Today, she lives in the UAE, surrounded by books. She describes herself, quite simply, as a reader and a book lover, and her home reflects that: books in every room, multiple books being read at a time, and a mobile phone that is often pulled out when an idea arrives before it disappears.

But there is another, perhaps more revealing, way to think about Vallat. She is someone who seems incapable of letting a good story pass unnoticed.

That instinct has taken her writing in rather different directions. Platform Ticket looks closely at the human world of Indian Railways, while her other book, Extraordinary Life of a Helicopter Pilot, tells the remarkable life of Squadron Leader Pushp Kumar Vaid, a Vir Chakra recipient and veteran of the 1971 war. One book begins with the everyday; the other with the extraordinary. What connects them is Vallat’s fascination with people and the lives that exist behind the facts we usually see.

There is also something disarmingly unceremonious about the way she talks about writing. There is no grand mythology around the writer’s desk, no insistence on solitude or ritual. An idea occurs, and she types it into her phone. A conversation becomes a possibility. A journey leaves a note behind. She keeps moving.

Perhaps that is why the title Platform Ticket feels larger than the railway itself. A platform is a place between places, where strangers briefly share the same piece of time before going their separate ways. Vallat has made a habit of paying attention to those brief encounters.

I spoke to Sangeetha Vallat about the life that preceded the book, the people who found their way into its pages, the peculiar intimacy of dealing with strangers, and what it means when a reader begins to see your stories - and perhaps you - differently.

Excerpts from the Interview:

Q1) You spent 14 years working in Indian Railways before writing Platform Ticket. What made you decide that these experiences needed to become a book?

Sangeetha: While I was working in railways, I was busy dealing with the demands of the job and enjoying the interactions with the public. It never crossed my mind that I would one day write about all of those experiences. After quitting and moving to UAE with my husband, I began sending letters to the editor for a Friday magazine. Thrilled when my brief notes got published, I sent more letters. In 2018 when my father passed, shrouded in grief I typed my feelings on my mobile while travelling on a train with my mother to my father’s ancestral house. And from then, I began penning down my thoughts on whatever caught my attention. Later I joined writing forums on Facebook, dabbling in short stories. Soon I understood that most of the stories I penned had elements of RAILWAYS in them. So, when a friend suggested that I write my railway memoir, I did not hesitate.

Q2) Was there one particular incident that stayed with you for years and became the emotional starting point for this memoir?

Sangeetha: I cannot really point at any one incident as such, but when I saw a prompt for a competition that required to write on – everything changed after that, I wrote a fictional take on an episode in my railway life. Where I was a witness in a vigilance case, a sting operation conducted to curb misconduct in the parcel office at railway stations. My life could have derailed at that juncture if not for a timely decision. Around the same time, for another competition I wrote a story based on a romantic interlude involving a station master. Both these stories won the competitions and were published in different anthologies. When I began writing my memoir, I already had two chapters ready. Of course, I discarded the fictional elements and pruned the narrative.

Q3) A railway ticket counter is where people from every social and economic background converge. What did that vantage point teach you about India that few professions can?

Sangeetha: I often say that a PM or a Peon, both have to wait outside my ticket window and I would issue a ticket to the first person standing in the queue. There is a line in Platform Ticket – As a ticketing staff, I have seen a gazillion hands—stubby, manicured, burnt, albino, with chipped nails or an extra finger, dark, fair, gnarled, wrinkled, calloused, deformed …. I can say that sitting behind the ticket window taught me to stay grounded, treat everyone as equals, to listen, to observe and be non-judgmental. Our country is so diverse, and each person is a confluence, shaped by their myriad experiences, and all that one seeks is a little bit of kindness. But then I have to say that my kindness and equality extended until a passenger tendered exact change to buy tickets, or at least not a higher denomination for a measly 10rs ticket…. Change is the only constant sought by a ticket clerk!

Q4) Your memoir focuses on the people behind the railway system rather than the trains themselves. Why was it important to tell their stories?

Sangeetha: It is because of these people that such a large transportation network function efficiently and effectively. Do you know that the ticket clerks are called the frontline staff of railways? We are the faces that one sees as soon as one enters the railway premises, yet no one gives us a second glance or consideration on our essential service. Many readers of Platform Ticket have written to me that no longer would they discount a ticket clerk’s importance and some say that now they even thank the clerk at their usual commuting station.

I had the best lessons from my colleagues. Their lives and attitude on dealing with emotional and financial burdens coached me well and I am grateful for their friendship. When I began writing my memoir the first thought was – have I lived such a great life that warrants a memoir? The answer was – but you know a lot of ordinary people living extraordinary lives. So, I began telling their stories, I did inform many of my railway folks that I would be writing about them. Invariably everyone was excited and blessed my venture.

Q5) What is the biggest misconception people have about the work of a railway booking clerk?

Sangeetha: Ahh, that it is a boring and uninteresting work! Also, no one fathoms the challenges these clerks and the loco pilots, guards, station masters, track men etc have to tackle every day.

There was a text from a reader mentioning that she had previously applied for jobs in the banking sector but now applied for a railway job. There was never a boring day in my 14 years of railway life. If one enjoys every moment and is in tune with oneself and their surroundings there is a lot to cherish.

Q6) Working at the counter means dealing with people during moments of urgency, frustration, and joy. Which emotion did you encounter most often, and how did it shape you?

Sangeetha: While I was working in suburban ticket counters or issuing unreserved tickets for trains, urgency was the ruling emotion. Every passenger was in a hurry to catch the train, and only currency notes, the station name and number of tickets mattered at that moment. During times of lull, especially after the hectic office rush we had the time to indulge in idle chatter with passengers or amongst colleagues.

When I moved to the Reservation counters, the joy in issuing confirmed tickets to the passengers was monumental, especially during the Tatkal timings. Oh, the adrenaline rush as I typed in the details and the steady hum of the printing machine that popped up a properly printed confirmed ticket…. Unmatched. Sometimes the system hung or the printer jammed, or small change was the bone of contention then frustration reigned supreme.

I think I learnt to switch between my emotions easily because of my time in the ticket counter. I never stay angry or sad even at home for more than a few minutes. At the counter you cannot carry on the anger triggered by one passenger to the next person in the queue.

Q7) You witnessed Indian Railways evolve from manual systems to digital ticketing. Beyond efficiency, how has technology changed the relationship between railway staff and passengers?

Sangeetha: Oh, the card tickets and punching the dates often resulted in injuring the ink smudged fingers on the punching machine. And every hour we had to remember to manually change the time. Technology allowed us to daintily type the details and pluck a ticket quickly. Moreover, the passengers do not blame the clerk if the computer spouts out a ticket slowly, earlier even if we issued tickets in supersonic speed, while even forgetting to breathe it was never enough.

Nowadays one can book tickets from home, and save a trip to the railway station, but if you need a change in boarding point or you need a compulsory lower berth and other perks you have to meet the clerk. There are instances when my colleague and I would type in proxy details and block a stubborn side upper berth from being issued to senior citizens and provide them two lower berths across each other. Can you get such kind of special human(e) assistance tapping on the keys at home?

Q8) Do you think something valuable has been lost as railway services have become increasingly automated?

Sangeetha: It is now easier for the clerks to tally the accounts and hand over the shifts to their reliever colleague. Passengers also feel that computers are faster, error free than humans…but like I said earlier there are somethings that cannot be solved by automated services. But we cannot resist change or developments. The key is to go with the flow and not live in nostalgia.

Q9) Memoir requires balancing honesty with responsibility. How did you decide which real-life stories could be told and which should remain private?

Sangeetha: I don’t think much before talking, my brain processes things pretty fast and I utter what comes to my mind before analyzing it. I am mostly unfiltered and it seeped into my writing as well. 98% of what you read in Platform Ticket was written organically without any conscious planning or choosing. I have been honest as possible and only tiny snippets have been deleted after I felt that it doesn’t add any value to the rest of the narrative. My editor at Penguin never asked me to remove anything from the manuscript I sent.

Q10) Did writing Platform Ticket change the way you understood your own experiences in the railways?

Sangeetha: Hmmm, not exactly…. but I didn’t know that I was such an observant person and had absorbed so many details until I wrote Platform Ticket.

Q11) Was there a chapter that was especially difficult - emotionally or ethically - to write?

Sangeetha: Platform 12 and 12 A. The chapters in my book are titled as platforms. This was the chapter that I submitted to the Bangalore Literature Festival LitMart pitch event which paved the way for the publication of the book by Penguin Random House. To know more about the chapter and its content, read the book!

Q12) Your book celebrates ordinary people doing extraordinary work. Why do you think stories of everyday workers are still underrepresented in Indian literature?

Sangeetha: The underbelly of any system is often overlooked. Perhaps because no one who lived through those experiences have written about it or many think that they live boring lives and hence their stories remain unappreciated enough in literature. But there are many regional language books that project lives of ordinary people.

Q13) If Platform Ticket has one central message beyond Indian Railways, what do you hope readers take away?

Sangeetha: No work or worker is inconsequential. Also, be kind to your fellow beings. There are many stories in my book that highlight the kindness of strangers.

Q14) What has been the most unexpected response you’ve received from readers—especially from railway employees or frequent passengers?

Sangeetha: I am overwhelmed by the deluge of texts from all sorts of readers thanking me for writing this book. I am grateful that it has touched so many hearts. Since its publication I have gained a wagonload of friends, sisters and brothers. I am indeed blessed to have Platform Ticket well received by readers.

Q15) Are there stories from your railway career that you deliberately left out but might explore in a future book?

Sangeetha: Nothing from my own experiences have been left out as far as I can remember, but there are still so many anecdotes pouring in from my friends and colleagues from Railways. They want a sequel and are willing to contribute stories. Perhaps if this book is considered for a web series, I am sure I have material for several seasons.

Q16) After spending years helping millions of people reach their destinations, where has writing taken you personally?

Sangeetha: I never dreamt of becoming a writer. I am a reader, a booklover and have wanted to surround myself with books. And that’s exactly what I have done to my home. There are books in every room, and I read multiple books in a day. Whenever an inspiration sparks, I pick up my mobile and type. I don’t curtail myself with deadlines or timetables. I love travelling and talking to people…. I am nowadays taking notes. My writing life is an exciting journey between various platforms, and I am inundated with too many ideas at times. I have this wish of visiting the railway destinations to which I have issued maximum tickets to…. There are a few railway stations close to my heart ….. and I still think of places in railway codes. Writing has enriched my life by connecting me to strangers. A reader who lost her father to a train accident feared trains and stations, she hesitantly picked my book and thanked me for allaying her fear of trains. Another reader sees me as a personification of his mother who would have been my age if she was alive. My responsibility has increased; I have to honor my new connections that Platform Ticket has given me. I hope this journey never ends.

Thank you all for reading and a big thanks to Sangeetha Vallat for collaborating in today’s post!

It’s a pleasure!

Readers who would like to follow Sangeetha Vallat beyond the pages of Platform Ticket can find her on Instagram, LinkedIn and website.

Her social presence offers another way to stay connected with her work, writing and appearances. For readers who have enjoyed her stories of travel, people and the unexpected moments in between, following her online is a way to keep up with where her writing journey takes her next.

The novel is often described as a bridge between Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hallows: a necessary pause before the grand finale.

Yet this collective memory is strangely incomplete.

Half-Blood Prince is not merely the penultimate chapter of a fantasy saga. It is the novel in which J. K. Rowling quietly changes the rules of her own story. The first five books ask readers to solve mysteries: Who opened the Chamber of Secrets? Who put Harry’s name into the Goblet of Fire? Who betrayed whom? By the sixth book, those questions begin to matter less. Rowling replaces the mystery of what happened with the far more unsettling question of how evil is made.

The result is a novel that rewards adulthood more than childhood. Children race through its pages searching for action; adults linger over conversations, memories, and silences. Read at twelve, Half-Blood Prince feels slower than its predecessors. Read at thirty-two, it becomes one of the richest novels in the series.

This is not because its plot is more complicated. It is because its subject has changed.

Fantasy gives way to history.

Adventure gives way to investigation.

Magic gives way to memory.

A story about looking back instead of moving forward

Most novels in a long-running series build momentum by expanding the world. Rowling does the opposite. Instead of introducing entirely new magical systems or ever more powerful spells, she repeatedly sends Harry into the past.

Again and again, the Pensieve becomes the destination.

At first glance, these excursions appear to be clever exposition: a convenient way to explain Voldemort’s history before the final confrontation. But that interpretation misses their deeper function. Rowling is asking the reader to become less of an adventurer and more of a historian.

History is rarely a collection of neat facts. It survives in fragments: incomplete testimonies, edited memories, biased witnesses, forgotten details. Every memory Harry examines comes with uncertainty. Slughorn has literally altered his recollection. Others remember only what they choose to remember. Even Dumbledore decides which memories Harry will see and in what order.

The Pensieve is therefore not a magical replay machine. It is an archive.

Anyone who has worked with historical records knows that archives never simply reveal the truth. They require interpretation. Documents contradict one another. Witnesses misremember. Important pages disappear. Historians spend as much time questioning sources as reading them.

Harry unexpectedly finds himself performing exactly this task.

The boy who once chased monsters through castle corridors is now assembling evidence about a dead child who became the darkest wizard in modern history.

That transformation from hero to investigator is one of Rowling’s boldest narrative decisions, and it is one that readers rarely discuss.

Voldemort’s most important appearance is his absence

One of the strangest achievements of Half-Blood Prince is that its central character scarcely appears.

Lord Voldemort is physically absent for almost the entire novel. By conventional storytelling logic, this should reduce his presence. Instead, the opposite happens.

He dominates every page.

We encounter him not through speeches or battles but through other people’s memories. A frightened orphanage matron remembers an unsettling boy. A wealthy collector remembers a charming young employee. A professor remembers an unusually gifted student. Slughorn remembers an ambitious child asking questions that no child should ask.

Each memory offers only one fragment of Tom Riddle.

None is sufficient on its own.

Together, however, they produce something far more unsettling than a traditional villain’s entrance. Readers slowly construct Voldemort piece by piece, much as archaeologists reconstruct an ancient civilization from scattered ruins.

Notice how different this is from earlier books. In Philosopher’s Stone, Voldemort is essentially a hidden antagonist waiting for his reveal. By Goblet of Fire, he becomes a physical threat once more. In Half-Blood Prince, Rowling refuses both approaches. Instead, she turns him into an object of historical inquiry.

This subtle shift changes the emotional experience of the novel. Fear no longer comes from wondering where Voldemort is. It comes from understanding how completely ordinary his beginnings once seemed.

The real mystery isn’t who Voldemort is - It’s why

Detective fiction often revolves around identity. Readers ask, “Who committed the crime?”

Rowling has already answered that question.

Everyone knows Voldemort is the villain.

The mystery now concerns motivation.

Why did Tom Riddle become Voldemort?

The distinction matters enormously.

Modern culture often imagines evil as something spectacular - born from prophecy, curses, or extraordinary events. Rowling consistently resists this temptation. Tom Riddle is undeniably exceptional, but his transformation is driven by recognizably human impulses: pride, domination, fear of mortality, contempt for vulnerability, and an inability to love.

The brilliance of the Pensieve chapters lies in their refusal to simplify him.

They neither excuse nor demonize.

Instead, they investigate.

That choice places Half-Blood Prince in conversation with a long literary tradition concerned with the origins of moral corruption. Like many serious novels, it refuses to reduce evil to a single traumatic event or convenient explanation. Voldemort is not created in one decisive moment. He becomes himself gradually, through countless choices that harden into identity.

Dumbledore understands this. Which is why he never asks Harry merely to kill Voldemort.

He asks Harry to understand him first.

Dumbledore is teaching history, not magic

Readers often describe these lessons as Horcrux lessons.

Strictly speaking, that is true.

But Horcruxes are only the surface.

The deeper curriculum concerns judgment.

Pay close attention to Dumbledore during these meetings. He rarely lectures. Instead, he asks questions.

What does this memory reveal?

What do you notice?

Why did Tom behave that way?

Why is this detail important?

This resembles the Socratic method more than a traditional magical education. Dumbledore refuses to hand Harry conclusions. He wants him to develop habits of observation.

This distinction becomes crucial.

Harry’s greatest weakness throughout the series has never been a lack of courage. It has been impulsiveness. He acts before interpreting. He trusts instincts before evidence.

The Pensieve reverses that instinct.

For perhaps the first time in the series, Harry is forced to slow down.

He watches.

He listens.

He compares testimony.

He notices patterns.

In other words, Rowling is quietly teaching both Harry and her readers how interpretation works.

Magic becomes secondary.

Observation becomes the real discipline.

The quiet transformation of Harry Potter

Perhaps the greatest misconception about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is that Harry spends most of the novel reacting to events. On the surface, that impression is understandable. He follows Dumbledore into memories, becomes obsessed with Draco Malfoy, excels in Potions thanks to someone else’s notes, and ultimately watches the most devastating event of his life unfold without being able to stop it.

Yet beneath these events, something quieter and far more important is taking place.

For the first time in the series, Harry is learning not simply how to fight, but how to interpret.

The earlier novels reward action. Harry succeeds because he is brave enough to enter forbidden corridors, descend into hidden chambers, or pursue mysteries that adults dismiss. His greatest flaw is also his greatest strength: he acts first and reflects later. Again and again, instinct proves enough to carry him through.

Half-Blood Prince challenges that instinct.

Dumbledore’s lessons are unlike anything Harry has experienced before. They contain no new spells, no advanced duelling techniques, and no secret magical abilities. Instead, they revolve around conversations, memories, and seemingly insignificant details. Dumbledore is not training Harry to become a more powerful wizard. He is training him to become a better reader of human nature.

Every memory asks the same question in a different form.

What kind of person was Tom Riddle?

Why did adults admire him?

What warning signs did they overlook?

What does ambition become when it is divorced from empathy?

These are not questions that can be answered through courage alone. They demand patience, interpretation, and an acceptance that people are rarely as simple as they first appear.

This marks a profound shift in Harry’s education. Until now, the series has largely rewarded certainty. By the sixth novel, Rowling begins rewarding doubt. Harry is encouraged to question appearances, to notice contradictions, and to understand that history is assembled from fragments rather than complete truths. The Pensieve itself becomes a metaphor for interpretation: memories must be examined, compared, and understood before they can reveal anything meaningful.

Ironically, Harry does not master this lesson by the end of the novel.

His obsession with Draco Malfoy proves largely justified. He correctly senses that something is deeply wrong, even when almost every adult dismisses his suspicions. Yet his certainty about Severus Snape leads him in the opposite direction. Harry sees Snape through years of accumulated resentment and never truly considers that loyalty might look indistinguishable from betrayal.

Rowling deliberately leaves this contradiction unresolved.

Harry has become a sharper observer.

He has not yet become a wiser interpreter.

The distinction matters because it prepares one of the series’ most heartbreaking moments.

On the Astronomy Tower, Dumbledore immobilizes Harry beneath the Invisibility Cloak and silently orders him to remain hidden. Readers often wonder why Harry does not break free or attempt to intervene. Earlier in the series, he almost certainly would have tried. He repeatedly ignored instructions whenever he believed immediate action was morally necessary.

This time, he does not.

Not because he suddenly understands what is happening.

And not because he trusts Severus Snape.

He obeys because he trusts Dumbledore.

That difference is crucial.

Harry believes Dumbledore knows more than he does, even if he cannot yet understand why. It is perhaps the first time he chooses another person’s judgment over his own impulse to act. The decision reflects genuine growth, but Rowling immediately complicates it. Harry witnesses Snape kill Dumbledore and interprets the scene exactly as the author intends him and us to interpret it.

He sees accurately.

He understands incorrectly.

The tragedy of the Astronomy Tower is therefore not simply Dumbledore’s death. It is that Harry’s growing maturity coincides with his greatest misunderstanding. Rowling reminds us that observation and interpretation are not the same thing. We may witness events with perfect clarity and still fail to grasp their meaning.

Only in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, through “The Prince’s Tale,” does Harry finally complete the education that began here. Snape’s memories force him to abandon the comforting certainty with which he had judged people throughout the series. He learns that courage may wear the face of cruelty, that love may remain invisible for decades, and that the deepest acts of loyalty often leave no audience to witness them.

Seen in this light, Half-Blood Prince is not the novel in which Harry becomes fully wise.

It is the novel in which he begins to understand that wisdom demands humility.

That quiet education hidden beneath romances, Quidditch matches, and the mystery of an old Potions textbook is what makes Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince the intellectual turning point of Rowling’s saga. The novel is remembered for the night Dumbledore died.

It deserves to be remembered for the year Harry first learned that seeing is not the same as understanding.

Rather than starting with India’s post-independence journey, author traces the story from the age of European exploration and colonial expansion. He argues that Western prosperity was shaped not only by industrialization and innovation but also by centuries of colonial extraction and the transfer of wealth from Asia and Africa. Against this backdrop, India’s rise is presented not as an anomaly, but as part of a broader rebalancing of the global economy.

The book combines economic history, geopolitics and contemporary policy to explain India’s emergence as one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies. Merchant examines the country’s evolution from a poverty-stricken colony to a nation on track to become the world’s third-largest economy, placing this transformation within the larger context of shifting global power.

One of the book’s strengths is its accessibility. Merchant distills complex historical and economic themes into a fast-paced narrative that appeals to both general readers and those interested in global affairs. While some historians may find its broad conclusions open to debate, the book succeeds in challenging conventional narratives about the origins of Western wealth and the drivers of Asia’s resurgence.

Ultimately, Era of India is less a chronological history than a provocative argument about the changing global economic order. Whether readers agree with Merchant’s thesis or not, the book raises timely questions about colonialism, economic power and India’s role in shaping the twenty-first century.

To delve deeper into the ideas behind the book, Merchant's research process, and his outlook on India's economic future, I spoke with him about the historical forces shaping the country's rise and what lies ahead…

Excerpts from the interview

Q1) What was the moment that convinced you Era of India needed to be written? Was there a particular event, book, or conversation that became the starting point for this project?

Minhaz: I’d been discussing the effects of colonial wealth drain from India to Britain with various media colleagues including Shashi Tharoor, David Davidar and others since the 1980s. I had written a piece in 1987 for the Illustrated Weekly of India, then edited by Pritish Nandy, called Debt and Dishonour of the British Empire.

So, the idea of Era of India was ever-present. While running my two media companies and writing several other books well into the 2020s, research on Era of India continued.

Q2) This book spans centuries of history, economics, geopolitics, and colonialism. How many years of research went into it, and what surprised you most during that journey?

Minhaz: As I said, the research began decades ago. Not much surprised me. Dadabhay Naoroji’s book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India, published a century ago, had touched upon colonial drain. Era Of India reveals the entire iceberg of this drain, not just the tip.

Q3) One of your central arguments is that Western prosperity was built not only on innovation but also on colonial extraction and slavery. What evidence do you believe is most frequently overlooked in mainstream historical narratives?

Minhaz: Colonial conquest and slavery led to higher incomes in the West; higher incomes led to education; education led to innovation; innovation led to prosperous societies. The historical narrative is controlled by those who cause harm, not by those who are harmed. Thus, we have a library of historical narratives downplaying the extreme damage caused by colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.

Q4) The book doesn’t simply revisit the past; it argues that India is entering a defining moment in its modern history. What gives you confidence that this century could indeed become an ‘Era of India’?

Minhaz: India had a per capita income broadly similar to England in 1700. At Independence in 1947, the gap had widened from 1:1 to over 100:1. That was the devastating consequence of 190 years of British colonialism.

Indian GDP grew at between 0% and 0.5% per year under British colonial occupation from 1757 to 1947. It had grown annually at 2% prior to 1700 and has grown at an annual average of over 5 per cent after 1947.

During British rule, there were 31 major recorded famines, including the Great Bengal Famine of 1943. After 1947, there hasn’t been a famine in India.

If India grows consistently at 7 per cent from 2026-2050, it will be the world’s largest economy by purchasing power parity (PPP). The relevant figures for GDP (PPP) in 2050, assuming long-term annual growth rates of 7 per cent (India), 3 per cent (China) and 2 per cent (US): India: $96.3 trillion; China $89.3 trillion; USA: $49.9 trillion.

Q5) You draw on historians, economists, political leaders, and even sports personalities to build your narrative. How did you decide which voices would strengthen the book without overwhelming your own?

Minhaz: I drew on a variety of sources, well over a hundred. It was important to add diverse viewpoints, including Western ones, to give the book balance.

Q6) Despite dealing with complex subjects, the book reads like a narrative rather than an academic text. Was it important to you that readers experience history as a story rather than as a collection of facts?

Minhaz: The attempt when dealing with complex historical and geopolitical issues is to impart clarity. To make the narrative accessible, it’s important to simplify without being simplistic.

Q7) Some readers have described the book as bold and provocative. Were there chapters or arguments where you expected disagreement, and did you ever hesitate before including them?

Minhaz: There were areas like reparations for the transatlantic slave trade from Africa to America and colonial depredations that needed to be dealt with clearly but fairly. The overwhelming narrative on these subjects has been dominated by Western historians. It was important to expose the gaps – deliberate and inadvertent – in their narrative.

Q8) Researching a book of this scale often changes the author as much as the reader. Did writing Era of India challenge or alter any of your own long-held beliefs about history or India’s place in the world?

Minhaz: Not really. Researching and writing the book over a long period reconfirmed my beliefs. The empirical evidence, all under one cover, will now serve a useful legacy purpose.

Q9) If a historian or economist who disagrees with your conclusions were sitting across from you today, which criticism of Era of India would you most welcome, and why?

Minhaz: I’d welcome dissent from historians or economists on any and every page of the 500-plus page book.

Q10) When readers close the final page of Era of India, what is the one question or idea you hope stays with them long after they’ve finished the book?

Minhaz: The fact that after a long period of repose, conquest and ennui, India will emerge to reclaim its place in history as the only country to rise as the world’s pre-eminent nation without conquering other countries, without extraterritorial enslavement, and without inflicting a communist dictatorship on its citizens. Every other Great Power, past and present, has done at least one of these.

