Before we redefined what normal meant, my emergency tip-calculating brain cells always did the work to calculate the cost of gratitude and good service. If I was happy and satisfied, it’s a no-brainer 20%. If the server continued to address me as Roger or Rodge instead of Raj, maybe 10%? If I was having the best time of my life, it could be a whopping 25%. If the good times got me drunk, then I wouldn’t even remember what I had scribbled on until the regretful morning after. In general, restaurant tipping is easy. The measure of my satisfaction is an easy formula.

But lately, that formula feels broken. Ever since the pandemic, the news is full of inflation reports—none of them good. The Biden administration flip-flopped on the softness of the “soft landing” they predicted to keep hope alive, kept reminding us that we were not all that inflated. Still, prices soared, and my latte lifestyle took a nosedive.

A year later, here comes the Trump administration’s version of relief—a headline inflation rate hovering around 3% for much of 2025. Trump’s team touts progress, even flashing numbers like 2.7% “average inflation” from January to September, with promises that kitchen staples are getting cheaper. The White House points out that some basic grocery prices actually dropped, but the collective wallet hardly feels any lighter. Meanwhile, voters are still frustrated: years of price hikes don’t simply unwind. My cold brew still feels like a splurge, and somehow, “making lattes great again” isn’t part of the campaign just yet.

If there’s a ‘soft landing’ somewhere, it’s not showing up at my local café. Whether it’s Biden’s post-pandemic battle or Trump’s new round of tariff-fueled sticker shock, the American price tag still feels heavier than my conscience after a second fancy espresso. Politicians may celebrate slowing inflation, but for those of us doing the daily math—latte in one hand, calculator in the other—the squeeze is as real as ever.

The bitter truth, according to the experts, is that pre-pandemic prices at the grocery store aren’t coming back. A true price drop—deflation—is actually bad news for the economy. What we’re told to hope for is disinflation: prices holding steady, not dropping. In other words, those $6 lattes aren’t going anywhere—they’re here to stay.

Nowadays, the base price for a regular latte is over $6, then maybe you add in vanilla syrup, which costs you an extra dollar, and ask for oat milk, which is a dollar more. You’re now staring at an $8 drink, plus taxes and, assuming you’re doing the right thing here, at least a $1 tip.1

Every dollar counts.

Not just for my Barista, an hourly wageworker, but also for me — the coffee-art loving customer who lives pay-check to pay-check. So when I tip my Barista for the coffee I bought, it’s generally a happy transaction. Tipping is my way to express gratitude for the service I expect or hope to receive. At times, it’s simply a friendly gesture between acquaintances. As the gratitude-giver in this relationship, I add that extra 15-20% for the warm welcome, for making me feel important, and for knowing exactly how I like my coffee — never too sweet, always in a mug, and extra hot.

But when every dollar counts, with the prices already inflated on everything from eggs to gas, this “happiness contract” needs to have some basic rules. Because it has gotten out of hand.

Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely no debate to why good service needs to be appreciated with extra gratitude. After all, it’s a tradition that tracks back to 17th century taverns and inns.

What grinds my gears is the math that goes into pre-defined tipping recommendations at the point-of-service checkout machines. The business owners who set it up seem to take the customer for granted.

For instance, why would the merch (sticker, cap, tee, etc.) that I picked up from the counter along with my coffee require a default 15% tip? Shouldn’t those orders be kept separate?

Why would a takeout order require a tip when it was ordered over an app or online with minimal human interaction? We are already paying for the cost of the product and the service as part of the MRP, aren’t we?

What about the audacity of the unmanned kiosk at the airport vending machine asking for tips? Not only are we allowing machines and AI to take over human jobs, we also want to tip them for it.

Needless to say, this culture of tipping in America has gone wild. What started out in the restaurant industry as a way to foster an environment built on quality of service, has been adopted widely in the food-service industry to delivery apps and anything with an app face. This has led to the culture of guilt-tipping, which is what most of us are defaulting to these days.

The tipping culture is truly unique to America—not merely a matter of custom, but an unwavering expectation etched into every meal and service transaction. Unlike in most other countries, where a modest 10–15% tip is generous and never obligatory, in the United States the act of tipping can feel more like a requirement than a reward. In the UK, much of the EU, and countless other regions, leaving a tip is seen as a courteous gesture, appreciated but never demanded. In fact, tipping in some places can even be unwelcome: in Japan, for instance, offering a tip can be considered impolite or even insulting, a gesture that disrupts the pride and professionalism built into service itself.

When I traveled to Japan in September, I was struck by the absence of tipping culture—and more importantly, by the relief it brought. There were no iPads swiveled toward me at the end of the meal, no silent or direct cues, no awkward pause while the server glanced away, waiting to see whether I would hit the “20%” button, or add a few dollars more for fear of being thought stingy. In Japan, the price listed is the price paid. The exchange—a meal for money, service for gratitude—is already balanced and complete.

Tipping in Japan is not expected, and attempts to leave a tip will almost certainly be turned down (a potentially awkward moment). In Japan, it’s thought that by dining out or drinking at a bar, you are already paying the establishment for good service.2

That stark contrast lays bare just how ingrained and transactional American tipping has become. Here, every coffee run and casual meal now ends with a digital ask for “generosity,” pushing customers to question not just their appreciation but their social standing and sense of fairness. Abroad, gratitude is reserved for moments that truly move you; in America, it sometimes feels like gratitude is demanded by default, making both customer and worker question the real meaning behind every exchange.

In my frequent travels to India, the Middle East, and Australia, I’ve never felt the sticky guilt that comes with tipping in America. In those places, a small token of thanks—some leftover change, a modest amount, or sometimes nothing at all—is simply left behind if you wish. The gesture carries no social weight, no pressure. Locals seem entirely unconcerned, and the baseline expectation is that good service is part of the job, not something to be bought in increments at the end of the meal.

There, tipping is what it was originally meant to be—a spontaneous act of gratitude, reserved for occasions when you are genuinely moved to give thanks, not a mandatory supplement to a substandard wage. In stark contrast, American tipping culture has become loaded with obligation and anxiety, fueled by digital prompts and social expectations that can feel impossible to escape. Here, it’s not uncommon to tip out of guilt rather than gratitude, caught in a system where the “choice” is more about economic survival for workers than appreciation from customers.

As the rest of the world upholds the principle that good service is a standard—not a luxury paid for one tip at a time—America’s practice leaves everyone second guessing: am I generous enough, too generous, or unintentionally shortchanging someone whose livelihood hinges on my decision? In a tough economy, the meaning of tipping here has shifted, becoming less about thanks, and more about the burden of keeping a broken system afloat.

So, what’s so unique about America?

Up next: a deep dive into America’s tipping culture, and what I learned from my Q&A with Dr. Saru Jayaraman. - a leading labor activist, author, and president of One Fair Wage, nationally recognized for her relentless crusade to end sub-minimum wages and transform America’s tipping culture into one rooted in fairness and dignity.

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At a follow-up press meet, with the same YouTuber present, the topic resurfaced and Gouri immediately pushed back—asking how her weight was relevant to the film, emphasising that women come in all shapes and sizes, and insisting her work, not her body, should be the focus. For over 10-12 minutes, she defended her basic right to bodily autonomy and professional respect before a room full of social media influencers whose reviews hold significant sway over a film’s success. The packed audience recorded the incident on their smartphones, but her co-star, director, and team on stage remained silent. The lack of support from those closest to her, and the quiet watchfulness of the room, spoke volumes about the broader culture of indifference she was confronting.

As I watched the social media clips replay repeatedly over the past several weeks—clips that captured national attention—one moment stood out above all, reminding me of how deeply entrenched patriarchy, male ego, and family hierarchies continue to silence women and chastise men in South India.

