I once received a 5% raise at my previous job. I was heartbroken because I knew I had worked hard, brought in good ideas, met deadlines, and acted as a team player. I did good work but I didn't market myself. I believed that working hard is enough. I was wrong. I realized that we live in a time where we'll have to market ourselves. So, the following year, I started marketing myself. When someone appreciated me in person, I asked them to send an email mentioning the same. I kept a work journal w...

I was chatting with a friend a couple of days back and we discovered our shared interest in biology. We were discussing the fascinating world of microbiology and I couldn't help but talk about my time as a bioengineering student. If not for the pressure to earn, I would've become a professor teaching micro or molecular biology. But life had other plans. I have a teeny-tiny bit of regret, but all I felt that evening was not regret, but nostalgia. Why do we feel warm and comfy when we're nostalg...

My wife and I crossed a major milestone last week. We had a baby girl. She is so pretty we constantly wonder how! Genetics works in mysterious ways, I guess. When I was at the hospital for my wife's delivery, I noticed something. Everyone at the hospital - from the hospital staff to random strangers on the elevator thought of the same thing. They assumed I had a boy. They addressed the baby using male pronouns. For instance, I was bringing the baby back to the room after her vaccination and a b...

If you're an Indian, one of the things people ask you as soon as you get married is "so, when is the good news?" - which is the code word for 'having a kid'. Indian society hasn't come to terms with how pressuring and violating that one question is. They keep asking. And many ignorant newlyweds give up to this peer pressure. It is a lovely move for couples in long-term relationships, but it is dangerous for someone who'd gone through an arranged marriage. Without knowing their partner and stre...

This is not a rant or advice. This is something I’ve observed and thought about a lot. Societal and traditional values change with every generation. For example, a good chunk of people in Tamilnadu performs a ritual called “Kaateri and Muneeswaran poojai” before a wedding or childbirth in the family. They believe the ritual will protect the newlyweds and newborns from any harm. My grandparent’s generation conducted these rituals in open spaces at night. They finished the poojai, ate cooked me...

Every time I boarded the bus to attend a semester exam, I listened to ‘Hotel California’ by Eagles for good luck. I’m not sure how I got introduced to the song because back then I only had three types of friends: the one who listened only to Tamil songs, the one who listened to Backstreet Boys, Westlife, and Britney Spears, and only one person in the third category who never listened to any song. I occasionally came across Metallica from friend’s friends, but I never got heavy metal, so I gave ...

November 7, 2022 Last weekend, I witnessed something fascinating. I saw everyone on Twitter teaching Elon Musk how to run Twitter. They never cared about the fact that Elon Musk has revolutionized two industries in the last decade: the automotive industry and space travel, and has more experience running a company than 99.9% of the people on Twitter. But, the folks of Twitter never stopped. The advice kept coming. We love being the experts on social media. Whenever a major news event occurs, t...

I heard the song when my car tuned into the only available station at that time. The song was 'Adikadi' from the movie 'Ponmaalai Pozhudhu'. Most of you wouldn't have heard it. But I listened to the song every day when the album was released in 2013. It was my favorite song that year. But, then the song disappeared from my life. No signs of it all these years until I heard it that day during my drive. All those memories came rushing back to me. It happens to all of us. We all have a list of fav...

In 2013, I boarded the train to Kolkata with a bunch of friends on a photography trip. We roamed Kolkata for five days, walked the streets from morning till night, and we shot hundreds of photographs. It was great. But, when I came back and looked at all the photographs on my computer, I found only five good photographs that I can proudly share with the world. The rest were mediocre. This was not new. Whenever I go on a photography trip or weekend photo walks, I get one, or maybe two decent pho...

Whenever there's an arguement and I raise my voice, my mom would immediately say "There are people around us, living in other flats, Karthik. What would they think?" It was cue for me to lower my voice and suppress my anger. Only in those moments, I often think "What would they think? They would think I'm angry. What else would they think?" But, to be honest, why should I regulate my emotion wondering what would my neighbor think of me? Why should I care?. As humans we have basic rights for eve...

The title of this essay might have made you think “Isn’t it obvious?”. But, how many of us have gone to a therapist when we faced a crisis? When we felt angry, stressed, or anxious? We never did. During such moments, we either think “This too will pass” or chug down a few beers assuming it will make us feel better. I was no different. I never realized I had unprocessed grief from my dad’s death. I was suffering from anxiety and depression. Like all the others, I thought “This too shall pass”. B...

