India suffers from a disease.

The disease that rots the very core of a soul.

It eradicates whatever is left within you, and makes you a mere breathing skeletal system. That’s it.

Poverty.

An untouchable raunchy lifestyle. Craved by all elites, yet only touched in films & posters.

Poverty is not an outcome. It’s a choice.

And India never escaped poverty, psychologically.

Indians love their trauma. Love their victimhood. Love their underdog status and that’s why...

I am disappointed and really want to understand: WHY...Why after so many years, our country is on growth trajectory, still we are not able leave the romance of being Poor, on purpose?

India possesses this mindset of romanticizing bourgeoisie India. We have become so comfortable with middle-class mentality. Of saving, saving, saving and dying in vain. Millions are actually poor through choice of their own. The doctor earning twenty lakhs annually who lives like he earns two lakhs. The engineer in Bangalore with comfortable salary who shops like he is unemployed. The business owner making profit who displays like he is making loss. This is chosen poverty. This is poverty as performance. This is poverty as protection.

Protection from what? From evil eye. From jealousy. From attention. From responsibility. From expectations. From becoming target. Colonial trauma taught Indians that visibility attracts violence. Those who displayed wealth were looted by Mughals, by British, by dacoits, by corrupt officials, by relatives, by society. Better to hide wealth. Better to live below capacity. Better to look poor even if you are not. This strategy made sense when violence was actual threat. It makes no sense now. But trauma persists three generations after threat disappeared.

The bourgeoisie romanticism is epidemic.

Middle class is celebrated as moral superior to both rich and poor. Rich are greedy. Poor are lazy. Middle class is virtuous. I hate this mentality. This is what leads a civilisation to fall.

Why the narrative always inclines towards being poor; being poor is cool and classy. Middle class is hardworking. Middle class is backbone of nation. This is lie. Middle class is neither moral nor immoral. Middle class is just economic category. But we turned it into identity. We made it virtuous. We made it aspirational not to escape but to remain in. This is sickness.

Saving, saving, saving and dying in vain. This is Indian life cycle. Earn money. Do not spend money. Save for emergency. Save for children. Save for old age. Save for dowry. Save for wedding. Save for medical expenses. Save for death. Never enjoy. Never splurge. Never experience. Just save. And then die with money in bank that you never used. Money that could have given you experiences, comfort, joy, memories. But you saved it. For what? For heirs who will spend it frivolously because they did not earn it and do not value it. This is not wisdom. This is cowardice disguised as prudence.

We do not like pain of being rich. Neither we appreciate the struggles of being poor, yet conformity pushes us to choose the latter. This is most revealing statement about Indian psychology. Pain of being rich. What pain? Responsibility of managing wealth. Attention from relatives. Expectations from society. Pressure to maintain status. Risk of losing wealth. Burden of decisions. Complexity of life. These are real.

India never had the balls to take risk.

But these are not pain. These are trade-offs. Everything has trade-offs. Being rich has trade-offs. Being poor has trade-offs. We focus obsessively on trade-offs of being rich while ignoring trade-offs of being poor. That’s what an Indian mindset is.

What are the Trade-offs of being poor: no security, no comfort, no freedom, no experiences, no peace, no dignity. But we accept these trade-offs readily while rejecting trade-offs of being rich. Because we are comfortable with poverty. We are familiar with struggle. We know how to be poor. We do not know how to be rich. BY soul, by mind, by lifestyle. Unknown territory terrifies us. So we stay with known. Even when known is suffering.

Also a large part of the blame should be on the freebie culture that India has been propagating for the last 25 years.

Indian people think luxury is opposite of poverty. It is not. It is opposite of vulgarity.

And India is not able to come out of vulgarity that is born in people’s conduct toward their lifestyle and mindset. This is critical distinction that Indians do not understand. Luxury is not about price. Luxury is about quality, taste, refinement, beauty, craftsmanship. You can be luxurious with modest means if you have taste. You can be vulgar with massive wealth if you lack taste. Indians lack taste. We confuse expensive with good. We confuse branded with valuable. We confuse imported with superior. This is colonized mind that measures worth by proximity to West.

Vulgarity is not poverty. Vulgarity is lack of discernment, lack of restraint, lack of cultivation. Indian newly rich are vulgar. Not because they have money. Because they display money without taste. Gold everywhere. Logos everywhere. Brands everywhere. Size, quantity, price displayed prominently. This is insecurity performing as confidence. This is poverty mindset with rich person’s budget. Real luxury is quiet. Real wealth is understated. Real taste is refined. But Indians do not understand this because we never developed aesthetic tradition after colonial disruption. We lost our aesthetic traditions. We imported Western aesthetic traditions partially. Result is confused vulgarity pretending to be luxury.

Such mindset, such conformity of being poor on purpose, is display of inadequacy as civilization, as race. It is disgrace to ancestors and future generations. This is harsh but accurate. Our ancestors built temples that took centuries to complete. Built monuments that inspire awe thousand years later. Built philosophical systems that remain relevant millennia later. They thought in terms of civilizational time scales. They built for eternity. We think in terms of quarterly savings. We build for retirement. This is degradation from civilizational thinking to individual survival thinking. From grandeur to mediocrity. From permanence to transience.

India being poor on purpose has one more major reason which is really difficult to fathom:

...the nazar culture, the evil eye.

We are such true believers of evil eye that we do not live because to live is to die. That is ideology. How can you ever be rich in your mind or lifestyle if light within you dies because you love being poor on purpose?

“Nazar.” Evil eye. This is India’s most destructive belief. Not because evil eye exists. But because belief in evil eye paralyzes action. You achieve something. You hide it. Why? Because nazar will strike. You earn well. You pretend you do not. Why? Because nazar will destroy it. You are happy. You suppress happiness. Why? Because nazar will take it away. What are you protecting yourself from exactly?

It’s f*cking funny. You destroy your own joy, your own success, your own expression because you fear others will destroy it. But in fearing destruction, you ensure destruction. Not from others. From yourself.

Nazar culture permeates everything. Child does well in exam. Do not praise too much. Nazar will strike. Business doing well. Do not talk about it. Nazar will destroy it. Relationship is happy. Do not display it. Nazar will break it. Health is good. Do not celebrate it. Nazar will sicken you. This creates culture of suppression, of hiding, of pretending, of perpetual fear. You cannot live fully when you are constantly afraid that living fully will trigger cosmic punishment through jealous eyes.

The metaphysics of nazar is interesting. It assumes that other people’s envy has supernatural power to harm you. That negative emotion from observer can materially damage observed. This is magical thinking. This is pre-rational consciousness. But it persists in educated, modern Indians. Doctor believes in nazar. Engineer believes in nazar. Scientist believes in nazar. They will deny it if asked directly. But observe their behavior. They hide success. They downplay achievements. They avoid displaying happiness. This is nazar belief in action.

Why does nazar belief persist? Because it explains randomness.

Bad things happen randomly. Business fails despite effort. Health deteriorates despite care. Relationship breaks despite love. These are random. But randomness is terrifying. Humans need causation. Nazar provides causation. Business failed because someone was jealous. Health deteriorated because someone gave evil eye. Relationship broke because someone envied you. This is more comforting than accepting that bad things happen randomly. Because if nazar caused it, you can protect against nazar. But if randomness caused it, you are powerless. Indians prefer illusion of control through nazar protection over accepting powerlessness against randomness.

But nazar belief has cost. Massive cost. It prevents you from living visibly. From succeeding visibly. From being happy visibly. From expressing fully. From achieving openly. Because all visibility invites nazar. So you hide. You suppress. You minimize. You pretend. You perform poverty even when you are not poor.

You kill yourself before others can kill you. This is not protection. This is self-destruction.

This romance with being poor on purpose mindset will make India go stagnant if we do not move and move now. This is the biggest disease India has. Not corruption. Not poverty. Not illiteracy. These are symptoms. Disease is mindset.

Mindset that chooses limitation. Mindset that fears abundance. Mindset that hides success. Mindset that suppresses joy. Mindset that performs poverty. Mindset that believes nazar will destroy whatever you build. This mindset guarantees stagnation. Guarantees mediocrity. Guarantees that India will remain stuck regardless of economic growth. Because economic growth without psychological growth is meaningless.

China grew economically and psychologically simultaneously. Chinese do not hide success. They display it. They celebrate it. They are proud. They are confident. They think big. They build big. They achieve big. And they do not care about evil eye because evil eye is not part of their cultural framework. Indians grow economically but shrink psychologically. We earn more but spend like we earn less. We achieve more but display less. We have more but live like we have less. Economic growth is neutralized by psychological poverty.

Picture this: “Stagnant civilization with growing GDP”. This is tragic. This is preventable. This requires only mindset shift. But mindset shift is hardest change.

What does it mean to live in such India?

It means living in civilization that is rich but performs poor. That is capable but pretends incapable. That is confident but displays insecurity. That is talented but hides talent. That is successful but suppresses success. This is exhausting. This is demoralizing. This is rage-inducing. Because you see potential everywhere and actualization nowhere. You see talent wasted. You see opportunities missed. You see achievements hidden. You see joy suppressed. All because of mindset. All because of fear. All because of nazar. All because we lust being poor on purpose.

The colonial trauma is real. But trauma is not excuse. Trauma is explanation. We were traumatized by Mughal rule. We were traumatized by British rule. We learned to hide wealth to protect it. We learned to perform poverty to survive. This made sense then. This makes no sense now.

Being Poor is identity. This is culture. This is who we are. And we are proud of it. “We are simple people. We live simply. We do not show off. We are not materialistic. We save for future.” All of this bullsh*t, to cope. All of this, because we are cowards, we are afraid; Afraid to be visible. Afraid to be successful. Afraid to be rich. Afraid to be happy. Afraid of nazar. Afraid of others. Afraid of ourselves.

Dostoevsky’s Underground Man is paralyzed by self-consciousness, by awareness that others are watching, by fear of judgment. This is Indian collective psychology. We are nation of underground men. Hiding. Performing. Pretending. Never authentic. Never free. Never alive. Just surviving. Just avoiding nazar. This is not life. This is like being nothing but the walking dead.

India’s lusts being poor on purpose is really bad. We need to make it right now. Not tomorrow. Not next generation. Now. This requires conscious choice. Choice to stop performing poverty. Choice to stop hiding success. Choice to stop fearing nazar. Choice to start living visibly, succeeding openly, being happy publicly.

This feels dangerous. This feels exposing. This feels vulnerable. But this is only path forward. Because hiding has cost. Suppression has cost. Fear has cost. And cost is civilizational stagnation while rest of world moves forward.

The solution is not becoming vulgar newly rich. Solution is developing taste, developing confidence, developing authentic wealth consciousness that values quality over quantity, beauty over display, experience over possession. Solution is understanding luxury is opposite of vulgarity, not opposite of poverty. Solution is healing colonial trauma through therapy, through cultural reconstruction, through reclaiming aesthetic traditions we lost. Solution is abandoning nazar belief through education, through rationality, through courage to live visibly despite fear.

But none of this will happen. Because change requires admitting problem exists. Indians will not admit this problem exists. They will read this essay and feel attacked. They will defend their poverty performance as virtue. They will defend their nazar belief as tradition. They will defend their suppression as prudence. And they will continue living half-lives, earning money they never enjoy, achieving success they never celebrate, experiencing joy they never express. And they will die having lived poorly on purpose.

And they will tell themselves this was wisdom. And their children will inherit this sickness. And their grandchildren will inherit this sickness. And India will remain stuck. Rich in GDP. Poor in spirit. Capable in potential. Mediocre in actualization. This is choice. This is our choice. This is what we chose. This is what we will continue choosing. Because changing requires courage we do not have. Requires facing fears we will not face. Requires healing trauma we prefer to perpetuate. This is India. This is us. This is our disease.

And we love our disease more than we love cure. This is truth. This is tragedy. This is choice. And choice has consequences. And consequences are already visible. And will become more visible. And we will wonder what went wrong. And answer will be: everything. Everything went wrong because we chose wrong at every decision point. We chose fear over courage. We chose hiding over expressing. We chose poverty over wealth. We chose death over life. And we made these choices on purpose. This is India lusting being poor on purpose. This is what we are. This is what we chose to be. This is what we will remain until we choose differently.

Will we choose differently? No. Because choosing differently requires becoming different.

And becoming different terrifies us more than remaining same.

Even when same is suffering. This is final truth. This is India. This is us.

To all India, absorb this: “It’s a sad state of affairs in our country, when faceless moral inspectors scream on social media about ‘rich getting richer, poor getting poorer’ they intentionally ignore this class: opportunistic b@stard class of India. They would cry for freebies on the surface. lick every subordinate above them. but in private they would swing their ass-ets for gratification. Shameful.”

~vivan.

A great ‘cult’ leader once said...

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes. Working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives.”

...Our lives. But do we care?

India has a weak mind. No principles. No honour. No will to change.

Pain tolerance is all time low. Resistance is a relic of time, gone by.

What makes us indian...Indian, is dead. What are we left with?

Materialistic possessions? Is that what it means to be human? How shallow can one be? Is it by choice, or something is really sucking us in?

My question is this: how did we Indians became a slave of our own desires, found pleasures in materials, rather than looking within?

“Simplicity is not just visual style. It is not just minimalism or absence of clutter. It involves digging through depth of complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep.”
- Steve Jobs

Minimalism is foreign object in any Indian’s life.

They cannot think their life without materialistic pleasures. What trauma do we Indians carry so much that we cannot detach ourselves from material world?

We, India, are preachers of spiritualism. It is taught that nothing is yours, so you cannot lose anything. Yet everyday we all are running behind things. To buy. To achieve. To desire what we do not want. It will not matter. But in moment, it feels like it does. That surge of want. That lust to buy something. That aspiration to have something in life. That is what makes India hate minimalism.

The idea that less things are more beautiful, an Indian brain cannot fathom. It’s funny. Majority of people here are like that. Some of you will take it as an insult. But can’t escape the brutal reality. Walk through any Indian home. Middle class, upper class, does not matter. What do you see? Accumulation.

Things on things. Furniture you never use. Clothes you never wear. Utensils you never cook with. Electronics gathering dust. Books never read. Decorations serving no purpose except filling space. And somewhere in all this clutter, a person trying to find peace. His efforts are in vain. Because they buried peace under material goods they thought would create it.

Sit back and analyze. Right from room you are in currently. You will find ten things you did not need but still have. Ever asked why? How did you become slave of your own desires in sense that to satisfy yourself, you were not enough and you had to purchase something? You found pleasure in materials. You found solace in something rather than looking within. You are trapped into this addiction with better marketing. We are addicted to acquisition. To possession. To having. And we justify this addiction by calling it aspiration, success, status, security. But strip away justifications and what remains? Compulsion to fill emptiness inside with objects outside. This never works. Has never worked. Will never work. But we keep trying because we cannot face alternative: that emptiness cannot be filled, only accepted.

Pleasure is game of power and proximities. Proximity to object creates desire. Distance reduces desire. But we engineered world where everything is proximate. Shopping is one click away. Delivery is same day. Payment is instant. We removed all friction between desire and fulfillment. We cultivated desire that never stops because fulfillment that never satisfies. Each purchase creates brief high followed by return to baseline dissatisfaction. So we purchase again. And again. And again. And we lost control somewhere midway. Reigns are no more with us.

When you must work for something, delayed gratification builds appreciation. When you can have anything instantly, nothing has value. Indian consumer class has access to instant gratification at scale never seen before. EMI makes expensive purchases accessible. Credit cards defer payment. We can have anything we want without earning it, without waiting for it, without even leaving house. And then you wonder how can ‘addiction be engineered’. Touch some grass my friend. We are addicted. Whole nation is addicted to having without being, to getting without giving, to consuming without creating.

Minimalism teaches you to control your relationship with pleasure. Not eliminate pleasure. Control it. Choose it consciously rather than being chosen by it compulsively. This is what differentiates human from animal.

Animal responds to every stimulus. Sees food, eats. Sees mate, mates. Sees shiny object, takes. Human has capacity to pause between stimulus and response. To ask: do I need this? Will this serve me? Or am I serving it? Most Indians never ask these questions. They see. They want. They buy. Isn’t this animal behavior with a credit card? This enslavement are impulses you mistake for choices. Weak minds.

Pleasure seeking is only for weak minds. That is India. Indians have weak mind. Not weak intellectually. Weak in discipline. Weak in control. Weak in ability to say no to self. We cannot delay gratification. We cannot tolerate discomfort. We cannot sit with emptiness without filling it immediately. Strong mind can want something and choose not to have it. Weak mind cannot tolerate gap between wanting and having. This is why we are biggest consumer market. This is why global corporations target us. They know we cannot resist. We are easy. We are predictable. We are addicted. And addiction is profitable.

The pursuit of materialistic pleasure has made us biggest consumerist class hoarders in world.

We are dumping ground. We are test subjects. We are ready to have anything and everything thrown at us. Corporations test products in India that would fail in developed markets because Indian consumers have no standards.

We buy because it is available. We consume because we can. We hoard because we fear scarcity that no longer exists. Our grandparents experienced real scarcity. Famines. Shortages. Poverty. They learned to save, to hoard, to never throw anything away because next meal was not guaranteed. Our inheritance is a decorated version of this psychology. We live in abundance but think like we live in scarcity. So we accumulate. And accumulate. And accumulate.

Is it trauma that British colonizers left in us that we became hoarders and ensued mentality that until and unless we do more than we can, only then society will accept us?

Possibly. Colonial rule taught Indians that they were inferior. That British were superior because they had things. Things became proxy for worth. After independence, having things became way to prove we were no longer inferior. We were as good as colonizers because we could have what they had. This is why Indian middle class obsesses over foreign brands. Why foreign-made is assumed better than Indian-made. Why displaying wealth is more important than building wealth. We are performing for ghost of colonizer who is no longer watching. We are proving worth to people who are dead. And we sacrifice our peace, our savings, our sanity to keep performing.

How did we become status-driven society?

I always wonder what is origin or source of this Big Bang in my country? Part is colonial trauma. Part is caste system where status determined survival. Lower caste could not own property, could not access resources, could not improve position. Status was fixed. So when caste restrictions weakened post-independence, those who could display status did so aggressively because for first time they could. This is understandable. But we are three generations past independence. How long will we use history as excuse for present behavior? At some point we must take responsibility for perpetuating system that no longer serves us.

Status-driven society is society where your worth is determined by what you have, not who you are. Where your car matters more than your character. Where your house size matters more than your household harmony. Where your child’s school matters more than your child’s happiness. This is inverted values. This is sickness we call normal. And we are all infected. We judge each other by possessions. We judge ourselves by possessions. We cannot see person behind pile of things they accumulated to hide behind.

Minimalism is process, not ideology. A minimalist is someone in practice. You have perception of simplicity and minimalists do not fit in that. It is long walk where you cultivate sense of intention in everything: love, life, business. Minimalism is not owning nothing. Minimalism is owning only what serves purpose, what adds value, what brings genuine satisfaction.

This requires brutal honesty. This requires asking of every possession: why do I have this? Most answers will be: I do not know. Someone gave it to me. I thought I needed it. It was on sale. I saw advertisement. None of these are good reasons. These are autopilot reasons. These are reasons of person being lived by culture rather than living intentionally.

Minimalism is cruel. It forces you to confront how much of your life is waste. How much energy you spend maintaining things that do not matter. How much space is occupied by objects you do not value. How much mental bandwidth is consumed by managing possessions. This confrontation is painful. Most people avoid it. Easier to keep accumulating. Easier to tell yourself you will organize later. Easier to buy bigger house to store more things than to question why you have so many things. But pain of confrontation is temporary. Pain of living surrounded by clutter is permanent. Choose your pain.

Minimalism is also superpower. Once you master it, you become unconquerable. Because you need nothing. You want little. You are satisfied with enough. This is freedom that money cannot buy. Rich person with pretentious expensive tastes is prisoner of those tastes. They must maintain income to maintain lifestyle. They cannot take risks because lifestyle depends on stability. They cannot pursue meaning because meaning does not pay bills that lifestyle requires. They are trapped.

Minimalist with simple needs is free. Income can drop and life continues. Career can change and nothing breaks. Risks can be taken because downside is manageable. This is what India should want. Instead we desire the opposite.

Bhagavad Gita teaches us about non-attachment. Do your duty without attachment to fruits. This is minimalism at philosophical level. Perform action without needing outcome to validate action. Live life without needing possessions to validate life. Be yourself without needing external markers to prove yourself.

We inverted our ancient values and now we think kings were powerful and sanyasis were poor. We measure power by possession. Our ancestors measured power by liberation from possession. Who was right? Look at stress levels, suicide rates, mental health crisis, divorce rates, family breakdown, social fragmentation. Our way is not working. Maybe ancestors knew something we forgot. Maybe.

Minimalism is way of life that India should adopt now or else consumerism is going to devour us, destroy us from within. This is my observation of trajectory.

Let’s zoom out and look around: Household debt is rising. Personal savings are falling. Credit card usage is exploding. EMI is normalizing purchase of things we cannot afford. We are living beyond means and calling it aspiration. This is not sustainable. This ends in personal bankruptcy scaled to millions of households. This ends in financial crisis. This ends in social breakdown when people realize they destroyed their peace chasing things that did not matter.

But will we choose prevention? F*ck nah.

Prevention requires discipline. We lack discipline. We will wait until crisis forces change. This is Indian way. React to disaster rather than prevent disaster. Then complain about disaster as if it was unforeseeable act of god rather than predictable consequence of choices we made. This victim mentality is becoming a cultural trait. We are not victims. You are NOT a victim. Admitting we were wrong. Admitting we chased wrong things. This is too painful. So we will continue chasing. Continue accumulating. Continue suffering. Continue pretending we are happy while drowning in possessions that were supposed to make us happy but did opposite. What do you call this, if not a SLAVE?

Minimalism is antidote. Not because having less is virtuous. Because having less frees resources for having more of what matters. Time. Attention. Energy. Peace. Relationships. Experiences. Growth. These cannot be purchased. These can only be created through space that minimalism provides. Minimalism liberates you from suppressed desires. You feel pleasure with enough.

That is beautiful.

When you need little, little satisfies. When you want much, much never satisfies. This is mathematics of contentment. Indian culture forgot this mathematics. We think more equals better. Bigger house equals better life. More clothes equal better dressed. More gadgets equal better equipped. None of this is true. More equals more maintenance. More clutter. More stress. More to clean. More to organize. More to worry about. More to lose. This is not winning. This is losing disguised as success.

Enough is superpower.

Person who knows what enough is cannot be manipulated by marketing. Cannot be pressured by society. Cannot be controlled by comparison. They define their own enough based on their needs, their values, their priorities. Everyone else is slave to externally defined enough that keeps moving because external definition is designed to keep you chasing.

You never arrive at enough when enough is defined by others. You only arrive when you define it yourself. And this requires courage.

Courage to say: this is enough for me even though you have more. This is enough for me even though advertisement tells me I need more. This is enough for me even though society judges me for having less. This courage is rare. This courage is revolutionary. This courage is what minimalism requires.

The brutal truth is that Indians cannot handle minimalism because minimalism requires strength we do not have. Strength to resist. Strength to say no. Strength to be different. Strength to define your own enough. Strength to ignore judgment. Strength to sit with discomfort of having less in culture that values having more. Not the physical strength, but the spiritual strength. This is psychological strength.

Most Indians do not know who they are. They only know what they have. Remove what they have and identity collapses. This is why we cling. This is why we accumulate. This is why we cannot let go. Because letting go feels like dying. And it is dying. Dying of false self built on possessions.

But this death is necessary for birth of true self that needs nothing external to validate itself.

India’s situationship with minimalism will continue.

We will flirt with it when stressed. Read books about it. Watch videos about it. Admire people who practice it. Then return to accumulating because actual practice requires change we are not willing to make.

India’s Situationship is “wanting”...benefits without commitment. Wanting peace without simplifying. Wanting freedom without releasing. Wanting everything without sacrificing anything.

This does not work. Peace requires simplicity. Freedom requires release. Everything requires sacrifice. Can you, sacrifice?

Life will never offer this deal. Never has. Never will. But we keep hoping. Keep wishing. Keep accumulating. Keep suffering. This is India. This is us. This is our choice. And until we choose differently, our suffering will continue. And we will deserve it. Because we were shown path. We rejected it. We chose chains. We called them jewelry. We wore them proudly. And we complained they were heavy.

This is not tragedy. This is comedy. Dark comedy. But comedy nonetheless. And the divines are laughing. Because we are doing to ourselves what no enemy could do: destroying our peace while calling it progress.

This is why we suffer. This is what we chose.

India, always remember: Minimalism is always about being intentional with things, not deprived of them, because minimalism is not the lack of something, it’s simply the perfect amount of everything.

Hustle culture. Startups. Funding. Valuation. Ever heard these words?

Ever get tired of these words? India does not.

The hottest word of last decade in India has been “startup”.

Ask any overly ambitious guy from any metro city what they want to do and they will say “will do some startup”.

What exactly? No one has any idea but they want to startup. That is not good starting point.

India is pretending to promote entrepreneurial spirit with nowhere to actually reward great ideas. We focus on inflating and boasting about trendy catchy pitch decks.

Wherever AI is mentioned, funding flows. Wherever blockchain was mentioned three years ago, funding flowed. Wherever metaverse was mentioned two years ago, funding flowed. You call this “entrepreneurship”.

F*ck this bs!

Indian startup ecosystem is fueling hype over substance, presentation over product, fundraising over building. Someone who is truly fighting for change is neglected largely. Because change is hard. Change takes time. Change does not fit in pitch deck. Change cannot be demonstrated in three slides showing hockey stick growth projections. They fund stories that sound like next Uber or next Amazon. So entrepreneurs learn to tell those stories regardless of whether their product resembles anything world needs.

We should be creating our own tech and products but we are busy solving for convenience.

Let me show you Indian startup ecosystem roster: Food delivery. Grocery delivery. Ten-minute delivery. Five-minute delivery. Cab aggregation. Scooter rentals. Dating apps. Social commerce. D2C brands. Fintech wallets doing exactly what banks already do but with better UI.

That’s mind-blowing innovation, right?

Not at all incremental optimization of consumption. Right?

This is making rich people’s lives slightly more convenient while calling it revolutionary technology.

India is short-sighted and one needs zoomed-out perspective on what and where we really need to solve.

I know it sounds like a distant dream but what we really need to do is that...

• We need to solve pollution that is killing millions annually.

• We need electricity for all, not just urban centers.

• We need renewable energy resources at scale.

• We need rockets and satellites for communications and earth observation.

• We need semiconductor fabrication.

• We need advanced materials. We need biotechnology. We need fundamental research in physics, chemistry, biology.

• We need Biohacking routines, devices and ambient tech to sustain longevity.

These are problems worth solving. These are sectors where startups could actually change India’s trajectory.

Very niche and small startup players exist in these segments. Why? Because these problems are hard. They require technical depth beyond what MBA can teach. They require patient capital willing to wait decade for returns. They require founders who care more about solving problem than achieving unicorn valuation. And Indian ecosystem has none of these. We have impatient capital chasing quick exits. We have founders who learn to code from bootcamp and think they can build next Google. We have investors who cannot distinguish real technology from well-packaged mediocrity.

But every other household now has their own apparel store or dropshipping shenanigans. Everyone is busy playing quick-money businessman tactic from your neighborhood.

Source something, sell something, make some money. Wow. Entrepreneurs.

F*ck that shit. This is not entrepreneurship. This middle-manning prostitution should stop right away. There is no value creation. There is no innovation. There is no technology. Just commercial transaction with startup branding. Good enough for you to survive and add that ‘Founder’ label on your card.

Look but here’s a catch: if you are part of this transaction in your life where it’s just a ladder to build something bigger with whatever you make; this current money-making acrobatics is just another step into building the next holy sh*t idea. Do it. No shame in that. Make the money first, the infrastructure shall follow. But most people get consumed in the money-making phase. That’s the funny part. They start suffering from complacency. That’s wrong.

Their ideology is: ‘hey, I make good money to sustain myself. why do I need to go out there and change the world. why do I need to bang someone’s door to buy my stuff anymore. I am good.’

That’s a very limited life.

We need hungry people. We need people in India who can promote change. Look at all companies that want to take that leap. We need more startups in sectors being ignored largely by all. But we do not get them because incentives are completely misaligned.

If young engineer graduates wanting to work on renewable energy. Where do they go? No funding. No mentorship. No ecosystem. Same engineer builds food delivery app via drones. *snap* Funding appears immediately. Mentors emerge. Accelerators accept. Media covers. They go where resources are. And resources flow to convenience optimization, not civilizational problems.

