opposed the plan, but were relocated regardless. Their displacement involved the demolition of a church, two chapels, three inns, ten farmhouses, and 37 homes. A new village was built lower down the valley by the Liverpool Corporation to house them.

A Modern Preserve

Shortly after the project was completed, about 400,000 trout were released into the reservoir. To this day, swimming in the lake is prohibited to maintain water purity.

The lake’s perimeter is exactly 11.75 miles (18.9 kms) —the perfect distance for the annual half-marathon (the record is an incredible 1:02:14) held there. For the casual visitor, the area is a haven for cycling, bird watching, and water sports. The surrounding woodlands are spectacular, filled with trees that rise tens of meters into the sky, some over 150 years old.

We stayed at a hotel completed in 1890, originally built to house visiting dignitaries. It is now a high-quality spa resort located in the heart of a nature preserve. The only disadvantage of the location is its isolation—there is nothing nearby in the way of shops or local eateries.

On our last morning, we met a Welsh family at breakfast who told us, inter alia, that the city of Liverpool was not satiated with Lake Vyrnwy and created the Lake Tryweryn, a few miles north. However, by the time that project was complete, they decided that they did not need that resource.

Standby for further posts about Wales.

Endnotes:

1. Yes, Wales is a country, though it does not have a seat at the UN. It is one of the four constituent nations that make up the sovereign state of the United Kingdom. Wales competes as Wales in rugby and football, yet it competes in the Olympics as Great Britain.

2. The Welsh language does not have the letter V. The name Efyrnwy was anglicized to Vyrnwy. When a name starts with Ll, it pronounced as Cl.

3. While learning about Lake Vyrnwy I was reminded of the Wägitalersee, not far from where we live. It is a reservoir in the commune of Innerthal SZ. The old village of Innerthal was flooded in 1924 when the dam Schräh was constructed. A new village was built on the current lake. It is spectacular.

In case you are wondering what House of Cards and Remarkably Bright Creatures have in common, you can stop right now—they are polar opposites.

I watched all six seasons of House of Cards, a political and conspiracy thriller brought to life by Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, and Michael Kelly. It was gripping, fast-paced, and meticulously plotted. Yet, there was one thing missing: a character I could actually like. In that show, everyone was ruthless, manipulative, and selfish. In an otherwise brilliant production, I found myself missing a sense of genuine humanity.

Remarkably Bright Creatures, on the other hand, contains no one who would last five minutes in House of Cards. Every character is kind, caring, and fundamentally likable. Reading it is, quite simply, a heartwarming experience.

Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt

Fiction | 2022 | Rating: 5/5

Shelby Van Pelt’s novel explores the unlikely friendship between Tova Sullivan, a widow who lost her 18-year-old son thirty years ago, and Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. Marcellus, who possesses a very high level of intelligence, decides that he must use his keen mind to help Tova uncover the truth about her past.

The story contains plenty of twists, but the author focuses on the emotional resonance of the journey rather than just the plot mechanics. You don’t read this book to “solve” it; you read it to feel it.

Remarkably Bright Creatures is a must-read. If I had the chance, I would hug Ms. Van Pelt—as well as every character in the book, Marcellus included.

Endnote:

1. House of Cards was streaming on Netflix from 2013 to 2018.

2. Remarkably Bright Creatures has been adapted into a movie starring Sally Field as Tova Sullivan, and is available to watch on Netflix. The book has a 4.36 rating on Goodreads from almost 1.5 million readers.

3. I never said that my taste was not eclectic …

This Substack is reader-supported and will always remain free to read. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

Until next time, take care of yourself, and if you can, someone else too.

If you have been following the news about Europe in the last few days, you may have come across headlines suggesting that it’s warm here. More than usual.

Yahoo news reported this morning that

In summary, Europe is currently grappling with a severe, early-summer "heat dome" driven by a high-pressure system sweeping in from the Sahara. The heatwave has triggered mass school closures, cancelled outdoor events, and caused multiple fatalities across Western and Central Europe.

DW.com reported that

The high-pressure system has created a so-called "heat dome," which traps hot air over Western and Central Europe, allowing temperatures to climb day after day.

In my own Gemeinde, the daily highs have been hovering in the mid-30s Celsius for several days, with "severe weather" and "hazard" warnings active for most of the country.

A Memory of Winters Past

When we moved here years ago, the seasons felt distinct. I recall the first snowfall consistently arriving in the first week of November. White Christmases were not a novelty, and we often saw daytime lows dipping to -10°C or -12°C.

Stepping out meant boots—always. After we moved into our own house, shoveling the driveway was a ritual, as was sprinkling gravel to combat the ice. I remember the frustration of our rear-wheel-drive Lexus IS250 failing to reverse out of the garage, usually because I had done a poor job preparing the way.

In the last few years, that chore has all but vanished; I’ve cleared the driveway perhaps once or twice a season. When I wear boots now, it is out of an abundance of caution rather than necessity. When friends from Asia ask, “It must be freezing there, right?” I find myself saying: “It used to be, but not anymore.”

Global warming? Perhaps. But I find the phrase “Climate Change” to be more descriptive of the erratic, shifting reality we now inhabit.

The Numbers Behind the Feeling

Memory can be unreliable, and just because I “feel” that it is no longer as cold as it used to be is no confirmation of reality. So I decided to dig into the data.

Several hot days in June is not a unique phenomenon. Swissinfo reports that (emphasis mine)

There have been several heatwaves lasting several days in June in the recent past. Examples include 2025, 2022, 2019, 2017 and the hot summer of 2003.

The summer of 2003 is famously known as the Hitzesommer (the "Summer of the Century") across Switzerland and Central Europe. It was an unprecedented meteorological anomaly centered directly over the Alpine region, shattering statistical records dating back to at least the year 1500. The summer of 2022 is officially classified as the second-hottest summer in Swiss history. More notably, a heatwave in 2003 was followed by four heatwaves in the last 10 years!