My dad never believed in health insurance. He always said “I haven’t done anything wrong in my life, so I won’t get sick.” (I never understood this concept). I would say he was overconfident because he was in his 60s, he was a smoker and he had diabetes, cholesterol, and high blood pressure. That paints quite a picture, isn’t it? After a lot of argument, in 2010, my mom and I convinced him to sign up for a health insurance policy for a meagre sum of Rs.50,000. One day in 2012, I got a call fro...

I came up with this metaphor while listening to a podcast. I know it’s a weird metaphor. I think so too! But, hear me out. Our body is like a car. It has got thousands of moving parts. But, there are some major factors that keep the car going. For example, our mind is the driver, good health is the engine, and time is the fuel. If the engine has issues or stops functioning, then there is no use for the fuel. The journey slows down or stops completely. Similarly, if we run out of fuel, the car w...

Some people cannot be satisfied. Whatever you do, how much ever you care, you can’t stop them from complaining! They’re known as habitual or chronic complainers. They always manage to find a reason to be dissatisfied. You can see habitual complainers everywhere. The dude next table who keeps complaining about the food at the best restaurant in the city, the old man who complains about the government while waiting to get government benefits, the lady on the flight who calls the air hostess a zil...

Earlier this year, I wanted to buy a MacBook. I had the money, but something was stopping me from buying it. I felt guilty for no reason. I thought what if my mom thinks I'm irresponsible! What if my friends judge me for spending so much money on a laptop! But then my wife said, "Why are you feeling guilty? If you have the money, and if you need that laptop, just go and buy it. Don't worry about others." We're often surrounded by this imaginary guilt that stops us from buying what we want. Whe...

There are three types of personal growth: Physical, material, and mental. But, we only care about the first two. We’re often interested in the body image of ourselves and others. Someone becoming fat or thin or well-built is often a topic of discussion when we meet someone. It is even a major subject of interest for the media. We do the same when it comes to material wealth as well. We’re curious about moving up the career ladder, saving up, buying that car, or building that house. Society has ...

When we're young, parents sell us the idea of God, karma, education, and career. While growing up, our friends sell us the idea of love, relationship, and getting high. Teachers sell us the idea of education and prosperity. Our government sells the idea of taxes and patriotism. Relatives sell us the idea of selling abroad and earning in dollars. The society sells the idea of marriage and a family. Our workplace sells the idea of promotions and success. Financial institutions sell us the idea of...

I have a spot to sit idle and do nothing. Everybody should have a spot to sit idle and do nothing. My spot is not a fancy coffee shop or a mall. It's a barrier that seperates the main road and the service road. There's a supermarket nearby and I usually get an ice cream or a drink and then sit on the barrier and observe the sky, the people walking around me, and the vehicles whirring past me to best the signal that turns red every ninety seconds. Today I was sitting at the same place with a c...

Mornings are magical for most of us (some of my friends who do their best work late at the night would disagree.) As humans, we believe that mornings signify a fresh start. If you feel sick, the advice you get is “sleep it off, you’ll be alright in the morning.” If you feel sad, people around you would most likely say “Get some sleep. Things will become alright.” Fighting an infection? The doctor would probably say the same thing - that things will be okay the next day. For some reason, we bel...

When I was thirteen, my parents took me to consult a Psychologist. Reason? I flunked in all the subjects at school. My parents assumed I needed to talk to a psychologist without talking to me about what was going on. Until 9th grade, I used to wake up at 4 AM, take a bus to Egmore, play tennis, come back and go to school. In the evenings, I had a music class. Then I had homework. I felt tired all the time and was not able to focus on my studies. My teachers constantly kept telling me that music...

When I grew up, mom never used to join us for breakfast or dinner. She’ll be busy in the kitchen cooking for me and dad. Her logic was the breadwinner of the family and the kid should eat first and they should eat it while it’s hot and fresh. She’ll eat after we finish eating. I always hated the idea. As I grew up I tried to reason with her, said we could all eat together. But she never listened. She used to say that this is how women are suppose to be. I don’t blame her. She was conditioned tha...

We make a lot of friends. But most of them fizzle out during the course of time. This happens because of several reasons. Unsaid words - There is build up of several opinions about the other person for a long time. We keep it to ourselves to a point and we stop hanging out. The other person would try their best to connect and will eventually give up. Life happens - We go on our own paths, fighting our own battles, we forget to get in touch with those who are close to us. At one point everybody...