The critique here is not of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are responding rationally to incentives system provides. The critique is of system that celebrates collecting ingredients over actual cooking. Raising funds has become achievement. Series A. Series B. Series C. Unicorn valuation. These are celebrated as success milestones. But these are inputs, not outputs. Success should be measured by problem solved, lives improved, technology created, India’s capabilities enhanced. Instead we measure success by dollars raised and valuation achieved before revenue appears.

This is India mating castles on sand.

Building impressive structures with no foundation. Raising hundred million dollars to deliver groceries ten minutes faster is not building anything lasting. It is burning capital to subsidize consumption until market consolidates and winner emerges to extract monopoly rents. This is not innovation. This is predatory capitalism disguised as disruption. And we celebrate it because valuation numbers are big and founders give inspiring talks about changing India.

Indian startup ecosystem has invented happiness called unicorn status. Billion-dollar valuation means you won. Means you are successful. Means you are changing India. But look closer. What changed? How is this changing India? How is this solving problems of 1.4 billion people, most of whom cannot afford these services?

It is not. But we pretend it is because we measure success by capital raised and valuation achieved rather than by impact created. This is moral bankruptcy. We are lying to ourselves about what we are building. We are building consumption optimization layer on top of economy that fundamentally needs production transformation.

We need to manufacture semiconductors, not deliver them faster. We need to generate clean energy, not create apps to pay electricity bills more conveniently. We need to reduce pollution, not build carbon offset marketplaces that let rich people feel good while doing nothing.

The problem is structural. Venture capital model requires exits within seven to ten years. This model works for software because software scales with minimal capital once built. But solving real problems requires massive capital deployment in physical infrastructure, long development cycles, uncertain outcomes. These do not fit VC model. So VC does not fund them. So entrepreneurs do not build them. So problems remain unsolved while we celebrate our hundredth food delivery startup achieving unicorn valuation.

We can learn a few things form China here...

China understood this. China directed capital to strategic sectors regardless of short-term returns. Solar manufacturing. Electric vehicles. High-speed rail. Semiconductor fabrication. Telecommunications equipment. These required decade-plus of patient capital with many failures before success. But China stuck with it because they were solving strategic problems, not chasing valuations. It led to china dominating solar manufacturing globally. China leads in electric vehicles. China built world’s largest high-speed rail network. China is becoming self-sufficient in semiconductors.

India does what? We celebrate our food delivery unicorns. We celebrate our fintech companies that are banks with better apps. We celebrate our social commerce platforms connecting influencers with brands. These are not achievements. These are distractions. While we optimize consumption, China is building production capabilities that will determine who leads century ahead. We are mating castles on sand while they are building factories on bedrock.

India is eating seed corn. We are optimizing consumption through apps while production capacity stagnates.

We import electronics. We import solar panels. We import machinery. We import virtually everything except software and services. And even software is increasingly just customization of foreign platforms. Where is indigenous innovation? Where is fundamental technology development? Where are breakthroughs that change what is possible?

They do not exist because we do not fund them.

Because ecosystem values quick wins over hard problems. Because founders are trained to think in terms of exits rather than legacies. Because investors want IRR over impact. Because media celebrates fundraising over building.

We have collectively decided that optimization of consumption is more important than transformation of production.

Nothing. We will be remembered as generation that had resources, talent, opportunity, and wasted it on making convenience-as-a-service. Not that I hate any delivery startups or they are bad for societies. It’s just that, future will look back at us and wonder why we did not solve pollution when we could have. Why we did not build energy infrastructure when we needed to. Why we did not develop indigenous technology when we had time. They will see our unicorn valuations and wonder why we celebrated consumption optimization while civilizational problems remained unsolved.

The answer is India is short-sighted. We measured success by wrong metrics. We celebrated fundraising over building. We valued pitch decks over products. We rewarded trend-following over problem-solving. We trained entrepreneurs to think like investors rather than builders. And we got exactly what we incentivized: lots of castles on sand that look impressive until tide comes in.

The tide is coming. As global economy slows, capital will dry up. Valuations will crash. Companies with no real product will die. Founders will discover that story is not substitute for revenue. Investors will learn that hockey stick projections on pitch deck do not translate to actual growth. Ecosystem will contract. And when tide goes out, we will see who was building on sand and who was building on rock.

Spoiler Alert folks: almost everyone is building on sand. Because that is what ecosystem rewards. Because that is what we celebrate. Because that is what we tell ourselves is success. And when everything washes away, we will wonder what went wrong. We will blame global economy. We will blame investors. We will blame government. We will blame everything except ourselves.

But it was us. We chose this. India chose to optimize consumption over production. We chose to celebrate fundraising over building. We chose to solve convenience problems for rich over fundamental problems for everyone. We chose to mate castles on sand because castles on rock are hard and take long time and do not produce unicorn valuations in seven years. This is our choice. This is our failure.

I often think about it: Is this our generation’s legacy? We had talent. We had capital. We had opportunity. We had time. And we spent it all on delivering groceries ten minutes faster. Future will judge us harshly. And they will be right to do so.

Because we knew better. We knew what problems needed solving. We knew what mattered. We just chose not to care because caring was hard and fundraising was easy.

This is our shame. This is what we built. Castles on sand.

Impressive from distance. Worthless when examined. Gone when tide comes.

This is us. This is New India. This is what we chose.

Too much of Ideological diversity weakens a nation.

Not to debunk the idea of independent thinking, one should always have independent standpoints to push collective civilisation forward, but, if independent thinking pushes you to be a radicalised pawn in the game, you were never meant to win.

We are slowly turning into a fragmented nation, where different ideologies wage perpetual war, paralyzing action, preventing coherence, guaranteeing mediocrity.

Aristotle warned that the state cannot be unity in absolute platonic sense, such unity destroys self-sufficiency but excessive diversity without harmony leads to factionalism and ruin. Every form of government brings ruin on itself by its own excess,” implying ideological fragmentation as fatal flaw.

This is exactly India’s current scenario on global scale.

My question is brutal: is it the freedom of ideological diversity that leads to a destabilised Indian society or is it something more cruel?

India loves living in contradictions. We celebrate our contradictions as proof of complexity, sophistication, ancient wisdom.

“Unity in diversity,” we chant.

But unity requires shared foundation. Diversity without unity is not strength. It is weakness disguised as cultural richness. We are not united. We are collection of tribes occupying same geography, each pursuing its agenda, none caring about whole. How can you call this a civilization? This is chaos leading to a collapse.

Ideological diversity weakens nation.

This statement will trigger those who conflate independent thinking with ideological fragmentation. They are not same. Independent thinking pushes humanity forward. Ideological diversity, where every group operates from incompatible fundamental premises about reality, morality, governance, paralyzes nation. Because ideology does not follow rule of singularity.

Ideology multiplies. Fragments. Metastasizes.

Why?

Because no one reasons with ideology. It’s a closed system. It has answers before questions are asked. Try reasoning with religious fundamentalist. Try reasoning with Marxist. Try reasoning with identitarian. Try reasoning with anyone whose worldview is ideology rather than framework for processing evidence. You get circular logic, appeals to authority, moral accusations, but never actual reasoning. Ideology is not tool for finding truth. It is shield against truth that threatens believer’s identity.

Ideological diversity is very similar to religion. Reason with religion and you will not have satisfactory, believable answers. Only juggle of semantics, appeals to faith, threats of cosmic consequences, and social pressure to conform. Religion demands belief without evidence.

Ideology demands commitment without examination. Both are immune to falsification. Both create in-groups and out-groups. Both produce zealots willing to destroy heretics. Both fragment societies into competing sects fighting over unfalsifiable claims.

India’s problem is not that we have diverse perspectives. Problem is that we have incompatible ideologies operating simultaneously, each demanding that national policy conform to its premises.

• Secularists demand one thing.

• Religious nationalists demand opposite.

• Commies demand centralized control.

• Libertarians demand free markets.

• Caste activists demand reservations.

• Merit advocates demand elimination of reservations.

• Environmentalists demand halt to development.

• Industrialists demand elimination of environmental regulations.

Each position is ideological. Each is unfalsifiable. Each views compromise as betrayal.

And the outcome? Policy paralysis. These are ideological conflicts with no resolution because ideologies do not compromise. They conquer or they are conquered.

How did we become so fragmented?

Take zoomed-out perspective on India and you shall realize. And that is why it is very easy to break Indian narratives. We are so gullible to spoon-fed media and ideological surrogacies, it is easier to control us without us being part of hive mind.

And that is contradiction we live in. We pose that we are independent but we are collective of mediocre, tasteless, coward nation with no plausible solid ideology and operating like wherever we can survive we shall change our stance.

This is brutal truth nobody wants to articulate clearly. India has no coherent national ideology. We have constitution that is confused hodgepodge of liberal rights, socialist directives, and special provisions for every group that demanded them. We have foreign policy that oscillates between non-alignment and strategic alliances depending on which faction is in power. We have economic policy that mixes socialism and capitalism without committing to either. We have social policy that simultaneously promotes secularism and funds religious institutions.

I call it ideological confusion institutionalized as governance. And confusion creates vulnerability. When nation has no clear ideology, every external actor can exploit different factions by appealing to their particular ideology. Want to destabilize India? Fund Marxist groups. Or fund religious extremists. Or fund separatist movements. Or fund environmentalists who will block every development project.

Each ideology has constituency that can be activated against national interest because they have no national interest. They have ideological interest that transcends nation.

India is Individual pawns playing at game, surviving.

That is not how great nation is made. Coalition governments result in policy paralysis, as seen in 1990s era of unstable alliances or recent delays in reforms due to ideological clashes. This manifests in inconsistent foreign policy, balancing non-alignment with strategic alliances creates confusion where nobody trusts India’s commitments. Slow infrastructure development amid environmental versus growth debates means projects take decades instead of years. Uneven economic progress where regional ideologies prioritize local interests over national ones means India cannot coordinate at scale.

Globally, nations like China with more ideological uniformity under centralized communism have achieved rapid coordinated advancements in manufacturing, high-speed rail, poverty reduction.

Critics argue that India’s diverse ideologies foster short-term populism over long-term vision, diluting “collective wisdom” into compromises that satisfy no one fully. Farm laws were rolled back amid protests reflecting clashing agrarian ideologies, potentially hindering agricultural modernization and global competitiveness.

This is perfect example. Government proposed reforms that economists agreed were necessary for modernizing agriculture. Farmers protested based on ideological fear of corporate exploitation. Government rolled back reforms. Result: agricultural sector remains inefficient, farmers remain poor, neither side satisfied. This is compromise born of ideological fragmentation. Nobody wins. India loses.

Also, f*ck you Amartya Sen.

Debate is valuable when participants seek truth through reasoning. India’s arguments are not truth-seeking. They are ideological performances. Each side argues from unfalsifiable premises. Each side appeals to different moral framework. Each side declares victory when audience applauds rather than when truth is established.

But catch is we do not have to become hive mind. Ever. Do not become that “Argumentative Indian” who thinks if we rebel without cause there is always someone to cater to your tantrum. Stop living in contradiction. India promotes this behavior where they contradict very principle they stand for if circumstances allow or bend them. This is what is called cowardice disguised as pragmatism.

A small example: India claims to value merit. Yet we have reservation system that allocates opportunities based on caste. 50% of government positions reserved. Educational institutions reserved. This creates situation where merit is secondary to identity. But we cannot eliminate reservations because ideological diversity means some groups ideologically committed to identity-based allocation and others committed to merit-based allocation. Neither will compromise. So we maintain system that satisfies nobody and produces mediocrity.

India too has seduction theory. Not sexual. Ideological. We seduce ourselves with contradictions. We tell ourselves that holding contradictory positions simultaneously is proof of sophisticated thinking. It is not. It is proof of confused thinking or dishonest thinking. You cannot simultaneously value secularism and religious law. You cannot simultaneously value merit and caste-based reservation. You cannot simultaneously value environment and unrestricted development. These are contradictory commitments.

But we seduce ourselves into believing we can have both. This is cognitive dissonance elevated to national character. We are uncomfortable holding one position clearly because clear position alienates some faction. So we hold all positions simultaneously, contradicting ourselves constantly, satisfying nobody, achieving nothing. This is not wisdom. This is cowardice masked as inclusivity.

Indians of today lack nuance. Lack substance. Superficial beings with only paper wealth. Deterioration begins at home. India’s ideological diversity is where we draw line or else our seduction theory will change its form as it wills. Paper wealth means GDP numbers that do not reflect actual prosperity. We have billionaires and mass poverty. We have technology sector and illiterate population. We have nuclear weapons and crumbling infrastructure. These contradictions are not signs of developing economy. They are signs of fragmented nation where different sectors exist in different centuries.

Nuance requires understanding complexity while maintaining coherent position. Indians confuse contradiction with nuance. They think that if they take all sides simultaneously they appear sophisticated. They appear confused. Substance requires commitment to principles even when inconvenient. Indians avoid commitment because commitment alienates factions. Better to be vague, contradictory, flexible. This way everyone can project their ideology onto you and nobody is offended. This is not leadership. This is people-pleasing elevated to governance.

Bhagavad Gita talks about contradictions with Arjun, where duty as warrior requires killing relatives who are teachers and elders. His dharma as kshatriya conflicts with his dharma as family member. He is paralyzed by contradiction. Krishna does not resolve contradiction through compromise. Krishna resolves it through clarity: your svadharma as warrior supersedes other considerations in this context. Perform your duty without attachment to outcomes. This is not having-it-both-ways. This is choosing based on hierarchical principles.

Modern India has no hierarchy of principles. Every principle is equal. Every ideology is valid. Every group’s demands are legitimate. This is recipe for paralysis. When everything is priority, nothing is priority. When everyone’s ideology must be accommodated, no coherent action is possible. When every group has veto power through protests and litigation, nothing gets done.

China does not seduce contradictions. China has ideological clarity: Communist Party maintains power, economic growth is priority, social stability is enforced, dissent is suppressed. This is authoritarian. This is not model to admire morally. But it is model that works functionally. China lifted 800 million from poverty. Built world-class infrastructure. Became global manufacturing hub. Achieved all this in forty years while India debated.

India’s ideological diversity state is morally contradictory.

We claim to value justice but apply different laws to different communities. We claim to value equality but allocate opportunities based on caste. We claim to value environment but approve destructive projects. We claim to value democracy but mob rule determines policy through protests. We claim to value merit but reserve positions by quota. We claim to value secularism but fund religious institutions.

These are contradictions to be resolved. You cannot value justice and tribal law simultaneously. You cannot value equality and caste quotas simultaneously. You cannot value environment and destructive development simultaneously. You must choose or you must establish clear hierarchy where one value supersedes another in specific contexts.

But we do neither. We claim to value everything simultaneously. We contradict ourselves constantly. We seduce ourselves into believing contradictions are sophisticated complexity rather than confused thinking. And we produce governance that satisfies nobody, achieves little, and slowly decays because contradictory foundations cannot support stable structure.

What would ideological clarity look like? Not uniformity. Not state-imposed ideology. Not suppression of dissent. Clarity means:

Establishing constitutional framework that takes clear positions on fundamental questions rather than trying to accommodate every ideology. Is India secular state or religious federation? Choose. Is India merit-based or quota-based? Choose. Is India development-first or environment-first? Choose. Not easy choices. But necessary choices. Building institutions that enforce chosen framework regardless of which faction protests. Courts that apply same law to all citizens regardless of religion or caste. Regulators that cannot be captured by protesters. Bureaucracy that implements policy rather than debating it. This requires insulating institutions from ideological pressure. Difficult in democracy. Possible if we valued function over representation.

Creating political culture that rewards clarity over vagueness. Currently politicians succeed by being everything to everyone, contradicting themselves constantly, offending nobody. This should be disqualifying. Voters should demand: what do you stand for? Not: what will you give my group? Political culture shifts slowly. But it shifts when consequences of current culture become unbearable. We are approaching that point.

Accepting that clarity means some ideologies will lose. Not be suppressed. Just not be national policy. If India chooses secular framework, religious law cannot govern personal law. If India chooses merit framework, caste quotas cannot determine opportunities. If India chooses development framework, environmental litigation cannot block every project. This will anger factions whose ideology loses. They will protest. They will litigate. They will accuse government of authoritarianism. This is price of clarity. But price of continued fragmentation is higher.

India refuses this path because it requires courage we do not have. Easier to seduce contradictions. Easier to claim unity in diversity. Easier to celebrate our confusion as wisdom. Easier to remain mediocre while telling ourselves we are too sophisticated for simple answers. This is seduction. We are seducing ourselves into civilizational irrelevance.

India loves seducing contradictions because contradictions allow us to avoid choosing. Choosing requires courage. Requires accepting that some faction will be angry. Requires standing for something even when criticized. We lack this courage. So we stand for everything. Which means we stand for nothing.

Aristotle was right: excessive diversity without harmony leads to factionalism and ruin. We have excessive diversity. We have no harmony. We have factionalism. Ruin is trajectory unless we change course. But changing course requires admitting current course is failing. We refuse to admit this. We celebrate our diversity. We praise our democracy. We congratulate ourselves on managing complexity. While we fall further behind nations that chose clarity over complexity.

India loves seducing contradictions. This love affair will end badly.

Contradictions do not resolve themselves through seduction. They explode when pressure builds sufficiently. We are building pressure. We are approaching explosion. We can choose clarity before explosion. We will not. We are too in love with our contradictions. Too proud of our diversity. Too comfortable with our mediocrity. So we will seduce contradictions until contradictions destroy us.

We are speeding toward disaster while congratulating ourselves on sophisticated navigation. This is India. This is our choice. This is our fate unless we wake up. We will not wake up. We prefer seduction to survival.

This is final contradiction: nation that loves contradictions will be destroyed by them. And we will die confused, wondering how this happened, unable to see that we chose this path ourselves by refusing to choose anything clearly.

This is moral contradiction that defines us. This is why we fail. This is why we will continue failing until failure becomes so catastrophic that it forces clarity we refused to choose voluntarily.

By then it will be too late. But at least we will have been true to ourselves: contradictory until the end.

Communist Manifesto. Not just a guidebook, it’s a far distant dream.

A dream of group of people that sit in a bucket their whole life. Waiting for someone to climb out of the bucket, and when they do. They latch onto that soul, thinking they shall escape the hell hole called “Capitalism”. But eventually dragging everyone down with them in the filth they call home, Socialism.

Marx stood for a dream. Just a dream. Dream that has never materialized anywhere without catastrophic human cost. Dream that Indian trollers invoke whenever they see successful business that dares to exist without their approval. Dream that substitutes moral posturing for economic literacy.

And with the recent fiasco with gig workers economy, delivery partner strike and Zomato’s founder dealing with the heat,

I wonder: what does M in Zomato truly stands for?

M can have a lot of forms, function, creed and despair.

Does it stand for M for Marxists dream? Or M stands for the manifesto that deludes you of reality? Or above all M stands for Money?

Let’s order some new perspectives:

M for Marxist Dreams That Never Materialize

Let me be clear: every armchair revolutionary screaming about exploitation of gig workers has never created single job. Never built business. Never faced choice between paying employees and keeping lights on. Never understood that capital is not evil abstraction but accumulated effort, risk, sacrifice. They sit in comfort provided by capitalism while fantasizing about revolution that would destroy the very system enabling their comfortable critique.

They are the biggest jokers in this entire discourse.

Marx imagined world where workers own means of production. Beautiful theory. Catastrophic practice. Soviet Union tried it. Seventy years of tyranny, stagnation, mass starvation. China tried it. Great Leap Forward killed tens of millions. Mao’s revolution ate its children. Every attempt to implement Marxist economics has produced identical outcome: concentration of power in party elite, poverty for masses, and corpses. Lots of corpses.

And when you start operating on a principle which bears no consequence of their action, as all they want to is to taste the fruit, not cultivate its creation. They are nothing but mere parasites. Cut them out.

But Indian trollers do not study history. They study Twitter.

They see delivery partner working and immediately conclude: exploitation. They see company making profit and immediately conclude: theft. They see inequality and immediately conclude: injustice requiring state intervention.

You call this critique? Analysis? F*ck off if you do.

This is nothing but tantrums; nothing but automated outrage running on Marxist programming from university professors who themselves never worked real job. Get out and touch some grass for once.

People are not equal in ability, effort, discipline, intelligence, risk tolerance. They will never produce equal outcomes. Gig economy reveals this brutally. Some delivery partners work 250+ days, earn substantially. Others work 38 days, earn proportionally. This is exploitation. Do you all even read yourself while writing verbal diarrheic bs commentaries?

This is differential effort producing differential results. But equality of outcome is Marxist religion. So they demand everyone earn same regardless of effort. This is not justice. This is theft from productive to subsidize unproductive.

Look beyond, and you shall realise what kind of parasitic behaviour this breeds.

State management is infinitely worse than market because state has monopoly on violence. Bad employer in capitalism? Quit. Start business. Compete. Bad state in communism? Gulag. Execution. Reeducation camp. This is why every Marxist experiment ends in tyranny. Because eliminating private property requires eliminating freedom. And eliminating freedom requires eliminating those who resist.

M for Manifesto That Ignores Reality

Marx wrote manifesto based on specific historical conditions: industrial capitalism with no labor laws, children in coal mines, sixteen-hour workdays, no safety regulations. His critique of that system had validity. His solution of abolishing private property, workers seize means of production, was catastrophic fiction. (Was he drunk while writing this debauchery?).

Indian trollers apply Marxist analysis to gig economy as if nothing changed in 150 years. As if Zomato is Manchester factory from 1850. As if delivery partners are Victorian child laborers.

I call this is intellectual laziness.

Gig economy is fundamentally different from industrial capitalism that Marx critiqued.

How?

First: voluntary participation. Nobody is forced to work for Zomato. Partners choose to log in. Choose to accept orders. Choose to log out. Average partner works 38 days per year, 7 hours per day. Still feeling exploited? This is exactly what gig model promises: flexible, part-time income on demand. If this was exploitative, why would people keep choosing it?

Second: multiple income sources. Most gig workers have primary income elsewhere. Gig work is supplementary. This is why demanding PF, ESI, guaranteed salary for gig roles is absurd. You are demanding full-time employee benefits for part-time voluntary participation. This makes gig model economically unviable. Which is exactly what Marxists want. They do not want to improve gig work. They want to destroy it.

Third: earnings data.

Deepinder Goyal recent tweet storms

highlighted some crucial and slammed every mouthpiece that was planting hatred toward India’s most successful startup. Deepinder provided actual numbers. ₹102 per hour in 2025, up from ₹92 in 2024. 10.9% year-on-year increase. Partner working 10 hours/day, 26 days/month earns ₹26,500 gross, ₹21,000 net after fuel and maintenance. Plus tips. Plus insurance worth ₹100 crore annually borne by company. Plus accident coverage, medical coverage, maternity benefits, period rest days, tax filing support, pension scheme access.

Critics ignored all this data. Why?

Because data contradicts narrative. Narrative says gig workers are exploited. Data says gig workers are earning more year-on-year with increasing benefits and complete flexibility. So critics ignore data and continue with narrative because narrative serves ideological purpose: attacking capitalism regardless of facts.

Fourth: the speed myth. Critics claim 10-minute delivery promise creates pressure on delivery partners to drive unsafely. Goyal explained: delivery partners are not shown customer-facing timer. They see no countdown. Ten-minute delivery is achieved through proximity of dark stores to customers (average 2.03 km on Blinkit), not through high-speed driving. Average speed on Blinkit: 16 km/h. On Zomato: 21 km/h. These are not unsafe speeds. These are slower than average city traffic.

But critics do not care about facts. They have moral narrative: fast delivery = exploitation. Wake up keyboard warriors!

When shown data proving otherwise, they ignore it and continue narrative. This is not argument in good faith. This is ideological commitment immune to evidence.

Marx’s fundamental error was believing that surplus value extracted by capitalist is theft. It is not. It is return on capital invested, risk taken, innovation created.

• Zomato built platform.

• Zomato bears technology costs, marketing costs, customer acquisition costs, regulatory costs.

• Zomato took risk when model could have failed. Delivery partners bear none of this. They show up, deliver orders, earn per delivery. This is fair exchange. Partner provides labor.

• Zomato provides platform, customers, payment infrastructure, insurance, support systems. Both benefit. This is not exploitation. This is cooperation.

But Marxist analysis cannot comprehend cooperation. It sees only class warfare. Capitalist vs worker. Exploiter vs exploited. This binary is intellectually primitive. Reality is complex.

Gig economy creates value for multiple stakeholders: customers get convenience, delivery partners get flexible income, platform gets revenue, restaurants get orders. Everyone benefits or they would not participate. This is positive-sum game.

Marxist analysis assumes zero-sum: capitalist profit = worker loss. This is false and easily disproven by observing that gig economy grows because all participants benefit.

M for Money, And Why Marxists Fear It

Here is what Indian trollers cannot accept: money is not evil. Profit is not theft. Wealth creation is not exploitation.

These are Marxist myths that survive because they are emotionally satisfying to those who have not created wealth.

Money is crystallized effort. Someone worked, created value, exchanged value for money. Money is not taken. It is earned. Zomato earns money by solving problem: connecting hungry customers with restaurants and providing delivery. This creates value. Customers pay for value. Restaurants pay for access to customers. Delivery partners earn for providing delivery service. Everyone in transaction benefits or they exit. This is how markets work.

Profit is signal. It tells entrepreneur: you are creating value, continue. Loss is signal: you are destroying value, stop. Marxists want to eliminate profit motive. Replace it with what? Central planning? That’s tried, tested and failed miserably. Grow some balls ffs.

Critics demand Zomato sacrifice profit to increase delivery partner earnings. To what level? They never specify. Because specifying would require economic analysis they are incapable of performing. They just know intuitively that profit is bad and workers should earn more. This is not economics. This is emotion.

Let’s understand the economic reality: if you force Zomato to increase delivery partner earnings beyond what economics of platform supports, three things happen. First: Zomato raises prices. Customers order less. Demand falls. Fewer orders mean fewer delivery partners needed. Second: Zomato exits unprofitable markets. Delivery partners in those markets lose all income. Third: competitors who are more efficient take market share. Zomato shrinks or dies. All delivery partners lose jobs.

This is not theory. This is what happens every time government imposes price controls, wage mandates, benefit requirements that exceed what market supports. You do not help workers. You destroy jobs. But Marxists do not understand economics. They understand morality plays where capitalist is villain and worker is victim requiring rescue by enlightened intellectuals who have never created job.

Delivery partner’s labor is valuable. But without Zomato’s platform, what is partner delivering? Nothing. Platform connects demand and supply. Platform provides payment infrastructure. Platform provides insurance. Platform provides customer support. Platform bears technology costs. All this requires capital. Capital requires return. Return is profit. Eliminate profit and capital goes elsewhere. Platform shuts down. Delivery partners earn zero.

This is what happened in Venezuela. Chavez nationalized industries. Seized private property. Redistributed wealth. Result: economy collapsed. Hyperinflation. Starvation. Mass exodus. But Indian Marxists ignore Venezuela because acknowledging failure of socialism threatens their entire worldview. So they continue demanding policies that have failed everywhere they have been tried while attacking policies: free markets, private property, profit motive, that have lifted billions out of poverty.

The uncomfortable truth that Deepinder Goyal articulated brilliantly: critics are not uncomfortable with exploitation. They are uncomfortable with visibility of inequality. For centuries, class divides kept labor of poor invisible to rich. Factory workers behind walls. Farmers in distant fields. Domestic help in backrooms. Rich consumed fruits of labor without seeing faces or fatigue.

Gig economy shattered that invisibility at unprecedented scale. Suddenly poor are not hidden. They are at your doorstep. You see delivery partner in rain, heat, traffic. You see exhaustion. You see polite smile masking frustration with life. You see that your ₹800 order might equal their day’s earnings. This face-to-face interaction creates discomfort.

This is first time in history at this scale that working class and consuming class interact face-to-face, transaction after transaction. And that discomfort with our own selves is why we are uncomfortable about gig economy. We want these people to look our part so guilt we feel while taking orders from them feels less.

Pre-gig era, rich could enjoy luxury without moral discomfort. Labor was out of sight. Now every doorbell ring is reminder of systemic inequality. That is why debates explode. It is not just policy. It is emotional reckoning. Some defend system. Others demand change. But here is uncomfortable twist: unsaid ask of clumsy ‘solutions’ is not dignity. It is return to invisibility.

Ban gig work and you do not solve inequality. You remove livelihoods. These jobs do not magically reappear as formal protected employment. They disappear or get pushed back into informal economy where there are even fewer protections and even less accountability. Over-regulate until model breaks and you achieve same outcome: work evaporates, prices rise, demand collapses, people we claim to protect are first to lose income.