The changes from the 1980s to the 2020s for the city of Zurich can be summarized in the table below:

According to the Swiss Federal Government website, Switzerland is warming at roughly twice the global average. The national average temperature has risen by about 2.8° C compared to pre-industrial times (1871-1900).

If you are a climate change skeptic, I encourage you to follow the data. We often tell ourselves that these changes are out of our control, but that is a dangerous luxury. If each of us does our small part, we may yet find a way to slow this transformation.

Endnotes:

1. There was a rush in early November for changing the tires on our cars to winter tires. While this is not legally mandated in Switzerland, driving with summer tires in the winter would technically classify the car as “unsafe” to drive. You do not want to get into an accident in such a situation.

2. The impact of climate change on the Alps, the snow line and the glaciers is a whole different subject. The village of Braunwald that we have gone (to try) skiing in the late 1980s is set to discontinue its ski operations as of next winter. Reading that made us sad.

As usual, I have drawn on publicly available sources for facts; but any errors, omissions and interpretations are entirely my own.

This Substack is reader-supported and will always remain free to read. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

Until next time, take care of yourself, and if you can, someone else too.

This morning, a friend shared a link to an article on ndtv.com which was headlined

‘Iran Unaware’: Trump Says US Sneaked 100 Million Oil Barrels From Hormuz

This was picked up from a Truth Social post that read, inter alia,

“Last month, I directed our Great U.S. Military to execute a secret mission to support Oil Tankers and other Commercial Ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Today, I am pleased to announce that this effort has resulted in more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil making its way through the Strait, and into the Open Market. More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely traveled through the Strait.”

Being interested in the region as well as having spent a career in oil, bulk liquid chemicals and shipping, I thought I would make an attempt to fact check this post. As I started digging, it became apparent that not only is the answer complicated, but the actual person who composed this post is incredibly smart as well as duplicitous.

It is sophisticated illusion building.

Breaking it down,

1. Exports of oil by country since the war started

   1. Seaborne exports of oil from Kuwait and Iraq have dropped to ZERO, from about 5.5 mbpd.

   2. Oil exports from UAE successfully bypassed Hormuz by utilizing the Habshan–Fujairah pipeline, which flows directly to the Gulf of Oman. This volume was about 1.5 mbpd, down from 3 mbpd.

   3. Exports from Saudi Arabia are now flowing almost entirely via the East-West pipeline to the Red Sea, throttling their overall output to about 4 mbpd from a pre-war baseline of over 7 mbpd.

2. The oil tankers — let’s be generous and assume that this was done on May 1 and the Great US Military was efficient enough to start their secret mission on the same day.

   1. In terms of the volume, 100mb would equal 3m bpd, meaning that Trump is claiming that a “secret mission” successfully escorted nearly 15% of the entire pre-war volume (of 20 mbpd) of the Persian Gulf daily.

   2. If only Aframax ships were used, would amount to five ships daily, day after day. Fully laden, they can carry about 600kb of oil.

   3. However, the main workhorses of the current crisis are the MR tankers, averaging about 47,000 DWT size, and carrying about 300kb fully laden. This would make it 10 ships daily.

   4. Blended together, their average cargo size is say 500,000 barrels

   5. As a note, only two ports in the AG can load VLCCs — Ras Tanurah in Saudi and Basra in Iraq, which can carry up to 2mb of oil.

3. The math (by my rough calculation) — To hit 100 million barrels, a fleet of 20 ships of this size has to complete 200 total trips (100,000,000 / 500,000 = 200). Since each ship has to sail into the Gulf, load, sail out, and unload via a slow ship-to-ship transfer—a loop that takes about 8 to 10 days even under perfect conditions—each vessel can only complete about 3 trips a month. Twenty ships doing 3 trips a month equals 60 trips per month. To get to 200 total trips, it takes this fleet roughly 3.5 months.

4. Sneaking by 60 trips through the Strait in one month? It very much stretches the imagination. The supply lines have to function like clockwork and the shipowners must consider Additional War Risk Insurance, which currently runs at 4% of H&M value.

5. The AWRI is important enough to examine further. An Aframax would pay about $3m and an MR about $2M for such insurance. This adds a cost $4-6 for each barrel of oil. Add this to all the other costs (fuel, crew hazard pay, daily charter rates etc), and the voyage would be uneconomical.

6. When the post says 200 ships, a layperson pictures 200 unique merchant vessels bravely sailing back to business. In reality, it’s likely just 15 to 20 specialized, self-insured shuttle tankers running the exact same back-and-forth loop 10 times each, without paying these multi-million-dollar out-of-pocket premiums on every single crossing.

Bottom Line: This is a very cleverly worded post that packages 100 days of slow, grinding, high-risk shuttle activity and presents it as a single month’s lightning military victory. It creates the illusion that the U.S. completely “controls” or has reopened the Strait, when in reality, the waterway remains a highly restricted combat zone.

It is sophisticated illusion building, likely written by a communications strategist who understands exactly how to manipulate data for a lay audience.

The ultimate reality check? Yesterday, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright openly admitted in a congressional hearing that while the military has helped facilitate localized movements, he was entirely unaware of any operation successfully taking millions of barrels of oil out of the region as the President claimed. When the government’s own Energy Chief hasn’t heard of your 100-million-barrel “secret mission,” you know you are looking at political theater, not maritime fact.

As usual, I have drawn on publicly available sources for facts; but any errors, omissions and interpretations are entirely my own.

This Substack is reader-supported and will always remain free to read. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

Until next time, take care of yourself, and if you can, someone else too.

About a week ago, the U.S. DOJ launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll. A day later, Robert Reich wrote about this on his Substack, mentioning her book, Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President —which, he noted, he “can’t recommend highly enough.”

I recalled reading about the case in the news, so I quickly acquired the book and raced through it. Ms. Carroll is an amazing subject; not for a moment do you feel pity for a woman who was assaulted by a man 100 pounds heavier than her, only to be defamed by him afterward.