I bought my bike - a Discover 100 DTS-Si under difficult circumstances. Even though I was working a full-time job, most of my salary went into re-paying the educational loan, paying bills, and managing the family expenses. And a year later, I had to quit my job to do my master’s degree and my pocket money for a whole month was ₹800. So, I never had a lot of money for fuel. I’ll fill petrol for ₹50 and drive around. I never filled petrol beyond the reserve point. My bike always ran on reserve f...

I recently met a friend from college. We were en route to meet a few other friends, and we started catching up. “What do you do now?”, she asked. I said, “I handle product marketing for an enterprise software company”. Her reply was, “so, you work in IT?” Even though we studied Biotechnology, a good chunk of us moved to IT and other jobs. “Yes…I work in IT, but in a non-IT job”, I replied. And that is when it struck me. I always wanted to be part of the tech space, but in a non-technical role...

I’ve heard so much from my mom and others about Chennai’s weather. When I came here with my parents in 1999, I realized every bit of what I heard was true. The summer heat was unbearable and I was often amazed to see people in the city walking like it was nothing. And, the worst part was the weather remained unchanged for a good six to seven months. We lived in an independent house and we beat the heat by sprinkling water on the terrace during evenings to wade off the heat and by keeping all th...

My favorite pastime these days is having lunch in my car. I buy takeaway from a random biriyani shop, park my vehicle under a tree on some random road, turn up the AC, and eat the biriyani from the back seat of my car while listening to RJ Balaji’s ‘Naalana murukku’ podcast. A car to me is more than a vehicle. It is my personal space. An extension of my home. My ticket to freedom. Truth be told, outside of my home, I am my true self when I am in my car. I put on my favorite song and sing along ...

I think about the weirdest things when I’m out on a walk. This time I thought about beer. “Some beer and fried chicken would be nice” I told myself. I then ignored the thought and continued walking. I stopped a few hundred meters from home to catch my breath. I looked up at the sky, but a neon signage blocked my view. The signage said “bar”. It was a message from the universe. I listen to the universe. So, I went in and took the corner table. The bar was empty, cold, and the entire place was fi...

This is a rant. The small ‘bhavan’ restaurant was full by the time I and Suba settled in our seats. The waiters were frantically moving between tables noting down and delivering orders. We asked for the specials and placed our order. A minute later, an elderly couple walked in with their daughter, son-in-law, and grandson who was not more than three years old. Since there were no seats, the family sat in the empty seats. The old man in the family waltzed to our table and asked his wife to sit n...

Money - that’s the only thing I thought about in 2013. I realized I was dependent on my parents for too long. So, I started saying “Yes” to creative assignments. I didn’t know any skill. But, I was confident that I can learn anything over a weekend. And, most times I did. The first time someone asked me if I can design a short film poster, I said yes. I also said I would deliver it in two days. But, I didn’t know how to design a short film poster. I learned the basics of Photoshop over a weeken...

New cities can be overwhelming. The crowd, the culture, the food, the climate, the streets. Too much to take in when you’re visiting a place for the first few times. I had a similar experience in Delhi recently. I’ve been to the city twice (my last visit was in 2016), but the experience this time was different. It wasn’t like last time where I spent an entire evening sitting on one of the broken structures of the Hauz Khas fort that overlooked a small pond. A lot of things were different this t...

I take the same walking route every day. It’s been close to a year since we moved to the new place and I pretty much knew all the shops and buildings in my street. But, yesterday I noticed something new on my street. It was an independent house. A big one. It was hiding amidst the plants and the trees. From the looks of it, I would say it was there for a long time. But, I failed to notice it before. Independent houses have that quality. They hide in plain sight, in the middle of apartments and...

I’ve acquired a new habit in the recent times. Working out of cafés. After two years of working from home, I realized chaotic environments help me focus better. I was able to focus better when the noise of a crowd played on my headphones. But, then I thought “why play recorded sounds of a crowd when I can actually be some place that has the real crowd?!” I realized there is a Starbucks five minutes away from where I lived. So, I decided to give it a shot. And, I loved it! The place was well-lit...