And then what happens? Rich get their old comfort back. Convenience returns without faces. Guilt dissolves. We go back to clean abstractions and moral posturing from distance. Poor do not become safer. They become invisible again. Back in cash economies. Back in backrooms. Back in shadows where regulation rarely reaches and dignity is not even debated.

Now, I again ask: what does M in Zomato stands for?

M in Zomato stands for Market. Free market where people make choices based on their assessment of value. Delivery partner chooses to work because value of flexibility + earnings exceeds value of alternative employment options available to them. Customer chooses to order because value of convenience exceeds cost. Restaurant chooses to partner because value of customer access exceeds commission. Zomato earns profit by creating platform that enables all these value exchanges. It’s called civilization. This is how billions of humans coordinate economic activity without central planner.

M in Zomato stands for Meritocracy. Those who work more earn more. Those who provide better service get better ratings, more orders, higher earnings. Those who work smart: choosing right locations, right times, right orders, earn more than those who work carelessly. This is fair. This rewards effort and intelligence. But meritocracy produces inequality. Marxists cannot tolerate inequality so they attack meritocracy as exploitation.

M in Zomato stands for Modernity. Old employment model: fixed job, fixed hours, fixed location, fixed salary, no flexibility. New model: choose when to work, where to work, how long to work, how much to earn based on effort. Old model suited industrial age. New model suits information age where people want autonomy over time and income. But Marxists are stuck in industrial age thinking. They want to impose industrial age regulations on information age businesses. This kills innovation.

M in Zomato stands for Money earned honestly through value creation. Not stolen through exploitation. Not extracted through coercion. Earned through consensual exchange where all parties benefit. This is moral foundation of capitalism that Marxists refuse to acknowledge.

And finally, M in Zomato stands for reality that Marxist Manifesto ignores: humans are not identical economic units. They have different abilities, different preferences, different risk tolerances, different effort levels. They will never produce equal outcomes. Forcing equal outcomes requires totalitarian state.

Gig economy just exposed reality of inequality to people who previously had luxury of not seeing it. Doorbell is not problem. Question is what we do after opening door. Visibility is price of progress. We can either use this discomfort to build something better, which Zomato keeps doing continuously as delivery partners are their backbone, or we can ban and over-regulate our way back into ignorance. One of those choices improves lives. Other simply helps consuming class feel virtuous in dark.

The doorbell is ringing. Open it or hide.

But if you hide, admit you are hiding not to protect delivery partner but to protect yourself from confronting inequality you benefit from. That honesty would be refreshing change from moral posturing disguised as worker advocacy. But honesty is scarce in age of ideology. So debate continues. Trollers troll. Marxists moralize.

And delivery partners keep working, keep earning, keep choosing gig economy despite critics insisting they are too stupid to know they are exploited. That condescension alone reveals who actually respects workers and who just uses them as props in ideological warfare.

Nothing human is perfect. But now whether gig economy is better than alternatives. Data says yes. Millions of voluntary participants say yes.

Only armchair Marxists say no. And they have been wrong about everything economic for 150 years. Why start believing them now?

Socialism is the fabric of mediocrity only the hollow swallows.

Thanos was right. He has always been right.

“This universe is finite, its resources finite. If life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correction.”

True for any nation as well.

A nation needs sequential correction. But what happens a nation fails to become a Republic?

In Plato’s idea of a Republic, he mapped the stellar decline: aristocracy degrades into timocracy, timocracy into oligarchy, oligarchy into democracy, and democracy into tyranny.

Not as moral judgment but as observation of inevitable cycle. Each form contains seeds of its own destruction. India’s current moral democracy seed is particularly insidious: it elevates freedom above all, including the discipline required to maintain freedom.

And what it results into? Chaos, masquerading as liberation, which population eventually trades for order under tyrant.

India is not approaching this decline. India is in it. Deep.

I want to dissect what exactly leads to the Moral Decay of a Republic?

One: Rewarding Vice Over Virtue

Republic decays when bad behavior yields better outcomes than good behavior.

When cheater prospers more than honest person. When liar wins election over truth-teller. When corrupt official lives better than ethical one. This inverts moral economy. If virtue is punished and vice is rewarded, rational actors choose vice. Not because they are immoral, but because they are rational. System has made morality irrational.

India rewards bad behavior systematically. Cheating in exams is normalized. Students who cheat score higher, get better placements, earn more. Students who do not cheat are disadvantaged. This instills in you: “integrity is liability”. @kunalb11 low trust society theory fits well here.

Businesses that evade taxes, violate regulations, exploit workers outcompete businesses that follow rules. Politicians who lie, manipulate, incite win elections over those who speak uncomfortable truths. Media that sensationalizes, polarizes, manufactures outrage gets more viewership than media that informs responsibly.

Every institution sends the same message: morality is for losers.

If you want to succeed, cheat. If you want power, lie. If you want wealth, steal. And if you are caught, use wealth and power to escape consequences.

Most intellectual critiques of society would label it as anomaly. It’s not. This is system working as designed. Designed to reward those shameless enough to exploit it and punish those principled enough to resist.

Two: Collapse of Accountability

Republic requires accountability. Those who violate rules must face consequences. But is that the case?

Without this, rules become suggestions. And when rules are suggestions, power decides everything. India has achieved complete collapse of accountability for powerful. Minister caught with ₹100 crore walks free with ₹90 crore intact.

Message is clear: evidence means nothing, power means everything.

This is not corruption anymore; corruption implies deviation from norm. This is norm. Institutional rot so complete that corruption is not bug but feature. Courts move slowly when accused is powerful, swiftly when accused is powerless. Agencies selectively wake up to investigate opponents, sleep through crimes of allies. Public outrage is managed through news cycle until people get bored and move on. And accused do not even bother hiding anymore because they know no one will touch them.

When minister is accused of crime and continues attending rallies, giving interviews, holding office, what lesson does this teach? It teaches that laws do not apply equally. They apply selectively based on proximity to power.

This destroys legitimacy of entire legal system.

If everyone knows laws are tools of power rather than constraints on power, why should anyone respect them?

Three: Institutional Capture

Republic dies when institutions meant to check power are captured by power. Courts that should judge impartially become perceived as siding with government and industry. Media that should investigate becomes propaganda. Police that should protect citizens become enforcers for politicians. Regulators that should ensure safety become approvers of unsafe products for bribes.

India’s institutions are hollowed out. Fake cough syrup kills children. Fake rabies vaccines fail to protect. Roads crumble days after inauguration. Bridges crack within months. Criticise them as incompetent, they don’t 2 f*cks.

Corruption so systematic that quality control does not exist. Because regulators are bribed. Because inspectors are paid off. Because officials know they will face no consequences for approving substandard work or deadly products.

And when victims seek justice, courts move glacially if at all. When media covers it, coverage lasts one cycle before next scandal. When politicians are confronted, they deflect, deny, attack questioner. No accountability. No urgency. No consequences. Just institutional rot so deep that expecting justice feels naive.

How will a citizen survive in this filth?

Four: Normalization of Injustice

Most dangerous stage of decay is when population stops being revolutionary.

I have seen the era of India where: crimes become so frequent that each new one barely registers. When corruption becomes so universal that complaining about it feels pointless. When injustice becomes so normal that demanding justice feels radical.

This is where India is. We are being conditioned to tolerate what previous generation would have rioted over. Or not. (Being too optimistic with my vision here but...)

Rapists roaming free, gets bail easily. No outrage. Minister involved in crime. No consequences. Some rich fat father’s son kills 2 souls with a Porsche. Evidence Tampered. Essay writing competitions. Lack-lustre investigation. No moral justice. Ever.

If your blood still doesn’t boils after knowing the conditioning of your country...then just ask yourself: God forbid, but let’s say some mishap, some tragedy happens to you, or your family. And if the system that you’re so ignorant about turns your back on you. Then? How shall you react? What will you do?

This happens repeatedly until outrage is numbed, questions are buried, silence is sold as maturity. “What can we do?” becomes default response. This is how democracies do not collapse overnight. They decay quietly while people convince themselves nothing can be done.

The moment citizens stop demanding accountability and start accepting injustice as “normal,” power stops fearing public. And when power stops fearing people, country is not being governed anymore. It is being occupied. Rulers are not serving citizens. They are extracting from subjects.

Five: Concentration of Power

When a pretentious republic is desperate for order, for decisiveness, for someone to solve problems, they concentrate power in one person. This person promises to cut through bureaucracy, to get things done, to restore greatness. And population, tired of democratic gridlock, surrenders power willingly.

India is in this stage. Power is concentrated in hands of a hierarchal babus, known as a collective man. And that man protects his own. Fair trials? What’s that.

Democracy starts looking less like system and more like stage-managed illusion. Elections happen but outcomes feel predetermined.

And look you can’t fundamentally rely on the opposition in this current state. We have seen what clowns are on the other side.

Democratisation requires distributing power to the republic. But the system that lusts power will never let that happen. Never.

Six: Death of Questioning Culture

Republic requires citizens who question. Who scrutinize. Who refuse to accept official narratives without evidence. India has opposite: blind adherence to authority, hierarchy, tradition.

No questioning culture.

You do not question teacher, boss, parent, political leader, religious authority.

Because someone with inadequate democracy and boastful confidence taught you: “Questioning is disrespect. Compliance is virtue.”

F*CK YOU.

Stop this is colonial hangover. British trained Indians to be obedient subjects, not questioning citizens. And after seventy-eight years, we still operate with same psychology. Imagine the kind of PTSD we carry. We are weaklings in a bucket. Knowing the way of up, but never moving. And if we do, someone’s already there to pull us down.

Add to this tribalism: caste, religion, region, language. that fragments population into competing groups too busy fighting each other to question those above.

And complacent business class that profits from system and has no interest in changing it. What happens then? Population perfectly conditioned to accept whatever they are told by those in power.

How India is Morally Decaying

Understand it from a non-opinionated commentary perspective: Last 10 years have hit peak we never saw before. Yes, crimes existed earlier. Yes, Lalu’s era was lawless. Yes, UP always had reputation. Yes, Hindu-Muslim tussle has always startled my nation.

But that excuse is so pre-2013.

What feels different now is sudden rise in entitlement. A supremacist entitlement. People aligned with current power behave like laws do not apply to them because practically they do not. No fear of consequence. No urgency for justice. No accountability.

This is not about targeting political party by name. This is about recognizing pattern. When crimes, corruption, assaults, rapes, harassment involving ministers, corrupt babus, party members become this frequent and perpetrators face no or mild consequences, system is broken. Not broken accidentally. Broken deliberately to protect powerful.

The design is brilliant in its cynicism. Create crisis through misgovernance. Blame opposition, minorities, previous governments. Generate outrage at scapegoats while protecting actual perpetrators. Control media to amplify favorable narratives and bury uncomfortable ones. Capture institutions so investigations happen selectively. Break opposition through defections and intimidation. And when critics speak up, attack them as anti-national, urban elite, foreign-funded.

The entire cycle of my nation’s Dharma is imbalanced.

Stop romanticising this as rising governance. It’s not. And it all exists because population is conditioned to accept authority, to believe official narratives, to blame scapegoats rather than question power.

It requires a tectonic shift.

Ambedkar’s Prophecy

I remember watching this rare BBC interview with Bhim Rao Ambedkar.

The person who wrote the constitution asked if democracy will work in India responded: “No, democracy will never work in India.” What can work is diligent, circumcised version of communism, something from China’s playbook.

Was he being pessimistic. Of his own nation. Was he anti-India? Was he a traitor?

No.

Ambedkar understood that democracy requires certain preconditions: educated populace, civic consciousness, institutional integrity, questioning culture, commitment to equality.

India at that time (and still) had none of these intrinsically.

We had hierarchical society based on caste. We had illiterate population. We had no tradition of civic participation. We had colonial institutions designed for control, not justice.

So we imported or more like rented democratic structure without building democratic culture.

And that’s where the domino fell: Democracy became a performance.

His suggestion of disciplined communism was not endorsement of authoritarianism. It was recognition that India needs strong state to overcome entrenched hierarchies and build egalitarian society. That democratic chaos would be exploited by those same hierarchies to maintain power. That without discipline imposed from above, India would decay into oligarchy disguised as democracy.

We did not listen. We chose democracy.

And we got exactly what he predicted: oligarchy disguised as democracy. Small elite controlling everything while majority votes for their own continued exploitation because they are kept distracted by cultural and religious conflicts manufactured to divide them.

Can we ever recover from it?

Yes, we can. But we won’t.

Can we restore Accountability: No recovery without accountability. Laws must apply equally regardless of power, wealth, caste, religion, party affiliation. This requires independent judiciary, independent investigative agencies, independent media. All of which are currently captured. So first step is freeing institutions from political control.

Can we rebuild Education: Current education system produces obedient employees, not thinking citizens. Reform requires teaching critical thinking, civic responsibility, ethical reasoning, questioning authority. Not as theory but as practice. Students must learn to think independently, to examine evidence, to challenge narratives, to recognize propaganda. This will be opposed by every vested interest.

Can we decentralize Power: Concentration of power is death of republic. Power must be distributed across institutions that check each other. Strong federalism where states have real autonomy. Independent local governance. Separation of powers that is not just constitutional theory but operational reality. This requires constitutional amendments, institutional reforms, cultural shift away from strongman worship. All extremely difficult. But without decentralization, democracy remains vulnerable to single individual or party capturing everything.

Can we revive Questioning Culture: Most important and most difficult. Culture cannot be legislated. It emerges from values, behaviors, norms practiced daily. Reviving questioning culture requires parents allowing children to question. Teachers encouraging students to challenge. Media investigating rather than propagandizing. Citizens demanding evidence rather than accepting assertions. This is generational work. Current generation is mostly lost. But next generation could be different if we start now.

Can we enforce Dharma: Not dharma as religious ritual. Dharma as cosmic principle of right action, duty, justice, truth. Bhagavad Gita teaches that when dharma declines, Krishna Ji incarnates to restore it. We cannot wait for Shri Krishna or Kalki. We must embody Krishna Ji. Each person enforcing dharma in their domain. Refusing to participate in adharma even when costly.

I laugh at entire design of India.

Not from joy but from dark recognition of absurdity. We are most populous democracy practicing least democratic governance. We have constitution guaranteeing rights while institutions systematically violate them. We have elections while power remains concentrated. We have laws while justice is bought and sold. We have media while truth is manufactured. We have education while thinking is discouraged.

Failed Democracy? Nah, this is success of managed autocracy that maintains democratic aesthetics to satisfy international community and domestic liberals while operating as oligarchy that extracts maximum wealth from population kept divided by caste, religion, region, language. The last ten years accelerated what was always present.

But there are a few catch...made explicit what was always implicit. Removed even pretence of accountability. And underneath is what was always there: power serving power, using democracy as tool rather than constraint.

Moral decay of republic is not coming. It is here. Has been here. Is getting worse. Question is not whether it can be stopped. Question is whether enough people care to try. Current evidence suggests no. Population is comfortable enough to avoid revolt, distracted enough to avoid awareness, divided enough to avoid solidarity. Perfect conditions for continued decay until something breaks catastrophically.

We are not special. We are not exempt.

We are following same pattern every republic follows when moral foundation collapses. Only question is how far we fall before hitting bottom. And whether we learn anything from the fall.

History suggests probably not. But hope remains. Irrational, unreasonable, almost certainly futile hope that enough people will wake up before it is too late.

This hope is probably delusion. But it is all we have left.

Corrupt. Crippled. Corroded.

Naturally Pursuers of Consensus, that’s the script of NPC Thinkers of India.

Modern India has created a civilization of people who follow scripts, repeat narratives, chase trends, and call this thinking.

We have perfected art of appearing intellectual while operating on pure script.

Elite universities produce graduates who can quote theory but cannot generate thought. Media produces commentators who can analyze trends but cannot see beyond them. Politics produces leaders who can gauge consensus but cannot challenge it.

This right here is NPC thinking at civilizational scale.

The mechanism is simple: Prioritize popularity over principles.

In large room filled to brim and given chance to survive within, true nature of humankind, which is mediocre enough to not realize how they are being consumed, chooses popularity over principles. Every time.

Not because people are evil. Because people are programmed. And programming says: consensus equals safety. Deviation equals danger. So everyone calculates what room believes and adjusts their position accordingly.

In civilization, most popular opinion supported by collective wisdom is often considered right choice rather than operating with logic or principles. And then you glorify it by calling it a democracy...without discourse. Funny.

India breeds elite NPC thinkers naturally. The system is designed for this. Question around and you shall find out:

• In India, education rewards memorization, not questioning.

• Society rewards conformity, not originality.

• Media rewards virality, not truth.

• Politics rewards populism, not principle.

Every institution is optimized to produce people who can read script, not write new ones. And the elites are most programmed of all because they have most to lose from deviation.

Our current politics is dirty game of power. Disparity of governance. Civilization collapse. All is resultant of humans not realizing continuum of NPC thinking. And that is what India suffers from. The moment collective wisdom wins without any founded evidence, you know nation has been breeding NPC thinkers for life. We do not ask “is this true?” We ask “is this popular?” We do not examine principles. We count votes. This is democracy? F*ck no. This is automated consensus-building by population of NPCs.

India loves living limited life.

This is choice made unconsciously by millions who follow script without questioning why script exists. The script says: get education, get job, get married, get house, get children, get retirement, die. Any deviation is treated as error. Any questioning is treated as threat. So most Indians do not question. We Indians are NEVER taught to be inquisitive of our choices. We execute script. They call this success. Bravo, NPC behavior perfected into culture.

Most Indians do not really have deep inner lives where they yearn for meaning and purpose. They are incentive-following automatons who will do whatever satisfies their hardwired drives. This sounds harsh. This sounds elitist. But observe. How many people do you know who have examined their beliefs? Who have questioned their desires? Who have built worldview from first principles rather than inheriting it from parents, society, media? Most people are running programs installed by others. This is not consciousness. This is automation.

Just sheep following trends. Bollywood tells them what romance looks like. They follow. Social media tells them what success looks like. They follow. Parents tell them what career is respectable. They follow. Religion tells them what morality is. They follow. Nobody asks why. Nobody builds alternative. Nobody questions script. They just follow. And when everyone is following, it feels like thinking because you see others doing same thing. This is NPC logic: if many people do it, it must be right.

India has no originality. India lost all of its originality. The hunger is lost.

Massive new psychological study shows that various behavioral and psychological aspects of uniqueness have declined significantly in last twenty years. We are becoming more same. More predictable. More scripted. This is not coincidence. This is social media age effect. Everyone consuming same content. Everyone chasing same metrics. Everyone performing same version of success. Result: civilization of copies. NPCs believing they are players because they chose which script to follow from pre-approved menu.

The case of India is specific: NPC thinkers have become supremacist in sense that those who are aware of script being given to them to live life control narrative and all those who are unknown to NPC thinking follow these posers blindly. That is tyranny of my nation. Small elite who understand population is programmable, and they program. Through media. Through education. Through politics. Through culture. They write scripts. NPCs execute scripts. And NPCs think they are free because they chose from menu of pre-approved options.

Dostoevsky saw this pattern in Notes from Underground. The Underground Man rages against “rational egoism,” idea that humans are calculable, predictable, programmable. He argues that humans will act against their interest just to prove they have free will. But what if most humans do not care about free will? What if they prefer script? This is what we see in India. Population that prefers being told what to think over thinking for themselves. Because thinking is hard. Following is easy.

The mechanism of NPC supremacy is elegant.

1. First layer: create scripts through media, education, culture.

2. Second layer: reward those who follow scripts with social approval, economic success, family acceptance.

3. Third layer: punish those who deviate through ostracism, economic hardship, family rejection.

4. Fourth layer: convince everyone this is freedom.

You can choose any script you want from approved menu. This is choice. This is agency. This is thinking.

And it works because scripts are not obviously wrong. They produce functional life. Get education. Useful. Get job. Necessary. Get married. Biological. Get house. Security. The scripts work at individual level. They just fail at civilizational level. Because civilization needs more than functional individuals. It needs originality. Innovation. Risk-taking. Vision. None of which NPCs can provide because NPCs by definition follow existing scripts rather than write new ones.

Upanishads writing goes something like: “Asato ma sad gamaya. Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya. Mrityor ma amritam gamaya.” From unreal lead me to real.

From darkness lead me to light. From death lead me to immortality. But NPC civilization inverts this. We prefer unreal to real because real is uncomfortable. We prefer darkness to light because light reveals uncomfortable truths. We prefer death to immortality because death is certain and immortality requires risk. So we stay in cave watching shadows, calling them reality, attacking anyone who suggests leaving cave.

My observation of India’s NPC problem and it manifests in specific categories:

In politics: nobody has principles. Everyone calculates which position is popular and adopts it. Politicians are pure NPCs. They run polling scripts and output whatever maximizes approval. No vision. No courage. No conviction. Just automated consensus-seeking. And voters reward this because voters are NPCs too. They vote for whoever mirrors their opinions back to them most convincingly.

In media: nobody investigates. Everyone amplifies. Journalist’s job is not finding truth. It is finding what will trend. What will get clicks. What consensus wants to hear. So media becomes echo chamber where NPCs confirm each other’s scripts. Any deviation is buried. Any uncomfortable truth is ignored. Any challenge to consensus is attacked. This is not journalism. This is NPC propaganda system.

In education: nobody questions. Everyone memorizes. Student’s job is not thinking. It is reproducing approved answers. Teacher’s job is not teaching thinking. It is teaching script. Exam’s purpose is not testing understanding. It is testing script execution. Entire system optimized to produce NPCs who can follow instructions, not humans who can think independently. And we call this education. This is programming.

In business: nobody innovates. Everyone copies. Entrepreneur’s job is not creating new value. It is finding trending business model and executing it in India. “India’s Uber.” “India’s Amazon.” “India’s Netflix.” Everything is copy. Nothing is original. Because original is risky. Copy is safe. NPCs do not take risks. They execute proven scripts. So business landscape is graveyard of copies. All competing to execute same script slightly better than others.

This is why revolution is impossible in NPC civilization. Revolution requires people willing to deviate from consensus. NPCs by definition cannot deviate. They can only follow new consensus once it forms. But new consensus cannot form if nobody deviates first. Catch-22. So system is stable. Self-reinforcing. Self-perpetuating. NPCs reproduce NPCs. Through education. Through parenting. Through culture. Each generation more programmed than last.

The hunger is lost. This is my key observation. Previous generations had hunger. Hunger to build. To create. To escape poverty. To prove something. To leave mark. That hunger forced deviation from script. Forced risk-taking. Forced originality. But current generation has comfort. They have scripts that work. They have consensus that feels like community. They have no hunger. So they have no reason to deviate. And without deviation, no originality. Without originality, no progress. Just repetition.

NPC-ification of Indians is a relic of time, governed by predictability, accelerated by consumption and uniformed by accepting mediocre version of success and equating it with conquering the world.

Large population means strong consensus effects. Collectivist culture means deviation is heavily punished. Hierarchical society means people are pre-trained to follow authority. Economic insecurity means people are risk-averse. All perfect conditions for breeding NPCs.

The tyranny is this: NPCs do not feel oppressed. They feel safe. Consensus feels like belonging. Script feels like guidance. Conformity feels like wisdom. They are perfectly happy being NPCs. This makes their enslavement complete. They defend their programming. They attack anyone who suggests alternative. They police each other to maintain consensus. This is not external tyranny. This is internalized tyranny. Most complete form.

I ask you all: What if existence is eternal recurrence? Would you want to live same life infinitely? NPC answers yes without hesitation. They are comfortable with repetition. Their life is script. Script is meant to be repeated. This is not disturbing to them. This is comforting. Eternal recurrence of same script forever. This is NPC heaven. And NPC hell. Same thing.

The solution is not fixing NPCs. NPCs cannot be fixed because they do not know they are NPCs. They think they are conscious. They think they are thinking. They think their scripted responses are original thoughts. Trying to wake them is futile. They attack you for suggesting they are asleep. The solution is building parallel civilization. Of people who refuse scripts. Who think from first principles. Who tolerate loneliness of originality. Who accept risk of deviation. These people exist. But they are minority. And getting smaller.

India’s future is NPC civilization unless minority of actual thinkers secede. Not physically. Psychologically. Stop seeking consensus. Stop chasing popularity. Stop following scripts.

Build alternative culture that rewards originality over conformity, principle over popularity, truth over trends.

This culture will be small. Will be unpopular. Will be attacked by NPC majority. But it is only hope for anything other than eternal repetition of increasingly optimized scripts until civilization is perfectly programmed and completely dead.

Civilization is NPC. It will remain NPC. It will perfect its NPC-ness until it is indistinguishable from sophisticated automation. But individuals can still escape. Can still think. Can still deviate. Can still be human. Question is: will they? Or is it easier to just follow script?

Dear India, There’s no originality on the internet & the more you try to revolt around it, the lesser time you have to really live in or for it.

Middle class is a kink.

It’s in a kink’s nature is to be satisfied. If you don’t, you start decaying within you.

India has been aroused by this kink for so long, we forgot this endless stimulation ends by being your identity. This kink is not a temporary economic position but a permanent psychological cage that now feels like home.

Ayn Rand wrote “Upper classes are a nation’s past; the middle class is its future.” This is exactly where India stands and that is the problem. We are so drowned in idea of being middle class that we increased our romance for being bourgeoisie in society. The underdog mindset.

The never-escaping permanent underclass.

Because that is what creates sympathy within society. This is disease entire nation suffers from.

India’s middle class fetish or call it middle class syndrome, middle class disease, operates through simple mechanism: in order to have gaze of eyeballs on you, narrative you sell to bind people to your cause must give them something they relate to. Relatability becomes highest virtue. Not excellence. Not transformation. Relatability. This race to the bottom disguised as mass appeal is the kink.

Has this ever happened to you? Saturday night. You are back from job. Relaxing. Striped pajamas. One hand in pocket, other on remote, mindlessly scrolling. This image is sold as authenticity. As real India. As what we should celebrate and protect. But this is not authenticity. This is resignation performed as contentment. This is giving up disguised as relatability.

The dumb-down fallacy: the more you dumb down your story, the more people relate to you, thus you get incentivized through their sympathies. This is economics of mediocrity. Excel and you alienate. Struggle relatably and you connect. So everyone performs struggle. Not actual struggle that transforms. Performative struggle that garners sympathy while changing nothing. This is what Indian middle class mastered.

Sad.

That is my India’s Middle Class.

It has been normalized to such extent that escaping permanent underclass does not even cross majority consciousness in this country. We are too comfortable in this narrative. And why should you not be? It makes you feel like cushion from society. This cocoon made your ancestors survive all this long and that is what you inherited. Survival. Not thriving. Just survival. And you call this wisdom.

What a f*cking Joke!

Observe closely in your home. The mindset is middle class. Do not take it as slur or negative reinforcement but change your lens toward this mindset and you shall realize how parasitic this ideology of being middle class is. This fetish is never ending. It reproduces itself across generations. Parents who escaped poverty into middle class teach children to be grateful for middle class. Never to risk it. Never to transcend it. Just maintain it. Pass it down. Not legacy. But a curse.

When nation’s collective wisdom resides with dense population of middle class, narratives drafted are to soothe the one enduring pain, but no one really wants to address solution out of it. Every Bollywood film about middle class struggle ends with protagonist accepting their station with dignity. Every political speech promises to protect middle class, never to elevate it. Every cultural product celebrates middle class values: frugality, stability, conformity. Never ambition. Never risk. Never transcendence.

Every Indian is trying to escape permanent underclass. But no one is able to. Is this not crazy when you think about it?

Entire nation claiming to want escape while collectively reinforcing the cage. This is not accident. This is equilibrium. System is designed to keep majority in middle class because middle class is easiest to govern. Not poor enough to revolt. Not rich enough to have power. Just comfortable enough to accept status quo while uncomfortable enough to keep working.

Middle class is a kink.

And every action you take on daily basis until you are f*ck-you rich is to fulfill or cater to those kinks. Discounts. Sale. Offers. Coupons. Code. Everything. You let yourself be exploited out of this kink and then complain about conditioning of society which is too status-driven. You made society selfish. That is DNA of middle class mindset. All they think about is themselves. Not collective good. Not long-term vision. Just personal survival. Personal comfort. Personal security.

If your mindset is middle class, you are prisoner. Prisoner of kink that has not been satisfied yet. The moment you start loving that conformity is where you are never escaping permanent underclass. And India loves its conformity. We celebrate it. “Simple living, high thinking.” “Contentment is wealth.” “Be grateful for what you have.” These are not wisdom. These are chains disguised as philosophy.

