There is only a short introduction today. After our son had a Sports Day, I slept off most of the day today after having cold syrups. This Weekly Notes is a quickly put-together production to make sure that I don’t miss two Weekly Notes on a trot.
My reading and watching has become slower and deeper. I am no longer trying to cover everything. I tried to go down many lists-inspired reading and ended up reading very little overall. I am now focussing and sharing stories with family.
Reading
Saints of Maharashtra by Savitribai Khanolkar (pg 51 of 179)
After the visit to Morgaon, we were wondering where to go next. I went down the rabbit hole of Ashtavinayak orders and lists but finally decided to follow the list given on Wikipedia.
We visited the Siddhivinayak Temple, Siddhatek on 17 January 2026.
We left from home later than usual. We drove out through Nagar Road, went past Theur, past Daund, and reached Siddhatek in two hours.
The roads, both the National Highway and the State Highway after Daund were really good. Most of the traffic was agricultural machinery moving from one field to another or transporting to the traders.
On the State Highway between Daund to Siddhatek, we were flanked by the Bhima River on one side and the railway line on the other side.
The parking at the temple was on the road. It was a light day and hence we did not face too many other pilgrims and got parking space quite easily.
The darshan was calm and quick. We went in and came out after our prayers.
We wanted to do the feri around the mount. The information online varied about the time the feri would take. It went from 10 minutes to 1.5 hours. It’s much closer to 10 minutes than 1.5 hours, and then it would depend on your speed. We completed the feri in 15 minutes.
We got somethings from the shops outside the temple. We had sugarcane juice and wada pav. There seem to be quite a few tannaries around the area. I got two belts made for myself – one in black for work and one in brown for casual wear.
We returned from Siddhatek on mid-day. We stopped at Savla Veg for lunch. Google Gemini suggests Kkanchan Veg but there is also a Vitthal Kamat on the other side. It seems to mostly have breakfast options, though.
I wanted to write about this on my space newsletter but that seems to be in limbo. Hence, I am writing here.
The launch took place on 12 January 2026 at 10:17 AM IST carrying Anvesha/EOS-N1 and multiple rideshare satellites from private space startups, academia, and international customers. The vehicle failed to reach orbit and ended in the Southern Indian Ocean.
I did not watch the mission because I was at work. I assumed that the last failure that the PSLV faced was a minor hiccup. I assumed that the PSLV would be back to putting satellites into orbit. But, after the failure, speculation was rife on social media and in the print media with everything from sabotage to calls for sacking the ISRO Chairman.
QA is the culprit here and if the enemy did it it is about time that we close the IB, RAW and other intelligence agencies.
The above reply by @SolidBoosters2 suggesting that our intelligence agencies must be closed if this was sabotage is the best answer the people suggesting sabotage. I think the current ISRO Chairman should stay and lead the transition from solid fuel to liquid fuel launch vehicles which we are doing from PSLV, GSLV, and LVM3 to NGLV, given his experience with LPSC.
Things started going awry to the end of the third stage flight of the PSLV-C62. People spotted the tumbling PSLV on screens in mission control before the webcast went offline. One of the next PSLV flight would have been that of the industry built PSLV.
From some of the evidence I saw, I think the the failure seems to be originating in the attitude control system.
One of the payloads on the PSLV was the Kestrel Initial Technology Demonstration (KID), which transmitted data for 190 seconds after separating from the PSLV at speeds over Mach 20, withstanding 28g loads and temperatures of 300 to 350 degrees Celsius. The KID maintained its payload at 85 degrees Celsius and its instruments measured accelerations of up to 30g, likely enduring up to 35g. Despite being a failed mission, they achieved 4 out of 5 technological milestones, which was a positive outcome.
There were also a lot of questions about insurance taken by the startups in the private sector. There were calls for NSIL to pay the companies for the loss of payload. I think it was the companies responsibility to get insurance to protect against the financial loss. There are concerns that payload below certain payload weights are difficult to insure.
The Failure Analysis Committee’s report on the failure of the PSLV-C61 are yet to be disclosed. It is expected that a similar fate awaits the FAC report for the PSLV-C62 as well. There are rumours that ISRO had changed the nozzle throat material from graphite to a 4D carbon-carbon. There are rumours that there were 7 Mission Readiness Reviews (MRRs) and even a test of the third stage of the PSLV which had also failed in the PSLV-C61 mission.
