The enchanting beauty of Braj Mandal, the Yamuna riverbanks, shaded groves, wandering peacocks, gentle cows, and the divine tales of Krishna have echoed for centuries through countless bhajans and folk songs. Devotional classics like “Shyam Teri Bansi Pukare”, “Radhe Radhe Barsane Wali”, “Maiya Mori” and “Jai Radha Madhav” still paint Vrindavan, Barsana, and Gokul as a spiritual paradise. Surdas's and Raskhan's verses remain soaked in the fragrance of Braj’s natural splendour.

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For generations, India's lighthouses were places people saw from a distance. Standing at the edge of the sea, they marked dangerous stretches of coast and guided vessels through darkness. Their lights belonged to sailors. Their towers belonged to the landscape.

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What's for dinner tonight? It is the most ordinary question in homes everywhere. Sometimes it's asked with affection, sometimes with impatience, and sometimes it becomes the last question anyone ever hears.

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Moving beyond the bustle around Hawa Mahal, I entered Jaipur’s Jantar Mantar and immediately noticed a different atmosphere. Geometric shapes spread across the complex; towering walls, angular structures and enormous arches naturally arouse curiosity. It is neither a traditional palace nor a temple, yet the entire complex appears extraordinary in its own way.

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If one day you find out that your city’s population has increased by millions, with school seats running out, long waits at hospitals, falling wages and increasing pressure on government programs, would you call it just a coincidence?

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How does love really begin? Does it arrive carrying a bouquet of roses? Does soft music suddenly float through a moonlit night? Do flowers rain from the heavens while violins play in the background? Films and television would have us believe so.

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Not long ago, vast stretches of rural India went dark after sunset. From the remote villages nestled in the hills of Uttarakhand to scattered hamlets in Rajasthan's deserts, nightfall meant dim kerosene lamps, unreliable electricity and lives governed by the setting sun. Children struggled to study. Farmers depended on erratic power supplies. Small businesses shut early. Darkness was not just a daily reality; it symbolised deprivation. Today, that picture is changing dramatically.

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The journeys of women creating livelihoods from waste, leading cleanliness efforts in their communities and turning everyday challenges into opportunities. Alongside them are transgender community members finding professional roles and recognition in sanitation services. Across cities, Swachhata is becoming more than a public service. It is becoming a space for dignity, enterprise, participation and opportunity.

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The safety lock on a fairground ride in Agra came undone, sending a young man on a one-way journey to eternity. In Belanganj, an excavation caused an entire bank building to collapse. Shoe factories catch fire with disturbing regularity. Poor maintenance traps people inside malfunctioning elevators. Daily crashes on expressways have become too numerous to count. The only people seemingly untouched by this brutal system are politicians, who invariably appear only at condolence meetings and funeral feasts.

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History does not change course every day. Occasionally, however, an election arrives that appears to mark the beginning of a new era. For supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party's sweeping victories in Assam and West Bengal this year represent precisely such a moment...

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