Human body is extremely forgiving. It forgives us of the abuse. It forgives when we have a few too many drinks on a crazy night. It forgives when we overeat in the name of fun and it forgives when we load our system with four times more refined sugar than what our body was built to withstand. It forgives us every single time, and manages to fix itself every time. Thanks to evolution we are gifted with better survival and immune mechanisms to help us live a long life. But, we mess it up in our...

Ten years ago, being a consumer was painful. The auto-rickshaw wala at the airport will ask thousand rupees for a Ten kilometer ride. The shopkeeper would charge a bomb and show us the “Fixed price. No discount.” sticker when asked for a discount. The so called “consumer-centric” economy wasn’t so consumer-centric. We were overbilled. Were charged a bomb for home delivery. Return of items was unheard of. And hefty discounts were never on the cards unless it is an ‘Aadi Sale’ at one of those st...

In 2001, the famous Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan reached it’s 75th anniversary. In the event of celebrating the remarkable milestone, the magazine organized several contests - poetry, short fiction, nonfiction writing, art, etc. I read a lot of prize-winning short stories and poems. It was fascinating to see so many talents (including thousands of others who participated but didn’t win) What happened to those amazing stories? They have been forgotten. Readers wouldn’t have saved copies of tho...

In India, whenever you decide to buy something - bike, car, or even a house, the first thing Indian parents say is “Will it be easy to clean? How often will you clean it? What if you don’t clean it?…”. This will be followed by the recollection of everything we’ve bought till then but not cleaned them enough. They might be suffering from Alzhiemer’s or have poor vision. But, it never stops them from remembering the day you’ve not cleaned your car or spotting a speck of dust on the dashboard. The...

Today, there are a zillion ways to pass time compared to my childhood where I grew up without cable TV, computer, internet, or a smartphone. But, despite having everything, I’m disinterested or distracted most of the time. At one point I seriously doubted if I have a medical condition. I’d even googled to see if I have attention deficit disorder. And, like most google search adventures, it supported my view. Well done, Google! At first, I thought it was just me. But, later, when talking to a f...

It is hard to find someone to listen to. First of, everyone around us is incredibly busy working and hustling. When we finally get somebody to lean on and try to express our feelings, it turns into a contest of who’s suffering or feelings matter the most. My parents used to do that a lot. I remember this incident where once an uncle who moved in to the opposite house started speaking to my dad and they started exchanging stories. The uncle was open about his past and he told my dad “If you hear...

I love two things when it comes to Dindigul. One is the biriyani (obvious) and the other one is their rock fort. Situated on a hilltop, the Dindigul rock fort was built by the Nayakar kings during the early 1600s. The rock fort offers a beautiful panoramic view of the city. I visited the fort recently on my way to Kodaikanal with my wife. I thought the climb would be easy, but it wasn’t. Along the way, we stopped for a few times to catch our breath. As I walked towards the fort, I came across s...

In 1992, my dad was appointed as a manager of a firm that sold medical X-ray films. He had to set up a small office in Pondy, hire people, and start selling X-ray films to hospitals. He hired his friend from previous job as the assistant manager and hired two office boys to run errands, pack orders and deliver them. He also hired an auto-rickshaw driver to deliver the orders. As I grew up, I got the chance to witness my dad as a manager and one of the things I admired was how my dad interacted ...

This is a rant. Today, I bumped into an old man in my apartment who was trying to get into an elevator. He asked me where I lived in the apartment? In less than one minute, he asked me where I work, where my wife works and ended the conversation with “try and have a kid. Work can come later”.  That’s all. He shut the doors of the elevator and went off to the second floor. I was appalled by his lack of common sense, etiquette, sensitivity. He didn’t ask my name. I helped him by opening the ele...

We never fully enjoy being happy. Something runs at the back of our minds. A voice alerts us saying “You seem too happy! It’s time to prepare for the worst”. We immediately start questioning ourselves. How long is this happiness going to last? Do I deserve to be happy? Is this happening because something bad is going to happen later on? What if something happens to me or to those I love? and so on. I don’t know about you, but I feel this way whenever I am excited or happy. But, lately, I’ve be...

It’s been over a year. But, I felt the same sense of excitement as I stepped foot on the beach. There were hundreds of people around me - walking, jogging, playing frisbee, taking selfies, and playing ball with the waves. The morning hues reminded me of the time I visited the beach with my mom a couple of years back. For a minute I felt like I was in the past. The sound of the waves, the soothing breeze, and the dull morning hue recreated the past. Sometimes, nature brings back memories - some ...

