In the middle of Nagpur stands a small stone pillar with four horses around it. It is called the Zero Mile Stone. The British put it there because they considered Nagpur the geographical centre of India, and distances were measured from it.
I pass it often. And I sometimes think it is a good place from which to watch the world. Far from Delhi's politics and Mumbai's markets, you see India as one piece, and you see more clearly how events thousands of kilometres away reach our homes.
How I started
I run an IT business. My days are spent on clients, code and deadlines. About seven years ago I started reading about geopolitics out of curiosity, mainly to understand why fuel prices, the rupee and our exports moved the way they did.
I quickly found that every one of those questions led somewhere else. To a war in West Asia. To a shipping lane near the Horn of Africa. To a decision in Washington or Beijing. Once I saw that, I could not stop reading.
Three things geopolitics has taught me
First, geography does not change, but its meaning does. The Himalayas, the Indian Ocean and our long land borders have always shaped India. But today the ocean matters as much as the mountains, because most of our trade and energy come by sea.
Second, a country is respected for what it can do, not what it says. India's voice in the world has grown as our economy, our technology and our defence production have grown. Speeches follow strength, not the other way round.
Third, security begins at home. Every outside threat India has faced has tried to use our internal divisions. A united society is the first line of defence. That is something I saw again and again while writing about Operation Sindoor.
Why ordinary people should care
Many people think geopolitics is for diplomats and professors. I disagree. If you run a business, buy petrol, pay EMIs or have a child in the army, the world outside affects you every day.
My aim, through my writing, is to explain these big events in simple language, from an Indian point of view. Not from London or New York, but from the centre of India.