Bhagavad Gita teaches about 3 gunas: sattva (harmony), rajas (activity), tamas (inertia). Middle class fetish is tamas disguised as sattva. It presents itself as balanced, harmonious, content. But it is actually inert. Static. Refusing to move because movement involves risk and risk threatens the fetish. True sattva would recognize one’s dharma and pursue it regardless of comfort. Middle class mindset pursues comfort regardless of dharma.

Nietzsche warned about this. The Last Man. The one who has no great ambitions, takes no great risks, seeks only comfort and security. “We have invented happiness,” says Last Man, and blinks. Indian middle class is nation of Last Men. We invented happiness and called it middle class lifestyle. Two-bedroom apartment. Stable job. Weekend movies. Annual vacation. This is happiness we invented. And anyone who wants more is greedy. Anyone who risks this is foolish.

The fetish operates through constant reinforcement. Every institution tells you middle class values are correct values. Education system teaches you to get stable job, not build empire. Family teaches you to marry within your class, not risk everything for love or ambition. Society teaches you to maintain appearances, not pursue truth. Religion teaches you to accept your station, karma justifying staying in your lane. This is comprehensive programming.

And it works because middle class position is genuinely better than poverty. So there is grain of truth in “be grateful.” But gratitude for escaping poverty should not become prison preventing you from achieving prosperity. This is confusion Indian middle class suffers. They conflate “better than poverty” with “good enough to stop.” It is not. Middle class is waystation, not destination. But we turned it into shrine.

Middle class fetish creates specific pathologies. First: risk aversion so extreme that any deviation from stable path is seen as madness. Start business? Too risky. Choose passion over paycheck? Irresponsible. Invest aggressively? Gambling. The middle class mind calculates every decision through lens of “what if I lose everything?” Never “what if I gain everything?” This asymmetric risk assessment keeps people trapped.

Second pathology: status obsession without status achievement. Middle class is desperate to signal status: “right brands, right education, right marriage” while having no actual power or wealth. So they overextend. Buy car they cannot afford. Send kids to schools that bankrupt them. Maintain lifestyle that requires both parents working constantly. This is not prosperity. This is performance of prosperity that enslaves performers.

Third pathology: collective mediocrity celebrated as culture. “Tall poppy syndrome” Indian style. Anyone who excels is cutting down. “Who does he think he is?” “She is showing off.” “They forgot where they came from.”

WHY THE HELL HAVING THE ASPIRATION TO EARN MONEY OR BE AN OBSESSED INDIVIDUAL IN LIFE PSYCHOTICALLY MAKES YOU A VILLAIN IN INDIAN SOCIETIES?

Middle class cannot tolerate excellence within its ranks because excellence reveals that mediocrity was choice, not inevitability. So excellence must be punished, ostracized, or explained away.

Arthashastra analysis on this very idea labels it as strategic failure. Chanakya understood that nation’s power comes from having upper class that builds, middle class that implements, lower class that supports. But if middle class refuses to become upper class, if upward mobility is blocked by psychological barriers disguised as values, then nation stagnates. Everyone is implementing. Nobody is building. This is India.

The fetish is reinforced through consumer culture designed specifically for middle class psychology. Sales, discounts, offers, coupons...you think it helps you save money? They are training you to feel clever for spending money you should not spend on things you do not need. But deal feels like victory. This is how middle class is kept in place. Give them small wins that distract from large loss.

Credit cards, EMIs, payment plans. All designed to let middle class consume beyond their means while feeling responsible because “it is planned expense.” But debt is debt. And debt is chain. You cannot take risks when you have EMI. You cannot quit job when you have debt. You cannot pursue vision when you are paying installments. So consumer culture transforms middle class from potential upper class into permanent debtors.

Education system is most pernicious. It trains children to be middle class. Not upper class. Not builders. Not risk-takers. Middle class. Get good grades. Get stable job. Do not rock boat. Do not question authority. Follow path. Indian education is factory producing middle class minds that will spend lifetime maintaining middle class position without ever questioning why they should not transcend it.

Parents are enforcers. They lived middle class. They survived. They want same for children. But survival is not ambition. Wanting your children to survive is low bar. You should want them to thrive. But middle class parents are too traumatized by poverty in their family history, too grateful for stability in present, to risk children’s future on anything uncertain. So they program children for middle class. And children, being obedient, comply.

The problem is not being middle class economically. Problem is being middle class psychologically when you have potential for more. Problem is choosing comfort over growth. Problem is staying in position because moving is scary. Problem is celebrating limitation as virtue. Problem is fetishizing the cage until you cannot imagine freedom.

Every Indian discourse about inequality focuses on bottom. How to help poor. How to create safety nets. Nobody discusses top. How to create more wealthy people. How to encourage risk-taking. How to celebrate excellence. Because middle class controls narrative and middle class does not want to discuss transcending middle class. They want to discuss protecting middle class. This is how fetish maintains itself.

Middle class is kink and you are prisoner of it until you recognize that prison has no walls. Only your belief that walls exist. The moment you stop finding comfort in limitation, stop finding identity in struggle, stop finding community in mediocrity, you are free. But freedom is lonely. Freedom is risky. Freedom is uncertain. So most will stay in prison. Stay middle class. Stay comfortable. Stay stuck. This is choice. Tragic choice. But choice nonetheless.

India’s middle class fetish will end when it either destroys nation through collective mediocrity, or enough individuals reject it and build alternative culture that rewards excellence over relatability, ambition over stability, transformation over comfort.

Until then, we remain prisoners. Aroused by our chains.

Calling it culture. Calling it values. Calling it home.

This is not home.

This is cage. And only you can leave it. Question is: will you?

To my India’s Middle class, you are like dead man walking. Where you are dead inside and you letting the world piss on your grave. Don’t.

India has a very weird habit.

Habit of Lust. Not the passionate desire, but something more filthy.

The filth has now creeped into every household. This weird habit has become addiction. And that’s why its ‘stink’ is stronger than ever.

Plato wrote on the cycle of regimes: “Democracy passes into despotism.”

He argued that unchecked democratic excesses inevitably lead to tyranny as natural consequence of people’s own indulgences. India is living this cycle in accelerated form. We have democratic structure without democratic consciousness. We have market economy without market discipline. We have consumer rights without consumer awareness.

This creates vacuum where Risk-fakers thrive and genuine builders are crushed.

I am fed up and want to understand one thing: WHY...Why is it that Indian life of consumers are equivalent to that of a Lab Rat, Globally?

India has always been given leftovers. Always the breadcrumbs. In everything. Post-independence, we got Soviet-era technology when West had moved beyond it. In liberalization, we got outsourced call centers while innovation stayed in Silicon Valley. In digital age, we get products designed elsewhere, tested on us, refined for markets that matter. We are eternal beta testers. Perpetual second-class consumers. Is this by accident? F*ck no. This is a precise psychological design.

Everyone in world knows Indian diaspora is pot of gold. It has everything. 1.4 billion consumers. Young demographic. Growing middle class. Digital adoption. Talent pool. Market potential. Yet we are treated like third-class citizens by big corporations. Why? Because we accept it. Because we have been trained through generations to accept whatever is offered and feel grateful for it.

Why is Indian life of consumer equivalent to lab rat? Look around you.

Facebook’s emotional manipulation experiments tested on Indian users without consent. WhatsApp’s payment feature rolled out in India first to test regulatory capture strategies. Amazon’s algorithm experiments that would be illegal in Europe deployed in India freely. We are testing ground because regulations are weak, enforcement is weaker, and population is desperate enough for access that they accept any terms.

Why does India get only sub-par products? The answer corporations give is “price sensitivity.” Indian market is price-sensitive, so we must compromise quality. This is lie. Indian market has been trained to accept low quality, so corporations maximize profit by delivering minimum viable product. Coca-Cola outside India tastes like Coca-Cola. In India, it tastes like sugared water with coloring. Gatorade outside is sports drink with electrolyte balance. In India, it is flavored sugar solution. Same brand. Different standards. Why?

Because they can.
Because we accept.
Because alternatives are equally bad.
Because regulatory bodies that should protect consumers are captured by same corporations they regulate. Because corruption is so normalized that nobody even pretends standards matter. So corporations deliver garbage and Indians consume it while corporations laugh all the way to bank.

Cars are perfect example. Volkswagen known globally for build quality and safety enters Indian market and immediately compromises both. Why? “Price-sensitive market.” But real reason is Indians have been conditioned to accept lower standards. So VW delivers thinner metal, cheaper parts, reduced safety features, calls it “India-specific engineering,” and Indians buy it because alternatives are identically compromised.

The narrative of India being land of opportunities is boon for corporations, curse for Indians. Opportunity for them means opportunity to extract maximum value while delivering minimum quality.

It’s funny that they see 1.4 billion consumers and calculate: if we can get each to pay even small amount for inferior product, margins are massive. And you call this is not entrepreneurship?

We are being treated as garbage collectors of all consumer products. Domestic and international. Look around. Every sector. Every industry. Indians get dumbed-down versions, region-locked content, restricted features, higher prices for lower quality. Tech products launch in India six months late with removed features. Streaming services have fraction of content compared to US. Pharmaceuticals sell drugs banned elsewhere. Food companies sell products with ingredients illegal in their home countries.

MDH and Everest Masala are banned in foreign countries because they contain cancerous products. Then sold in India like hot cakes. Regulatory bodies are captured, corrupted and corroded. At the cost every fellow Indian’s life. Because testing is minimal. Because even when violations are found, penalties are trivial. Because consumer awareness is low and alternatives are equally compromised. So Indians consume slow poison daily while corporations profit and regulators look away. This conformity is what I hate.

Are Indians collateral damage for the world?

Yes. Unambiguously f*ck yes. We are testing ground for products too risky for markets that matter. We are dumping ground for inventory too expired or low-quality for regulated markets. We are laboratory where corporations experiment with how far they can degrade quality before consumers rebel. And since we never rebel, they keep degrading.

Did we bring this upon ourselves? Partially. Colonial rule taught Indians to accept whatever is given and feel grateful. Independence did not break this psychology. We transferred our submission from British to corporations. We learned to accept low quality as price for access. This mindset is what corporations exploit. They know we will accept anything as long as it is marketed correctly.

But we were also selectively exposed to systems designed to keep us dependent. Green Revolution tied us to chemical fertilizers. Liberalization tied us to foreign capital. Digitalization tied us to platforms we do not control. Each step presented as progress while actually creating new dependencies that extract wealth and autonomy. You might call this paranoia. But this is documented pattern across sectors.

Funny enough, India becomes B2C test ground of world.

Sometime after liberalization when corporations realized Indian market has perfect combination: large population, weak regulations, captured bureaucracy, low consumer awareness, and desperate desire for Western brands regardless of quality. This combination makes India ideal for testing how far quality can be degraded while maintaining sales. Answer: very far. Further than corporations imagined.

This is what “building in India for world” actually means. Not building great products in India to export. Building barely functional products in India to test before refining for real markets. India is prototype phase. Beta testing ground. Once they figure out minimum viable product that Indians accept, they upgrade it for markets where consumers have standards and sell premium version there.

All this happens in front of us. And what are we doing? Nothing. We accept. We consume. We complain privately but buy anyway. We are letting these masked “risk-takers” who are actually risk-fakers show us candy dreams while poisoning us. Because who cares? They know we will not question integrity of anything. Our freebie culture mindset can be enslaved so easily. Give us subsidized rice and we will tolerate everything else. This is what politicians learned. This is what corporations exploit. Keep population barely satisfied with basics and they will not resist systemic exploitation.

No revolution or resistance can be born in our blood because we are too busy surviving average lifestyle. This is intentional. System is designed to keep majority slightly above poverty line so they are too exhausted to resist but not desperate enough to revolt. This is equilibrium that keeps everything stable while extraction continues. Indian middle class is buffer preventing revolution while enabling exploitation.

We have been romanticizing being middle-class poor civilization for way too long that corporations and poser risk-fakers of India have normalized it. “Simple living, high thinking” became excuse for accepting low quality. “Jugaad” became celebration of working around broken systems instead of fixing them. This cultural programming benefits corporations immensely. Population that takes pride in making do with less is population that will not demand better.

Bhagavad Gita asks: “When does one act from desire, and when from duty?” Modern India acts entirely from desire. Desire for status. Desire for Western brands. Desire for easy answers. No concept of duty. No understanding that consuming responsibly, demanding quality, holding corporations accountable is civic duty. We think duty is voting once every five years. Duty is daily. Every purchase. Every compromise. Every time we accept inferior product, we signal to corporations that Indians deserve nothing better.

Nietzsche’s slave morality is Indian consumer psychology. The slave accepts his position and judges success by how well he navigates system designed to exploit him. Indian consumers celebrate getting slightly less exploited as victory. “I got discount!” Yes, on product that is inferior to what same company sells elsewhere for less actual cost. But discount feels like win. This is slave morality. Celebrating smaller exploitation instead of demanding non-exploitation.

Plato’s cycle is completing.

Democracy passed into despotism not of single tyrant but of corporate tyranny. Corporations rule without accountability. They set standards. They capture regulators. They shape culture. They determine what Indians consume, how they consume, at what quality, at what price. This is despotism. Just distributed across boardrooms instead of concentrated in palace.

The Arthashastra warned about this: Chanakya understood that kingdom which cannot protect its citizens from exploitation invites conquest. Modern conquest is not military. It is economic. It is cultural. It is psychological. Foreign corporations conquering Indian market not through force but through exploiting our weakened consumer consciousness, captured regulations, and cultural tendency to worship anything foreign regardless of quality.

This is new India. But it does not have to be.

We are not obligated to remain graveyards for world’s shitty products.

We can demand better. We can build domestic alternatives. We can enforce actual standards. We can hold corporations accountable. We can stop worshiping risk-fakers and start building genuine risk-taking culture. We can refuse to accept that being price-sensitive means accepting poison.

India will continue getting leftovers until Indians refuse to eat leftovers. We will continue being treated as third-class consumers until we demand first-class standards. We will continue worshiping risk-fakers until we learn to recognize them and build systems that reward genuine risk-taking instead. This is not fatalism. This is clarity. Our acceptance. Our compromise. Our willingness to consume poison as long as it is marketed correctly.

The cycle Plato described can be broken. But breaking it requires revolution not of government but of consciousness. Revolution that says: we will not accept inferior products. We will not worship risk-fakers. We will not trade dignity for access. We will not remain laboratory rats for corporations that view us as less than human. We will build alternatives. We will enforce standards. We will reclaim the self-respect that colonialism stole and that we never fully recovered.

Until India learns to love its risk-takers. Until it builds systems that reward substance over performance. Until it develops consumer consciousness that demands quality over brand names. Until then, we remain garbage collectors. Consuming world’s leftovers. Accepting exploitation. Calling it opportunity.

This is what we are.

But should we accept the conditioning of our modern society? Question is what we will become. Decentralisation of power always acts as rat poison for the conformists. They will do anything in their power to oppress the growth of any nation.

And India, always remember: Rewarding the Rat for winning the wrong race won’t make you immune to plague.

Too much conformity and mediocrity has made this nation weak.

Not weak in resources or potential, but weak in spirit, in civic consciousness, in that fundamental sense of belongingness to anything larger than immediate self-interest.

We have become nation of isolated atoms, each optimizing for personal survival while the collective structure disintegrates around us.

Voltaire said this about societies in general, but it applies to India with surgical precision.

My question is brutal: is it colonial trauma that made Indian society so pathologically selfish, or is it something deeper?

Did the British create this condition? Or did they simply exploit weakness already present? The answer is uncomfortable. Both. Colonial rule tortured us to be subjects, not citizens. Slaves, not sovereigns. For two centuries, Indians learned that system is enemy, that rules exist to be circumvented, that collective good is someone else’s problem.

It has engraved in us and became cellular memory.

But colonialism ended seventy-seven years ago. At some point, blaming colonizers becomes excuse for refusing to take responsibility for what we became after they left. We inherited devastated nation and instead of rebuilding collective consciousness, we doubled down on individualism disguised as entrepreneurship, selfishness disguised as pragmatism, and corruption disguised as survival strategy.

What pains me more is that we took the worst lessons colonialism taught and internalized them as culture.

Civic sense has left the chat. Walk through any Indian city and witness the evidence. Garbage on streets that people threw there deliberately. Traffic rules ignored as default behavior. Public spaces treated like dumping grounds. Queue-jumping as competitive sport. This is not poverty. Rich Indians behave identically. This is degradation of civic consciousness. The idea that public space deserves care, that collective resources require protection, that other people’s time and dignity matter, these concepts do not exist in functional form.

The British left us devastated. True.

But what did we do with independence?

We created democracy without citizens. We built institutions without integrity. We wrote constitution without cultivating constitutional consciousness in population. We thought political freedom would automatically produce civic responsibility.

It did not.

It produced seventy-seven years of increasingly sophisticated selfishness where everyone learned to game every system for personal advantage while watching collective infrastructure crumble.

Where did we go wrong?

The answer is everywhere and nowhere. We failed to build national identity beyond opposition to colonizers. Once they left, what bound us together? Language? Religion? Region? All of these divide more than unite. We are federation held together by inertia and mutual economic dependency, not by genuine sense that we are one people with shared destiny. This lack of cohesion creates vacuum that selfishness fills.

Mahabharata spoke of this very well. The Kuru kingdom fell not because Duryodhana was evil but because dharma collapsed at collective level. When everyone pursues self-interest over dharmic duty, kingdom destroys itself from within. Kauravas and Pandavas were family. They still slaughtered each other. Why? Because personal ambition, grudges, and zero-sum thinking replaced dharmic order. Modern India is replaying this. We are family. We are destroying each other anyway.

Dostoevsky saw this pattern in Russia. “Every man for himself” becomes operating principle when shared moral framework collapses. His characters are trapped in spiritual isolation, unable to connect authentically with others because they have no common ground beyond transactional relationships. This is India now. We interact transactionally. What can you do for me? What do I get? Every relationship is negotiation. Nothing is given freely. Nothing is done for collective good unless personal benefit is clear.

The colonial trauma explanation has some validity. For two hundred years, Indians learned that resisting British directly led to punishment. So resistance became subtle. Passive-aggressive. Everyone learned to lie to authority while doing whatever they wanted when authority looked away. This became cultural pattern. Rules are for show. Everyone cheats. If you are not cheating, you are losing. This mindset did not disappear when British left. It intensified.

Post-independence leadership failed to address this. We needed cultural transformation to accompany political freedom. We needed movement to rebuild civic consciousness, collective responsibility, national identity beyond grievance. What we got instead was Nehruvian socialism that incentivized corruption through license raj, followed by liberalization that incentivized greed through market economics. Neither produced citizens. Both produced opportunists.

Indian education system is designed to produce slaves. Not workers, not thinkers, not citizens. Slaves. Students who follow orders, memorize without questioning, respect hierarchy without critique, optimize for exam scores rather than understanding. This is British colonial education system. We kept it. Seventy-seven years later, we are still training children to be obedient employees in system they have no power to change. No wonder civic sense is absent. We never taught it.

“This slave morality perfected.” Nietzsche would have called it this.

The slave learns to accept his position and judge everything from that position. The Indian middle class has slave morality. They do not question why system is broken. They question how to succeed within broken system. This is why jugaad is celebrated. Jugaad is not innovation. Jugaad is accepting that system does not work and finding clever workaround instead of demanding system be fixed. This is slave mentality.

The Bhagavad Gita asks Arjuna to fight his dharma even when it costs everything. Arjuna wants to escape. Find excuse. Avoid hard choice. Krishna does not let him. Your dharma is to fight. Fight or be coward forever. Modern India is Arjuna refusing to fight. We want comfort. We want easy answers. We want someone else to solve problems we created. This is why we will get villain we deserve.

India as nation has become soft. Not physically. Economically we are growing. Technologically we are advancing. But spiritually, morally, civically—soft. We avoid hard decisions. We take easy routes. We compromise principles for convenience. We watch injustice and do nothing because intervening is inconvenient. We see corruption and participate because everyone else does. This softness is terminal.

Authoritarian government might be what we get. Not because we need it, but because we created conditions that demand it. When civic consciousness is absent, when everyone is selfish, when nobody follows rules voluntarily, when collective infrastructure collapses because nobody maintains it, only two options remain: chaos or authoritarianism. Democracy requires citizens. We have consumers. Consumers cannot sustain democracy. They can only sustain market. And market does not care about civic good.

The villain we deserve might be authoritarian leader who imposes order through force because we refused to create order through voluntary cooperation. This is not ideal outcome. This is failure state. But it might be necessary failure state. When patient refuses medicine, sometimes disease must progress to crisis before treatment becomes possible. India is refusing medicine. We want growth without discipline. Freedom without responsibility. Rights without duties. This is not sustainable.

Voltaire’s observation was that societies get government they deserve, not government they want. We want benevolent leadership that solves problems without requiring us to change. What we deserve is leadership that reflects our actual character: transactional, opportunistic, willing to bend any rule for advantage. Or we deserve opposite: leadership so authoritarian it forces us to behave civically because voluntary civic behavior has proven impossible.

What went wrong is simple: we inherited nation and failed to build civilization. Nation is political entity. Civilization is shared consciousness, values, behaviors that make collective life possible. British gave us nation. We thought that was enough. It was not. Without civilization, without shared understanding of how we ought to behave toward each other, toward public space, toward collective resources: nation is just administrative boundary containing competing tribes.

This is India now. Administrative boundary containing competing tribes. Each tribe: caste, religion, region, language, class...pursuing its interest at others’ expense. No shared identity strong enough to override tribal loyalty. No civic religion binding us together. Democracy without demos. Republic without res publica. Just individuals and tribes fighting over resources while infrastructure crumbles and civic space deteriorates.

The irony is brutal. We fought for freedom from British. We won and still lost it all.

We spent seventy-seven years proving we are not ready for freedom. We cannot handle it. Freedom requires discipline. We have none. Freedom requires civic consciousness. We have selfishness. Freedom requires putting collective good above personal gain at least sometimes. We refuse. So we will lose freedom we fought for because we squandered it through decades of irresponsible behavior.

India’s future is not predetermined. We can still choose differently. But choice requires admitting we are problem, not colonizers who left decades ago, not politicians who exploit us, not system that we game. Us. Our selfishness. Our refusal to care about anything beyond immediate circle. Our willingness to cheat, cut corners, ignore rules, free-ride on others’ cooperation while refusing to cooperate ourselves. Until we admit this, nothing changes.

Maybe we need villain. Maybe we need crisis severe enough to force transformation we refused to choose voluntarily. Maybe we need authoritarian period that teaches us why civic responsibility matters by showing what happens when it is completely absent. This is hard path. Painful path. But might be necessary path because easy path, voluntary civic consciousness, democratic self-governance, collective responsibility, we already tried and failed.

India will get villain it deserves. Not because we are uniquely terrible but because we are typically human. Humans do not choose difficult good over easy bad unless forced. We had opportunity to build civilization through voluntary cooperation.

We chose selfishness instead. Now we face consequences.

The villain is already forming.

Question is not whether villain comes but what we learn from villain when he arrives. And whether we learn anything at all.

Morning iKyu-riskers! Ever Felt, in your childhood or adult life: you are being bullied for being yourself? Some place where you were seen as a threat, thus the best way to rob you out of the idea of ‘YOU’ is to bog you down with all the flaws you possess.

Make you conscious of your own existence. Hits you right where you can betray yourself. Has it ever happened to you?

If yes, I feel you.

And for those who don’t, look around. That’s exactly what was fabricated for India (still an ongoing discourse). What I don’t like here is the abbreviation of how India is being made to look down on by international media, controlled under White House.

Trump, the charade-master here, has been making sure that they use every backdoor or soft power in their hand to manipulate the narrative. From claiming he "stopped a nuclear war" between India and Pakistan (mentioned 30+ times publicly, might I add) to slapping a 50% tariff on Indian goods because we dared to buy Russian oil. The same oil, mind you, that Europe continues to import through the backdoor while pointing fingers at us.

But here's where the plot thickens, my dear (K)urious minds: while Trump was busy orchestrating his symphony of sanctions and the Western media was painting India as the villain who chose BRICS over bucks, something interesting happened. The numbers started talking.

The entire world’s watching. And when, few delusional voices march up to say “It’s India’s Turn now…” - don’t shy away from supporting it. Right now, we need that unity as one true nation, to showcase and fight the narrative war.

The history remembers those who win the narrative. Everything else is replaceable.

THE (K)EY NOTES:

• The (K)inK: We, The Walking Dead…

Geopolitics is a synonym for Gaslighting.

And now that the message is clear from our beloved nation leader to the world, Modi Ji, that no foreign power can ever again bend us in our rich heritage, our culture, our economy and our people.

We will NOT be bullied.

Not by whites, White House or neighbouring countries whole live in pouches of developed nations try to regain control of something that they lost a long time ago. It’s our turn, India’s turn now.

Let’s brutally breakdown🪓 this rollercoaster where geopolitics meets gaslighting, a nation of 1.4 billion decided to write its own script instead of reading from someone else’s teleprompter *wink* in today’s reprise edition of inK by iKyu.

The (K)inK.

India Becomes World's 4th Largest Economy: In mid-2025, India officially surpassed Japan to become the world's fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The IMF projects India's economy at $4.187 trillion, modestly overtaking Japan's $4.186 trillion. With GDP growth holding steady at 6.4-6.5% (fastest among major economies), India's walking dead seems pretty alive to me. The kicker? This happened WHILE Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Indian goods. Get a feel of what’s it’s like to get bullied, wait for the right time to strike and *BAAMMM*, K.O. Yes, that!

Japan's R&I Upgrades India to BBB+: September 19, 2025 - Japan's Rating and Investment Information upgraded India's sovereign rating to BBB+ from BBB with stable outlook. This marks India's THIRD rating upgrade in 2025 alone (after S&P and Morningstar DBRS). The Japanese praised Modi's policies on infrastructure development and fiscal management. Funny how actual rating agencies see growth while Trump sees ghosts.

🪓AMERICA’S SaaSy MOVE: THE $100,000 SUBSCRIPTION NOBODY ASKED FOR…

Visualise this with me: You’re running a successful software company. You’ve been using Microsoft Office for years at $99/year. One fine morning, Microsoft announces: “Starting tomorrow, Office costs $100,000/year. Take it or leave it.”

That’s exactly what Trump did with H1B visas on September 19, 2025.

The fee jumped from $4,500 to $100,000 - a 2,122% increase overnight. But here’s where it gets deliciously absurd - Indians account for 71% of H1B visa recipients, making this less of a policy change and more of a targeted subscription model aimed at one customer base.

The Ken would call this a classic case of “platform monopoly gone rogue.” When you control the only gateway to the American Dream. What a you can price it however you want. Amazon, with its 10,000 H1B workers, faces a potential cost of $1 billion for a single year’s applicants. TCS, with 5,500 visas, looking at $550 million.

But wait, it gets better. The policy was announced on Friday with a one-day deadline - implemented on Sunday. Imagine Netflix telling you on Friday that starting Sunday, your subscription is $10,000/month. That’s not pricing strategy; that’s economic terrorism with a business model wrapper.

The chaos was cinematic. An Emirates flight from San Francisco to Dubai was stuck on the tarmac for three hours as H1B holders scrambled to understand if they would be able to re-enter the country. Indian techies abandoned family visits, cancelled vacations, rushed back to America like it was the last flight out of Saigon.

Here’s the business model Trump created:

• Basic Entry: $100,000/year (H1B visa)

• Premium Upgrade: $1 million (Gold Card - yes, he actually created this)

• Hidden Costs: Your sanity, family time, and dignity

• Cancellation Policy: Get deported

• Customer Support: Tweet at Trump and pray

The irony is, the same tech companies that built subscription models for everything from music to meditation now find themselves subscribers to America itself. Satya Nadella pays Microsoft for Office 365; Microsoft pays Trump for Nadella 365.

This isn’t immigration policy; it’s SaaS: States as a Service.

And like every badly priced SaaS product, customers are looking for alternatives. Analysts suggest talent may flow to Canada, the UK, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia.

Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said “all of the big companies are on board”. Sure, Howard. The same way we’re all “on board” with paying taxes - not because we love it, but because the alternative involves men with guns.

Welcome to America 2.0 - where your visa expires faster than your Prime membership, costs more than a Lamborghini, and comes with terms and conditions that change based on presidential mood swings. The land of the free just became the land of the fee, and the home of the brave became the home of the subscription slave.

🪓RISING PHOENIX, PAINTED AS WALKING DEAD

So it’s January 2025. Donald Trump returns to the White House with the subtlety of a sledgehammer in a china shop. His first order of business? Teaching the world a lesson about the "mighty U.S. Dollar" and anyone who dares to even whisper about alternatives.

