Dhanya and I watched Anomie after Mohiniattam. I wanted to watch the movie but Dhanya did not initially. The only reason we went ahead was because there was a Pirate Explains video of the film that we could fall back on in case we did not understand the movie.
We did not watch it continuously. But, over a few days.
At the heart of the film is Zara (Bhavana), whose brother’s disappearance — and the string of murders that follows people with a similar condition — and her reveal that they all died under similar conditions sets the plot in motion. Running parallel to the official police inquiry, her own search for answers plays out almost passively for most of the runtime. She asks around, follows leads that go nowhere, and seems, frankly, to be going through the motions rather than driving the case forward.
That’s exactly what makes the third-act reveal land so well. What reads as a half-hearted, meandering investigation turns out to be deliberately constructed that way. Once the reveal hits, you find yourself mentally rewinding through her scenes and realizing the film was quietly building toward this the whole time.
The bigger swing, though, is the film’s central sci-fi conceit. It is a sub-title, The Equation of Death. Rather than treating the afterlife as an abstraction or a metaphor, Anomie visualizes it. The production design and Sujith Sarang’s cinematography lean into color grading and imagery that make the afterlife sequences feel genuinely otherworldly. It almost feels like a space movie.
The Pirate Explains video tells a lot about where the science in Zara’s investigation gets wrong. He also puts in better words the sci-fi visualization in the movie. But, only watch it after you watch the movie.
I wanted to write a daily summary of my day this week. Specifically, because August 8 was BuJo Day. I learnt about Bullet Journal and the practice in September 2015.
This does not mean that I have a neat pile of notebooks from September 2015 till today. I have written and then abandoned Bullet Journals. I have a few partially written Bullet Journals lying around. I have not been consistent in the last two years. I have not written the whole of last week until yesterday.
Since then I have added a pocket 3.5″ x 5.5″ notebook to the writing practice. Both practices have evolved.
I did not read much this week because it was not the first thing that I did. It slipped through the cracks. The only progress I made in reading was in The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings (35%).
I wrote a lot this week for Blaugust 2026 (almost a post per week) including a short story.
2 Aug 2026, Sunday
I was listening to Sharath A Haridasan’s talk on the worship of the various forms of Devis in Kerala. He says that worshipping the Godess (whichever be her form) must be similar to worship of the child to her/his mother. Children do not think about philosophy before calling their mother. They share with their mother both the good and the bad.
He also shared many stories of people’s experiences praying to their Godesses and I have no explanation for why they left me crying.
We met the surgeon who advised the recovery protocol. The hospital visit was completed quite quickly. I returned to work. Dhanya had a busy day managing the two kids’ various assignments. The rain did not help.
05 Aug 2026, Wednesday
I re-discovered Mark Manson on YouTube where he has been creating really long videos and videos of intermediate length. Once you admit to yourself that you are getting old, then this video is really useful.
Dhanya and I spent the evening watching the Malayalam movie Anomie. We followed up by watching The Pirate Explains video of the same.
07 Aug 2026, Friday
I got a notification saying that 08 August was Bullet Journal Day. I visited Hiran’s digital garden again to see if he had changed the way he writes his notebook, and found that he had.
As I browsed through his Notes, I found this line which really resonated with me:
This is why systems emerge through use, you can’t design a system around what you haven’t measured yet.
I spent quite some time reviewing my use of Bullet Journal. I have moved to a two notebook setup. I use the smaller notebook as a rough notebook.
I also got a copy of the first copy of The Hyphen. The book came in a slightly wet envelope that seemed to carry the memories of the Monsoon. I am not so sure that I will hand over this book to the public library, though. It is so well done.
Dhanya and I watched Governor about the 1991 incident of India pledging its gold for assistance from the International Monetary Fund.
I read this in James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter:
Clarity isn’t about knowing what you want to do with your life. It’s about knowing what you want to do this week.
09 Aug 2026, Saturday
I spent the day lazing around. I didn’t do much at all. I was mostly horizontal on this day.
The Malayalam movie, not the dance form. Spoilers ahead!
Instagram and YouTube shorts manipulated me into wanting to watch this movie. It came frequently enough and I was interested enough to watch it.
I watched it with my wife who was watching it for the second time. The first time she watched both the movies was after a fight we had.
