Ceasefire, votes, and the price of going home
Hey there,
Glad to be able to write to you again this week. Almost thought this will all be made redundant when Trump threatended that "entire civilisation" would die last Tuesday. So far, we are all standing. 🤞
I had the immense pleasure of talking to one of you this week over a video call. It made me feel really proud of the community we are building here with DD. He lives in New York, offers his place for couch surfing, was in the Peace Corps, and deeply cares of cultural exchange. He called DoorDesi 'a little tile in the mosaic of cultural exchange'. That phrase alone made my day. Thank you, J!
For those of you who are new here, the very reason of starting DoorDesi was to keep a little bit of India alive and accessible within all of those who care but live abroad. I want to reduce the noise and bring to you only what I think is of utmost relevance to the likes of you, the likes of me. So to hear that someone also sees this space as a way to bring India to those who are not directly related to her felt great!
If you guys have thoughts about DoorDesi or would like to see specific things covered, drop me a line on Instagram or here.
On to this week's edition.
P.S. J from NY recommended 'Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York' by Ross Perlin for the language nerds among us! :)
Just the gist
I don't know about you but I almost set an alarm for 2A.M. (8P.M. Eastern Time) on Tuesday night so I could wake up in the middle of the night to find out if Trump had pulled the trigger or not. I wonder, much like Covid-19, if this prolonged war and the constant threat of annihilation has any longterm mental health impact on people. Anyway, that disaster seems to have momentarily been averted thanks to Iran and U.S. entering a two-week ceasefire agreement.
How that is going is another question. Israel has continued to bomb Lebanon, ignoring one of Iran's asks of the U.S. to stop hostilities on its allies. U.S. has agreed to negotiate a long-term agreement based on the 10 point demand put forth by Iran and no mention of the 15 points put forth by the U.S. which indicates a certain negotiating power that Iran has over the U.S.
One thing emerging out of this conflict has been is that U.S. is being seen less and less as the guarantor of security across the globe. This has set the stage for more regional security cooperations that are independent of U.S. influence. It has become increasingly clear to the Gulf states that U.S. will continue to prioritise Israel's defence over the security of the Gulf states.
Our knight in shining armour has been Pakistan, would you believe it? Having brokered the peace talks between Iran and the U.S., Pakistan had made itself more significant to global politics that it had been over the past few years while India has mostly played safe.
➡️ This is India's opportunity to up its defense game and enter into defense cooperation with our neighbouring nations and Gulf states as the world seemingly moves towards a more diversified defence structure. India also let its relationship with Iran take a hit in pursuit of cooperations with the likes of Israel. Now as Iran stands its ground, India needs to make a more strategic choice around its foreign policy and alliances rather than going where the wind blows.
🔗 Going the distance to avoid accountability
India has come a long way from publicly offering to host COP33, the climate change conference, in India to now backtracking on that announcement by our PM in the light of India's shifting climate policy and priorities.
When PM Modi had made this announcement in 2023 in Dubai during COP28, India was riding the high of a successful G20 meeting held in New Delhi and some important decisions around climate change having been made. Since then, the U.S. has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement altogether, the world is at war, and India has been focussing on its 'national interest'. You know, the Adanis, Ambanis, etc. To host the COP33 in this climate (see, what I did there :D) would mean having to be the class topper at climate protection and that is a big ask when the highest bidder can buy your mountain ranges (Aravalli) and protected forests (Sanajay Gandhi National Park) to name a few.
Listen, to be honest, I have also found these COP agreements to be hypocritical in the past. 'Developed' nations telling 'developing' nations to reduce their carbon footprint while having done most of the damage themselves already. What does an Indian household that hand washes their clothes and air dries them have over an American household with a washing machine and a drier. Just an example. It's a more complicated picture, I know. But there are several indigenous practices and lifestyles, practiced in the global majority that scientists from the global minority do not even consider while making scientific recommendations to mitigate climate crisis. And this has the official argument that India has used in the recent years towards the Global Minority countries calling the shots. But, in today's political climate, it is hard to ignore that India's national interests seem to often mean the personal interest of the ultra rich.
➡️ India is the third largest CO2 emitter in the world, China and the U.S. ranking first and second respectively. Yet, while the annual per capita emission of China is 8.89 tonnes per person and that of the U.S. is 14.21 tonnes per person, India's annual per capita emission is 1.89 tonnes per person. Furthermore, while being the most populous country in the world, India accounts for 6.99% of the global CO2 emissions. The U.S. on the other hand accounts for 12.6% of the global emission while being third most populous country in the world. You get my drift. India standing up to the Global Minority and asking for accountability from them is right. But doing that while actively giving in to the business needs of the ultra rich in country is morally corrupt.
