Fair is foul, and foul is fair...

The election season’s curtain call fell with its dramatic climax with the BJP’s mandate in the most populous and politically-sensitive state of Uttar Pradesh. The election results of Uttar Pradesh for 2017 show the continuation of a trend of voting a party to form the government with full majority by giving it a clear mandate. In other parts, the mandate fractured but Punjab swung clearly with the Congress Captain Amarinder Singh who is set for a great innings. The Congress emerged as the largest party in two small states, Goa and Manipur, but was short of a majority, and the BJP formed alliances, enabling it to take power.

This fear and anxiety have also impacted our college campuses where students are getting violently divided along ideological lines

This sense of siege is spreading globally as nations increasingly echo nationalist sentiments. Take someone like the US President Donald Trump, who apart from keeping foreigners out, also wants its people not to travel out to places such as Asia, including India.

But Indians are never daunted and remain in search of travel and greener pastures. With a prosperous middle class, more and more Indians are today outward bound for holidays and business.

In this issue of DW, we take a look at all these ongoing trends at home and in the world along with our usual mix of easy reads and thought-provoking ideas. The death of ideology or the end of imagination explores the mores of a changing society and its politics; the muffling of voices in the arts by an ever-growing censorship in our increasingly exploratory cinema; or the joys of eating at some exclusive fine-dining restaurants without fear

Anything can happen in the future. For some people, that’s exciting. For others, that’s scary. And even if both kinds of people are working toward a better world tomorrow, only one of them gets to be happy today. So be happy!