It was the expression on Gouri Kishan’s face, vividly captured on camera, that spoke volumes to me: an extraordinary blend of helplessness and fierce courage.

She was summoning the strength to hold back tears, to stand tall in a room dominated by men, and fight not only for her own dignity but for every woman who has endured similar indignities. That sustained moment embodies the quiet resilience and bravery required to confront a culture that often demands silence from those it seeks to marginalize.

This is what makes Gouri Kishan’s stand so profoundly inspiring—it is a testament to the courage required to claim respect in the face of disregard. In a recent interview with India Today, Gouri reflects candidly on the incident and on that powerful moment captured on camera—the moment that left a lasting impression on me.

The Silence of Institutions: Why Support Failed Gouri Kishan in Real Time

The most troubling aspect of Gouri Kishan’s experience was not the offensive question itself, but the collective silence that surrounded it. In a room full of journalists, media professionals, film industry veterans, and her own co-star and director, virtually no one spoke up in her defense while she was being subjected to this treatment. This silence is not accidental—it reflects deeply embedded patterns in Indian society where women’s voices, particularly when they challenge male authority or established norms, are systematically marginalized and silenced. Research on women journalists in South Asia reveals a troubling pattern: women who challenge patriarchal norms face severe backlash, yet institutional support is virtually non-existent. Even more concerning is the realization that institutions—whether media organizations, film bodies, or corporate environments—often do not consider it their responsibility to intervene when gender-based disrespect occurs in real time.​​

The delayed support that eventually came for Gouri Kishan—triggered only after her video went viral on social media—highlights a significant structural issue in patriarchal societies: women’s voices often gain recognition not through institutional backing, but through widespread public validation. Press clubs, South Indian film industry bodies, and cinema collectives ultimately issued statements condemning the behavior and expressing solidarity. Numerous actors also publicly supported her. However, this backing emerged only after the incident became impossible to ignore due to viral social media attention. This pattern exposes how institutions in India tend to be reactive rather than proactive in addressing gender-based harassment and discrimination. They frequently await public pressure before taking any action, implying that without widespread social media outcry, such incidents might have been dismissed or relegated to the background noise of everyday misogyny.

Before you continue reading this free preview of an important issue that deserves understanding, discussion, and action, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. The algorithms need to be bribed so it prioritises and broadcasts these stories to a wider audience. It’s the world we live in. So your contribution makes that possible.

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The YouTube Journalist vs. The Professional: A Question of Accountability

One of the unsettling aspects of Gouri Kishan’s experience was the role played by a so-called journalist—a YouTuber who asked the insensitive question that was less about insight and more about spectacle. The casual cruelty of that question, posed in front of cameras and a crowd, felt like an object lesson in how the new media landscape pressures film promotions to cater not to journalistic rigor, but to clicks and controversy.

This is not to dismiss the evolving landscape of journalism. YouTube creators have democratized access, given voice to many unheard, and challenged traditional gatekeepers. But with this power comes responsibility—responsibility that seems glaringly absent in that moment. The YouTuber’s question was framed as innocent curiosity, yet it reduced a professional actor to a body measurement, an object to be weighed and sized rather than respected for craft.

Contrast this with the kind of journalism practiced by seasoned reporters from global outfits like the BBC or CNN. These professionals are trained to pursue lines of inquiry that reveal character, context, and complexity. They understand when a question crosses from inquiry into insensitivity. Their ethos is not to generate clicks through discomfort, but to illuminate truth with empathy and respect.

The film fraternity, caught between traditional media and this newer model of content creators, finds itself in a precarious position. These YouTube journalists wield significant influence, shaping public perception through viral moments. Consequently, events that should be platforms for meaningful dialogue become arenas for sensationalism, often at the expense of dignity—particularly women’s.

The question then arises: should the industry implicitly endorse such conduct by giving airtime, by allowing these moment-driven queries to eclipse thoughtful discourse? And if not, what accountability mechanisms exist for these new media figures who straddle the line between journalism and entertainment? Who upholds standards when the lines blur?

Gouri Kishan’s ordeal shines a spotlight on these tensions. It exposes a system that prioritizes virality and spectacle over respect and professionalism. It challenges us to reconsider not just what questions we ask, but who we call a journalist—and what that title entails in this new age.

In a world reshaped by digital platforms, the hope is that the core values of journalism—truth, respect, ethical responsibility—are not casualties of this transition, but rather its guiding stars. Only then can we hope to create spaces where artists like Gouri are valued beyond physicality, and where questions are bridges to understanding, not weapons of marginalization.

Patriarchy, Male Ego, and Family Hierarchies: A Personal Context

To truly understand Gouri Kishan’s experience, it is essential to look at the specific cultural dynamics of South India, where deeply entrenched patriarchal hierarchies persist despite the region’s reputation for high literacy rates and relative progressivism.

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My card tapped. 
The cashier pretended to look away. 
There was an awkward moment of silence. 
The obligatory screen. The customary tip. 
Am I being judged? Who’s behind me? I can’t decide. 
Should I just close my eyes and pin the tail on the donkey? 
I will go low. 15% then, or maybe a dollar?  
Am I being cheap? But it makes no sense.
They make coffee and I already paid for it. 
What’s it for? Who gets it? What’s appropriate? 
10% seems ok. But that’s custom. 
More screens. More time. More awkwardness.
What if I don’t tip? Will she notice? Does he care? 
Tap something. Just tap and leave.
Tap. 20%. Awkward silence ends. 
They smile. We will call your name when it’s ready.

I blame it all on our post-pandemic economy. Prices have gone up because the cost of goods has gone up. Have you felt the pinch yet?

Many Americans are in a sour mood about the economy for one main reason: Prices feel too high.1

Before we redefined what normal meant, my emergency tip-calculating brain cells always did the work to calculate the cost of gratitude and good service. If I was happy and satisfied, it’s a no-brainer 20%. If the server continued to address me as Roger or Rodge instead of Raj, maybe 10%? If I was having the best time of my life, it could be a whopping 25%. If the good times got me drunk, then I wouldn’t even remember what I had scribbled on until the regretful morning after. In general, restaurant tipping is easy. The measure of my satisfaction is an easy formula.

The inflation reports have been no good since the great pandemic. The Biden administration slightly flip-flopped on the softness of the “soft landing” they predicted. He still wants us to keep hope alive, reminding us that he got our inflation way down from its record high numbers a year ago. True! Still, prices are up, and I never used to feel this guilty about my latte lifestyle.

On whether we will see pre-pandemic prices at the grocery stores? Experts say no. Because, price drop = deflation = bad for economy. But disinflation = the stabilization of prices = good for economy. All that to say, the $6 lattes are here to stay.

Nowadays, the base price for a regular latte is over $6, then maybe you add in vanilla syrup, which costs you an extra dollar, and ask for oat milk, which is a dollar more. You’re now staring at an $8 drink, plus taxes and, assuming you’re doing the right thing here, at least a $1 tip.2

Part 1: Every dollar counts.

Not just for my Barista, an hourly wageworker, but also for me — the coffee-art loving customer who lives pay-check to pay-check. So when a Barista is tipped for the coffee I bought, it’s a happy transaction. Tipping is a way to express my gratitude for the service I expect or hope to receive. At times, it’s simply a friendly gesture between acquaintances. As the gratitude-giver in this relationship, I add that extra 15-20% for the warm welcome, for making me feel important, and for knowing exactly how I like my coffee — never too sweet, always in a mug, and extra hot.

But when every dollar counts, with the prices already inflated on everything from eggs to gas, this “happiness contract” needs to have some basic rules. Because it has gotten out of hand.

Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely no debate to why good service needs to be appreciated with extra gratitude. After all, it’s a tradition that tracks back to 17th century taverns and inns.

What grinds my gears is the math that goes into pre-defined tipping recommendations at the point-of-service checkout machines. The business owners who set it up seem to take the customer for granted.

For instance, why would the merch (sticker, cap, tee, etc.) that I picked up from the counter along with my coffee require a default 15% tip? Shouldn’t those orders be kept separate?

Why would a takeout order require a tip when it was ordered over an app or online with minimal human interaction? We are already paying for the cost of the product and the service as part of the MRP, aren’t we?

What about the audacity of the unmanned kiosk at the airport vending machine asking for tips? Not only are we allowing machines and AI to take over human jobs, we also want to tip them for it.

Needless to say, this culture of tipping in America has gone wild. What started out in the restaurant industry as a way to foster an environment built on quality of service, has been adopted widely in the food-service industry to delivery apps and anything with an app face. This has led to the culture of guilt-tipping, which is what most of us are defaulting to these days.

The tipping culture is unique in America. It is expected, not just customary. While you won’t offend the wait staff with a 10-15% add-on tip in most other countries, including the UK and the EU, make a note that tipping in Japan could backfire on you.

Tipping in Japan is not expected, and attempts to leave a tip will almost certainly be turned down (a potentially awkward moment). In Japan, it’s thought that by dining out or drinking at a bar, you are already paying the establishment for good service.3

In my frequent travels to India, The Middle East, and Australia, I have never had to tip out of guilt. They are happy with what we leave behind in the bill/check holder, maybe it's the change, or perhaps a little more, or nothing at all. The locals definitely don’t seem to care. Good service is always expected in the hospitality industry, as it should be, and the tip after is a gratitude reserved for the grateful.

So, what’s so unique about America? Stay tuned for Part 2, as we continue to explore America’s tipping culture — the troubled history from pre-emancipation days, and about those who are fighting the good fight on the frontlines against the other NRA — the National Restaurant Association.

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The report focused on a physical gap left open and unattended at the end of the southern border fence that is being exploited by illegal migrants. They sneak in while an armed U.S. border patrol silently watches on without taking any action. While it is surprising that this passage has not been barricaded yet, what is more alarming are the ethnicities of these migrants. They are not Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, or Venezuelans. They are not from Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, or Honduras. The majority of illegal migrations crossing over are from China and India.

Near this illegal entry point is a private property north of the border that belongs to Jerry Shuster, a 70+ year-old resident of Jacumba Hot Springs, California, located about 75 miles east of San Diego. The migrants enter Jerry’s property and unapologetically use his resources to camp out and endure their first cold California night.

Jerry, who was interviewed for 60-minutes, estimated about 3000 illegals trespassing into this property every week. All day long, from sunrise to sunset, there are batches of a dozen or more migrants getting dropped off every 30 mins. Many of them discard their passports on their way in, and wait for U.S. border control to register them. Within a week, they are allocated to a city where they can start a new asylum life in The United States — the land of the free, home for the brave.

With the world in disarray due to ongoing conflicts and wars, refugees and asylum seekers are heading toward The United States in unprecedented numbers2. Meanwhile, the plight of American citizens like Jerry, who migrated legally in 1969 from former Yugoslavia, seems to be falling on deaf ears.

“We have a very difficult situation here, they’re knocking our fences down, they don’t obey the rules, they’re burning down our trees, they’re burning down our fence poles, they are coming near our homes, we don’t know who these people are, we really don’t.” 3

This is the largest mass illegal migration of Asians from east to west at a time when the open-door policies of the Biden administration are being challenged by a Republican opposition. Many conservatives across the country call this an invasion of America, whereas the more liberal minds would find it disheartening and disturbing to watch as I did.

What you will read next is the modus operandi of these migrants from China and India trying to escape two economically stable and prosperous countries.

• Part 1: Understanding the East Asian route from China to the U.S. southern border

• Part 2: Understanding the South Asian route from India to the U.S. southern border

• Part 3: Comparative analysis of migrants from China and India based on publicly available data of encounters at the U.S. southern border

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This was the first time I had arrived in the country on an American passport, and being granted a visa on-arrival was a privilege I did not have before. But as soon as I stepped outside, I was just another brown man on the streets of Dubai, soon to be lost in the crowd.

The UAE is among the top 5 ranked safest countries in the Middle East due to their low crime rate attributed to strict laws, a stable economy, and a diverse population of expatriates from around the world making tax-free money. According to my family, friends, and even some strangers I met there, America is still the wild, wild west. The lack of gun control and rising racial tensions are all they see, besides the obvious infatuation with Hollywood movies, of course. I was constantly reminded of the fact that Dubai is safe, America is not.

In Dubai, malls and shopping centers are open late, especially during the holidays, and shopping is usually a late night activity. It helps that Dubai has a very robust public transportation network. The Dubai Metro, one of the best in the world, allows its residents to roam the city with ease, without any concern for safety. I saw late-shift working women traveling alone, families with young kids, youngsters in packs, hopping on and off the metro well past midnight. Then they would take a connecting bus or hire taxis towards home in a neighboring city where rent is comparatively cheaper.

This was however not the case where I grew up in the Middle East. My dad, an expat, worked in Bahrain for about 5 years before relocating to Saudi Arabia in the late 70s. I spent 9 years of my school years in The Kingdom, from 1985 to 1994, with a 2-year hiatus in between to dodge Saddam’s skud attacks.

It was a luxurious life for a naive kid like me, living a protected life. But I wouldn't call it safe. Unbeknownst to me, there existed an evil that revealed itself gradually in my teenage years.

You see, in the 90s Saudi Arabia, we were taught to keep our documents with us at all times, a thick collection of photocopies of my Dad’s passport and the residence visa permit (the Iqama). Whenever we stepped out of the comfort of our air-conditioned apartments, even it was for a short walk to nearby convenience stores, we would carry these documents with us for verification purposes. It was a strange land where the Arab men always had the final say.

I once witnessed a man tied to a streetlight pole on the footpath of a bustling night market, being flogged by uniformed policemen while shoppers moved about with their families and shopping bags. My dad explained to me that the sounds of men cheering outside a mosque in a crowded neighborhood, was the stoning of women for their crimes. I distinctly remember the vehement hand gestures of a bearded man in a white robe, as they pulled up next to our car at a traffic light stop, ordering my mom to remove her bindi until she obeyed. These religious cops, the Muthaveen, the upholders of morality in The Kingdom, were frequently seen in our Indian Embassy School escorted by school authorities as they inspected how staff and students dressed and mingled with one another.

Once, I almost witnessed a public beheading outside an Islamic Center as I was riding my BMX over to my friend’s house. My friends and I were almost kidnapped by four Arab men in a white Toyota Corolla. We were 10.

The shock value of these incidents always faded away as we returned to our restricted expat lives, oblivious to the various cases of assault and abuse kept hidden from public scrutiny.

This was the time when King Fahd from the House of Saud ruled the land. Everyone knew the King, from the posters plastered alongside highway billboards, on the walls of every shop, framed at every place of business — watching us, demanding our respect, instilling fear so we never fell of line.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an islamic state, has a judicial system based on Shari'ah law, for criminal and civil cases. While many countries adopt this law, some countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan implement its strictest form of punishment.

Those who committed petty crimes such as public intoxication, harassment and extramarital sex were punished by flogging, usually carried out in public. Theft was punishable more severely, such as chopping off your right hand. Those who dare to commit adultery, especially women, were sentenced to death by stoning. This was the Saudi Arabia I grew up in.