We’re programmed to believe our elders. Because that’s how our parents were raised. We were asked to blindly believe proverbs and life quotes from unknown people. We follow customs just because someone before seven or eight generations made them on the basis of knowledge, circumstances, and their worldview that existed back then. one had questioned them all these years. When you finally do, you’re considered a rebel. An outlier. A person who disrespects elders and family customs. My mom often ...

When I was in college, I had a lecturer named Raghunathan. He taught us Microbiology and Industrial Biotechnology during the first and second years of my undergraduate degree. If you attend one of his classes, you’ll know how much passion he has for Microbiology. I remember the whole class sitting through two hours sessions without complaining. He taught the subject with so much passion and dedication. It in turn made us fall in love with Microbiology. A lot of teachers have taught me during sc...

A few weeks back, I went to my uncle’s place and was shocked to see the dirty white console sitting on the TV table. The console for which we’ve fought tooth and nail to decide who gets the next turn. The console that made us feel like winners. It was still holding its shape after all these years with one functioning joystick and a 999999 in 1 cartridge plugged into it. My cousin walked into the room and said the cartridge I used to play with as a kid - the mighty 76 in 1 cartridge was with him...

Despite everything we did, we couldn’t save the fishes from dying. It was one of the hottest summers in Pondicherry. The weather was so hot fishes started dying of heatstroke. Now when I think about it, they could also have died of shame - for living in an ugly fish tank that had a cheap aluminum frame and dull-looking glass panels. Even though I had nothing more than a few guppies, goldfishes, and a few other low-budget fish species, I felt proud to be an 8-year old pet owner. The death of the...

During the mid-90s, renowned Tamil writer Sujata Rangarajan wrote an article talking about how the way we work will change with the advancement of computers and other forms of technology. He said that in a couple of years we can work from home. We can redirect all our office mail to our home letterbox, send and receive emails from our home computers, copy essential files onto a CD or a Floppy drive, and attend important meetings through video conferencing. He even said that everything from sche...

Our world revolves around our family and loved ones. We work hard, make money, plan vacations, buy new stuff to take care of them and make them happy. Despite being surrounded by our loved ones, we have small gaps in our lives the little pockets of void that are filled by the ‘other’ people. Who are they? They are those whom we come across every day. They are the ones we rely on when we are in a hurry. We don’t think about them until we need something. The neighborhood barber, the bank teller...

I once went to a bar near Adyar signal. I walked in with my friends, ordered some beers, and got comfortable. I looked around to see what the place was all about. The place hadn’t had a renovation in a long time. It had plain walls, old mirrors, inadequate lighting and some functioning snooker tables. There was faint music in the background trying to add some spirit to the place. When we were drinking, an old uncle walked into the bar with a plastic basket full of vegetables. A waiter came runn...

#36 Face value Created: July 10, 2022 11:18 AM One of the things people believe in our country is the face value. We would’ve heardpeople say “He looked like a cop.” or “She looks like a teacher” or even “he looks like a thief”. Well me? How do I put it.….when I walk into a store, the person who comes into the store after me, for some reason thinks that I work at the store. I have the face of an average working-class man. I once walked into the TI cycles factory outlet located within the manu...

#35 We've become bullies Created: July 10, 2022 11:18 AM Last week, Twitter went crazy on a famous Indian chef for posting a picture of coconut rice that doesn’t look like coconut rice and calling it one of the delicacies of South India People made fun of him and started posting pictures of how ‘real’ coconut rice looks. In a way, they are right and wrong. The pictures they were posting of was of how coconut rice looks in Tamilnadu. But, it is not how exactly how coconut rice is made througho...

Indian parents are cooking up a revolution. They’re asking their kids to fall in love. But did they bring up their kids that way? No. Growing up, we’ve seen how much parents hated love marriages. They spoke badly about those who married someone they loved and gave out horrible advice to other parents who spoke to them about their kids’ future. They were overconfident about finding a match for their kids. Their tight-knit social circle made it easy. But, so much had changed in the last few decade...

In 2013, I got my third camera from a friend and a veteran photographer for Rs.12,000. Since I had only 10,000 from all the photography and design assignments I did, I said I will pay the remaining 2,000 by next month. He agreed with a smile. He also called me for the Chitra powrnami festival at Karveripattinam (a small village near Krishnagiri) that was scheduled to happen in two days. He said it would be a good place to try out my new camera. I was excited. But, since I did not have any money...