Thank you all for reading and a big thanks to Minhaz Merchant for collaborating in today’s post!

It’s a pleasure!

Charlie is fifteen when the novel begins, standing at the edge of high school with a kind of emotional fragility that the world around him does not quite register. His best friend, Michael, has died by suicide. The adults in his life move forward with a practical kind of care. School starts again. Days resume their shape. But Charlie remains slightly outside of everything, as though he is watching his own life from a distance he cannot close.

So he writes.

The letters are addressed to an unnamed “friend,” someone he believes will listen without judgment. At first, they read like careful observations. A teacher named Bill who gives him books and treats him seriously. A family that is present but not fully accessible. Small details, recorded with precision, as though Charlie is trying to anchor himself by describing what he sees.

Then he meets Sam and Patrick.

They are seniors, moving through life with a looseness that feels almost unreal to Charlie. Patrick is loud, funny, deflecting pain with humor. Sam is warm, open, carrying her own quiet sadness. Through them, Charlie is drawn into a world he would never have entered alone. Parties, late-night drives, music that seems to say things he cannot yet articulate. For the first time, he feels included in something that resembles a life.

There is a lightness in these sections that can be disarming. Charlie begins to experience the small rites of adolescence. Friendship that feels essential. Love that feels overwhelming. The sense, fleeting but real, of being infinite. It would be easy to read the novel as a gentle portrait of growing up, if not for the way Charlie moves through these moments.

He does not fully inhabit them. He records them.

He falls in love with Sam but holds that love at a distance. He enters a relationship with Mary Elizabeth but cannot assert even the smallest truth about his own feelings. He absorbs the emotions of others so completely that his own begin to disappear. There is kindness in this, but also absence. Charlie is present, and yet not entirely there.

The novel never rushes to explain why. It allows the unease to build slowly, through small dislocations. Moments where Charlie seems to slip out of himself. Reactions that feel disproportionate. Gaps in understanding that he does not yet know how to name.

When the truth about Aunt Helen emerges, it does not feel like a twist so much as a recognition. She had existed in Charlie’s memory as something gentle, almost sacred. The person who made him feel seen. The one who gave him gifts, who paid attention. And yet, she was also the source of his deepest trauma.

What the novel understands, and refuses to simplify, is that these two things can exist at once.

This is where the form of the book becomes essential. Stephen Chbosky’s decision to tell the story through letters is not merely stylistic. It is psychological. Charlie cannot narrate his life with authority because he does not yet understand it. The epistolary structure allows confusion to remain intact. It allows contradictions to sit unresolved. It allows memory to surface unevenly, the way it often does when it has been buried.

If the novel were written in a conventional first-person voice, there would be a sense of control, of retrospection. In third person, there would be distance. The letters do something riskier. They place you inside Charlie’s uncertainty. You are not being told a story that has already been processed. You are receiving one that is still unfolding.

It is tempting to ask who Charlie is writing to, to treat the unnamed recipient as a mystery to be solved. But the question dissolves the longer you sit with it. The identity of the “friend” matters less than the act of writing itself. Charlie needs to believe someone is listening. That belief is what allows him to speak at all. In that sense, the reader becomes implicated. You are not observing Charlie. You are the one he has chosen to trust.

What makes Charlie such a difficult and compelling character is that his gentleness is inseparable from his passivity. He is deeply empathetic, attuned to the emotional currents of everyone around him. He notices what others miss. He cares, often to the point of self-erasure. And yet, that same sensitivity prevents him from asserting himself. He does not participate in his own life so much as orbit it.

It would be easy to romanticize this. The quiet boy who understands everything. But the novel resists that impulse. Charlie’s inability to act, to speak, to claim space, has consequences. It shapes his relationships in ways that are not always benign. His connection with Sam, for all its tenderness, is marked by imbalance. He feels deeply, but feeling is not the same as presence. When she confronts him, telling him that love cannot be reduced to putting everyone else first, it lands with the force of something he has never considered. For Charlie, self-sacrifice has always felt like virtue. The idea that it might also be avoidance unsettles him.

That tension runs through all of his relationships. Patrick offers belonging, a shared sense of being outside the mainstream. Mary Elizabeth exposes Charlie’s inability to articulate his own needs. Even Bill, the teacher who recognizes Charlie’s intelligence, represents something rare in his world. When Charlie says that Bill was “talking for real,” he is identifying authenticity, a kind of emotional honesty that stands out precisely because it is so uncommon in his experience.

Charlie’s reliance on books, music, and films becomes another way of navigating this emotional landscape. References to works like Naked Lunch or songs like Dear Prudence are not decorative. They are functional. When Charlie cannot articulate what he feels, he borrows language from art. These references become a way of locating himself, of saying, indirectly, this is what this moment means to me.

There is a telling moment when Charlie reflects on a film he has watched and concludes that it was not very good because it did not make him feel different. The statement is almost disarmingly simple, but it reveals something essential about how he engages with the world. For Charlie, experience must be transformative to matter. If it leaves him unchanged, it feels empty. It is a standard that is both naive and deeply honest.

By the time the novel reaches its final movement, Charlie can no longer maintain the distance that has protected him. The past asserts itself fully. The memory of Aunt Helen, once fragmented, becomes clear. The emotional strain that he has carried without language overwhelms him. His breakdown is not a narrative climax in the traditional sense. It is a collapse of the structures he has built to avoid confronting what happened to him.

What follows is not resolution, but the beginning of recognition.

Charlie does not emerge from this experience with a fully formed sense of self. He does not suddenly become decisive or assured. What he gains is smaller, and perhaps more significant. A willingness to be present. When he says he wants to “participate,” it reads as a modest aspiration. But within the context of his life, it is a radical shift. To participate is to risk feeling. To risk being hurt. To step inside a life he has spent so long observing from the outside.

The novel leaves you there, without insisting on what comes next.

What lingers is not simply Charlie’s story, but the questions it raises about how people move through their own lives. How often observation becomes a substitute for engagement. How easily empathy can turn into self-erasure. How trauma can exist alongside affection, complicating the narratives we tell ourselves about our past.

It also leaves you with a quieter, more uncomfortable recognition. That many of us, at some point, have been a version of Charlie. Standing at the edge of our own experiences, convincing ourselves that watching is enough.

The novel does not argue against that instinct directly. It simply shows its limits.

And in doing so, it suggests that growing up is not about understanding everything that has happened to you. It is about deciding, despite that uncertainty, to step into your life anyway.

In an online ecosystem that increasingly turns reading into performance - summaries, speed, spectacle; her voice moves in the opposite direction. It is measured, reflective, and notably uninterested in urgency. She lingers. On a sentence, on a mood, on the afterlife of a character. What emerges is not a “review” in the conventional sense, but a form of literary presence; where the act of reading is allowed to remain incomplete, even private.

This sensibility places her closer to a certain lineage of readers than to the current wave of content creators. The emphasis is not on authority or analysis, but on attention. To read closely, after all, is to notice - not just what a text says, but what it does to you over time. That kind of attentiveness rarely announces itself; it accumulates quietly, shaping taste, language, and thought in ways that are difficult to quantify but immediately recognizable.

It is also what gives her articulation its texture. There is clarity, certainly, but also restraint - the sense that language is being chosen, not performed. You hear it in the way she speaks about books: not as cultural capital, but as lived experience. The distinction is subtle, but it matters. One is outward facing, calibrated for reception; the other is inward, formed in solitude and carried outward only when necessary.

That inwardness is perhaps what makes her presence: both on and off screen distinct. If acting is an exploration of other lives, reading becomes the quiet groundwork for that exploration: a way of understanding interiority before attempting to express it. The two practices intersect not in method, but in temperament: a shared commitment to paying attention.

And in that sense, her relationship with books resists easy categorization. It is not academic, though it is rigorous; not performative, though it is public; not prescriptive, though it is deeply felt. It exists, instead, in that increasingly rare space between thought and expression; where reading is still allowed to be an experience before it becomes an opinion.

When we speak, this relationship reveals itself without much framing. She returns to books easily, not as something she has curated, but as something she has lived with over time. What follows is a conversation about memory, language, and the quiet ways reading shapes a life.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q1) Do you remember the first book that made reading feel like a private world you could belong to?

Namita: Yes. It was Carry on Jeeves by P G Wodehouse. The lush descriptions, the dry irreverent humour, the scintillating characters- I felt privy to a world unfolding quietly in the environs of my mind. I felt a sense of communion with the writer. He made me laugh and cackle and introspect. It definitely felt special. I was diffident as a child, and reading felt like a migratory yet private experience where I didn’t have to participate vociferously.

Q2) What did books mean to you growing up in Lucknow?

Namita: I hail from a family of bureaucrats in Lucknow. Books were seeded in the nooks and crannies of my house, and it was a tacit presupposition that we have to read in our free time. The whole gambit of education was presented to us as a tool- to build impregnable minds and be well-adjusted individuals. This meant reading outside the structured school hours and regimen, reading voraciously and reading without rewards! My grandparents and particularly my father were positive role models in this regard, because I’d see them read and more importantly- not as any chore or imposition. Dad would read James Hadley Chase, Jeffery Archer and Agatha Christie, he clearly had a penchant for mystery novels whereas my grandparents would read spiritual texts and magazines like Reader’s digest, Navneet, Outlook. Books were omnipresent and akin to a source of succour for them. I emulated this.

Q3) Before acting gave you a language for performance, did books give you a language for selfhood?

Namita: In my formative years, selfhood was a nebulous concept- I didn’t know I was actively building it by choosing the way I was filling my blank spaces of time. And books meant reading, writing, articulating- a natural form of creative catharsis. As a child, I was reticent to the point of timidity, so books became my escape and solace. The only trophy I ever got was for an inter school writing program. You can imagine how it bolstered my sense of self. My family can vouch for this slavish devotion to academics and reading because I literally had to be cajoled to venture out of the house. This definitely changed once I turned 18 and my mind ignited a burgeoning desire to self-express outwardly: through stage and dance. But before that I was always residing in my head, and my proclivities rewarded me at a time I needed it.

Q4) What kind of books have found you at different stages of your life?

Namita: So many different books at different stages of life! I vividly recall my Charles Bukowski phase in 2018 when I read the Post Office and Women. I’d share his quotes verbatim with friends. My non-fiction phase of 2019 when I gravitated towards Rolf Dobelli’s The Art of thinking clearly, Flow by mihaly csikszentmihalyi or Tim Ferris’s Tools Of Titans. It was a tumultuous time for me and these books particularly felt like a solid armour against the indefensible forces of life. Then 2021 became the year I read some formidable women writers- Rachel Cusk, bell hooks, Deborah Levy- I was irrevocably in love with the voices of women! I decided to read women through the lens of women and that has been a gratifying journey till now. As a child it was all about Ghostbusters, Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton- I was in the early throes of developing my reading taste and this was largely influenced by my peers and my father’s library. But yes, as Frank Zappa says- so many books, so little time.

Q5) Acting asks you to inhabit other people. Reading does too, but in a quieter way. Do you feel those two practices speak to each other?

Namita: For an actor, being sociologically astute will always be a gift, a great way to embellish the understanding of a character. I have a special unabiding love for human psychology and I think it revitalises me to read about characters, their emotional arcs and their social contexts. So, inhabiting a fictitious person in an endeavour to empathise with their lived reality is such a sweet spot for these two practises to be in unison. I am also a Literature and Social work student. I love braiding together my interests- and I’m exhilarated by the space where everything can coalesce.

Q6) Has a novel ever helped you understand a character more deeply than a script did?

Namita: A novel can make me unpackage what is percolating inside a human mind through my OWN lens- words stir your imagination more than anything. A dormant antenna that helps me diagnose the human condition becomes sharper through reading. Would that make me understand a certain continuum of time in a character’s life deeply? yes and yes.

Q7) Do books enlarge your emotional vocabulary as a performer?

Namita: Books- like I said lubricates different arenas of our mind- writing, speaking, thinking- they’re all inextricably linked. So as an individual who is on a journey of self-determination, it all adds up to be the scaffolding I need as an artist. Also, I am more in search of a robust inner life which will be discernible in any role/performance I take up eventually. I am also moving through the world without tying my identity to being a performer, so everything happens in the background. There is a reparative function of art overall that I seek in this.

Q8) What can a great novelist do with interiority that an actor must somehow translate without words?

Namita: This question will require me to be a much more seasoned actor! To sift through all the performances, I’ll end up accruing to my name and then probably weighing this!

Q9) In an industry that often rewards quick visibility, what has it meant to protect a slower, more inward life of reading and reflection?

Namita: I was never an artist who wanted to appease the masses by leaning into the ostensible tricks that’s decided by an industry. Also, an industry that’s largely centered on the flippant, plummeting currency of youth, consumerism and flash in the pan moments. I am a deep, slow thinker who likes to marinate in ideas before sharing them aloud. I always wanted large swaths of time where I do nothing eventful and replenish my thought-reserves. That’s my modus operandi. And I think I haven’t swayed from this path because I’m not excited by a high-strung life. I like to tease my goals, I like to take time to achieve them. I am not here to conquer the world,I am here to experience life’s evanescence.

Q10) How do you hold on to reading as something private and sincere in the age of performative book culture?

Namita: I reviewed my first book in 2017 on Instagram when I had a paltry sum of “followers”. There was no concept of pervasive reels and IGTV hadn’t debuted. I would show up on instagram to talk about something when it fancied my whim- on a lark. You can actually scroll through my profile and assess the veracity of this statement- yes my lens of reading was different but there was no artifice. That’s all I knew. I had nothing more compelling to share with the world. And quite honestly till today, I am not in this interminable cesspool of curating and contorting myself to be liked by anyone. I find it too beguiling to put up a post and then see the “reward” of engagement as an endless loop. Book culture is a relatively new phenomenon and who knows? maybe a transient fad because it suddenly is cool to carry a book! There is aesthetic signaling now when it comes to being a reader?! It baffles me and prods me to understand media literacy and the idea of anti-intellectualism. I hope I don’t fall prey to it in a bid to share my ideas across.

Q11) Has there been a writer whose sentences changed the way you notice the world?

Namita: Multiple writers- Right now I can think of Sylvia Plath’s line “I am a victim of introspection” as one of those.

Q12) If someone wanted to understand you a little better through books rather than biography, which three books would you hand them?

Namita: The Anthropologists, Aysegul Savas,

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, Ann Patchett &

Daily Rituals: Women at work, Currey Mason

Thank you all for reading and a big thanks to Namita Dubey for collaborating in today’s post!

It’s a pleasure!

Readers who want to follow Namita Dubey’s engagement with books more closely can turn to her Instagram, where she shares reflections, recommendations and short video reviews. Her posts offer a window into her evolving reading life, often lingering on passages, ideas and moods rather than quick summaries. For those interested in a quieter, more personal approach to reading, her page serves as an ongoing archive of that relationship.

The 20th anniversary of Hannah Montana hit me harder than I expected.

At first, it felt like the usual internet nostalgia cycle. Old clips. Old songs. Miley in the blonde wig. The theme song everywhere again. People online remembering the exact way Disney Channel once occupied our afternoons.

But then I found myself listening to “The Climb” again. Then “This Is the Life.” Then “One in a Million.” And suddenly this wasn’t just nostalgia anymore. It was memory, in the deeper sense. Not just remembering a show but remembering the person who first watched it.

For those of us born in the mid-1990s, Hannah Montana was not just another Disney show. It belonged to that very specific cultural moment when television was still shaping how we imagined the world, and in some cases, how we entered language itself.

I grew up in India, and like a lot of kids here, I first watched Hannah Montana in Hindi. That detail matters more to me now than it did then. Before it became one of my first English-language obsessions, it was something dubbed, localized, softened just enough to make this impossibly American world feel strangely close.

And then, slowly, it became something else.

The original lines started to matter. The songs stayed in English. The accent, the rhythm, the humor, the whole Disney-Channel version of adolescence started seeping in. Hannah Montana, along with Lizzie McGuire, That’s So Raven, Phil of the Future, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Wizards of Waverly Place, and of course High School Musical, became part of how many of us first absorbed English not as a subject, but as a feeling.

That is what makes this anniversary emotional. It is not just about a show. It is about a phase of life when television was still helping you build your interior world.

Disney Channel was not just entertainment. It was aspiration.

There was something very particular about watching Disney Channel in 2000s India.

These shows were so obviously set elsewhere. The schools, the lockers, the houses, the clothes, the ease with which these characters moved through the world, all of it felt far removed from our own lives. But emotionally, they still landed. You did not need to live in Malibu or attend a high school with musical auditions and vending machines to understand embarrassment, secrecy, ambition, or the desire to be seen differently than you were.

That was the real pull.

As children, we thought these shows were about fun, popularity, crushes, and impossible adventures. Looking back, they were also about identity. About wanting to be more than the version of yourself your immediate surroundings had already decided on.

And Hannah Montana may have been the most literal expression of that fantasy.

The show’s premise was absurd, obviously. Miley Stewart was an ordinary teenager by day and a famous pop star by night, her life split cleanly in two by a wig and a secret. As a child, I watched it the way it was meant to be watched: as wish fulfillment. Who would not want the glamour, the songs, the spotlight, the applause, and then the ability to return home and still be normal?

But the older I get, the more I think Hannah Montana was never really about fame.

It was about compartmentalization.

It was about living different versions of yourself in different spaces and hoping they never collide.

That is a much more adult story than I understood at the time.

What once looked glamorous now looks familiar

The strange thing about revisiting Hannah Montana at this age is realizing how much of its emotional logic has survived into adulthood.

Not the pop stardom, obviously. Not the stage lights or screaming fans or glittering alter ego. But the split itself. The pressure of being one person in one setting and another somewhere else. The quiet effort it takes to keep different parts of your life from bleeding into each other.

That part I understand now.

Because in a less dramatic, much less photogenic way, I have my own version of that split.

There is the life I have built around writing, editorial work, research, analysis, and language. The part of me that is drawn to ideas, structure, storytelling, culture, and the work of turning information into something readable and alive. That life feels deeply mine. It is the one I have consciously shaped.

And then there is the other part of life. Family responsibility. Practical expectations. The inherited gravity of being needed in ways that have nothing to do with your inner life or your intellectual ambitions. A life that does not care what your ideal self looks like on paper. A life that asks simpler, heavier questions: What has to be done? Who is counting on you? What cannot be postponed any longer?

Neither of these selves is fake.

That is what makes the tension difficult.

A lot of writing about identity tries to force a clean conclusion, as if adulthood is about “finding your true self” and living as that person forever. But for many people, especially in India, life is not structured that way. It is not a clean arc toward self-actualization. It is negotiation. It is adjustment. It is carrying one set of aspirations while also being answerable to another world entirely.

Seen from here, Hannah Montana stops looking like a silly Disney fantasy and starts looking like an accidental metaphor.

Not for celebrity, but for the private labor of keeping your lives in conversation.

The child who watched Hannah Montana would have had a very simple idea of adulthood

This is the part of nostalgia people do not talk about enough.

When you revisit something from childhood, you are not only revisiting the thing itself. You are also confronting the version of yourself that once watched it without irony.

And that can be unsettling.

Because the child who watched Hannah Montana had a very different idea of what adulthood would feel like. Not in a detailed way, of course. But in emotional terms. There was a sense then that growing up would mean expansion. That life would become bigger, clearer, more self-directed. That if you worked hard enough and stayed close to what excited you, some coherent version of yourself would eventually emerge.

What you do not know at that age is how much adulthood is made up of partial lives.

Things you began but did not finish.

Versions of yourself that still feel alive but remain underused.

Ambitions that coexist with compromise rather than replacing it.

That is why hearing those old songs again feels oddly devastating.

“The Climb” is one of those songs that can sound almost embarrassingly earnest until you are old enough to understand it. As a child, it sounded motivational. As an adult, it sounds like something else entirely. It sounds like endurance. It sounds like the emotional logic of staying with a life even when it does not resemble the one you once imagined.

And maybe that is why it still works.

Because beneath all the Disney gloss, that era’s music was often trying to teach us how to keep going before we had any idea what “keeping going” would eventually require.

There was something especially formative about growing up on dubbed American adolescence

I keep returning to the fact that I first watched Hannah Montana in Hindi.

Because there is something very specific about that experience if you grew up in India in the 2000s. These shows did not simply arrive as foreign imports. They arrived as translated fantasy. They entered our homes in altered form, carrying American adolescence through Indian cable television and afternoon routine.

That matters because it meant our nostalgia is layered.

We are not only nostalgic for the original show. We are nostalgic for how it reached us.

For the after-school timing of it.

For the weirdly charming Hindi dubbing.

For the transition from watching passively to actually catching the English.

For the first time a song lyric stayed in your head before you fully understood every word.

That is part of why Disney Channel meant so much to our generation. It did not just entertain us. It accompanied us through a kind of cultural and linguistic opening. These shows were unserious in form, but quietly serious in effect. They helped shape our references, our humor, our emotional vocabulary, and in many cases, our comfort with English itself.

I do not think that is an exaggeration.

A lot of people my age in India learned as much from pop culture as they did from classrooms.

Sometimes more.

And then there is Miley herself

Part of what makes this anniversary hit now, rather than five or ten years ago, is Miley Cyrus’s own afterlife in public culture.

She is one of those rare pop figures whose transformation has remained visible enough that revisiting Hannah Montana also means revisiting everything that came after it. The rebellion, the reinvention, the backlash, the self-parody, the maturity, the strange dignity of having outlived your own caricature.

Listening now to songs like “Younger You” after returning to Hannah Montana creates its own emotional echo. Not because the song is directly about the show, but because it speaks to something close to what this anniversary stirs up: the realization that your younger self does not disappear. It keeps resurfacing in fragments. In songs, in phrases, in old TV intros, in cultural moments you thought you had outgrown.

And when it does, it is not always embarrassing.

Sometimes it is useful.

Sometimes it reminds you of what first moved you before your life became more strategic, more practical, more burdened by consequences.

That younger self may not have understood the world, but it was often clearer about what made it feel alive.

That is not a small thing.

Maybe that is what this anniversary really brings back

Not just the show.

Not just Disney Channel.

Not just Miley in the blonde wig or the impossible fantasy of being both ordinary and extraordinary.

What it brings back is a feeling I associate with that whole era: the sense that life had not yet narrowed.

That there was still room to imagine several futures at once.

That language itself was opening.

That television, music, and adolescence were all conspiring to tell you the world was larger than the one immediately around you.

And maybe that is why Hannah Montana still matters to people like me.

Not because it was perfect television. It was not.

Not because it was especially profound. It often was not.

But because it arrived at the right age, carrying the right fantasy.

A fantasy not really of fame, but of possibility.

The possibility that you could move between worlds.

That you could be more than one thing.

That your visible life and your private life might somehow coexist without one destroying the other.

That fantasy becomes more complicated with age.

But I am not sure it becomes less true.

If anything, adulthood has made me realize that most people are still trying to live some version of that premise. We just stop dressing it up in sequins.

And so twenty years later, watching the Hannah Montana anniversary unfold, I do not just feel nostalgic. I feel oddly seen by something I once thought I had left behind.

Which may be the real reason childhood pop culture stays with us.

It does not simply remind us of who we were.

Sometimes, if we are lucky, it helps us understand who we became.

In Never Logged Out: How the Internet Created India’s Gen Z, the writer Ria Chopra attempts to make sense of that environment. Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, the book is a collection of essays that moves between cultural criticism and personal reflection to examine how the internet has shaped identity, memory, ambition, intimacy, and visibility for India’s Gen Z.

Ria belongs to the very cohort she writes about, young Indians who grew up just before constant connectivity became the norm and then watched the country’s digital landscape transform, particularly after the arrival of Reliance Jio in 2016, which dramatically expanded internet access. The essays draw on sociology, media theory, and internet lore while also reflecting on Chopra’s own experiences navigating online life.

In this conversation, Ria discusses the challenge of writing about a world she is still immersed in, the uneven realities of internet access in India, and the emotional process of turning years of scattered digital-age observations into a book.

Excerpts from the Interview

Q1) You argue that India’s Gen Z has essentially never logged out of the internet. How has this constant connectivity reshaped ideas of selfhood and identity compared to pre-internet generations?

Ria: This is a very broad question – which is also why it has a whole chapter dedicated to it in my book – but we can draw upon a few large pointers to examine the distinction between pre- and post-internet generations. Every generation alive today has been impacted by the internet in its own way – ourselves, our parents, our grandparents, and now the newer generations of children. I define ‘Gen Z’ as one that spent a few years in a world that wasn’t permanently logged in, and then grew up with and on the internet. We helped shape platforms, even as they shaped us back. We also have a vision of a world where constant connectivity wasn’t a given, where we could still truly ‘log out’. I think that really seeps into the kind of nostalgia we see in people our age today, as well as the ways we engage with platforms, and with each other. But we’re also a fragmented generation – as well a fragmented society – because internet access in India depends on social factors like class, caste, gender, region etc. A lot of India only got access to the internet in 2016, with Jio, and hence one can’t look at young people as a monolith even in terms of internet usage. So, when we talk about ‘selfhood’ or ‘identity’ in India’s Gen Z, we’re by nature incapable of representing every single kind of internet experience. But the internet itself does cause and heighten certain behaviors – loneliness is correlated to higher social media use, self-comparison and envy is another, internet-driven consumerism, getting rage-baited and manufactured anger, tendency to form parasocial relationships etc.

Q2) The title suggests the internet didn’t just influence but created India’s Gen Z. To what extent do you see this generation as shaped by global internet culture versus India’s specific digital ecosystem, cheap data, language diversity, and platform adoption?

Ria: I think there’s definitely a cross-pollination with global internet culture – especially when it comes to fashion trends, slang, and pop culture – but India’s internet ecosystem is also entirely its own. The advent of Jio and the post-2016 shift in Indian internet culture proves it – we are very uniquely a set of people with micro-cultures, niches, pop cultures, linguistic quirks, local traditions, beliefs etc. that all seep into our internet usage.