Then there’s India. A nation that had the audacity to continue its 50-year relationship with Russia, buy oil at discounted rates (smart business, anyone?), and worse, be part of BRICS – a group Trump labeled "anti-American" faster than you can say "Make America Great Again."

The timeline reads like a thriller novel written by someone who failed Economics 101:

Act I: Trump starts with what he knows best – threats. "Any country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff," he thundered on Truth Social in July. The man who once said India and America together make "MEGA" (MAGA + MIGA, remember that February cringe?) was now treating India like a rebellious teenager who needed discipline.

But 10% wasn't enough drama for our protagonist. By August 27, he escalated to 50% tariffs on Indian goods – making it one of the highest rates America charges any country. The reason? India's purchase of Russian oil was "funding Russia's war machine."

The hypocrisy? Europe imported €43.5 billion worth of fossil fuels from Russia in 2024. The U.S. itself continues buying Russian uranium and minerals. But India, buying oil for its 1.4 billion people's energy security? That's where Trump drew his moral line in the sand.

Media Machinery: Western media went into overdrive. Headlines screamed about India's "betrayal," its "funding of war," its "anti-American stance." The narrative was set: India was choosing Russia over righteousness, BRICS over brotherhood, oil over ethics.

What they conveniently forgot to mention:

• India's oil imports from Russia actually DECREASED in 2025

• India maintained that energy security for its population was non-negotiable

• The same "moral high ground" countries were finding creative ways to import Russian energy

CNN ran pieces about BRICS being "set up to hurt" America. Time Magazine called it "anti-American." Bloomberg worried about the dollar's dominance. The fear was palpable – not of India, but of a world that might not revolve around Washington's whims.

Numbers Don't Lie: While Trump was busy with his tariff tantrums and media was painting doomsday scenarios, something remarkable was happening:

India's GDP grew at 6.5% in fiscal 2024-25, accelerating to 7.4% in the last quarter. The country lifted 271 million people out of poverty between 2006 and 2016, with another 171 million escaping extreme poverty between 2011 and 2023.

Foreign exchange reserves remained robust. Fiscal deficit fell to 4.8% of GDP. Inflation dropped to 2.1% in June 2025 – the lowest since January 2019. The current account deficit stayed under 1% of GDP.

Three international rating agencies upgraded India's sovereign rating in 2025. Japan's R&I specifically cited "resilient economic growth," "progress on fiscal consolidation," and "improved external stability."

DD // Diplomatic Dance: When Trump claimed he "stopped a nuclear war" between India and Pakistan, Modi didn't tweet. He didn't hold press conferences. He waited. Then, in a calculated move, he picked up the phone and told Trump directly – there was no mediation, no trade discussions, no external intervention. Just two militaries talking through existing channels.

When Trump's calls came flooding in before the 50% tariff deadline, Modi simply didn't answer. No drama, no desperation, no deals under duress.

Instead, India quietly strengthened ties with Russia (NSA Doval met Putin), improved relations with China (Modi visited after 7 years), and continued its BRICS engagement.

The message was clear: India won't be bullied into choosing sides.

And in fact this was in fact another narrative by the DS. Paint Modi Ji as someone taking sides and snatching Trump’s global limelight. I mean of course after his disastrous trick to the world about how he stopped the ‘war’.

50-50 Stabbing-ship: Despite 50% tariffs, despite media warfare, despite diplomatic pressure, India's economy is projected to grow at 6.4% in 2025-26.

By 2030, it's set to become the world's third-largest economy with a projected GDP of $7.3 trillion.

The "Walking Dead" that Trump and Western media tried to portray is actually sprinting towards becoming a $5 trillion economy. While they were busy writing obituaries, India was writing history.

The Peterson Institute for International Economics even published a study showing that Trump's 100% BRICS threat would harm the U.S. economy more than the targeted nations – reducing U.S. GDP by $432 billion and increasing prices by 1.6%.

🪓WHEN BULLIES MEET BUILDERS

You know what fascinates me about this entire saga? It's not the tariffs, the threats, or even the remarkable economic resilience. It's the profound difference in approach between noise and progress.

Trump operates from a playbook written in the 1980s – threaten, intimidate, negotiate, claim victory. It worked in real estate. It worked in reality TV. But geopolitics in 2025? That's a different beast altogether.

India's response has been a masterclass in what I call "Strategic Silence." No Twitter wars, no diplomatic tantrums, no rushed trade deals. Just a quiet, confident march forward. While Trump was tweeting, India was building. While media was fear-mongering, India was manufacturing.

There's something beautifully poetic about Japan – a close U.S. ally – upgrading India's credit rating in the middle of Trump's tariff war. It's like watching your best friend's friend publicly acknowledge that you're doing great while your best friend is trying to ground you.

The truth is, Trump's approach revealed more about America's anxieties than India's ambitions. The fear of BRICS isn't about currency – it's about a world where decisions are made in Delhi, Beijing, and Brasília, not just D.C. The anger about Russian oil isn't about Ukraine – it's about India making pragmatic choices without seeking permission.

What we're witnessing isn't just an economic story. It's a psychological thriller where a former colony refuses to be colonized again – economically, diplomatically, or narratively. India's crime? Growing too fast, thinking too independently, and worse – succeeding despite sanctions.

The Western media's attempt to paint India as the "Walking Dead" while it's literally overtaking Japan's economy is gaslighting of the highest order. It's like telling someone they're drowning while they're winning a swimming championship.

My favourite part: India's youth – 65% of the population under 35 – aren't buying it. They see the tech jobs, the rising startups, the global CEOs of Indian origin, and they know the truth. The Walking Dead don't build space programs, don't manufacture vaccines for the world, and certainly don't have the world's largest digital payment ecosystem.

Plus boon in disguise was thrown at us with the intention that it would hurt us; but it felt like a canon event in India’s global leader growth story: H1B Visa.

Modi's calculated silence speaks volumes. By not engaging in Trump's drama, he's shown that India isn't playing defense anymore – it's playing its own game. And in this game, the score isn't kept in tweets or tariffs, but in GDP growth, poverty reduction, and global partnerships.

When someone tries to gaslight a nation of 1.4 billion people, make sure they don't have calculators, credit rating agencies, and actual economic data on their side.

ACT II: So here's my question to leave you with: When the world's largest democracy meets the world's loudest democracy, who really wins – the one making all the noise, or the one making all the progress? And more importantly, what happens when the "Walking Dead" becomes too alive to ignore?

Until next time, keep questioning the narrative – because sometimes, the real story is in what they're desperately trying not to tell you.

TL;DR

Trump is concerned about his position on the global scale, his approval ratings have been in a dip for a long time now. He has this insecurity of other world leaders stealing their limelight, so he keeps on doing these theatrical power moves that look strong but actually scream weakness.

Think about it - a secure leader doesn’t need to claim they “stopped a nuclear war” 30 times. A confident economy doesn’t need to charge $100,000 admission fees. A powerful nation doesn’t need to threaten allies with tariffs for buying oil.

This isn’t foreign policy; it’s a midlife crisis with nuclear codes. Every tariff is a temper tantrum, every visa fee hike is a vanity metric, every “I saved the world” claim is a desperate grab for relevance in a world that’s moving on without him.

The man who wrote “The Art of the Deal” is now writing “The Art of the Squeal” - and the world isn’t buying the sequel. Modi’s silence isn’t just diplomatic genius; it’s the ultimate power move. Because nothing says “you’re irrelevant” quite like not even bothering to pick up your calls.

Trump’s turning America into a gated community while the party’s moving next door.

And the tragedy? He’s so busy collecting door charges, he doesn’t realize the VIPs already left through the back.

~vivan.

Morning iKyu-riskers! Yes, I am guilty as charged for not being consistent with these beautiful tabloids of fun documentary-style business content.

There’s too much noise, and we together wage war as the Anti-dote of Clickbait Journalism. So, welcome back!

🚨Been little occupied with a lot of ongoing projects (running 2 companies is dangerously beautiful). Plus I am prepping my YouTube (so a lot of scripting, filming, editing on my plate). But it’s no excuse of robbing you out of such brain-seducing business content, again.

So updating, more like tweaking iKyu’s newsletter experience slightly; trimming out a little bit more noise, less brain-twisting storytelling and more focus on the purity of what business content really stands for. Will cover great themes, topics and angles — that really zings the business brains of yours.

Yours, Brutally.

Let’s get started…

With great power comes pathetic experience of dealing with responsibility. Felt familiar? As a young 19-20 year old, why would you like to jump into the filth called ‘being an adult’.

This is your time to awake, arise and not stop till you die. Of your youthful exuberance. Or wait, the dilemma of “what will happen once I’m off the hook of my parents shelters”? Hits hard at 2 AM.

Adulting is hard.

But not as hard as deciding, how to dodge being an adult. Harsh, but true.

The moment your light inside you starts to dim, you tend to find the next very escape. Today’s kid knows what they don’t have to do. Bombarded with MCQs of living a life. Makes them impotent of choices and thus kids wishing ultimately of ‘breaking free’. From what? It will be figured out soon.

THE (K)EY NOTES:

• The (K)inK: The IAS Clout

Focus folks, ‘living’ a life. A privileged stance? haha, it is. Because the story of choosing what you can do with your life is only with those youngsters who don’t have to think twice about running their household. They are not the victim here.

So the underprivileged are? Nope. They are too busy thinking about clearing prelims, these philosophy of life doesn’t apply on this ‘sect’ of people.

For a this cursed sect, dreams are passed on as inheritance. If the father failed at achieving that dream, the next of kin is in line.

Inheritance of an obsession.

Cursed sect is grinding, out of choice. With less to NO life left in them. Why?

For a reprised dream. A gamble. This cursed sect is the backbone of our nation; and still we are doing nothing about it.

The Cursed Sect of Youth.

It’s filthy if you think about it: India's fixation with government jobs, particularly the ‘dream’ of Indian Administrative Service examination is toxic.

IAS is a predatory circus. You get devoured for existing. And if you don’t, who bothers.

One can always look beyond this circus and accept their place in the world. Why fight for an aspirational dream, that’s driven by nothing but bets.

You bet your life. You bet your youth. You bet your every inch of the skin.

The movie “12th Fail” might be motivational to a select few. But if you too got blinded by the shine of its national award, there was a hidden dark truth you all won’t see; they don’t want you to see.

The over-glorification of labour, packaged as handwork.

India is a country that which operates on labour-transaction. There’s no real productivity, only labour intensive tasks and alms like incentives.

That’s what India’s youth is fighting. An obsession, a dream that’s prostitutionalised by the modern day narrative.

Let’s brutally breakdown🪓 the psyche behind why Indian youth, who scream about unemployment rate rising, but themself are stuck with skillsets of 1920s, and waging a war against a metaphysical dream and praising the colonial bastardisation we call bureaucracy of India; high time we call out this blind gamble, in today’s reprise edition of inK by iKyu.

The (K)inK.

I was scrolling through LinkedIn last week when I stumbled upon a post that made my stomach churn. A 26-year-old engineer, 4 attempts deep into UPSC, celebrating his "learning journey" while his batchmates were solving everyday problems, traveling the world, and actually living their twenties. I mean what the actual fu—….

This is called inspiration? It’s perspiration of sickness.

Insanity disguised as perseverance. We need to talk about the elephant in the room that's slowly crushing India's entrepreneurial spirit, one coaching center at a time.

Let’s dissect the psychology behind this nationwide epidemic that's turning our brightest minds into professional exam-takers and our most ambitious youth into government job zombies.

🪓ANATOMY OF NATIONAL DELUSION

Picture this: In 1947, when Sardar Patel established the Indian Administrative Service, government jobs were genuinely prestigious. The British had left, and we needed Indian bureaucrats to run a newly independent nation. Fast forward 79 years, and we're still stuck in that colonial mindset, treating government employment as the ultimate career achievement.

But somewhere between independence and Instagram, this aspiration mutated into an addiction.

Infinite Loop Psychology: Dr. Kahneman would have a field day studying UPSC aspirants. They're living textbook examples of cognitive biases gone wild:

• Sunk Cost Fallacy: "I've already spent 3 years preparing, I can't quit now." This becomes 5 years, then 8, then a decade of diminishing returns.

• Survivorship Bias: Every success story gets amplified while millions of "failures" disappear into corporate jobs, carrying silent trauma of unfulfilled dreams.

• Social Proof: When your entire peer group is chasing the same dream, questioning it feels like heresy.

Economics of False Hope: The UPSC preparation industry in India is worth ₹50,000 crores annually. Let that sink in. We've built an economy around helping people NOT get jobs. Coaching centers in Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar are minting money while their students burn through their parents' retirement funds and their own prime years.

Here's the math that coaching institutes won't show you:

• Average preparation time: 4-5 years

• Average expenditure: ₹8-12 lakhs

• Opportunity cost of lost salary: ₹40-60 lakhs

• Probability of success: 0.07%

• Expected return: Negative infinity

Brain Drain from Within: While Silicon Valley poaches our IIT graduates, we're voluntarily draining our own talent pool. Engineering graduates who could be building the next Flipkart are instead mugging up medieval Indian history. MBA students who could revolutionize business are memorizing government schemes that'll be obsolete by the time they potentially join the service.

This isn't just individual tragedy; it's economic sabotage at scale.

Instagram and YouTube have weaponized UPSC motivation. Every success story becomes viral content, creating a highlight reel that obscures the statistical reality. "Day 1,247 of my UPSC journey" posts get thousands of likes, reinforcing the delusion that persistence alone equals eventual success.

The algorithm doesn't show you the 99.93% who never make it.

Alternative Reality Check: While India's youth chase government jobs, here's what's happening globally:

• 23-year-old Palmer Luckey sold Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion

• Stripe's Collison brothers became billionaires before 30

• TikTok's Zhang Yiming built a $60 billion company from scratch

Not because they were inherently smarter, but because they weren't trapped in examination halls during their most creative years.

Every year spent preparing for UPSC is a year not spent:

• Building actual skills that matter in the real economy

• Starting a business that could employ hundreds

• Learning technologies that define the future

• Creating value instead of memorizing bureaucratic procedures

IAS, or Indian Administrative Services is a lucrative job. Not because of stability or government stamped uniform, or the lifetime pension. It’s the lewd power that comes with it.

This represents one of the world's most extreme competitive cultures, creating a Rs 58,000+ crore coaching industry that thrives on a 0.2% success rate while devastating millions of lives.

Mathematics of Failure: The numbers surrounding India's UPSC obsession are genuinely shocking. Over 13 lakh candidates apply annually for fewer than 1,000 positions, creating a success rate lower than winning many lotteries. Among serious aspirants who dedicate years to preparation, 90% require multiple attempts, with the average successful candidate taking 3.6 attempts over several years.

What makes this particularly devastating is the human cost: 35 students die by suicide every day in India, with 2,248 deaths specifically attributed to exam failure in 2022 alone. The coaching hub of Kota witnessed 26 suicides in 2023, representing one of the highest rates on record. These aren't just statistics—they represent young lives lost to a system that has become fundamentally predatory.

The demographic profile reveals the depth of this crisis. Engineering graduates comprise 41% of successful candidates, indicating how India's technically skilled population is being diverted from productive sectors into government service preparation. Meanwhile, the English-speaking advantage has intensified dramatically, with non-English speaking candidates dropping from 48.4% of selections in 2008 to just 8.7% in 2017.

Job Worship: The cultural roots of "sarkari naukri" obsession run deep in Indian society, creating what experts describe as a multi-generational programming toward government employment.

Government jobs are viewed as ultimate status symbols that provide immediate social elevation—a government employee receives "huge respect" and becomes a preferred marriage prospect, often commanding higher dowries and better matrimonial matches.

This obsession stems from what researchers identify as a security complex unique to Indian society. Indians prioritize job security over growth potential, viewing government positions as providing "lifetime security" compared to private sector "uncertainty." The phenomenon is reinforced by family dynamics where success in government exams becomes a measure of family honor, with failure bringing shame to the entire family lineage.

Shocking psychological patterns emerge among repeat aspirants. Many develop trauma bonds with the exam process, making it psychologically difficult to quit even after multiple failures. Others experience identity fusion, completely merging their sense of self with becoming a civil servant and losing identity beyond the examination. The sunk cost fallacy becomes particularly powerful—after investing years and lakhs of rupees, aspirants feel compelled to continue despite mounting mental health costs.

Research reveals that 53.3% of UPSC aspirants rate their mental health as "poor or somewhat poor," with students attempting the exam four or more times showing significantly worse psychological outcomes than first-time aspirants.

🪓DEVASTATION COSTS

The economic impact of India's IAS obsession represents one of the country's most significant but underrecognized drags on growth. Conservative estimates suggest an annual productivity loss of $2-3 billion from youth withdrawn from the productive workforce during prime career-building years.

The scale becomes clear when examining specific data: Tamil Nadu alone has over 100,000 individuals staying unemployed while studying full-time for civil service exams—a number exceeding participation in state vocational training programs. Over 25% of recent college graduates in Tamil Nadu appeared for state civil service exams in 2013, indicating massive resource misallocation across the country.

This phenomenon directly undermines India's demographic dividend. With a working-age population reaching 65% by 2041, India has the longest demographic window of opportunity globally (2005-2055). However, youth economic participation has declined to just 37% in 2022, partly due to millions trapped in exam preparation cycles during their most productive years.

The brain drain statistics are equally alarming. 600,000+ Indians renounced citizenship in the past five years, with 23,000 millionaires leaving since 2014. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley has 26% immigrant-founded startups led by Indians who left domestic opportunities, and 38% of doctors in the U.S. are of Indian origin, creating critical domestic shortages.

India's innovation ecosystem suffers significantly. Despite ranking third globally in startup ecosystems, 67% of startup founders report talent shortages for building world-class companies. The country's GERD remains low at 0.7% of GDP, partly due to talented individuals choosing civil service preparation over research and development careers.

🪓COACHING-PEX PREDATOR

The UPSC coaching industry has evolved into a sophisticated exploitation mechanism worth Rs 58,088 crores and projected to reach Rs 1,33,995 crores by 2028. This growth occurred while success rates remained virtually unchanged—a clear indicator of systematic exploitation rather than value creation.

Drishti IAS alone serves approximately 15,000 students and generated Rs 405 crores in revenue in FY24 (30.6% year-over-year growth), while the overall success rate remains below 0.2%. The mathematical impossibility becomes clear: individual institutes claim 200-400 selections annually, but only ~1,000 candidates succeed nationwide across all backgrounds.

The coaching hub ecosystem reveals shocking exploitation patterns. In Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar, students spend Rs 10,000-15,000 monthly for basic accommodation and food, often living in rooms divided into three "units" or spaces under stairwells. The 24/7 culture includes tea stalls operating through nights and libraries open until 3 AM, creating an artificial environment that normalizes unhealthy lifestyle patterns.

Star faculty members earn crores annually while retired bureaucrats command Rs 2 lakh per month for part-time mentorship roles, indicating how the industry monetizes aspirational psychology. The business model is fundamentally predatory: 70% of online admissions come through aggressive sales teams using false promises and artificial urgency tactics.

Following recent safety crackdowns in 2024, over 30 coaching institutes were sealed in Mukherjee Nagar alone, leading to a 35% drop in local business revenues and revealing the economic vulnerability of an ecosystem built on systematic failure.

The regional analysis reveals shocking disparities in civil service access. Uttar Pradesh leads with 28-29 officers annually, followed surprisingly by Rajasthan with 22 officers despite its smaller population. Meanwhile, Bihar and West Bengal lag significantly despite large populations, indicating structural disadvantages in the system.

The urban-rural divide has intensified dramatically. English-speaking urban candidates now dominate selections, while rural aspirants face systematic exclusion through language barriers and infrastructure disadvantages. The socio-economic data from SECC 2011 reveals the depth of inequality: only 4.6% of rural households pay income tax, and 75% of households earn less than Rs 5,000 monthly, making the Rs 10+ lakh preparation costs prohibitive for most families.

Upper caste Hindus (22.3% of population) own 41% of total wealth, while Hindu Scheduled Tribes (7.8% of population) own only 3.7% of total wealth. This economic inequality translates directly into civil service access, perpetuating rather than reducing social disparities through supposedly merit-based selection.

The migration patterns are equally concerning. An estimated 3-4 lakh people migrate to Delhi and Mumbai annually, with significant portions being exam aspirants who often never return to their home states, creating permanent brain drain from rural areas.

The mental health implications represent perhaps the most shocking aspect of India's civil service obsession. Beyond the 35 daily student suicides nationally, the psychological damage extends to millions of failed aspirants living with depression, anxiety, and shattered life plans.

Sleep deprivation affects significant percentages of aspirants, with many sleeping less than six hours nightly for years. 41.7% report work/life problems due to depression, sadness, or anxiety, while social isolation becomes normalized as aspirants withdraw from relationships and family interactions.

The support system failures are systematic. Despite charging thousands in fees, most coaching institutes lack qualified mental health counselors. Until Supreme Court guidelines in 2024, there was no systematic mental health support in coaching hubs. Families provide financial support but lack emotional intelligence to handle aspirants' psychological needs.

Recent Supreme Court interventions mandated mental health counselors in all institutions with 100+ students and established zero tolerance policies against public ranking and humiliation practices. However, these measures came only after multiple tragic incidents highlighted the crisis.

The post-COVID digital transformation accelerated industry growth while maintaining exploitative practices. The online coaching market grew from USD 437.64 million in 2024 to a projected USD 1,934.11 million by 2033 (16.55% CAGR), enabling geographic expansion without proportional improvement in outcomes.

AI integration has created new tools like PadhAI, which scored 175/200 in UPSC Prelims 2024 compared to ChatGPT's 75, and platforms like SuperKalam offering personalized mentoring. However, these technological advances primarily serve to create new revenue streams rather than improve success rates.

The marketing sophistication has increased dramatically. Coaching institutes now employ professional sales teams, celebrity faculty as brand ambassadors, and targeted digital advertising. False advertising became so prevalent that the government imposed Rs 5 lakh penalties on multiple institutes in 2024.

Comparative analysis with other countries reveals how India's system creates uniquely extreme obsession. Singapore's locals-first policy requires companies to advertise jobs locally for 14 days before hiring foreigners, creating diverse opportunities. China has broadened recruitment to include overseas graduates from 73 universities and offers 24 academic fields in demand.

European models emphasize skills over examinations, with Germany's Section 81a fast-track procedures and multiple entry pathways to public service. These systems avoid single-examination dependency while maintaining merit-based selection.

The key differences lie in private sector strength and multiple career pathways. Countries with robust private sectors reduce government job obsession, while skills-based immigration and diverse recruitment methods prevent the lottery-like competition seen in India.

🪓DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND DISASTER

India's civil service obsession threatens to waste the world's largest demographic dividend. With youth unemployment at 10% (ages 15-29) compared to 3% overall population, millions of young Indians spend their most productive years in futile exam preparation rather than contributing to economic growth.

The coaching industry employment figures reveal the scale of misallocation: while the industry employs lakhs in support services, it diverts millions more from productive sectors. Female workforce participation remains at just 24% compared to 80% in developed countries, partly due to families investing in exam preparation rather than practical skill development.

Economic experts warn of a "demographic disaster" if the youth bulge isn't productively employed. India's potential GDP growth faces constraints from misallocated human resources, with demographic dividend historically contributing up to 15% of overall growth in advanced economies.

TL;DR

India's IAS examination obsession represents a national emergency hiding in plain sight. With over 1 million candidates annually competing for fewer than 1,000 positions, the system creates one of the world's most inefficient resource allocation mechanisms. The Rs 58,000+ crore coaching industry profits from systematic failure while destroying millions of lives through false hope and predatory practices.

The psychological toll is devastating: 35 daily student suicides, widespread depression, and families bankrupting themselves for dreams that succeed less than 0.2% of the time. The economic impact—$2-3 billion in annual productivity loss, brain drain affecting 600,000+ emigrants, and demographic dividend underutilization—threatens India's development trajectory.

Urgent systemic reform is essential. This requires diversifying career pathways, strengthening private sector opportunities, regulating the coaching industry, and educating families about alternative paths to success.

Without intervention, India risks wasting its greatest asset—its young population—on a system that has become more about exploitation than opportunity.

India's civil service system has evolved from a merit-based selection mechanism into a predatory ecosystem that consumes dreams, destroys lives, and undermines the nation's economic potential.

The time for reform isn't coming—it's overdue.

~vivan.

Afternoon iKyu-riskers! I know, I know, we are late to the party. Valentine Month dusked down. MahaShivratri brought power and MahaKumbh’s end bought a lot of shakti and stories. And Holi just blasted a colourful exuberance of fresh spectrum of ideas…

Scorching heat is on the rise, but we are being boiled NOT by the Sun Shine, but Chin-Shine. We have a lot to catch on. But before that:

🚨(Not so lively) LIFE UPDATE: I committed a crime last week. I started my YouTube Channel and Joined Instagram (full-time).

My YouTube Channel is an intention. A battlecry decision that now ‘no one’s going to do it’ types and so I’ll do it myself (Thanos voice), only for a few crazy ones who want to be elevated and free themselves from the noise of Clickbait content. The mission is simple: “Antidote of Clickbait Content” and the vision is to elevate the collective intellectual consciousness of people; who are done with those tricks of super-edgy editing, a lot of transitions and what not. Will do what I do best. Write my thoughts out and brutally breakdown ideas in front of a camera. No hefty editing; simply sit, record and hit publish.

After 7 years of hiatus (on & off). Yes! I’m on Instagram. Full throttle. Instagram is a platform to decode, breakdown and brutally cleanse. No breaks or detoxification. Instagram is on. Don’t know what all spectrum of content I would post, but that’s I feel ‘yuck’ by that platform, never understood the signal. But now it’s all about stories, reels, drafts and comments. Thoughts?

Because I am an exclusive X (formerly Twitter) person. I was writing exclusively on X. What I write generates around 5-10 Million monthly views and impressions and more than 100 Milliion views in a year. X was my platform. But, as my hunger to build stuff grew obsessively, I didn’t wanted to confine myself to just one platform and have a rented audience. My curiosity thirst wasn’t being quenched, so there you go…

I shared my perspective on the my first video on the channel of why I am starting a YouTube Channel. Plus I felt Instagram has changed a lot in the past few years. There’s a lot to learn. Joining Instagram with one and only one intention: “To write beautiful videos and carousels and understand the platform while I build.”

That’s it. That’s the update. Experimenting with what works on the platform. I feel an ick joining Instagram but it’s a new day, a new adventure.

Let’s get started.

Do let me know — What kind of content makes you watch YouTube and Instagram more, asking for a friend?

Now let’s get back to SHEIN-ing brighter than a diamond…

Fresh month, freshly baked. But is it made and served in India?

The series of event happened (and happening) past month was just phenomenal:

• From launches of ChatGPT o3, 4.5, Claude,

• we got Grok 3 with reasoning + voice; Grok 3 Voice mode is killer.

• Also AI-generated gameplays, Figure new Clone Robotics model, Neo Gamma by X1, and a fusion reactor for a company.

• Apple lost some control in the UK, but already announced a $500 billion investment silently shifting to India’s diaspora.

• And just recently NVIDIA showcased the future of AI, Robots umbrella-d under their vision of agentic AI and partnered with Disney and Google Deepmind to incept ‘Blue’, a wall-e type robot!

This societal purge of rented culture showcases how gullible we are as a civilisation.

And that made me think…

We Indians, love operating on convenience. We love embracing curated silhouettes packaged as convenience on the surface, without thinking twice the cultural root of ‘that’ thing. Where does it originate from?

We love talking about what’s happening on foreign soil, so much, it makes our intellectual brain twitch. Why? Because their quality of ‘anything’ supersedes our humane expectations. This seeking of ‘convenience’ has made us mediocre-consumers backboned in the stereotype of price-resistive market. And thus opens doors for each and every enterprise to ship/sell sub-par quality products at a premium price. This should boil your blood. But it won’t.

Exactly. Convenience.

This gets funny. When there’s convenience involved, even so-called “enemy” country feels like enigma. Cultural roots are important for showing off, but other times…not so much.

This same psychological trick of selling something as fashion, fast — People of India are quick to adapt, pass over and stand in line, again. And for what?

It is the price?
Is it the variety?
Is it the very nature of commodity in a low trust society of India?

That’s the adventure cart our edition is added to.

India has always been in the grey. It has been a pattern.

Look at how Colonial bastards came on our shore. Gave us a lot of stuff to get started, but what they took from us is unprecedented. The transaction (loot) they did to us, we are still recovering from it. 76 years. 76 YEARS!