Bharatnatyam is part one of this duology. It didn’t do well in the theaters and did wonderfully well on OTT. S R Praveen had written about this phenomenon (paywalled) for The Hindu. That encouraged the film makers to make a part two.
Both the movies have a lot of inside jokes and nods to other Malaylam movies.
The first film centers on Bharathan Nair, a strict patriarch played by Sai Kumar, and his son Sashi (Saiju Kurup), who discovers — after his father’s paralytic stroke — that Bharathan has been secretly running a second family in northern Kerala for years. What could have been a heavy melodrama is instead handled with a light, situational comic touch, and that’s exactly what worked for me.
The sequel picks up after Bharathan Nair’s death, as Sashi and his family travel to meet Rukmini and Ajay at their new home. What starts as a family reunion spirals into something far more unsettling: the revelation that a local temple — and the deity people have been devoutly worshipping — was fabricated by Bharathan Nair himself, seemingly as a means of siphoning public donations.
After watching these two movies, I would suggest that you watch The Pirate Explains video that help you catch things you may not have caught in the first viewing and also the various Malayalam movies that these movies has references to.
What makes watching these two films together so rewarding is the contrast. The first is about a private family secret and asks what you owe the people closest to you when the truth comes out. The second scales that same premise up to a public, communal level — asking what a lie can do when it’s not just kept inside a family, but sold to an entire town as sacred truth. One is about protecting people you love from an uncomfortable truth; the other is about what happens when that same instinct curdles into exploiting people’s faith for money, and then killing to keep it buried.
The wife had a hectic day today but promised to make wada Chutney in the evening. The medu wada we get in Pune can hardly stand up to the ones we get in South India.
So, I ask my wife to make these wadas occasionally.
Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. My mouth still waters as I write this imagining what I had this evening.
Arun Raj K M did a nice profile of HEX20, a Kerala-based space startup.
Here are the highlights from that story in English. These are translations made by Gemini. I’ve added a few links that could help you understand the backstories behind the names like Mayavi and Dinkan.
News Anchor: Mayavi and Dinkan are the names of new satellites built by a Keralite startup. This is the next leap for HEX20, which successfully completed two CubeSat missions in a short period. Based in Thiruvananthapuram, this small startup is exploring new opportunities in the space market through the innovative concept of ‘CubeSat as a Service’.
Arun Raj: Their business model helps other companies conduct in-orbit technology demonstrations using CubeSats. The satellite bus (chassis) and core technologies belong to HEX20, allowing clients to integrate their own experimental or observational payloads as needed. HEX20 opens up massive opportunities for companies aiming to execute complex space missions. Without the huge costs and complexities of building a full satellite from scratch, clients can evaluate their technology’s capabilities and refine their hardware at lower risk.
HEX20 has launched two CubeSats into space so far: Nila last year, and KOYO (Kinetic Optical Yaw Observer) this past July. Both were launched aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter rideshare missions. KOYO was built for Taiwan’s National Central University.
Dr. Manu Mohan (Tech Manager, HEX20): KOYO stands for ‘Kinetic Optical Yaw Observer’. It primarily carried payloads from Taiwan’s National Central University. As it orbits Earth, the satellite tumbles, so the initial payload was meant to measure its angular velocity or tumbling rate. We planned an operational lifespan of 6 months. According to UN guidelines, satellites in orbit must de-orbit within 25 years; at an altitude of 590 km, we expect it to naturally de-orbit in 5–6 years.
Thomas C. Francis (Mechanical Engineer): For instance, KOYO is a 3U CubeSat measuring 300 mm x 100 mm x 100 mm. It gets deployed in space from inside a canister deployer. The first task is making sure it fits precisely into the deployer through accurate manufacturing. To withstand launcher vibrations and shocks, we conduct rigorous vibration and simulated space environment testing.
Muhammed Saydali (Senior Electrical Engineer): We categorize our satellite buses into two main platforms based on mass and application: AX and NX. The NX platform accommodates satellites in the 20–50 kg range, whereas KOYO and Nila are built on the AX platform.
Anamika A. Kamath (Electrical Engineer): The immediate upcoming mission is NILA-3, an In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD) testing a water-steam propulsion system developed by UK-based OOMSpace. That will launch within a few months this year. Following that are Mayavi and Dinkan. MAYA-V1 stands for ‘Multi Application Yearly Assimilated Vehicle 1’, which will form a series of satellite buses. DINK-N1 stands for ‘Direct Imaging Network Node 1’ and marks our entry into the 50 kg microsatellite class. We are targeting a late 2027 launch for these.
