Category: Personal

  • Weekly Notes 32/2026

    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.

    03 Aug 2026, Monday

    Dhanya and I watched the two Malayalam movies, Bharatnatyam and Mohiniattam.

    04 Aug 2026, Tuesday

    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.

  • Wada Chutney for Snacks

    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.

  • Weekly Notes 31/2026

    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.

    We watched the Malayalam movie Chinna Chinna Aasai.

    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.

  • Weekly Notes 30/2026

    Sunday 19 July

    A day after the historic launch of Vikram 1. Questions remained related to the mission that have not all been fully answered yet.

    Tuesday 21 July

    I went to the hospital for a post-surgery check-up. Recovery looks good. Follow-up on 27th.

    Thursday 23 July

    I decided to get back to reading. I picked up My Journey to Devi by Priyanka Dalal. It was a short less-than-100-pages read that I completed on the same day.

    I then picked up The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson which is a book club read-along later in the day. I am way behind on where I should be in reading progress but I will catch up. I am reading this now.

    Saturday 25 July

    I wanted to read the blog of Derek Sivers. I went to his blog and read his posts from the first half of 2026. I then went on to read the blog of Dave Winer.

    I then moved ahead to the blog of Cory Doctrow. This reminded me that I had read his book, Red Team Blues. I then went to his website, Craphound to see the books he had written since. I found that he has written a book called The Lost Cause. I purchased that book to read next.

    It felt great to browse websites again.

  • Weekly Notes 27/2026

    I didn’t do a good job with keeping a daily note this week.

    Manuel Moreale who runs a People and Blogs series had an interview with a blogger, Andy Baio whose answers really resonated with me.

    He says, “I wanted a place of my own online, somewhere to experiment and write about weird corners of internet culture, online community, and copyright, as well as a sandbox for new experimental projects of my own.“

    And further: “My frequency of posting has waned over the years, first cannibalized by social media and then by larger life and work stuff. I’ve recently found myself drawn back to it, posting more regularly, trying to wake those atrophied writing muscles. Even if I’ve slowed down, it’s hard to ever imagine stopping entirely.“

    This could easily be me explaining my blog post writing statistics to you.

    I find that people are writing on their own websites again, even if not as a blog per se. I think they want to put out their version of things themselves.

    As Baio writes, “The ability to directly reach the people who care most about your work, outside of the capricious nature of social media algorithms, is essential.“

    I want to invest some time in re-acquainting myself with the Bullet Journal method.

    It has been raining endlessly through the weekend. It has been gloomy and there has been some water logging in the areas where I live.

  • Weekly Notes 26/2026

    Sun, 22 June 2026

    I had fallen off from using my Bullet Journal since I went to Kerala. I had hoped to revive the practice on this day. I couldn’t.

    I have started thinking again about my usage of social media apps. I am increasingly using Instagram more than X or Mastodon. Many of the people I follow on YouTube have also become more active on Instagram. One of the reasons I remain on X is because most of the space ecosystem hangs out there.

    I am also re-evaluating my software licenses and payments made to them.

    Mon, 23 June 2026

    Kunal Shah announced that he was joining WhatsApp as its Global Head on X. The statement specifically says that Meta will not have access to CRED data (which could include firms under it like Kuvera, an investment app).

    This has me worried about software dependencies which I had been thinking about since Sunday.

    Vivek Raju’s comment also on X was interesting. He spotted something:

    A common trend seen among loss-making tech startups is their founders being to looksmaxx around the time profitability kicks in.

    This sounded like a strategy similar to that Chris Camillo mentioned in an episode of MyFirstMillion podcast. Camillo says that he looks at TikTok and social media for signals about companies to invest in given that financial data does not give everyone enough leverage in picking stocks.

    Talking about investments, Saurabh Mukherjea has a video out promoting Marcellus’ Multi-Asset portfolio, in which he suggests a portfolio that invests 20% each in Nifty 50, S&P 500, Debt, Gold, and Cash.

    I also heard a nice talk by author G Madhusoodanan in Malayalam about living a life when we are surrounded by so many crises around us. He has a book called Life in the Time of Polycrisis that comes out in July 2026.

    Tuesday, 24 June 2026

    Suresh Menon talks about the origin story of Kamla ka Hamla which used to air on 93.5 Red FM.

    I wrote a post with the highlights from a talk that Kunal Shah gave at the Groww Investor’s Festival.

    I realised that other blog posts are also pending and hence I started work on the blog post about the return from Palakkad to Pune.

    Thursday, 26 June 2026

    I mostly worked on getting the details into the blog post and focussed on work.

    I am watching a series called Vikram on Duty along with my family. It releases 4 episodes each Friday. Each episode is just 25 minutes long. The crime investigation episode suggests across 3.5 episodes. The last 0.5 of the episode is the start of the next investigation. Vikram gets all the clues and solves crime single-handedly despite having three sidekicks. Some of the episodes involve some funny scenes like catching an international drug kingpin using nothing other than child lock in the vehicle.

    Friday, 27 June 2026

    I started the day with news that Om Malik had died. I have read Om on and off over the years. I really enjoyed reading his long form pieces that were thought provoking and changed the way I looked at the technology world. I really liked Matt and Arun’s writing on his passing.

    We watched and completed Made in India: A Titan Story which talks of the story of the birth of Titan, the watch brand. Dhanya found it quite inspiring.

    Saturday, 27 June 2026

    I finished writing the post about the return journey from Palakkad to Pune and posted it on the blog.

    These are two series that I enjoyed watching on Instagram:

    One talks about a boy learning from and playing chess with his father.

    Another series that I watched was on architect Laurie Baker. I had read his website in 2007 when it was hosted on Geocities.