The first time I voted in India, the booth workers, on realising it was my first paused their work to announce to everyone in the room that there was a first timer among them and they all stood up and applauded. One of the proudest moments of my life. Election season in India is quite something. An old lady standing in line with me told it was like a festival. Everyone from the neighbourhood got to catch up with each other. This month there are five festivals taking place across the country with five states/UT going into election season. Assam, Kerala, and Puducherry have kick-started the 2026 election cycle with Puducherry and Assam recording their highest-ever turnouts. 89.83% and 85.38% respectively. Take a bow. West Bengal and Tamil Nadu will have their elections end of this month. If you are reading this and are not going to vote in your home state election this season, accept this light smack of disapproval on your head from me.
Assam is BJP territory and has been for two terms. The BJP's campaign has leaned heavily on migration anxiety, particularly around Bengali-origin Muslims. They fielded zero Muslim candidates in a state where Muslims make up more than a third of the population. Make of that what you will. In Kerala, on the other hand, BJP has never cracked it. There, power has alternated between Congress alliance, and the Left. Puducherry is a BJP coalition territory and likely to stay so. West Bengal is the make it or break it for all. Mamata Banerjee is fighting anti-incumbency and vote bank politics and BJP is ever so slowly gaining traction. This is the election to watch. Finally, in Tamil Nadu the BJP-backed AIADMK alliance is taking on established DMK. Who is to say where the wind will blow.
➡️ In three out of five of the regions mentioned above, BJP has not been able to make significant inroads. This election season will be an early indicator of whether the opposition, especially Congress and its allies, is able to break the BJP charm over the country or if the BJP has managed to make history by expanding into territories that have remained historically out of its reach and more left-leaning than the rest.
🔗 Clipped wings for your way home
There is a specific kind of anxiety that the Iran war has introduced into daily life that nobody really talks about: not fear of flying, but fear of not flying. The fear that when you actually need to get somewhere, the ticket will cost twice as much, the route will have been cut, or some chain of events you had no say in will mean you simply cannot go.
The International Air Transport Association says average global jet fuel prices hit $209 per barrel last week. At the end of February, before the war, they were at $99. That is more than double, in six weeks.
Airlines are responding in the ways airlines always respond: passing costs on, cutting routes, and adding fees. Many have raised checked baggage fees. Air India added up to $280 in fees on some flights. Cathay Pacific raised fuel surcharges by roughly 34% across all routes. United is cutting about 5% of planned flights, targeting redeyes and slower travel days. Delta is scrapping planned summer capacity, leaving about 3.5% fewer seats than originally intended.
Oil briefly dropped below $95 a barrel after Trump announced a two-week ceasefire that temporarily reopened the Strait of Hormuz. Then Iran closed it again after Israeli strikes in Lebanon. So that was short-lived.
➡️ Flying was already a privilege. Only one in five people on earth has ever been on a plane. The war has made that privilege more fragile and more expensive, precisely at the moment when the world feels most like somewhere you need to be able to move through quickly. Planning in advance is not going to help as much as it did before who knows what the world will look like by the time your trip comes around.
Desi at heart
Manipur has been burning for decades. One wave of violence after another. For Manipuri women, the consequence is a lifetime of rebuilding without any structural support.
The Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network has been working in that gap for over twenty years. It started on Christmas Eve 2004 when activist Binalakshmi Nepram witnessed a killing in Thoubal district and noticed what happened to the women left behind: nothing. No support, no follow-up, no system.
Since then, the network has supported over a thousand women through livelihood training, small loans, weaving, tailoring, and small enterprise support. One of its first beneficiaries received a sewing machine after losing her husband. Unglamorous, practical, life-changing.
They also run group grief sessions, which in rural Manipur is quietly radical. For many women, it is the first time their loss is acknowledged outside their own four walls. Those spaces tend to become something more over time: women who came in broken start showing up for others.
➡️ Manipur has a long tradition of women's public agency, from its all-women markets to the Meira Paibi collective. But visible presence and actual power are different things. Women anchor local economies and hold communities together through conflict while formal institutions remain largely male-dominated. MWGSN has found a way to empower women despite the structural inequity.
That's all, folks! May this week bring less drama and more calm to you and to the world!
Toodles,
Sudeshna