Abhijith Sureshkumar (Ground Station Engineer): HEX20’s ground station is set up at the nearby Marine Engineering College. We currently operate two ground station setups capable of handling both UHF commercial and amateur bands. Since future missions like MAYA-V1 and DINK-N1 demand higher data rates, we are expanding our ground station capabilities to support higher frequency bands.
Arun Raj: While many space startups keep mission data confidential, HEX20 stands out by making real-time KOYO telemetry available to the public via koyo.hex20.space.
Shinjith George (Senior Electrical Engineer): We maintain a Class 8 cleanroom suited for integrating satellites up to 30 kg. Having finished KOYO, we are currently integrating NILA-3 here. Environmental tests—such as vibration and thermal-vacuum testing—are conducted at the IN-SPACe facility in Ahmedabad.
Arun Raj: Beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) missions, HEX20 plans to expand into deep-space missions and larger satellite platforms. Collaborative missions with international partners, including the UAE Space Agency, are also in the pipeline.
I heard that Vivek Shanbhag had launched a literary magazine with translations into English of stories from various regional languages. I think this is a great way to access works in Indian languages.
Excellent new literary journal launched by vivek shanbag. What it proves yet again is that the most serious, inventive and ambitious writing, working with the most interesting material, in India is coming from the writers working in regional languages. pic.twitter.com/KCaS60yDy6
I then read the Scroll interview with Shanbhag where he talks about the story behind the name:
Hyphen takes its inspiration from the poet, scholar, and translator AK Ramanujan, who once described himself as the “hyphen” in Indo-American. This striking metaphor aptly conveys the idea of connection and serves as a guiding principle for bringing diverse literatures and cultures into dialogue.
I visited the website and found that if I logged in with your email id, I could read one story. I read Benyamin’s The Postman.
Benyamin is a Malayalam writer I want to read in the original Malayalam one day. Manjaveyil Marangal is of interest to me. But, his most known work is Adujeevitam, which was made into The Goat Life.
The Hyphen carried his The Postman. This story was translated to English by J Devika. The story is about a postman who is otherwise very particular about following the rules of postal delivery but who does not delivers certain letters because he believes it could affect their lives. I would love to read this in the original Malayalam.
You can either read The Postman or see who else has written in this edition of The Hyphen. The best case would be to read someone you know of who has written in your mother tongue. After you read it in The Hyphen in English, try to read it in your mother tongue as well.
I subscribed to both the print and digital edition of The Hyphen which is available in India, but they do not ship it internationally yet. I plan to read the physical copy of the magazine and then donate it to the public circulating library that I am a member of. There is also a page on The Hyphen’s website that has a list of places where you can buy the magazine.
After The Postman, I am reading Indulkar, written by Kiran Gurav and translated from Marathi by Shanta Gokhale.
Sarah explains how she “orchestrates rather than writes” the documentation. She reviews the documentation in GitHub so that all of her reviews are tracked and can be fed back.
Some suggestions that she had for technical writers:
Learning how to a steer a module through skills, plugins, or customization layers.
Build your own style guide and then try to get the model to follow that guide.
Start tinkering.
I get surprised sometimes when I hear that a company that I follow for various reason has tech writers. And then, it would make total sense to me that as a technology company, they would have tech writers – if not in India then in some other part of the world.
I came across a post about Blaugust 2026 (via Zachary Kai)just before I started writing this post. Belghast, who wrote the Tales of the Aggronaut, started Blaugust in 2014. He passed away this year in July.
A Discord community that runs Blaugust has decided to still go ahead with Blaugust this year despite his passing. Since I wrote a post yesterday, I thought I could keep going through August.
26 July 2026
This was a day after a week of Jantar Mantar protests, India’s Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan had resigned. Gen Z which had been vilified had led protests in their own way and had got the kudos of many people. It had also made Instagram the platform for protests and for the place to consume news.
I always feel queasy about hosting content on these social media apps and building your business around this. But, it seems to be working for a few of these folks.
I ended the day watching two wonderful episodes of Shut Up Ya Kunal where he interviews Ramchandra Guha and Jerry Pinto.
I also got a call from the Hospital saying that my follow-up appointment had been postponed to Wednesday. This would continue for two more days.