But did we learn anything? That’s rare.

THE (K)EY NOTES:

• The (K)urrent: The Tech-Tryst Cult

• The (K)réme: The Indo-China Cult

• The (K)inK: The Schwezuan-Sattuh Cult

A civilisation becomes bendable when initially you give them crumbles of ‘convenience’. India’s foundation was rebuilt on class divide. Class divide breaded cultural divide.

When we were supposed to put our heads down and wear the greased cape of the Industrial Revolution, we were busy toiling what Colonial dogs left to us. Some foreign-settling aspiration and a lot of English to swallow.

We didn’t pick up the Industrial pace as our neighbours did. And what happened? Things that were supposed to happen, China became a manufacturing powerhouse. We still are stuck selling ‘conventional’ dreams.

American gave the world, Innovation.

China gave the world, Manufacturing.

India gave the world…Service Industry.

Do you find something hilarious here? Two countries that focused on Nation building and not personal endeavours initially are far more ahead in terms of Economical growth, world leadership and humanity future orientation.

India is not.

But as they say; Time changes, so do men. Same kind of doorway we stand, and this time the entire script is same except one minute difference.

This time the reign is in our hand. Yes. In India’s hand.

Why compare colonial debauchery to something as simple as an e-commerce transaction?

Cultural roots.

But there’s too much to decipher, and we only have few minutes. India is a relic of punctual consumerism. Time is everything. Fashion is too fast here.

Why sentiment heavy India is embracing the come back of a fast fashion brand under the label of Reliance?

Is it not hampering our cultural identity or is it fair to ignore any trade war when convenience (and Reliance) plays a big role?

Why are we heading towards this “Schezwan-Sattuh” cult?

Why blurring the divide between Made In India with Made in CHINA SHEINA?

Let’s brutally breakdown🪓 this reliant move by Reliance empire to go beyond borders and bring back a fast fashion chain and package it as Made for India. Did they find the new OIL for youngsters or is this a long haul game he is playing after Budget 2025 is about to alter purchase behaviour, too much steam to blow off in today’s Valentine edition of inK by iKyu.

But before we deep dive, let’s begin with India by iKyu…

THE (K)URRENT

SATYA’S QUANTAM VACHANN

My keyboard crumbles while I write this but credit due where it’s deserved—Satya’s crushed it. Microsoft’s Majorana 1. A quantum chip, unveiled by Satya Nadella, is a savage leap forward—built on a new state of matter, topoconductors, it’s the world’s first QPU with topological qubits. Eight qubits now, scaling to a million, it promises stability and speed that could gut modern encryption, turbocharge drug discovery, and juice AI beyond imagination. Error rates? Slashed below 1 in 1000. Think silicon transistor-level disruption—only fiercer. Nadella calls it a 20-year chase ending in a computing revolution. Years, not decades, to flip the world upside down. Quantum’s here, and it’s a brutal beast unleashed.

THE END OF MAHAKUMBH

Mahakumbh 2025 ended with Mahashivratri, with a jaw-dropping 66 crore devotees—half of India’s population—dipping in the Triveni Sangam over 45 days. Once a global poster child for India’s poverty, it’s now a colossal celebration of Bharat and Sanatan Dharma. The numbers are insane: 8 crore on Mauni Amavasya alone, averaging over 1 crore daily. This wasn’t just gigantic—it was a beautiful, phenomenal middle finger to the old narrative. With ₹3 lakh crore pumped into Uttar Pradesh’s economy, Mahakumbh roared as a festival of faith, unity, and raw power.

CRED’S COUTURE

CRED’s latest shindig unveiled ‘Svalbard’—a flashy credit management suite—aiming to juice up its 14 million users’ financial game. With revenue soaring 66% to ₹2,473 crore in FY24 and losses slashed 41% to ₹609 crore, this launch could turbocharge growth by cross-selling to its 1.15 crore monthly transacting users. Loan books hit ₹19,000 crore, and new mutual fund-backed credit lines scream profit potential. But here’s the kicker: overhyping a cluttered fintech space risks alienating users with complexity. Execution’s the devil—screw it up, and CRED’s $6.4 billion valuation could wobble.

THE (K)REMÉ

Reliance Industries, under the leadership of Mukesh Ambani, has indeed stirred debate by partnering with Shein, a Chinese fast-fashion giant, to reintroduce it to India in February 2025—nearly five years after its ban in 2020 amid nationalistic fervor and geopolitical tensions with China. The ban, which affected over 300 Chinese apps, was framed by the Indian government as a response to national security and data privacy threats following border clashes.

This move was widely seen as a “surgical strike” against Chinese economic influence, resonating with a surge in nationalistic sentiment. So why would Reliance, a homegrown conglomerate deeply embedded in India’s economic fabric, seemingly defy this sentiment by bringing Shein back? The decision is less about breaking nationalism and more about pragmatic economics, strategic positioning, and a nuanced recalibration of India’s global trade stance. Let’s unpack this.

RELIANCE’S ELDEN-SHEIN MOVE…

Reliance isn’t acting against nationalistic sentiment so much as capitalizing on an opportunity that aligns with India’s broader economic goals—goals that the government itself tacitly supports, as evidenced by its approval of this partnership. Here’s why:

1. Tapping a Lucrative Market: India’s fast-fashion market is booming, projected to surpass $50 billion by FY31 according to Redseer Strategy Consultants. Shein, with its global revenue of $23 billion in 2023 and a track record of disrupting markets with trendy, affordable clothing, fills a gap left by its 2020 exit. Competitors like Urbanic, Romwe, and Zudio have gained ground, but none have matched Shein’s scale or cult following among Indian youth. Reliance, whose e-commerce arm Ajio has struggled against giants like Flipkart’s Myntra, sees Shein as a way to bolster its online fashion dominance.

2. Local Manufacturing Boost: A key condition of Shein’s return is that all products sold in India are designed and manufactured locally by Indian suppliers. This aligns with the “Make in India” initiative, a cornerstone of the government’s economic nationalism. By integrating over 25,000 local MSMEs into Shein’s supply chain, Reliance is creating jobs and boosting textile exports—Shein plans to source from India for its global operations, not just the domestic market. This turns a “Chinese” brand into a vehicle for Indian economic growth, softening the nationalistic critique.

3. Data Sovereignty Compliance: The 2020 ban hinged on data privacy fears. Reliance’s deal ensures all customer data stays in India, hosted on local infrastructure, with Shein having no access. This addresses the original security concerns, allowing Reliance to frame the partnership as a safe, India-centric move rather than a capitulation to China.

4. Profit Without Equity Risk: Reliance pays Shein a licensing fee to use its brand and technology, but there’s no equity stake involved. This keeps Reliance in full control, minimizing financial exposure while leveraging Shein’s global brand equity—a low-risk, high-reward play.

SHEIN/OMICS

While the economic rationale is clear, there’s a deeper strategic game at play. Reliance isn’t just chasing profits; it’s positioning itself—and India—in a shifting global landscape. Here’s what might be lurking beneath the surface:

1. Countering E-commerce Rivals: Reliance’s retail empire faces fierce competition from Amazon, Flipkart, and Meesho. Shein’s low-cost, trend-driven model, paired with Reliance’s logistics and retail network (including Ajio and offline stores), could attract price-sensitive Gen Z shoppers, giving Reliance an edge in a crowded market. This isn’t about nationalism—it’s about market share.

2. Geopolitical Judo: By turning Shein into a tool for Indian manufacturing and exports, Reliance is subtly flipping the script on India-China tensions. Instead of shunning Chinese brands, it’s co-opting one to serve Indian interests, reducing Shein’s reliance on China’s supply chain (a move Shein itself wants amid U.S. scrutiny). This could signal a pragmatic shift in India’s approach: less outright rejection, more strategic engagement.

3. Testing Regulatory Waters: The government’s approval of this deal, after rigorous checks by ministries like IT and Home Affairs, suggests a willingness to relax the hardline anti-China stance when economic benefits are clear. Reliance, with its clout, might be pioneering a model for other foreign firms to re-enter India via local partnerships—paying a “gate fee” to smooth regulatory hurdles, as some have speculated.

4. Brand Portfolio Power Play: Reliance already manages a diverse fashion portfolio, from luxury labels like Giorgio Armani to affordable brands on Ajio. Adding Shein as a standalone fast-fashion powerhouse (rather than folding it into Ajio) diversifies its offerings and targets a distinct demographic, potentially pressuring rivals like Tata’s Zudio and Myntra to rethink their strategies.

TL;DR

Critics might argue Reliance is undermining the 2020 ban’s nationalistic spirit, especially given the BJP-led government’s tough rhetoric on China. Posts on X have accused the move of favoring “corporate friends” over sovereignty. Yet, the government’s green light—coupled with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s endorsement of the deal’s job-creation and data-security benefits—suggests this isn’t a betrayal of nationalism but a reframing of it. Reliance is betting that economic nationalism (jobs, manufacturing, exports) trumps symbolic nationalism (banning Chinese brands outright) in the public eye.

The hidden strategy might also reflect Reliance’s long game: cementing itself as India’s indispensable retail and tech titan, capable of navigating geopolitical complexities others can’t. By localizing Shein’s operations and aligning with policy priorities, Reliance mitigates the “Chinese” stigma while reaping the rewards of a global brand. It’s a calculated risk—consumer backlash over Shein’s origins could still emerge—but one backed by a government that sees the economic upside.

In short, Reliance didn’t break nationalistic sentiment; it bent it to fit a profitable, India-first narrative. The strategy? Use Shein’s allure to fuel Reliance’s growth, strengthen India’s manufacturing base, and outmaneuver e-commerce rivals—all while keeping the government onside. Whether this gamble pays off depends on how Indian shoppers and regulators respond in the long run.

The (K)inK.

“Internet piK of the week”

A beautiful splash. This moment captures Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, along with their Crew-9 teammates Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov successfully returned to Earth.

The Schwezuan-Sattuh Cult

Let’s get one thing straight: Reliance bringing Shein back to India isn’t some sellout to Chinese overlords—it’s a masterstroke, a middle finger to the sanctimonious Schwezuan-Sattuh Cult screeching about nationalism from their ivory towers. You know the type—self-righteous X warriors and armchair patriots who think banning a fashion app in 2020 won Red Fort back from invaders. Spoiler: it didn’t.

What it did was leave a gaping hole in India’s fast-fashion market, ripe for Reliance to exploit in 2025 with a deal so slick it’s practically dripping in ghee. And good for them. Good for us.

The Cult—let’s call them what they are: a mob of saffron-tinted keyboard crusaders—lost their minds when Shein, the Chinese fast-fashion devil, slinked back into India under Reliance’s wing. “Betrayal!” they howled, clutching their tricolors like it’s 1947. Meanwhile, Mukesh Ambani’s playing 4D chess, turning a “foreign threat” into an Indian cash cow. Shein’s not here to colonize your wardrobe with Beijing’s finest; it’s being forced to stitch every thread in India, hire Indian workers, and keep every byte of your data on Indian soil. That’s not a sellout—that’s a heist. Reliance snatched Shein’s brand, its tech, its global hype, and made it a desi powerhouse. The Cult’s too busy chanting “Boycott China” to notice they’re the ones getting played.

Here’s the brutal truth: nationalism isn’t waving a flag—it’s jobs, money, and power. Reliance gets that.

India’s fast-fashion market is a $50 billion goldmine by 2031, and while the Schwezuan-Sattuh brigade was busy burning effigies, Urbanic and Zudio were eating Shein’s lunch. Reliance said, “Nah, that’s ours.” Now, 25,000 Indian MSMEs are gearing up to churn out Shein’s trendy tees, not for some Shanghai warehouse, but for export to the world.

This isn’t just about dressing Gen Z cheap—it’s about making India a textile titan. The government, with its “Make in India” obsession, signed off faster than you can say “data sovereignty.” Piyush Goyal’s practically salivating over the jobs. The Cult? Still crying about 2020’s border skirmishes like it’s their personal Kargil.

And let’s talk strategy, because this is where Reliance flexes. They’re not just slapping Shein’s logo on Ajio—they’re keeping it standalone, a lean, mean, rival-crushing machine. Flipkart’s Myntra, Amazon, Meesho—they’re sweating. Shein’s dirt-cheap prices and TikTok-fueled hype are a bazooka in Reliance’s retail arsenal, and they didn’t even give Shein equity. Just a licensing fee. That’s like renting a Ferrari for the price of a rickshaw. The Schwezuan-Sattuh Cult sees a Chinese ghost; Reliance sees a profit rocket.

Sure, the optics sting—Shein’s Chinese roots clash with the Cult’s anti-China gospel. But wake up: India’s not banning Huawei or Xiaomi phones you’re tweeting from. This is pragmatism, not betrayal. Reliance is betting you’ll buy the Rs. 500 skirt before you burn it, and they’re right.

The Cult can scream all they want—India’s winning, Reliance is thriving, and Shein’s just a pawn.

Checkmate, sattuh-sippers.

~vivan.

Before we begin, want to reiterate on the vision this handKrafted newsletter intimately holds for all our inKredible readers (and future ones): “Our vision is to become the Antidote of Clickbait Journalism, and for our vision to become limitless — we will never make short-form/byte-sized/digestable content EVER. We will always forge brutal, handKrafted “documentary-style” business breakdowns and fulfil the mission to eradicate the filth of Clickbait Journalism in the world.”

Let’s chat - DM ‘AI’ on X

🚨I deeply wanted to scream this loud: “To our exclusive readers, if you truly, from the bottom of your heart, appreciate reading to what’s crafted just as you wanted, support our ‘Subscription-Driven Publication’ business model.” But it won’t be possible anytime soon.

⚠️Our payment gateway is now permanently SHUT DOWN and blocked by Stripe (reason unknown; no explanation provided) and Substack support was of no help either. We won’t be able to directly onboard any paid subscribers to iKyu. Clearly sabotaging the affluence I have been working so hard on.

The only way moving forward until (if) it ever gets resolved (chances are tending to 0) is — iff you want to support our vision of making business content fun again and be part of the cult of ‘Antidote of Clickbait Journalism’ with iKyu, then maybe hit us a DM on X and will figure out if there’s a way we can help you.

Till then, I will be transitioning towards crafting iKyu’s editions for all of you for FREE. Don’t worry I won’t be robbing you from our flagship newsletter. Just one of those phase where the odds are against favour are way too much and we need to fight it. After all the fight is not just with the system, but those lost readers who are deprived of options to experience business content is the most intimate way. iKyu for the resKyu.

Yes, You! You’re the reason we are doing this for. Thank you for reading us till now and supporting us.

Rise above.

Now let’s experience the renaissance…

You can hear this in silence:

"You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go 'according to plan.' Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all 'part of the plan'. But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!

Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It's fair."

Joker, The Dark Knight.

Introduce a little anarchy and the entire world crumbles. Chaos can be felt within. Why such rush to capture the peak? For the answers you want to find is within you.

If only the most powerful AI could pass the turing test and start forming thoughts like us, we could say that we are the middle child of history experiencing the renaissance in making…but we are far from that future.

Be here now and you’ll see how fragile the world is. One moment you’ll see every single human praising how revolutionary one thing is and *snap* the very next it’s world-order’s biggest enemy.

You showcase something big but expensive. It will be applauded; Introduce a alternative, breaking the mould of how the same thing can be done in much more simpler and cheap way. Expensive becomes the new enemy. You become the god.

Something similar has been happening in the AI world.

THE (K)EY NOTES

• The (K)urrent: The Reinvention

• The (K)réme: The Renaissance

• The (K)inK: The Revolution

(Not so) OpenAI, in the last 2 years had achieved the foundational benchmark of how AI systems would be slowly integrating within our day to day life. Befitting as our natural extension of thinking, reducing mundane efforts, pushing us to be more of “thinking directors” and less of dire daily-wage workers. Timeline was: OpenAI is the next big thing. Billions of dollars. Stargate announcement. Sam Altman is the new messiah of AI. Grok, Gemini, Claude others are trailing and competing. OpenAI is becoming untouchable…

Until January 22nd, 2025 happened.

What came as a ‘techquake’ and disoriented the entire established order of global tech space—with its’ epicentre in China?

What’s this global tête-à-tête all about? How can an AI model wipe out billions from the market? How did India came into its line of fire? This techquake caressed India and rather than we learning from it, how did we copulated insider-haters?

Even after having density of developers and startup architects working in AI, we still are lagging way behind in the race…why? Are we just constrained to chew, build and throw away wrappers from these AI disruptors? Will we be left behind in this age of AI?

Are we even part of the Ren’ai’ssance?

Let’s brutally breakdown🪓 this entire chaos of how a $6 Million Chinese AI Model shook global Tech industry and what India should and should not do to leverage this as a ladder for the future in today’s edition of inK by iKyu.

But before we deep dive, let’s begin with India by iKyu…

THE (K)URRENT

THE DELHI DEBACLE

Delhi, once a beacon of 'change', now reeks of freebie decay under Kejriwal's AAP. With elections looming, the city's fabric is torn by mismanaged waste, toxic air, and a crumbling infrastructure. Public sentiment, once swayed by AAP's giveaways, now echoes distress over governance failures. Who will emerge victorious? We can wait for that verdict; Recent polls show AAP's lead diminishing to a mere 36 seats against BJP's 27, signaling a public yearning for substantive policy over handouts; but both parties are having a head-on collision with romanticising the Freebies culture. That’s a shame. It's time Delhi votes for competence, not charity; for a government that builds, not just promises. The freebie era must end.

BUDGET BUFFERING…

The Indian budget for FY 2025-26 is Modi's litmus test, potentially his last big economic play before the 2029 elections. In the crucible of Modi's third term, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman faces a budget crucible, her eighth, with taxpayers baying for blood over previous fiscal policies. Amidst global economic turbulence, Nirmala Sitharaman, already under fire for tax policies, faces her toughest challenge. Expectations are sky-high for tax reforms, with taxpayers demanding lower rates and simplified structures. Rumors swirl about bolstering manufacturing, cutting import tariffs, and tech incentives. The budget could pivot India towards becoming the world's third-largest economy by enhancing infrastructure, promoting green energy, and slashing bureaucratic red tape. But without bold, transformative changes, Sitharaman risks being remembered as the Finance Minister who squandered India's moment. A misstep here could tarnish Modi’s governance narrative, while bold reforms could see India leapfrog economic ranks, transforming public sentiment from critique to commendation.

VEMBU WIND-DOWNS

Sridhar Vembu Ji , the architect behind Zoho's Rs 8,000 crore empire, has done the unthinkable—thrown away the CEO title into the corporate bonfire to embrace his roots, leading from a village in Tamil Nadu, clad in a lungi. This isn't just career transition; it's a cultural revolution. Vembu Ji, now Chief Scientist, declared his new chapter on X, focusing full-time on R&D amidst AI's seismic shifts. His move from corporate suits to rural simplicity has galvanized millions, proving business doesn't need skyscrapers to soar. By championing rural development and innovation, Vembu redefines success, showing that one can lead a tech giant while reconnecting with cultural roots, inspiring a generation to rethink where and how they can build their dreams.

THE (K)REMÉ

“SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND”

Paraphrased from the Bible: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." ~ Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, verse 7.

Previously when we dissected the AI world…

…our focus was primarily on the understanding this dark intelligence and how this ‘new-world order’ is being established.

But this time we won’t scratch just the surface, we will axe in deep and seek within…

DeepSeek was founded by Liang Wenfeng, a former hedge fund manager, in late 2023. With a background in quantitative finance and a passion for AI, Liang aimed to bridge the technological divide between China and the United States. DeepSeek started under the umbrella of High-Flyer, Liang's pre-existing hedge fund, focusing initially on AI research. By 2024, DeepSeek had already begun to make waves with its initial models, but it was just couple of days back that would truly put them on the map.

DeepSeek, a relatively new player in the AI industry, launched two models, DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1. These models are notable for their performance being on par or better than leading U.S. models, such as those from OpenAI, Meta, and Google, but at a significantly reduced cost. DeepSeek-V3 was trained on 14.8 trillion tokens with innovative techniques like Multi-Head Latent Attention (MLA) to lower training and deployment costs.

DeepSeek claims to have developed its AI model, R1, for just $5.6 million in computing power, contrasting sharply with the billions spent by American tech companies on similar AI technologies. This cost efficiency has been a shock to the market, particularly given that DeepSeek's models use less advanced chips due to U.S. export restrictions on high-end chip technology to China.

OpenAI, known for its high-cost, closed-source models like ChatGPT, faces a new competitive landscape where cost-effective, open-source alternatives could challenge its market dominance. The emergence of DeepSeek has raised concerns about the sustainability of OpenAI's business model, which relies heavily on high investment for AI development. The focus on cost could potentially undermine OpenAI's market position if more companies lean towards cheaper, yet effective AI solutions. There's an underlying fear that if AI can be developed at a fraction of the cost without sacrificing performance, the justification for OpenAI's valuation and its extensive spending might come under scrutiny. This has led to a broader debate on AI investment efficiency.

WIPEOUT WARP

NVIDIA, a leader in providing GPU chips essential for AI training, saw a dramatic $593 billion loss in market capitalization, marking the largest one-day loss for a Wall Street stock in history. This was primarily due to fears that DeepSeek's models could reduce the demand for NVIDIA's high-end AI chips if AI development becomes less chip-intensive. The introduction of models that perform well on less advanced chips has led investors to question the necessity of NVIDIA's current market premium, causing a significant sell-off in tech stocks, particularly those associated with AI infrastructure. The Philadelphia semiconductor index fell 9.2%, with NVIDIA being one of the biggest losers.

The news from DeepSeek triggered a sell-off not only in the U.S. but also in markets like Japan and Europe, where companies like ASML Holding and Tokyo Electron also saw their shares decline due to similar concerns about their role in the AI hardware supply chain. The narrative around AI has shifted. Previously, the focus was on scaling AI with more resources; now, there's a growing appreciation for efficiency and innovation in resource management, which DeepSeek embodies. This change questions the sustainability of the AI boom driven by companies like OpenAI, NVIDIA, and others that have benefited from the previous narrative.

DeepSeek's rise has also prompted discussions on data privacy, especially in Europe, with Italy's data protection authority seeking more information on how DeepSeek uses personal data. This adds another layer of complexity to the AI industry's landscape.

NVIDIA's market value dropped from $3.5 trillion to $2.9 trillion, marking a 17% plunge in stock price. The Nasdaq composite index fell more than 3% due to this event, reflecting the broader tech sector's reaction. DeepSeek claims its models match or exceed U.S. counterparts in tasks like math, coding, and natural language processing, evidenced by DeepSeek-V3's performance metrics and the rapid rise of its AI assistant to the top of Apple's App Store.

TL;DR

The Indian stock market, particularly tech-related stocks, experienced volatility following DeepSeek's announcement. Companies like TCS, Infosys, and Wipro saw their stocks dip, reflecting global concerns about the future of AI investment and market share.

THE ‘BEAR’ HUG

The NIFTY IT index, which tracks Indian IT companies, saw a decline of nearly 4% in the days following the news, as investors recalibrate their portfolios in light of new AI cost paradigms. There was a noticeable shift in investor sentiment towards Indian tech firms, with a focus on how these companies can adapt to a world where high-cost AI might not be the only path to innovation. This has led to a reevaluation of investment in domestic AI ventures.

Indian tech analysts and industry leaders have been vocal. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, former minister of state for electronics and IT, suggested that DeepSeek's success should be a wake-up call for India to accelerate its AI development. He emphasized that AI progress isn't solely dependent on massive capital investment but on smart strategies and government support.

There's apprehension about the implications of adopting foreign AI models, particularly in terms of data privacy and security. The success of DeepSeek has sparked debates on data sovereignty and the potential risks of relying on technology from nations with different geopolitical interests.

Indian startups like Sarvam AI and Krutrim AI have been at the forefront of developing language models tailored for Indian contexts. Sarvam's models focus on understanding and generating content in multiple Indian languages, while Krutrim is aiming to create AI solutions that are culturally resonant and linguistically diverse.

The IndiaAI Mission, backed by a government investment of INR 10,000 crore, aims to foster an AI ecosystem. But the tangible outcomes in terms of foundational AI models are yet to match the ambition.

The (K)inK.

“Internet piK of the week”

Maha Kumbh as seen from space.

THE REVOLUTION…

2 yrs ago, When Sam Altman came to India and our ‘esteemed’ tech leaders met him, the entire conversation was such a disaster to even revisit it.

I tweeted something in rage and it was resonated among a lof of folks:

Indian techies just disappointed themselves in front of the world.

Sam Altman must be laughing at us.

We just labelled ourselves hollow from the inside.

Sam might think this "world leader" title to India, is simply fluff.

Are we so fucked, that the true colours of our Tech events in India are all about free food and drinks?

Go and check the type of questions being asked to Sam, you would choose to drink your own piss, rather entertain those questions.

Such a shit show. How come?

We don't have one prominent face in the tech industry that can retain a crowd's attention and share some substantial insight.

(YES, all of you might wrestle in the comments & verbally puke your justification that we have great leaders. But let me break some sweet perceptions for all of you. You all are so wrong)

Old folks pretend to be gold and young folks are too busy with the Genderisation of their identity resulting in them being impotent (literally and metaphorically).

Fucking cringy event. Pathetic.

Embarrassed to be part of this community, and felt pity for everyone who attended the event.

"Never again", this would have been the only thought for Sam Altman.

@VivanVatsa on X

That was the state of how we looked at AI. When someone chucklingly mocked us on not competing with some foreign company, we smiled, we giggled and dusted it off like it was nothing.

An entire nation was insulted that day. Insulted.

When this chap from foreign soil came and just bashed our system. No one dared do actually build something in response to that. No one in the AI space. (Too busy juggling between 10min gaps)

Alright, let’s not vault away; let’s seek within and see how are we being encouraged.

Nandan Nilekani. A nation builder in some sense. Encourages Indians to NOT focus on building LLMs in India. To quote: “Our goal should not be to build one more LLM. Let the big boys in the (Silicon) Valley do it, spending billions of dollars. We will use it to create synthetic data, build small language models quickly, and train them using appropriate data.”

Now if people who have contributed to some revolutionary state-of-the-art technological shift for the nation and when they talk in this pessimistic tone, it’s simply showcases how much narrow-minded any individual can drop down to. In an aspirational class driven economy you can’t bog down in public sentiment—the same public that made you messiah, to which you now think of as dumb—will drag you to streets, if not metaphorically.

The integration of any new technology into the spirit of the nation begins on this level where these so called elites, who have contributed in fragments.

And to be honest, my blood boils whenever I hear Sam Altman saying that “It’s stupid to compete with us training foundational models, you can try, but you won’t be able to beat us”. Well it’s like that Thor meme (*you can’t defeat me > I know, but he can > boom, DEEPSEEK).

We have a lot to learn from China.

With this entire bullshit commentary on the internet about who’s whooping whose ass in the AI race — Not surprised.

China has showed the entire world how foundational models can be build from scratch and that too with not so much money infusion.

This entire narrative of only supercomputer GPUs can help you build the AI system has been disrupted.

AI renaissance is beautiful.

The revolution is not what it becomes after, but what it is, within.

India is slowly transforming into its Japan phase.

Simply genius.

We have become avid tool builders for the world, slowly from Service to SaaS to consumer and the journey has just began; We have to conquer manufacturing, hard-tech, deep-tech, semiconductors, renewable energy etc.

With our Indian culture, we are slowly aiming to provide what the world’s has been missing.

Density of great talents.

Engineers, doctors, researchers, scientists, Inventors & Entrepreneurs.

When every startup founder is saying it’s time to build in India. They ain’t wrong.

We are en route to heal the world.

Are you ready?

~vivan.

Why? What Changed? The DNA that consisted of टहलना (Tehelna / Evening walk) has vanished.

To find the mystery quest of why this mutation occurred on the first place; we don’t have to go anywhere. Let’s dig into our pockets, take out our iPhone (or any kind of phone for that matter) type Blin—…

And here. We. Go.

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I am slowly falling in love with our Desi “Bharat” Stack (a cornerstone, being grilled for the world). And my conviction for Bharat Stack got fuelled more abrasively after travelling to Vietnam recently. My random habit of pulling out my phone, scanning the QR and *tiding-tan-tananan* “PayTm pe ₹500 Prapt hue. ~Paytm Karo~” (You have received payment of ₹500 on PayTm ~paytm karo) was crushed when I realised there’s no such system here; same was for Malaysia or Indonesia. This experience is India-exclusive.

That’s when it hit me—Digital India’s vision was to make people embrace the evolution, going from homo-sapiens to techno-sapiens. Rightly ingrained in our DNA of how we make use of technology in our day to day life.

