The Global Jigsaw

1 week 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.

2 weeks 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.

3 weeks 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.

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.

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.