If you’re gearing up for a summer escape, early bookings might be a necessity rather than a choice. A combination of soaring jet fuel prices, geopolitical strains in West Asia, and flight reroutings is driving ticket prices to unprecedented levels, resulting in longer journeys and fewer budget-friendly options. Airlines are modifying fares to counterbalance increased operational costs, while travelers are adjusting their preferences for routes and destinations. Here’s what the ongoing turbulence signifies for your travel plans and why the chance for affordable fares is swiftly diminishing.
From Royal Residences to Countryside Getaways: India Shines on TIME’s 2026 List
From a beautifully restored 350-year-old palace in Madhya Pradesh to a remote lodge in the Himalayas accessible only by foot, a regenerative farm stay in Rajasthan, and a cutting-edge cocktail bar in Delhi, India is gaining global acclaim for its varied travel offerings. These remarkable locations are featured in TIME’s World’s Greatest Places of 2026.
Kashmir Blooms: Asia’s Largest Tulip Festival Returns
Spring is in full swing in the Kashmir Valley, heralding one of its most awaited seasonal events. The Tulip Festival in Srinagar, set against the Zabarwan hills with a view of Dal Lake, has launched with a remarkable 1.8 million tulips across over 70 varieties this year. As the garden bursts into bloom ahead of schedule, here’s everything you need to know — from optimal visiting times and ticket information to what makes this vibrant, fleeting season one of India’s most captivating travel experiences.
Travel Benefits, Hidden Fees, and Evolving Regulations: Understanding Your Spending Power
With hotel loyalty programmes transforming into comprehensive lifestyle reward systems and changes in airport lounge access conditions tied to spending, the landscape of how travelers derive value from their money is changing. Concurrently, escalating input costs — fuelled by the ongoing LPG shortage affecting dining establishments — are surfacing in unexpected ways, with some restaurants attempting to transfer costs through dubious add-on fees.
India’s Metro Network: Among the Largest in the World
The Most Dangerous Item on Your Plate? Your Phone
At some point, eating transitioned from being instinctual to performative. We delve into the act of capturing, editing, and sharing meals as more than just a tendency. It’s a behavior reshaping our relationship with food. Drawing on research and expert analysis, this narrative investigates how social media feeds, swinging between indulgence and restriction, subtly shape eating habits, body image, and even mental health.
Scrolling, Comparing, and Feeling Worse: The Impact of Social Media on Young Users
In recent weeks, we’ve examined how governments globally are rethinking children’s access to social media and the technological advances supporting this. Now, a new global report links extended screen time — particularly through passive, algorithm-driven content consumption — with decreased life satisfaction, with teenage girls being particularly affected.
Meta Seeks Your Audience — Even if It’s on Other Platforms
In conversations about social media, it’s not all doom and gloom. When leveraged correctly, it can be a powerful tool for generating income. With Meta’s new Creator Fast Track programme, the company is inviting influential digital creators from platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to start earning on Facebook as well, providing guaranteed payouts, increased reach, and quicker access to monetization features. This initiative indicates a broader competition among platforms for creators, where audiences might reside on one app but earning opportunities are increasingly distributed across various platforms.
Imtiaz Ali and the Business of Millennial Desire
As Imtiaz Ali commemorates over twenty years in Hindi cinema, his films appear less as love stories and more as a thoughtful exploration of the millennial mindset — a generation that spends to feel fulfilled yet often feels adrift. From Rockstar to Tamasha, his characters encapsulate the emotional currents behind today’s prevalent consumption trends — from slow travel and therapy culture to dating apps and passion-fueled careers. This piece examines how Ali’s cinema has anticipated the aspirations driving India’s most influential spending demographic, even as cultural attention shifts to Gen Z.
What We Watched This Week: Dhurandhar: The Revenge
Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar: The Revenge has finally premiered! Marketed as a grand “mass event,” the Ranveer Singh-led film leans heavily into scale, spectacle, and pre-release excitement. While Singh’s intense screen presence anchors the expansive revenge storyline, the lack of significant characters and underdeveloped supporting roles diminish its emotional impact. The sequel taps into raw rage and blockbuster aspirations, yet it begins to feel overly stretched and contrived by the conclusion.
Stories Where Fiction Meets Murder
And in case you missed it — Kouri Richins, a Utah-based mother of three who self-published a children’s book titled Are You with Me? following her husband’s “unexpected” death, has been found guilty of his murder. This is one of several disturbing cases where authors have later been charged or convicted of murder, their own words casting a haunting shadow over the crimes.