I wish they follow the example laid down by Japan in terms of transparency. I didn’t have a useful, shareable link for the JAXA story. @SolidBoosters2 mentioned above does a good job with the story.
I hope the issues with the PSLV can be fixed and it can return to flying missions again for ISRO very soon.
We’re well past half of January. We’re past Makar Sankranti. The days are getting warmer in Pune. Dhanya is loving her Neorah Accomplish Weekly Planner which I gave her in the start of the year.
I got a lot of work on the scooter done this week. It was difficult to find space to get it serviced. I got the scooter serviced, the annual maintenance contract renewed, and refuelled it. It’s a much more better driving experience now.
The week started with the disappointing news about the failure of the PSLV-C62 mission. I want to write about this but I want to be careful as the speculation around this mission has become crazy.
I did not write the space newsletter for the second consecutive week. I might drop the idea of writing a newsletter altogether and write here instead. I am still thinking about it.
Reading
On the banks of the Mayyazhi – M Mukundan (Transl. Gita Krishnankutty), I’ve just started with reading this.
The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron, I’m reading this but do not yet have much to say. I am reading this while writing the Morning Pages, an exercise that the book recommends. This is based on the recommendation of Tim Ferriss and the presence of an accountability WhatsApp group around this practice.
“In his 1974 book, Labor and Monopoly Capital, the influential Marxist political economist Harry Braverman argued that the expanding “science-technical revolution” was being exploited by companies to increasingly “deskill” workers; to leave them in “ignorance, incapacity, and thus in fitness for machine servitude.” The more employees outsource skilled activity to machines, the more controllable they become.”
“The only group that would unambiguously benefit from deskilling developers would be the technology companies themselves, which could minimize one of their biggest expenses: their employees.”
“Today, open YouTube and every single thumbnail looks the same. Shocked faces, specific color contrasts, carefully positioned text overlays. Same voice. Same cadence and energy level. And videos have roughly the same lengths. The algorithm rewards these patterns with distribution and punishes deviation with obscurity.”
“My carefully curated list of creators has devolved into sameness. Whether pen reviewers, photographers, music bloggers, history tellers, or science bloggers—it is clear they are praying at the feet of the gods of algorithms.”
Dan presents the theory on how to change your life and then presents practical way to do it by asking yourselves a few questions. A great insight into how asking good questions makes your life better even if does not change it.
The X algorithm now promotes more longer content that it calls Articles. I noticed more people that I follow posting longer form content.
Watching
This Malayalam video starts with how Nizar Iltutmish started his journey running away from his Class XII board exams for 108 days. Some of the things he witnesses shapes his interests. He has written 4 books and talks about 2 of them in this video. What he describes are two terrifying practices practiced till this day in Tamil Nadu. This is his talk given at the recently held Kerala Legislature International Book Festival 2026.
The game of your financial life is a lot like Monopoly. Alok Jain of Weekend Investing explains well drawing on the parallels between the board game and your financial life. I really liked this video and gave me a new framework to think about my financial life.
If you don’t watch the full video, watch the parts about his morning and evening routine. He discusses how his morning routine is personal and designed to maximize creativity.
Matt D’Avella convinces you with his cinematic video to ask you to take responsibility for things that are in your control.
Writing
I wrote one blog post about our visit to Katraj Zoo. I have to write about the PSLV-C62 mission failure and about our visit to the Siddhivinayak Temple at Siddhatek this Saturday.
My daughter was bugging me to go somewhere, anywhere. I told her that we would meet her brother and her relatives on Saturday (10 January 2026) after her Parent Teacher Meeting.
My son likes to play with animal toys and seem to enjoy watching birds.
We had driven through Katraj (via the ghat) when returning from Kerala in September and it got me curious what it was like inside.
These were three data points I used to decide that we should visit the zoo.
Collage of photos of my family and me at the zoo during one of our breaks. Image Credit: Pradeep Mohandas, Collage created with Collage on Google Photos.
For the drive to Katraj, Google Maps took us right past Shaniwar wada and Dagadhushet Ganapati Temple. It took us past Swargate and on the road to Katraj. There was public parking available outside the zoo. We parked there and walked to the zoo through the dilipated platform of the bus stand.
The road outside is full of hawkers selling fast food, finger foods, and fruits.
