From shock to speed: Story of 1st quarter of this century

WELL, the 21st century did not begin with collapse, though many feared it would.

- JAYANTH JACOB @New Delhi

The Y2K bug, imagined as a digital apocalypse, fizzled into nothingness, leaving fireworks, relief, and an early lesson - the century's most profound transformations would not arrive as sudden breakdowns but as accelerating currents. What followed has been an era defined less by singular inventions than by the convergence of technology, power, fear, speed, and scale. The first true rupture came not from technology but from terror. The September 11, 2001 attacks killed 2,977 people and did far more than bring down buildings. They rewired global psychology. Borders hardened, surveillance expanded, and the language of permanent emergency entered everyday life. Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and later Syria tested military strategies in a world where ideology moved faster than armies and nonstate actors challenged state power. Terror struck from London to Mumbai to Paris, revealing how globalised networks could spread mindless violence across borders.