What Assam and the rest of the world need is a new idea – or a new messiah that reminds its peoples of values beyond consumption and per capita income. One that can remind its people that once you’ve achieved the means and wealth to cover your needs and some luxuries, it is alright to let others, less privileged, brown or black, Syrian or Bangladeshi, to have a go at it.

Like Sacred Games, Atul Sabharwal’s Powder revolved around a cop obsessed with nabbing a dreaded drug kingpin. It may not boast of the production values of a Netflix adaptation, but as a commentary on the pluralities of Mumbai, Powder was just as powerful.

I’ve never scored an 80 per cent. And I’m sure my son won’t either. Does this mean I have to start panicking?

Extreme viewpoints – be it conservative or liberal – are the noisiest. They get the most attention in today’s hyper-social world. In the process, everyone who’s not “visible enough” becomes part of the vast majority leading “uneventful” lives. But is being moderate equal to being mediocre?

To be a winner at the Oscars, you’ve got to have a BIG film that is about racial, sexual, or national identity.

Present-day America, the America that is erecting walls and throwing bans at the world, is living in what can only be labelled the Age of Unreason.

Pessimism pervades the end of 2016. But as our resilience during large-scale transformation in the past indicates, the future won't be awful. All we need is some cautious optimism.

The American media failed to understand the simmering sentiment Trump was tapping into. The damage to the media’s credibility will take a long time to undo.

If India goes to war with Pakistan, we could lose out on a decade of growth, which translates into roughly 200 million people remaining in poverty. It’s a disaster in the making.

Congratulations. We’ve bred a generation of young people who can buy and discard things but can no longer fix them.

Attend a wedding in a burkini or swim in black tie. Don’t button up, if you don’t want to. Nobody must be made to conform.

After a usual fracas yesterday between MNS and Congress workers and street hawkers, Raj Thackeray announced that he wanted party workers who can beat up other people. It's a sign that engineering street-level vandalism isn't as easy as it used to be.

Are we only cheering an idea of feminism that is cosy in the cocoon of privilege? Is endorsing any other kind of feminism, running the risk of getting roundly abused?

Would the world be a better place if we allowed our children to decide whether they’d like to be Hindu, Muslim, Christian, atheist, agnostic, or label-free?

Stuck in a three-hour traffic snarl, and your concern seems to be a divorce taking place 4,446 miles away. That, my friend, is the spirit of a dying Mumbai.

Looking back at the theatrical goof-ups of appointing B-grade badshahs to positions of power, I’m beginning to question whether Modi really is the man running the show.