Parallel Spirals

Standing on the shores of space-time…

Blog

  • Weekly Notes 40/2026

    Monday, 28 September

    As a country, India is thinking about manufacturing a lot recently. Manufacturing prowess does not start with large giga factories like the one Elon Musk builds. It starts with Medium, Small, Micro Enterprises (MSME). I saw this nice interview with Asish Mohapatra on solving the issues that MSMEs face.

    I liked the insights he had on company culture that he thinks of in terms of ABCs (Apprenticeship, Brotherhood, and Camaraderie) and what he thinks Town Halls should be about – Shout, Clap, Laugh, and Drink.

    It rained really heavily in the evening.

    Just before that I was rushing home to make sure that I am home by the time it rains. The car I use to go to work broke down after it entered our building premises.

    I called the garage for assistance. They tried the fuel pump, batteries, and other major connections. They played around with the relays with the intention of fixing any electric problems. The vehicle started and as I got into my parking, the skies opened up.

    Tuesday, 29 September

    I listened to an episode of the Art of Manliness podcast #1135.

    The episode is with the author of the book Against Convenience, Gabe Bullard. The podcast asks some really interesting questions.

    • Do what is good for humans. Not what is good for business.
    • Are streaming apps paying for the content or to find ways to hold paying subscribers?
    • Is the focus on getting people on food delivery apps or getting things like better packaging that delivers food fresh to the customer?
    • He suggested referring to the lists by Wendell Berry and Dieder Rams before adding convenience into your life.

    After the rains yesterday evening the weather started becoming balmy again as October was at our doorsteps.

    Wednesday, 30 September

    This was a really long day.

    I did not feel like working as we were going out for a late team lunch. We took my Logan as I was under the impression that the car was fixed. After a warm and relaxed team lunch, I left for home.

    The car broke down a net three times. I called another person from the garage. This person was sure that the problem was electric. Hence, he played only with the relays and got the car started. The third time it broke down, it was in the middle of a busy road. A few good Samaritans helped to take the car to the side.

    I tried to get road side assistance from my insurance company. I was totally sure that the car would never start again. I sat in the seat and was talking to a few people. During one of those conversations, the car started on its own.

    I decided to push my luck and go as far as possible. I was able to drive it all the way to the garage from where the folks on Monday had come. I left the car outside the garage and my wife picked me up and took me home.

    Thursday, 1 October

    One full day at the garage where I had left the car the previous day yielded no results. The folks at the garage seemed to not want to meddle with the car at all. They wanted to get it out asap. I did that in the evening. I took it to another garage where the mechanic seemed curious to find the fault.

    I got to try Instinct. I just dumped all the worries to it. It put various things into my Google Calendar and Google Tasks. I felt better already.

    Friday, 2 October

    The car’s travails continued. I visited the garage in the evening. It had broken down once but started again after they left it alone for a while.

    We went for a longish walk around the block. We found that a housing complex notorious for keeping people out or making it difficult to enter had relaxed their security so much that it could be treated as a thoroughfare at least for walking. Walking on Pune roads is a heart-attack-inducing experience.

    Saturday, 3 October

    I am doing a capstone project for a AI for Technical Writers course I am attending. I worked on the project in bits during the day.

    The car’s issues remained unsolved. The mechanic had ruled out issues related to the fuel line ending up to the fuel pump. He was now working his way through the electric issues.

    My relatives visited us from Friday to Sunday. I got to spend some time with them as well.

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  • Weekly Notes 38/2026

    13 September 2026

    I used to write in paragraphs in my Bullet Journal. An important change on this day was really writing in bullets. Not in paragraphs. So, I returned to writing on Roam Research again.

    I attended the Bookbak of the Pineapple Elaichi Book Club. This is a once in a month discussion on books one is reading. I got to share what I was reading that week.

    14 September 2026

    I stopped my subscription for Audible and moved to Storytel. I started listening to the Malayalam novel Parinamam by M P Narayanan Pillai.

    I read the book, The Blue Jackal to my son. I think he liked my narration because he bought me the same book to read for the rest of the week. I had to refuse vehemently to change to another book.

    I re-watched the Bourne Trilogy again over the weekend.

