An Indecisive Indian

  Jugaad —or more expressively, Jugaa.D in Roman Hindi—is a powerful and evocative word. According to the Oxford Dictionary, it is a Hindi term referring to an innovative, resourceful, and often unconventional approach to problem-solving, especially in the face of limited resources. It typically implies quick, inexpensive, and improvised solutions using whatever is at hand. More broadly, it encompasses meanings like contrivance, stratagem, intrigue, or any innovative or irregular way of repairing, mending, or solving a problem—a makeshift mechanism or stopgap solution. But jugaad is more than all this. It can also suggest spontaneity, extemporization, ad-libbing, ad hoc responses, or even the spirit of quest, pursuit, chase, hunt, inquiry, or exploration. In looser associations, it connects with ideas like impromptu, expedient, improviso, autoschediasm, speaking off the cuff, acting on impulse or in the moment, winging it, inquest, intrigue, enterprise, and quarry. In short, juga...

I have blogged about our Bayān-e-Ghālib show twice already, and some of you have surely read those accounts. Others interested may see the references at the bottom.   Briefly, in a world drowning in noise, where poetry gasps for breath, a team of Lucknowites dared to dream—not a quiet mehfil (assemblage), but a full-blown spectacle. Not just a recital, but a sensory celebration of the greatest Urdu poet to have ever lived and, of course, wandered the lanes of Delhi— Mirzā Asadullāh Khān Ghālib . The Bayān-e-Ghālib show was born of audacity—to let his verses come alive through khutūt , sur , and raqs (letters, musical notes, and dance), and to resound with the fire of storytelling. Not just the master’s andaaz-e-bayān (style of narration), but bayān with andaaz by the troupe. It turned out to be not merely Ghālib in paper and ink—it became Ghālib on stage , alive in music, motion, and magic.   And a recap, a glimpse into the spectacle:   Narration ...

There are some institutions in India whose accomplishments are so profound, and their culture so rarefied, that even attempting to describe them feels like carving one's initials into the face of a granite mountain—audacious and perhaps unnecessary. And yet, now and then, the spirit compels expression, if only to pay homage to those few luminous outliers that shine in our national landscape otherwise muddied by mediocrity. In a country where governance is often held hostage by self-serving civil servants, public sector undertakings  trudge along saddled by an army of uninspired managers, engineers and accountants, academia is adrift in a sea of average professors, research is plagued by dispirited scientists, and the Indian Railways still lumbers on like a feudal relic—it is these islands of excellence that blaze like beacons in the fog. In recent months, I had the good fortune of being invited to speak on Atmanirbhar Bharat and transformational innovation by the National Dairy De...

  The idea for this blog hitched a ride on a curious paradox—India’s High-Speed Rail dreams gliding on the promise of bullet-like velocity, but hobbling forward at the pace of a bullock cart with a limp. The immediate trigger was an invitation from Mint/Hindustan Times to speak on a panel with two fellow railway domain experts—stalwarts both of them—on the prospects of High-Speed Rail (HSR) in India.   Here's the published piece that emerged from that discussion: https://www.hindustantimes.com/genesis/highspeed-rail-driving-economic-growth-and-sustainability-in-india-101746593803612.html   The article captured the sanitised slice of what I said, and I extract the essence here for context:   There are global instances where high-speed trains have cannibalised air travel, dramatically reducing the carbon footprint. Just look at China—10 billion passenger trips annually, compared to about 8 billion in India—and they’ve built an eye-popping 45,000-kilometre high-speed r...