Once inside we took a ticket to enter the zoo and entered at half past twelve in the afternoon. My daughter was still expecting her relatives to join us. We went past a sea of school kids who were either having lunch or running to the bathrooms to go to the bathrooms ourselves.
After our bathroom break, we wanted to take the tour of the zoo in one of the four battery operated vehicles but after the fourth vehicle left their bay, we were informed that the vehicle that just left was the last one over the next hour. Instead of cooling our heals while waiting for the bus, we decided to walk it.
We went through the snake park with my daughter finding the turtles cute. Most animals were on their afternoon siesta here, a pattern that would repeat throughout the visit.
We then went on a long trek with boards pointing to animals but no signs of the animal themselves. My 3 year old son walked the distance. We walked past dears, antelopes, etc. but that did not seem to enthuse my son. A bear walking across its enclosure to probably eat food or drink water got my son’s attention. We were back to walking again.
We saw the elephants and then took a snack break. We used the opportunity to fill our water bottles as well. It was well-advised that we carry our own snacks. We carried makhana and broken-idli-pieces (this is specifically for our son).
I tried to tell my daughter that when we told her that we are going to visit her relatives, we meant the animals in the zoo. She did not believe me and still expected human relatives to meet us here. As we walked back and she realized that what I said was true, she expressed her anger and did not talk to me for a while.
The session after this was more interesting with a white tiger, tigers, cheetah, etc. Most animals were enjoying an afternoon siesta after their lunch (probably). Many of the visitors were joking that Indian animals would anyway be lazy like the rest of us.
We tried various methods to keep the children enthused on the return. We pushed and walked more than on the way back with fewer rests.
Much of the zoo was in various stages of repair. They are probably getting ready for their summer peak.
We ate pav bhaji and misal pav from one of the hawkers from the pavement outside. There was also a hole-in-the-wall restaurant with a softie machine.
The family all fell asleep on the way back. I drove in silence with only my playlist playing providing ambient music. The way back was through Camp and Bund Garden. Although, we have been in Pune for almost 7 years now, we haven’t explored many of the places around Pune.
I was happy that I had taken my daughter somewhere. But, she meant going to the mall and wasn’t happy that we wandered in the zoo under the afternoon Sun.
I listened to Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks on Audible. It is the first book in the Culture series. I picked up the book on Audible soon after listening to this podcast episode of People by WTF between Nikhil Kamath and Elon Musk (Episode 16).
I had heard about the Culture series from this blog post by Vitalik Buterin after first reading the book as a college-goer. He was looking for AI futures in which we would want to live in. Vitalik describes the book as follows:
The Culture series features a far-future interstellar civilization primarily occupied by two kinds of actors: regular humans, and superintelligent AIs called Minds.
This description of the series did not get me to read the book, though. This was in 2023.
Musk talks about how energy will replace money as the ultimate currency. He says:
Energy is the real, is the true currency. This is why I said Bitcoin is based on energy. You can’t legislate energy. You can’t just pass a law and suddenly have a lot of energy.
He then pointed to Iain Bank’s Culture series as a good example of a depiction of a society that operates without money. I would discount the timeline he provides in the podcast but perhaps, not the direction. If the world were being built by engineers, this is the direction it would take.
After I picked up the book on Audible, I listened to it on my drives to work.
The title of the book is taken from a poem by T S Eliot, called The Waste Land (in Section 4), which is a brief description of a drowned merchant. The Waste Land, written in 1922, is a poem said to be about spiritual emptiness, disillusionment, and the breakdown of society after the First World War.
The end of the story reminded me of the Malayalam movies of the 1980s, where heroes died at the end. Since, this book was written in 1987, I wasn’t surprised.
I really liked the names of spaceships being longer than just a single or a couple of words. I liked how I guess the author struggled in the bribing scenarios in the book because of a lack of meaningful money. I found the clash between a religious humanity and an AI interesting. I look forward to reading the rest of the series. I may not read the next book in the series, though.
I finished the book a few days into the New Year and I am happy to score this as the first book I completed in 2026. I need to make notes the next time when I hear something interesting.
Things slowed down in the second week of 2026. I was tired after the trip to the Mayureshwar Temple and took it easy for the first few days of the week. This translated to missing the 68th edition of Pradeep’s Space Newsletter and things running slow till Thursday.