#32 BSNL Broadband Days Created: July 10, 2022 11:17 AM The only time I was excited to see the MSN homepage was in 2007 when we got our first broadband connection. It loaded slowly, but experiencing the internet for the first time gave me goosebumps. I was very eager to browse the internet, except for one small issue. My bandwidth was 1 GB, for a month. Anything more than that would incur extra cost (₹1 per MB). So if I exceed my monthly bandwidth by 200 MB, we will be billed an extra ₹200 in...

#31 Set a day to pamper yourself Created: July 10, 2022 11:17 AM Every month I spend a day or two just for myself. That day is not about my family or friends. It is about me. I drive down to my favorite restaurant, get my order to go, park my car on a random street, listen to my favorite music and eat in my car. Or I sit at a less crowded cafe and write for a whole day. Before I had my car, I used to go to Anna Nagar tower park on my bike or using public transport, spend time reading under a ...

I still remember the day I saw her. I was fifteen. It was a hot summer day. But, I really wish it had rained. I was leaning against the school corridor and was talking to my friends. I checked my watch to see if it was time to get back to the class and gave a glance at the distant end of the corridor to see whether the teacher was coming. That is when I saw her. Among students who wore dull khaki pants and a funny striped tie, I saw her walking down the corridor in a bright green salwar. It was...

When I went to Zion National Park last year, I met a couple in their 50s. As we walked the trail, I introduced myself and started speaking. They were originally from the Philippines and were working in Canada for over two decades. They work at the airport. Not a big job. Decent enough for a content life. But they said they traveled once a year to see the world and experience new things. Similarly, I met two construction workers who had come to explore the Grand Canyon to experience the beauty o...

Last week, two new products launched in the drop-in audio space. Facebook announced Live Audio rooms and Spotify announced Greenroom. Reason? Clubhouse. The drop-in audio chat platform which launched last year created a new category of social media and is currently valued at $4 billion. And every tech giant is now trying to build a version of their own. I wouldn’t be surprised if LinkedIn announces its version of the drop-in chat platform for professionals. But one question that bugged me was ...

I was confused when dad took me to the pet store. He always said he was gonna send me to a hostel, but a pet store? Before I could think further, dad said “we’re going to get parrots!” I was even more confused. I never asked for parrots. And honestly, after dropping that huge ice block on the fishes to ‘cool’ them that summer, I thought I’ll be barred from going near any pet. But, don’t know who told him, we came home with two parrots. The nice green ones. My mom named them “Mitu” and “Meenu” ...

I was nervous when I entered the house. I was 10, but I knew copying in exams was considered a crime. At least among parents. I did not study for my math test and turns out I sat next to a smart kid. And, copying wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. At least not in 4th grade. Things became difficult after 7th grade though. I was happy about the test but also felt bad about copying in the exam. I wanted to do the right thing and tell the truth but got reminded of my father’s unusually l...

I read S Ramakrishnan’s “Desandhri” in my early 20s and the book changed my life. It taught me the importance of travel, especially the line where he says “The world begins outside your home.” How true? I thought. I fought with my parents who never sent me anywhere until then and started traveling. Since I was part of a photography club it was easy for me to travel. I was fortunate to visit some amazing places - thanks to my friends in the group who didn’t mind sharing a seat in their car while...

#24 The fast and the fearful Created: July 10, 2022 11:17 AM Our plan to visit Tirupati was impromptu. 8 AM on a Tuesday morning mom told me “it’s been years since we visited the temple”. I quickly checked the Thirumala website to see the waiting time for visitors and it said there isn’t any. By 10 AM we were en route to Tirupati. But, the only problem was it’s only been a few months since I got my car and I was still learning the nitty-gritty of driving. And one thing about driving that scar...

Until 15, I knew only two English songs. One was a ‘Bad’ by Michael Jackson song that came along with our home stereo system to test its sound effects and another one was ‘Rock DJ’ by Robbie Williams (Please don’t watch the video) which I accidentally stumbled upon while switching radio channels. I liked it so much, the second time I heard that song I recorded it on an empty cassette and kept listening. I didn’t have a cable connection at home, so no access to MTV or Vh1. Since we had Doordarsh...

Sometimes, the worst thing that happens to you can also be the best thing. When I was in college, I asked my parents for a computer. Even though I claimed to use it for studies, all I wanted was to play games. My parents said yes, but had one condition. They said they’d only get me a branded computer, and not an assembled PC. I knew it was a bad idea because assembled PCs are cheap, long-lasting, and are better performing as we get to choose what we want. But, who listens to an 18-year old boy...