Instead, you find a masterclass in emotions that bounce all over the place and the way she deals with them. The insights into the legal system and the grueling process of witness examination and cross-examination are all described with a “laugh-out-loud” humor that one would never expect from a “victim.” It is, quite simply, an incredible read.

I, too, cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Endnote: A federal jury in Manhattan awarded Ms. Carroll $5 million for the sexual assault and an additional $83.3 million for defamation. An appeals court upheld the decision in September 2025; however, no payments have been made by the defendant, who is currently claiming presidential immunity.

I am a baby boomer and I have been lucky.

The conflicts that split my country twice—the 1937 partition from Burma, less discussed than the 1947 partition that created Pakistan—both passed me by. I was also too young to grasp the first and second Indo-Pak wars of 1947-48 and 1965 over Kashmir, as well as the Sino-Indian War of 1962.

I do remember the third Indo-Pak war of 1971, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh. We were moving across the country at the time, and the trains had black shades on the windows at night. At home, we kept the lights off or covered the windows with dark shades. It was an intense, though short war — just 13 days on the Eastern Front — and it altered the shape of the subcontinent permanently.

What is worth noting is that despite the scale of the Pakistani surrender — one of the largest since World War II — India did not seize or acquire a single inch of land.

The Sino-Indian War of 1962 was fought over two specific, rugged border regions: Aksai Chin (in the west) and the North-East Frontier Agency (now Arunachal Pradesh, in the east). China secured control of Aksai Chin, which it still holds today.

India has not been involved in a war “officially” since 1971, though border skirmishes with Pakistan and China continue — the most significant one being Kargil in 1999.

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A History of Intervention

Since the end of World War II — which began, in part, as a land grab — there have been numerous interstate wars across the world. Perhaps the most defining have taken place in the Middle East and North Africa, driven largely by post-colonial borders, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and regional power struggles:

• First Arab-Israeli War 1948–1949 (Israel vs. Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon)

• Suez Crisis 1956 (Egypt vs. United Kingdom, France, Israel)

• Six-Day War 1967I (srael vs. Egypt, Syria, Jordan)

• Yom Kippur War 1973 (Israel vs. Egypt, Syria)

• Iran-Iraq War 1980–1988 (Iran vs. Iraq)

• Gulf War 1990–1991 (Iraq vs. US-led Coalition)

• Iraq War (Invasion Phase) 2003 (Iraq vs. United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Poland)

Among these, the First Arab-Israeli War and the Six-Day War resulted in an actual redrawing of borders — and it is perhaps no coincidence that Israel was the country acquiring land on both occasions. The scale of those acquisitions is worth stating plainly:

• The 1949 Armistice Agreements resulted in Israel ending up with roughly 78% of the former British Mandate territory—about 22% more land than it had been allocated under the UN Partition Plan.

• In 1967, Israel seized the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.

The Gulf War was an attempt by Iraq to absorb Kuwait — it failed due to massive intervention by a US led coalition.

And Afghanistan? Russia intervened in 1979, the US in 2001. Both conflicts began as swift state-level interventions and evolved into long, grinding battles against insurgencies — with little to show for the effort at the end.

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The New Reality

The withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021, and the staged withdrawal from Iraq — first in 2011, resuming in 2021, and now scheduled to conclude by end of 2026 — seemed, at the time, to signal that the world might be settling into a period of relative peace. At least as far as interstate wars were concerned.

As we soon found out, that was not to be.

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched what it called a "special operation" with the intention of seizing Ukraine. The few days Moscow thought it would need have stretched into more than four years, with no end in sight.

The events of October 7, 2023 set off a chain of consequences that has resulted in the de facto annexation of the West Bank by Israel, and its territorial control of the Gaza Strip. The subsequent unprovoked attack on Iran by the US and Israel on February 28, 2026 triggered further escalation — leading to Israel attacking Lebanon and, in the words of a UK government document, “using conventional military force to assert physical control over another country’s land.”

Meanwhile, the current US administration has spoken openly of absorbing Canada and Greenland — and while it stepped back from those ambitions, it has acted on them in the case of weaker states such as Venezuela. Cuba may be next.

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The Thucydides Trap

So where does this leave us?

Is there a pattern here? Are we witnessing a new triumvirate — Russia, Israel, and the United States — each pursuing territorial ambitions by force? Is this what Chinese President Xi Jinping had in mind when he invoked the "Thucydides Trap" at the recent China-US summit?

History also tells us that wars rarely end cleanly unless one side truly surrenders — as Germany and Japan did in 1945, and Pakistan in 1971. More often, they simply simmer, states settling into uneasy truces when they run out of money, arms, and energy.

Are there more interstate wars in our near future?

Maybe this baby boomer has to adjust his definition of luck.

Endnotes:

1. Burma was separated from British-ruled India on April 1, 1937, ending over a century of administration as a province of the Raj. It is sometimes described as a "forgotten partition" preceding the 1947 partition of India. (Wikipedia)

2. An interstate war is defined as a direct military conflict fought between sovereign nations.

3. Geographically, Afghanistan comes under South Asia rather than Middle East; even though it is often treated as part of the broader regional matrix.

4. "Thucydides Trap"—a theory popularized by Harvard scholar Graham Allison suggesting that a rising power (China) inevitably causes fear in an established power (USA), leading to conflict.

5. While I have covered the human cost of the current wars in a previous post, there is also the matter of pollution created by the bombing of energy facilities, which perhaps deserves its own Substack.

6. As usual, I have drawn on publicly available sources for facts; but any errors, omissions and interpretations are entirely my own.

This Substack is reader-supported and will always remain free to read. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

Until next time, take care of yourself, and if you can, someone else too.

On that note, here are three books I finished recently.