We moved our workplace at work and settling down took time. The good news is that the coffee machine is farther but so are the good bathrooms.
I completed the YearCompass last week where I was asked to pick a word to symbolise and define the year ahead. I picked Balance. This is the first year of this exercise for me.
I also picked three areas of focus – family, technical writing, and space. So, you will see more of these in my blog posts this coming year.
I completed listening to Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks on Audible. I did not read any of the other books I mentioned last week.
My family and I drove to Morgaon on 4 January 2026. It was the first long drive I undertook after the operation in the second week of December. It was a two-hour drive one-way.
The drive to the temple was on mostly good roads except for a stretch between Hadapsar and a little beyond Phursungi. After that the roads were good and mostly empty. We made a stop at Kamat’s at Khalad on NH 965 for tea and our bathroom break.
We didn’t make any stops on the way back. We stopped after we crossed Magarpatta to snack on some makhana.
I first heard about Mayureshwar Temple associated with the Ashtavinayak pilgrimage circuit. It is the starting and ending temple to visit on that circuit. There are some fascinating myths associated with the temple.
The temple was really well planned. It had good parking space, not too many heckling commercial establishments, and really well kept temple surroundings. We had a good darshan after a small waiting time. I found it hard to pray though the darshan was relaxed.
I did not notice too much on this journey because I was really focussed on driving and my own driving comfort.
Addendum: 16 January 2026
I watched this post on Instagram that gives the story of Khandoba at Jejuri. This is near Mayureshwar. While standing in line, we saw several people who seemed bathed in turmeric and we were curious to learn more.
Wishing you a Happy New Year! I got a lot of recommendations and book gifts (mentioned below in the Reading section).
Reading
The Great Indian Retreat – Reading this is a more tangible form of saying what the Indus Valley Report reports in terms of India and Bharat and the disintermediation happening between them. There are also people like me who seem to be on the faultline moving between them not fully of one or the other.
Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks – I’m listening to this on Audible. I’m 79% through this book.
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron – I’m doing the exercise given in The Artist’s Way along with a group of people who are in the Clear Writing Community. I’m 12% through this book.
On the Banks of Mayyazhi by M Mukundan, Translated by Gita Krishnakutty – I’m reading this as a part of The Purple Pencil Project Book Club.
The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF – This book was gifted to me by Diljeet Singh Narwal of Pineapple Elaichi Book Club as a Secret Santa gift for me even though I couldn’t participate in their Secret Santa. Thank you, Diljeet and PEBC!
When Privilege Pretends to be Economics by Vivek Kaul on newslaundry – Zomato and Blinkit gig workers went on strike on 31 December 2025. Deepinder Goyal of Eternal wrote a post on X. There were many counter-arguments of what Goyal wrote but this is what I thought was one of the best counter-arguments I read, as on date.
The TIFR website has information about the Kalyan Radio Telescope including pictures. The site was near the now-abandoned Kalyan airstrip.https://t.co/Sumr9UJ8uyhttps://t.co/yHncODy8zL
I spent the hours leading up to the New Year’s watching eko which dropped on Netflix. We watched together as a family. I really enjoyed watching this finale of the Animal trilogy.
The story telling with a twist in the tale reminiscent of Jeffrey Archer who wrote a book of short stories with that name. Doing that with three stories on television/theatre is difficult.
Eko serves as the third and final instalment of Bahul Ramesh’s Animal Trilogy, following Kishkindha Kaandam (2024) and Kerala Crime Files 2 (2025).
I recently needed to read about movies to understand the story better after just one viewing. I didn’t have the energy to watch them again to discover these hidden layers. I even overlooked some details when reading about them. That’s when I found the explanations on The Pirate Explains YouTube channel helpful.
The first video from the channel is about the questions you may have had you watched the movie only once. I would warn you against watching this video unless you have watched the movie at least once.
The same channel had another video that fixes the timeline in the movie for you, but I didn’t think that was that much of a value add.
Sometimes protection and restriction, both look the same. This is the thought with which Bahul Ramesh wrote eko. I enjoyed learning about his intuitive writing of the first draft in this interview with Baradwaj Rangan.
He has a really unique storywriting process. Dialogue, Screenplay, and Story.
But, eventually, this means that I can’t post a review immediately after watching it.
Parallel Spirals 