*From Ms. Nirupama Menon Rao, former Foreign secretary*

*From Ms. Nirupama Menon Rao, former Foreign secretary* “A thread on what shaped me, and the kind of India I hope to see. 70 years ago, my parents taught me to call them Mummy and Daddy — in a very Indian environment. It wasn’t about being less Indian. It was about being open to the world. We didn’t have much money. My father’s modest Army salary supported the whole family. Boarding school was never an option — they couldn’t afford it. But wherever he was posted, they made sure we went to the best local schools No expensive toys. My mother stitched the clothes we wore. One pair of shoes — worn till they gave out. But there was no shortage of dreams. Why? Because we had books. Books, and books, and more books. We read in English. We heard Malayalam at home. We watched films at the regimental cinema — Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, English. The world felt like an oyster. Cosmopolitan, yet deeply rooted. My father’s Army life gave us a pan-Indian family: “Uncles” and “Aunties” from Punjab, UP, Andhra, Maharashtra, and beyond. We were Malayali — And yet, truly Indian. It is possible to grow up reading English novels… …and still feel the tug of temple bells, the cadence of Malayalam, and the comfort of coconut oil in the hair. That balance — between the local and the global, the traditional and the modern — is what I wish for every Indian. Not either-or. Both. Imagine a generation: Confident in its roots. Open to ideas from anywhere. Proud of its language and customs. Fluent in the world’s idioms. That’s not too much to ask. That’s the India we can be. Call it rooted cosmopolitanism. Grounded globalism. Or simply: Indian — fully and freely. We had little money. But we had extraordinary parents. And through them, we had the world “