The Body, A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson

Non-Fiction | Science, Health, Medical | 2019 | Rating: 5/5

I was first introduced to Mr. Bryson’s work by Lex through Neither Here Nor There, and I have been an intermittent reader ever since. With The Body, he has crafted a masterpiece. Incisive and humorous—in that singular way only he can manage—he takes us on a journey (though this time, the “travel” is internal) of our own bodies. He highlights how much we know, but more importantly, how much we still don’t. It turns out, that is a staggering amount. I read this book over several months, yet it maintained a remarkable continuity that kept me absorbed throughout.

Honor, by Thrity Umrigar

Fiction | Contemporary, India | 2022 | Rating: 5/5

Those of you who grew up in South Asia will recognize the essence of this story immediately. A village in Gujarat, partitioned by a river: Hindus on one side, Muslims on the other. For 200 years, tradition—caste, religion, and social hierarchy—has dominated everything. When a Hindu girl defies her brothers to work in a factory and falls in love with a Muslim boy, the result is predictable, yet tragic.

One might expect this story to be straightforward, but Umrigar makes it truly special by utilizing the point of view of an American-Indian journalist (who struggles with her own origins and moralities) I kept wondering covering the tragedy. It is a heartfelt, gripping account that kept me glued to the page until the very end.

Thanks to Srishti for the recommendation.

Every Dead Thing by John Connolly (Charlie Parker Series #1)

Fiction | Crime, Mystery, Horror | 1999 | Rating: 4/5

I was initially reluctant to start another crime thriller series when Amitabh recommended this one. I finally picked it up six months later. There is no doubt that Mr. Connolly is a gifted writer, but for my taste, this opening volume suffered from an excess of characters, subplots, and horror. Keeping track of the connections between them became a chore rather than a thrill. I will likely wait a while before deciding whether to commit to the next book in the series.

Endnotes:

1. We do have a calendar on the kitchen wall—a lovely annual gift from Srishti, filled with twelve memories from the year gone by. It serves as a nice contrast to the digital "calendars" we obsess over.

2. Mr. Connolly (John) is Irish and no relation to Mr. Connelly (Michael) of the Bosch universe. It is a curious statistical fact that Ireland produces more writers per capita than any other country in the world.

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Until next time, take care of yourself, and if you can, someone else too.

In the last two months, the Strait of Hormuz has entered everyday conversation as the world's most consequential chokepoint. This book, however, is about a different kind of stranglehold — the economic grip that the US has exercised through its control of the dollar-based international payment system.

I found Chokepoint to be an extraordinary piece of writing — perhaps because I have seen and lived through many of the events it describes. The author, Ted Fishman, is well qualified to take it on, having served at the US State Dept., the Pentagon and Treasury, and details many of the behind the scene discussions. His central argument is this: when you have decided who your enemy is, and your military might does not cut it — witness twenty years in Afghanistan and Iraq without achieving your objectives — you weaponize your economic power. Denying access to the dollar and the American banking system became the answer the US turned to in the 21st century to fight its wars. As American technology came to dominate the world, access to Silicon Valley became a weapon too. Naturally, other countries — especially China — retaliated, and Fishman argues convincingly that we are now in an Age of Economic Warfare unlike anything before it. Fewer people may be killed this way than through military means, but the damage is no less real.

Written from an unapologetically American viewpoint, I wish the book had paused more often to explain the other side's perspective — not just how adversaries fought back, but why they saw things differently to begin with. The slow and steady decline of dollar dominance, and the fracturing of the western alliance, will no doubt affect how these weapons can be wielded in the future.

Thanks to for introducing me to this book via his podcast.

Postscript

I finished the book in mid-April — that is when I wrote the review above — and then took a break from reading to follow the news. Events have moved fast.

We now know that the current US administration, apparently spooked by the effect of high prices, lifted sanctions on Russian oil already at sea. More startling still, it lifted sanctions on Iranian oil — a country the US attacked without provocation and which remains a declared enemy state. One has to ask: are sanctions genuinely a tool for bringing rogue regimes into line, or simply a weapon — deployed when convenient, abandoned when not?

Most recently, the US unilaterally sanctioned five Chinese oil refineries for purchasing Iranian oil, among them Hengli — a facility processing 400,000 barrels per day and a Fortune Global 500 company. The Chinese government’s response was swift and unambiguous: it declared the sanctions illegal under international law (having not been approved by the UN) and warned that any company complying with them would be violating Chinese law and placed on a “malicious entity list.”

Are the two largest economies in the world on a collision course?

We will find out soon enough whose bluff gets called.

Endnotes:

1. Beijing recently issued new controls tightening restrictions on key battery-making technology and equipment, directly affecting the start of commercial production at India’s Reliance — the country’s most significant attempt to manufacture the advanced lithium-ion cells that power electric vehicles and renewable energy storage systems.

2. I don’t expect China to broaden its export controls as a result of this latest American action. But consider this: if a company like Coca-Cola sources PET bottle resin from Hengli — and decides it can no longer do so under US pressure — it would find itself in direct violation of Chinese law. That is the bind that American sanctions have now created for multinational companies caught between the two powers.

3. I did read another book in April, which I will cover later. This book deserved its own post.

There is a number that has been sitting in my peripheral vision for a few weeks now. One hundred. That was the number of my last post.

I have been thinking about how to mark it. A Trammo Tale? Another reading list? A meditation on Switzerland? The current state of the world? But the more I turned it over, the more I felt that the occasion called for something I have never quite done since my early introduction on Substack. A post about the person writing it.

So here, following post number one hundred and two years of writing, is an attempt at that.

I grew up in a middle-class household, the son of a government employee and a homemaker who between them gave me exposure to the diversity of India, and the conviction that education was the way forward — things that were perhaps more valuable than wealth. This gave me roots in one country even as it prepared me, without my knowing it, for a life spent crossing borders. KV Guwahati, Delhi University and then IIMC sharpened whatever I had, and a stint in sales in Bombay made me break out of my innate introvert nature and forced me to go out and meet life with a smile and a firm handshake.

