Updated On: 29 July, 2025 06:54 AM IST | Mumbai | C Y Gopinath
Everyone is fighting over land they claim they own, whether it’s Ukraine or Kashmir. But we are tenants and custodians, not owners

Taken together, those doomed to live in non-existent or disputed countries total about 64 million, roughly equal to the combined populations of Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh combined. Illustration by C Y Gopinath using AI
Today I learnt an important life lesson. It was about ownership. Let’s say you have a Rolls-Royce. You tell your friends, “Hello, friends, look at my Rolls-Royce.”
I learnt today that to be truly yours, it’s not enough for you to say so. Everyone else also has to agree that it is yours. If even one person believes the Rolls-Royce is actually his, you’re in trouble. He’ll try to take it when you’re not looking. He’ll sneak into your house looking for the keys. He’ll try to get others to agree with him and support him. He’ll threaten your wife and children. He’ll provoke you. It’ll never end.
Here’s another great example. There’s a place called Kashmir to the north of India. A country called Pakistan believes it owns a part of it. India doesn’t agree. China, to the north, sort of feels a part of it may belong to it. No one is happy about the situation, and it’s only getting worse. It’s not much fun being a Kashmiri these days.