Q3)Your book moves between cultural analysis and personal reflection. How did you decide when to step into memoir and when to pull back into critique, especially when writing about a world you are also deeply embedded in?

Ria: I was very sure that I wanted the memoir/personal narrative part of the book to not be self-indulgent – every time there is a detour into my own experiences, it is there for a purpose – either as an example, or as a parallel. For the longest time, my bio on various social media platforms read: ‘the personal is cultural’. Analyzing culture is the point of the book, the personal is just representative of the tangible effects it can have on people. Being part of the cohort I am writing about just gave me more material to draw upon. Of course I was also conscious of structure, so there was an aim to intersperse the research-heavy portions with anecdotes in order to never overwhelm the reader.

Q4) You write from within the internet while also critically examining it. Do you ever worry that critique itself risks becoming another form of online performance? Where do you draw that line as a writer?

Ria: There is occasionally that worry, especially when I’m talking about something topical in my articles or short videos – am I talking about it because I have something to say, or am I doing it to say something, to have a ‘hot take’? I think there is a practice of self-reflection, to know when I’m adding to the discourse and when I’m not, and it’s one we all have to do for ourselves. I also have started taking more time to think about things before I write or post anything at all, because the process of writing my book taught me that I am organically a long-form person – I think best when I take the time and space to do so.

But I also think we have a lot of large, vague notions around ‘performance’ that aren’t very specific to the online world. We all perform. We all perform offline, too. Performance is also a part of work culture in some way – office jargon, formal wear, packaging things to suit the context etc. And the same is part of the digital world too. Since my work goes out in the attention economy, I sometimes have to play by its rules, which can look like adding a ‘hook’ to a video or referencing a meme or adding some topical slang. And I think to that extent it is okay, I feel fine doing it.

Q5) Internet culture has its own grammar: memes, irony, screenshots, virality. Did you consciously think about translating this language into long-form prose? What gets lost when the internet is written about rather than experienced?

Ria: This was a really fun challenge for me – to capture the grammar, the feeling of the internet, into the prose of the book. That has come through in form in various ways – there are meme references scattered throughout the book, there is slang which may be grammatically incorrect but makes sense for a digital-first readership, there is an assumption of digital familiarity (though we did add a glossary for anyone not as well-versed with internet vocab). Another thing I really wanted to do was to play with structure and have sections of the book that feel like scrolling – back to back infodumps, staccato sentences, multiple stimuli – to make people feel a sense of overwhelm, which is what we feel when we scroll. And then, of course, we have the ‘log out’ symbol breaking up all these sections and asking you to stop and think.

When it comes to analyzing the internet, then to echo McLuhan, the ‘medium is the message’ – I have a four-point framework in my book about why the nature of the internet renders it extremely hard to represent properly in other mediums, including a book. Obviously, experiencing something is the most holistic form of understanding. But the book was important too – to break out of algo-governed platforms, away from the attention economy, to sit down and write and think about what this massive force has done to us.

Q6) Across the essays, you touch on privacy, visibility, ambition, and fame. Which chapter was the most difficult to write - conceptually or emotionally, and what resistance did you encounter while working through it?

Ria : I will say that the whole book was emotionally harder than I was expecting it to be – I did expect it to be conceptually difficult, as it is such a huge undertaking, but there was definitely a huge emotional toll of realizing how much I have been changed (much of it non-consensually) by the internet, and to recount instances and incidents that felt small at the time but led to massive butterfly effects in my life.

Out of all the chapters, I found those on memory/forgetting and fame/visibility the hardest to write. Both forced me to confront incidents in my life that I’ve been burying a fair bit, and had me reckon with my own beliefs and understanding of larger life questions. I think we’re wired to protect ourselves, and to process these, publicly, knowing people would read it and judge it, was tough. It was necessary, though. I’m glad I did.

Q7) India’s internet experience is often framed as universal, but access, safety, and visibility are deeply uneven. How did questions of class, gender, or geography shape what you chose to foreground, or resist generalizing, in the book?

Ria: The book is rooted in personal experience, so I knew that I could only represent a very specific, privileged, upper-caste and upper-class lived reality of the Indian Gen Z experience. Like I said, internet access and experience in India is fragmented along the same fissures that fragment our society, which is why throughout the book, reaffirming my narrowness of life experience was important for the sake of clarity. I have also referred to scholars, writers, researchers writing about the themes I am focusing on, but from the perspective of different social groups, to include that experience too.

Like any other non-fiction writer, I focus on what I care about, which obviously emerges from my own personal lived experience too – but for this book specifically, I tried to pick up broad, far-ranging themes that impact us all – things like privacy, memory, love: that differ in experience and level of impact, and intersect with society and policy differently, and hence yield specific experiences for each of us – and then to find the commonalities between us all.

Q8) You’ve described Never Logged Out as the processing of years of scattered thoughts and feelings. Can you walk me through how you organized that chaos, what did your actual writing process look like from idea to finished essay?

Ria: Many of these ideas came to me at different points over the last five years, and others crystallized more recently, but I feel I’ve had these questions for decades. The first synthesis for my thoughts came in 2023, when I drew up my first book proposal, where I had to break down my book’s structure, tone, and chapters. I’d say that first proposal is only 40% similar to the eventual final book that got published – many more ideas were added, some were removed, some chapters started out with one goal and ended up achieving something else by the end of their writing, I lived more life which added more experience, and I read more and paid more attention to the world and hence to my own thoughts.

I knew that I wanted each essay to have one broad overarching core value at their centre – as of the finished book, these are identity, love, memory, consumerism, fame, anonymity, knowledge, and representation – so I started out by narrowing down on those broad themes. This was done by looking at the large questions I have about myself and my generation, and how I can see the impact of the internet in them. Then there was the matter of research and writing. Some chapters came more easily than others, because I feel I had thought about those things a lot more, almost as if I had been writing those chapters in my head to process the situations, or because I had worked more in that specific field or previously written something that was related to that theme. Others required a lot fresher research and reading – something which I really, really enjoyed. The writing itself was haphazard – I have described it in previous interviews as almost as an ‘exorcism’ because it was so freeing, so uncontrollable, once I started writing it seemed I could not stop. More than half the book has been written between the hours of midnight and 4 AM. Many chapters were written on flights, in hotels, in gardens, and curled up on other people’s couches. I spent days feverishly writing, and then weeks not writing at all. There was no process. The ideal writing process, at least for me, is whatever gets me to actually write.

Q9) Was there a chapter, argument, or personal experience you consciously chose to leave out of the book? What made it feel unresolved, premature, or too personal to publish?

Ria: We’ve removed some stuff for legal reasons, especially in parts where I’m talking about known public figures. There are also things I haven’t processed yet that I, hence, don’t feel comfortable writing about right now. I need to know where I stand before I publish it.

Q10) If Never Logged Out were read 20 years from now, what do you hope it captures truthfully about this moment, and what do you suspect might feel incomplete or naive in hindsight?

Ria: I hope it continues to capture and accurately represent our overwhelm, our confusion, our complexities, but also our love for the internet. Like the ending of the book says – I was here, and it mattered to me.

I suspect that the internet is going to change, massively, due to the way we’re seeing AI being incorporated into it. Our internet of now will soon be the internet of our past. In that sense, I think Never Logged Out is a documentation of not just my internet experience but also of the internet at this point of time. We were here, and this is how it felt, and it mattered to us.

Thank you all for reading and a big thanks to Ria Chopra for collaborating in today’s post!

It’s a pleasure!

Readers who wish to follow Ria’s work more closely can visit her website or follow her commentary on Instagram.

Website: https://riachops.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riachops/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riachops/

X: https://x.com/riachops

Over the past two decades, Alex has emerged as one of the most visible advocates of evidence-based thinking in finance and corporate governance. His research on executive compensation, long-termism, and sustainability has been cited not only in academic journals but also in policy debates, parliamentary hearings, and boardrooms. His first book, Grow the Pie, made a rigorous yet accessible case for stakeholder capitalism at a time when ESG was still viewed with skepticism in mainstream finance.

But May Contain Lies, his latest book, marks a noticeable shift in emphasis. Rather than advancing a clear framework or prescribing a solution, Edmans turns his attention to a more uncomfortable question: how selective truths - statistics that are technically correct but strategically framed - shape public discourse, investment decisions, and policy outcomes. The book arrives at a moment when data is abundant, trust is scarce, and disagreement is often treated as moral failure rather than intellectual difference.

What makes Alex an especially compelling guide through this terrain is that he does not position himself outside the problem. He writes as someone who has benefited from popular narratives - particularly around ESG - while also becoming increasingly uneasy with how weak evidence is often amplified when it aligns with fashionable conclusions. In an era where academic research, corporate reporting, and journalism are all subject to their own incentive structures, May Contain Lies argues that misinformation is less about outright falsehoods and more about what gets emphasized, ignored, or oversold.

I spoke with Alex about the experiences that led him to write the book, the dangers of treating complex issues as morally binary, and how readers, especially investors, analysts, and journalists - can cultivate skepticism without sliding into cynicism. The conversation ranged from CEO pay and ESG research to LinkedIn pile-ons, academic publishing incentives, and the subtle psychological habits that shape how we decide what to believe.

Excerpts from the Interview:

Q1) May Contain Lies is about how we’re misled by selective truths rather than outright falsehoods. What was the moment (or accumulation of moments) that made you feel this book had to be written now?

Alex: Even though my day job is an academic, I enjoy interacting with practitioners, policymakers, and the general public: in particular, to apply the insights of academic research to real-world problems. In doing so, I learned that how people respond to research depends much more on whether they like its findings rather than on whether the research is rigorous. If it confirms what they want to be true, they lap it up uncritically; if it’s an inconvenient truth, they dismiss it.

There was no one particular moment that triggered the book, but an accumulation of moments as you say. One episode was in 2016-7 when there was controversy on CEO pay and a House of Commons inquiry in the UK. People were widely proclaiming evidence that CEOs are overpaid, and the higher CEO pay is, the worse the company performance. Indeed, when I testified in the House of Commons, the witness before me made exactly that statement, when the very evidence they cited actually showed the opposite. Episodes like those prompted my TED talk “What to Trust in a Post-Truth World” about the importance of being discerning with evidence.

Unfortunately, misinformation has only since got worse. Now people parade evidence that demographic diversity always improves company performance, and that ESG always boosts financial returns. I’d love this to be true, being an ethnic minority and an ESG advocate (indeed, my first book Grow the Pie was on the business case for sustainability).

But the evidence is far weaker than typically claimed. DEI and ESG research are now increasingly produced by consultancies (rather than academics with research expertise) and undertaken as a marketing exercise to improve their image, rather than to search for the truth, but many people ignore these skewed incentives to accept a convenient message.

Worse still, people who challenge the evidence are sometimes portrayed as racist, sexist, and anti-science. Indeed, on LinkedIn, even “liking” a message that expresses a different view can be met with you being named and shamed and being labelled a climate denier.

I wanted to highlight the shades of grey in issues that are often portrayed in black-and-white and thus allow for people to express different viewpoints without being cancelled.

Q2) You’ve spent much of your career encouraging evidence-based thinking in finance. Did you initially see this book as an extension of your academic work or did it evolve into something broader, almost philosophical?

Alex: It was indeed an extension of my academic work beyond finance to other areas. Unfortunately, misinformation is not just an issue in finance, but other fields such as science, politics, and health advice. Thus, its damage is not limited to lower company profits, but extends to which politicians get elected, how we prevent and cure disease, and how we combat global problems such as climate change.

Q3) You argue that many misleading claims are technically “true” but still deceptive. How should readers train themselves to spot truthful statements that mislead, especially when time and attention are limited?

Alex: If we see a statement we’d like to be true, imagine the opposite result - one that makes us feel uncomfortable - and ask how we might challenge it. Take a study which finds that more sustainable companies deliver better company performance. That’s a correlation, but we’re tempted to interpret it as causation: sustainability improves performance. Before we do so, imagine the study found that sustainable companies perform worse. We don’t like that result, so we’ll try to claim it’s not causation. Perhaps CEO quality affects both - maybe a bad CEO worsens performance, and a bad CEO invests in sustainability because s/he’s distracted from the core mission.

Now that we’ve alerted ourselves to the possibility of alternative explanations, ask ourselves whether the same alternative explanations may be a problem for the original result - the one we want to be true. Maybe good CEOs improve performance, and good CEOs invest in sustainability because they’re forward-thinking. Then, it might not be causation.

The power of “imagine the opposite” is it highlights that the tools for discernment are already within us. You don’t need to do a PhD in statistics or check every footnote, both of which are impractical. Indeed, whenever I see a study posted on LinkedIn that people don't like the sound of, there's no shortage of challenges such as “correlation is not causation”, “that could be a single hand-picked anecdote”. The idea of "imagine the opposite" encourages us to be as equally skeptical of something we do like as something we don't.

Q4) One of the book’s strongest themes is how incentives shape narratives: whether in academia, media, or corporate reporting. In your view, which ecosystem today produces the most dangerous distortions: research, journalism, or business?

Alex: Unfortunately, all of them are dangerous. Being an academic, I’d like to claim that academia was pure and the real world is awash with misinformation, and if only practitioners listened more to academics like me, the world would be a better place. But that’s not the case. All three ecosystems are inhabited by humans, and all humans have their biases - researchers, journalists, or businesspeople. When I did my pro-ESG research nearly 20 years ago, academic journals wanted to reject it because ESG wasn’t hot back then and most people thought that something as fluffy as ESG couldn’t possibly pay off. Nowadays, journals are falling over themselves to accept ESG papers, because it’s popular. And all humans respond to incentives. At least until a couple of years ago, academics could have - and have had - significant impact if they release pro-ESG or pro-DEI research.

Q5) You’re careful not to position yourself as anti-data or anti-storytelling. What does responsible storytelling with data look like to you?

Alex: Like my views on many things, the answer is not black-and-white or either/or, but both/and. Often academics may dismiss a story as an anecdote, and put their faith in regressions that use large-scale data. But a regression coefficient is nowhere near as memorable as a story - from the days of the oral tradition, stories have always been powerful. Thus, we should have a one-two punch, of a story that’s then backed up by large-scale research, so that it’s not a single anecdote.

Q6) The book repeatedly warns against over-relying on single studies or eye-catching statistics. Yet policy, markets, and media often demand quick conclusions. How do we balance intellectual humility with the need to act?

Alex: We should indeed recognize that perfect should not be the enemy of good: 90% of the answer now may be preferable to 100% of the answer in three years’ time. But if we want to take action on an issue why where the scientific consensus is still emerging, do so in a more moderate way. For example, a DEI policy might be mindful of unconscious bias and expand the net beyond the traditional applicant pool. But it should not necessarily involve quotas for particular minority groups or linking CEO pay to simple DEI metrics in the absence of clear evidence that demographic diversity improves performance.

Q7) This book blends academic rigor with narrative clarity. How did you decide what to simplify and what complexity to preserve without diluting the argument?

Alex: This is actually a challenge that exists even within academia, and even if an academic has no interest in interacting with the real world. To be a successful academic, your research should have impact beyond your narrow sub-field, and thus it needs to be accessible to those who work in other areas. Thus, your research should absolutely contain the technical detail in the body of the paper, or maybe in the appendix, but the introduction should summarise the research at a high level. And it’s the same for writing for a non-academic audience.

Some academics look down on other academics whose work has impact on practice - they claim that their work must be “dumbed down” if it can be read by the unwashed masses. I believe that such an attitude is highly problematic. First, research is often funded by practitioners (e.g. through alumni donations) or the public (e.g. through research grants) and thus must be relevant for the real world. Second, the same skill of making your research relevant and widely applicable improves not only practitioner impact, but also academic impact.

Q8) Did your writing process differ from Grow the Pie? Was May Contain Lies harder to write - given that it challenges readers rather than offering a clear framework or prescription?

Alex: It did not. The challenge of making something accessible for a general audience exists for an academic research paper, for a Wall Street Journal op-ed, and for a book. May Contain Lies might seem to be a more challenging book than Grow the Pie as it aimed to appeal to readers outside business and finance, my traditional home. But, because it was my second book, I was already used to writing a book for practitioners (rather than academics) and so I was able to move to the next stage of the learning curve, which was a book for both business and non-business practitioners alike.

Q9) How much rewriting does it take for you to feel a paragraph is both accurate and accessible? Are you ruthless with edits, or do you let ideas breathe?

Alex: A huge amount, because I’m rather obsessive and compulsive about writing! In my academic papers, I’m often the lead writer: I often have coauthors who are stronger than me in theoretical modelling or running regressions, but I take responsibility for ensuring that the writing is as precise as possible. What you write ends up published in a scientific journal and forms (a very small) part of the “canon”, so it needs to be as good as it can be. I feel the same about my books, even though they are a couple of books out of the millions that exist: while I can’t affect the other million, I can try to make mine as good as they can be. I will write, re-write, re-re-write, and then ask research assistants to challenge my writing.

The success of a book seems to depend more on marketing and publicity than its inherent quality, so if my only goal was sales, that’s time I should reallocate to those other activities. However, I’m unable to shake off my academic tendencies which is to view both a research paper and a book as science, and want it to be as precise as possible.

Q10) ESG analysis features prominently in debates around data misuse and selective evidence. How should investors distinguish between meaningful long-term signals and ESG storytelling?

Alex: It is to place greater weight on academic research. Often people view “academic” as the opposite of “practitioner”, and practitioners may think they should lean on real-world examples rather than academic studies. But academics and practitioners go after the same questions (e.g. “does sustainability cause better company performance”); the difference is that the former have the time and space to really nail a result. Thus, rather than falling for a single story or case study, to learn research that analyses hundreds of companies.

Q11) If you were training a new generation of analysts or financial journalists, what would be the one habit of thinking you’d want them to internalize from this book?

Alex: To question everything and to challenge the beliefs you hold dear. See a complex issue - even one that you view as open-and-shut - as one that has two sides.

Q12) If readers walk away from May Contain Lies more skeptical, but also more thoughtful, what does healthy skepticism look like to you?

Alex: It involves discernment, but not cynicism or being a conspiracy theorist. First, we shouldn’t be skeptical of everything, because doing so wastes time and energy. We should only be skeptical about what’s important. We could get lost in a rabbit hole looking at restaurant reviews not only on Opentable, but also Google and other platforms, and not only look at the star ratings but read the comments and study which are the most recent. But, eating at a slightly better restaurant would likely have a small effect on your life. Second, research is only valuable when the main objectives are measurable, and thus ripe for analysis. Few parents choose between football and rugby for their kids based on which leads to the best health outcomes or instills the best character - instead, they may base it on which sport their kids love the most, what their friends are doing, and which has the most convenient schedule. But third, where something is important, such as the effect of alcohol on your health, breastfeeding on child development, or sustainability on investment returns, to study it very carefully and take the quality of data very seriously.

Q13) Finally, has writing this book changed how you read the news, research papers, or even academic work? Are there things you now consciously avoid believing too quickly?

Alex: I try to challenge everything I write. For May Contain Lies, several literary agents offered me representation, and the one I went with was the one who was most critical about my proposal, as I thought he would have greatest potential to improve it. I’m now writing another book, The Madness of Markets, on the psychology of finance, and sending it round to people I trust to ask them to criticise it. Now with ChatGPT, I can use AI to poke holes in what I write. This extends beyond books or research papers; I often use it to scrutinize a draft email on a sensitive issue to ensure that it’s not misinterpreted, or an email that I’ve received to ensure I’m not reacting to it in an emotional way.

Thank you all for reading and a big thanks to Alex Edmans for collaborating in today’s post!

It’s a pleasure!

Readers who wish to follow Alex Edmans’s work more closely can visit his website for books and essays, consult his Google Scholar profile for academic research, or follow his writing and commentary on LinkedIn, Instagram, and X. An overview of his career is also available on Wikipedia.

Website: https://alexedmans.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aedmans/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aedmans/

X: https://x.com/aedmans

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Edmans

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_UHUfFsAAAAJ&hl=en

Not the franchise - of course it could. The theme parks, the merchandise, the discourse, the adaptations stacked neatly into content calendars. But the experience? The private, almost sacred act of reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone - before the internet told us how to feel about it?

That feels harder to recreate.

When I first read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, there was no social media to archive the moment. No fandom wars. No algorithms amplifying hot takes before the last page was turned. Reading was slow, solitary, and deeply personal. You didn’t consume stories; you lived inside them.

And maybe that’s why, rereading the first book now - in my thirties - it doesn’t feel dated. It feels preserved.

The opening chapters remain quietly brutal. Before magic, Rowling gives us neglect. Harry Potter is not introduced as “the boy who lived,” but as a child who survives emotional erasure. The cupboard under the stairs is not metaphorical; it is literal. His relatives do not hate him dramatically; they inconvenience him into invisibility. It’s mundane cruelty, the kind that doesn’t leave marks but shapes a person forever.

This grounding is important. J. K. Rowling understood something that many fantasy writers miss: wonder only works if the ordinary world is unbearably small. Hogwarts dazzles because Privet Drive suffocates.

So, when Hagrid arrives and says, “You’re a wizard, Harry,” the line doesn’t feel triumphant. It feels corrective. Someone is finally telling Harry that his life makes sense. That what he endured was not meaningless. That his difference is not a flaw.

The magic of the first book is not spectacle-driven. Diagon Alley doesn’t explode into view; it reveals itself slowly. Platform Nine and Three-Quarters requires blind faith - running straight at a wall with a trolley, hoping reality bends. Hogwarts itself isn’t utopia; it’s structure. Classes. Homework. Authority. Consequences. In hindsight, that may be why it resonated so deeply. Hogwarts isn’t freedom - it’s care.

As children, we read Hogwarts as escape. As adults, we recognize it as something rarer: a functioning system where curiosity is rewarded and adults - however flawed - are present. Even Snape’s cruelty, McGonagall’s strictness, Dumbledore’s distance exist within a framework that protects children. That, now, feels almost fantastical.

What hits hardest on rereading are the quiet moments - the ones that didn’t make it into merch lines or memes.

The Sorting Hat scene is less about houses and more about fear: the fear of being placed somewhere you don’t belong. The friendship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione isn’t forged through heroics, but through shared awkwardness and rule-breaking - bathroom trolls, lost house points, detentions. It’s clumsy, organic friendship, the kind that forms before you know who you’ll become.

And then there is the Mirror of Erised.

“It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts.”

As children, the mirror was sad. As adults, it is devastating. Harry doesn’t see power. He doesn’t see glory. He sees his parents. The first book understands grief long before the series becomes about death. And Dumbledore’s warning - “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live”- lands differently now, in an era where longing is constantly monetized.

Even Voldemort, barely present, feels appropriate. In the first book, evil is unfinished, spectral, undefined. The real antagonist is loneliness. The real victory is belonging.

The film adaptation- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone - gave us something precious: a shared visual language. The floating candles. The Great Hall. John Williams’ score wrapping childhood in sound. The movie didn’t betray the book; it translated it. But translation always costs something. Cinema rushes where books linger. It shows magic, but it cannot sit inside thought the way prose can.

Which brings us to the upcoming Harry Potter TV series - a project greeted not with pure excitement, but with cautious longing.

What readers want now isn’t spectacle. We’ve had that. What they want is texture. Slowness. The parts the movies skimmed over: ordinary classes, long meals, awkward silences, the emotional weather of childhood. A series format has the potential to restore what the first book valued most: time.

Expectations, of course, are impossibly high. Everyone carries their own Hogwarts. Everyone remembers the book differently because we met it at different ages, in different silences. Nostalgia is not just memory - it’s identity.

But perhaps the success of a new adaptation shouldn’t be judged by how closely it recreates our childhoods. Perhaps it should be judged by whether it remembers the first book’s central truth:

That magic doesn’t shout.

That belonging is revolutionary.

That being seen can change a life.

Reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone now, in an age of endless commentary, feels like returning to a version of ourselves who read without posting, believed without irony, and waited without refreshing a screen.

Before the algorithm found us, there was a boy in a cupboard who learned - slowly, gently - that the world could be bigger.

That promise still holds.

Tanay Sukumar is the Editor (Data) and Head of Subscriber Experience at Mint, where he leads the publication’s data journalism vertical and oversees its digital growth strategy from an editorial perspective. A journalist who specializes in data-driven storytelling and editorial product strategy, Tanay’s journey into journalism has been anything but conventional.

His career began in 2009, when he created an award-winning satirical news website while still in college - an early sign of his knack for combining wit, clarity, and digital storytelling. After spending two years teaching at a Delhi municipal school, he transitioned into journalism in 2016 and has since become a key voice in India’s data journalism ecosystem.

Over the past years, Tanay has helmed standout data stories, investigations and explanatory journalism — from an original analysis of survey data covering nearly 450,000 Indians’ sleep-patterns to an in-depth unpacking of India’s long-shrouded covid-death toll.

Beyond the newsroom, he is passionate about promoting data literacy and demystifying numbers for journalists, students, and general readers through workshops and public engagements. His work embodies a rare blend of editorial instinct, analytical rigor, and audience understanding - qualities that continue to shape how Indian journalism interprets and presents data today.

In this Q&A, we explore his approach to storytelling with data, the challenges of sourcing and interpreting Indian datasets, and how he sees the future of data journalism in a rapidly evolving media-economy landscape.

Excerpts from the Interview:

Q1) You’ve used data to challenge official narratives - for example, in your work on India’s poverty estimation and electoral bonds. What responsibility do data journalists bear in questioning ‘official truth’?

Tanay: Our role is to ensure that citizens have the full and the most accurate information in a timely manner to be able to make their own judgement. Data journalists often do this by looking into how correct an official narrative is when weighed against the available statistical evidence. All this may align with the ‘official’ narrative, it may not.

The task of communicating data has some peculiar needs, mostly because the public understanding of numbers is limited. And usually, to be able to truly understand something, you may need to first understand the story behind the data, rather than the numbers themselves.