    15 September 2026

    I visited Thrustworks Dynetics. It was wonderful to visit a space fab unit in Pune and so close to home.

    18 September 2026

    I completed watching the series Neagley, a spin-off from the Jack Reacher series.

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  • Ganesh Chaturthi 2026

    We celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi in a small way.

    Ganesh Chaturthi

    My son’s top hairline (bottom of the image) photobombed the pic. The daughter made the Ganapati with clay that you can see off to the left of our temple at home.

    My wife left offerings of banana and apple for the Gods. Not to be left behind, our son left the Gods an offering of potatoes and tomatoes.

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  • ISRO’s Multiple Power Centers

    ISRO announced and successfully launched the GSLV-F17 mission after my last blog post. I am not claiming my blog post had any role in the launch or the success thereafter. Only, that the launch happened.

    It seems that there were efforts on to undermine ISRO by not letting it launch missions that were ready and already at Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC, Sriharikota).

    It seems that the questions raised by Madhavan Nair (in Malayalam, in English) and (perhaps) in parallel by Unions within ISRO (another story) about the privatisation of the full range of ISRO launch vehicles (PSLV and LVM3).

    This is in response to a speech given by the Chairman of IN-SPACe, Pawan Goenka –

    You will note the rocket behind him that is branded as IN-SPACe in the video. Usually rockets carry only two names – ISRO and India. The news story written by India Today actually makes it sound worse when they paraphrase him.

    This led to this clarification from him on X:

    However, going against the spirit of this separation of powers, IN-SPACe has been “productionalising” LVM3 and handing over operations of Kulasekarapattinam space port.

    This makes it look like there are multiple power centers (Pawan Goenka and Dr. V Narayanan) within the Department of Space.

    Even the release of this clarification by the Chairman, IN-SPACe makes it look like the Secretary of Department of Space cannot speak for himself or that Goenka has a bigger say in how things are run.

    While I was writing this, another un-signed clarification came from ISRO. Again, its not clear from whom within ISRO is this statement from. Is it from the Public Relations Officer, the ISRO Chairman, the Secretary, Department of Space, the Chairman, IN-SPACe?

    India’s private sector has its own growth trajectory to follow. While there have been successes – these are too small and will not help in missions of national importance. ISRO must be allowed to pursue those missions at the minimum until the private sector can develop its own prowess.

    I feel that the private sector is at least a decade away from developing that prowess. At the very least, wait till they can deliver three missions demonstrating this prowess.

    For this, the institutions within the Department of Space must work. The direction for this must come from the top – the Indian Parliament. We have a love for working in legal grey areas but we do not have any way to protect the ecosystem when the system implodes.

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  • What ails the Space Sector today?

    Arun Raj K M whose articles and videos I have linked to here, earlier, has written an article that is a follow-up to the interview he did with former ISRO Chairman, Madhavan Nair. Google Translate gives a decent English translation of the article.

    The lack of clarity between the three important pillars of the Department of Space – the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO – the science and technology lab), the New Space India Ltd. (NSIL – the commercial arm), and Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe, the regulator of the non-governmental entities).

    Internally, there may be clarity about each entity’s role. But, externally, the signals are mixed.

    ISRO had two back to back failures of the workhorse PSLV. This led to a lot of internal boards being created to investigate the failures. Even the National Security Advisor got involved. ISRO seems to be ready with satellites and launch vehicles. But, it does not seem to have got the nod to launch.

    In the past, an internal Launch Authorisation Board after consulting with the Space Commission would give these nods. IN-SPACe is not believed to have a say in giving nods for ISRO launches. But, there is no clarity if they are now involved. When the article says that the government has not given a nod, we have no idea about which arm of the government is giving the nod.

    The less said about NSIL, the better. An announcement calling for the post of a head for NSIL was floated in August 2025. It still does not have a head for the past 5 months.

    IN-SPACe has a really clear mandate, posted on their own website. But, it’s chief has recently being doing the work that NSIL should be doing. They made a call for productionalize LVM3 and for handing over operations of Kulashekarapatinam to the private sector. This has given rise to speculation that there is a power struggle between Pawan Goenka and Dr. V Narayanan.

    There was no mention of Narayanan in the programme published for National Space Day celebrations.