But this also draws attention to how much fine-tuning is good fine-tuning of us humans?

THE (K)EY NOTES:

• The (K)urrent: THE INDIAN “STATE”

• The (K)réme: THE “10-MIN” NATION

• The (K)inK: THE “10-MIN” KONFLICT

Any Product or Services in an enterprising nation is created to cater to your redundant needs and technology as a medium reduces those repetitive human efforts.

But there’s a catch…

Along with ease of life, comes something addictive…

Altered behaviour in any modern human being is an evolving yet establishing habit. It’s difficult to reshape or replace it.

It’s an irony to watch yourself lose track of momentum of all those new year resolutions you took on Day 1st…only to see after 21 days that you’re back to the pavilion.

Study shows that people who wanted to get into any kind of “habit” were more successful the more frequently they engaged with that habit. Any behaviour, if repeated more than 18 times in the span of respective each day, the new habit is instilled in you like a symbiotic relationship. It’s difficult to escape.

That’s the story of today’s edition.

A difficult to escape symbiotic relationship with Quick commerce. A trendy term in the business world of India.

10-min deliveries are altering our behaviour. Our Bharat stack is getting stronger as any grocery you need is delivered at your doorstep within 10 mins. That’s magic for all those watching from outside India. 10-min deliveries having become a habit forming platform for anyone who adopts it for the first time.

“Tehelna” is out of the question now.

Now it’s all about Q-commerce. It’s all about Zepto, Instamart & Blinkit. But only if it was circumcised to grocery deliveries, it would have been a happy-to-go startup stories for all our builders (inKredible readers). Is that the case though?

Now that these Q-commerce giants are entering a “convenience-first” sector: RAPID FOOD DELIVERY.

How long will this fuel make them run their carts?

Why are these Q-commerce brands busy altering our behaviour and why are they aggressive in converting?

…Us into THE “10-MIN” NATION?

Let’s brutally breakdown🪓 this behaviour altering phenomena in our Desi “Bharat” stack and the evolution of going from 10-min deliveries to 10-min food deliveries and ultimately covering 10-min ambulance deliveries. This entire Q-commerce spectrum needs a KARTing-refresh on today’s edition of inK by iKyu.

But before we deep dive, let’s begin with India by iKyu…

THE (K)URRENT

MAHAKUMBH: Experience as the Middle child of HINDU History

The Maha Kumbh Mela, a spectacle of faith and history, unfolds in Prayagraj, drawing millions in a celebration of Hindu spirituality. This gathering isn't just a festival; it's a testament to our enduring cultural legacy, symbolizing unity, devotion, and the quest for Moksha.

Every Hindu should take pride in this heritage; it's not just history to remember but a living legacy to cherish, countering the naysayers with its sheer scale and spiritual depth.

70 or 90 — What’s your POISON?

Narayan Murthy's 70-hour work week call and L&T chief's 90-hour quip expose a cultural clash: India's old guard versus the youth's push for balance. The backlash from professionals isn't just resistance; it's a symptom of a Westernized mindset clashing with national ambition. Indian youth, seduced by global work-life balance rhetoric, miss the urgency of nation-building. This isn't about exploitation; it's about dedication. The critique on these comments reflects a societal inertia, where the potential for growth is traded for comfort.

MODI JI on NIKHIL KAMATH

Modi Ji's podcast with Kamath was a heartfelt note to the nation. Leadership is a lonely job, that’s the takeaway. Critics decry it as superficial, a scripted dance rather than a dialogue, revealing little of Modi's governance or contentious policies. The Indian youth, however, saw a different side—accessible, anecdotal, affectionate yet devoid of intentional PR. This episode was celebrated on a lot of levels, from comparative analysis of why Modi Ji chose Nikhil Kamath over other creators. But the “Tu bolne wala koi bacha hi nahi ji” statement from Modi Ji, opened a raw and real discourse. An impactful conversation that history shall remember.

THE (K)REMÉ

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🚨QUICK ANNOUNCEMENT: 2025. In the upcoming Year of the OLDs, we will be revving our iKyu’s X 🧵Threads a lot more with “tailored dark & smokin’ hot Business Stories every week”. So ONLY if you want to miss out on the exotic🥵 stuff, you won’t be following us there. *Your choice hehe*.

We just did an X Thread on Cook recently, do support us and give it a read; plus you can tell us about what you want our next breakdown on. Just DM us on X!

Also, I’m making this edition FREE for all inKredible readers as well, for the last time in 2024.

Now let’s get back to the Fruit of Creation…

What is Dharma?

A fancy noun? A label from Hinduism? A mark of enlightenment?

Beauty. That’s Dharma. The will to pursue life with accepting only ‘Death’ is permanent. That’s Dharma. To live is to die. That’s Dharma. A path carved by our fore-bearers, leading the path when they perish. That’s Dharma.

American work culture embraces the concept of Dharma romantically. There’s a vulnerability in the caricature of Dharma. Americans unknowingly practice the principles of Dharma as their will to build.

That’s formidable to replicate in India. India has a sense of colonial-envy with “Corporate culture”. With modernity being the new cool, it weakens the argument of being stable.

The label of being frugal, doesn’t sediment to being successful. This idea of ‘working for yourself’ is delusional. Modernity makes you fall for this trap.

Don’t. Until you want to kiss death (metaphorically). Alright, let’s not be too dark with this edition.

Practitioners of Dharma, often follow their torchbearers. Steve Jobs was the torchbearer to the technological generation. He made us experience the history as the middle child. Computers could ‘will’ their way to existence in our life. It became a natural extension to humanity. All because Steve Jobs practiced his vision.

Apple was his baton.

On October 5th, 2011 — After he left this world. He passed this baton to someone who was a follower of a regime, lesser known to the public; who have tasted the good, the bad and the ugly blood beyond the surface that hoarded the charm of Jobs.

All he had was the courage to be disliked by all. For the world lost their eyes. How will they operate?

…This is a new series that we are lifting off today. And we are calling it iKons by iKyu.

iKons by iKyu

A NEW envelope from iKyu to make business content fun again.

A series of iKonic, brutal and stellar life stories (under our same flagship newsletter), where we talk about iKons (pronounced ‘icons’ / ‘eye-cons’) of today — The Pinnacle that persevered as PEOPLE of modern history, those who pretended to the universe.

“iKons by iKyu” is about People…their thoughts, their principles, their critique, their dent and their will to build the world around us. Freshly baked in our iKonic breakdown ‘documentary-style’ writing, chiming intimately in your inbox.

Almost everyone talks about Steve Jobs. We ask — what after him?

Maybe we are asking the wrong question all along…

Who after him?

Who After Steve…

One

When the world lost Steve Jobs on October 5th, 2011, a collective breath seemed to pause history. The baton, Apple itself, was passed to a figure so unassuming that many inside and outside Cupertino wondered if he could even keep it afloat.

Tim Cook.

An Alabama native raised in a family that believed in hard work over hype, was suddenly at the helm of what was arguably the most influential tech company in modern history. Steve Jobs was the soul of Apple; Tim Cook was the silent orchestrator who’d quietly kept the machine humming behind the scenes. Now, he had to compose an entirely new symphony—and no one knew if the audience would applaud.

He wasn’t a typical Silicon Valley luminary. Born in 1960, Tim Cook grew up in Robertsdale, Alabama, a small town near the Gulf of Mexico. His father was a shipyard worker, his mother a homemaker. Cook’s upbringing was modest, leaning into a framework that emphasized discipline over showmanship. That discipline manifested early in his life: he excelled in academics, earning a Bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University, then later an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Even as he advanced in his career—rising through the ranks at IBM, then briefly at Compaq—Cook’s personality was calm, methodical. He wasn’t the type to dazzle crowds with grandiose ideas or mesmerizing keynote addresses. Yet, in 1998, Steve Jobs saw in him the precise skill set Apple desperately needed.

Apple in the late 1990s was a company gasping for air. Its supply chain was in disarray, profits barely existed, and the world had all but written its obituary. Tim Cook stepped in as Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations, effectively taking a scalpel to Apple’s bloated manufacturing processes. He shuttered factories, cut inventory, negotiated deals with suppliers that slashed production costs, and redesigned the entire supply chain so efficiently that Apple dramatically improved its margins. In just a couple of years, Apple went from near death to healthy profitability. Cook’s excellence in operations was so crucial that while Jobs earned the headlines for the iMac, iPod, and eventually the iPhone, it was Cook’s behind-the-scenes orchestration that made mass production, quick distribution, and cost management possible.

Under Cook’s leadership, Apple’s supply chain transformed into a legendary force. Manufacturing moved from multiple scattered facilities to a close-knit network of contractors in Asia—primarily in China—enabling Apple to ramp up or scale down production at breakneck speeds.

This shift would become one of the most imitated models in consumer electronics, often referred to in business schools and corporate boardrooms as an example of how to build lean, yet robust, operations. One professor at MIT famously called it “a new gold standard in supply chain management.”

As the 2000s wore on, Cook’s portfolio expanded. He took on broader responsibilities, becoming the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and essentially the second-most powerful figure at Apple. In public events, though, he stayed mostly in the background. Steve Jobs was the face, the voice, the visionary who could distill a product’s essence into one line—“An iPod, a phone, an Internet communicator… Are you getting it?”—but Cook was the quiet architect ensuring that product arrived on millions of doorsteps. Apple’s success in the first decade of the 2000s was not just the result of Jobs’s genius ideas; it was also built on the operational bedrock that Tim Cook had created. That’s precisely why, when the time came to choose a successor, Jobs didn’t hesitate.

The real test began the day Jobs passed.

The iPhone 4S, introduced shortly before Jobs’s death, was battling fierce competition: Android was surging, Windows Phone was mounting a hopeful challenge, and Apple faced more than thirty lawsuits over everything from patent disputes to antitrust inquiries. Critics painted a grim forecast: “Without Jobs’s showmanship, Apple’s product pipeline will stall.” “Apple will be led by an ‘ops guy’—and an ops guy can’t innovate.” “This is the end of the Jobs era, and likely the beginning of Apple’s downfall.” Headlines skewered Tim Cook as just another caretaker, a placeholder until Apple’s decline would become irrevocable. Cook remained stoic. He rarely responded to these barbs, confiding only in close friends that the noise was “just that—noise.”

THE CHAOS WITHIN…

The chaos behind the scenes was tangible. Apple’s board scrambled to reassure investors. Jony Ive, Apple’s longtime design chief, was revered but not a corporate leader. Phil Schiller, Craig Federighi, Eddy Cue—each was integral to Apple’s success, but none was groomed to take the CEO role.

Tim Cook’s ascension was the only logical choice. He was known for his meticulous approach: 4 a.m. emails to teams, supply chain visits unannounced, a deep adherence to data and analytics. If the “Dharma” of Apple was creativity anchored in great execution, Tim Cook seemed the anchor. Over the next months and years, he would prove that execution, anchored in a calm and consistent approach, could be the greatest superpower of all—especially in the tumultuous seas of tech.

Two

Critics often forget that Apple’s share price and market cap soared almost immediately in Cook’s early tenure. Yes, there were bumps—the Apple Maps debacle of 2012, the dismissal of Scott Forstall, labor controversies in Chinese factories—but Apple posted record revenues quarter after quarter. The world was waiting for Apple to slip, but Cook’s leadership style engineered resilience within the company. He delegated effectively, encouraging different teams to push product categories forward while he managed what he knew best: the broader operational and strategic mission.

Consider the iPhone 5 in 2012: two million pre-orders in the first 24 hours. Or the iPhone 6 in 2014, which introduced larger screens, capturing markets that demanded phablet-style devices. Each new launch seemed to break the last launch’s record.

By 2018, Apple’s revenue had climbed north of $265 billion, and it became the first U.S. company to surpass a $1 trillion valuation. Then it cruised further to $2 trillion in 2020 and $3 trillion by early 2022—numbers that once felt mythic. Under Cook, Apple’s stock soared over 1,400% from the day he took over as CEO.

Part of that monstrous growth came from Cook’s pivot to services. Though Apple had dabbled in services such as the iTunes Store under Jobs, Cook saw a bigger play. He recognized that hardware cycles would inevitably slow, that the smartphone market would saturate, and that revenue needed new streams. Enter Apple Music (launched in 2015), iCloud expansions, the App Store’s dominance, Apple TV+ (launched in 2019), Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+, and more. By 2021, services revenue reached $68 billion. In 2022, it soared to $78 billion. The “i” prefix that once signified hardware was turning into a multi-pronged ecosystem of subscription services that locked users into Apple’s walled garden—willingly, because the experience was seamless. Cook leveraged the brand loyalty that Jobs had built, but he monetized it in recurring monthly fees. That shift was so massive that it basically turned Apple into a two-headed dragon: a hardware giant that also minted money from an ever-expanding set of digital offerings.

Then came Apple Watch, launched in 2015. It was perhaps the biggest product category launched entirely under Cook’s watch. The watch’s success was not immediate—initial reviews were mixed, and critics said Apple was losing steam. But by 2020, Apple Watch controlled more than 36% of the global smartwatch market, surpassing long-established watchmakers in total units shipped. Cook aimed to make the Watch a health and fitness device, forging partnerships with medical institutions and focusing on health features like ECG. This created a loyal base of users who not only wore an Apple device on their wrist, but also generated data that integrated with the iPhone, tying them deeper into Apple’s ecosystem.

AirPods, launched in 2016, were similarly ridiculed at first for their design. Yet by 2021, AirPods and other wearable sales hit $12.9 billion, and Apple commanded over half of the global market for true wireless earbuds. Meanwhile, Cook quietly nurtured the Mac line, culminating in a seismic shift in 2020 with Apple Silicon—custom-designed M1 chips for Macs that replaced Intel. The performance was staggering, with benchmarks often surpassing competitor chips in power efficiency. By 2022, Apple introduced the M2, reinforcing the idea that it would no longer be beholden to external chip suppliers. That vertical integration—once championed by Jobs—was realized on a grand scale under Cook’s leadership, effectively rewriting the Mac’s future.

These product expansions didn’t just happen in a vacuum. They were orchestrated with the same discipline Cook had shown in supply chain management. Factories in China, expansions into India, negotiations with carriers worldwide—Cook balanced all those relationships like a grandmaster. Even as global trade tensions rose between the U.S. and China, Apple’s supply chain rarely faltered. There were indeed controversies over labor practices at Foxconn, but Cook’s top priority remained stable operations, ensuring that new iPhones, iPads, and Macs met insatiable global demand.

One of the more surprising facets of Cook’s era was Apple’s increased emphasis on corporate ethics. Cook, who publicly came out as gay in 2014, took a vocal stand on privacy and data security, repeatedly clashing with social media giants and governments over issues like user data encryption. Apple’s marketing campaigns began to focus on privacy as a product differentiator—“What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.” This stance resonated in an era overshadowed by data leaks and privacy scandals, especially from competitors in the Android ecosystem. So, while the world kept waiting for Apple’s next “revolutionary” product, Cook was quietly fortifying the company’s brand equity by aligning it with user trust and a quasi-ethical stance on data.

Financially, Apple minted money. In 2024, Apple's financial performance continues to demonstrate its robust growth and diversified revenue streams. For the fiscal 2024 first quarter, Apple posted quarterly revenue of $119.6 billion, with earnings per diluted share of $2.18. In the second quarter, revenue was $90.8 billion, with a record-breaking Services revenue of $23.87 billion, representing a 14% year-over-year growth.

Key Financial Highlights: Apple recently announced an unprecedented $110 billion stock buyback program, which is the largest in the company's history. The company's market value has approached $2.86 trillion, making it the second-most valuable company after Microsoft. The company continues to demonstrate financial strength through strategic investments, product innovation, and a diversified revenue model that extends beyond iPhone sales.

All the while, Cook maintained a low-key style. He rarely overshadowed product events in the way Jobs had done. His keynotes were measured, sometimes called “boring” by Apple’s biggest fans. But that’s precisely what gave Apple a newfound stability that many believed impossible after Jobs’s death. If Dharma is a path laid out by one’s forebearers, Cook’s path was simply fulfilling the operational prophecy Jobs had always envisioned for Apple: a self-sustaining machine of innovation that wouldn’t crumble without its founder. By the late 2010s, Apple had eclipsed $2 trillion in market cap, surpassing oil giants and pushing the boundaries of what a tech company could achieve in global finance. When it soared to $3 trillion—albeit briefly—in early 2022, it was a symbolic apex that even Jobs might not have foreseen.

Three

That Tim Cook carried Apple to unimaginable heights is undeniable.

But is he a creator on par with Steve Jobs?

Does Apple under Tim Cook still have the “soul” that made people line up for days to buy the next iPhone?

Those are questions the tech world debates ceaselessly. Yet, Cook’s achievements are measurable, and as many analysts point out, tangible in terms of products, revenue, market share, and the intangible brand loyalty that keeps Apple’s ecosystem thriving.

Critics argue that Apple hasn’t introduced anything as revolutionary as the iPhone since Jobs passed. There’s no question the iPhone was an epoch-defining innovation. But Cook’s approach to product evolution may have prevented the brand from stagnating as technology cycles matured. Apple has steadily improved its devices and branched into new categories like wearables, streaming media, and financial services (Apple Card, launched in 2019).

All the while, it invests heavily in future technologies—augmented reality, AI, and rumored expansions into electric vehicles. The secrecy around these projects remains reminiscent of the Jobs era, but Cook has infused them with a corporate discipline that ensures Apple can actually commercialize them at scale, should the time come.

One anecdote that underscores Cook’s style involves a meeting with an underperforming supplier. Legend has it that Cook flew unannounced to the factory, personally walked the floors, identified inefficiencies, and demanded immediate improvements. The supplier’s executives were flabbergasted: CEOs don’t typically do surprise inspections, especially not for a single component line. But that’s Cook: a relentless focus on detail, a man who sees “dharma” in ensuring that every link in the chain is unbreakable.

Jobs once called Cook “not a product guy,” but it was a misdirection. While Cook may not have conjured up the spark for the iPhone or iPad, he has curated a culture where product design and engineering are protected, where top talents like Jony Ive (until 2019) and his successors in industrial design have the freedom to refine and push boundaries. The Apple Watch, for instance, had multiple design prototypes before it reached final production, some so radical that they never saw daylight. Cook, with his operational discipline, gave the design teams the runway and resources to experiment. That balancing act—a combination of creativity and operational muscle—became Apple’s winning formula for the last decade.

Today, Apple stands astride a tech landscape cluttered with the remnants of once-mighty competitors. BlackBerry is gone, Nokia sold its phone division, Microsoft’s smartphone ambitions collapsed, and even Google’s hardware endeavors remain modest compared to Apple’s (And no Pixel 9 series is NOT that great). Meanwhile, Apple’s user base edges ever closer to two billion active devices. Tim Cook’s Apple is a behemoth that rakes in more quarterly profit than some entire industries. Some worry about overreliance on China’s manufacturing base, the looming threat of antitrust legislation, or the possibility of a major shift in consumer tastes. Still, Cook navigates these waters with the steady hand of an operator who once rescued Apple from logistical chaos.

Yet at the heart of this story is the notion that “Steve Jobs’s greatest creation might not have been the iPhone or the Mac—it might have been Tim Cook himself”, the ultimate expression of handing off an organization to someone capable of learning from the past but not shackled by it.

Cook’s leadership style has been critiqued as too cautious or too focused on incremental improvements over paradigm shifts. But the numbers, the market share, and Apple’s unrelenting grip on the cultural zeitgeist tell a different story. In a sense, Cook is the continuum of Dharma—carrying forward the baton, acknowledging that death (the departure of a founder) is inevitable, but forging ahead by upholding and evolving the principles set before him.

Apple’s next decade may well test Cook’s leadership anew. Technologies like augmented reality, rumored Apple Cars, or advanced AI could require leaps of faith reminiscent of Jobs’s biggest bets.

Investors may pressure Apple to disrupt again, consumers may clamor for the “next big thing,” and new regulatory landscapes could challenge the ecosystem Apple has carefully built.

But if there’s one consistent truth of the last twelve years, it’s that betting against Tim Cook is a perilous game. He’s proven again and again that quiet discipline can be as powerful as loud innovation, and that a stable empire can often outlast a swashbuckling kingdom.

The (K)inK.

“Internet piK of the week”

BOXED — 1000 thousands in your pocket…

AFTER STEVE…

I often have a contrarian (K)ink take on the ascension of Tim Cook.

Peeling back the layers of Apple’s ascent under Tim Cook, we find a subtle kink in the story—an uncomfortable truth that defies conventional hype: perhaps world-changing ideas do not always require an iconic, charismatic visionary at the helm.

Maybe the real spark lies in the less glamorous, methodical art of perfecting processes, orchestrating supply chains, and quietly nurturing an ecosystem so seamless that people become devotees without even realizing it. This might be the ultimate inversion of the “genius founder” myth. In Cook’s kingdom, the orchestra, not the soloist, drives the performance.

Jobs bestowed upon Cook an inheritance that was both a blessing and a burden: a brand so steeped in cult-like reverence that any deviation would provoke uproar. Cook, with his quiet confidence, did more than preserve the inheritance—he multiplied it. The kink lies in the realization that Apple’s transformation from a near-trillion-dollar company to a $3 trillion juggernaut was not the result of a single eureka moment. It was a disciplined accrual of many small wins, expansions, and refinements. This challenges the prevailing myth that the only route to meteoric success is radical disruption. Under Cook, Apple proves that thoughtful iteration, consistent execution, and strategic expansion can be just as explosive for growth—if not more so—than one earth-shattering product launch.

When faced with the question “Who After Steve?” the industry expected a pale imitation or a misguided steward. Instead, it got Tim Cook: an improbable masterpiece handcrafted by Jobs, but carefully groomed by Cook’s own decades of experience. If Dharma teaches us that each generation continues the path laid out by its predecessor, then Cook took Jobs’s path, widened it, paved it, and built a global highway of digital innovation on top of it. That’s the kink, the hidden twist: Apple without Steve Jobs didn’t just survive—it thrived beyond anyone’s wildest predictions. And in doing so, Tim Cook redefined leadership for an entire generation of global executives.

This brutal truth stands uncountered. Apple remains a colossus, forging ahead in uncharted territories like custom silicon and subscription-based ecosystems that rival entire industries. The founder departed, yet the vision—refined through operational excellence—still expands.

That is the legacy of Tim Cook: The Masterpiece that Steve Jobs unknowingly perfected, the quiet conductor who turned Apple’s innovation ship from a lost vessel into a steady juggernaut that continues to reshape how we interact with technology—and maybe, in the grand scheme of history, how we interpret Dharma in the innovation world.

~vivan.

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🚨SHORT ANNOUNCEMENT: As I am back from my much needed family retreat from the trenches, we are resuming our handKrafting great brutal stories from today. And I will be full-throttling on our X Threads🧵 with chilling, grifter and awesome breakdown storytelling of startups, business, technology.

Follow us on X to not miss out any tailored business content.

BONUS: Today’s edition is FREE for all; Our returning gesture for our inKredible subsKribers.🙏

Now let’s get into the War of Stars…

“My desires are bounded by these mountains, and if they ever wander hence it is to contemplate the beauty of the heavens, steps by which the soul travels to its primeval abode.”

“This is noble, righteous warfare, for it is wonderfully useful to God to have such an evil race wiped from the face of the earth.”

Don Quixote

Hello iKyu-riskers! Everyone loves a comeback story.

A story that has an underdog character. Who goes against all odds to fight and take what he ‘thinks’ he deserves.

And then we have the rest of the world. The world often talks with you in stories. And how do you respond back?

Metaphorically, they used to say: the one who’s the richest — controls the world.

So want to respond back to the world. Simply respond to the richest.

Makes sense?

Hell nah!

Because these kind of elitist logic only finesses on movie sets. Where entire enigma is your script. Real life doesn’t work on scripts. It works on transactions, trauma and trust. Deadly combination.

THE (K)EY NOTES:

• The (K)urrent: Jug Jug Jio

• The (K)réme: The Big Bang SatCom Theory

• The (K)inK: Evening the Odds

The battleground is more barbaric than ever.

Because in the world full of transactions, trauma and trust — we are going to see a collision.

Collision of two worlds: India’s Richest v.s World’s Richest.

Is it a fair fight?
What kind of fight is this?
Why are they fighting on the first place?

Well, you got to give them space. That’s their battle cry. Literally.

They want SPACE. Not to just rule the nocturnal species but beyond. These two richest are going for a head on collision to connect the world. Through India. Fascinating, isn't it?

Jio’s SpaceFiber and SpaceX’s Starlink is standing on an impasse. Who’s going to take the first shot?

Jio’s discourse is tightening with its customers. While Musk fanboys are toiling to get a premium ‘mission-driven’ narrative starlink connection to do what…Droom-scroll?!

All for a satellite dominance on Indian soil space?

Let’s brutally breakdown🪓 in detail on what’s this entire spectrum chase is all about and how these rich-lords are defining the future of India on today’s Sunday edition of inK by iKyu.

But before we deep dive, let’s begin with India by iKyu…

THE (K)URRENT

JioStar Jio🤝Hotstar Merger Deal

The impending merger of JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar is a seismic shift in India's OTT landscape. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) aims to consolidate these platforms, creating a streaming behemoth that could dominate the market. With Disney+ Hotstar's 333 million users and JioCinema's rapid growth, this merger could yield over 125,000 hours of content, including coveted sports rights like the IPL, positioning it against giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

This strategic move not only streamlines operations but also addresses Disney+ Hotstar's declining subscriber base, which plummeted from 61 million to 35.5 million due to lost content rights. RIL's ability to attract massive viewership through the IPL on JioCinema underscores its potential.

However, the domain squatting incident involving JioHotstar.com raises eyebrows. The domain was registered just before the merger announcement, hinting at a calculated branding strategy or a defensive move against competitors. This reflects RIL's aggressive approach to securing its digital territory, ensuring that it remains a formidable player in the evolving OTT battleground.

I have predicted the name of the OTT Platform that would be after the Merger as “JioStar” on October 23rd, 2024 (You heard it here first) on X.

Mukesh’s VIDYA, Jensen’s NVIDIA

The recent interaction between Mukesh Ambani and Jensen Huang at the NVIDIA AI Summit marked a pivotal moment for India's tech landscape. Their dialogue centered on the collaboration between NVIDIA and Reliance Industries, aimed at establishing robust AI infrastructure in India. Ambani's assertion that "India is ready to lead the world in AI" reflects a bold vision, while Huang emphasized the transformative potential of AI across industries. This partnership is set to leverage Reliance Jio's extensive network and data capabilities alongside NVIDIA's cutting-edge technology, positioning India as a global AI powerhouse. Huang's perspective on the Indian market is optimistic; he sees immense potential for innovation and growth, particularly in sectors like agriculture, healthcare, and education.

The purpose of this interaction was clear: to outline a roadmap for integrating AI into India's economic fabric, enhancing productivity and efficiency. Ambani's remarks about "empowering every Indian with technology" underscore a commitment to democratizing access to advanced tools.

The stakes are high. As both titans strategize their next moves, they must navigate challenges such as infrastructure readiness and regulatory hurdles. The synergy between Reliance and NVIDIA could redefine India's digital future, but it demands execution that matches ambition.

In essence, this meeting wasn't just a handshake; it was a declaration of intent to reshape the technological landscape of India.

THE (K)REMÉ

“In emptiness, there is no suffering.”

Nagarjuna

In the gleaming towers of Mumbai and the rocket labs of California, two titans prepared for a clash that could redefine not just the digital landscape of India, but the very fabric of its society.

On one side stood Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, whose Reliance Jio had already disrupted the nation’s telecom sector with seismic force. On the other was Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, whose SpaceX and its Starlink project aimed to envelop the globe in a network of satellites delivering high-speed internet to every inch of the planet.

This was not just a business rivalry; it was a high-stakes duel between ambition and innovation, between domestic might and global prowess. The battleground is India—a market of 1.4 billion people, over half of whom were still awaiting reliable internet access. The prize? Nothing less than the digital future of the world’s largest democracy.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio had already rewritten the rules of the game.

“OIL to JIO”

In 2016, Jio entered the Indian telecom market with aggressive pricing strategies that offered data and voice services at fractions of existing costs. Within months, competitors were reeling. Since 2016 to date, Jio had amassed over 472 million subscribers, becoming the largest mobile network operator in India and the third-largest in the world.

But Ambani was not one to rest on his laurels. Recognizing that terrestrial infrastructure could only take connectivity so far—especially in a country as vast and varied as India—he set his sights on the stars. In February 2022, reports emerged that Reliance was working on JioSpace Fiber, a satellite-based broadband service designed to bring high-speed internet to even the most remote regions of the country.