Saudi Arabia has seen change over the past 9 years under King Salman’s rule. His enigmatic, well-spoken, media-friendly son, the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (aka MBS) has set out to modernize Saudi and morph it into an appealing tourist destination by 2030. He brought about early social reforms in the country, such as allowing women the right to drive, and by reigning in the unchecked powers of religious policing. Most recently, he abolished flogging as a form of punishment and released political activists from decades of imprisonment. MBS wants to create an image of a less conservative Saudi Arabia on the global stage. But is that enough?

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA), a state-owned news agency entrusted to report on executions, reported 196 mass executions in 2022, and over 170 in 2023 by closing off the year with 4 executions on NYE. Human rights advocates are concerned that the actual numbers could be much higher. Amongst the 170 was a 54-year-old Saudi school teacher sentenced to death for his peaceful yet critiquing tweets against the government under the charges of cyberterrorism.

FreedomHouse is a long-standing American non-profit organization which tracks and reports on “Freedom in the world”. Each year they reassess the score awarded to 210 countries. These scores are derived out of global democratic ideals intended to hold governments accountable to their people. So it comes as no surprise that they have classified Saudi Arabia as “NOT FREE” since 2015. In comparison, they have classified Dubai and India as “PARTIALLY FREE” while the Americas, Europe, and Australia are all awarded the “FREE” status. Click here for an interactive map and see how they have classified your country of choice.

This is where the story gets complicated for me.

There is a strong narrative around the world, and among 50% of Americans, that the increasing incidents of mass shootings in North America are a result of the lack of stricter gun control. Over the past 8 years, the freedom of expression in this country has become a politically charged topic, resulting in dire consequences when powerful voices incite radical thinking. What if this is the true cost of freedom.

Would we rather be “free” in a country where we have the right to redefine the very definition of freedom?

Or, would a “partially free” country, like the UAE, be better positioned to safeguard our freedom by controlling some aspects of our life?

Or, is freedom merely a choice given to the few who behave in accordance to the authoritarian rules of the “not free” monarchy’s?

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Yet, the priority of the government, a puppet show of corrupt or exiled public personalities dancing to the string pulls of their military masters, is to pay the rich with the bailout money that they begged and borrowed from the IMF while the rest of the country struggles.

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There was a lot of money in that package, 1.2 trillion to be exact, for repairing our bridges, roads, public transportation network and more. This was a big deal, especially since the only notable infrastructure investment by the Trump administration was a border wall.

The “Trump Wall” sounded crazy at the time, but now not so much when compared to the “Iron Wall” that Israel built to keep the Palestinians out. I guess when we hear “walls” we think of the Berlin Wall, and it sounds bad.

Ironically, Biden is having to put the finishing touches by allocating $950 million of the Trump-era funds, clearly contradicting his earlier proclamations about its effectiveness. Politics!

At the signing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in November 2021, which kicked off Biden’s 1st year with an early political win, here’s what he said:

“My message to the American people is this: America is moving again, and your life is going to change for the better.”

Did it, though? Two years later, as an election year approaches us, I can’t help wonder: Where’s all that money gone/going?

Here’s what the IIJA boldly set out to achieve in a nutshell, excerpted from the White House statement:

1. Deliver clean water, reducing dependency on service lines

2. Access to reliable high-speed internet

3. Repair and rebuild our roads and bridges with a focus on climate change mitigation, resilience, equity, and safety for all users

4. Improve transportation options, reduce greenhouse emissions through the largest investment in public transit in U.S. history

5. Upgrade airports and ports

6. Make the largest investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak

7. Build a national network of electric vehicle (EV) chargers

8. Upgrade power infrastructure to deliver clean, reliable energy to achieve a zero-emissions future

9. Build resilience against the impacts of climate change, cyber-attacks, and extreme weather events

10. Tackle legacy pollution in American history

Phew! What a tall order. Did the Biden-Harris government oversell and underdeliver?

According to the recent Timeout survey, when it comes to the best in class public transportation, NYC and Chicago rank lower compared to European and East Asian cities that dominate the top 10.

Fast-growing cities like Nashville, Tennessee, ranked #1 among US cities with the hardest commute, are in dire need for a commuter rail network to connect its suburbs and exurbs. A promising referendum called “Let’s Move Nashville” got derailed 5 years ago. The IIJA should have solved that and revived such efforts across the nation. Instead, the only reported evidence is of Portland, Honolulu, and St. Paul furthering their rail projects by dipping into the IIJA funding. Incidentally, they are also democratic stronghold cities that Biden banks on for a repeat victory, which begs the question: Did bipartisanism die when the ink dried?

Amtrak is another example of all talk and slow progress. How far did the $66 billion that was allocated solely for the purpose of upgrading Biden’s beloved railway network help in expanding it beyond the Northeast corridor? When it comes to intercity high-speed rail, the indisputable truth is that America falls drastically behind Europe and Asia. China leads (obviously) with Japan, Korea, Germany, Spain, and Italy featuring in the top 10.

India, one of the fastest growing economies, is following suit with the Vande Bharat high-speed train network. We are seeing increased spending on green energy initiatives under the Modi government, and the results are showing. In fact, the 2023-24 budget allocated close to $25 billion to the Ministry of Railways, the highest ever railway spend to date. Additionally, the latest budget also allocated close to $30 billion to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) for 25000 kilometers of road development projects.

So, when developing countries like India can operationalize over 30 routes for high-speed trains in a span of just 4 years, with a fraction of the spending power, it begs the question: Why is America still trailing behind?

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Granted, it may be easier to go full throttle in a country where cheap labor is not hard to find, unlike the United States. Biden’s infrastructure czar, Mitch Landrieu, echoed this sentiment in an interview to The New Republic in March 2023.

According to Mitch, $200 billion of the funding has been dispersed just last year for over 20,000 projects and awards in all 50 states and U.S. territories, which includes,

• Starting repairs to more than 69,000 miles of roadway

• 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations

• 3,700 bridge repair and replacement projects

• Over 5,000 clean transit school buses

• Approve state plans for water funding and high-speed internet deployment

Mitch says he understands the public skepticism and underscores the challenges his team faces to implement something this big, a project that could take up to 15-years and span multiple administrations. So, Biden is set to travel the country and talk about the completed projects, and like any politician looking to get re-elected would do, we are likely to hear only the stories of success.

As per the current political climate, there is also a real possibility of Biden losing the 2024 elections, what with his plummeting approval ratings and a wavered focus since year two. If that happens, nothing stops the GOP from telling a different story. They would highlight the failures, and could even take away a chunk of the money.

So another round of the Biden-Harris administration may be the smarter American choice, provided we stop playing God to the world, and focus on America first.

Dave, a graphic designer and amazing artist, once told me that he moved to Tennessee from Florida in hopes of better healthcare. He sounded optimistic about his upcoming robotic double bypass surgery and had complete faith in his surgeon. Dave and I shared an appreciation of artisan coffee, so I promised to take him to one of my favorite coffee hangouts upon his return.

31 days after the surgery, Dave texted to let me know that he was in a rehab center nearby undergoing physical and occupational therapies to regulate his breathing - a side effect possibly from the anesthesia. He missed spending time with Beta and was also craving Aloo Vindaloo. My wife and I talked about treating Dave to some home cooked Indian …

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Trump stepped into office on 20th January 2017 and his first 100 days as Commander-in-Chief were tumultuous to say the least. There was confusion in the White House. The National Security Advisor was fired on a whim, and experienced elected officials were replaced by right-wing bureaucrats belonging to Trump’s band of advisors. Federal investigations were meddled with. Facts were challenged. News branded as fake. Tweets socialized as truth. Presidential rants broadcasted in 160 characters or less reshaped how the world viewed America.

Trump’s rise to power, well, that’s beside the point.

