Kamal Ghorui
As a viral meme says, March isn’t over yet, but what a month it’s been. We’re living through the biggest oil shock ever, and stock market carnage. Why? Because US and Israel took out Ayatollah Khamenei. Just like that, amid a charade of negotiations. Last time someone killed a king – ok, heir – we got WW1. Assassinations never end well – Caesar’s in 44BCE caused civil war, and ended the Roman Republic. That was March, too. The Ides of March. Khamenei’s end, however, came on the last day of Feb, which is a strange coincidence – Trump’s started Iran war on the same date that Papa Bush ended Iraq war, back in 1991.
There’s something about March and wars. Bush Jr started his Iraq war on March 20, 2003. Maybe, March being named after Mars, Roman god of war, has something to do with it. Trump may have pondered this, while gazing at Caesar’s Palace, from his Trump International hotel in Las Vegas. Who knows, it led him to start a different kind of war, with tariffs, this time last year. But that’s a needless bad rap for March. It’s been a month of good “wars”, too. Gandhi started his Salt March on the 12th of March. Mangal Pandey started India’s great war against British Empire, on March 29, 1857. Talking of colonialism, this week UN passed a resolution declaring slave trade as the greatest crime against humanity. Israel, US, and Argentina disagreed. And in other momentous March news, Meta and YouTube were hauled over red-hot coals. Some say this marks the end of social media, as we know it.
But March isn’t over yet. What more might it bring? Anything’s possible, if history’s any guide. From practical – patenting the first pencil with inbuilt eraser, 1858 – to pivotal – Russia’s sale of Alaska to US, 1867. Weather? Delhi’s been wintry, summery, and rainy this month. Stormy? And, no, that’s not a reference to Trump.
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