In the 1980s, anybody who had the opportunity to leave India did so without hesitation. The common destinations — USA, UK, Canada and the Gulf. When friends and acquaintances ask me how I made it to Switzerland, I always said the same thing: “I worked hard, and then I got lucky.” Bombay was the eighth city that I had lived in and when the opportunity to move to Switzerland came, we did not hesitate.

We moved to Geneva in 1986 and I joined Trammo in 1987 as a Junior Trader. I was young, eager, and willing to work harder than anyone else, to take on any job that was available to me in the company. What followed were 29 years of an education of the most demanding and rewarding kind: markets that humbled you, colleagues who sharpened you, and a founder whose confidence arrived without ceremony and sentimentality.

I remember a 2 AM phone call in a hotel room in Seoul. Mr. Stanton on the line, calling not to reprimand, not to inquire, but to share good news — because even at that hour, even across an ocean, he wanted the people around him to feel part of something. I have thought about that call many times since. At that time, it was for what was said, but later for what it revealed about the kind of leader he was, and the kind of person I should aspire to be.

Those years meant a great deal of travel. Short and long-haul flights with a briefcase stuffed with reports, earmarked for the hours in the air. Conversations with strangers you would never see again. Getting locked in a hotel room bathroom. Jet lag. Hitting the ground running after intercontinental flights. Fancy hotels, fancy dinners (or not), late nights and early mornings. Appreciating local culture and customs. Colleagues who always supported me, yet did not hesitate to set me right when they saw that I was straying. The sense of continuity provided by the International Herald Tribune.

I did not know it then, but I was already practicing something. The habit of paying attention.

I have spent most of my adult life in Switzerland — this small, improbable country that pulled itself up from poverty through a combination of precision, pragmatism, and quiet stubbornness. It is my adopted home, and I mean that with full sincerity. The Alps do not tire. The trains run on time. And wherever you go in the world, you will stumble upon a Bengali not far away — a truth that Smita could confirm with both amusement and deep pride.

Then, not long ago, life handed me what I can only call a Plot Twist.

Open heart surgery is not something you plan for. It arrives — through a scan, a consultation, a conversation with a doctor — and suddenly the calendar you thought you understood looks very different. What followed were weeks in which I found myself on the receiving end of care and kindness that was beyond expectations.

Charu made a side trip from her visit to London. Avi flew in from Singapore. Srishti left her family (in Thomas’ good care) in Dublin. Kiran battled Deutsche Bahn twice from Munich. And Smita — who held everything together with a grace I could not fully comprehend in the moment — was simply there, always, doing what needed to be done, and somehow making it look effortless.

I am a man who spent his career assessing risk, negotiating under pressure, and making decisions with incomplete information. None of that training prepared me for the particular vulnerability of lying in a hospital bed while the people you love rearrange their lives around yours. And I am grateful — more than I know how to say — for every one of those visits, calls, and messages.

The heart, it turns out, is not just a muscle.

I did not expect, at this stage of life, to try and become a writer.

It started modestly — a few anecdotes from a long career, some observations about Switzerland, a joke about an Irishman ordering pints in threes. Eclectic, as promised. I was not sure anyone would read it. I was not even sure I had anything worth reading.

But as I have already mentioned — it appears like I had been practicing something long before I knew I was doing it — the habit of paying attention. To big things and small. To the moments that left an impression and the ones that seemed ordinary until, sometime later, they didn't.

Writing, I have discovered, is simply that habit given a more permanent form. It forced me to look at the things I have lived through — to find something more in them. A late-night phone call becomes a meditation on leadership. A chance encounter with a line umpire from Hooghly becomes a story about determination. A true story about a heart transplant becomes something very personal indeed. The rustle of a newspaper on a long-haul flight becomes a reflection of a slower, more attentive world.

I am a more careful observer of my own life than I was two years ago. I am not sure whether writing made me that way, or whether writing is simply where that tendency found its home. Perhaps both.

What I know is this: every post has been written for me as much as it is for you — the reader who opens this on a quiet morning, or shares it with a friend, or takes the time to leave a comment that tells me the words landed somewhere. I did not expect the generosity of that, and I do not take it for granted.

One hundred posts. A career in trade. A life in Switzerland. A marriage that has steadied me through everything. Children who moved away to make a life in a different country, yet felt as close as ever. A heart that was broken open and put back together, and still — improbably, gratefully — beats on.

As I wrote earlier this year: Zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahin.

Life should be big. Not just long.

Thank you for reading. If this post resonated with you, please like, share, and — if you haven’t already — subscribe.

Endnotes:

1. The move to Geneva was to work in Cargill as a trainee trader.

2. I had made an earlier attempt at writing, while still working full-time, but which I never properly followed through, most likely because I was too focused on my day job!

3. The girls had given me a notebook (on a birthday) to start writing in a few years ago, and Kiran pointed me to Substack.

4. A note of thanks to guest writers Nadja, Lata and Smita for enhancing my Substack.

5. My “young” photo is taken at a family favorite location.

“Would you like a newspaper?”

These five words are a relic of the past, rarely heard by today's airline travelers.

What was flying like before it became, for most people, just a bus in the sky combined with the angst of navigating increasingly gargantuan airports?

It started with a call to the travel agent, who had access to some magical pipes into airline reservation systems and could tell you, on a phone tethered by a wire to your desk, what your best connections and price options were.

If this was a business trip, they knew all your preferences and very soon you would have the tickets, a printed itinerary and the invoice on your desk. A copy would go to the office manager to “do the needful”.

At the airport, you did not empty out items from your bag at security, or desperately tried to hold up your trousers while placing your belt on the — well — belt. Duty free was a simple threesome of cigarettes, booze and perfumes.

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On the plane you would be directed to your seat — OMG please don’t put me near the smoking rows! A meal was offered even in economy class. On long distance flights, a large screen on the bulkhead would display movies where the actors were blurry shapes and the dialogue was a hissing static through those thin, plastic headphones. Of course you could not choose what to watch — you took what you got!

