nyc vignette: the greasy fuzzballs

I love NYC because it is just the right amount of unpleasant. It is a city that will keep you on your toes by throwing curveballs at you—thus, forcing you to pay attention to how fractally interesting it is. It is also a city that will floor you with

nyc vignette: the first hour

I got off after a fifteen-something hour long flight from a different side of the globe. After clarifying with an immigration officer that yes I'm a Tourist in your country and even though I may come as a suspiciously single-unit youthful foreigner I intend not to overstay my

nyc vignette: overslept

I was walking across a really long passageway to change trains at the Times Sq-42 St subway, one of the busiest subway stations in the world. Among the usual informational boards, I see a peculiar message. <!--more--> OVERSLEPT, I walk more, and there's another board. SO

Experience Report: How to find a flatmate in Bangalore

After having spent over a decade in Marathahalli, I decided I wanted to live in Bangalore [1]. So I found myself a 3BHK flat in central Bangalore [2] a couple of months ago. Of my two flatmates, one of them got a new job that required them to move cities.

The Internal Lever

Advice I would have given myself 10 years ago. A lot of people don't attend to "the internal lever" enough when dealing with life. This lever exists in you and not out in the world. It's easier to alter your inner world than it

Vocal fry and illusory unravelments

A friend recently pointed out that I have a discernable vocal fry. I had to look it up—a short description immediately made me understand that I had it. Vocal fry is the lowest register (tone) of your voice characterized by its deep, creaky, breathy sound. It's the

We, the Citizens and systems thinking

“No one can define or measure justice, democracy, security, freedom, truth, or love. No one can define or measure any value. But if no one speaks up for them, if systems aren’t designed to produce them, if we don’t speak about them and point toward their presence or

The Best Advice I Have Received (is often stupidly obvious)

The best kind of advice I have received in my life is so obvious that it feels stupid to say it out loud. Advice like this is often ridiculed online for being simplistic (and thus useless). I used to share this sentiment. But I don't anymore. <!--more--&

2023

In memoriam of the year that won't exist anymore. <!--more--> Quality of life improvements (feel free to steal) * Writing more—enabled by this low-friction-to-post platform (writefreely). * Coffee brewing as a hobby for fun and mindfulness. You may substitute this with anything culinary. * Picking up Masala Lab

Charcoal

It was value education period (shortened to V. Ed.), sixth grade. The format deviated from the usual years where a teacher would be assigned to make us open our V. Ed. books to imbibe ourselves with holistic values to become good citizens. <!--more--> V. Ed. was weird as

I like Clojure

Programming language discourse is silly. It gives the impression that the language you use is the one important parameter with all the leverage when most people are working with hundreds or thousands of parameters. The art of software design is a quest to make robust analogies that transcend computation substrates

"A Pattern Language" explains why urban spaces disappoint me.

A Pattern Language is a beautiful tome on architecture and urban design that I found in my company's physical library. It had a pale yellow minimalist cover, a small form, and some blotchy typography accompanied by evocative photographs and lively doodles explaining the essence of its ideas. I