Sabriwithrealitycheck

  On 15 August 2021, the Taliban returned to power in Kabul, bringing an abrupt end to the twenty-year US-led military and political intervention in Afghanistan. The speed of the elected government's collapse surprised much of the world. The Afghan army, despite having hundreds of thousands of trained personnel and years of financial and military support, largely collapsed without a sustained fight. The Ashraf Ghani government failed to develop a political and military strategy capable of confronting the rapidly changing situation after the peace negotiations between the United States and the Taliban. Five Years Later: What Kind of Afghanistan Has Emerged? Five years later, the central question is no longer whether the Taliban can govern Afghanistan. They have shown that they can retain political and territorial control. The more important question is what kind of Afghanistan has emerged under Taliban rule, and what the cost to its people? When the Taliban first returned to K...

  Independence Day: Freedom Must Be Protected by Its Citizens As India celebrates its 80th Independence Day on 15 August 2026, it is worth remembering that our freedom came at an enormous cost. Independence was not the achievement of one community, one region, one religion, one caste or one gender. It was the result of decades of struggle and sacrifice by people across the country who dreamed of a free and dignified India. Leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, B.R. Ambedkar, Sardar Patel, and many others imagined an India where people of different faiths and beliefs could live together with dignity; where citizens would be equal before the law; and where freedom would have meaning in the everyday lives of ordinary people. Their vision was particularly significant in a society marked by deep inequalities of caste, class, gender and poverty. Over the past more than seven decades, India has made remarkable progress on many fronts. Yet the dre...

  International Youth Day is observed annually on August 12 . Designated by the United Nations in 1999, it celebrates young people’s contributions to society, raises awareness of the challenges faced by youth globally, and promotes their meaningful engagement in sustainable development. The theme of this year’s International Youth Day is “Different Contexts, Common Aspirations.” It is important to recognise that young people across the world do not form a homogeneous group. Their needs, aspirations, and opportunities are shaped by their social, economic, political, and geographical contexts. In other words, where you are located and the conditions in which you live can profoundly shape your future and your ability to participate in public life. There are many examples of young people who have challenged and broken colonial control in the past to help set their countries free. Yet the struggles for representation, dignity, equality, and justice continue in many parts of the ...

                           Amma is still listening Every evening there was a journey home a phone call to Amma. Not merely a call, but a quiet reassurance that the world was still in place. She knew my silences better than my words. She understood the weight in my voice, the worries I never named, the world I carried within me. Our conversations were never long. They did not need to be. After salaam , I would ask, "Sab theek hai?" And in that familiar mellowness, "How are Irfana and Zoya?" Those few words held an entire home. Sometimes she would tell me who had visited, which neighbour was unwell, whether the rains had come, how is crops in the field, or how the village was breathing that day. Nothing extraordinary. Everything essential. Amma never spoke of her own strength. Yet she was our light, our shelter, our mountain— standing quietly between us and...

  Sir William Mark Tully, one of the respected voices in Indian journalism and broadcasting, passed away at the age of 90 in a Delhi hospital. Born in Tollygunge, Calcutta, to British parents, Mark spent his early years in India before being sent to England for his education at Marlborough College and later at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Journalism was not Mark Tully’s first choice. In his early years, he aspired to become a priest, but that path was closed to him after an interaction with a bishop, who ultimately rejected his application for the priesthood. Finally, Mark joined the BBC and returned to India in 1964 as the BBC’s India correspondent, later serving the organisation as Bureau Chief in New Delhi. He became a leading voice in Indian journalism, known for his distinct ethos, and remained at the forefront of news-making for nearly three decades until stepping down from the BBC in 1994. Mark was among the rare journalists who bore witness to modern India in the making, ...

Trump in Davos, oh my world, what a speech by the President of the United States. What should have been a sober presidential address instead unfolded like a campaign rally, full of bravado and self-congratulation. It sounded less like diplomacy and more like domestic political theatre, with global crises reduced to backdrops for personal branding. In that moment, statecraft gave way to spectacle. The setting made the performance all the more revealing. Davos likes to present itself as the command centre of neoliberal global governance, a gathering where political leaders, corporate executives, financiers, and policy experts claim to manage the world through markets and technocratic expertise. Yet Trump’s speech avoided any serious engagement with the structural failures of this system: widening inequality, ecological collapse, labour precarity, or the permanent state of war that shapes much of the Global South. For audiences in India and South Asia, these omissions are not abstract, ...