Just seven days after taking the Presidential oath, Trump delivered a campaign promise. He signed an executive order that restricted entry of Muslim citizens from entering the US for up to 3 months, specifically barring those who hailed from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

It was a promise that Trump had made to his MAGA followers on the campaign trail in December 2015. “Donald J Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”

The crowd went wild and applauded their brave new leader. “We have no choice.”, he said, “We HAVE no choice.” At the time, 36% percent of Americans polled favored the ban.

The world reacted. The courts pushed back. We were shocked.

Then we forgot about it until another executive order revoked the travel ban in 2021, but irreparable damage was already done. Families were separated. Opportunities were lost.

A HuffPost reporter, Rowaida Abdelaziz, collected micro-data throughout 2021 documenting 874 cases of Muslims impacted by the ban, most of them a case of parent-child separation. Take a look here.

An all-too-familiar rhetoric is emerging yet again from a similar campaign trail, from the same camp.

On 10th October 2023, Trump, who is the GOP front-runner for the 2024 presidential elections, spoke to his supporters during a campaign rally in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. “As president, I will once again stand strongly with the state of Israel, and we will cut off the money to the terrorists on day one, and reimpose the travel ban on terror-afflicted countries”

The crowd applauded and whistled. Trump went on to tout his horn and rambled on about the success of his travel ban during his 4 years of presidency, how he protected America and the world from terrorism.

Despite Trump’s false narrative, the travel ban targeted Muslims, not terrorists. Terrorism continued to prevail globally, as did the divisive politics that fuels every terrorist cause.

Two years ago, in May 2021, Israel responded to a Hamas terrorist offensive and retaliated causing millions of dollars in damage, which resulted in 256 Palestinians killed, nearly 2000 injured and 72,000 displaced. The crisis lasted 11 days before a cease fire was brokered. Israel suffered minimal losses.

This month, Iranian-funded Hamas terrorists surprised Israel by firing a barrage of rockets into Israeli airspace before breaching Israel’s Iron Wall and bulldozing their way through the Gaza-Israel border. There was a massacre at an Israeli music festival. Hamas took hundreds of hostages. The Israeli military responded by obliterating the Gaza Strip with relentless air strikes, resulting in thousands of Palestinian lives lost, many of them children buried deep in the rubbles of concrete. While an all-out armed battle with no end in sight continues to rage on, we struggle to cope with a war within.

If the 2021 event was triggered by Israel’s settlement advancements towards the eviction of Palestinians, this time around it was the Hamas’s unprovoked terrorist intentions. Throughout the 75 years of conflict since the official formation of Israel and the partition of the holy land, we can attribute the blame to both sides for causing unrest in the region.

If history is too convoluted, then there is the simpler emotional perspective of sympathizing with the underdog – the Palestinians. Israel is strong and mighty, and their big brothers in the West support them with even more show of might. Palestinians are weak, displaced and homeless, a dwindling population in constant need of aid, forgotten by the Arab world for selfish economic needs.

Who we support depends on which truth we align ourselves to. Then again, it was Aeschylus, the Ancient Greek father of tragedy, who said, “In war, truth is the first casualty.”

The truth is that no civilized, sane person would support terrorism. We always stand with justice, and we always sympathize with the oppressed. Still, anti-semitic rallies are on the rise around the world. Children are being murdered in the name of religion. So when truth itself is compromised, only consequences remain.

One such consequence is unfolding before our eyes. Millions of displaced Gazans are trying to exit the Gaza Strip. They have the only escape route through the Raffa crossing into neighboring Egypt, one of the first countries to support the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988. But Egypt denies entry until they have a guarantee that Israel will allow them to go back to Gaza.

The Arab world has always been reluctant to allow refuge to Palestinians. Qatar openly harbors Hamas terrorist elites but seems to have no solution to provide a safe haven for Gazans. Saudi Arabia is spending millions of dollars developing areas previously uncharted, to expand tourism, but they will never share a strip of land for housing the homeless Palestinians.

This indifference may be due to the Middle East’s own history with civil wars, when Palestinian refugees turned freedom fighters, the fedayeen, caused unrest in the region and tried to topple governments. So Arab nations will sympathize and mediate, but that’s where they draw the line.

Meanwhile, the likes of Trump will exploit this volatile situation for their own political advantage. Fear is a powerful tool, and history has proven that those who know how to wield that power will benefit in the end.

Share The Marinade

Myopia, originating from the greek word “muopia” meaning “to close the eyes”, is commonly referred to as near-sightedness. It is a condition wherein close objects appear clearly while objects faraway are blurred, and is diagnosed usually in the pre-teen years.

Myopia is first noticed in children after the age of 6 years, accompanied by excessive elongation of the axial length of the eye, and steadily increases until the age of 14, after which it gradually decreases and stabilizes in the early twenties.2

My dad started wearing glasses in his early 30’s, my mom in her 40’s, both of which can be attributed to deteriorating eyesight with age. But my younger brother and I got our prescribed attachments well before our teenage years.

Here’s how my Dad explains it, “You guys watched too many shows on TV and needed correction later for permanent usage, but your older brother was an exception.”

My older brother is surely the anomaly with perfect 20-20 vision even now in his 50s. Why is he an exception? He watched Air Wolf, Street Hawk, Blue Thunder, The A-Team, Misfits of Science, Benji, Automan, Knight Rider, The Fall Guy, and all those 80s and 90s classic tv-series sitting right next to us. And no, he wasn’t adopted.

He is an exception because myopia is not always inherited, despite popular and prevailing beliefs. Genetics is merely a contributing factor that ups the chances of getting it, especially if one or both parents are myopic.

Similarly, reading or studying all the time, watching television up close, or being addicted to the blue screens of our handheld devices, are risk factors for developing or worsening Myopia in children. They are not the root cause according to a recent documentary by ENDEVR3.

The Environment Factor

The environment we grow up in plays a big part in our development, especially in the case of our eyesight. It was Ian Morgan, an Australian researcher, who stumbled up on this realization.

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In 2018, the Time Magazine reported1 that by 2070 the dead will outnumber the living on Facebook based on a research paper published2 that year. It was later estimated in 2022 that there were about 30 million dead users on Facebook. Many of them are memorialized users, which means their online life has been digitally frozen facebook-forever.

Our digital footprint is infinite at this point. We can only clean up that clutter to an extent. Our personal thoughts and confidential information has propagated through servers around the world for at least a century by now.

This ocean of digitized data that we continue to accumulate has a legal term - Digital Estate. For most of us in the 21st century this is really the legacy we are leaving behind. Who will take care of our digital legacy?

Meanwhile, death-care has become a lucrative industry where the demand just won’t dry up. In the wake of a pandemic that resulted in an unprecedented loss of lives, many visionary entrepreneurs saw an uptick in demand in death-care services. This paved a new path for more DeathTech startups to emerge.

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Today, my 7-year-old nephew is glued to the 10” screen of his iPad. He enjoys watching the adventures of the PAW Patrol, and the Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, as they team up to protect their respective cartoon-land communities. These shows have taken imagination to futuristic, dystopian and supernatural heights. The simplicity of cartoons that once existed, with hand-sketched scenes1 of the plight of a cat chasing a mouse, or a diabolical Coyote trying to catch a Roadrunner, are now replaced by CGI-based animations about tales of super-heroism, adventure and even romance. 

For over a century, the Walt Disney Animation Studio has transformed the art of creating animated films, bringing to life onscreen characters that we have come to know and adore. 

100 Years of Disney

In the United States, I have come across many people who are awe-struck by the magic of Disney. I’ve met young adults in their 20s saving up for a long-awaited Disney vacation. For American families, taking their kids to Disney parks is a tradition tracing back to the Great Depression.

