From the Editor’s Desk

WHEN THE WORLD NEEDS QUIETER VOICES

We meet again at a time when the world seems unable to find a pause between one crisis and the next.

The 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly has brought world leaders together in New York against a backdrop of wars, geopolitical rivalry, humanitarian emergencies, economic uncertainty and growing questions about whether the international institutions created to preserve peace still possess the authority and unity required to do so. Ukraine continues to endure war and civilian suffering. The humanitarian consequences of conflicts across different regions remain immense. Sudan continues to face a devastating humanitarian emergency. Across Europe, migration and asylum have become increasingly difficult political questions, forcing democracies to confront the delicate balance between protecting borders and protecting human beings.

There is also a larger concern beneath these individual crises. The international order itself appears increasingly fragile. When rules are applied selectively, when national interest consistently overrides collective responsibility, and when dialogue is replaced by threats, tariffs, military force or political confrontation, the consequences eventually travel far beyond national borders.

This is precisely why the United Nations matters, despite all its shortcomings. And it is why its present difficulties should concern us. The world does not need fewer places where nations can talk to one another. It needs those places to work better.

Economic relationships are being tested as well. India and the United States remain important strategic partners, yet their trade negotiations have encountered serious differences. Tariffs, market access, energy choices and strategic autonomy demonstrate something that is increasingly characteristic of our times: countries can be friends and partners without necessarily agreeing on everything.

Perhaps mature relationships between nations, much like those between people, should be capable of accommodating disagreement without turning every difference into hostility.

At the same time, another kind of emergency is unfolding away from the daily drama of geopolitics. The Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has expanded across multiple provinces and health zones, reminding us how quickly a disease outbreak can become an international concern. The lessons of recent years should have taught us that health security cannot be separated by geography. A disease emerging thousands of kilometres away is not somebody else’s problem simply because it has not yet reached our doorstep.

These developments form part of the world into which we bring you this October edition of WFY.

And perhaps there could be no more appropriate person on our cover this month than Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Our cover story, “Shastri: The Quietest Man In The Room, Yet So Powerful,” is not intended merely as another remembrance of an admired former Prime Minister of India. I wanted to look at Shastri from the perspective of the world in which we live today, particularly through the eyes of a generation growing up surrounded by visibility, personal branding, social media influence and an almost relentless pressure to be noticed.

Shastri belonged to another vocabulary of leadership.

He was not physically imposing. He was not theatrical. He did not build a political personality around constant self-promotion. Yet when responsibility came, he did not hide from it. His resignation as Railway Minister following a major accident remains one of the most discussed examples of political accountability in modern India. As Prime Minister, faced with war and severe food pressures, he gave the country “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”, words that outlived the circumstances in which they were spoken.

His relevance to the present generation lies precisely there.

We live at a time when it is possible to accumulate followers without necessarily being worthy of being followed. Shastri invites us to reconsider the difference between popularity and credibility, between appearing powerful and possessing the character required to exercise power responsibly.

That question of responsibility runs through much of this edition.

In World Politics, we look at the challenge confronting the United Nations at a moment when conflicts and geopolitical divisions are testing the international system. We also examine Europe’s increasingly difficult debate over asylum and borders. These are not distant diplomatic arguments. They concern the principles by which the international community intends to live when those principles become inconvenient to uphold.

Our Economy & Business and Finance & Legal sections examine another changing landscape. India’s capital markets are experiencing remarkable activity, India-US trade is negotiating its way through partnership and disagreement, digital finance is changing our relationship with money, and India’s insurance sector is entering a new regulatory era. For Indians and people of Indian origin living across the world, these transformations deserve attention because India’s economic relationship with the world is becoming broader, deeper and more consequential.

Health receives particular attention in this edition because some of the most important warnings in life arrive quietly. We examine whether the world is sufficiently prepared for the next major Ebola outbreak, but we also come much closer to everyday experience. Stress and anxiety, kidney health, numb hands at night and nocturnal leg cramps are subjects that millions experience but may not always understand.