My dad came to know about the plant from Mr. Rao, our neighbor, and his good friend. Mr. Rao claimed that the leaves of the plant will control diabetes if taken in the morning along with breakfast. So, dad got a couple of twigs from Mr.Rao and planted them in our garden. When dad became diabetic in his 60th year, he decided to try the plant along with his regular dose of Metformin. It had a heavy stench and was bitter as hell. Within a week of eating the leaves, his sugar levels came back to no...

Everyone called him ‘the Cleaner’. He worked for the sanitation department and he cleaned the sewage lines for a living. Hence the name. He hated being called the cleaner. But, the society was comfortable with it. It is normal for our society to address people by their job - Mailman, Driver, Ice cream vendor, or in the Cleaner’s case - ‘the Cleaner’. But, nobody addresses a banker as a banker or addresses a software engineer as a software engineer. Strange, right? All Cleaner ever wanted was f...

I’ve never listened to all the Ilayaraja songs completely. I don’t have a dedicated playlist of his songs on my phone or on my computer. But, I can identify almost all his famous songs. And, I love his music. How’s that even possible?! If you’re in Tamilnadu, you’re constantly surrounded by his songs where ever you go - the private buses, tea shops, grocery stores, share autos, roadside restaurants, and posh stores (they play instrumental version of his songs). Even when you stop your car or bi...

#18 Beach lets you be yourself Created: July 10, 2022 11:17 AM I came to Chennai from Pondicherry in 1999. One of the things I was excited about when I came to the city was the Marina beach. I’ve heard so much about it and thought I’d get to go there as often as I visited the Rock beach when I was in Pondy. But, I lost access to the beach after coming to Chennai. To get to the beach we had to take a back-breaking bus ride that lasted two hours in traffic. Until 2015, l would’ve visited the bea...

I love electric trains. Even though the correct term is suburban trains, we call them "electric trains’. I traveled in electric trains for a year and a half when I was doing my master’s degree. The distance from my home to the university was 62 km by train. So, I traveled 120 km every day (that is four hours in commute). But, I never got bored. Suburban trains are a world unto themselves. They take you in and put you in a state of trance. The two hours in commute will go by looking at people; C...

From 2011 to 2014, I was crazy about photography. I used to go out every weekend to shoot photographs. Practicing the art form taught me how to see the world, gave me a sense of calm, and offered me a chance to meet several amazing artists. People loved my work and encouraged me to do more. And, then it started. A lot of my friends/well-wishers started telling me to take up commercial assignments especially wedding photography as it was the trend back then. Even though I was a bit skeptical, I ...

Disclaimer: This post was written with the consent of my wife. She occasionally tries these recipes. I was recently shown a recipe for a ‘No flour, No sugar, No-bake, gluten-free brownies’ on YouTube. I was shocked to the core. It looked nothing like a brownie but the video had a million views. The so call nutrition/health influencer threw the 128-year old brownie recipe out of the window along with the key ingredients that are required to make a brownie - like chocolate, butter, eggs, and flou...

When we were young, our parents used to tell us so much about the importance of finding a good career and becoming successful. They used to tell us what to study? Where to study? How much is a good salary? And so on. But, they never prepared us to handle the loss of our loved ones, salvage ourselves from a broken relationship, or handle failure. Everyone assumes we’ll figure it out. It is funny that they never thought the same about our career. Over the last twelve months, we’ve seen thousand...

In the reprint of his novel “A Case of Need” Michael Crichton wrote an introduction where he spoke about his writing process as John Lange and Jeffrey Hudson - the pseudonyms he used while writing a few of his early novels including ‘A Case of Need’ In the introduction, he admits that he wrote to pay for his medical school (he used to write eighteen hours a day during vacations, sell his work and use the money to pay for his medical school) and his explicit goal was to be unoriginal. He says, ...

When I was in 9th standard, I remember my English teacher telling me “You’re not smart. You know that?! You hang out with smart people and you act smart.” It hurt me a bit. But, later in my life, I realized he was kind of telling the truth. I was never the smartest kid in the room. I was…okay. But, I was lucky enough to make friends who are amazing at what they do. And, that helped me become smarter over the years. Surround yourself with smart people. Don’t be intimidated. A lot of great peopl...

