THE HUMAN EDGE IN AN AI WORLD

Your article carried me back to summers at my grandparents' home—kulhars of cool water in hand, steel plates clinking during morning meals, the aroma of spices and wet earth rising with the sun.

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I remember helping my grandmother roll dough for rotis, the chaos of the market—fruits spilling colour, vendors calling out, children darting around on bicycles. Today, plastic dominates—once, on a riverbank, I saw a heron trapped in plastic, its wings flailing helplessly. India generates millions of tonnes of plastic waste annually, much of it choking rivers, fields, and even entering our food. Humans are not without a destructive side, but whereas AI may calculate, optimize, and predict, it can never pause, grieve, or wonder. Our human edge—empathy, memory, conscience—must guide the future, ensuring that what we create nourishes life, rather than suffocates it.
—VIJAY SINGH ADHIKARI, Nainital

Vijay Singh Adhikari wins this month's 'Write & Win' prize of ₹1,000. —EDs