🎉Happy Diwali!🎆

Hello DoorDesi,

I got some really kind responses to last week’s email reminding me why I do this. Shoutout to the ones who wrote. When I said I am grateful to you for your response, I meant it. It gave me newfound zeal to re-engage with DoorDesi as a news product and think about what’s next.

We have some ideas but more importantly we are cooking something we want to bring to you once it is fully baked. :D Stay tuned for that!

This is the Diwali edition so I am going to keep it short. Wherever you are, I hope you find some time to put up some lights, buy whatever sweets you like from your local Indian/Pakistani/Asian store, and make it a day. The world has been feeling quite heavy for a while but remember that

Thanks!

Just the gist

🔗Blue has caught a case of the blues

Thinking about getting that blue passport? Joke’s on you. No sorry, that was mean.

For the first time ever, the mighty blue U.S. passport has fallen out of the world’s top 10, now tied with Malaysia at No. 12. Once the golden ticket to anywhere, it now grants visa-free access to (still a whopping) 180 destinations (out of 227). Singapore, South Korea, and Japan top the 2025 Henley Passport Index with access to 193, 190, and 189 destinations respectively.

The U.S. lost visa-free entry to Brazil, Vietnam, and a few others, while China did the opposite by opening doors to 76 countries and climbing to 64th place. The other aspect affecting this rating is the ‘openness’ of any given country to people from other countries. And we all know who has been building literal walls.

The new ‘American Dream’ is slowly becoming dual citizenship with more and more U.S. citizens axquiring citizenships in other countries, including but not limited to Europe.

➡️ India, on the other hand, fell 5 places to 85th so… you know… take what you can get.

🔗 When the ex’s get together

After a very public break-up and two years of frosty silence, Canada and India are being ‘seen in public together’ again. Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand’s visit to New Delhi marks the first serious reboot since Trudeau’s 2023 accusation that India was involved in a Khalistani separatist’s killing on Canadian soil. The new roadmap focuses on trade, tech, energy, and security - a diplomatic “soft launch” before they tell the parents.

This rekindling of romance is ignited by the emotionally exhausting relationship Canada found itself in with the U.S. The U.S. buys 75% of Canada’s exports but keeps threatening tariffs. Diversifying toward India — a 1.4 billion-strong market with 1.7 million Canadian-Indian citizens — could very well be holy matrimony for both.

➡️ Being a diaspora Indian in today’s time is like being that friend who is never sure if your bestfriend is going to get back with her ex you were told to hate. So just go with it!

🔗 In the battle of the giants who pays the price?

India’s green-energy race has boiled down to two names. 0 points for guessing correctly.

Adani Green Energy vs. Tata Power — same goal, wildly different playbooks.

Adani Green is going big by building the world’s largest hybrid solar–wind park in Gujarat’s Khavda desert and betting ₹1.8 trillion. Tata Power, meanwhile, is going broad by spreading investments across solar manufacturing, grid upgrades, EV charging, and rooftop power in 700 cities.

By 2030, India wants 500 GW of renewable capacity (triple today’s levels), and both giants want a piece of that pie. But while Adani’s growth is debt-fuelled and risk-heavy, Tata’s is slow and steady, backed by diversified earnings.

➡️ If you aren’t already investing in India’s green energy stocks, assuming you are investing in the Indian market at all, look into it. In any case, get an advisor and look into NRI investing in India. It is an emerging market, after all.

🔗 Letters from prison

The Centre has told the Supreme Court that they have no objection to climate activist Sonam Wangchuk — detained under the National Security Act since September 26 — sharing handwritten notes with his wife.

Wangchuk’s wife, Gitanjali Angmo, has filed a habeas corpus petition demanding that he be produced in court and that the grounds for his detention be made public. The Ladakh administration insists due process was followed, claiming Wangchuk’s “self-immolation” remarks endangered public order — a charge his wife calls a smear campaign against his peaceful activism.

➡️ A reminder that nothing is apolitical, from climate activism to the food we eat. Every chance I get, I will remind DoorDesis still eligible to vote in India to go vote. If not in India, vote wherever you have the right to. That alone is an act of activism.

Trending on the internet

🔗 Choose your friends carefully

For the first time since the Taliban seized Kabul in 2021, Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is in India — an eight-day visit that’s already yielding big headlines. India has decided to reopen its Embassy in Kabul, upgrading it from a “technical mission” to a full diplomatic outpost. But Delhi is still firmly in the “engagement without endorsement” camp. *while endorsing their ‘no woman in public spaces’ policy by keeping female journalists out of the first meeting*

In practice, India is playing the long game: talking to the Taliban to protect its interests (and investments) without legitimising their rule. The Taliban, facing economic isolation and a messy fallout with Pakistan, is more than happy to play ball even inviting Indian firms to invest in Afghan mining.

➡️

Read with me

🔗Life across borders

I am reading this article from the Asian Dispatch about the missing Bangladesh from this year’s Kolkata Book Fair, first time since 1996. Read with me if you are interested in how the Bengali identity permeates borders and religion and how current geopolitics is more than just visa denials for Bengalis living across from each other.

➡️ I would like to include this section from time to time, if I am reading something I want to bring to you guys. If you would like that, could you please like this post or hit reply so I know?

With love on behalf of two women who cringe at the mention of chai tea latte,

Sudeshna

Co-Founder, DoorDesi 💃

Housekeeping

If this was forwarded to you, subscribe here.

Help us hit our goal of 1000 subs by August 15, would you forward it to a friend?

If you can’t find the newsletter, check your spam folder. And please mark this address as ‘not spam.’ If the newsletter isn’t in your spam folder, either, you should look in the Promotions tab.