The software industry is constantly evolving since its inception. The industry that was once dominated by giants like IBM and HP is now dominated by startups. But, with the advancement in technologies like platforms as a service (like AWS, Azure and GCP) and no-code tools (Bubble, Glide, Adalo, etc.) the industry is seeing a rise of companies called MicroSaaS - companies run by a single person or a very small team. Most MicroSaaS products start out as a side project and grow to become a revenue...

After staying home for three long weeks, I stepped out of the apartment yesterday. Even though I did nothing except walking a few hundred meters from the apartment, I felt great. I never thought I’d be excited to see food delivery people in bright vests, deserted streets, rusty shop shutters, and stray dogs. But, the walk was relaxing. I walked to the main road, sat on the pavement, and spent a good amount of time watching vehicles pass under the brightly illuminated luminance of the street lam...

#09 Celebrate the masters today Created: July 10, 2022 11:17 AM We like being nostalgic. We’d like to celebrate books, movies, or music from the past even though we know artists who have created an equivalent or even a better body of work. For some reason, we fantasize about living in the past - in the time where the legends have walked the earth. One good example is the reader base for Tamil Literature. I’ve been observing this trend where Tamil readers celebrate writers from the 60s, 70s, ...

#08 Skills marketers should learn to excel in SaaS Created: July 10, 2022 11:17 AM Being a marketer in today’s world is challenging. It requires learning and understanding a bit of everything that is going on in a company. In short, a marketer should be a generalist. Here are a few essential skills that would make marketers shine in today’s technology landscape. Learn design tools - Learn to work with design tools such as Figma, Adobe XD, or Sketch. This will help you provide product feedback...

In 2010, my close friend and an aspiring filmmaker wanted to make a short film. Out of the 11 boys in my class, seven of us decided to be part of it. We decided to write, shoot, and act in the movie since we did not have a budget. My friend had a story none of us heard fully, but we were on board. One of us had a camcorder and we made him the cinematographer. We shot the movie in Koyumbedu bus terminus. We shot a couple of scenes outside the terminus and a few other scenes inside a couple of e...

When I was a Master’s student, one of my professors asked us “How will you define a door?” He asked the question while explaining a biological concept, but I remember only the question as it made me think for a long time. I told him “a door is an object that opens and closes, giving way into a room or an enclosed area”., He listened to me and said “Then how will you define a window?” I said, “People come and go through a door whereas windows are built for light and ventilation”. He replied, "D...

The open source or the free software movement became popular because of its community. When a software is published under the open source license, its entire codebase is made public. Anybody can study the code for security vulnerabilities or other issues and contribute by developing a fix. If the owner of the software accepts the fix, the codebase will be updated with the new changes. That is when it occurred to me What if we use this concept to build a new democracy? Democracy never lasts long...

I recently came read a piece by Terry Tempest Williams on the same title. After I read it, I went back and read it again and again and again. I enjoyed every word. Especially the last part where she says, I write past the embarrassment of exposure. I trust nothing especially myself and slide head first into the familiar abyss of doubt and humiliation and threaten to push the delete button on my way down, or madly erase each line, pick up the paper and rip it into shreds - and then I realize it...

Lately, I’ve started to appreciate the beauty of the evening sky. With nothing to do and nowhere to go, the only way of seeing the world is either through the bedroom window, the balcony, or from the terrace. With temperatures soaring all day, the evenings are such a relief. Especially the twilight that announces the arrival of the moon and the stars. I love staring at the twilight sky. It’s got the subtle brightness from the day and the calmness of the night. Best of both worlds. Zen Buddhi...

Yesterday, I stumbled upon an episode of ‘Neeya Nana’, a Tamil talk show where two groups of people speak for and against a topic. The topic was young single women who are the only earning members of their family and the struggles they face. The young working women were on one side and their parents were on the other side. There were a lot of stories about struggle, love, loss of family members, and financial pressure. At one point, Gopinath - the host of the show put the young women on a spot ...

A veteran crime novelist suffering from early-stage Alzheimer’s finds himself next to the dead body of a stranger by his daughter Anu. Anu believes her father is innocent, yet tries to hide his traces from the crime scene. But, when the cops close in on her father, she decides to find the actual murderer. what happens next makes the rest of the story. What works? On a high level, the story is solid and well-written. It has got some good twists and the switch between multiple storylines doesn’t...