    She also talks about a slum rehabilitation project that Baker undertook in Thiruvananthapuram.

    I am really enjoying not just reading but watching about these projects.

    I had finished watching Person of Interest on Sunday. I then went ahead and caught up with the episodes of Vikram on Duty. I have caught up with all episodes released on Friday. We then watched the Titan story on Friday night.

    I watched the Tamil movie Karuppu and did not enjoy it.

    I read 7 Steps to Financial Freedom by Maneesh Taneja. It clarified some of the concepts that were not very clear but I found it an okay book.

    The Pineapple Elaichi Book Club that I am a member of announced a read-along of The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson. I got the Audible copy of the first book The Way of Kings. I will be listening to this on my drives to and from work.

    I still have to figure out how to write these Weekly Notes.

  • Weekly Notes 25/2026

    I have nothing to report this week. The upcoming week is exciting, though.

  • Weekly Notes 24/2026

    It’s been 20 years since I registered on WordPress.com.

    7 June 2026 Sunday

    I decided to change the way that I write Weekly Notes into these daily paragraphs inspired by reading this. I wrote the Weekly Notes 23/2026 in this format. Let’s see how long I can keep up. Friends came over to see our home.

    8 June 2026 Monday

    Kids were both unwell. We asked the friends who had come over on the day before if they were OK. It helped us to narrow down what could have caused the issue. I Googled 6 7 and learnt about a neat little trick that Google does. I found out Shubha Mudgal has a Substack.

    9 June 2026 Tuesday

    My wife celebrated her birthday. We had a small cake cutting ceremony in the evening. We had an intimate event.

    10 June 2026 Wednesday

    I learnt that Malayalam actor Salim Kumar had passed away. Read this article on his life on X among other tributes. I also read a blog post about the evolution of Marathi. Nidheesh M K wrote about how a video posted on YouTube ripped one year of his hardwork. I also read about face fatigue written by Shephali Bhatt.

    I learnt about the original jugaad.

    11 June 2026 Thursday

    A nice look at @zenrainman’s garden and water management system.

    12 June 2026 Friday

    I went for the periodical medical test sponsored by my workplace. I also made my way through the ശ്രീ ലളിതോപാഖ്യാനം (Sri Lalithopvakhyanam) as told by Sharath A Haridasan.

    13 June 2026 Saturday

    The US Government blocked access to Fable 5 citing national security. Companies and people that were planning their businesses around the access to AI are worried. There still seem to be hackathons in India that support Claude and OpenAI. I don’t understand this. Isn’t it better to contribute to open source foundational models rather than closed foundational models?

    SpaceX IPO went live. Elon Musk became a trillionaire and Gwynne Shotwell became a billionaire.

    I agree with Sandhya Ramesh when she says that the space for humanity era is gone.

    But, true for many other things.

    Many people have pointed to the writing of Shankar Sharma. This video summarizes many of his writings about stock market in India.

    He makes some very interesting arguments – innovation falls as the country gets rich off the stock markets, Indian retail investors are giving exits to foreign equity investors (and so, the money is not getting re-invested in India), retail investors must not be so active in the stock market, and foreign investor exits must not be as easy as it is presently.

  • Met Thejesh

    I sent an email to Thejesh when I realised that both of us would be in Kerala at the same time, though in different nearby districts.

    After breakfast at 24h Coffee House outside Hotel Indraprastha. Image: Thejesh GN

    We decided to meet at the Palakkad Fort and have breakfast at the restaurant of the Indraprastha Hotel thereafter. He said he would come with family. I only got my wife along.

    I think I first read Thejesh’s blog when he was writing his many Open Source projects and writings. My Weekly Notes were inspired by his Weekly Notes.

    I thought our conversation would be around this. But, our conversation centered around family, travel, work, micro-grants, and history.

    He spoke of how the Weekly Notes helped in conversations with family and friends. They got updates from his Weekly Notes. But, his wife was frustrated because when she would give an update, their family and friends would have read about it already on the blog.

    We could not go inside the Fort as it was a little too early. We walked to the circular coffee shop outside Hotel Indraprastha and had breakfast.

    Both my wife and I enjoyed the company and the conversation. We also got a mention in one of the aforementioned Weekly Notes.

  • Weekly Notes 23/2026

    My weekly notes have been very weak. I have not been able to keep up with the practice in the last few weeks. My last weekly note was Week 15.

    Sunday 31 May

    We drove back from Palakkad. We started from Palakkad at 5:40 AM in the morning and reached our hotel room in Hubballi in time for dinner. We enjoyed the evening in Chitradurga – it was windy, overcast, and there were windmills. I learnt that hotels makes the kids stay free but does not provide them with a bed for them.

    Tea-break at Chitradurga. Image: Pradeep Mohandas

    Monday 01 June

    We continued our drive from Hubbali and into Maharashtra. We reached home in the evening for a late tea. My arms and legs were paining and hence, we only ate food and went to sleep.

    Tuesday 02 June

    I returned to work. It was nice to catch up with colleagues. Some colleagues were still away on their own summer vacations. In the evening, we realised that we still had to put in new practices for us in the new home.

    Wednesday 03 June

    Saurabh and friends had come over to Pune to meet Aarya and me. His PoV of the visit is here. I had very interesting conversations here .

    Friday 05 June

    The kids got the first chance to decorate the walls with their own colour. We had expected this would happen but not so early after their return.

    Saturday 06 June

    Rakesh ettan and I went for the STC India’s celebrations of World TechComm Day. We were in the team that won the first prize in a quiz competition. Our wives and kids got to spend this time together.

    I got the scooter back from its pre-Monsoon checks. I changed out the wipers on the car and had it ready for the Monsoon as well.