Remember, a lot of it is not black-and-white; it’s not always possible to capture such a large country in numbers. The data journalist’s task often is to communicate that nuance, so that citizens know it isn’t as straightforward to claim success or failure. In fact, many people think that data has the last word in a debate, but the reality is that when explained sufficiently, it can often leave you with the answer, “It’s complex”.

On safeguards: to avoid misinterpretation, I encourage my team to understand the source of the numbers and how they came about, rather than take any number at face value. Only when we get to the root of the data collection can we tell readers about it in a wholesome manner. There’s no better safeguard than that.

On obscured data: while unearthing that is crucial, the data that is available also needs to be held to account... A veneer of sanctity of the available data is as crucial to unmask, so that people can make the right judgement.

Q2) Your piece on the consumption expenditure survey showed how freebies in India reach those who need them most, yet inequality remains severe. How do you weigh data that shows policy effectiveness against broader structural gaps?

Tanay: Broadly, I believe most data-based findings need to be accompanied with qualitative research and reporting to be able to make sense of it. It’s possible that the data is being misinterpreted or that it doesn’t show the full picture and more data is still needed. Anecdotal evidence and human interest reporting cannot be dismissed. Like all journalists, we speak with experts to stitch together the story beyond numbers.

Q3) Do you believe numbers can truly capture the texture of inequality in a society like India’s - one marked by caste, class, gender, and rural-urban divides? Where does data succeed, and where does it fall short?

Tanay: Quantitative and qualitative reporting go hand-in-hand. Data stories can only help put numbers to a problem: that too, the best available numbers. If there’s no on-ground well-rounded reporting, human faces, and expert insights to fall back on, data will be cold, inhuman, and stripped of reality. But in the same way, on-ground reporting without having any data to show the extent of a problem is also incomplete. Good longform journalists always use numbers for this purpose. Good data journalists should recognize the inadequacy of a pure data story or data visualization. Good news brands try to offer their readers both.

Q4) The charts in Plain Facts are elegant yet precise. What does your visual editing process look like - from selecting chart types to communicating uncertainty? How do you ensure visuals carry as much editorial weight as the text?

Tanay: We don’t visualize to show off our visualization skills or creativity or artwork, we only want to communicate a trend or a story in the simplest possible way. That’s why most of our charts are simplistic bar charts or line charts.

When our data journalists work on their story, they identify the biggest data trends they want the reader to know about. The process to decide a chart type can be an iterative process: sometimes, we do one step, then we feel we can make it one level simpler, then another, and so on. Simplicity of communication is what guides that entire process.

However, that also means generally we don’t communicate uncertainty in visuals the way academics would (I’m assuming you’re talking about confidence intervals): journalistic charts usually don’t intend to delve into that aspect of data, in favor of simplicity. We try to undertake that aspect through our storytelling/reporting outside of the charts.

How much weight visuals carry vis-a-vis the text varies by story. For some stories, charts are nearly as important; sometimes, they are just an accompaniment. We decide based on the topic.

Example: in a story about how travel trends to Turkey and Azerbaijan changed during Operation Sindoor, the charts are as important as the text, but in a story making a larger argument about say, GST rate slabs, the charts may have a supporting role in a data-driven analysis piece.

Q5) What have been some of the most counterintuitive or surprising reactions you’ve received from readers on your visual or data-driven stories? Have any of these shaped how you approach future work?

Tanay: I’ll give two examples. Once, in 2020, I did an analysis of what people were reading on non-English Wikipedia websites in India. I found that while the Marathi Wikipedia had the highest pageviews for articles about cultural icons, the Bhojpuri Wikipedia had articles about sex and sexuality on top. This was fascinating for many readers and generated a lot of interest on social media.

The second one isn’t actually an example of a counter-intuitive or surprising reaction: our stories on the gender aspect of Time Use Survey have got an overwhelming response from Indian women, whose daily experiences got validated when the data showed how starkly marriage was impacting women’s lives fundamentally in terms of their day-to-day routine, but wasn’t making a dent for men. This was also the case when we wrote about women’s sleep debt/sleeplessness using the same survey.

Here’s a fun fact about data-driven stories: while news stories are striking normally because they surprise or shock you, data journalism has the potential to not just surprise (through counter-intuitive findings) but also validate (by quantifying something you always knew or felt but didn’t have the evidence for).

Both kinds of examples exist and keep us going.

Q6) As Head of Subscriber Experience, you operate at the intersection of editorial and product. How do you balance what readers want with what they need to know, especially when working with dense or data-heavy topics?

How do you think about building long-term reader trust in a data column? What patterns or feedback loops have helped you understand what resonates and what doesn’t in the subscriber base?

Tanay: Normally high-quality, rigorous, well-researched work may look like a ‘need’ and not a ‘want’. But editors and journalists have the duty to present complex stuff in compelling ways, so that a ‘need’ that was not a ‘want’ earlier becomes one. Readers’ preferred formats and their attention span may have changed over time, but our data shows that there is a significant market for deeper stuff as well.

Our data column is actually one such section, where we use charts to draw in the uninitiated reader as well, and over time build a bond with them. We also take an explanatory and storytelling approach to break down complex topics without dumbing them down.

Q7) Electoral bond data has been a minefield for transparency and accountability. As a journalist navigating this terrain, how do you maintain distance and neutrality while covering politically charged datasets?

Tanay: While I said that data may not always offer the full picture, it’s also true that arguments related to data are also more foolproof than qualitative arguments and one’s personal “hunch”. Even when you comment on the incompleteness or flaws with an official dataset, you’ll be using arguments rooted in statistical best practices. The idea, therefore, is to simply do that to the best of our ability, and share with our readers what we find, while explaining caveats. It’s difficult to comment on a politically charged argument of a qualitative nature, but when data is on your side and you present it responsibly, it’s undeniable.

Q8) What’s your take on the growing public skepticism toward data - especially official or state-released data? Can journalism still play a role in restoring some faith in the value of public statistics?

Tanay: Public skepticism towards data is a good thing and indicates a society that is maturing when it comes to numbers in public life. The civil society should be able to question numbers and demand improvements, just like for any other public good—regardless of who is in power and how well-intentioned they are. That’s how a society grows, right?

That said, blind distrust may also be harmful, and that, too, betrays a lack of understanding of the complexity and limitation of numbers. It’s become increasingly fashionable to say that you cannot trust government data at all, or that the government is fudging data. Good knowledge of the data (journalists and academics have a duty to build that in society) can empower us to question the methodology, seek improvements there, and know the caveats that current data collection methods come with—as opposed to, say, casting blind aspersions. India has a strong legacy of public statistics, and it’s not as easy to fudge large-scale national data as we may think.

Journalism has a role to play in using the best available data to show the best available picture of the world around us, with the right disclaimers and context.

Q9) Could you tell us a bit about your journey into journalism and data storytelling? Was there a specific moment - or a story - that made you realize this is what you wanted to do?

Tanay: When I was studying journalism in 2015, I realized at some point that field reporting was not my thing. But I did know that I loved numbers a lot; had always done. I also loved writing. That’s where it started. I wrote multiple data stories early on while still in college, and Samar Halarnkar, then editor of IndiaSpend, was generous enough to accept them for publishing. Full-time data journalism teams in India were still rare then and it wasn’t until 2020 that I joined Mint for this role.

To answer your question, there was no specific moment – unless you count that day in J-school when I did not have a story ready for our weekly newspaper edition, and I did a fun data story on how often Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi mentioned each other on their Twitter posts! The story looked at what kind of contexts they mentioned each other in. (It was an unequal relationship, I found!) I think that might have been the day I found the intersection of data and storytelling to be my calling.

Q10) Were there any formative influences - books, mentors, publications- that shaped your editorial and analytical sensibilities early on?

Tanay: Once I became a full-time data journalist in 2020, I began reading books related to statistics and data voraciously. I knew I was good at numbers, but I wanted to understand their use in the larger context of economy, society, and the news. Books like Tim Harford’s How To Make The World Add Up and Charles Wheelan’s Naked Statistics have been an important part of this journey. Rukmini S’s Whole Numbers and Half Truths helped me understand more about numbers in an Indian context. And of course, at workplace, I was lucky to be guided by Pramit Bhattacharya, a Mint veteran and one of India’s most respected data journalists.

Q11) What does a typical week look like for you at Mint? Between ideation, number crunching, visualization, and editorial review - how do you manage the multiple hats data editors must wear today?

If you were building a data journalism curriculum from scratch, what three foundational skills or sensibilities would you insist on teaching young journalists today?

Tanay: First and foremost, a “data for journalists” curriculum is more important than “data journalism”. All journalists need to be able to be data-literate. Data journalism is a special, advanced variant. Unfortunately, media curricula in India have reached that stage without adequately addressing the first one. In some cases, all students in a batch are being asked to work on ambitious and complex data journalism projects (which isn’t a reality or a requirement in most newsrooms), without a basic grounding in data (which is essential in any journalistic role), simply because data journalism is a buzzword.

The three foundational skills:

1) Quantitative aptitude, attitude, and accuracy,

2) Storytelling skills – either visual or text, to make your data work palatable, and also because there are too many data analysts but very few genuine storytellers who can find valuable trends and also weave stories around them, and

3) The ability to go on data fishing expeditions, to explore little-known, interesting data sources without a goal in mind.

Thank you all for reading and a big thanks to Tanay Sukumar for collaborating in today’s post!

It’s a pleasure!

Mint: https://www.livemint.com/authors/tanay-sukumar

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanaysukumar/

X: https://x.com/tanaysukumar

Prashant studied law at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore and went on to complete his LL.M. in Law, Science, and Technology at Stanford Law School. His professional journey spans both legal practice and academia, having worked at prominent law firms in Delhi as well as teaching and researching at institutions such as the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) and the School of Law at Singapore Management University, where he is currently a Yong Pung How Research Associate at ARCIALA. He is the co-author of Create, Copy, Disrupt: India’s Intellectual Property Dilemmas (Oxford University Press), a widely acclaimed book examining India’s IP regime through landmark cases, and The Truth Pill: The Myth of Drug Regulation in India (Simon & Schuster), co-written with public health activist Dinesh S. Thakur.

Chitrakshi studied law at NALSAR and pursued postgraduate studies in political science and law & governance at the University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her research interests center on access to justice, public institutions, and judicial reform. She has worked with leading civil society organizations and think tanks, including as a Research Fellow at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. Her work involves evaluating the functioning of India’s lower judiciary and proposing reform measures, with a strong focus on data transparency and institutional accountability.

Together, they’ve produced a work that blends investigative storytelling with institutional critique. Tareekh Pe Justice is not just an account of systemic failure - it is a mirror to the silent despair of litigants, the weight on overburdened judges, and a bureaucracy often out of step with the very idea of justice.

I spoke to Prashant and Chitrakshi about the making of Tareekh Pe Justice, the systemic questions it raises, and the ethical dilemmas that surfaced in the course of documenting these legal journeys. What follows is a layered and reflective conversation - one that moves between questions of justice in India today, the evolving role of the legal reporter, and the lived realities that often remain obscured behind the black-letter law.

Excerpts from the Interview:

Q1) What drew both of you to focus on district courts - a space often overlooked in conversations around legal reform - and how did this idea evolve into a full-length book?

Prashant & Chitrakshi: In 2019, we were colleagues at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, working together on the issue of judicial reforms. It was then that we began examining the functioning of district courts. The reason for focusing on these courts is simple: the bulk of litigation in India takes place at the district level. Most cases never make it to the High Courts. When it comes to individual liberty, district courts are the first line of defence against illegal arrests by the police. They are, therefore, critical to upholding the rule of law in India.

As we delved deeper, we discovered that very little had been written about how these courts actually function. And what did exist was largely in the form of academic articles or policy reports - written primarily for academic or expert audiences. We felt that a full-length book, written in accessible language, could bring the workings of the district courts to a broader audience, especially everyday Indians who interact with these institutions the most.

Q2) As co-authors, how did you collaborate on this project? Was there a natural division of research, writing, or interviews based on your individual strengths and experiences?

Prashant & Chitrakshi : Chitrakshi did much of the initial spade work by filing applications under the Right to Information Act. This was a long and arduous process, given the reluctance of the courts to share the information we had requested. We divided the rest of the research and writing based on our individual interests. Since we were located in different cities, we had regular - almost daily - phone calls to discuss our progress.

Q3) The book presents compelling and often disturbing stories of district judges punished for simply doing their jobs. Was there a particular story that deeply moved or disturbed you while researching - something that continues to stay with you?

Prashant & Chitrakshi: The case of Judge Jayshree Chamanlal Buddhbhatti was particularly shocking. She was a probationary judge who was dismissed under very unfair circumstances. Her case exposed the deep-seated misogyny within the Gujarat judiciary. Fortunately, on judicial review, both the Gujarat High Court and the Supreme Court ruled in her favor and ensured that she was reinstated as a judge. Her story is a stark reminder of how far we still have to go to make the judiciary more inclusive and welcoming for women entering the profession.

Another troubling case was that of retired District Judge Ganesan from Tamil Nadu, who lost his job after granting bail - despite the High Court itself admitting there was no “direct evidence” of bribery. Cases like his shed light on why many judges are increasingly hesitant to grant bail today, prompting litigants to flood higher courts with bail petitions. This systemic reluctance has a direct impact on the personal liberty of Indian citizens and contributes significantly to the overcrowding of Indian prisons.

Q4) In centering the narrative on district court judges - the ‘foot soldiers of justice’ - you challenge a decades-long tendency to glorify only higher judiciary decisions. Was it difficult to get these stories, given how invisible these voices often are?

Prashant & Chitrakshi: Yes, it was difficult to gather these stories because it is generally hard to access district court judges and have them speak candidly. Additionally, since the High Courts rarely provide information under the RTI Act, accessing official records of inquiries conducted against district court judges is particularly challenging. We therefore decided to source our stories from judgments delivered in cases where the High Courts or the Supreme Court had to rule on the legality of disciplinary action against district judges. These judgments often contained detailed facts leading up to the disciplinary proceedings. By combining these judgments with reports published in the press, we were able to piece together and document the stories of these district court judges.

Q5) You critique the current judge evaluation system for reducing justice to a numbers game. What specific changes would you propose for a more holistic, qualitative assessment of judges?

Prashant & Chitrakshi: The current system of judicial evaluation is a numbers game, which ends up incentivizing the disposal of the easiest cases, while more complex and ‘risky’ cases are pushed to the back of the queue. Additionally, the ‘supervising judge’ who fills out the Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) holds overwhelming power to make adverse entries - comments that can significantly impact a judge’s career progression. This undermines the ‘decisional independence’ of district judges and makes them vulnerable to pressure from the supervising judge. A more balanced approach to performance assessment would involve confidential feedback from members of the bar and litigants. Such a mechanism would create a meaningful feedback loop for judges and help them identify areas for improvement in their judicial conduct.

Q6) One of your sharpest insights is on how routine judge transfers disrupt case progress and justice delivery. What kind of transfer policy reform would better balance efficiency with continuity?

Prashant & Chitrakshi: Our simple suggestion is to eliminate the transfer of judges. In its current form, the transfer policy results in cases being shuffled between the dockets of different judges, causing significant disruption to their progress. This makes it difficult to fix accountability for delays in case resolution. Ending transfers would make it easier to hold judges accountable for such delays and would also empower them to implement long-term reforms in the administrative functioning of their courts. Additionally, doing away with transfers would improve the quality of justice by ensuring that an entire trial is conducted before the same judge, rather than being fragmented across multiple judges - as is often the case today.

Q7) Your book exposes troubling flaws in the way judicial statistics are compiled and presented - especially inflated pendency and disposal figures. What impact does this statistical opacity have on policy and public perception?

Prashant & Chitrakshi: The judiciary cannot plan for its future needs unless it has accurate data on pendency and disposal of cases. As we argue in the book, the statistics displayed on the website of the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) are not credible. Without accurate data - especially on the judicial time spent on different case types - we have no real way to formulate standards for determining when a case has been ‘delayed’. An exaggerated picture of pending cases leads to distortions in how policymakers plan for the judiciary. The lack of reliable statistics also makes it impossible to fix accountability for delays. The end result of this statistical opacity is a distorted understanding for all stakeholders, leading to a poorly informed conversation about the solutions needed to address judicial delays.

Q8) You challenge the prevailing notion that trial court judges tend to be overly conservative in their rulings. Do you think the higher judiciary and legal academia unfairly frame their decisions without understanding the pressures they face?

Prashant & Chitrakshi: Actually, we don’t challenge the notion that district courts are overly conservative - we simply explain that these judges are likely to be risk-averse if the disciplinary mechanism is unfair and they are constantly worried about being investigated for their decisions. Would such unfair disciplinary inquiries also translate into judges being overly conservative in how they approach their work? The answer to that question is, most likely, yes.

Q9) You’ve written about under-utilization of budgetary allocations and poor court infrastructure. In your view, why do these funds fail to reach the district courts meaningfully? Where is the bottleneck?

Prashant & Chitrakshi: The underutilisation of funds is a problem common to most areas of public spending in the country, and not just the budgets allocated for courts. In the case of central grants meant for district courts, the issue lies in the fact that spending priorities are decided centrally - by the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Finance Commission, or the E-Committee of the Supreme Court of India.

Often, the priorities identified by these authorities are irrelevant to the actual needs of court functioning. For instance, the XIII Finance Commission allocated ₹5,000 crore for improving justice delivery, but most of it remained unutilised by the states because the funds could only be spent on pre-decided items such as establishing morning and evening courts, or preserving heritage court buildings. The states, quite rightly, viewed many of these as meaningless pursuits and chose not to spend the money. The core bottleneck, therefore, is the excessive centralisation in setting spending priorities for the judiciary. What we need is far greater decentralisation in how these priorities are determined.

Q10) The book makes a strong case for restoring the sanctity of procedural law, especially in criminal justice. What are the long-term consequences of weakening these procedural safeguards - not just for judges, but for citizens?

Prashant & Chitrakshi: Procedure is meant to constrain the discretion given to judges, thereby ensuring greater uniformity in how different litigants are treated. The consequence of weakening procedures is an increase in judicial discretion, which can ultimately disadvantage citizens. We argue for the restoration of procedural and evidentiary safeguards in all civil and criminal cases. This is an unpopular argument in India today, where procedural and evidentiary rules are often blamed as the primary cause of judicial delays. We argue that this perception is misguided and highlight the dangers of operating without such rules. In particular, the absence of clear procedures creates opportunities for judicial overreach and abuse of discretion.

For example, the Supreme Court has used Public Interest Litigation (PIL) - which follows no established rules of procedure or evidence—to intervene in matters of governance, often with disastrous consequences for stakeholders who were never heard during the adjudication process. Consider how PILs have been used to demolish slums or mandate a transition to natural gas vehicles, all without consulting the affected communities. Anuj Bhuwania’s book Courting the People documents several such cases. The adverse outcomes for certain classes of citizens were a direct result of PILs sidestepping procedural and evidentiary safeguards. In the long term, this trend threatens the trust and legitimacy that citizens place in judicial institutions and the rule of law.

Q11) Your discussion on reviving jury trials is especially provocative. Why do you think this idea - dismissed by many as unviable in India - deserves serious reconsideration?

Prashant & Chitrakshi: In our opinion, the current judicial system is facing a crisis of legitimacy. Reintroducing juries can help restore that legitimacy by allowing citizens to participate meaningfully in the courtroom. This, in turn, may increase public respect for the rule of law, the judiciary as an institution, and civil liberties more broadly. Other countries have taken a similar route when faced with a legitimacy crisis. For instance, South Korea and Japan adopted jury systems in 2008 and 2009, respectively, to improve the credibility of their criminal justice systems, as citizens were not convinced of their impartiality - especially in cases involving societal elites. Arguably, India appears to be in the midst of a similar crisis.

Moreover, involving ordinary citizens in adjudication as a collective serves as a safeguard against the potential cynicism or bias of individual judges.

Beyond the legitimacy crisis, the jury system also acts as a deterrent to judicial corruption. Juries provide a form of double security, making it significantly harder to bribe both a judge and a sufficient number of jurors. Lastly, it is important to remember that India once had a jury system - until legal elites successfully lobbied to abolish it in the post-independence period.

Q12) You question the widely held belief that India simply needs more judges. What’s the more accurate way to frame the judicial capacity crisis - is it about quantity, deployment, or something else entirely?

Prashant & Chitrakshi: We tackle the question of judicial capacity in the second part of the book and explain how this issue is closely linked to the quality of our judicial statistics. The formula used to calculate the number of judges required should be based on an accurate measure of the time judges spend on different types of cases. At present, the judicial data grid does not collect or publish such data.

There is also a political economy dimension to this issue, as litigation rates are shaped by various societal factors - including levels of economic activity. For instance, while Bihar has a larger population than Delhi, it sees only a fraction of the commercial litigation that occurs in the capital. Therefore, litigation rates and the nature of cases, not merely the population size of a state, should inform the calculation of judicial strength.

The interventionist approach of the Supreme Court has further muddied the waters regarding the appropriate formula for determining judge strength. The Court has altered its stance multiple times since 2017, prescribing different calculation methods. These decisions are best made at the level of state governments and High Courts.

Q13) As authors who’ve deeply researched the trial judiciary, how do you see the role of journalists, civil society, and law schools in keeping the district courts accountable, supported, and visible in the national discourse?

Prashant & Chitrakshi: Younger civil society organizations show some promise and have, at the very least, ensured that issues related to judges, the functioning of courts, and judicial productivity are receiving public attention. It remains to be seen, however, how effectively their ideas will translate into meaningful judicial reforms. Much will depend on the nature of the philanthropy supporting these organizations.

There are also a few young, dedicated journalists covering courts and judges with greater fearlessness, which is an encouraging sign. Hopefully, their tribe will grow.

The involvement of national law universities in judicial reform has been less encouraging. As we explain in the book, it is difficult for legal scholars at these institutions to be openly critical of the judicial establishment, given that the governing councils of most national law universities are populated by sitting judges of High Courts and the Supreme Court. Perhaps, in the future, the upcoming private universities will play a more significant role in driving reform.

Q14) The judiciary has long lacked a culture of institutional self-reflection. Do you think a book like Tareekh Pe Justice can help spark a more honest, ground-up conversation about systemic accountability?

Prashant & Chitrakshi: At the risk of sounding immodest - yes. Independent research conducted outside the academy offers certain advantages. It can be more honest, as it isn't dependent on patronage from the judicial establishment in any form. Additionally, the book is written to be accessible to a broad audience, so hopefully, it will reach more readers.

Q15) Finally, if each of you had the power to implement just one reform immediately - something politically possible yet transformative - what would it be?

Prashant & Chitrakshi: We would immediately pass a law mandating transparency at the level of the High Courts. As the saying goes, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” Such a transparency law would require High Courts to publish annual statistical information, as well as the minutes of all meetings and proceedings conducted by their disciplinary and administrative committees. This level of transparency would encourage self-correction within the institution while also inspiring a more informed conversation around future reforms.

There are no silver bullets when it comes to judicial reform - a range of changes will be necessary for the judiciary to function more effectively. Greater transparency will help us make more informed decisions on how to bring about that reform.

Thank you all for reading and a big thanks to Prashant and Chitrakshi, for collaborating in today’s post!

Today, as I reconnect with Shalaka, her story has grown into something even more inspiring - a beautiful tapestry of creativity, resilience, and a relentless drive to build narratives that move people and brands alike.

Born in India’s orange city, Nagpur, and now finding inspiration under Bangalore’s purple skyline, Shalaka describes herself as "a whirlwind of crazy chaos, a dialogue in the digital world, and the first ray of the sun." And indeed, her journey reflects just that — an ever-evolving dialogue between her many roles: award-winning flash fiction author, TEDx speaker, global brand marketer, and now, Founder & Chief Wordsmith of her own creative consultancy, Write Click.

Armed with a bachelor’s in electrical engineering, a master’s in marketing, and an advanced specialization in Neuromarketing, Shalaka has worked with an enviable list of global brands including McDonald’s, Salesforce, HPE, Hindustan Unilever, VMWare, Kantar, Brillio, Microland, and Angel One, where she last led Employer Branding and Communications before choosing to embark on her independent journey.

Her contributions have earned her several prestigious recognitions, including Women Disruptors 2021, Corporate Comms & PR 30 under 30 (2022), and the Alumni Pride Award from Welingkar Institute of Management. She was also invited by Sahitya Akademi, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, last year to speak on the evolving landscape of flash fiction in India.But beyond awards and accolades, what makes Shalaka’s story remarkable is her deep-rooted belief in the power of storytelling and giving back. Whether it's working with underserved communities, cancer patients, and acid attack survivors, or speaking at leading platforms like Jaipur Literature Festival, Bangalore Lit Fest, Kalinga Lit Fest, and universities like Christ University and Symbiosis, she continues to inspire and be inspired by stories around her.

But beyond her corporate achievements, what stands out is her deep connection with writing - a craft she nurtured since she was eight. Her book Orenda found not only commercial and critical success but was also chosen as a subject of academic study for a final year MA dissertation in English Literature - a rare feat for a debut author.

Now, Shalaka is all set to add another exciting chapter to her literary journey with her forthcoming book, "Tadow." While details remain under wraps, knowing Shalaka’s ability to blend emotion, insight, and sharp observation, Tadow promises to be another stirring exploration of the human experience.

As we reconnect, I’m excited to delve deeper into what drives her creative process, what readers can expect from Tadow, and how she continues to balance the many facets of her life — as an author, entrepreneur, marketer, and, above all, a storyteller.

Excerpts from the Interview:

Q1) Tadow is inspired by the song by FKJ and Masego, which captures the inexplicable synchronicity of human experiences. How does this concept translate into your storytelling?

Shalaka: Tadow is a feeling, a rhythm, an exhale. Life is rarely linear. We stumble into moments, people, and emotions that feel like they were meant to happen, even if they weren’t planned. That inexplicable synchronicity is what Tadow captures.

