Pallavi Aiyar, The Global Jigsaw Journalist Profile

Articles

Teaching your kids by fighting with your spouse

4 days ago | pallaviaiyar.substack.com | Pallavi Aiyar

Dear Glonal Jigsaw, This weekend my spouse and I will celebrate our 20 year wedding anniversary with a group of friends from around the world, in the Spanish countryside. The Global Jigsaw is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Julio and I met 25 years ago and have spent these decades arguing our way across the multiple countries - China, Belgium, Indonesia, Japan and Spain – that we have lived in.
Ten things to know about Spain

1 week ago | pallaviaiyar.substack.com | Pallavi Aiyar

Dear Global Jigsaw,I have now spent almost five years in my sasural - as the land of a woman’s in-laws is called in Hindi. The decision to move to Spain was not an easy one for me. For decades, my Spanish husband and I had flitted across foreign postings in Asia- China, Japan, Indonesia- places where we shared outsider status. Together, we made silly mistakes while bumbling about learning the syntax of unfamiliar streets.
Little known gem in Beijing: Dong Yue Temple

2 weeks ago | pallaviaiyar.substack.com | Pallavi Aiyar

Dear Global Jigsaw,For this week’s post a reprisal of my piece on a little know Taoist temple in Beijing, which any China itinerary should (but never does) include. It’s delightful, not only for the glimpse it gives into the imagined Taoist hereafter, but also for what it reveals about China in the here and now. For China-watchers the temple is an excellent starting point in getting to grips with what makes the erstwhile Middle Kingdom tick.
Inattentional blindness

3 weeks ago | pallaviaiyar.substack.com | Pallavi Aiyar

Dear Global Jigsaw,There is a meme doing the rounds on social media which made me crack a smile, because it resonated so deeply. “Be honest,” it read, “you are more likely to remember all the lyrics of a 1980s pop song than to remember why you just walked into the kitchen.” But behind my giggle, there was a nagging worry. Sometimes I feel I am losing my mind. Words - my long-standing playmates - have begun, on occasion, to skulk at the edges of recall.
The Happiest Country in the World

1 month ago | pallaviaiyar.substack.com | Pallavi Aiyar

Dear Global Jigsaw,Does it make you happy? I have always tended to be skeptical of this, in-vogue, yardstick by which to adjudicate life’s big decisions. So much of what gives a life meaning- parenthood, health, discipline, friendships, learning a new skill- does not equate unalloyed happiness. It is difficult things that reward one with the most joy. “Happiness” is too easy to be consequential – like empty calories, a bag of potato chips. Perhaps it is semantic. What I call joy, you call happiness.
How Do Chinese Perceive India

1 month ago | pallaviaiyar.substack.com | Pallavi Aiyar

Dear Global Jigsaw,Here is the final part of my wide ranging conversation with leading Chinese India-studies scholar, Mao Keji. This part of the interview is open to all, although the previous two were behind a pay wall. The single event that could fundamentally alter the global order? The rise of IndiaIf I could choose, would I rather be born Indian or Chinese? Do subscribe if you would like to access all four parts of this series.
Ten Things About Japan

1 month ago | pallaviaiyar.substack.com | Pallavi Aiyar

Dear Global Jigsaw, In today’s post, my top ten things to know about Japan. For those who have already been, let me know what else you might have added. To arrive in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, can be a sensorially confoundingexperience. It is a city of some 30 million people, with troops of skyscrapersstampeding across it, often draped in hyper-realistic digital screens that shine likeconstellations of capitalism come down to earth.
Top 10 Things to Know if You're Moving to Japan

1 month ago | escapeartist.com | Pallavi Aiyar

To arrive in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, can be a sensorially confounding experience. It is a city of some 30 million people, with troops of skyscrapers stampeding across it, often draped in hyper-realistic digital screens that shine like constellations of capitalism come down to earth. But there is also a hush at the heart of the city’s great shrines and temples, where swirls of incense spiral in dreamlike shapes.
Easter in Spain

1 month ago | pallaviaiyar.substack.com | Pallavi Aiyar

Dear Global Jigsaw,A pause this week from the ongoing Mao Keji interview on India-China relations to focus on Spain’s Easter—my favorite time of year. While in many parts of the world it may be a festival associated with bunnies and chocolate covered eggs, in Spain, Semana Santa, or Holy Week, as the seven days between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are referred to, is something more elemental all together.
If I could choose, would I rather be born Indian or Chinese?

1 month ago | pallaviaiyar.substack.com | Pallavi Aiyar

Dear Gobal Jigsaw,Given the backdrop of a potential rapprochement between China and India at a time of what will surely be tectonic shifts in global alliances I am publishing a serialized interview with one of China’s leading India-focused scholars, Mao Keji. Today’s newsletter, the third in this series, will look at Mao’s answer to the question of whether he sees India’s democracy as having played a positive roe in the country’s development.