Walt Disney believed in providing a fun and engaging outlet for children, to help them to cope with the stress and anxiety of living through the Great Depression. Disney’s iconic character Mickey Mouse “became the every man, overcoming odds and prevailing” over the worst economic disaster in American history.2

In 1955, Walt supervised the design and build out of the first Disney park in California, Disneyland. He envisioned a place where families could have fun together, to escape the trials and tribulations of their daily lives, and immerse themselves in a world where all their favorite characters came to life.

Disneyland attracted national and international intrigue. Political leaders visited the park, including 9 US Presidents, Prime Minister Nehru of India, the King and Queen of Nepal, the Shah of Iran, and political leaders from Europe, Africa and South America.3 Disneyland was a window into the post WWII America or the version of it that Walt Disney wanted to showcase to the world.

Refer a friend

In 1965, a year before Walt’s death, his 2nd and most ambitious project opened doors to the public in Florida, the Walt Disney World, which is 50 times larger than the size of Disneyland at 25000 acres. Disney World is a city of its own consisting of 4 unique theme parks4 - The Animal Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios and the Magic Kingdom.

In 2022, Magic Kingdom park alone attracted 17.1 million visitors to Disneyland’s 16.9 million visitors. According to GITNUX MARKETDATA5, the average daily attendance at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando is approximately 57,000 visitors.

From 1923 to 2023, Disney completed 100 years of sprinkling magic and wonder to generations of families world-wide. From the Baby Boomer generation of Americans who persevered through the Great Depression to the families of the Gen-Alpha’s today who weathered an unprecedented pandemic, every generation has a story about their first visit to Disney parks.

The Disney Experience

Walt Disney designed his world for children. They can spend an exhilarating day of fun meeting their favorite characters. They can hop on and off the thrill rides, watch performances and parades and indulge in an exhaustive day of laughing out loud and having fun. His only expectation of grown-up visitors would have been to bring a child-like innocence to elevate the experience to heights limited only by our imagination.

As for the 46-year-old me, my plan was simply to follow my 7-year-old nephew through the gates of Walt Disney World and try to keep up with his wants and needs.

But with four theme parks, two water parks, and 461 activities6 to choose from spread across 40 square miles of land, it was overwhelming, to say the least, especially as first-time visitors.

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Reaching for Magic Destinations

The Disney website has a wealth of information for first-time visitors, including a comprehensive Help Center section7 designed to answer commonly asked questions. But our questions piled on, along with an anxiety build-up.

How many days should we plan for? Should we get the Park Hopper add-on to our tickets? Which park should we visit first? Where would we stay? Where would we park?

Which activities are a must-do? Are there age or height restrictions to rides? What rides were more popular? How do we avoid wait lines? What is Genie+? Should we take the photo package? How do we use the Disney app?

What should we carry with us? Should we take a baby stroller with us or rent one? What amenities are available at the park for families with toddlers? What if we get lost at the park?

Enter Amy Crouse, someone who’s been there and done that, a certified Disney Travel Advisor who has helped many reach for the magic at Disney8. Amy was able to put our concerns to bed and designed a unique experience with our specific interests and needs in consideration.

On Apr 23rd, my brother and I walked into Walt Disney World for the first time with our families, loads of excitement, and a day-by-day game plan in our back pocket. This plan allowed us the flexibility to adapt to unforeseen circumstances. We skipped long wait lines and checked off our priority list with ease. We knew how to use Disney App and Genie+ to navigate the parks, as if we were pros.

Thanks to Amy, our Disney experience can only be described as the epitome of happiness.

To discover tips and tricks, best practices and hidden secrets for your perfect Disney vacation, upgrade your subscription to receive details from my conversation with Amy, where we discuss everything there is to know before you plan a trip. Take advantage of the early adopter special below for all access to upcoming interviews, podcasts, travel tips and more.

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Each one of these martial arts forms stay relevant to this day, popularized as sports in schools and as franchise opportunities for small-businesses.  So if I asked you to name the oldest martial arts form in this world I am more than certain that you would name one of these popular ones. Frankly, I would have done the same.

Hey ChatGPT, What is the Oldest Martial Arts in the World?

This time the result was a shorter list, and while the AI engine added a disclaimer that determining the oldest art form is not easy due to these practices evolving overtime and taking new form, the top result was a martial arts form that is said to be at least 3000 years old1, older than the Kung Fu and Jujitsu, called the Kalaripayattu, from my birthplace of Kerala, India.

I will not be surprised if this is the first time you are hearing about Kalaripayattu, which is exactly the point of this article. In an era when health and fitness has become synonymous with well-being and lifestyle, when entrepreneurs are tribalizing new forms of fitness regimes, when many of the popular martial arts forms like Karate, Taekwondo, Jujitsu and Wrestling have become marketable franchisees, how did the oldest of them all get left behind as merely the exotic indulgence of the few?   

If I can figure out how other Asian martial art forms managed to capture the awe of the western world very early, or how newer fitness regimes like Crossfit battled its way through a turbulent path of social critique from naysayers to the medical professionals, or how the practice of Yoga that orginated from the same ancient teachings of India managed to break free to become an everyday necessity for millions across the globe, maybe then I could draw parallels to understand why Kalaripayattu missed its chance for global adoption.

But first, what is Kalaripayattu? To answer this I will take you on a journey through history, from its origins to the influence it had on other martial arts forms in the 5th century, about a golden age before its unexpected and imposed early decline, about its bold return to a legacy that sustained the tests of time, to the growing popularity of Kalaripayattu in the 21st century India.

The Origin of Kalaripayattu

kalar·i·pay·at·tu

The literal translation is simple. Kalari means “battleground or battlefield”. Payattu means “the art or practice of fighting”. However, this practice of fighting in a battlefield has a mythical relevance.

It is said that when Lord Vishnu in his avatar of Parashurama created Kerala, he trained 21 of his disciples in the art of Kalaripayattu and built 108 training schools or Kalaris that would teach this warfare in order to protect the land that we commonly referred to today as God’s Own Country.

“The practice of Kalaripayattu is the journey of the warrior”, says Lakshmanan Gurukal in a NatGeo India interview this year2. He goes on to say that the warrior conditions his body to become his eyes in the battlefield through acute knowledge of the 64 marma or vital points, drawing energy from them as his life force, and targetting them to find the opponents weakpoints. Is it possible that George Lucas imagined the Jedi and the force within from inspirations of these ancient teachings from Southern India?

The warrior’s journey in mastering the art of Kalaripayattu spans across 4 phases: Meipayattu, the conditioning of the mind and body; Koltharipayattu, the practice of fighting using wooden weapons; Ankatharipayattu, the practice of fighting using metal weapons; Verumkai or Kaipayattu, the pratice of fighting using hand to hand combat.

The Influence of Kalaripayattu

In 5th century India, there exsisted a South Indian prince by the name of Bodhidharma, born into a warrior class family in Kanjipuram Tamil Nadu. While very little is known about his childhood and upbringing, it is said that he was a Buddhist who was also trained in Kerala’s martial arts style of Kalaripayattu. What is known for certain is that he left his home upon attaining elightment, and travelled north to China to spread the philosophies of Zen Buddhism.

Bodhidharma is known to have taken refuge in the early Shaolin monastery where he would teach physical and mindfulness techniques to Shaolin monks, that would then form the foundations of the well-known martial arts form of Shaolin Kung Fu. The books he wrote at the time of his Shaolin teachings are a testament to this indisputable fact.

In the age of AI where human creativity is challenged by machine learning, I take pride in saying that my writing is organic. Please leave a comment and share this article with as many humans as you can. Thank you!