Each story in the collection is born from a random set of five words given to me by friends, acquaintances, and even strangers. There was no way to predict what would come my way, yet somehow, each prompt unravelled a narrative that felt like it was waiting to be told.

The last story of the book is titled Tadow, it is about how I came across that song, and why it means so much to me. I have a Tadow tattoo on my right wrist too.

Q2) Each story in Tadow is shaped by five random words provided by contributors. How did this creative constraint influence your writing process, and were there any words that particularly challenged you?

Shalaka: Well, both a playground and a puzzle. It took 3.5 years to write the book. I took a leap from what I used to do during my MBA days. Had over 160 entries. Instead of starting with a pre-planned arc or a character in mind, I had to let these words lead me, often into unexpected emotional terrains.

Some of the words led me to observe things around me, that usually go unnoticed. And maybe hence, I could peel the layers of the society.

Q3) Your stories tackle deeply personal and societal issues—autism, dyslexia, LGBT rights, child abuse, and more. Was there a particular story that was hardest to write?

Shalaka: Brahmanda. It is about autism. One of the first few stories I have written. I went with my vivid imagination, and it was emotionally challenging. I did weep while writing it.

Q4) The book celebrates collaboration and collective imagination. Did any of the prompts lead you to an unexpected or surprising narrative direction?

Shalaka: Oh, all the prompts led me somewhere unexpected! That’s the beauty of surrendering to restrictions is that you never know what’s coming, but you trust that something brilliant will unfold.

The prompts were catalysts, forced me to step outside my natural storytelling instincts and into narratives I didn’t even know I had in me. That’s what made Tadow so exhilarating to write.

Q5) Tadow explores modern India’s cultural and emotional landscape. Were there any specific lived experiences or observations that inspired the book’s themes?

Shalaka: Art is always inspired, so yes, a bunch of stories are ink-spired from everyday observations.

Q6) The book ends with a personal story entitled Tadow. Without giving too much away, can you share why you chose to conclude the collection with that story?

Shalaka: Tadow is the only story in the collection where I knew the ending before I began writing it. It’s about two farewells. One I had time to prepare for, the other left me reeling. And amid that emotional whirlwind, I decided that my next book (this book) would be called Tadow.

It felt right to end the collection with that story because Tadow itself is about fleeting moments, about the way life syncs up in ways we can’t always explain. This story is the heart of that realisation. It’s personal, raw, and a reminder that some goodbyes shape us in ways we never see coming.

Q7) You have a background in marketing and neuromarketing. Did your expertise in consumer psychology influence the way you structured or crafted these narratives?

Shalaka: It is usually the case that my writing and perspectives help me market brands better. I observe and think a lot, I guess. Writing is thinking, and I love to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. Understanding human emotions, behavioural triggers, and the power of storytelling has been invaluable, whether in fiction or in shaping a brand’s voice.

Q8) Flash fiction demands brevity and impact. What drew you to this format, and how do you ensure emotional depth in such short pieces?

Shalaka: I’ve been writing flash fiction longer than I even realized. Brevity has always been second nature to me. I’ve been breathing the "brevity is the soul of wit" philosophy for the past 13-15 years. It all started with platforms like One Frame Stories and TTT, where I explored micro and flash storytelling.

One thing that has always guided my writing is this: I always write the ending first. Something that stirs me, something I believe will stir others. Once I have that emotional anchor, I structure the rest of the story around it, adding layers that make those few words carry the weight of something much larger.

Q9) Your professional journey spans branding, storytelling, and digital content. How has working with brands and leaders shaped your voice as a fiction writer?

Shalaka: As a storyteller, I’m a hoarder of perspectives: every brand, every leader, and every campaign has added a new lens to how I see the world. Writing, much like branding, is an ever-evolving process of learning, unlearning, and relearning.

One of my most cherished projects was working on a branding campaign around dyslexia, which deepened my understanding of neurodivergence in ways I hadn’t expected. It gave me the insight and empathy to write Selcouth in Tadow; a story about dyslexia that remains my absolute favourite. <3

Q10) Given your extensive writing career, what was different about writing Tadow compared to your previous projects?

Shalaka: The power of collaborative imagination! It pushed me to explore new perspectives, stretch my creative muscles, and write stories I may have never otherwise written.

Also, Tadow has seen a lot of life, you know!

Q11) Your MBA days inspired this creative exercise of using random words for storytelling. Do you still practice this technique, and has it influenced other aspects of your work?

Shalaka: I do. Brain exercises are a must. Including word games. I also write for NaPoWriMo and Inktober religiously every year. I have designed interesting brainstorming exercises for my workshops too – to help participants widen their perspective.

Q12) You describe yourself as a "Creative Capitalist" who builds brands. Do you see storytelling as an essential skill in business, and how does fiction writing intersect with brand building?

Shalaka: Undoubtedly. The world thrives on experiences, both vicarious and real. And storytelling is at the heart of it all. Brands curate emotions, aspirations, and identities. Fiction writing and brand building intersect in the way they both craft narratives that resonate, evoke feelings, and leave a lasting impact. Whether it’s a book or a brand, the goal is the same: to create something people connect with, remember, and keep coming back to.

Q13) Your favourite muse is Bangalore’s purple skyline, and you cherish window seats. Do places and movement play a role in your creative process?

Shalaka: Very much so. The way we think shifts with the spaces we inhabit. New places spark new perspectives. Travel is a reset button for creativity. And movement fuels my stories.

Q14) If Tadow were to be adapted into another medium—film, theatre, or an audio experience—how would you envision it?

Shalaka: Some stories are to be seen; some are to be read and felt. Some are to be re-read. Tadow is an immersive experience in itself, so if it were adapted, I’d want it to feel just as raw, evocative, and unflinching as the book. Maybe a few short films would be amazing for Orenda and Tadow both! )

Q15) What’s next for you? Are there more storytelling experiments or books in the pipeline?

Shalaka: A poetry collection next year hopefully. Followed by a non-fiction book. Let’s see. There’s so much to look forward to! Mujhe toh humesha aasaman likhna hai, aap sab ko ussey ishq samjhna hai!

Thank you all for reading and a big thanks to Shalaka Kulkarni for collaborating in today’s post!

It’s a pleasure!

As Tadow prepares to make its way into readers' hands, one thing is certain - Shalaka's words will continue to mirror the quiet synchronicities of life, urging us to pause, reflect, and feel. After all, as she believes, "People are inspired by stories, and stories are inspired by people." And it is in that beautiful cycle that her writing finds its home.

Ahlawat’s journey into design began at the prestigious National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad, where he cultivated his passion for visual storytelling. His quest for excellence led him to the Glasgow School of Art in the UK, where he pursued a master’s in graphic design, honing his craft further. His academic path included stints at Indiana-Purdue University, USA, and apprenticeships with design stalwarts at Lars Müller Publishers in Switzerland and Faber & Faber in the UK, cementing his global perspective on the art of design.

As the Head of Design at Penguin Random House India, Ahlawat played a pivotal role in shaping the visual personalities of some of the most celebrated authors of our time. His portfolio is a testament to his unparalleled ability to distill complex narratives into captivating book covers. , Ahlawat’s work consistently balanced aesthetic sensibility with cultural context. His collaborations extended beyond India to global publishing powerhouses such as Knopf Doubleday, Yale University Press, Harvard University Press, HarperCollins Australia and Faber & Faber showcasing his versatility and global appeal.

Despite his success in publishing, Ahlawat’s creative spirit has always been expansive. Currently pursuing an MA in Interior Design at the Royal College of Art in London, he continues to evolve as a multidisciplinary artist. Moreover, in his free time, he immerses himself in painting, a pursuit that reflects his deep connection to nature and his philosophy of mindfulness.

This philosophy takes center stage in his latest endeavor as an author with the book Slow is Beautiful: The Ultimate Art Journal for Mindful Living Through Nature. Published by Penguin Random House India, the book is a beautifully crafted guide that invites readers to slow down, observe, and create. Through sixty prompts paired with Ahlawat’s evocative watercolor illustrations, the book encourages introspection, creativity, and an appreciation of the natural world. More than just an art journal,

Slow is Beautiful is a call to embrace imperfection and find joy in the process of creation—a philosophy that aligns seamlessly with the mindful ethos of its creator.

As Ahlawat transitions from a designer of stories to a storyteller himself, his work continues to inspire slowing down in a world that moves too fast. In the following conversation, he delves into his creative process, the philosophy behind his book, and how his multifaceted career has shaped his artistic vision.

Excerpts from the Interview :

Q1) Slow is Beautiful is your first book that came out during Covid 2021. It still feels so relevant as it encourages mindfulness and a deeper connection with yourself through art. Can you share what inspired you to create this unique artistic experience for the audiences?

Ahlawat : Like most part of my life, it feels like an accidental book on one level and at another it feels it has been brewing in me for years. It was the first Covid lockdown when work slowed down tremendously and I found myself at our family home near Meerut. After many years of corporate hustle, this slow pace felt like a breather fresh air. It offered time to sit, reflect/introspect work, life, friends and more. With so much chaos, anxiety and sadness due to pandemic, coupled with a personal loss of a dear friend, I took respite in nature through long walks, and it felt there were hidden clues in the nature. I started to compare how nature addresses all aspects of love, life and loss and I felt very beautiful about it. There were life lessons hidden all around, but it was the slowness of the time that allowed me to form that lost bond again with nature. It offered a renewed vision. Upon returning home, I would make drawings of what I saw and write what I felt. It was all very personal and mostly in abstract sketchy forms. In one of my catchups with my publisher Meru Gokhale, I shared this and she was instantly interested. This is how it all started. We started building on it, but nowhere I thought it would turn into a book one distant day.

Slow is Beautiful is a mindful and artful conversation with nature. It invites and offers ways of seeing than ways of looking through the lens of nature. Prioritizing emotions and feelings over any formal technique, it takes an intuitive approach to slow down, to observe and absorb, in this age of visual bombardment. Through this book, I could bring in the designer, painter and author in me on the same plane. With my learnings from art and design background, I could share them in a more structured and narrative form with the world to discover.

I'm not surprised that it's not relevant today, as many of us still haven't learnt our lessons from Covid and are back to square one!

Q2) In a world saturated with visual stimuli, how do you personally practice mindful seeing, and how does it influence your creative process? Could you also elaborate on how slowing down enhances our ability to observe and appreciate our surroundings?

Ahlawat: First step is the acknowledgement that there is so much visual pollution with unbearable AQI, and more than half is unnecessary (including things, friends, unnecessary worries you possess and much more). Once you have understood and taken the first step of filtration, you are now left with limited and quality stuff to focus on. With this limited focus layered with slowness, one is able to connect with oneself profoundly and deeply. Think of a moving train and a walk and just compare the visuals of the two! Don’t you see things more intently and clearly at slow pace.

This is the state where I observe every minute detail.

And I do this consistently, routinely, habitually and constantly to change my way of looking to ways of seeing. As for me, former is passive and later is active! This is oxygen/detox for me I suppose.

Q3) Letting go of familiarity is another key aspect you mentioned. Can you share an experience where observing something familiar with fresh eyes led to a surprising and delightful discovery?

Ahlawat: Familiarity can dull one’s senses, but if you observe with fresh eyes, you see power in the most mundane things. One looks harder and more intently at everything, whether it is a tree, a person, a feeling or a train journey. The long walks I mentioned during the lockdown in the nature allowed me to connect and capture surroundings afresh in small doses, just by noticing them mindfully (geometry, symmetry, patterning of the flowers, fruits, vegetables, shrubs and many unnoticed plants).

Even in relationships. We get so close to the person that it becomes difficult to see them from a distance. You tend to feel you know them inside out, but that may not be true at all.

You get the perspective!

Q4) You emphasize that there is no right or wrong way of creating art. How can individuals embrace their unique artistic voice and style, even if it does not conform to traditional norms?

Ahlawat: Absolutely!! I strongly believe we all are born with creative cells in our bodies. Some of us channelize it, some don’t. Creating art is all about finding your own visual voice, ​like your own handwriting and it will always be unique to you, and one must embrace it. ​The noise of the outer world shouldn't affect you, as everyone speaks from their own position in the world or life, informed by their respective experiences and perspectives. Who defines if realistic or abstract is better than the other! It is what it speaks to ​you most honestly and resonates deeply. There aren't any strict rules to it, apart from originality in thought and execution of it.

Q5) Many readers aspire to embark on their creative journeys. Can you offer some practical advice on how to begin, suspend judgments, and cultivate creative expression?

Ahlawat: To me, it's all about finding your visual voice. More you do, the better you understand and firmer is your ability to argue with yourself. Once you have convinced yourself, you wouldn't be looking for validation outside. Having said that, it comes after years and years of meditative practice, observing others, falling and failing to be better than yesterday, but never from ego or comparison.

Q6) You draw parallels between practicing art and learning to write. Could you elaborate on how repetition and muscle memory play a role in artistic expression?

Ahlawat: At the beginning copying helps. Think of all great Masters, even they used to copy and repeat to understand the anatomy of human body, tree, flower etc. When children learn to write, they go over and over an alphabet/number to understand the structure, an inherent skeleton before plunging into writing words. With this in mind, art is no different to me. At the end, it's neither about repetition nor copying but to sharpen your ways of observing and absorbing. And my book Slow is Beautiful exactly celebrates this phenomenon.

Q7) Creativity often involves using unconventional tools. Can you share an example of a time when you created something remarkable using unexpected materials or tools?

Ahlawat: More than unconventional tools or material, the thinking process has to be conventional with layers of courage, originality and relevance. No idea is a bad idea to start with. Cover design for Moong Over Microchip is one such fitting example here. I actually saw the paddy fields from the flight and then next day my keyboard on the desk. My mind married the two to come up with an unusual and bespoke image for the cover. As designers, it's not always about the tools and techniques, we need to be genuinely curious and interested in the world around us, as answers may lie in simple things around you. Just need a curious mind and a sharp eye!

Q8) From creating art for your journal to designing book covers at Penguin Random House is a unique journey. How do you approach the creative process differently for these two mediums?

Ahlawat: Both are extremely different to me. While creating my journal/book, I was giving visual personality to my own words and all the critique, internal dialogue felt like a monologue, for good and bad. Sometimes it felt really lonely.

But when I'm working on a cover for an author, I have a written brief to work with, with inputs from various stakeholders. Here, I'm trying to get into an author's shoes to understand their perspective on the narrative and by becoming, I'm attempting to offer visual solutions. This process includes lots of conversation with stakeholders, as you are providing design service here.

Q9) As a book cover designer, you can impact the way readers perceive a story. How do you ensure your designs do justice to the narrative and evoke the right emotions?

Ahlawat: True! Book cover is the face of the book and before you interact with an author's work, you actually interact with a cover designer's work. And that in my view, possesses such a responsibility on the book cover designer at many levels. Therefore, visually communicating the book's contents in a strong and clear way are two non-negotiable aspects for me. In doing so, if you have managed to reel in the prospective buyer or reader interest to come closer and pick the book, then it's a job done successfully. Of Course, aspects of aesthetics, saleability and handability etc. all come together in support.

A book cover designer understands that the author’s work is linear but the images on the cover are associative. The challenge is to add layers through visual intervention with type and image. That means, apart from giving a structure, a designer can control the reader to read the content in a certain way. In other words, the designer holds a remote control to direct the reader a certain way and can offer the correct message in one visual (that is the cover).

Spines of books play a pivotal role as well, and designers must pay heed to that aspect. Because of the decreasing shelf space, a month after the book is out, a retailer places it vertically on the shelf, where all one can see is the one-two inch spine. However, it should still speak to the reader. It is a modest but important component, as it can showcase the essence of the book, so one must pay great attention to the way we design the book spines.

While it’s all very thrilling to give visual personality to a book, it is also a huge responsibility on the designer's shoulder. Unlike digital design, once printed, a book will exist for decades and decades! So, one needs to be doubly sure in their design considerations.

Q10) You headed the art department at Penguin Random House India for a decade, and have worked with various international publishers, what factors do you consider when conceptualizing and designing book covers that resonate with both the author's vision and the target audience?

Ahlawat: It entirely depends on the subject matter, genre and the target audiences. This forms the primary lattice of design thinking. Some cover briefs offer the possibility of clever design solutions, through type and imagery while some need to be more immediate, more accessible in look and feel. It’s a collective call we all stakeholders take in terms of how we wish to position a book. This is also hugely informed by the tonality of the text. While the appropriateness of the overall visual (including both type and image) is paramount for me, I do strive to find a sweet spot between appropriateness and experimentation. This keeps freshness alive.

Having said that, it’s also your experience and gut to edit/filter all of that into something strikingly appropriate and intellectually elegant. My way is slow, simple and uncluttered, as already there is enough visual pollution both in typography and imaging. Both of these are art and science, and I strive for simplicity.

It’s an absolute bonus if the cover designer is an avid reader. It makes the whole process so much fun, engaging and rewarding at the end. I feel if you have read the book, your arguments, your negotiations will be far more informed and educated.

Q11) Your educational background includes studies at the prestigious National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad and a master's in graphic design from the Glasgow School of Art and now at the Royal College of Arts, London. Can you shed light on how these distinct experiences differed from each other and their significance in your journey as a book cover designer? In your opinion, how crucial is formal training or mentorship in the realm of creating book covers?

Ahlawat: I have to admit that I have been terribly fortunate to be part of these great institutions! I did my bachelor’s at the National Institute of Design in 2002 and it gave me a solid foundation in Design, an understanding what rigor is, what entails quality, confidence and above all the designerly curiosity.

I was left with a few unanswered questions (purely because of my introverted personality with no fault of NID) and wanted to scratch the design surface further and hence went on to do my master’s at The Glasgow School of Design in 2010. This was such a therapeutic experience – full of design philosophy, amazing tutors who instill courage to take risks, to fail, to fall and have the conviction in what you do. I truly feel privileged for having those experiences, and the kind of individuals I met on the journey.

While accidents are beautiful for me, I believe it’s good to know some rules of the game (if not all) to enjoy being in it. Formal education does offer design theories and principles, a trained pair of eyes, a sane head to think objectively, a heart full of courage and above all how to differentiate between design and decoration. However, it is totally up to you what you make out of them.

Q12) When embarking on the design of a book cover, could you walk us through your typical approach upon receiving a new brief? Does this creative process commence while the manuscript is still in development? Furthermore, what level of involvement do authors and editors have in shaping the cover's design?

Ahlawat: As a process, a designer receives a detailed cover brief from the editor, with inputs from Sales and the author. This brief also has all the book-related specifications (size, format PB/HB, pub month, page extent, and budget). The process for every cover varies, depending on if it’s fiction or nonfiction and the genre. As a rule for myself, I read all the fiction titles to get to the heart of the story, into the skin of the characters and then while reading, visual themes start emerging. Sometimes I start my research on the side, and sometimes after finishing the book. A lot of work happens in parallel, as while reading the manuscript, I may be going back and forth with the editor and the author. I love conversations, as it helps me align everyone’s visual vision cohesively without losing my creating soul.

There are visual suggestions for the cover from the editor, but everyone is always open to anything unusual or new. I see the merits of involving my stakeholders in the design process. I like involving my editor and author very much in the process of designing, as I’m a firm believer that Design is a collaborative process and cannot happen in isolation. Not necessarily asking for approval on colors and fonts, but to discuss and arrive at a collective vision and the central message the book should deliver. Since you are giving visual personality to an author's years of work, involving them not only feels respectful, but necessary in my view.

However, as a designer, it’s your experience and gut to edit/filter all of that into something strikingly appropriate and intellectually elegant. My way is slow, simple and uncluttered, as already there is enough visual pollution both in typography and imaging. Both of these are art and science, and one should strive for simplicity.

It’s an absolute bonus if the cover designer is an avid reader. It makes the whole process so much fun, engaging and rewarding at the end. I feel if you have read the book, your arguments, your negotiations will be far more informed and educated.

Q13) Your portfolio encompasses a diverse range of genres, from novels to historical fiction, fantasy, poetry, and anthologies of short stories. Is there a particular genre you find particularly intriguing or are keen on exploring further in your cover design work?

Ahlawat: I’m most excited about literary fiction, and historical non-fiction. As Arundhati says: A novel offers freedom, but with responsibility. Fiction allows you that extra edge to imagination, creativity, to do more. To think more. To be more.

Q14) Additionally, when commissioning covers to illustrators, can you elaborate on the collaborative nature of this process?

Ahlawat: A designer must prepare a clear illustration brief, with examples for the illustrators to push and pull from. One could have a detailed discussion with the illustrator round the brief (as I always do) and once we both are on the same page, one must request a pencil rough from the illustrator. You are walking a very fine line while commissioning an artwork (due to time, budget, expectations, revisions etc), so one must try to share the rough with the author, editor and Sales. Once everyone has approved the rough and larger vision for the final piece is sealed, a designer can give green light to the illustrator to go full throttle.

Q15) Experience and intuition are vital in the creative process. Can you describe a project where your intuition played a significant role in shaping the final design, perhaps even surprising you or the author with its outcome?

Ahlawat: Indeed. The most beautiful example that comes to my mind is a recent book by the brilliant Ranjit Hoskote the Homeland's an Ocean. Ranjit shared a beautiful miniature painting which captured the essence of the book in all objectivity. I did create the cover options using this painting but wasn't hugely convinced. He is such an amazing author to work with and so receptive to suggestions and feedback. His openness allowed me to pick the phone and share the truth with him. I offered if I could take a typographical take as I could actually see the cover in my mind's eye, and he was instantly sold. After a few exchanges, the final cover is what we all see on the shelves. Simple, appropriate and economical in its beauty and elegance! The cover feels like this jewel sitting on the bookshelves.

Q16) Lastly, can you share any upcoming projects or design philosophies you are excited about in your personal artistic endeavors?

Ahlawat: At 40, I decided to reinvent myself and have enrolled in another Masters (in Interior Design) at the Royal College of Art, London. I'm always interested in the interdisciplinary nature of design and intersections it can offer. At this point, I'm interested in exploring ways of living and doing things in sustainable ways. Therefore, looking at repurposing, reusing and reducing from a designerly lens are some of the key philosophies I'm swearing to! I have always been against consumerism and capitalism, but this time in the most urgent ways.

Thank you all for reading and a big thanks to Ahlawat Gunjan for collaborating in today’s post!

Photograph Credits: Nitesh [https://www.instagram.com/nimo_obscura/]

For those curious to delve deeper into Ahlawat Gunjan’s fascinating journey and explore the essence of his creative world, I encourage you to follow the links below. They offer a gateway to his artistry, philosophy, and the stories he brings to life.

Website: https://www.ahlawatgunjan.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ahlawat.gunjan/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahlawat-gunjan-8b866015/

Ted Talk:

In his latest book, The Journey of Humanity, Galor combines decades of research to unravel the complex forces that have shaped human progress—from technological advancements to the deep-rooted influences of evolution and culture. Through the lens of Unified Growth Theory, he tells a compelling story of how societies transformed from modest economies to the remarkable growth we’ve witnessed over the past two centuries. His work goes beyond merely documenting economic transitions; it delves into the origins of inequality and the developmental paths of nations over millennia.

Born in Israel in 1953, Galor's intellectual journey is closely linked to his personal background and academic curiosity. His early fascination with economics stemmed from a desire to understand the stark disparities in prosperity among societies. This quest led him to adopt an interdisciplinary approach, integrating insights from evolutionary biology, anthropology, and development studies to examine the roots of inequality and human advancement.

Galor’s pioneering Unified Growth Theory captures the entirety of human development, bridging prehistory and modern economic growth. His groundbreaking contributions, including the Galor–Zeira model developed in the 1990s, revolutionized economic thought by revealing how income distribution and capital market imperfections can hinder investment in human capital, thereby shaping a nation’s economic trajectory. Building on these insights, his later work investigates the interplay between population diversity, evolution, and inequality, providing a bold perspective that challenges conventional economic paradigms and reshapes our understanding of growth and disparity.

Recognized as one of the leading economists of our time , Galor’s exploration in The Journey of Humanity offers a profound account of our shared history, illustrating how humanity has evolved from crafting stone tools to influencing the climate - a remarkable narrative of resilience, ingenuity, and the relentless pursuit of growth.

Picture Credits : Peter Goldberg

Excerpts from the Interview :

Q1) What is the main objectives of your recent bestseller, The Journey of Humanity, Penguin (2022)?

Dr Galor : The Journey of Humanity delves into the origins of the dramatic rise in living standards over the past 200 years, following 300,000 years of near stagnation, and examines the roots of the vast inequality in living standards across countries and regions. It offers a revolutionary perspective on the sources of wealth and global inequality, arguing that much of the disparity among nations can be traced back to historical and pre-historical forces that have shaped societies over hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands of years.

The book contends that understanding the forces that have governed humanity's entire journey since the emergence of Homo sapiens is crucial for uncovering the foundations of wealth and inequality, as well as for formulating policies aimed at accelerating growth and reducing inequality across countries. It emphasizes that effective policies must consider the unique historical and geographical contexts of each nation, as a one-size-fits-all approach is inadequate for addressing the distinct challenges faced by different societies.

Q2) One of the mysteries you address is the sudden exponential growth in per capita incomes during the Industrial Revolution. Can you shed light on the specific mechanisms that facilitated this transformative shift, considering the interplay of technological advancements and societal changes?

Dr Galor : The Journey of Humanity suggests that for most of human history, living standards hovered near subsistence levels. From the emergence of Homo sapiens and the creation of the first stone-cutting tools, technological progress drove the growth and adaptation of the human population in response to an evolving environment. This, in turn, expanded the pool of inventors and increased the demand for innovations, fueling further technological advancements. Yet, despite these cycles of progress, one central aspect of human life remained unchanged: living conditions. While innovations temporarily boosted economic prosperity, population growth consistently pushed living standards back toward subsistence.

