Dear CSM India Readers/Friends,

Hope the first month of the year 2022 is treating you well and all staying safe and healthy. The New Year greetings for the past couple of years have assumed such an eerie haunted touch that most of us await with bated breath and crossed fingers praying for a break from the agonizingly routine surges in the Covid cases and tragic deaths. Pandemic has changed the way we look at life and the world we live in, in other words, philosophical thought about our existence is no longer an abstraction for recluse thinkers in their lofty ivory towers.  We have started valuing the simple joys of waking up in the morning as a healthy individual and being able to smile through the day, we value our friendships and family relationships and we take cognizance of the beautiful and bountiful nature amidst us.  We sincerely hope that 2022 brings a respite from this escalating pandemic and we can look forward to calmer times.

CSM launches its India Edition after a very successful debut in the UK with its UK edition, and in this very special year 2022, we all look forward with full anticipation, hope, delight and excitement. The ‘frisson’ of a launch of an online publication has infected the team here at CSM.  I was accused by my MPhil/PhD transfer panel for my infectious enthusiasm and valorizing energy and just hope that I have been genteel with my CSM UK publisher/owner Dominic!  We look forward to welcoming contributions from the highly talented and creative Indian writers and intellectuals for their contribution to CSM India edition. We wish to tap into the vibrant, dynamic energy of India, the emerging young India which is making strides in diverse fields like Sports, Technology, Arts, Literature, Films and the world of entrepreneurship. CSM is now fellow travellers of this growth story of India.

As we were closing the last year and doing trial runs for the Indian edition we observed Indian cities like Kolkata were buzzing with fervour and energy ushering in the festive season which started around the second week of Christmas.  The streets were lit with glittering illuminated lights and animated ‘luminaires’ in the shape of bells, Santa Clauses, mistletoes, Christmas trees and human figures. The decorations created a phantasmagorical atmosphere, turning the main thoroughfare of Kolkata, Park Street into a fairyland. The confectionaries and cake stores were doing brisk business in plum cakes, mince pies, fruit cakes and pastries which were being consumed in large numbers.

Many were deeply concerned with the caution being thrown to the wind and alarmed at the prospect of rising Covid cases once the festivities are over. The media went to town with warning forecasts and beseeched people to take care of themselves. With the onset of the new year, many cities and Indian regions clamped down with lockdowns and night curfews to stem the rising tide of Covid cases.

In many ways, 2022 will be etched when we look back in a couple of decades as the year of India for CSM!! 

Let’s all together look forward to a blessed healthy and enriching year of 2022!!

Kaustav (Kris) Bhattacharyya

Kaustav Bhattacharyya is a PhD from Cass Business School, London, an entrepreneur and an Anglosphere enthusiast.