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The Golden Era of Kalaripayattu

The 4th to 6th century saw India unified under the rule of Ashoka, a Buddhist-convert. According to Wikipedia3, “this period, witnessing a Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence, is known as the Classical or Golden Age of India. During this time, aspects of Indian civilisation, administration, culture, and religion spread to much of Asia.”

It was a time when South India became a well-traversed region by travellers from far and wide, in their pursuit to attain spiritual knowlege and share beliefs across cultural boundaries.

There fore, it is believed that many of the far East Asian martial art forms like Karate and Jujitsu draw close similarities to techniques in Kalaripayattu, and it is reason why Kalaripayattu is considered to be the “mother of all martial arts forms”.

The Early Decline of Kalaripayattu

In 2022, Gurukkal SRD Prasad received the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, the Padma Shri, for his scholarly contributions and teachings of Kalaripayattu.  He runs Sree Bharath Kalari which was the first training school formed in the post-independence era of India in 1948, by his late father Gurukkal Chirakkal T. Sreedharan Nair4.

According to the Gurukkal5, Kalaripayattu had its most prominent period between the 15th and 17th centuries, after which it started to decline with the arrival and political upheaval of the Portuguse conquerors, the insurgence of the Mysore rulers, and by the rule of the British empire.

The Portuguese introduced new weapons and changed the ethics of warfare in India, from the honorable ways of duels in Kalaripayattu, to the hidden ambushes and assinations using guns. In 1804, under the British rule, Kalaripayattu was banned to counter the rise and rebellion of the armies under the warrior prince of the royal dynasty of Kottayam, Pazhassi Raja and his trained Kalaripayattu mercineries.

The British banned Kalaripayattu weapons, and raided Kerala households to confiscate hidden weapons and prosecute those who disobeyed. When the Kalaripayattu schools were shutdown and it was prohibited to take lessons or teach in private, the practice gradually faded away to be cherished in memories of a once glorious time.

The Return of Kalaripayattu

It was in 1905 when the fight for India’s independence from the empire was taking shape, that the Swadeshi movement was initiated to gain independence from all foreign manufactured goods. The movement gradually morphed into one that inspired India to reclaim her national identity, thus emboldening the remaining Kalaripayattu masters to reemerge from the shadows of a British oppression.

Secretly, these masters would resume their teaching of Kalaripayattu in villages, to gradually revive the martial arts form from a hiatus of 100 years. It would take another 50+ years, after India gains her independence in 1947, that Kerala would officialize the practice by forming the State Kalaripayattu Association.

Since then, many Gurukkals made it their life goal to carry forward the legacy of teaching this practice to worthy disciples, who then followed suite in their masters footsteps. From the late historian and renowned Chirakkal T. Sreedharan Nair who passed the mantle to his son Padma Shri SRD Prasad, to the 81-year old Padma Shri Meenakshi Amma who runs a training school to this day, Kalaripayattu is promoted today as a practice of fitness and discipline, irrespective of caste, creed, age or gender.

The Legacy of Kalaripayattu

It is true that Kalaripayattu is making a comeback in 21st century Kerala. There is a new wave of interest spreading across Kerala households to enroll children at an early age. This is primarily due to the efforts of many prominent Kalaris such as the Vallabhatta Kalari under the leadership of Padma Shri Sankaranarayana Menon Chundayil aka Unni Gurukkal, who have been instrumental in promoting Kalaripayattu overseas. Till date they have opened 17 centers across the globe including the UK, UAE, US, France, Belgium and Sri Lanka.

According to Black Belt Magazine6, “Unni Gurukkal descended from a family of Kalaripayattu practitioners said to have lead the armies of a local principality during the middle ages. He started training with his father in the family art at the age of six.”

With Unni Gurukkal’s passing on 6th June 2023, the responsibilty to carry his legacy forward rests on the shoulders of his children K.P. Krishna Das (State president, Kalaripayattu Association), K.P. Rajeev Gurukkal, K.P. Dineshan Gurukkal and K.P. Nirmala and his grandchildren.

The Popularity of Kalaripayattu

My research into Kalaripayattu began with a simple naive question on Reddit7: Why is Kalaripayattu still not a mainstream and international phenomenon? It has led me to a new found fascination for this martial arts form that has withstood the trials of time. I am in awe of the perseverance of the masters past and present, of their struggles endured in the 20th century for independence, to their struggles ahead in the 21st century for revival.

According to a 2021 article in Indica Today8, the main critique for Kalaripayattu’s faded popularity seems to be its perceived inability to standardize and scale in contrast with martial art forms like Karate, which was standardized in the 1920s - 30s and now considered an Olympics Sport. It’s a fair point but I disagree with this line of thought.

Why are tourists from around the globe visiting Kerala to receive Ayurveda treatments? Because the 900 different Ayurveda herbs and medicinal plants that are used to create the essential oils for treatment, are abundantly found in the tropical forests of Kerala. Ayurveda is not scalable and it prevented the Monsanto’s of the world from mass producing it.

Similarily, Kalaripayattu must be institutionalized as the sacred art of Kerala as is Ayurveda to India, and we need to protect it from globalization. Instead of promoting worldwide adoption, Kalaripayattu must be localized to the region that it originated from, and be practiced in its original intended form, thus enabling more tourism around Kalaripayattu.

The Kerala Government in concert with the State Kalaripayattu Association must trademark and protect the usage of the brand and nomeclature of Kalaripayattu. Similar to how Greg Glassman protected his brand of CrossFit from being misused and misrepresented, unaffiliated and unaccredited schools or fitness centers such as KalariLAB.com must be scrutinized for modifying the ancient teaching practices and for creating new program structures to suit their business model.

The popularity of Kalaripayattu is deep rooted in the mythology, history and traditions of the people and culture of Kerala, and the future of Kalaripayattu lies in our hands. 

This post will provide highlights (each 90secs) from a recent interview, where we talk about some of the core problems causing this widespread issue. Dr. Shreekumar helps us gain awareness of this important social issue targeting not just us but generations to come.

Are we losing this battle against drug traffickers?

Dr. Shreekumar confirms the alarming rate at which drugs are trafficked into India and flowing into my homeland Kerala.

We talked about how tourism is making us vulnerable to drug traffickers who aim to exploit the innocence of our youth.

Have you wondered why school authorities are ineffective in preventing drug peddlers from luring minors to psychotropic drug addiction, from recruiting them into selling drugs on campuses?

This Matters

This drug epidemic is not an isolated issue in India, but I begin here because it is where my nieces and nephews are growing up. If my research into this topic can spread awareness to unsuspecting families and innocent school children at my home and yours, then it matters.

If you missed Part 1 of this series where I set the context of this current and growing social issue, please read it here.

Shibin Shaji Varghese holds a master's degree in social work (MSW) and in his first year of college he received an internship placement in the Railway Childline wing at Ernakulam where he would get field-trained on addiction counseling for children in distress.

The Railway Childline Help Desk (RCHD) is a 24-hour kiosk service at the A-grade railway stations of Kerala, including Trivandrum, Ernakulam Junction, Thrissur, and Kozhikode, established in 2018 in partnership with the Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Women and Child Development. Their objective is to provide immediate and emergency support to runaway, lost, abandoned, or trafficked children, who are found taking refuge in the trains or transiting through Kerala's railway nodes. According to Sahrudaya, a charitable and non-profile organization registered in Ernakulam, the RCHD has the following 4 focus areas:

• Rescue children found wandering alone in trains or at stations

• Protecting and caring for the unaccompanied children found in railway stations

• Provide legal aid to children arriving by train as potential victims of child labor

• Assist in finding missing children

Shibin was 21 years old at the time. Little did he know that a kid from North India was about to change his perspective of the world and his purpose in life.