For millennia, the wheels of change—driven by the reinforcing interplay between technological progress and the population's size and composition—spun at an accelerating pace, with little effect on living standards. Eventually, a tipping point was reached, unleashing the rapid technological advancements of the Industrial Revolution. The rising demand for skilled, educated workers capable of navigating this new technological landscape led parents to invest more in the education of their children and to have fewer offspring. As fertility rates declined, living standards began to improve without being swiftly eroded by population growth, marking the beginning of a sustained period of increasing human prosperity that has persisted for the past two centuries.

Q3) Your research emphasizes the importance of demographic transitions, particularly the decline in birth rates, in driving technological progress. How can policymakers encourage investments in human capital to facilitate such transitions, especially in regions experiencing demographic challenges?

Dr Galor : Policymakers can encourage investments in human capital by prioritizing access to quality education, healthcare, and family planning services, which are essential for facilitating demographic transitions. In regions facing demographic challenges, such as high fertility rates, expanding educational opportunities—particularly for girls and young women—can have a significant impact on reducing birth rates and improving economic outcomes. Additionally, policies that support health initiatives, such as maternal and child healthcare, and provide access to contraception can help families make informed choices about family size. By investing in human capital, policymakers can create a virtuous cycle where lower birth rates lead to higher per capita investments in education, further driving technological progress and economic growth.

Q4) Your book touches upon the role of gender equality in economic development, particularly in the context of increased female labor participation. How can societies further promote gender parity to unlock its full potential for fostering innovation and prosperity?

Dr Galor : Beyond the importance of the moral imperative of achieving gender equality, promoting gender parity also brings significant economic benefits. Societies can unlock these advantages by addressing barriers to women's participation in the workforce and leadership roles, such as by ensuring equal access to education, providing affordable childcare, and implementing family-friendly policies such as parental leave. These measures not only empower women but also increase labor force participation, expand the talent pool, and foster diverse perspectives that drive innovation. Legal reforms to secure women's property rights and combat workplace discrimination further boost economic productivity. Thus, advancing gender equality goes beyond moral considerations; it is a sound economic policy for driving long-term prosperity. Gender parity not only boosts individual and household incomes but also strengthens the overall resilience and dynamism of economies.

Q5) You discuss the significant disparities in economic development across regions, attributing them to factors such as geography, culture, institutions, and human diversity. How do these deep-rooted factors interact to shape the economic landscape, and what implications do they hold for global prosperity?

Dr Galor : When the take-off from stagnation to growth occurred in the past few centuries, it occurred earlier in some parts of the world, triggering an immense inequality across countries. Institutional, cultural, geographical and societal characteristics that emerged in the distant past, as well as the forces of colonialism, contributed to the differential timing of this transition from stagnation to growth and to the emergence of a vast inequality in the wealth of nations.

Q6) Dr. Galor, your work highlights the importance of historical legacies in shaping contemporary economic outcomes. How can policymakers reconcile the persistence of these deep-rooted factors with the imperative to enact meaningful reforms for inclusive growth?

Dr Galor : Policymakers can address the influence of historical legacies while pursuing meaningful reforms by recognizing the lasting effects of these deep-rooted factors and taking proactive steps to mitigate their impact. This requires crafting policies that not only acknowledge structural challenges shaped by history, such as inequality and social exclusion, but also aim to dismantle the barriers that perpetuate them. Strategic investments in education, healthcare, and infrastructure can help level the playing field and promote inclusive growth, particularly in marginalized communities. Furthermore, legal and institutional reforms that enhance transparency, safeguard property rights, and tackle corruption can reduce the constraints imposed by historical legacies. By integrating an understanding of the past with forward-looking policies, policymakers can drive transformative change that promotes equitable and sustainable economic development.

Q7) The issue of population diversity and its impact on economic outcomes is intriguing. Could you discuss how varying levels of diversity influence innovation and productivity, and what strategies nations can employ to leverage diversity for economic growth?

Dr Galor : Diversity generates two opposing forces, with conflicting implications for development. On the one hand, diversity spurs cultural cross-pollination, enhances creativity and inspires openness towards new ideas, and thus fosters technological progress. On the other hand, diversity tends to diminish trust, provokes conflict, and thus hinders social cohesiveness. In this respect an intermediate level of diversity may be conducive for productivity. 

In the Middle-Ages, when technological progress was less rapid, the level of diversity most conducive to development existed among nations such as China Japan, and Korea. Evidently their relative homogeneity fostered social cohesion more than it stifled innovation and was ideal in the pre-industrial era, when technological progress was slower and the benefits of diversity therefore more limited. But as technological progress accelerated in the past centuries, the relative homogeneity of China delayed its transition to the modern era of economic growth, transferring the economic dominance to the more diverse societies of Europe and subsequently North America. 

Due to the importance of cultural fluidity in a rapidly changing technological environment, and due to the ability of the modern education system to educate for tolerance and therefore to reduce the adverse implication of diversity for social cohesiveness, the level diversity that is conducive for prosperity would be expected to increase further in future decades.

The importance of diversity for economic prosperity suggests therefore, that in homogenous societies the education system will have to be geared towards encouraging critical thinking, openness to new ideas, skepticism, and a willingness to challenge the status quo, so as to foster cultural fluidity and cross-pollination of ideas and innovations. In contrast, in heterogenous societies the education curriculum will have to foster tolerance, and common values, so as to foster social cohesiveness.

Q8) The relationship between geography and economic development is a complex one, as you've elucidated. How can nations overcome geographical constraints to foster sustainable growth, especially in regions historically disadvantaged by environmental factors?

Dr Galor : History is not a fate. The understanding the deep-rooted factors in the process of development would enable us to design effective growth enhancing policies that would mitigate the importance of geographical and societal characteristics that were formed in the distant past.  

Nations can overcome geographical constraints by investing in infrastructure, technology, and policies that mitigate the challenges posed by their environments. For regions historically disadvantaged by factors like poor soil quality, harsh climates, or landlocked locations, targeted investments in transportation networks, renewable energy, and irrigation systems can help improve connectivity and resource management. Additionally, investing in digital infrastructure can allow remote areas to access global markets and education, reducing the dependency on physical geography. Policies that encourage regional integration and trade can also help countries benefit from neighboring economies. By strategically leveraging technological innovations and regional partnerships, nations can transform geographic disadvantages into opportunities for sustainable growth and resilienc

Q9) In your exploration of the underlying theories of inequality, you emphasize the significance of cultural factors alongside institutional frameworks. How can countries navigate the delicate balance between preserving cultural identity and fostering economic progress, particularly in an increasingly interconnected world?

Dr Galor : Countries can navigate the balance between preserving cultural identity and fostering economic progress by adopting policies that respect cultural traditions while promoting inclusivity and openness to change. It is essential to recognize that cultural diversity can be a source of economic strength, as it brings varied perspectives, skills, and innovative approaches. To harness this potential, policymakers should focus on educational and social initiatives that encourage cross-cultural dialogue, collaboration, and the integration of diverse groups into the economy. At the same time, legal protections for cultural heritage can ensure that development efforts do not erode cultural identity. Embracing globalization thoughtfully—by adopting beneficial technologies and trade practices while safeguarding cultural values—can help nations achieve sustainable growth without compromising their unique cultural identities. 

Q10) Your extensive research background, including contributions to exploring the impact of deep-rooted factors on global inequality, is evident in your book. How did your experience as a researcher influence the methodology and approach you adopted in dissecting complex economic phenomena and presenting them to a broader audience in "The Journey of Humanity"?

Dr Galor : My experience as a researcher deeply influenced the methodology and approach I adopted in The Journey of Humanity, particularly in unraveling complex economic phenomena for a broader audience. The research process, which involves rigorously analyzing historical data, developing Unified Growth Theory, and testing the various elements of the theory, shaped my approach to distilling intricate ideas into accessible insights. I sought to bridge the gap between academic research and public understanding by using narrative techniques that illustrate how deep-rooted factors—such as institutions, culture, geography, and human diversity—interact to shape economic development. This approach allowed me to present a comprehensive and cohesive narrative of the journey of humanity, emphasizing both the universal forces driving growth and the unique experiences of different societies. By providing readers with a historically accurate and engaging account of the forces that have shaped our past and continue to influence our future, I aimed to offer a lens through which to understand the complex dynamics of economic progress.

Q11) In conclusion, what key message or insight do you hope readers take away, and how do you envision your work contributing to broader conversations about the trajectory of human history and the challenges we face in shaping our collective future?

Dr Galor : I hope readers derive the understanding that the trajectory of human history has been shaped by a complex interplay of forces—including institutions, culture, geography, and human diversity—that have driven both progress and inequality. By recognizing the deep-rooted factors that have influenced our past, we can better comprehend the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. I envision my work contributing to broader conversations about how we can leverage this historical perspective to foster inclusive growth, mitigate inequality, and address pressing global challenges such as climate change and social fragmentation. Ultimately, I aim to inspire a more nuanced approach to shaping our collective future, one that acknowledges the lessons of history while embracing innovation and cooperation to create a more prosperous and equitable world.

Thank you for taking the time to read, and I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Oded Galor for his invaluable collaboration in today’s post!

Image description : Oded Galor Awarded Doctor Honoris Causa from UC Louvain

If any of my readers would like to learn more about Dr. Galor and his work, I invite you to explore the links provided below. They contain essential information that I believe you will find valuable.

Website : https://www.odedgalor.com/

X : https://x.com/GalorOded

LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/oded-galor-b8a90718/

Google Scholar : https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XcCAoQYAAAAJ

Penguin Random House: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2251832/oded-galor/

https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/286030/oded-galor

Amazon Link : https://www.amazon.in/Journey-Humanity-Origins-Wealth-Inequality/dp/B09B2P4N9G

Brown University : https://vivo.brown.edu/display/ogalor#Research

Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oded_Galor

National Bureau of Economic Research : https://www.nber.org/people/oded_galor?page=1&perPage=50

India’s Finance Ministers: From Independence to Emergency (1947-1977)

In his seminal work, "India’s Finance Ministers: From Independence to Emergency," A.K. Bhattacharya delves deep into the foundational years of independent India’s economic stewardship. Spanning the tenure from 1947 to 1977, A.K. Bhattacharya meticulously traces the evolution of India’s fiscal policies through the lens of its finance ministers. He highlights their struggles within political constraints, often conflicting with prime ministers and party ideologies. The book resonates with his central thesis: finance ministers operate in a politically charged environment where economic decisions intersect with partisan interests. His narrative draws from a rich tapestry of archival sources, Budget speeches, and personal insights, offering readers a nuanced understanding of how economic policies shaped India’s early years.

The book not only profiles key figures like R.K. Shanmukham Chetty and C.D. Deshmukh but also unpacks pivotal economic events such as currency reforms and fiscal strategies. The author’s approach is both scholarly and narrative-driven, providing readers with a comprehensive historical account while illuminating the intricate dynamics between economics and politics during India’s formative decades.

India's Finance Ministers: Stumbling into Reforms (1977 to 1998)

Continuing his exploration, A.K. Bhattacharya "India's Finance Ministers: Stumbling into Reforms" chronicles India’s economic landscape from the post-Emergency era to the late 1990s. This volume focuses on a period of profound economic flux marked by critical reforms and political upheavals. The author meticulously analyzes the roles of ten finance ministers and their impact on India’s shift from a closed agrarian economy to a liberalized one.

Central to this volume is the transformative tenure of Manmohan Singh, whose policies as finance minister under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao laid the groundwork for economic liberalization. The author scrutinizes the Budget speeches and policy decisions of Singh and his counterparts, offering readers a detailed account of how economic policies were shaped amidst political pressures. The book also sheds light on the complex interplay between finance ministers and prime ministers, illustrating how political dynamics often dictated economic agendas.

Through vivid anecdotes and scholarly analysis, A.K. Bhattacharya navigates through seminal events like the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, the introduction of GST concepts, and the challenges faced during economic crises. His narrative skillfully weaves together political intrigue with economic policy, providing readers with a compelling narrative of India’s economic evolution during a transformative period.

A.K. Bhattacharya’s authoritative works stand as indispensable guides to understanding India’s economic history through the prism of its finance ministers. His meticulous research, combined with a narrative flair, not only educates but also captivates readers, offering profound insights into the complexities of economic policymaking in India. As he prepares for the third volume of his series, Mr. Bhattacharya continues to illuminate the past, present, and future of India’s economic stewardship, cementing his legacy as a foremost chronicler of India’s economic architects.

Excerpts from the Interview :

I. Motivation and Scope

Q) What inspired you to undertake the monumental task of chronicling India’s finance ministers from Independence to emergency?

AKB : The idea for this task came to me during one of my visits to the finance minister's office in North Block. I noticed a board in one corner of the large room, listing all the past finance ministers. Seeing that long list, I realized that the stories of these finance ministers would make for a fascinating read. What solidified my resolve was the realization that there was no comprehensive history—official or unofficial—of India's finance ministers and how they handled their budgets over the years.

Q) Could you elaborate on why you chose to divide the narrative into two volumes, spanning 1947-1977 and 1977-1998 respectively?

AKB : Initially, I had planned—quite foolishly, in retrospect—to write about these finance ministers in a single volume. However, soon after beginning my research, I realized it would take at least three volumes to adequately cover the work and budgets of finance ministers since Independence in 1947. Along with my publisher, Penguin, I decided to plan for three volumes: the first covering the 30-year period from 1947 to 1977, the second spanning 21 years from 1977 to 1998, and the third addressing the period after 1998.

Now, I realize that the third volume may well cover the period of 16 years from 1998 to 2014, paving the way for a fourth volume that could examine the finance ministers under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The period under study was divided this way because the first phase of 30 years was marked politically and economically by a certain kind of economic philosophy. Additionally, this entire period was ruled by the Congress. The second volume captures the slow beginning of the reform process, an unprecedented economic crisis, and the burst of reforms in 1991. The third volume will cover the coalition era under the BJP and the Congress, while the fourth volume will look at the finance ministers under Mr. Modi.

II. Research and Sources

Q) Can you walk us through your research process for these books? What were your primary sources of information?

AKB : My primary source was the budget speeches delivered by the finance ministers. The developments recounted in these budget speeches took me back to various archival materials and books at various libraries in Delhi. It required many weeks of work of just reading these reference books and biographical accounts of some of the finance ministers.

Q) Were there any particular challenges you faced while gathering information or verifying historical events for both volumes?

AKB : There weren’t too many details available on the first few finance ministers. Much of my work on them relied largely on their budgets and their own accounts of how they unveiled their policies. However, after the 1970s, accessing source materials for finance ministers from those decades was neither difficult nor challenging.

III. Narrative Approach

Q) How did you decide on the narrative style and structure for each volume? Did you face different challenges in presenting the pre-1977 and post-1977 periods?

AKB : I decided to be a narrator of events during the years under study, avoiding excessive subjective comments or observations. I believed this work should serve as a historical account of how the finance ministers handled their responsibilities. While I have made some comments about a few of the finance ministers, these remarks are primarily to provide historical context for the steps they took or the statements they made.

Q) Did you encounter any surprises or new insights about India’s economic history during your research?

AKB : There were many surprises and new insights. I would urge readers to go through them. I have tried to be a friendly narrator and placed most events in their historical contexts. The strained relationship between Morarji Desai and his prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, is widely known, but the degree of that distrust or doubt that Desai had for Nehru was a surprise. A new insight was the way Lal Bahadur Shastri managed to ease out his finance minister, TT Krishnamachari.

IV. Key Figures and Impact

Q) You’ve highlighted several finance ministers who left significant marks on India’s economy. Could you discuss a few who, in your opinion, had the most enduring impact?

AKB : Undoubtedly, the finance minister who made the most significant and enduring impact on the Indian economy was Manmohan Singh. He changed the course of Indian economic policymaking during the country’s worst economic crisis. He built a team of top technocrats to assist him in policymaking, which greatly benefited the government's economic reforms in the following decade.

Another finance minister who impressed me was V.P. Singh. He showed tremendous resolve to undertake reforms but got carried away by his desire to punish economic offenders through raids, ultimately losing the plot. Yashwant Sinha was an effective finance minister whose role in furthering the cause of indirect tax reforms is underappreciated. P. Chidambaram was also a focused finance minister who did not hesitate to implement important reforms in both direct and indirect taxes.

Q) How did these finance ministers navigate the intersection of economic policy and political pressures during their tenures?

AKB : Manmohan Singh understood the role of political economy in policymaking. Therefore, he made tactical compromises, such as agreeing to reduce the increase in fertilizer prices he had announced in one of his early budgets.

V. Political Context

Q)In Volume 1, you discuss the influence of socio-economic backgrounds on finance ministers’ decisions. How did this evolve over the years covered in Volume 2?

AKB : The socio-economic background changed significantly after 1978. Economic policy debates in the country became more reform-friendly, even though the actual implementation of reforms only occurred after the Indian economy was crippled by a major crisis in 1991. The Indian economy was opened up with liberalized trade, industrial, exchange control, and financial sector policies.

Q) Can you elaborate on the dynamics between finance ministers and Prime Ministers during periods of stable and unstable governments, as discussed in Volume 2?

AKB : In an unstable government with a fragile economy, finance ministers enjoy greater leeway in implementing bolder reforms with less resistance. Manmohan Singh's reforms were possible largely because of these factors. However, when the government is strong, as it was when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister in the mid-1980s, a reformist finance minister like V.P. Singh did not enjoy the same freedom. For political reasons, Singh was removed from the finance ministry in January 1987, barely a month before the budget was to be presented.

VI. Economic Reforms

Q) Volume 2 is titled “Stumbling into Reforms”. Could you explain why this title was chosen and how it reflects the narrative of that period?

AKB : These 21 years illustrate how reforms in 1991 occurred almost by accident and in response to an economic crisis. Between 1978 and 1991, finance ministers were attempting to reform economic policies but were slow in implementing their action plans. This sluggish pace led to the economy facing twin crises: fiscal indiscipline and a balance of payments problem. A political crisis further compounded the challenge. It was under these circumstances that Finance Minister Manmohan Singh introduced dramatic reforms in 1991. His successor, P. Chidambaram, continued with these reforms despite leading a coalition government that was not politically very strong. Hence, the title: "Stumbling into Reforms."

Q)What were the pivotal moments or decisions that shaped India’s transition from a closed, agrarian economy to a more liberal one during 1977-1998?

AKB : A combination of a worsening balance of payments, a widening fiscal deficit, rising debt, and a fragile government contributed to major economic reforms. These reforms set India on a new path toward higher growth, driven by both industry and services.

VII. Comparative Analysis

Q) How do the challenges faced by finance ministers in the two periods differ, especially in terms of economic ideologies and global influences?

AKB : The challenges varied significantly over time. In the first 30 years after Independence, the Indian economy was closed and faced a chronic foreign exchange problem. This forced finance ministers during this period to adopt measures that ushered in statism through nationalisation and state control of many economic activities. However, the 21 years after 1977 saw a gradual opening up of the Indian economy, with finance ministers progressively relaxing various economic laws. This period culminated in an unprecedented balance of payments and fiscal crisis, prompting the launch of major economic reforms in response.

Q)Were there any surprising parallels or contrasts between the finance ministers of the pre-1977 and post-1977 eras?

AKB : Finance ministers of the two eras were similar in that they had to largely follow their prime minister’s guidelines. When they differed with their prime minister, they soon paid the price with their job. This was true even in the post-1977 era. The big difference between the finance ministers of the two eras was that after 1977, finance ministers were able to implement many of their ideas, even when they were not fully endorsed by the prime minister. This was probably because the economy was not in the best health during this era, and finance ministers enjoyed more freedom in some respects.

VIII. Personalities and Policies:

Q) You mentioned the contrasting economic outlooks of figures like Nehru and Morarji Desai. How did these differing philosophies influence economic policy during their respective tenures?

AKB : During Nehru’s time, finance ministers took policy steps to realize their prime minister’s goal of achieving a socialistic pattern of growth. But under Morarji Desai, the finance minister allowed the private sector greater involvement in economic activities.

Q) Can you discuss how individual finance ministers balanced their personal beliefs with the economic needs of the nation, as portrayed in both volumes?

AKB : Finance ministers did not often get opportunities to reconcile their personal beliefs with the economic needs of the nation. They outlined policies that they believed were necessary for achieving higher economic growth.

IX. Crisis Management

Q) Volume 2 covers a period that includes economic crises like balance of payments issues. How did finance ministers of that time navigate such crises, and what were their key strategies?

AKB : The broad strategy was to open up the Indian economy, liberalize economic policies, scrap policies that constrained Indian industry's animal spirits (like the monopoly law), and reduce the role of the government in the running of businesses.

Q) Were there any instances where a finance minister&#39;s decisions significantly diverged from conventional economic wisdom, yet proved successful in hindsight?

AKB : None.

X. Legacy and Reflections

Q) Looking back at both volumes, what do you hope readers will take away about the role of finance ministers in shaping India’s economic trajectory?

AKB : I believe readers will understand the critical role finance ministers have played in India’s transformation as an economy during these years. Finance ministers may have to function within the policy parameters outlined by their prime minister, but they play a crucial role in generating ideas and proposals to address the country’s economic challenges.

Q) How have the legacies of these finance ministers influenced subsequent economic policies in India?

AKB : After the economic reforms of 1991, most finance ministers have largely followed the template of economic and fiscal policies that Manmohan Singh laid down in his first Budget for 1991-92. Finance ministers after him may have made marginal changes to the contours of those policies, but the broad trajectory has remained the same. However, recent years during the Narendra Modi regime have seen a reversal of tariff reforms with increases in import duties for many products. Despite this, the broad logic of economic reforms continues to be an article of faith for all finance ministers after Singh.

XI. Historical Context

Q) Volume 1 discusses the first thirty years after Independence. What were the defining economic challenges during this period, and how did finance ministers address them?

AKB : There were many challenges during those 30 years, but one of the most troubling issues stemmed from the scarcity of foreign exchange resources required to finance imports of goods and equipment for projects and industries in India. The foreign exchange shortage became so acute that India had to establish a permanent mechanism like the Aid India Club, which would provide foreign exchange assistance to India during those years.

Q) In Volume 2, what were the most notable economic transformations that set the stage for modern economic policies in India?

AKB : The major economic transformation was observed from 1991 to 1998, when all the major trade, industrial, and exchange control policies were liberalized. This significant development changed the course of the Indian economy, as captured in the second volume.

XII. Policy Evolution

Q) Throughout both volumes, how did India’s taxation policies evolve, and what were the key factors driving these changes?

AKB : In the years before 1991, taxes were used to raise revenues without recognizing the importance of improving revenue buoyancy. Consequently, taxes were unusually high. For instance, the income tax rate rose to over 97 per cent, import duties were excessively high, and indirect taxes like excise suffered from multiple rates. These issues with the taxation system began to change after 1991. Import tariffs were reduced, income tax rates were streamlined into three broad slabs, excise duties were rationalized, and corporation tax rates were lowered.

Q) Can you highlight any specific instances where finance ministers had to make unpopular decisions for the long-term benefit of the economy?

AKB : Finance ministers are often associated with making unpopular decisions. Manmohan Singh raised fertiliser prices, and although he had to scale back the proposed increase, he effectively initiated the process of reducing government subsidies on fertilisers, which had a beneficial long-term impact on the economy. The gift tax, introduced in the 1950s, was unpopular, but it served as a good measure aimed at preventing tax evasion.

XIII. Writing Process

Q) What was the most rewarding aspect of writing these books? Were there any anecdotes or stories that particularly stood out to you?

AKB : The most rewarding aspect of writing these books was that I got to learn about many new issues, developments, and debates concerning India’s finance ministers over the last seven decades or so. An anecdote worth recounting here is that after the first volume was released, I received a call from someone who said they liked my book. He identified himself as the grandson of one of the finance ministers I wrote about: John Matthai.

Q) How did you maintain objectivity while writing about such politically and economically charged topics?

AKB : That was fairly easy. My training as an economic journalist helped. I approached this project as an exercise in recounting the history of India’s finance ministers, knowing that I had to be objective to maintain credibility.

XIV. Audience Impact

Q) Who do you see as the primary audience for these books, and what do you hope they will gain from reading them?

AKB : Anyone interested in knowing and understanding how major economic policies were framed and implemented by finance ministers should be the primary audience for my books. Lessons from the past are crucial to comprehend the present and anticipate the future direction of the economy. Readers of such books can interpret the present with insights gained from historical perspectives.

Q) Have you received any surprising feedback or reactions from readers since the release of both volumes?

AKB : I was pleasantly surprised by a social media comment from India’s current Finance Minister, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, who found the book "extensively researched and well-written." Finance Secretary T.V. Somanathan said, "The book is so good that I think it actually functions almost like an official history of the Finance Ministry. However, it is different from an official history in that it is more objective than most official histories are."

XV. Future Directions

Q) You mentioned a third volume starting with the BJP’s governance. What can readers expect from this upcoming installment, and how do you plan to approach the recent economic history of India?

AKB : The third volume will cover the period during which four finance ministers — Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh, Palaniappan Chidambaram, and Pranab Mukherjee — steered their respective governments’ economic policies from North Block, the headquarters of the finance ministry in New Delhi. This phase spans from 1998 to 2014, encompassing reforms, market controversies, and global economic crises that impacted India’s growth.

Q) Are there any other historical or economic topics you are considering exploring in your future writings?

AKB : I plan to write about how India’s political economy impacted the course of economic policymaking and reforms in the country.

Thank you all for reading and a big thanks to AKB for collaborating in today’s post!

It’s a pleasure!

Ranganathan's narrative is a beacon of clarity and integrity in data communication. She adeptly exposes common pitfalls in visualization, uncovering how charts can subtly deceive through tactics like skewed scales and strategic omissions. Her book serves as a comprehensive guide for crafting honest and impactful visual narratives. Drawing on her teaching experience, she shares insights on selecting appropriate graph types and using design elements like color and typography effectively. Ranganathan's approach merges art with empirical science, elucidating the cognitive principles behind effective data representation through studies and experiments.

