WritingsOnTheWall is a metaphor that has emerged through about three decades of travel, mostly in poll-bound India. This instalment comes to you from the Kashmir Valley. It is also my first experience of watching an election in so sensitive, vital, and fascinating a region.
First, what is WritingsOnTheWall? It means literally looking at the walls to see what’s changing and what isn’t, what the people want and what they absolutely don’t.
The walls also tell us what the people are buying (branded underwear, Nitish’s Bihar, 2010), or if they are too broke to be buying anything at all (Lalu’s Bihar, 2005). That
First Published: May 25 2024 | 9:30 AM IST