#52in52 This is Year Two of my goal of reading at least one book a week. I was not able to reach 52 books this year for various reasons including a cross-border migration and
Short Fiction Nidhi Nidhi’s parents had been looking forward to her birthday all year. And she herself, more than on other years, had also been looking forward to her birthday.
India Mughalsarai There is so much history in place names. Take Mughalsarai [Wikipedia entry]. The name literally means the way stop of the Mughals. The city has long existed on the Grand Trunk Road which
India Bannon misread the tea leaves It was believed that Steve Bannon took the election of Narendra Modi in 2014 as Prime Minister of India as a grassroots endorsement of nationalist, anti-globalist politics. The next vindication of his beliefs
GoI to pay debit card fees The government of India recently announced [ToI link] that it would bear the merchant charges for all debit card transactions up to ₹2000 for two years starting early 2018. Each debit transaction will
Udi Udi Jaye (I’ve been a fan of this Javed Akhtar song from the movie Raees [Youtube link] ever since my nieces danced to this song at my cousin’s wedding. And happily, the lyrics
Vipassana Vipassana Theory Vipassana means to see things as they truly are. It is a non-sectarian, non-denominational meditation technique whose goal is to help you glimpse your reality. To achieve these goals, the Vipassana technique relies
Vipassana Vipassana Camp I completed my first and only 10-day Vipassana camp in late November 2017. I am not an expert or even knowledgeable about the practice. If you find incorrect any interpretation and explanation of
Mind Vipassana Dreams (very NSFW) (Please be advised that this post is going to be very NSFW. It will deal with themes like incest, hentai/penetration, child sexual exploitation and voyeurism, and plain old missionary. Read on if
Topical Why is BTC at $6300? Remember Segway? It was hyped as a path breaking new way to get around. Steve Jobs apparently thought that it was "as big a deal as the PC" For all the
Mind How moderate am I if I take sides? I don't think a Donald Trump Presidency is good for America or the world given, what I believe, is the compromised nature of his business and personality. What I am finding hard is
Mind Lallath:Sunday I used to find the idea of koans very odd. What method of meditation and spiritual growth relies on asking people such abstruse questions that their brain grows? It made no sense. Then
Marketing Sizzle, not steak (They say to sell the sizzle, not the steak. To improve my own ability to sell sizzle, not steak, I'm trying to reword website copy in more appealing ways.) Current Copy LogDNA Pinpoint
Topical Fuck corporations I fly around a lot. My Internet is managed by a corporation. My computer and phone are made by a corporation. In the past, I have enjoyed and have written effusively about the
Fun Portmanteaus I’m going to start collecting words that I think I have invented here. If you’ve heard it elsewhere, please let me know somehow..or don’t. Twindian - two people who
Reflecting Not an example I’m not an example, Nor a ladder to be climbed, I’m not one in a tiny sample, Or a case study to be mined. My mother asks me what I want
Reflecting Lessons from A Man In Full Tom Wolfe’s A Man in Full is a wonderful read, and not just because it is set in Atlanta, a city I’m very very familiar with, at least geographically, if not
Hacking I have just posited a new theory of marketing This New Scientist article is headlined thusly - Half the universe’s missing matter has just been finally found When I first saw this headline on Hacker News, I was immediately drawn in.
Mind Mind your time This Hacker News thread on the nature of time got its share of people declaiming the article. The article in question theorizes that time is a product of the observer's biology. Briefly, time
Reflecting Self defense is a bear India has riots. We have cow vigilantes - people who go and kill other people suspected of killing cows. Our police force is old and antiquated. Their response times are abysmal. I have
Reflecting Hacking - contrarian view Along with 147 million other residents of the United States, my SSN, DoB, and email address was stolen from Equifax. According to Have I been Pwned, my email address has been knocking around
IPFS this, IPFS that IPFS, or the Inter Planetary File System, is a basically a global file system. Instead of URLs, you use unique identifiers (hashes) to determine where files you care about are located. If you
Reflecting Prix Fixe! Peace of mind I like the peace of mind afforded by knowing to the last decimal digit how much something is going to cost me in future. For example, even after a vast majority of the
Moral hazard The powers that be who governed at the height of the financial crisis were terribly, awfully wrong in not letting companies like AIG and FNMA/FMAC fall under their own weight. While they
Reflecting Process of learning Maybe it's just me but I believe learning penetrates deep inside our brain through adjacencies. Say I want to explain to you an abstract thought. For example, I wanted to say to James