With a proven classroom-teaching style, Ranganathan demystifies the art of data visualization, leveraging her extensive experience to equip readers with tools to identify and avoid common pitfalls that distort data visuals. Emphasizing core design principles essential for creating truthful and impactful data visualizations, her approach promises to revolutionize how readers interpret and present data.

"Impactful Data Visualization" stands as a testament to Ranganathan's mastery of her craft. With clarity and conviction, she guides readers through the complexities of data visualization, empowering them to present data truthfully amidst potential deception. The book is enriched with illustrative examples that highlight effective and flawed practices, all substantiated by solid empirical research. It enhances readers' ability not only to create compelling charts and graphs but also to interpret them accurately, thereby transforming how they communicate insights with clarity and precision.

In a world where perception shapes reality and data holds significant sway, Ranganathan's book serves as a guiding light towards a future where transparency prevails and graphs serve as beacons of truth, rather than tools of manipulation.

As someone deeply engaged with data visualization, exploring these insights with the author provided invaluable perspectives on enhancing the clarity and impact of data-driven narratives. I had the opportunity to discuss more about the book and Kavitha’s journey as a data professional and her experience of teaching at IIM Ahmedabad. Our conversation shed light on her journey and insights encapsulated in her book, which explores the critical nuances of data visualization.

Excerpts from the Interview :

Q1) What inspired you to build your career in the field of Information Systems and specialize in data visualization?

Kavitha : I am a computer-scientist by training and my PhD research was on algorithms for distributed computing. While Data Visualization is not directly related to my training I started exploring this field (many years ago) as a possible elective course to teach our MBA students. 

Q2) Could you walk us through your book writing process for "Impactful Data Visualization"? What were some of the key challenges and highlights?

Kavitha : When I started writing the book I had been teaching Data Visualization for more than a decade. The ideas I wanted to explore in the book had been sitting inside my head for a while and the writing process was pretty organic. The challenge was finding uninterrupted chunks of time to work on the book - given a full teaching calendar and family commitments. Since the graphs used in the book were all originals, it was slow progress to get them just right, but satisfyingly so.

Q3) Your book delves into how data visualizations can mislead. Can you share an example from the book where a common visualization technique leads to significant misinterpretation?

Kavitha : The first example I talk about in the book - a truncated bar graph  - is a very common technique used by many to visually exaggerate differences in quantities. While this is widely accepted as a misleading way to depict quantities, it is surprising that so many people still defend their choice of a truncated axis. 

Q4) How did your experience teaching MBA and doctoral students shape the way you approached writing this book?

Kavitha : At heart I am a teacher, so the book is written in a very simple style where it is almost like a conversation in a classroom. I find examples to be very helpful in explaining a particular concept to my students and hence I have used a large number of example illustrations throughout the book to explain the trickier aspects.

Q5) What are some core design principles for creating truthful and effective data visualizations that you emphasize in your book?

Kavitha :   That answer will take up an entire book !! However, I can say that it is all about the intent. If one approaches the task with an intent of disclosing the truth - the truthful visuals will follow. 

Q6) The book is backed by empirical research. Can you discuss some key findings from your research that are particularly relevant for data journalists and analysts?

Kavitha : I would like to mention one particular study we did on the effectiveness of pie charts versus bar graphs for data interpretation. While it is well-known among data visualization experts that pie charts are ineffective for comparing quantities, the magnitude of the difference in their effectiveness vis-a-vis bar graphs surprised even us. 

Q7) In a world increasingly dominated by digitalization, what do you see as the most significant challenges and opportunities for data visualization?

Kavitha : The opportunities are of course endless. Visualization is almost like a life-saver in the data deluge almost all fields are facing today. A major challenge however is to create truthful visuals. As more and more aspects of life are digitized and more data is generated, collected and presented– getting to the core of what the data is telling us gets to be more and more challenging. 

Q8) How do you see artificial intelligence affecting the field of data visualization? Are there specific AI tools or techniques that you believe will revolutionize how we create and interpret data visuals?

Kavitha : AI does help narrow down to specific visuals that help for a particular scenario, but the human work will never go away. Humans will have to work closely with AI tools to create a useful graph for a particular scenario. So yes, I do see AI tools helping with data visualization but more as a support than as a replacement for the human role.

Q9) Disinformation and deceptive data visualizations are rampant on social media. What strategies can individuals and organizations employ to combat these issues effectively?

Kavitha : Awareness and knowledge. Once the majority of data consumers are aware of the common ways in which graphs can be deceptive, it will be very difficult for anybody to use these to hoodwink people. There will be enough people who will immediately call out the deception. That is the hope and that was one of the main purposes for writing my book !

Q10) Looking ahead, what trends do you foresee in the data visualization space? How can professionals stay ahead of these trends to ensure their visualizations remain impactful and accurate ?

Kavitha : With a proliferation of tools for data visualization some products offer gimmicky and unnecessarily complicated visuals. Animated graphs for example are easy to create now with any of these tools but can be confusing for actual data interpretation. They are only useful in a handful of scenarios and hence must be used with caution. Hence the onus is on the user to not fall for these extra features which can land up creating confusing and ineffective visuals. 

Q11) What advice would you give to aspiring data architects and analysts who want to master the art and science of impactful data visualization?

Kavitha : There are many resources easily available for data visualization- books as well as blogs, online forums and tutorials. However the best way to hone your skills is to know the theory but go well beyond that with a lot of practice. If there is only one book you can read, it should be Stephen Few’s - “Show Me the Numbers”. That book has enough theory for a beginner to then start practicing at every chance they get. 

Q12) Data visualization often requires collaboration across different disciplines. How can professionals from various fields work together to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of their visual presentations?

Kavitha : Absolutely - Data visualization has elements of design, statistics, communication, biology and psychology ( the last two help us understand visual perception – or rather how our brain interprets visual inputs). Ofcourse, computer science is implicitly involved if you are working with digital tools. Very often it requires somebody with design-thinking expertise and somebody with strong coding skills to work with the actual key individual for a certain presentation or dashboard to be effective. 

Q13) Ethical considerations are crucial in data visualization. How do you address the ethical implications of data representation in your book, and what ethical guidelines should practitioners follow?

Kavitha : The book is centered around ethical data visualization. It clearly illustrates the different ways in which graphs could be used to mislead the audience and then proposes alternate truthful ways of representing the same data. The guidelines are clearly explained in the book and I would urge anybody interested to have a look !

Q14) What do you hope readers will take away from "Impactful Data Visualization"? How do you envision the book influencing their approach to data visualization?

Kavitha : I hope the astute reader will use the learnings from the book to

(1) not mislead with data and

(2) not be misled.

With truthful alternatives clearly explained for every false graph the book talks about, there are no excuses now for bad graphs. 

Q15) On a more personal note, what drives your passion for data visualization, and how do you stay inspired and innovative in this ever-evolving field?

Kavitha : I find the field very intriguing because as mentioned earlier it relies on a varied number of mother disciplines like design, psychology, biology and statistics. None of these aspects can be ignored when it comes to creating an effective data visual and learning the intricacies of these disciplines is fun. There is an active research community that is constantly pushing the boundaries of what we know about human perception and data visualization so there is much to experiment with and learn — never a boring moment !

Thank you all for reading and a big thanks to Kavitha Ranganathan for collaborating in today’s post!

It’s a pleasure!

About the Author

Kavitha Ranganathan is a faculty member in the Information Systems Area at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA). Her academic journey includes a master's and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Chicago, as well as a master's in Information Systems from BITS-Pilani. Over the past decade, she has dedicated herself to teaching Data Visualization courses to MBA and doctoral students, analytics professionals, and various corporate training programs.

Drawing from her extensive teaching experience, Kavitha authored a book that distills essential principles for crafting clear and accurate visualizations while avoiding the pitfalls of misleading graphs. Beyond academia, she finds joy in family life in Ahmedabad, where she resides with her husband, two children, and their newest furry family member, Coco. In her moments of leisure, Kavitha enjoys strolling through the verdant campus of IIMA, admiring its diverse flora and fauna.

Janet's story begins with a pivotal encounter with John Whitehead, a senior partner at Goldman Sachs, whose encouragement spurred her to pursue business education and ultimately join the firm. Despite initial hesitations, Hanson's tenure at Goldman Sachs was marked by her exceptional performance, culminating in her historic promotion as the firm's first female sales manager.

However, the corridors of Wall Street weren't devoid of challenges for Janet. As she scaled the professional ladder, she encountered personal setbacks and the daunting reality of confronting both metaphorical walls and glass ceilings. Yet, undeterred by adversities, Hanson's resilience propelled her towards a pivotal juncture in her career - the founding of Milestone Capital in 1994, a venture that burgeoned into a $3 billion asset management firm.

Readers have praised "Broad Street" for its candid portrayal of Hanson's challenges and triumphs. The memoir resonates with individuals seeking inspiration and guidance in their career pursuits. "Broad Street" not only chronicles Hanson's professional trajectory but also serves as a manifesto for women aspiring to carve their niche in finance. Interwoven with anecdotes and insights, Hanson elucidates the importance of resilience, mentorship, and forging meaningful connections in navigating the complex terrains of Wall Street.

In a recent conversation with Janet Hanson, she reflected on her journey and the process of writing "Broad Street." With characteristic candor and insight, Hanson shared her experiences, offering invaluable lessons and perspectives on entrepreneurship, leadership, and the power of perseverance.

Excerpts from the Interview:-

Q1) Janet, your journey from meeting John Whitehead on a chartered sailboat to becoming one of the most respected sales managers at Goldman Sachs is truly remarkable. Could you share with us a pivotal moment or experience from your early days at Goldman Sachs that shaped your career trajectory and inspired you to eventually write "Broad Street: My Mostly Bullish Career at Goldman Sachs"? 

Janet: A pivotal moment early in my career was when I realized how hard it was going to be to earn the trust and respect of my accounts before they did any meaningful business with me. My colleagues had accounts who did very large trades with the firm which made “learning the ropes” that much more humbling and at times, deflating. What I learned during my first year on the desk was the patience and discipline to really listen to my clients, even if they didn’t buy a single security from me.  I was ultimately rewarded when one of the smallest accounts I covered put in a very large order to buy bonds in a deal the firm was underwriting for Ford Motor. From that moment on, I knew I had the tenacity and the intelligence to be part of the team.

Q2) Your book has been praised for its candid portrayal of the challenges and triumphs you faced as a woman in the male-dominated world of finance. Can you elaborate on some of the key obstacles you encountered along the way, and how you navigated them to achieve success? 

Janet: In the early years, there were few, if any, obstacles in my way because my accounts were “gender blind” and the few women on the trading floor were not perceived as a threat to the firm’s male hierarchy. It wasn’t until an anonymous group of current and former GS women threatened a class-action lawsuit that management grew alarmed (if not downright paranoid) as they wondered if their female colleagues were “co-conspirators.” Just the threat of a lawsuit was enough to damage the rapport that had gradually developed over the years between senior men and women at the firm. I tried to neutralize the damage by holding the first women’s conference in the firm’s history which was perceived by management as a great success. Unfortunately, the dye was cast and for that reason, I eventually exited the firm to start my own mutual fund company.

Q3) "Broad Street" not only delves into your experiences at Goldman Sachs but also chronicles your journey in launching your own wildly successful asset management firm. What motivated you to leap into entrepreneurship, and how did your time at Goldman Sachs prepare you for this new chapter in your career?

Janet: The decision to become an entrepreneur was an easy one because in so many ways, I had run my own book of business in my first 11 years at Goldman Sachs. The problem, however, was that “the house” had complete control over what I would be compensated for the revenues I delivered to their bottom line. When I raised over $1 billion in net new assets for Goldman’s fixed income mutual funds on my return to the firm in 1991, I realized that I would rather raise assets for my own firm and have 100% control over my compensation. That turned out to be a very wise decision.

Q4) One reader review highlighted your resilience and ability to persevere through tough times, which is evident throughout your memoir. Could you share with us a specific instance where your determination was put to the test, and how you managed to overcome adversity?

Janet: The decision to stay at the firm after I had been turned down for a management position that no one else was vying for was an enormous test of my intestinal fortitude and resilience. It was humiliating to be told that I wasn’t being promoted because I had “panicked during an earthquake and was not management material because I lacked the ability to remain calm under pressure.” I decided to prove that I had the right stuff by taking on more responsibility and as importantly, I became one of the highest revenue producers in the division.

Q5) Your commitment to empowering women is evident in your creation of 85 Broads, an elite network of GS alumni that later expanded to include several colleges. How do you believe initiatives like 85 Broads contribute to breaking down barriers for women in finance and fostering a more inclusive professional environment?

Janet: As the CEO of Milestone Capital, one of the only mutual fund companies owned and managed by a woman, I was frequently asked to speak to women at the top graduate and undergraduate schools. The more time I spent on campus getting to know these exceptionally smart women, the more I encouraged them to think about Wall Street as a career path. These women had all of the attributes of their male counterparts – they had won math and science awards in high school, many were incredible athletes, and all of them were whip smart. In every speech I gave, I passionately opined about my life on the Goldman Sachs trading floor and later, as the CEO of a multi-billion dollar asset management company. I am proud to say that many of the women I met on those campuses went on to have brilliant careers at the top investment banks, at premier private equity firms, and at many of the biggest hedge funds.

Q6) The reviews of your book often mention its intelligent, vivid, and authentic writing style. Can you tell us about your process of writing "Broad Street" and any challenges you faced in recounting your career experiences with such honesty and clarity?

Janet: I was a history buff and as such, I knew I was part of history in the making as one of the very few women associates at Goldman Sachs. For that reason, I kept every letter and memorandum I received when I was at the firm because I knew the day would come when I would write about my experience. My only sadness is that I didn’t write my book sooner. It would have been the female version of Liar’s Poker which Michael Lewis wrote shortly after he exited Salomon Brothers.

Q7) Your memoir touches on the importance of building coalitions and navigating the complexities of corporate environments. What advice would you give to aspiring leaders, particularly women, who are striving to advance their careers in competitive industries like finance?

Janet: One of my fondest expressions has always been “information is power.” If I wasn’t at work or out with clients, I was reading every newspaper and magazine article I could find about the industry I worked in. Being solidly up the learning curve gave me a conversational edge with my superiors and with my clients. As importantly, I learned the art of diplomacy at a very early age – it was never lost on me that I could earn a person’s respect if I was viewed as a trustworthy ally. If you want to be a leader, you have to act like one. Over time, perception becomes reality.

Q8) In your book, you discuss the significance of investing in other women and the impact it has had on shaping your career. Can you share a specific example of how mentoring or supporting other women has made a difference in your professional journey?

Janet: As the founder of 85 Broads, I met the most extraordinary women, many of whom were still in their teens in college. Alexa von Tobel, a junior at Harvard, interned at Milestone Capital during the summer of 2005, along with a dozen other women. That summer we started a company called MarketClout. Our mission was simple: get young women to recognize that their savvy as consumers made them equally savvy investors. Our tag line was “invest in what you love.” I put $75,000 in a Fidelity account and each one of the interns bought shares of stock in companies whose brands they loved. That fall, we took the MarketClout message to colleges across the US. After Alexa graduated from Harvard, she launched LearnVest, a company designed to teach young people the basic principles of investing. I was one of Alexa’s earliest backers, along with two ex-GS women partners. In 2015, LearnVest was acquired by Northwestern Mutual for several hundred million dollars. Alexa now runs her own venture capital firm and is, without doubt, one of the most successful entrepreneurs of her generation.

Q9) As someone who has been a trailblazer in finance and entrepreneurship, what do you hope readers will take away from "Broad Street" in terms of lessons learned or inspiration gained?

Janet: There’s an old Wall Street saying is that if you believe your career has foundered, you should “mark yourself to market.” Bottom line, you have to find out if you’re worth more “on the outside.” Because very few people ever left Goldman Sachs to work for a competitor, it was virtually impossible to know if there was a “better bid away.” I returned to Goldman in 1991 for one reason – we needed the money. What I didn’t appreciate at the time was that even though I hated working in the one division that no one at the firm cared about (asset management) I grabbed the chance to learn everything I could about the mutual fund industry. When my career completely flatlined in 1993, Jeff and I made the decision to launch Milestone Capital because I had learned from the best and knew if we worked 24/7 that we had a real shot at beating Goldman at their own game. An even shrewder move was to launch Milestone as the first women-owned institutional money market fund company in the US. Because we had such low overhead, our business was profitable within two years. After that, it was a moonshot.  

Q10) Looking back on your career, what do you consider to be your proudest achievement or most rewarding moment, and why?

Janet: Hands down, one of my proudest achievements was founding 85 Broads and the media attention we garnered as a result. In October, 1999, Reed Abelson wrote an amazing piece about the network that landed on the front page of The New York Times Business Section. The title of Reed’s piece was: “A Network of Their Own: From an Exclusive Address, a Group for Women Only.” Goldman’s top brass were truly astonished to read about a network for, and run by, current and former female GS employees that the firm itself didn’t have control over. Our ability to “end run” the system (in the most respectful way) and our collective, somewhat giddy feeling of independence from “the mother ship” was a moment I will never forget. 85 Broads went on to become the most powerful corporate alumnae network of its kind and to this day, has helped thousands of women from all over the globe define success on their own terms.

Thank you all for reading and a big thanks to Janet Hanson for collaborating in today’s post!

It’s a pleasure!

The book begins by challenging common perceptions of coaching, particularly in the context of leadership development. It highlights the significance of understanding coaching as a tool for personal and professional growth, rather than mere academic assistance. Through an incisive account, readers are guided through the entire coaching process, gaining insights into the involved individuals, assessment frameworks, and the tangible outcomes of this collaborative effort.

From the initial meet-and-greet to the eventual closure, "Unfiltered" meticulously outlines the essential stages of coaching. It addresses fundamental questions surrounding the coaching process, shedding light on its mechanics and nuances. The narrative offers a personal touch, allowing readers to witness the authentic and vulnerable conversations that underpin transformative coaching experiences.

An exemplary feature of the book is its dual perspective, presenting insights from both the CEO and the coach involved in the engagement. This multifaceted approach provides readers with a holistic understanding of the coaching dynamic, including the establishment of trust, the client's commitment to growth, and the coach's strategic interventions.

"Unfiltered" also emphasizes the importance of ongoing engagement between coaching sessions, highlighting the CEO's active involvement in personal development activities. It underscores the value of reflective practice and continuous learning in maximizing the benefits of coaching.

Throughout the book, Ana shares her unique coaching style, leveraging the client's strengths and employing tailored frameworks to address individual needs. The inclusion of various assessment tools and book references enriches the reader's understanding of coaching methodologies.

A pivotal chapter in "Unfiltered" is the Fish Bowl excerpt in Chapter 6, which provides an intimate glimpse into the inner narratives of both the coach and the CEO. This candid portrayal underscores the transformative potential of authentic human interaction, offering invaluable insights into vulnerability and resilience.

The book concludes with reflective insights from both the CEO and the coach, encapsulating their five-year journey and the evolution of their partnership. With its easy and organic narrative flow, "Unfiltered" emerges as an essential read for coaches and organizations considering coaching for senior leaders.

In essence, "Unfiltered: The CEO and The Coach" serves as a roadmap for navigating life's uncertainties with grace and courage. Through the collaborative efforts of Saurabh and Ana, readers are empowered to embark on their own journey of self-discovery and growth, unfiltered and filled with possibility.

Excerpts from the Interview:-

Q1) Your previous works, such as "The Unusual Billionaires" and "Coffee Can Investing," have focused on financial strategies and wealth creation. What inspired the shift towards exploring the transformative power of coaching in your latest book, "Unfiltered: The CEO and the Coach"?

Saurabh: My friend Anupam Gupta and I co-authored a book on psychological development titled "The Victory Project." Despite neither of us being psychologists, our perspective allowed us to delve into how the human mind learns and grows. Focusing on training the mind and developing skill sets, the book surprisingly resonated with many readers, becoming a national bestseller. While not my first venture beyond finance writing, "The Victory Project" was a profoundly enriching experience, enjoyable to write, and its success was a delightful bonus.

Between 2017 and 2020, I underwent coaching, which proved immensely useful and powerful. Unlike self-development through videos and reading, coaching addressed inherent limitations in self-correction and cognition. It helped not just me but also my entire firm navigate the challenges of COVID-19, both personally and professionally. I elaborated on this in "Unfiltered," highlighting how coaching was instrumental during those times.

Why is coaching so powerful, especially in India where it's not widely understood? The typical model of self-development in India emphasizes hard work, reading, podcasts, and leading a sincere life. However, as the economy becomes more complex and competitive, I realized firsthand that coaching offers a way to remedy deficits and improve skill sets beyond what traditional methods can achieve.

To share this insight, I needed Ana's cooperation and collaboration. In the summer of 2021, while visiting my family in the UK amid the COVID-19 pandemic, I proposed the idea of writing a book on coaching over a cup of coffee with Ana. After some consideration, she agreed, and "Unfiltered" came into being. It builds upon the principles explored in "The Victory Project," focusing on how coaching can elevate personal development beyond individual control.

My coaching journey commenced when I transitioned from a team member to the CEO of a subsidiary and aspired for a larger role within the organization. I got introduced to coaching by my employer, it was a paradigm shift for me as a middle-class Indian. The confidentiality, customization, and focus on addressing specific challenges transformed my professional life, for which I am eternally grateful to my employer. Coaching has truly changed my life for the better.

Q2) The book delves into the importance of trust and safety within the coaching space. Could you elaborate on how you initially established trust with your coach, Ana Lueneburger, and how this evolved throughout your coaching engagement?

Saurabh: I don't believe the credit for establishing trust should be attributed to me; it belongs to Ana. Establishing trust is clearly one of her strengths, something she's worked hard to develop. With the benefit of hindsight, I've learned from observing how she builds trust and have strived to improve this skill myself.

Broadly, the trust-building process, as outlined in the book, consists of three main steps. Firstly, before trust can be built, it's essential to truly get to know the other person—not just on a superficial level, but understanding their hopes, fears, aspirations, and life journey. Ana and I underwent this process during the initial months of our assignment, speaking to close relatives, colleagues, and friends to gain a comprehensive understanding of each other.

The second step involves understanding the other person's strengths, especially in the context of professional coaching. This entails assessing psychological strengths and weaknesses, often using formal tools like VIA Pro. High-quality coaches typically have qualifications in psychology, enabling them to assess personality traits from a psychological perspective.

The third piece involves agreeing with the coach on a plan of action based on the insights gathered. This plan outlines the goals, the path to achieving them, and the time frame involved. Both the coach and the coachee must voluntarily agree to this plan for coaching to be effective. Implementation of the plan entails hard work over a period of time, usually around six months, involving reading, role-playing with the coach, and conducting real-world experiments.

Throughout this process, trust is subtly nurtured through various interactions, such as spending time together outside of formal coaching sessions. For instance, Ana and her family visited Mumbai, spending time with my colleagues and our families, bonding over dinner and leisurely conversations. Looking back, these interactions may seem basic, but they are often overlooked in corporate settings.

Q3) One of the unique aspects of "Unfiltered" is its dual perspective, providing insights from both the CEO and the coach. How did you navigate the process of incorporating Ana's perspective alongside your narrative in the book?

Saurabh : Firstly, the idea behind the book was truly mind-blowing. The approach to writing it stemmed from a celebrated psychology book called "Every Day Gets a Little Closer," which Ana recommended I read—and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This book revolves around a psychologist and their client navigating through understanding and resolving the client's issues. 

The template followed in "Every Day Gets a Little Closer" involved alternating chapters between the psychologist and the client. We decided to adopt this template and agreed not to review each other's chapters while writing our own. We believed that reading the other's chapter beforehand could influence our own writing. So, we wrote alternate chapters and refrained from reading the others until after writing our own.

Furthermore, we decided not to include dramatic credits even after reading each other's chapters. Thus, the sequence of events remained consistent, although some events I remembered as happening earlier actually occurred later, and vice versa. It's fascinating how memory can play tricks on you, even for events that occurred just five years ago. Writing in this manner was a new experience for me, inspired by a celebrated psychology book, and it was a lot of fun. Each of us had the opportunity to share our experiences without being influenced by the other's perspective.

This is why we titled the book "Unfiltered." It provides readers with both sides of the story without one side influencing or altering the other's viewpoint on the subject.

Moreover, one of the motivations for writing the book was my realization of the layers to our being and the numerous ways we can develop ourselves, especially in the investment profession. I wanted to shed light on the fact that there are various tools available to make ourselves better individuals and professionals. While I'm not a psychologist and only an amateur in this realm, coaching has proven to be invaluable, even at my level of expertise.

Q4) The book includes a Fish Bowl excerpt in Chapter 6, where both you and Ana share your inner narratives. What motivated you to include such raw and vulnerable moments, and what impact do you hope it will have on readers?

Saurabh : So, Chapter Six is titled "In Session: A Coaching Conversation," which was Anna's idea. Given that we wrote this book in the aftermath of COVID-19, we had to utilize Zoom effectively. I must admit, it was terrifying at first. However, I'm glad we embraced it because it provides readers with a glimpse into what it's like to undergo coaching.

This isn't just a casual chat; it's akin to a psychological boxing match. A good coach pushes the coachee into challenging parts of their mind, areas they may prefer to avoid. It's comparable to a physical workout with low intensity. When you hire a trainer, they're there to push you. Similarly, in a coaching session, it's a high-intensity mental workout. Often, I need two or three hours of downtime after sessions to recover.

So, what does Chapter Six achieve? As it’s nicely called the Fishbowl chapter, it offers an outsider a view of these high-intensity conversations and how motivated individuals can greatly benefit from them.

Q5) Throughout "Unfiltered," you discuss various frameworks and assessment tools used in coaching sessions. How did you decide which frameworks to include in the book, and what criteria guided your selection process?

Saurabh : As a psychologist, Ana is an expert in utilizing various frameworks, which she employed throughout our coaching journey. However, we made a conscious decision to select frameworks that would be easily understandable to the public, particularly considering that the typical reader of this book is not a psychologist but rather a mid-career executive.