    Missions of national importance are falling behind – remote sensing satellites, communication satellites, navigation satellites, scientific missions, and building national capability in launch vehicles and satellite technologies.

    Despite recent demonstrations by Skyroot and upcoming technical demonstration missions from space start-ups, I don’t think they are in a position to replace the whole gamut of missions that ISRO used to run and operate.

    In my estimation, they may be a decade away from that capability. They may be two decades away from the capability to replace the services that ISRO offers to the nation today.

    I also agree with what Madhavan Nair said in the interview. We need a clear division of labour within the Department of Space. The Space Activities Bill could bring that if drafted well. We need the Space Commission to be the top space body in the country until the Space Activities Bill can be drafted and passed in Parliament.

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  • Weekly Notes 32/2026

    Home

    We are heading towards Onam next week. It will be our first Onam in our new home. My wife, Dhanya may not be able to celebrate because someone from her family passed away. Celebrations will be muted.

    Work

    Work was slow this week. I returned to office physically. I realised the importance of the core muscles was necessary in serving myself tea. I also found some trouble sitting on swivel chairs.

    Reading

    I continued reading towards the Second Interlude of The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.

    I caught up with a lot of newsletters on Substack, many email subscription newsletters, blogs I was following on my feed readers.

    Writing

    I setup Zo Computer to send me a lot of prompts. I thought a lot about those but did not get around to writing any of them.

    Hiran told me last week that he was re-structuring the notes page on his website around bound notebooks (styled after Twone notebook cover). While you’re there, you can also enjoy browsing his website (like the good old days).

    I started writing in Obsidian about how I was thinking about finances.

    I wrote a few more blog posts on this blog with WordLand Social made by Dave Winer.

    From Debian to Windows 11

    I put Neelathamara back in storage. I am using Karuthamuthu again. This is a laptop that came pre-installed with Windows 11 that we purchased for my daughter during the Pandemic. I am back on a Windows PC.

    I’ve posted many of the things that I watched and wanted to share with you on a link blog on Tumblr.

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  • Madhavan Nair on what ails ISRO

    Former ISRO Chairman, Madhavan Nair on what ails ISRO in this Malayalam interview.

    This is an important reality check. We don’t have enough people speaking up like this in current leadership.

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  • Web Travel

    I was reading this Walknotes piece.

    The Richard Siken book is prose poetry. I know nothing about poetry, to me it reads as prose, which I don’t think matters? Anyway, the point is, I bought it on recommendation from Azeem in Exponential View, of all places.

    The link to Exponential View above led me to their Substack. That led me to this piece that gave me one more reason to consider moving away from the Google ecosystem.

    Who is Azeem? The Substack about page led me to his X page. This led me to the about page on his website.

    And I still didn't know much about who Azeem was.

    Fortunately, he has a Wikipedia page, that does a much better job at telling me who he is.

    I found an interesting Fellowship opportunity that he had written about on Substack. I posted about it on X, BlueSky, Mastodon and on a couple of WhatsApp groups I am a member of.

    I was directed first to Exponential Views primarily because of a book he suggested. So, I began looking for the recommendation. I found it. Unfortunately, it's behind a paywall.

  • I am writing this post using WordLand. It was made by Dave Winer who writes Scripting News. I usually visit Scripting News on the browser because it makes more sense on the web than as a feed.

    I have been reading a few posts about the refactoring Frontier project today. I found it via a link on the News tab on Scripting News.

  • Zo Computer

    Srikanth L introduced me to Zo Computer.

    He had used Zo Computer to augment his investigations into the bank.in breach and the Bank of Baroda breach. You can now contribute tokens that could run Zo Computer for investigations.

    Zo computer is like a cloud and AI rolled into one. It uses different LLMs to do the task. It also gives you some online hosting space. You can use this to build an app or a website.

    I have started using Zo Computer to send me two emails – one at the start of my day and another at the end of my day. The one at the start of the day gives me highlights of news from space, energy, and technical writing. It doesn’t do the best job at this. The one at the end gives me three to five thoughts to consider during the night and prepare for the next day. I like the questions it asks here.

    One of the blog posts Zo suggested was Yuki Watanbe’s blog post in Japanese. It talks about his year-long parental leave where he changed how he learned before and after this leave period.

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