March 03, 2025

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BRAVE NEW DEAL

Nothing focuses the minds of world leaders quite as much as the prospect of being struck down by a sledgehammer-wielding president of the world's sole superpower. It has been barely a month since Donald J. Trump formally assumed office, but he has already gone about his global demolition spree with astonishing and, for many, alarming speed. Not only is Trump rapidly dismantling massive parts of his own federal bureaucracy and the idea of what constituted America but he has also walked, nay, sprinted his talk of throwing out illegal immigrants and expressed his pet peeve of getting nations trading with America to lower their tariffs significantlySo, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi set out to meet Trump along with Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Advisor A.K. Doval on February 13 at the Oval Office, they didn't want to walk into an ambush and possibly return red-faced and empty-handed. Jaishankar's visits to the US soon after Trump was re-elected and at the swearing-in ceremony on January 20 ensured that he had tested the waters and got a good grasp of what Trump 2.0 was going to be all aboutThe Indian assessment was that Trump was more bold, confident and assertive than he was in his first term. The conservative Republican party had become his supplicants, turning it into, well, Trump's own party. It was also through his own set of friends, filters and priorities that Trump viewed his relations with countries and he would deal with them in a manner that was anything but conventional. The Indian delegation was aware that Trump remained capricious and could swing like a pendulum from one extreme to the other, forcing them to be nimble-footed in their dealings with himThat it would now be every nation for itself was evident in Trump's dismissive treatment of some of America's closest allies, including insulting Canada by referring to it as the 51st state of the US, demanding Greenland from Denmark and asserting that the Panama Canal would soon belong to the US. Meanwhile, as he had promised during his campaign, five days before he even assumed office, Trump forced Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire and walk the tenuous path towards peace. On the Ukraine war, Trump stunned his North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) allies by bypassing them and directly engaging with Russia for an early settlement.

SHORTCUT TO A PERFECT BODY

Gunjan Malhotra, a 42-year-old homemaker in Delhi, has found the trick to looking good for the numerous parties she has to attend with her husband, who runs a successful construction business. "It is impossible to maintain a diet and exercise routine to ensure you fit into size zero dresses, especially as you age and your metabolism plummets," she says. A few years ago, she discovered CoolSculpting, a non-invasive technology that uses ultrasound energy to target and remove stubborn body fat, particularly from the chest, stomach and thighs. The results improve over a few months, as the skin renews itself. And that is not all. Unlike her mother-in-law, who, Malhotra says, had to go off the grid for four-five days to recover from a fat-loss surgery, she can return to normal life in minutes. Helping her get her dream shape is Luxury Aesthetics, a non-surgical cosmetic procedure clinic in Panchsheel Park, Delhi. In a silent revolution, minimally invasive plastic surgery, spurred by new technologies, is well on its way to making appearances more presentable for more people, in unbelievably quick time. And minus the risk of surgical errors, scarring, swelling or post-surgical complications thanks to minimal incisions, safe anaesthesia, 3D imaging, AI-guided surgery, a broader range of injectable fillers and AI-personalised consultations with 24/7 aftercare. Today, "one can get a nose job and return to work the next day with hardly anyone noticing it, as there is no swelling and it's done to look as natural as possible," says celebrity cosmetic surgeon Dr Parag Telang, who operates in Dubai and Mumbai. While a non-surgical surgery might sound like an oxymoron, it is the new reality. Patients can leave within hours of a procedure, looking just like they would if they had opted for a time-consuming open surgery"People want subtle, natural results. Not something that says it is a result of surgery," says Dr Rajat Gupta, a plastic surgeon and national secretary of the Indian Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (IAAPS). Lunchbreak botox treatments (which, astonishingly, take as little as 30 minutes), fillers (hyaluronic acid-based injectables that help reduce wrinkles and restore volume to the face), combo treatments like mommy makeovers and hybrid facelifts are now much in fashion (see box, The World of Plastic Fantastic)"I don't go for a botox during my lunch break alone," smiles Purnima Dutt (name changed), a 59-year-old design consultant from Pune. "But yes, it is so quick and painless. I sometimes stop on the way for a meeting, get it done and go ahead." She has also done permanent face threads (which lift saggy skin) and a high-definition liposuction (that reduces fat) on her buttocks. While she is hardly ashamed of it, the whole point of paying such a high price (her botox alone costs Rs 30,000 a session) is to ensure a seamless transition designed to attract minimal attention. "I want to get work done but make it look like it is natural," she saysThe fact that more Indians than ever before are resorting to the latest trend in cosmetic surgery to improve appearances is borne out by the numbers--according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) 2023 global survey, nearly half of