Little Big Things

The app life

Pallavi Aiyar

Living in China, where all of life's needs have been telescoped into the mobile phone, feels like the future the rest of the world is queuing for.

Little Big Things

Of cats and writers

Pallavi Aiyar

After 19 years, a beloved cat leaves behind more than memories: he survives in a family’s lore, two novels, and the peculiar bond between writers and their feline muses.

Little Big Things

A fair national exam is radical politics

Pallavi Aiyar

When India's medical entrance scandal drove students into the streets, a writer watching from Beijing asked what exam systems are really protecting.

Little Big Things

Here, there, everywhere: The geography of belonging

Pallavi Aiyar

For children raised across borders, the relationship between place and identity can become complicated, raising new questions about roots, privilege and belonging.

Little Big Things

The art of war and peace, at home

Pallavi Aiyar

After more than two decades of marriage and countless arguments, an unconventional lesson on how to disagree deeply, fight with passion, and still choose one another.

Little Big Things

You can't argue a child into loving books

Pallavi Aiyar

Instead of fighting screens, a mother learned to wrap books in rituals her son would come to love and anticipate with joy.

Little Big Things

Non-transactional kindness: What schools should teach in the age of AI

Pallavi Aiyar

If AI can increasingly handle memory (delete recall) and even analysis, schools must ask a deeper question: what remains uniquely human?

Little Big Things

Make way for the Al-Raj

Pallavi Aiyar

Corrupt, self-serving and increasingly despised — what if politicians were simply replaced by AI?

Little Big Things

The need for generosity of listening

Pallavi Aiyar

We spend a lot of time learning how not to offend. A cross-cultural communication expert argues we should spend more time learning how not to be offended.

Little Big Things

Your national dish is lying to you

Pallavi Aiyar

From the croissant to ketchup, a tour of the surprising, border-crossing origin stories behind the dishes nations love to call their own — including one that traces back to Sumatra.

Little Big Things

Boredom is the new luxury

Pallavi Aiyar

As the distraction economy steals our ability to think and focus, the most radical thing we can do could be nothing at all.

Little Big Things

Hindu epics in a Muslim majority nation

Pallavi Aiyar

Nothing captures Indonesia's pluralism better than wayang kulit. This essay explains how the Ramayana and Mahabharata continue to shape the country’s society, politics, and everyday life.

Little Big Things

The caste system of travel

Pallavi Aiyar

From embassy queues to airport holding rooms, a personal journey through passportism and the hidden privileges of global mobility.