“Data is the new oil,” Ambani had declared at a shareholders’ meeting, his gaze steely with determination. “And we will ensure that every Indian has access to this vital resource, no matter where they are.”

On the other side of the world, Elon Musk was charting his own course to the cosmos. SpaceX’s Starlink project aimed to deploy a constellation of up to 42,000 low-earth orbit satellites, creating a mesh network capable of delivering high-speed internet anywhere on the planet.

INTERSTELLAR LOAD—…

By November 2024, SpaceX’s has launched total of 7292 Starlink satellites, offering services in multiple countries and amassing over a million subscribers globally.

Elon Musk's Starlink is poised to enter the Indian market, having made strides to comply with local regulations. The company is currently seeking the necessary licenses to operate satellite broadband services in India, with a focus on adhering to government data localization rules that require all data to be stored within the country. This move aligns with India's regulatory framework and is expected to facilitate Starlink's launch soon.

Starlink's entry is anticipated to disrupt the existing telecom landscape dominated by giants like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. With India having some of the lowest internet pricing globally, Starlink's competitive pricing strategy could pose a serious challenge to these established players. Jio currently leads the market with over 14 million wired broadband subscribers and nearly 500 million mobile internet users, while Airtel follows closely behind.

The competition is further intensified by Reliance Jio's lobbying for an auction-based approach to satellite spectrum allocation, contrasting with Starlink's preference for administrative allocation. Jio argues that an auction would ensure a level playing field, allowing traditional telecom services to compete fairly against satellite providers like Starlink.

Reliance Jio has already secured clearances to launch its own satellite broadband service but has yet to do so. The company is concerned about losing customers to Starlink as satellite technology advances and becomes more viable for urban markets. Mukesh Ambani’s strategy historically included offering services at minimal costs to capture market share, a tactic that Musk may also employ given his previous low pricing in markets like Africa.

GENTLE IN THE NIGHT

India was a tantalizing market for Musk—a land where his vision of universal connectivity could find its most profound expression. In 2021, SpaceX began accepting pre-orders for Starlink in India, with plans to launch services by mid-2022. The response was immediate; tens of thousands of Indians signed up, hopeful that Starlink could bridge the digital divide that had long plagued the nation.

But the Indian government was not so easily swayed. Citing concerns over regulatory compliance and national security, the Department of Telecommunications issued a directive in November 2021, ordering SpaceX to stop booking pre-orders until the necessary licenses were obtained.

“India is not just another market,” an unnamed official was quoted as saying in The Economic Times. “We have our own regulatory framework, and every company—foreign or domestic—must adhere to it.”

Musk, never one to back down from a challenge, took to Twitter in his characteristic fashion. “Just figuring out the regulatory approval process,” he quipped, his words tinged with both frustration and resolve.

Ambani watched these developments with keen interest. Reliance Jio had long mastered the art of navigating India’s intricate regulatory landscape, leveraging relationships and an intimate understanding of the bureaucracy to its advantage. While Starlink grappled with red tape, JioSpace Fiber was quietly forging ahead.

By mid-2022, Jio had reportedly entered into partnerships with domestic satellite companies and was lobbying for favorable policies that could give it a competitive edge. Industry insiders whispered about high-level meetings between Reliance executives and government officials, discussions that could shape the future of India’s satellite communications policy.

“Ambani plays chess while others are playing checkers,” remarked Sunil Gupta, a veteran telecom analyst. “He understands that in India, business is as much about relationships and timing as it is about innovation.”

Meanwhile, the existing internet service providers watched with a mixture of dread and resignation. Companies like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea were already reeling from Jio’s aggressive entry into the telecom market. The prospect of competing against both Jio and Starlink in the satellite internet space was akin to facing a storm without shelter.

For the average Indian consumer, the promises were intoxicating. High-speed internet without the constraints of ground infrastructure could revolutionize education, healthcare, commerce, and entertainment.

"PRICE IS POWER. POWER IS POWER!

But all of this is sheltered with one that Indians can be easily pushed away. The Price.

The value-for-money audience of India. Often waits for the affordable class to collapse as soon as the pricing is announced for these products and services and then they start smothering.

Beneath the surface of optimism surrounding Starlink's entry into India, significant questions remain about affordability and market impact. Currently, the cheapest monthly plan offered by Starlink is approximately ₹4,200 (around $50), with a one-time equipment cost of about ₹37,400. This pricing structure poses a challenge in a country where many consumers earn an average monthly income of around ₹15,000.

In contrast, established players like Reliance Jio and Airtel offer much more competitive pricing for their broadband services. For instance, JioFiber plans start at ₹399 per month, while Airtel Xstream Fiber plans begin at ₹499 per month. Given that India is known for having some of the cheapest internet rates globally, Starlink's higher costs may deter potential customers, particularly in rural areas where the need for affordable connectivity is most acute.

Moreover, while Jio has been known for its disruptive pricing strategies, it remains to be seen how they will respond to Starlink's offerings. The entry of Starlink could force Jio to reassess its pricing models to maintain its competitive edge, but this raises concerns about sustainability and profitability in an already price-sensitive market.

Overall, while Starlink's advanced satellite technology promises high-speed internet access, especially in underserved regions, its initial pricing may limit its appeal unless adjustments are made to align more closely with local market expectations.

Then there were concerns about data privacy and sovereignty. Allowing a foreign entity like SpaceX to control a significant portion of India’s communication infrastructure raised alarms among policymakers and security experts.

“We are committed to bringing Starlink to India,” declared Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO of SpaceX, in a press release. “We believe in the transformative power of connectivity and are eager to work with the government to make this vision a reality.”

The stage was set for a titanic struggle—not just between two corporations, but between two visions of the future. Ambani’s approach was grounded, strategic, and deeply intertwined with India’s socio-political fabric. Musk’s was audacious, disruptive, and global in its outlook.

But the complexities of the Indian market were unforgiving. Starlink faced delays in securing spectrum allocations, while JioSpace Fiber encountered technical challenges in integrating satellite and terrestrial networks. The race was becoming as much about endurance as it was about speed.

The economic implications were staggering. According to a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India, increasing internet penetration by just 10% could boost GDP growth by 1.08%. With over 600 million Indians still offline, the potential for economic transformation was immense.

TL;DR

“The satellite internet business is capital intensive with long payback periods,” noted Rakesh Kapoor, an investment analyst at Goldman Sachs. “Both companies need to demonstrate not just technological feasibility but also a viable business model.”

Then came the geopolitical tremors. Tensions between the U.S. and China escalated, with ripple effects felt globally. India, navigating its own complex relationships, became more protective of its strategic assets. The government tightened regulations on foreign investments in sensitive sectors, adding another layer of complexity for SpaceX. Ambani, ever the strategist, capitalized on the moment. At the 2023 Reliance Annual General Meeting, he unveiled Jio’s vision for a “Digital India,” emphasizing self-reliance and national pride. “We stand at the cusp of a new era,” he proclaimed, his voice resonating through the auditorium.

“An era where India leads not just in consumption but in innovation, in setting the agenda for the world.”

The message was clear: Reliance was not just a business entity but a national champion, and any competition was not just against a company but against India’s sovereign interests.

The (K)inK.

“Internet piK of the week”

A heartfelt message from Late Steven Paul Jobs.

EVENING THE ODDS

Beneath the spectacle of rockets and satellites, billionaires and boardrooms, lies an uncomfortable truth—a kink in the grand tapestry of progress. The race between JioSpace Fiber and Starlink is not merely a contest of technological prowess or market dominance; it is a mirror reflecting the deeper contradictions of our times.

On one side, we have Mukesh Ambani, whose empire is built as much on navigating the corridors of power as it is on business acumen. Reliance’s rise is entwined with a system that rewards proximity over merit, that blurs the lines between public interest and private gain. The aggressive push for JioSpace Fiber is as much about consolidating power as it is about connecting the unconnected.

On the other, we have Elon Musk, the archetype of Silicon Valley’s messianic complex—believing that technology, wielded by the right hands, can solve any problem. Yet, this techno-utopianism often overlooks the messy realities of local contexts, cultures, and the unintended consequences of disruption.

The battle for satellite supremacy risks eclipsing the collaborative potential that could truly transform India’s digital landscape. Instead of a zero-sum game, imagine a scenario where technology is democratized, where policies are crafted not to favor incumbents or gatekeepers but to foster innovation at all levels. In a world grappling with unprecedented wokeism, predictable population collapse, and the erosion of public trust, the pursuit of domination—be it in space or cyberspace—feels increasingly anachronistic. The real challenge is not who can conquer the skies, but who can ground their ambitions in empathy, ethics, and equity.

A reminder that progress is not a straight line drawn by the hands of the few, but a collective journey navigated by the many. It’s a call to reimagine what connectivity means—not just as a technical achievement, but as a shared human endeavour that bridges divides rather than deepening them.

As the satellites continue their silent dance across the night sky, the true measure of success will not be counted in megabits per second or market share percentages. It will be reflected in the lives transformed, the opportunities unlocked, and the futures reimagined.

In the end, the question is not how India’s richest will stand against the world’s richest, but how both can rise to the occasion and serve a greater good. Until then, the kink remains—a flaw not in the stars, but in ourselves.

As a customer, I have sown my choice. What are you reaping?

~vivan.

Evening iKyu-riskers!

First of all “आपको और आपके परिवार को दीपावली की शुभकामनाएँ |” (Happy Diwali to iKyu’s inKredible subsKribers, your families and dear ones).

A heartfelt short letter announcement for my inKredible subsKribers:

A recent interaction with our readers, I got to know how much true believers of business & builders love our brutal, handKrafted “documentary-style” business breakdowns and support us on the mission to eradicate the filth of Clickbait Journalism in the world.

It can only happen if our readers and inKredilbe subsKribers start falling for the ‘brutal breakdown’ culture to fight the ‘dumb-down’ culture. Our vision is to become the Antidote of Clickbait Journalism, and for our vision to become limitless — we will never make short-form/byte-sized/digestable content EVER.

To our exclusive readers, if you truly, from the bottom of your heart, appreciate reading to what’s crafted just as you wanted, support our ‘Subscription-Driven Publication’ business model. And read our first draft Manifesto…

Subscribe now

🚨ANNOUNCEMENT: As Diwali is just zero folds away, I’ll be taking out this time to spend it with my family and travel with my loved ones to soulful gems in the world and I deeply recommend you should do it too.

So intimately iKyu won’t be chiming with premium edition breakdowns for the next 10-15 days.

I will resume handKrafting great brutal stories from November 15th.

And yes, once I’m back, we will be full-throttling on our X Threads🧵 as well with chilling, grifter and awesome breakdown storytelling of startups, business, technology.

Follow us on X to not miss out any tailored business content.

~vivan.

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Let’s enter our brothel now, once again…

“Entire industries go, lifestyles change, corporations kill towns, new laws replace old ones... poor people themselves have become a commodity.

Money doesn’t talk, it swears.”

Bob Dylan

"Chot lagi? Dard hua? Aaja service center. Bahut kaam hai." -BA

“Since you care so much *BLEEP*, come and help us out! I’ll even pay more than you earned for this paid tweet or from your failed comedy career.

Or else sit quiet and let us focus on fixing the issues for the real customers. We’re expanding service network fast and backlogs will be cleared soon.” -BA

“Comedian ban na sake, chaudhary banne chale.

Do your research better next time. And the offer to come and help us out in our service center remains open. Take up the challenge. Maybe you’ll learn some real skills for a change.“ -BA

Hello iKyu-riskers! once again. I want you to observe the dialogues above. What is that you don’t like?

Take your time…

…

Is it the tonality? Is it the choice of words? Is it the intensity with which this spat is happening?

What if I tell you that this dialogue is from India’s most reciprocated founder, whose company just IPOed few months back…

THE (K)EY NOTES:

• The (K)urrent: GEMS & PEBBLES OF BHARAT

• The (K)réme: B for BATTERY, C for COMPLAINTS

• The (K)inK: ASSASSIN GREED: RED FLAG

What if I tell you that this is the same founder that has a tactic of taking cheap shots at other tech giants and then pulling out a wand and make all of his act look like those MNCs duped us Indians and his solutions are the real solution.

He did it for Cab hailing.
He did it for Navigation.
He did it for AI.

And now he is doing it for EV.

Yes. We have to enter again in this Brothel of Billionaires, don’t worry this time it’s not in the education industry…

It’s something more filthy and electrifying.

Bhavish Aggrawal. And his lust with the word “Giga” made him believe that he is a chad. That’s where he got knocked out by Kunal Kamra. Yo, the one who doesn’t promote airlines industry much.

His new boy-toy became revving with OLA Electric—A public company with not so good reputations in public eyes as of now. Strange, isn’t it? Nope, that’s just OLA for you.

Bhavish and OLA are known for re-creating history; Of unsatisfied customers, unsatisfied service providers and unsatisfied startup building.

Fun fact: A lot of entrepreneurs look upto him and his journey of raising money and taking companies to IPO, only to realise what NOT to do as an entrepreneur. What an inspiration!

And this entire dialogue exchange and resurfacing of OLA Electric’s truth needs to be dissected and understood at granular level. Standup comedian Kunal Kamra is known to stir controversies, but this time it’s one level up; because a public company’s CEO is in spat with him.

Last time when he got in a spat, the nation wanted to know why the party in front was not speaking. This time with OLA Electric, it went too far.

Call it founder’s frustration, aggression or simple ego-tingle. Bhavish needs to answer. And Kunal needs to shut up.

That’s the word on the street.

Before we walk on the factory aisle of this debacle, we need to understand what led to this public tête-à-tête between two fiend from the same industry — COMEDY. One does it for mockery, the other for the markets. Are both failing at it?

Let’s brutally breakdown🪓 the fiasco of OLA Electric that made Bhavish loose around ₹3500 crores* just over an X spat on today’s edition of inK by iKyu.

But before we deep dive, let’s begin with India by iKyu…

THE (K)URRENT

RATAN TATA, WE MISS YOU

“The world cried, when he died”—Ratan Tata, the revered chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, passed away on October 9 at the age of 86, leaving a profound void in India's industrial landscape. His death, following a critical hospitalization, has elicited heartfelt tributes from leaders and citizens alike. It came as a shock because just 2 days on October 7th, he posted on his socials about how he feels beloved by everyone who checked in on his health. Prime Minister Modi hailed him as a "visionary business leader" whose contributions transcended commerce, shaping the very essence of our nation. Tata's legacy of compassion and innovation will forever resonate, not because of all the good deeds and how he supported the welfare of humanity; but rather how this conglomerate was generating employment for generations and TATA goes hand in hand with recall of Trust, reminding us that his loss is not just personal but a national tragedy. In mourning him, we recognize the invaluable impact he had on countless lives and the future of India.

BJP WINS HARYANA, MODI WINS INDIA

Prime Minister Modi celebrated the BJP's hat-trick victory in Haryana and significant gains in Jammu & Kashmir, framing these results as a mandate echoing across India. This was much required for our country in the current times. He criticized Congress for fostering caste divisions and alleged anti-national sentiments, claiming they aimed to undermine democracy. Modi emphasized that the BJP's focus on development for marginalized communities was vindicated by voters, contrasting it with Congress's historical neglect. He portrayed the BJP's consistent electoral success as a testament to its governance model, asserting that anti-India narratives failed to destabilize the party's momentum, reinforcing Modi's political prowess in a polarized landscape.

INDIA’S TAKE ON ‘EXTREMISM’ SPIRIT “CAN”ADA BE SHAKEN

India has officially withdrawn its High Commissioner from Canada amid escalating diplomatic tensions following Canada's allegations linking Indian diplomats to the murder of a Extremist and separatist leader. This move comes as a response to Canada expelling six Indian diplomats, intensifying the already strained relations. The Indian government deemed Canada's claims "preposterous," asserting that such accusations aim to destabilize India's international standing. By taking this decisive step, India reinforces its commitment to national integrity and sovereignty. Supporting this action aligns with the broader goal of enhancing India's global image and countering anti-India narratives that threaten its diplomatic stability.

THE (K)RÉME

The sun was setting over Bangalore’s bustling Electronic City when Rajiv’s S1 Pro scooter sputtered to a halt. Stranded on a busy highway with dwindling battery life, he frantically tried reaching customer service, only to be met with endless hold music (yes, that’s so-called big tech companies newest fetish). Rajiv’s story isn’t unique; it’s a snapshot of the growing discontent among Ola Electric customers who feel let down by promises unkept.

Ola Electric, helmed by Bhavish Aggarwal, burst onto the scene with grand ambitions to revolutionize India’s electric vehicle (EV) landscape. And we know how and why he dropped into this industry…

Experience our previous brutal breakdown🪓 on How OLA Electric sprung into existence and why it’s a survival game for Bhavish →

QWIK SAND, KICK STAND…

As the scooters hit the streets, cracks began to appear. Customers reported a litany of issues ranging from software glitches to mechanical failures. Social media platforms became inundated with complaints about delayed deliveries, malfunctioning components, and inadequate customer support…

Read more

This edition is all about remembering that he is Still Alive…

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Steve Jobs.

October 5th, 2011.

The world stopped. Not to time, but to a legacy. The only thing left behind by a spartan-spirit genius was his ideas, his innovation and his innate love for technology pushing humanity forward.

But there’s one thing missing: Intimacy.

Intimacy of all the unpolished thoughts. His vulnerability with people. And facing abandonment through life, wielding him to be this great.

This missing piece of the puzzle is unveiled by someone close to him, but not too close. Doesn’t make sense does it?

His ‘will’ to NOT accept metamorphosis into being like his biological parents who abandoned him was hard; but he couldn’t deny the inevitable. He shone as the future bearer. He struggled being a father.

13 years later, we remember him as the genius he became.

But from his daughter’s eyes, Lisa saw him as a champion fighting a lost battle. The battle of being a father…

“It’s a lot of hard work. And it’s a lot of worrying, constantly.  So if you don’t love it, you’re going to fail.”

Steve Jobs.

It was 1972, and Steve Jobs was just a senior at Homestead High School when he met Chrisann Brennan, a junior, in the high school quad. Chrisann was assisting a group of friends who were making a claymation film on Wednesday evenings, and Steve would come to hold candles between takes for her. It was during one of these sessions that Steve handed Chrisann a sheet of paper with the lyrics to Bob Dylan's "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" and told her to return it to him when she was done.

Their relationship would last nearly six years, and in that first year, they fell in love. However, Chrisann's mother, who was affected by paranoid schizophrenia, was becoming increasingly unhinged and harsh. She had accused Chrisann of having intercourse with dogs and playing the recorder because it resembled a penis. Steve stood up to Virginia, Chrisann's mother, and helped her deal with her condition.

Chrisann and Steve moved into a cabin together, paying the rent with the money they earned from making and selling "blue boxes" that emitted a series of tones that fooled phone companies into putting calls through for free. Steve left for Reed College in Oregon, but he dropped out after about half a year as he was directionless. Chrisann began dating someone else, and the relationship fell apart without much conversation.

When Steve realized that Chrisann had essentially dumped him, he was deeply upset. Two years later, they got back together, and Chrisann started working in the packing department of the nascent company that Steve had started with Wozniak - a company they named Apple.

Chrisann was unhappy, and she had been planning to leave Steve, who was temperamental, but an unintentional pregnancy put a kink in her plans. Unbeknownst to her, her body had rejected the contraceptive she was using, an intrauterine device. When Steve found out, he was furious and ran from the room. Despite the tumultuous nature of their relationship, they had a daughter named Lisa, whom Steve initially denied being the father of but later accepted.

Their on-again, off-again relationship eventually ended, but their story is an important part of the history of Apple and the tech industry.

The year was 1978, and Steve Jobs had just arrived at the Oregon farm where Chrisann had given birth to a baby girl. The people gathered there were all anticipating Steve's reaction to his newborn child. But Steve's response was not what anyone expected.

"It's not my kid," he repeated, much to the shock of the onlookers. Nevertheless, Steve helped Chrisann choose a name for the baby girl - they both agreed on Lisa.

As the years went by, Steve continued to deny paternity, and Chrisann was left to raise Lisa alone. She was forced to rely on welfare and took up cleaning and waitressing jobs to make ends meet. Steve rarely visited and provided no substantial financial support.

In 1980, the district attorney of San Mateo County, California, sued Steve on Chrisann's behalf, and he was required to pay child support after a DNA test confirmed that he was indeed Lisa's father. Although Steve had claimed he wasn't the father, the test showed a 94.4% probability that he was.

The case dragged on for months, but then suddenly, Steve's lawyers began pushing to close it quickly. It turned out that Steve had other priorities in mind. Apple was about to go public, and he wanted to tie up his financial loose ends before the company's IPO.

Steve agreed to pay $500 per month in child support and health insurance until Lisa's eighteenth birthday. He also reimbursed the state for all of Chrisann's welfare payments.

Despite the legal ruling, Steve continued to deny paternity. It was only when Lisa was an adult that she found out that Steve had carried a picture of her in his wallet and would show it to people, saying, "It's not my kid. But she doesn't have a father, so I'm trying to be there for her."

The story of Lisa's paternity is a complex and emotional one, but it provides a glimpse into the personal life of one of the most innovative and enigmatic figures in modern technology.

Lisa’s whispered secret had been brewing within her for some time. It was a truth she’d held tightly to her chest since she was old enough to understand the significance of her father’s name.

Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, was an elusive figure in her life. Though he was a wealthy and renowned figure in the world, he was hardly present in her own world, leaving Lisa and her mother to navigate the hardships of life alone.

Despite the difficulties she faced, Lisa loved her mother deeply, and the two shared many happy memories together. They would go skating, and Chrisann would frequently tell Lisa how much she loved and appreciated her.

But the happiness was often short-lived. Chrisann’s frustration with her life and situation would boil over into verbal attacks on Lisa. During one terrifying car ride, Chrisann screamed obscenities at the windshield and drove recklessly, blaming her daughter for her own problems.

Eventually, Lisa’s school officials intervened, calling Steve to take her in before they were forced to involve social services. Living with her father, Lisa felt like her life was about to change in ways she could never have imagined.

But the reality of her new life was not as glamorous as she’d anticipated. While Steve was now a prominent figure in her life, he was still distant and not always emotionally present. Lisa struggled to find a sense of belonging in her new family, while still feeling the pain of her mother’s absence.

Years later, Lisa would reflect on her complicated relationship with her father and the painful memories of her childhood. But despite it all, she would never forget the whispered secret that she carried with her for so many years - the knowledge that Steve Jobs was her father.

“Do you want to change your name?” Steve Jobs asked.

Lisa Brennan-Jobs had just moved in with her father and his wife, Laurene. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of Steve’s sudden question, as they passed each other in the hallway.

“Change it to what?” she asked.

“My name,” Steve replied.

Lisa paused, trying to make sense of his suggestion. Did he mean “Steve”? Or did he want her to take on the Jobs name? The question left her feeling conflicted for many reasons.

Before Lisa moved in with Steve, one of his conditions was that she not see her mother for six months. It felt like abandonment to Lisa, and taking Steve’s name would only add to that feeling. In the end, she decided to keep her mother’s name and add Steve’s name, hyphenating the two – Brennan-Jobs.

Steve seemed pleased with her decision, but that didn’t entitle her to any special treatment. In fact, Lisa felt like she had to tread carefully in her new home. While she had often rebelled against her mother by doing chores poorly or procrastinating, she dutifully did everything her father asked of her. She cleaned the dishes almost every night and looked after Steve and Laurene’s newborn son, Reed, whenever asked.

Lisa also tried to endear herself to Steve in other ways. She worked hard in school and joined extracurricular activities, hoping to impress him and boost her college applications. She even started an Opera Club and was elected freshman class president.

Steve didn’t seem to appreciate her efforts. Her school was over an hour away, in San Francisco, and he refused to arrange after-school transportation that fit her schedule. But when she stayed overnight with friends in the city, he accused her of not being committed to the family.

On top of that, Steve deprived Lisa of basic conveniences. He refused to fix the heating in her room or replace her stolen bicycle, which was her only means of transportation. When Lisa was growing up, Steve had been an intermittent presence in her life. She had hoped that living with him would bring them closer together, but instead, he often accused her of not wanting to be part of his family.

As Lisa tried to navigate her new life with her father, she couldn’t help but wonder if Steve truly wanted her there, or if she was just a pawn in his complicated life.

One morning, Steve and Laurene were awakened by the sight of sheets of paper taped across the inside of their home’s hallway windows. Excited words were scrawled across each sheet in all caps: “I GOT IN. I GOT IN. I GOT IN.”

Perplexed by the papers, Steve asked for an explanation. “She’s into Harvard,” Laurene said with a smile.

But Steve and Laurene hadn't been part of Lisa's preparation for Harvard. Steve was convinced Lisa wouldn’t amount to much, believing she had no marketable skills. He often joked that she’d end up working at Ruby's, a strip club they passed by on their drives.

Lisa, on the other hand, saw her admission to Harvard as a sort of cure-all. It was a testament to her intelligence, a chance to prove herself, and an opportunity to escape her father's taunts and constant belittling. Steve had never been one for higher education, thinking of college as a place for those without creative vision.

The years leading up to her acceptance were difficult for Lisa, and her father's constant criticism only exacerbated her feelings of loneliness. During one therapy session, Steve and Laurene joined her, where Lisa tearfully confessed to feeling terribly alone. “We’re just cold people,” Laurene admitted.

Despite this, Steve did occasionally show kindness. He once gave Lisa a NeXT desktop, but took it away when it wouldn't turn on, never replacing it. He also grudgingly agreed to pay her tuition for Harvard and even bought her a new Armani coat before she left.

It wasn't until later that Steve revealed something unexpected to Lisa. He told her that his happiest years had been during her high school years, when she lived with him and his family. It was a statement that left Lisa stunned, as she had always felt distant from her father.

During Lisa's last summer before her senior year at Harvard, Steve invited her to go to the circus with him, Laurene, and their son Reed. However, Lisa was spending time with her mother, Chrisann, and declined the invitation. Her relationship with Chrisann had improved, and she felt that spending time with her mother was more important than going to the circus. Steve responded with his usual catchphrase, "You're not being part of this family," and told Lisa that she would need to move out if she didn't attend.

Lisa was shocked and hurt by Steve's ultimatum. She had nowhere else to go, as her mother was living with her boyfriend and didn't have the space for Lisa to stay. Despite this, Lisa didn't give in to Steve's demands. Instead, she turned to Kevin and Dorothy, their neighbors who had always been kind to her.

Kevin and Dorothy welcomed Lisa into their home, and while Steve and Laurene were at the circus, Lisa packed her things and left a note for Steve saying she loved him and asking him to call her. But Steve never called, and Lisa didn't hear from him for the rest of the summer.

When Lisa returned to Harvard for her senior year, she discovered that her tuition fees hadn't been paid. Kevin came to the rescue and offered to pay for her final year. Lisa was grateful for Kevin's help, but Harvard and academic life still fell short of her expectations. Despite her good grades and involvement in various activities, she continued to feel lonely.

Steve and Lisa drifted apart after her refusal to attend the circus. He stopped responding to her emails and phone calls, and their relationship became distant. Even though she had left his home, Lisa couldn't escape the emotional pain that came from feeling rejected by her father.

In the years before Lisa was born, Steve Jobs had begun working on a new computer, a precursor to the Macintosh. It was called the Lisa, and it hit the market after Lisa was born. As a child, Lisa would tell her friends that her father had named a computer after her, but when she moved in with him, he denied it.

Over the years, Lisa had struggled with the question of whether the Lisa computer was named after her or not. Did her father love her or not? Did she occupy a special place in his heart and life, or was she just a mistake?

The answers finally came in the years leading up to Steve’s death. One day, he invited Lisa to join him and his family on a yachting trip in the South of France. He announced they would be stopping to visit a friend, who turned out to be Bono of U2.

During the visit, Bono asked the question Lisa had always wondered about: was the Lisa computer named after her? To her surprise, Steve answered, “Yeah, it was.” It was the first time he had ever admitted it.

As Steve’s health declined due to pancreatic cancer, he became more emotionally open with Lisa. In the hospital, he told her, “I didn’t spend enough time with you when you were little… Now it’s too late.” He cried and said, “I owe you one.”

Steve died soon after that conversation. But even after his death, Lisa could feel his presence. Her mother, Chrisann, came to visit, and despite their past fights, they grew closer. Chrisann told Lisa that Steve was overjoyed to be with her.

Lisa finally had her answers. Her father had named a computer after her, and he loved her deeply. It was a bittersweet realization, but it brought her a sense of peace and closure.

Still Alive.

~vivan.