You had real conversations with the person sitting next to you, baring your heart and soul because, subconsciously, you knew that you would never see them again. The lack of Wi-Fi was a sanctuary from texting and slop scrolling.

What did I do on flights, you ask?

I usually traveled with a briefcase stuffed with reports I’d earmarked for the flight, which I read and either scribbled notes on for further action or discarded. I enjoyed the meal that was served. I sometimes chatted with my neighbor. Read a book.

And, oh yes, I asked for the International Herald Tribune (IHT), which I read from front to back. Wherever I was in the world, this newspaper gave me a sense of continuity and constancy. The oversized pages, the smell of ink, some of which would stay on my fingers …

We traded the newspaper and the conversation for a cheaper fare and a smaller seat. A fair trade? Perhaps. But I still miss the rustle of those pages.

Endnotes:

1. Whenever I traveled with Paul, he asked for the Financial Times and the Tages Anzeiger (fondly called the Tagi).

2. The IHT was rebranded to the International New York Times in October 2013. It was further rebranded to the New York Times International Edition in October 2016. The paper continues to be printed weekdays and is distributed in over 160 countries.

3. Later, I developed the knack of falling asleep for the duration of European flights. Like Martin. “Best way to fly”, friends may remember me saying.

4. Swissair (now called Swiss International Airlines) banned smoking on flights in 1997.

5. Thanks to Richard for the topic suggestion.

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Until next time, take care of yourself, and if you can, someone else too.

It’s early spring, and these are some thoughts that were buzzing around in my head. I wanted to share them with you.

I'll admit this covers a lot of ground — so I've divided it into three parts. I hope you'll read to the end.

As it happens, an aging reality TV personality turned two-term President is dominating the global news cycle—and Donald Trump is proving impossible to ignore.

US Presidents

A surprising fact: In the last 100 years, there have been only two American presidents who have not been involved in significant military operations. Herbert Hoover (1929–1933) and Jimmy Carter (1977–1981). Let that sink in for a moment.

Despite a second-term pledge to end US involvement in costly and destructive foreign wars, Donald Trump has, since taking office, presided over an extraordinary range of military actions.

1. War against terror

• bombed Iraq and killed a number of high profile ISIL commanders

• conducted strikes on ISIL targets in Syria

• launched dozens of naval and air strikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebel group, destroying infrastructure and killing civilians

2. African operations

• massively stepped up air strikes in Somalia

• carried out “powerful and deadly” attacks targeting members of ISIL (ISIS) affiliates in northwestern Nigeria, though some accounts suggest that the strikes might have been directed against anti-Christian groups

3. Latin America

• carried out at least 45 strikes on alleged drug trafficking vessels in Latin America and the Caribbean, killing at least 151 people

• attacked Venezuela in January 2026, bombing the capital, Caracas, and abducting President Nicolas Maduro, killing 83 people in the process

4. The Iran conflict

• carried out a “12 day war” on Iran, allegedly destroying their nuclear capabilities and killing more than 600 people

• involved in an ongoing war in Iran, which at last count has killed over 2500 people and displaced almost 5 million

5. supplied arms to and supported Israel in their aggression in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran

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Ongoing Iran Conflict

One question nags at me about the Iran conflict: why is Pakistan mediating, and not Oman — which was deeply involved in the nuclear discussions that were, by some accounts, close to an agreement as recently as February 27th — or Qatar, which played a central role in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations? I don't have a clean answer. But the question feels important.

With the conflict in Iran in focus, and my interest in oil & chemical related subjects, I also wanted to list some related data points

• Rise in high-speed EV charging stations in the US - the country now has nearly 13,500 places to quickly add electrons to a car or truck, 25% more than it did a year ago.

• The Energy Information Agency (EIA) reckons 99% of new generating capacity in the US in 2026 will come from solar, wind and batteries.

• European EV sales grew by a strong 29.7% in the full year of 2025, compared to 2024. EV market share in Europe is now 19.5%.

• US sales, contrarily, fell to 2022 levels after peaking in Q3 2025.

• While being a horrible way to exit from deflation, China finally reports inflation in March 2026 (due to higher energy prices) and hopes to shake people out of a “deflationary mindset” like the one that gripped Japan for so many years.

• This energy crisis is perhaps going to see global resets like 1973 and 1979; but in different ways

  • new routes to get oil out of the Arabian Gulf

  • more reliance globally on local energy sources

  • re-emergence of renewables like wind, water and solar

  • the equipment needed to achieve that diversification will inevitably come from China

• Potential geopolitical impacts

  • reduction of US military bases in the Arabian Gulf (AG) and perhaps elsewhere in the world

  • more countries willing to push back against pressure from the US administration

  • further decline of US leadership and influence

  • governments increasingly trigger happy to create chokepoints — have leverage, will use, mentality

  • china gaining soft power in addition to its economic power

• Potential economic impacts

  • production and supply chains out of the AG will take years to recover

  • the corollary — oil, gas, fertilizers, chemicals, aluminum and many other materials will remain high priced for longer

  • fear of availability of future supplies may result in stockpiling by individuals and companies — inflationary

  • some governments have reduced taxes on fuels to cushion the impact on customers, which will have dominoes elsewhere

  • interest rates likely to stay high and restrain growth

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Final thoughts

There is just so much going on — I will invariably miss something very important or relevant, but I do have some last thoughts:

• Beyond the bombs and the oil prices, there is also the matter of who actually owns the water.

  • Egypt and Panama can charge tolls for the Suez and Panama Canals because those are artificial, man-made waterways rather than natural geographic features, giving the host nations sovereign control over their use.

  • The Strait of Hormuz, by contrast, is a naturally occurring strait governed by United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which prohibits bordering countries from charging ships simply for the right of passage, though they may collect limited fees for specific services like piloting or tugging. Perhaps this is where the $2M alleged fees that we have read about recently comes in.