In a proactive approach, we opted for tools that would effectively communicate to a mid-career executive how coaching can enhance their skills. One such tool is VIA Pro Feedback, which stands out as among the most intuitive to grasp. In Chapter Five, titled "Do we Ever Arrive?" this tool is utilized to illustrate my development journey.

Similarly, the Culture Map is another intuitive framework we utilized. Our intention was to intentionally select tools that would resonate with the reader, ensuring that they are easily comprehensible.

Q6) Your background includes founding the Association of Portfolio Managers in India and working with Marcellus Investment Managers. How has your experience in finance and portfolio management influenced your approach to coaching and writing about leadership development?

Saurabh:  I believe that the key lesson from working in the stock market is the importance of maintaining calmness as an investor. Those who can remain composed under pressure are most likely to succeed in the long run. Having spent over 20 years in financial markets, I've come to realize that success is less about intellect and more about emotional control.

While I understood this concept abstractly a decade ago, it became more apparent to me five years ago through practical experience. However, my perspective has been further reinforced by my recent coaching experience. I now firmly believe that success in the stock market, or any high-pressure environment, hinges on one's ability to remain calm and think rationally amidst intense pressure.

Mastering this skill in any professional context can significantly enhance one's chances of success. By maintaining composure, thinking logically, and treating others with respect even in the most stressful situations, one can greatly improve their outcomes. It simply makes sense.

Q7) Reflecting on your journey from writing financial guides to exploring the nuances of leadership coaching, what insights or lessons have you personally gained that you believe will resonate most with readers of "Unfiltered"?

Saurabh : Through the coaching process, I've gained a significant insight, which I've shared in Chapter Four titled "The Leader's Hard-Won Lessons." One crucial lesson I've learned pertains to my previous belief that maintaining emotional distance and treating people fairly necessitated avoiding empathy and emotional bonds with colleagues.

However, coaching has led me to a different understanding, echoing your initial question. People don't solely commit to work for monetary compensation; empathy plays a pivotal role. This unpaid empathy is crucial for fostering a conducive work environment and ensuring high-quality output. Yet, without emotional bonds, empathy cannot naturally flourish. This realization, facilitated by coaching, has transformed my perspective.

Ana's guidance has not only enhanced my professional capabilities but also contributed to my personal growth. She extends empathy towards me as a human being, which underscores the importance of fostering emotional connections in the workplace. Therefore, to expect top-notch work from my colleagues, I prioritize building emotional bonds with them.

For me, this revelation stands as the most significant takeaway from the coaching experience: trust, empathy, and collaborative behavior serve as the foundation for success.

Thank you all for reading and a big thanks to Saurabh Mukherjea for collaborating in today’s post!

About the Authors 

Ana Lueneburger has worked globally with big companies like INSEAD, Danone, and the Boston Consulting Group. After spending fifteen years in coaching and advisory roles, Ana became a Master Certified Coach (MCC) with the International Coaching Federation. She earned a PhD in business from the University of St Gallen, Switzerland, and later worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in change management at INSEAD, France. Ana was also one of the founding fellows of the Institute of Coaching at Harvard Medical School, USA. In addition to her coaching and academic achievements, Ana is a fully licensed and accredited integrative psychotherapist in the UK.

Saurabh Mukherjea is part of Marcellus Investment Managers and has written bestsellers like "The Unusual Billionaires," "Coffee Can Investing: The Low-Risk Road to Stupendous Wealth," and "Diamonds in the Dust: Consistent Compounding for Extraordinary Wealth Creation." He studied at the London School of Economics and is also a founder director of the Association of Portfolio Managers in India. Saurabh holds a CFA charter and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Dr. Viral V. Acharya, the C.V. Starr Professor of Economics at New York University Stern School of Business, emerges as a distinguished economist with a multifaceted career that spans academia, central banking, and financial market regulation. Holding a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and a Ph.D. in Finance from NYU-Stern, Dr. Acharya combines a solid technical foundation with extensive research in the field.

Before joining NYU-Stern, he contributed significantly to the London Business School and held the position of Senior Houblon-Normal Research Fellow at the Bank of England. With a focus on theoretical and empirical analysis of systemic risk in the financial sector, credit risk, liquidity risk, and their regulatory implications, Dr. Acharya's research reflects a deep commitment to understanding and addressing the challenges facing the global financial system.

His academic influence extends beyond research, as he has served in advisory roles to the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Cleveland, the Board of Governors, and several other prominent financial institutions and regulatory bodies internationally. As a Director of the National Stock Exchange of India and the NYU-Stern Initiative on the Study of Indian Capital Markets, he has demonstrated a keen interest in both domestic and global financial landscapes.

Notably, Dr. Acharya's tenure as the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from January 2017 to July 2019 reflects his practical engagement with monetary policy, financial stability, and market dynamics. This experience positions him uniquely as a bridge between academic theory and real-world policymaking.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Dr. Viral Acharya's "Quest for Restoring Financial Stability in India" emerges as a seminal work that transcends the conventional bounds of economic literature. Within its pages, Acharya weaves a narrative beyond a mere compilation of speeches and minutes, presenting a comprehensive exploration of India's financial landscape.

The book stands as a testament to his commitment to fostering a dialogue on the critical issues surrounding India's economic landscape during his tenure at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The collection of sixteen speeches and monetary policy minutes offers a comprehensive view of his insights, providing readers with a nuanced understanding of the challenges and potential solutions.

Acharya's acknowledgments set a poignant tone, portraying the speeches and minutes as more than mere documents but as his "voice, lifeblood, and raison d'être." This underscores the exhaustive effort invested in crafting these pieces, providing readers with a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the intricate workings that often evade the scrutiny of market observers. Dr. Y.V. Reddy's foreword adds a layer of context, linking fiscal accountability with financial stability through a quote from Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, thereby establishing a thematic connection that resonates throughout the book.

The preface, titled "Fiscal Dominance – A Theory of Everything in India," serves as the core of the book. Acharya employs a captivating narrative style, commencing with a reflection on the state of the Indian banking sector in 2017. This serves as a backdrop for a profound exploration of fiscal dominance and its pervasive influence on financial stability.

Divided into six sections, the book systematically addresses critical facets of India's financial challenges. The first section delves into the resolution of Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) and the imperative for bank recapitalization. This diagnosis of the banking sector's ailments leads to a two-pronged prescription: the need for banking reforms and the imperative development of financial markets.

The subsequent sections articulate Acharya's vision for a holistic financial system, each addressing a crucial aspect:

1. Resolving Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) and Recapitalizing Banks: Acharya's diagnosis of the banking sector's ailments leads to two critical prescriptions – the need for banking reforms and the development of financial markets.

2. Creating a Public Credit Registry: The call for a Public Credit Registry emerges as an integral component of the quest for financial stability, aiming to enhance credit information sharing and improve credit market efficiency.

3. Incorporating the Financial Cycle in the Monetary Policy Framework: Dr. Acharya advocates for an expanded approach to monetary policy, calling for the incorporation of considerations of the financial cycle to enhance its effectiveness.

4. Improving Monetary Policy Transmission: The book sheds light on the challenges faced in transmitting monetary policy effectively, suggesting measures to strengthen this crucial link in the financial system.

5. Developing Viable Capital Markets and Ensuring External Sector Resilience: Acharya emphasizes the importance of developing robust capital markets and ensuring resilience in the external sector, presenting a vision for a well-rounded financial system.

6. Striking the Right Balance: Enhancing the Autonomy of the Central Bank, the Markets, and the Real Economy: The final section delves into the delicate balance required between the central bank, markets, and the real economy, advocating for enhanced autonomy and clear rules.

The government debts and deficits exert a profound influence on central bank policies. The repercussions extend across the banking sector, default disclosure norms, monetary policy, market regulations, and reliance on alternative funding sources. Acharya's analogy of T20 cricket (government) versus Test cricket (RBI) succinctly encapsulates the core issue.

The book does not merely diagnose challenges but prescribes a roadmap for the central bank to navigate the complexities posed by fiscal dominance. It attempts to make the complexities of banking and regulatory oversight accessible to readers. The book's core message revolves around the divergent views on economic policies, primarily centered on the independence of the central bank.

The historical context is crucial to understanding the present dynamics. Until the enactment of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act of 2003, the RBI had been under close government control. A global trend towards central bank independence was observed from the mid-1990s. With inflation targeting becoming the top priority post-2003, the RBI faced a daunting challenge – the surge in non-performing assets, particularly in public sector banks. The government's reluctance to allow prudent oversight, especially in the last five years, marked a reversal in the earlier trend toward RBI independence. Acharya contends that the central bank should operate autonomously to ensure stability in the financial system, emphasizing the need for stringent rules, good governance, and minimal government interference.

In conclusion, "Quest for Restoring Financial Stability in India" is more than a book; it is a rallying call for a collective effort toward a stable and sustainable financial future. Dr. Viral Acharya's insights, drawn from extensive experience, offer a roadmap for policymakers, regulators, and the public to navigate the complexities of India's financial landscape. The book, with its comprehensive analysis and thought-provoking recommendations, stands as a significant contribution to economic literature and is a must-read for anyone invested in India's economic well-being. Acharya invites all stakeholders to engage in an open discussion, emphasizing the urgency of restoring financial stability for sustainable growth. The book serves as a vital resource for policymakers, economists, and anyone seeking insights into the challenges confronting India's financial sector.

Excerpts from the Interview:-

Q1) The Preface of your book sets the stage with a gripping narrative about the challenges faced by the Indian banking sector. Can you elaborate on the specific incidents or factors that led you to reflect on the state of the banking sector during your journey from New York to Mumbai in January 2017?

Viral Acharya: When I reflected on joining the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), it was around the time Governor Rajan finished his term, and Dr. Patel became the new Governor. This left a vacancy for the Deputy Governor position in charge of monetary policy, research, and markets. In July or August, I anticipated the announcement of this position for applications. Given my banking background and advisory roles in central banks globally, I decided to take on this role for two reasons. First, from a personal standpoint, working in a central bank is ideal for someone researching central banking, financial crises, and macro implications of finance. It allows you to apply your research rigorously and learn on the job. Second, and more importantly, I believe that India needed to address the issues in its banking sector. Drawing from my research and experience, I felt I could make a significant contribution to this effort. It was also a way for me to give back to India, a country that always feels like home to me. 

The speeches I gave as Deputy Governor were my way of advocating for change. These speeches covered various areas like resolving non-performing assets, setting up a public registry for transparency, improving monetary policy transmission, developing capital markets, and balancing the roles of the government, central bank, markets, and the private sector. These speeches were not just technical; I made an effort to explain complex ideas from basic principles, making them accessible to everyone. After my term ended, I realized I had contributed to changes in different areas. I wanted to offer a cohesive view of these contributions, reflecting on the common threads running through my speeches. 

This led to the extensive preface chapter in the book titled "Fiscal Dominance: A Theory of Everything in India." The main idea I aimed to convey is that India, after moving towards decentralization and privatization in the '90s, seems to be regressing towards centralization. The central bank, under pressure from the government's short-term demands and fiscal pressures, plays a crucial role in this. The book argues that we can no longer separate fiscal stability and financial stability; they are closely tied. The dominance of central bank policies is a powerful mechanism strengthening this link. The book offers a roadmap, simplifying concepts, presenting evidence, and suggesting reforms for both fiscal and financial stability. In essence, the book is part of my ongoing effort to advocate for necessary changes, aiming for sustainable and stable growth in India, moving away from entrenched poverty levels, and creating a better financial ecosystem.

Q2) You've outlined two key points to address the banking crisis, emphasizing the need to fix the health of the banking sector and develop financial markets. Can you share specific examples of the challenges faced in implementing these reforms and any unexpected roadblocks encountered during the process?

Viral Acharya: The challenge we face in India, and in other countries like China, is unique to emerging markets where a significant portion of the banking sector, and sometimes also of other financial firms like insurance companies and non-bank finance (NBFCs), is owned by the government. The problem arises when these government-owned banks incur massive losses. Strangely, even when losses are substantial, depositors still trust that the government will back the bank's liabilities, and they continue depositing money. During the global financial crisis, weaker public sector banks in India received more deposits because people believed in the safety of government-owned banks.

Now, why is this still a crisis? It's because we shouldn't only look at it from the perspective of depositors withdrawing their money. The real issue is that the health of banks is crucial for the well-being of the overall economy. Banks play a vital role in providing credit to individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, and large corporations, facilitating productive investments. When a bank is making losses and isn't getting recapitalized, the real economy suffers. In the case of undercapitalized state-owned banks, they engage in two problematic practices.

Firstly, they indulge in "zombie lending," where they keep extending loans to defaulted borrowers, essentially pretending that everything is fine. Regulators often turn a blind eye, leading to a situation where good money is thrown after bad. This practice ultimately burdens taxpayers with losses. Secondly, these undercapitalized banks resort to "lazy lending," meaning they prefer buying government bonds because they lack capital and avoid taking new risks. While these practices might seem fine in the short term, they have long-term consequences.

Zombie lending makes credit more expensive for the healthy parts of the economy. Lazy lending generates minimal returns on banks' balance sheets, hindering their ability to serve depositors effectively. In India, state-owned banks are gradually losing their share of deposits in the market, indicating a slow-moving crisis. Despite this gradual pace, the real engine of the economy, which relies on private credit, growth, and private investments, is stagnating. I refer to these issues as a "silent crisis" because they can persist for years, even a decade or more, causing a loss in the growth potential of the economy.

Q3) Your advocacy for strong, independent central banking is well-known. The prevailing sentiment among external observers is that India might be moving away from central bank independence. 

Viral Acharya: There is a significant connection between the government and the central bank, as I discuss in my book. Over time, the government's ability to manage balance sheets improves during periods of strong economic growth, making it easier to borrow at reasonable costs without dominating the central bank. This eliminates the need for interventions like interest rate cuts or relaxation of lending standards.

Economic conditions play a crucial role in shaping this dynamic. For instance, in the '70s and '80s, India operated as a centralized, nationalized economy with substantial state involvement in both the real economy and banking. However, imbalances accumulated, leading to a balance of payments crisis. The subsequent liberalization in the '90s created a conducive environment for the central bank to gain autonomy.

Despite these positive shifts, the global financial crisis disrupted the trend. Slower growth and fiscal stimulus measures weakened government balances, eroding the conditions for central bank autonomy. The household savings rate also declined over the last decade, further impacting the economy. This shift is reflected in the re-emergence of fiscal dominance over the central bank, marked by pressure points such as interventions in government bond markets and regulatory forbearances.   

In 2018, economic challenges included uneven growth post-demonetization, GST rollout stress, and rising core inflation. The government, eyeing the upcoming election, proposed transferring a significant portion of Reserve Bank provisions to fund populist spending. This move was resisted by the Reserve Bank to maintain operational autonomy, causing discussions around invoking Section 7 of the RBI Act.

Eventually, a committee, led by Dr. Bimal Jalan, outlined a framework for future transfers, ensuring transparency and a reasoned approach. The government, bypassing the original populist plan, received a justified transfer during the 2020 pandemic. While decisions and outcomes could be debated, the commitment to financial stability laid down over decades remains an advantage for the economy, unfolding over several years.

So, the importance of central bank independence, enshrined in the letter of the law, becomes crucial as conditions for fiscal dominance evolve. The weakness of existing laws, such as the RBI Act, underscores the need for institutions that promote rule-based decision-making, preventing undue pressure and maintaining regulatory standards.

Q4) How has the economic crisis, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the dynamics between governments and banks?

Viral Acharya: Drawing from my past experiences, even in the face of substantial shocks, maintaining a well-capitalized and robust banking system pays off in the long run. Reflecting on the aftermath of the global financial crisis, countries like the United States, which promptly addressed their banking system failures, demonstrated more robust growth and resilience compared to regions like parts of Europe, where decisive recapitalization did not occur. Applying this lesson to the COVID-19 crisis, it was crucial to provide relief and debt restructuring to the real economy. However, it was equally essential to devise a strategy for the banking sector to absorb resulting losses promptly. Delaying provision for those losses may lead to undercapitalized banks, focused on legacy issues rather than efficiently channeling capital for post-COVID recovery. While regulators globally have chosen a soft landing approach, economic losses must be acknowledged and prepared for to prevent leaving lasting scars on the real economy in the future. Therefore, the current favorable equity market conditions should be utilized decisively over the next few years to ensure the financial sector's health as we enter a phase of renewed growth impulses.

Q5) Your book has received acclaim for its proposed solutions to financial challenges. Could you briefly share some key messages for policymakers, and practitioners to take away after reading your book, considering its implications for India's economic trajectory?

Viral Acharya: The central themes revolve around two main pillars: fiscal and financial stability. On the fiscal side, operational autonomy for the central bank is crucial. The government should distance itself from public sector banks, considering options like reprivatization to reduce control rights. Strengthening the RBI Act is essential for empowering the central bank in overseeing public sector banks, and ensuring regulatory neutrality between private and public banks.

Moving to rule-based decision-making is the second pillar. Currently, discretion in central bank policies, especially in bank supervision, hampers financial stability. Adopting rule-based frameworks, similar to inflation targeting, enhances transparency and accountability. Implementing steady and accelerated provisioning, utilizing stress tests effectively, and avoiding mid-year changes to accounting rules are steps toward rule-based decision-making.

The third point emphasizes the central bank's role in resisting fiscal dominance. Asserting its independence and adhering to long-term mandates—protecting depositors, maintaining external sector stability, and ensuring price stability—are vital. Drawing clear lines upfront prevents compromise on these mandates.

Additionally, greater transparency in central bank research and making it accessible to a wider audience fosters a robust data-driven approach. Scrutiny and external input on central bank research contribute to improving the quality and discipline of the analyses.

Lastly, in the current scenario, capital infusion into banks, particularly public sector banks, is crucial to ensure in case stresses arise in the future. While restructuring schemes have been introduced when problems arise, a proactive definitive plan for bank recapitalization, especially through divestments and reprivatization, is essential. The focus on capital becomes paramount for restoring and then maintaining financial stability. For further details, I encourage readers to explore the book, which presents these concepts in an accessible manner.

Thank you all for reading and a big thanks to Viral Acharya for collaborating in today’s post!

The soul of Bahrisons resides not merely in its books but in the enchanting experience, it offers. While digital platforms beckon modern readers, this haven remains steadfast, catering to a niche of aficionados who cherish the tactile embrace of a book, the delicate scent of pages, the joy of perusing aisles, and the allure of meaningful conversations with kindred spirits. Anuj Bahri Malhotra, the torchbearer of this cherished legacy, embraces the dreams of his father and his own, vowing to quench every visitor's literary thirst.

The bookstore's history, etched in pages of dedication, reflects an unwavering commitment to its patrons. Bahrisons, a name synonymous with warmth and knowledge, welcomed book lovers, scholars, diplomats, authors, and luminaries alike into its fold. Its treasure trove of over one lakh titles, including diverse genres from history to biographies, stands as a testament to its passion for catering to the nuanced tastes of its clientele.

In the intricate web of this literary haven, stories abound. The store's resilience is evident in its rare closures, occurring only twice in 70 years, each marking a poignant moment—the passing of Anuj's father and the unprecedented lockdown due to the pandemic. Despite trials, Bahrisons emerged stronger, ensuring readers had access to books even during trying times. The ethos of familial bonding and personal connections underscores every facet of Bahrisons, instilling a sense of belonging that transcends physical borders.

Anuj, an integral part of this legacy since his teenage years, acknowledges the transformation brought about by time. With a team driven solely by their passion for books, he has nurtured an environment of personalized care, valuing trust over-exploitation. The stories of dedicated staff members like Mithilesh Singh, who embodies a sponge-like enthusiasm for books, add depth to the store's narrative.

The bookstore's evolution mirrors Anuj's visionary approach. Balancing tradition with innovation, Bahrisons embarked on ventures like the RedInk literary agency and the revival of Tara India Research Press. Despite the digital age's threats, Bahrisons flourishes in its expansion to 10 stores across various cities a testament to its enduring spirit.

Beyond its commercial success, Bahrisons stands as a beacon of personalized service, commitment to readers, and fostering a culture of shared knowledge. The legacy meticulously passed down through generations and imbibed by every staff member culminates in a unique blend of familial warmth and professional excellence.

In an exclusive conversation, Anuj Bahri Malhotra shared insights into Bahrisons’ legacy and vision, offering a glimpse into the heart of this beloved bookstore. Anuj’s dedication, combined with the relentless commitment of the entire Bahrisons family, underscores their unwavering resolve to continue shaping literary landscapes for generations to come.

Excerpts from the Interview :

Q1) "The Chronicle of a Bookshop" beautifully captures the journey of Bahrisons over its 70 years of existence. Could you share a bit about the inception of Bahrisons and the significant milestones that shaped its rich history?

Anuj Sir: The seed of a bookstore was sown in the fertile ground of determination and resilience, nurtured by the unwavering spirit of a young man amidst the uncertainties of the post-partition era.

Balraj Bahri, my father, embodied a steadfast resolve to carve a path of dignity and success in an unfamiliar city where adversity loomed large. Joblessness was never a viable option for him; instead, he embarked on a humble yet astute journey as a bookseller in New Delhi.

Q2) In an age dominated by digital reading and online purchases, Bahrisons continues to thrive as a beloved physical bookstore. What do you attribute this enduring success to, amidst the changing landscape of book-buying habits?

Anuj Sir: Books stand as perennial companions in a person's life, an ever-reliable refuge for those solitary moments and aimless hours. They are the steadfast friends we yearn for when solitude envelops us. Despite the vast landscape of digital reading options, the priceless sensation of holding a book, flipping through its pages, and feeling its weight in our hands evokes an irreplaceable joy.

Often, when a book captivates us in the digital realm, the instinctual longing emerges to possess its physical form, adorning our libraries or collections. In essence, our role is simple: bridging the gap between the pleasure of reading and the comfort of ownership. Our bookstore stands as a beacon, ever ready to assist and connect readers with their desired realms of literary satisfaction. As long as there exists even a single reader yearning to explore our collection, our dedication to this cause will endure.

Q3) The bookstore holds a treasure trove of diverse genres. How do you curate such an extensive collection, and what philosophy guides your selection process for the books offered at Bahrisons?

Anuj Sir: Our fundamental philosophy revolves around a deep understanding of our readers' needs. Central to our approach is a commitment to listen intently and allow their preferences to chart our course. While a dedicated team of 5-6 individuals curates collections across all our stores, it's truly the tastes and desires of our customers that serve as our compass in ensuring a diverse and compelling collection year-round. Our customers, in essence, stand as our primary guides, illuminating the path toward a well-rounded and satisfying selection.

Q4) Bahrisons seems to be more than just a bookstore; it's a community hub for book lovers. Can you share a memorable instance that illustrates the unique connections and experiences fostered within its walls?

Anuj Sir: Our customers are an extension of our family, forging generational connections that span from grandparents to great-grandchildren. Within these relationships reside a tapestry of intertwined stories and cherished memories, weaving together the essence of our journey.

Q5) As a significant part of Delhi's cultural fabric, Bahrisons must have witnessed numerous transformations. How has the bookstore evolved to stay relevant while maintaining its distinctive charm over the years?

Anuj Sir: As purveyors of books, our methods of operation have undergone a transformative evolution. Transitioning from traditional retail bookselling to embracing online platforms and digital media, our journey encapsulates a full circle of change. Yet, the enduring essence lies in living with intent, dedicated to the service we offer. As long as our purpose remains rooted in serving others, relevance will naturally find its place in our existence.

Q6) "The Chronicle of a Bookshop" delves into your journey - becoming a successful entrepreneur in the Indian literary world. What were some of the most challenging and rewarding moments along this path?

Anuj Sir: The respect that my family has earned in a world that was alien to us, is the biggest reward that anyone could ask for – and that, the people of this great country have showered us with in abundance. This is our greatest take from the humble work and service that we offer.

Q7) Beyond being a place for selling books, Bahrisons appears to be a sanctuary for readers seeking an immersive experience. How do you cultivate an environment encouraging book exploration, discussions, and interactions among visitors?

Anuj Sir: Initially, avoid placing labels on shelves as that will spark curiosity and encourage browsing.

Secondly, refrain from interrupting a new reader while they skim through a book. They need to gain confidence in understanding the content.

Lastly, allow individuals the freedom to explore the space without interference. Leave them alone to explore🙂

Q8) The bookstore has undoubtedly seen a surge in various reading formats. How do you balance catering to both traditional book enthusiasts and those exploring e-reading options within the bookstore's ethos?

Anuj Sir: Both formats—print and digital—are akin to various beverages; everyone has their preferred choice. What matters most is that the reader is engaged in reading and purchasing. Let them choose the medium they find most comfortable. Ultimately, regardless of their choice, there's still a gain for the bookstore.🙂

Q9) Delhi has a vibrant literary scene. How does Bahrisons contribute to and engage with this community, whether through events, partnerships, or initiatives supporting local authors and readers?

Anuj Sir: BAHRISONS thrives on supporting and promoting local authors, valuing their work immensely. Author signings catalyze like-minded individuals to gather and connect, fostering a sense of community. Each contribution, no matter how small, plays a significant role in this endeavor.

Q10) The book market has seen rapid changes globally. What makes an independent bookstore like Bahrisons stand out and thrive in an era dominated by larger chains and online retailers?

Just follow the advice below ↓

↓ ↓

Q11) "The Chronicle of a Bookshop" captures the essence of Bahrisons. Could you elaborate on how the writing process for this book unfolded and what you hope readers will take away from the story of your bookstore's history?

It’s just a journey that life offered, that we have documented.

It is one man’s quest to decently support his family with respect and gratitude. 

If any of my readers here, wish to know more about this fascinating independent bookstore and their undying spirit concerning the books. Do open the links mentioned below. They have a wonderful informative, articulated, and well-curated website. It has all the essential details about the upcoming author events as well as their latest book offerings!

Website :

https://www.booksatbahri.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bahrisons.booksellers/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bahrisons_booksellers/

Twitter : https://twitter.com/Bahrisons_books