27 July 2026
Former ISRO Chairman Madhavan Nair spoke to Chethan Kumar of Times of India about scientists working in important scientific projects at ISRO leaving to work in the private sector.
This old interview reminded me of my old web surfing days. D V Sridharan used to write on a website called Good News India before working on this project called pointReturn which he talks about in the video. I remembered this after reading a Weekly Note by Abhinav Sarkar. He had a photo of a windmill atop the note that reminded me of the windmill Sridharan had put up at pointReturn.
I was so surprised that I could connect a blog post I saw on this day to a post that I read in 2007 or 2008. I used to type in the url manually and visit the website.
I went through the websites of Cory Doctrow, Derek Sivers, Dave Winer, Doc Searls, and many others over the next few days. Google Reader broke that habit and ever since I have depended on some form of a RSS reader to read blogs.
28 July 2026
I got another call from the Hospital postponing my surgeon’s appointment to Thursday.
I loved watching all the psychological tricks in customer service and advertising discussed in this episode with Rory Sutherland.
One of the videos that resonated a lot and that the YouTube algorithm surfaced this video was made after the CAA-NRC protests six years ago.
I watched this video of William Darlymple at Kerala Literature Festival 2026 where he released the Malayalam version of his book, The Golden Road and also presented many of his points that are expanded on in the book.
29 July 2026
I discovered the work of Dominic Hart, an Australian YouTuber from his videos on using a pocket notebook. But, two videos I loved watching are on his building a shed in his parents’ backyard and his moving into an office space in the city.
I watched a nice interview with Kunal Kamra, which talked about how his family members reacted to his various controversies and run-ins with the police.
This video is a nice introduction to the concept of social arbitrage investing. They use only social media signals (mostly TikTok and Instagram) to make investment decisions. I think it works in American markets because they depend on the efficiency of stock markets to weed out fundamental and technical issues. He says he is bullish about future investment in Amazon.
30 July 2026
The discourse around the 20 July 2026 protests at Jantar Mantar began to turn with people blaming Gen Z for using unparliamentary language against the Prime Minister and various organs of the ruling dispensation finding protestors who had used such language and getting them to apologise on camera. Nothing much has changed for the apologisers despite the apology.
Two of my favourite YouTubers, Ali Abdaal and Matt D’Avella did a mutual interview podcast. They spoke about their respective YouTube journeys, parenthood, and the differing paths they both took after launching YouTube courses.
31 July 2026
I went to the Hospital despite the Doctor not planning to turn up and got my stitches removed. I have to follow-up with the Surgeon on Tuesday (4 August) for care instructions.
In the evening I had almost reached Part Two of the Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. The long waiting time at the Hospital was great to catch up on a lot of this reading. I signed up for Brandon Sanderson’s newsletter. I was impressed about how he transparently talks about the books he is writing and the progress he has made in each book.
Cory Doctrow also does this. I had picked up his book to read as well.
I have listened to Arz Kiya Hai as a background music for different Instagram and YouTube short videos but watched the original video for the first time on this day.
Bridges in Pune were going underwater as water was released from Khadakwasla Dam. As I said on X and on Mastodon, Pune must build bridges that raise themselves up when the flood waters in the Mutha rise.
I spent the rest of the day asleep and did not work.
01 August 2026
I was considering how I write my posts here.
I would usually write posts like this on my link blog that I keep on Tumblr. I usually just post links on Tumblr and then give context for myself using the tags. In the post that I wrote on this blog, I ended up giving context. Tumblr is great for this. It is also a great place to expand on text, if you think that is necessary.
Tumblr is owned by Automattic, the company that runs WordPress.com. I wanted to reduce the points of failure and try another blogging service, like micro.blog.
I have not decided yet but it is something on my mind this week.
SpaceX’s Starship Flight 13 is adrift in the Eastern Indian Ocean. The commentators expected it to explode but it did not. It just sat there – floating in the Ocean.
Watch a minute of that splashdown in the video above to see how crazy this was. The ship continued to transmit on-board cameras views via Starlink after splashdown!
Elon Musk announced that ships were going out to try and tow the ship back to port.
Some ship watchers are now following this mission more closely. A YouTube channel called What’s Going on with Shipping? made a nice video about the challenges of an out in the ocean towing mission. As he says, the Norwegians are being sent out to sea to try and tow the ship back to port.
I loved watching this especially since I have worked in a shipyard way back in 2011.