• China has stood aside, and perhaps deliberately so. Its leaders appear to understand the maxim attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, supposedly uttered as his foes were abandoning high ground at Austerlitz: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

• And then there is the question of moral responsibility. When will more of our leaders grow a spine and clearly stand up to wrongdoing? You may have been reading lately Principle IV from the Nuremberg trials, which could be paraphrased as follows: “It is not an acceptable excuse to say ‘I was just following my superior’s orders’”.

Some members of my family have managed to tune out the news and are happier for it. The last time I went for a walk with Chris, she urged me to do the same.

Until I am able to do that — if I am able to — I will keep trying to understand what’s happening around me.

Endnotes:

1. During the “lost” decade of the 1970s, which featured two oil crises, the Dow Jones Index moved from 800 to 836.

2. Spain and Ireland, at least, do seem to have spines.

3. In Dublin, Srishti tells me that their local pump did not have any regular unleaded petrol. Ireland is also perhaps the first country to have fuel price related strikes (farmers have blocked the M50 motorway).

   

4. The physical price of oil is much higher ($30-40/bbl higher) than the headline (futures) price that we see on our apps or scrolling across the bottom of our TV screens.

5. Ukraine has recently signed 10 year defense cooperation deals with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, with UAE said to be following shortly.

6. My past thoughts on the Gaza and Ukraine conflicts can be read here and here.

7. As I often do, I have relied on publicly available sources for information & facts, but any opinions expressed are entirely my own.

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For me, March involved traveling to my char dhaams, and also getting a paying gig related to my professional career that I very much enjoyed. So my February plan rolled over a month and was somewhat focused on crime fiction.

But the highlight was finishing a historical book that I started in January and gets the “favorite” tag.

Here goes:

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• Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern South Asia by Sam Dalrymple

  Non-Fiction | History | 2025 | Rating: 5/5

  • Summary: A historical examination of the violent partitions that shaped South Asia, exploring how the division of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and other territories created lasting political, social, and cultural consequences that continue to affect the region today.

  • The Verdict:

    • Growing up during the partition of the two Pakistans, and having been immersed in stories of the 1947 partition, this book hit most of the spots in its gripping narrative. But that is just two of the partitions described in the summary.

    • What I learnt a lot about was the partition of Burma and Aden from India; the partition of some of the Gulf countries from the Indian Political Service (imagine if those fossil fuel rich countries were still a part of India!); and the departure of the British from the Middle East. Each of these was accompanied by violence and deaths.

    • Must read for those interested in South Asian history.

• Down Cemetery Road, by Mick Herron

  Fiction | Crime, Espionage | 2003 | Rating: 4/5

  • Summary: The first in a detective series set in Oxford. This introduces the characters and mysteries of Herron’s Oxford-based investigations, featuring the author’s signature blend of sharp wit and intricate plotting. This acclaimed first novel sets a cracking pace with a satisfying denouement.

  • The Verdict: Mr. Herron is a master storyteller and even if the story is somewhat unoriginal (government killing experiments, coverup, vigilante pursue), the writing is gripping and kept me glued.

• Kill for me, Kill for you, by Steve Cavanagh

  Fiction | Crime, Psychological Thriller | 2023 | Rating: 4/5

  • Summary: Two women, both devastated by personal tragedies and failed by the justice system, meet in a therapy group for bereaved families. United by their pain and anger, they form a dangerous pact: each will murder the person responsible for the other's suffering, creating perfect alibis since they have no apparent connection to each other's targets.

  • The Verdict: An unlikely though interesting story, and it didn’t really capture my imagination. However, at no stage could I guess what was coming next!

• Murder At Morjim by Aalok Wadhwa

  Fiction | Crime, Detective | 2025 | Rating: 4/5

  • Summary: Another culinary mystery from Wadhwa, following his earlier "Murder of a MasterChef." Set in Morjim, a coastal area known for its beaches and food scene, the novel continues to blend the world of haute cuisine with murder investigation.

  • The Verdict: I finally got around to reading this author signed copy that I had acquired in Goa last year and wrote about here. Given Mr. Wadhwa’s fame as a food writer, he spends a lot of pages writing about the vast amounts of food he and his partner eat. Honestly, that part leaves me gasping for breath and almost takes away from the intricate mystery he spins.

Endnote:

1. As usual, the summaries are not my own, and Srishti created the image.

2. Down Cemetery Road, like the authors Slow Horses has a series on Apple TV. Emma Thomson as the private eye is good as always, but I liked Slow Horses more.

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A text from a friend this morning reminded me of a conversation I had with my ex-boss Paul about 20, maybe 25 years ago, as well as jolting me into crystallizing some recent thoughts.

During a coffee break at our desk, we both talked about our humble origins and how we had achieved a higher level of prosperity than our parents. My take was that during the 20th century every generation had done better than the previous one, and that my kids would do better than me.

Paul disagreed. Perhaps because his professional success had been off the charts. Perhaps because he could already see where his kids' trajectories were headed, whereas mine were still finding theirs.

Lately, however, I have been filled with despair.

As Russia commenced their “special operations” in Ukraine, as Israel was struck by terrorist attacks and as the US-Israel combination attacked Iran; it appears as if we have been thrust into a world where “might is right” is the only rule.

I like to think of myself as a glass half full kind of person … right now I feel that my glass is half empty.

In what is the biggest war in Europe since WWII, The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) last month estimated that Russia had suffered 1.2 million casualties, including at least 325,000 deaths, from the beginning of the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022 until December 2025. The CSIS also estimated Ukraine had suffered up to 600,000 casualties, with as many as 140,000 deaths.

According to Wikipedia, as of 21 February 2026, at least 75,227 people (73,188+ Palestinians and 2,039+ Israelis) have been reported killed in the Gaza war according to the Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) and Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The attack on Iran and its retaliation is still fresh, and Al Jazeera’s live tracker suggests

Preliminary figures are 1,444 dead in Iran, at least 18 in Israel, 13 US soldiers and 21 killed in Gulf states.

