India is the second most sleep-deprived nation in the world, according to a 2019 sleep study published in Science Advances covering 68 countries and 1.1 billion nights of sleep data. The researchers found Indian adults average 6 hours 28 minutes of sleep per night — well below the 7 to 9 hours that the Indian…
He has been working in the courtyard since noon. It is 3 PM, the temperature is 43°C, and he has just walked inside and sat down heavily. His face is flushed red. He is sweating through his shirt. He says his head is pounding and the room feels like it is moving. He is 67…
You have tried the lemon juice. You have done the curd and besan pack from the reel. You bought the face wash that said “de-tan” on the label. Nothing worked — or if it worked for a day, the skin went back to exactly where it was. If this is your experience, you are not…
You apply for a home loan. The bank rejects it — citing poor credit score. But you have never defaulted on anything in your life. You check your CIBIL report for the first time. And there it is: a personal loan of ₹45,000 from an NBFC you have never heard of, opened two years ago,…
Every May and June, the same anxiety hits lakhs of salaried Indians. You meant to file ITR last year. You just never got around to it. Then you did not file this year either. Now the deadline is approaching again and you are wondering — what actually happens if you have not filed ITR for…
₹30,000 per month. That is the salary of a very large segment of India’s working population — junior government employees, entry-level private sector workers, teachers, factory workers, and first-job professionals in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Most personal finance advice in India is written for people earning ₹60,000 or more. It talks about SIPs of ₹5,000…
The sofa is the most used piece of furniture in any Indian home. It is where the family watches cricket, where children do their homework, where the dog curls up after a walk in the rain, where toddlers eat biscuits, where someone always seems to spill chai at the worst possible moment. In a household…
It is 9 PM. Every window is shut. The ceiling fan is running at full speed. You have a Goodnight or All Out plugged in. And still — that unmistakeable high-pitched whine in your ear just as you try to sleep. A mosquito, unfazed by everything, circling patiently. In India, mosquitoes are not just a…
Your stainless steel kitchen sink looked bright and shiny when the kitchen was new. Today it has orange-brown rust patches near the drain, a reddish ring where the pressure cooker sat overnight, and a general dullness that no amount of regular washing seems to fix. Here is something most people do not know: in 95…