Premium booze and Parliamentary blues

Hello DoorDesi,

This has been an overwhelming week to be a human who is perpetually online. It feels almost impossible to make sense of the world we’re living in.

Conversations with friends made us realise just how many of us are struggling with the day-to-day tasks of adulthood — household chores, navigating bureaucracies in both our home and host countries, supporting aging parents, inflation, social obligations… the list is endless. How did our parents do this? Why were we taught integration and differentiation, but not the basics of personal finance or how to manage a relationship?

Ufff… if we could crawl back to our parents’ homes and eat a home-cooked meal without planning the next one ourselves, we would.

How are you doing, friend? Wanna chat?

Just the gist

🔗South India's family planning success becomes a democratic headache

💌 This story is coming to you courtesy one of the Doordesis who pointed us in this direction and we thought it is an interesting story to cover.

India’s southern states are finding out that progress is a double-edged sword. Successful campaign towards birth control has led to low birth rate in these states. However, these states now risk reduced representation at the Parliament as a result where seats can be reallocated based on the population data per state. A reallocation based purely on the next Census data could lead to Uttar Pradesh alone gaining 14 seats while southern states lose over 20 of them.

➡️ In the most populous country in the world, which suffers from grave income inequality, poverty, climate crisis, and infrastructure shortages, a successful population control model should not be treated as a punishment.

🔗The great trade handshake and your wallet

Premium Scotch is going to get cheaper in India now that India and the UK are very close to signing a new Foreign Trade Agreement (FTA) which has been in exploratory phase since 2007. What seems like an abandonment of all our efforts towards ‘Make in India‘, India has agreed to the most extensive concession in government procurement to date. On the face this appears to be a healthy give and take where substantial tariff cuts are being made on both sides. This FTA could set a precedent for others to come but how that impacts our own Make in India policies is yet to be seen.

➡️ For now, you may get fewer requests to bring back exotic, duty free alcohol for friends and relatives. And enjoy your favourite British liqour in India and buy cheaper goods at your local Indian grocery store when in the UK.

🔗Gentrification, displacement, erasure or modernisation?

The Dharavi Redelopment Project (DRP) has been in the news for a while for all sorts of reasons.

Quick recap: It’s a plan focused on transforming Asia’s largest slum into a modern, integrated urban space with green spaces, affordable housing, public transport and all that good stuff. Local residents have, however, been sounding alarm bells about displacement, gentrification, and well, Adani Group making more money off the backs of the common man (yet again?)

Recently over 100 potters staged a protest against a recent Adani Group survey, fearing eviction and the loss of their traditional livelihoods. Kumbharwada’s earthenware industry has survived generations, but residents say they weren’t consulted, and the surveyors didn’t explain what the project means for them. While Adani claims the redevelopment will be inclusive and transparent, locals are demanding clear assurances about their homes and workspaces, not glossy presentations.

➡️ Behind the sleek renders and big-budget dreams lies a community terrified of being erased. As the world craves more ‘community’, can urbanisation and modernisation adapt to the needs of the people most affected?

🔗”They took our jobs” is back again!

Donald Trump has presented Silicon Valley with its least welcome performace review - a masterclass in economic nationalism by criticisng them for hiring workers from India and outsourcing manufacturing to China. So “America First“ is now an HR policy? He specifically targeted the H1-B visa.

He has also signed three AI related executive orders that put a lot of focus on building AI infrastructure in the US and “winning the AI race“. So, what, AI comes with a passport too now?

➡️ Trump’s position on immigration might just have an impact on the DoorDesis in the US, or those wanting to move to the US. So all we can say to our fellow desis there is - stay safe and stay sane!

Keeping up with the internet

➡️ We are skipping this section this week because there is no way to fill it up with a funny meme or internet trend when there is mass starvation taking place right now in Gaza.

Here are are few other parts in the world that are facing mass starvation and famine - in case you were not distraught enough about the state of Gaza and the state of inaction.

💌 Take care - it’s a difficult world we live in.

Desi culture

🔗 Community, collaboration, and comebacks: the Muthupet mangrove revival

A quiet coastal town in Tamil Nadu, Muthupet, is witnessing something rare: an ecological comeback. After years of degradation due to silt accumulation, blocked tidal inflows, and canopy loss, the region’s mangrove forests are being revived. Thanks to a grassroots effort led by local communities under the Green Tamil Nadu Mission, over 2,000 hectares of mangroves have been restored in the past two years 😍

The revival has not only improved biodiversity and fish catch but also generated income for women’s self-help groups and landless labourers.

Instead of fencing off the area, the project bet on people’s participation and it paid off.

➡️ Next time in you are in India, consider a trip to Muthupet lagoon, the mangrove forest, and the wildlife sanctuary.

Tell us where you are

There is hardly a corner of the world one can go to and not meet a person of Indian origin. But here's the thing: there's surprisingly little data about where we actually are. We are on a mission to make the Indian diaspora visible, connected, and stronger.

Pin your spot, represent your city, and help us paint this map rangoli-style with our scattered-but-connected DoorDesi community. If you have already, send it to a DoorDesi living near you.

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

Sudeshna & Mili

Founders, DoorDesi 💃

P.S. Save us a chai if we ever end up in your city, we’ll bring the murukku.

Housekeeping

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