The First Case

In 2015, an NDTV investigation exposed a major child trafficking racket in Gaya, the 2nd largest city in the state of Bihar. The city known for its temples, and heritage, a place of pilgrimage, was termed India's Heart of Darkness. It was assumed that about 4000 children (including minors) were being trafficked every month from Gaya, through bus and railway networks. At least one child in every household was sold to major cities across India for child labor, and the middlemen were usually the child's relatives. A farmer in Gaya sent his 6-year-old son away with a relative for Rs.300/month and never heard back from the child again. It may be symbolic of this reality that the word “Gaya” in English translates to "Gone".

In 2018, Shibin starts his day as a volunteer for Childline eager to clock his first 8-hour shift at the Ernakulam railway station. During that day he becomes instrumental in assisting Childline to take into custody a Bihari kid whose day job was to pick up plastic bottles discarded by passengers in the train compartments and on the tracks, which he would later sell at a local scrap shop for Rs.10/kg. He had arrived in Kerala several years ago and has been skillfully evading the railway police, operating unnoticed, while being pitifully ignored by commuters. That day Shibin and the Childline staff intervened.

The Bihari kid, only 15 years old at the time, was unusually strong for his age and put up a fight. Shibin recalls how they had to wrestle him with the help of the police before detaining him. He cursed at them and protested in a dialect that was a mix of Hindi and Bihari, a language foreign to Shibin and his Malayalee colleagues. In an act of retaliation, the kid even tried to inflict self-harm to persuade them to set him free. His captors were equally relentless and with the support and guidance of the state-appointed Child Welfare Committee (CWC) team, they succeeded in admitting the kid to a shelter home.

This was Shibin's inaugural day as an intern volunteering for Childline and he had worked 48hrs straight on what became his first case of thousands that would follow.

Shibin continued to be involved with the case as social workers and doctors evaluated the Bihari kid for substance abuse. They found that he was addicted to Pan Parag, an Indian chewing tobacco product that had decayed the molars of his teeth through continuous usage, and Beedi, a hand-rolled thin cigarette made of uncured tobacco wrapped in tendu leaves, that he used to curb his hunger with. He was diagnosed as mentally unstable and the CWC recommended that he undergo treatment. He was later transferred to a boy's home in Kottayam where he continued fighting the system that was trying to help him. At one point he was accused of sexually assaulting other kids which got him transferred to the Govt. Mental Health Center at Oolampara Trivandrum for further treatment and care. That's where Shibin's purview ended for this Bihari kid.

In 2023, Shibin is visited by a young familiar face. As he reintroduced himself Shibin recognized the Bihar kid he had found 5 years ago sleeping on the railway platform. His eyes were not the red budging ones he remembered, his lips seemed to have regained color, and his teeth had been restored. He said he was on his way back to his Gaav (village) and on his way to track down some old acquaintances who owed him money. He stopped by the Childline Railway Helpdesk to meet the person who had changed the course of his life.

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“The STOP signs,” I said.

You see! In India, intersections are like roundabouts without the roundabout, and traffic can move in any direction to cross over. The palm-faced hand of a traffic cop brave enough to step in front of charging cars, buses, trucks and rickshaws, two-wheelers, two-leggers, and even some four-leggers seems to be the only sign we obey. But even that is considered an unwelcome and uncomfortable interruption responded only by the wrath of our honks. For we are in survival mode, and nothing should get in the way of the natural order of chaos on Indian roads.

So I understand why this big and bold writing painted in yellow on the road in front of my family home never came up as a topic of discussion, even as we drove over it every day. We don’t see these signs as we are busy chasing after the chaos of our daily lives.

One day I went for an early morning walk with my parents and stopped to read the sign in yellow. It was a warning sign, and a realization quickly sunk in. Chaos has come to our doorstep.

My Homeland

One of 3 states in India governed by Communist ideologies, Kerala is a coastal land known for its tropical beauty, from beaches to backwaters, coconut trees and paddy fields, and an appetite for cultural coexistence. Keralites, predominantly of Hindu, Muslim, and Christian faith, come together to celebrate religious festivities despite our varying beliefs, making Kerala one of India’s most diverse states.

Kerala has many nicknames. The most common is God’s Own Country, a land where all Gods live in harmony. The Spice Garden of India, the Land of Coconuts, the Land of Trees, and The Jewel of South India are other titles awarded to Kerala. 

New York Times has recently ranked Kerala as #13 on the list of 52 places to visit in 2023, listing my homeland amongst other popular global destinations - the topmost destination in India. 

But underneath this pomp and glory lurks a bitter new reality that Kerala will have to accept sooner than later. A new title is in the making.

Is Kerala quickly becoming the new Drug Capital of India?

The Signs We Ignore

In 2014, the United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime (UNDOC) conducted its first-ever study of Amphetamine-Type Stimulant use in India. Based on the findings from a 2010 report on Asia and the Pacific region, there was growing concern that ATS use has been “increasing in east and southeast Asia and the Middle Eastern region”.

In 2019, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment conducted an in-depth study of the “Magnitude of Substance Use in India”. It was the first time that substance use/abuse was studied and documented by sampling populations across all the states and UTs of the country. The study is quite revealing about the growing number of Indians under the influence of various types of psychoactive substances other than alcohol.

The study concludes with a recommendation to not only raise awareness but also to implement “strategies aimed at prevention of initiation of substance use” based on scientific evidence and by working with families, schools, and communities, to “protect the youth of the nation”.

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On June 26th, 2021, a day observed worldwide as the United Nations International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, the former Director General at the National Academy of Customs, Excise & Narcotics (NACEN) Dr. G Shreekumar Menon reported that many cities in Kerala are getting tagged as “Narcopolis” due to rising rate of drug use. He stated that “Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode cities figure in the list of 127 vulnerable cities identified by the Union Ministry of Social Justice, with acute prevalence on drug dependency”, and Kochi fast becoming the dug hub for young boys and girls seeking refuge in the pleasures of MDMA (Ecstasy, Molly) and LSD (Acid).

In September 2022, Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan disclosed to his assembly, “In 2020 the authorities seized 4000 kg cannabis in Kerala while the quantity seized in 2021 was 6100 kg. This year, till August, the agencies have seized more than a tonne (of) cannabis in addition to MDMA and hashish oil,” pointing out that Kerala has become a “narcotics hub” and that schools and colleges in the state have fallen prey to these drugs.

It’s getting worse.

The Irony

Kerala takes pride in being the 1st state in India to reach a 100% literacy rate, and the effort to maintain this high standard only means educated and intelligent Malayalee youth are front and center in contributing to a brighter future.

Then why are we letting our schools become prey to drug peddlers?

Why are 40% of Kerala’s children under 18 becoming slaves of MDMA and other narcotic substance addictions?

Teachers are on the front-line dealing with intoxicated students and their drug-induced behaviors. How are they coping with this new reality? Are they empowered by the school authorities to intervene without compromising their safety? What are the hidden agendas that are exposing our schools to become drug havens?

In the next part of this exploratory article, we will hear from the front lines of this drug epidemic as I delve into the reason why Kerala’s youth is an easy target.

Post Credits

From the New York Times, here are the 52 Places to Go in 2023 (unlocked article).

The first-ever ‘Amphetamine type stimulant (ATS) use in India - An exploratory study’ by UNITED NATIONS OFFICE OF DRUGS AND CRIME in 2014 can be found here.

Different phases of ATS use call for different interventions: a large qualitative study in Europe can be found here.

Dr. G Shreekumar Menon believes the government should declare drug use a "National Disaster" as he continues his research, reporting, and spreading awareness on his website.

The 2019 report on the Magnitude of Substance Use in India can be found here.

Why Are Kerala’s Teenagers Turning To Drug Abuse?