Review of Sahel Seth’s WTF India: Are we losing the plot?

 "Let me tell you something about India. India is the only country in the world where a man can step over a dead body on his way to a yoga class, take a selfie with a cow blocking a six-lane highway, complain about corruption while bribing a traffic cop and then write a LinkedIn post about how India is the next superpower. All before breakfast. And not see anything remotely contradictory in any of it." This is how Suhel Seth's book:  WTF India: Are We Losing the Plot? Begins.While everything in the book is known by most people, this book is meant to jog the citizens out of ghe reverie they seem to be in.

The writer says that he is writing this book in desperation as Indians have settled into sad acceptance of the situation with collapsed bridges, potholes roads, poor AQI, bribery as a Customer Delivery fees, poor health, education and policing and a citizenry which is both complicit and not demanding enough.

The book brings into focus how the growing middle class is seceding from the country without moving out.Arguing that this pooulation at 10 crore will be above Germany's and around Russia's European population,needs to grow out of जुगाड़ mentality and think of innovation.It suggests that with discipline,punctuality, empathy, excellence, working systems, liveable cities and politics with empathy can make India a better place.

Sahel Seth.WTF INDIA: Are We Losing the Plot. Delhi:Juggernaut,2026.

The Class of 2016

The Indian Under 19 side has won the 2026 edition of the Under19 World Cup . It is a good time to see how the  members of the team which represented India in the same tournament in 2016 in which they had finished runners up to the West Indies have done over the past ten years.

Not much need to be said about Risabh Pant, Ishan Kishan and Washington Sundar who have played across formats for India and are household names.Sarfaraz Khan has played tests and is a First Class heavyweight and his non presence in test matches raise more questions than his presence. Avesh Khan and Khaleel Ahmed  have played ODIs and T20is for India and remain active across all  formats including IPL at domestic level.

Then there are  players like Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Dagar and Mahipal Lomror who have or have had IPL contracts  andare mainstays of their domestic teams. Arman Jaffer has blossomed with Mizoram of late and Rahul Batham is the only player not to have played First Class cricket though he has played List A and T20 for Madhya Pradesh.

What is surprising though is that nobody from this group has had a serious career outside of sports.Something Zafar Ansari who played for England after his double first at Cambridge, wrote a Masters' thesis on American Civil Rights and was called to the Bar and is a Barrister at Blackstone Chambers.