Feeding the strays at 4 AM this morning, the rain was just like it was in '99 — bahut zyada. Our colony had a small candlelight march for the soldiers, and I remember thinking, "Yeh desh kaise bachta hai, jab itne kam log hi jaagte hain?" My son was barely one year old then; now he's in Muscat, and I still count the days by the monsoon log I keep in my transistor radio box.

Monitoring these Pune servers, I watched the young IT fellows here stream an esports tournament during their break. It reminded me of my son explaining why chess and these games are alike—both need strategy, patience. But spare a thought for the local boys in our Dehradun cyber cafes, their talent as real as any grandmaster's, with no organised *vyavastha* to take them forward. Data shows these industries grow, yet our mountain towns are always last to get the internet cables.