One story I particularly hope parents, teachers and families will read is “Talkative At Home, Silent At School: Revealing A Hidden World.” A child who speaks freely and happily within the security of home but becomes almost completely silent at school or in other social environments may not simply be shy or stubborn. Understanding what lies behind that silence can change the way adults respond to the child.

That concern for how we respond to one another continues in Lifestyle. What does it really mean to make another person feel heard? Are we sometimes doing too much for our children in our desire to protect them? Can allowing children to face manageable difficulties actually help them become mentally stronger? And as we grow older, should ageing be understood primarily in terms of decline, or can we think more seriously about independence, purpose, agency and living better?

Our writers also take us into worlds of culture, memory and imagination. We revisit R. K. Narayan and the extraordinary reality he created around the fictional town of Malgudi. We encounter the Dancing Girl of the Indus and ask what objects can tell us about a civilisation whose script we still cannot read. We consider how the Bayeux Tapestry and other cultural treasures can become more accessible to contemporary audiences.

In Technology & Science, we explore one of the great transformations now taking place almost before our eyes: artificial intelligence becoming a partner in scientific discovery. AI is no longer only a tool for generating text, images or answers. Its growing role in research raises extraordinary possibilities for medicine, materials, biology and other fields, while also requiring us to think seriously about the place of human judgement in scientific progress.

There is room for pleasure and discovery too.

We travel to Coorg, into the beautiful heart of Kodagu, and examine the rise of the value traveller who increasingly seeks richer experiences rather than simply greater luxury. We enter the unusual world of HYPROV, where the audience can become part of the performance itself. And from Bengal comes something warm, fragrant and deeply connected to culture and faith: Khichuri Bhog, with its Gobindobhog rice, roasted moong dal, vegetables and unmistakable association with puja and community.

Our Sports pages look from Nagoya towards Los Angeles and ask what India’s performance can teach us about the country’s Olympic ambitions. In Academics, we question what university rankings really tell students and families. And in Spirituality, Navratri becomes more than a festival. It becomes a story of how faith travels, adapts and finds new homes wherever Indians make their lives.

That last thought is especially important to us at WFY.

This magazine exists because Indians today are not contained by geography. We live in India, but we also live across continents, cultures and time zones. Our experiences are different, yet there remains an extraordinary network of memories, relationships, traditions, aspirations and concerns connecting people of Indian origin around the world.

WFY was created to be part of that conversation.

We want it to remain a place where politics can sit beside poetry, where business can share space with spirituality, where science can meet culture, and where the achievements of the Indian diaspora can be celebrated without losing sight of the larger world to which we all belong.

But independent publishing is never sustained by ideas alone.

Every edition requires writers, editors, research, design, technology, administration and, above all, readers who believe that the publication deserves to continue. WFY has been fortunate to receive affection, encouragement and contributions from members of the Indian diaspora in different parts of the world. I want to use this Editor’s Desk to say something that perhaps we do not say often enough:

Thank you.

Thank you to our writers who give us their knowledge and time. Thank you to those who share our articles and introduce WFY to friends, families and communities. Thank you to our contributors, supporters and well-wishers. And most importantly, thank you to every reader who continues to open these pages and make WFY part of his or her life.

As we continue this journey, we also need your support.

If you value what WFY is trying to build, help us carry it forward. Read us. Share us. Introduce the magazine to Indian associations, professionals, academics, entrepreneurs, artists and young people in your part of the world. Write for us. Tell us about people and stories that deserve international attention. Encourage organisations and businesses within the diaspora to associate with and support independent platforms such as ours.

A global Indian magazine can truly become global only when the global Indian community makes it its own.

The world around us will continue to change. Governments will change, technologies will change, economies will rise and fall, conflicts will begin and, we hope, end. Through all of it, there will remain a need for places where we can look at events not merely as headlines, but as experiences affecting human lives.

That is the WFY we continue to work towards.

Thank you for walking with us

Enjoy the October edition.

Melwyn Williams
Editor-in-Chief
WFY