The number of Lebanese killed rose to more than 1,000, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday.

And I have not even tried to add up the people who have been displaced. Just the first week of this Gulf War resulted in close to 4 million people displaced across Iran and Lebanon.

What about the economic cost, you ask? I am sure there is data out there, but I have not done the research. While Ukraine and Gaza are localized wars and their direct impact on you and me is not absolutely obvious, the current Gulf War has destabilized the world economy from Day 1.

The clearest data, ironically, comes from the US.

The Pentagon reported that the first six days of the war cost $11.3 billion — thats more than ***$1.3 million a minute***. Nicolas Kristof of the NYT writes that:

Linda Bilmes, a Harvard expert on financing war, told me that most of the costs will arrive later. For example, any soldier who develops a medical disorder or aggravates an existing one will receive lifelong benefits and medical care. If today’s troops claim such benefits at the same rate as those who participated in the 1990-91 gulf war, that alone would eventually cost at least $600 billion, Bilmes said. Not to mention, of course, the human toll of all of this.

All told, she expects this Iran war to cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion.

We can tie ourselves in knots trying to calculate all the good things we can do with $1 trillion, but I think the following question is more relevant:

Is this really the group of leaders we have chosen and then given them the authority to deliberately—and without provocation—use our resources to fuel these killing machines?

The questions which follow are perhaps rhetorical, but lets go ahead and ask anyway:

Leadership: If we could choose which country we would like to be born in, which leader would fill us with hope? What qualities would you want your CEO to have? What would make him or her inspire you?

Institutions: Where are the self-correcting mechanisms that a democratic society is meant to have? What institutions are we going to look up to?

Legacy: What are we teaching the next generation? What kind of world are we leaving for them?

This is why I despair. This is why I am depressed.

Paul was right, even if this is not what he was thinking of.

Endnotes:

1. The Gaza crisis commenced on October 7, 2023 — exactly 50 years after the Yom Kippur War that changed the energy and petrochemical world forever. It is also, coincidentally, the date that Paul left this world.

2. The crisis that commenced on March 1, 2026 will, in my opinion, bring about the next radical change in the energy world.

3. There are reports in the media quoting Omani and British sources that a nuclear deal was very close on February 28 in Geneva. The attack was initiated the next day — during the holy month of Ramadan. It’s been a sombre Navroz in Iran.

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Without further ado, here goes, in the order that I finished them:

• Denied Access by Don Bentley (Vince Flynn Series)

  Fiction | Spy Thriller | 2025 | Rating: 4/5

  • A Mitch Rapp thriller (#24) where the CIA operative faces a deadly conspiracy. Rapp must navigate dangerous political waters and international threats while preventing a catastrophic attack, delivering the signature action-packed espionage that defines the series.

  • The Verdict: I have to ask myself: how long can these characters run before they become caricatures? While the characters are holding steady for now, the writing has become a tad pedestrian. It might be time to wonder if the "Rapp sheet" is getting a bit too long.

• The Night Fire by Michael Connelly

  Fiction | Crime Thriller | 2019 | Rating: 5/5

  • A crime thriller featuring detective Harry Bosch and LAPD Detective Renée Ballard (#3 in the series). When Bosch receives a murder book from his late mentor, he and Ballard team up to investigate a cold case, uncovering connections to current crimes in Los Angeles.

  • The Verdict: This book is also #33 in the Bosch universe and, unlike the Mitch Rapp series, does not become stale. I continue to be a big fan.

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• Eat Your Ice Cream by Ezekiel J. Emanuel

  Non-Fiction | Health/Longevity | 2026 | Rating: 5/5

  • A practical guide to longevity and healthy living from the renowned bioethicist and oncologist. Emanuel presents six evidence-based rules for living a long, healthy life, challenging conventional wisdom about diet, exercise, and aging with a refreshingly balanced approach.

  • The Verdict: There is an iconic line from a 1971 Indian movie Anand that some of my readers may remember — "Zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahin". The translation — “Life should be big (or great), not long” doesn’t quite do justice to the essence of the original, but it kept coming back to me as I listened to the audiobook on my road trip to Germany and Austria.

  • Dr. Emanuel debunks a number of theories that are trendy with “longevity experts” and takes you back to six basics that are easy to follow and will make our lives enjoyable. His main argument is that "wellness" should be an invisible part of your life rather than a stressful full-time job.

  • This was my third audiobook and thanks to the podcast Freakonomics for introducing it to me. It was a great companion on my drive.

• The Story of a Heart, by Dr. Rachel Clarke. (Non-Fiction, Medicine, Science, 2024, Rating 5/5)

  • A moving non-fiction narrative that interweaves the stories of two families connected by a heart transplant. Clarke, a palliative care doctor, explores the emotional and medical journey of organ donation, celebrating both the gift of life and the profound loss that makes it possible.

  • The Verdict: I cannot begin to describe how much this book impacted me, especially having recently undergone open heart surgery. Dr. Clarke weaves a compelling narrative about the two families involved in the heart transplant and intersperses it with the medical history of hit and miss heart treatments and research.

  • Absolutely unputdownable and heart-rending. A sob escaped my lips at the end. Thanks to Srishti for recommending it.

Endnotes:

1. The first paragraph of each review is not original writing, but copied from third party sources.

2. The Story of a Heart and the organ transplant described led to the enacting of the current law in the UK where organ donation is considered “opted in” automatically, unless a person “opts out” specifically.

3. Switzerland is moving from an opt-in system to an extended opt-out (presumed consent) system for organ donation, approved in 2022 and expected to take effect in 2026 or later. Under this new law, all adults are presumed to be donors unless they formally object, with relatives involved if the deceased’s wishes are unknown.

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and if you can, someone else too.