Orphic Exposure

On September 11, 2001, the world’s most powerful nation was brought to its knees by nineteen men armed, not with nuclear weapons or dynamite, but with box cutters and a conviction that their violence would change history. The destruction of the Twin Towers and the attack on the Pentagon was not simply an assault on American soil; it was an assault on the liberal democratic order the United States claimed to embody. Nearly 3,000 civilians perished that day, and with them ended the illusions of invulnerability that had marked America’s post–Cold War triumphalism. Francis Fukuyama’s “end of history” thesis collapsed into rubble as George W. Bush declared a new war—one that would redraw alliances, topple regimes, and reshape the architecture of global politics: the “War on Terror.” Yet, if 9/11 was America’s wound, the scars of this war would be deepest in South Asia. For while U.S. armies marched into Kabul and Baghdad, the logic of terrorism and counter-terrorism found its most endurin...

  Here we are, in August 2025, sipping our cutting chai in the corridors of power as Home Minister Amit Shah gracefully pirouettes in the Lok Sabha (or should I say, dances?), to introduce the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025. The headlines scream: a bill to evict PMs, CMs, and ministers from office if they languish behind bars for 30 days straight, even before a single verdict lands. Let me spill the tea: this is not about democracy—it’s about decency. A measure that a minister cannot govern from a jail cell. Who’d have thought such a baseline standard would need constitutional reinforcement? There are days when the Parliament looks like a temple of democracy. And then there are days like the one when Amit Shah strode in with the 130th Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2025, when the Opposition turned the Lok Sabha into a low-budget reality show audition. As an intern in the office of a Shiv Sena Member of Parliament, I had my notebook open, my pen read...

The Post-Truth Capital The hour is late, but the lights never go out. Neon blinks over billboards of gods and gadgets. The air smells of ambition, of smoke and forgetting. Somewhere, a camera turns. Somewhere else, a man scrolls. He thinks he’s free —but the price of that illusion is too deep to measure. No one bans books, they just stop printing them. No one silences you—they flood you with noise. And the greatest censorship in the Capital today isn’t from outside. It comes from within. From the tired shrug of, “Chalta hain.” From the whispered, “Don’t post that.” From the unspoken rule that says, “Be careful. Be quiet.” A ghost walks barefoot through Delhi now—through data centres in Gurugram, CCTV-filled bazaars in Old Delhi, WhatsApp groups in Saket, sanitised newsrooms in Lutyens’. He watches a nation that once birthed civil disobedience now perfecting digital disobedience. This is not the India of slogans. This is the India behind the curtains. In the heart of the Republ...

Missiles call it a day job... Iran-Israel continue with their long distance relationship If international relations had a high school yearbook, Israel and Iran would win “Most Likely to Start the World War III.” This conflict is not just about geopolitics, or about religion, land, pride, or even nukes for that matter (although that claim holds so much water). It’s also about history, posturing, mutual suspicion, and yes, an unhealthy amount of strategic ego (Well, at least from one of the side). Both countries are playing a high-stake game of risk, except in real life with real life consequences, and unfortunately, without the dice! Few rivalries in international politics capture the complexity, volatility, and ideological entrenchment, like the Israel-Iran conflict does. It is not merely disagreement between the two states —it is a slow-burning confrontation which is defined by asymmetry, indirect engagements, and deeply rooted threat perceptions. West Asia witnessed a paradigm ...

In the aftermath of a deeply disturbing terrorist attack in the Anantnag district, where 4 communally-fueled bloodthirsty terrorists massacred 26 innocent Hindus, including women and children, India initiated a series of diplomatic and strategic actions aimed at signaling her strong condemnation of cross-border terrorism. This dastardly act of violence evoked national mourning and prompted a resolute response from India. The date, April 22, 2025 gave way to thunder of purpose among the citizens, of righteous duty — that terror, wherever it hides, shall be met not with fear but with unflinching resolve. Thereupon, visas for Pakistani nationals were revoked, diplomatic engagements were scaled back, and most importantly, the Indus Waters Treaty, 1960 was held in abeyance, a symbolic step demonstrating India’s seriousness in holding responsible parties accountable. Simultaneously, international forums were engaged to expose Pakistan’s continued patronage of terror outfits. The UNSC met b...

  Time passes, or do we? You wake up, and you are already late. Late for what? Late for whom? We know, yet we do not know! Hmm, time weights upon us like a gigantic anchor, doesn’t it? Holds you to the demands of the world. Personally, I sometimes wonder, that I do not wake when my body wills it, nor do I sleep when I am tired. Right? I exist within a framework imposed upon me, a structure of “hours and minutes and seconds” that just marches with the cold indifference. This tyrannic idea is just time for us! I cannot help but see time as the greatest illusion of all, a fabrication that has seeped into the very marrow of our being. We do not simply measure time; we OBEY it. We submit to it as if it were a God, never questioning the foundations upon which it stands. But who created this idol? And for whose benefit? My guess is, it’s the bourgeoisie class! "Man is free but everywhere in chains" — J. J. Rousseau Let’s see it this way: My way. What is slave morality? It is th...