Hi there 👋

Sleep deprived and exhausted, I remembered “oh crap, I think the car is still on the street”. I had parked our sedan there earlier in the day to pull out our minivan for the kids. Oh yes, the kids… the reason Priyanka and I have been sleep deprived and exhausted for a few months now. Ever since we had our second one, they have been running in “high availability” mode, the moment one quietens, the other one needs attention, night or day. ...

I am a sucker for Indian corporate drama. I don’t know if it is a defined genre. If not, it should be. I was introduced to it by Ravi Subramanian’s Banker series, and totally fell for it. Possibly because I could relate to the aspirations, apprehensions, and relationships of the characters. Having experienced those myself in the 7 years I spent in Indian corporate life. RV Raman is a brilliant exponent of the Indian corporate drama genre, taking it a step further into murder mysteries. I had read two of his previous books along similar lines - Insider and Saboteur. Those were great, and as is Conspirator. I finished the book in a week - something of a record for me (I labored over Kanan Gill’s Acts of Got for over three weeks, and couldn’t get myself to read over 60% before finally giving up). ...

OMG! What did I just read! I’m infuriated. So, I just finished reading Sakina’s Kiss. The review is full of spoilers, so if you don’t want them, do not read further. First, the book held my attention right till the end. Reading the book feels like an average man telling you some stories. That is good and bad. The good is that I find stories of average men quite interesting when told well, and the book tells the stories quite well. The stories are interwoven in a way that it doesn’t feel like you are reading a collection of stories. The writing is quite good. The author, Vivek Shanbag, never loosens his grip on the reader from start to end. ...

CPL 2024 final just wrapped up, with the final between Guyana Amazon Warriors (GAW) and St. Lucia Kings (SLK). Batting first, GAW scored 138 courtesy some late hitting by Romario Shepherd and Dwayne Pretorius. It first looked like not a lot. However, St. Lucia just didn’t seem to be able to get bat on ball, and made the total look extremely challenging. Till the end of the 15th over of the second innings, it seemed certain that GAW will win. Aaron Jones, especially, didn’t seem to either get a boundary or get off strike. At one point he was like 7 out of 19 balls. Commentators were talking about St. Lucia coach, Darren Sammy’s option to retire Jones and get in one of the lower order batsmen. But Sammy had been sending messages through a water man, who looked like was telling Jones to get on with it. Then came the 16th over of Moeen Ali. Jones and Chase took him for 27 runs, and completely changed the direction of the game. Jones suddenly seemed invincible. He was hitting it out of the ground at will, moving about at the crease, toying with the bowling. ...

This is a space for me to write. A web log. A Blog in the original sense. This is not meant for self-promotion, or to grab attention in any way. In fact, there is an excellent chance that this text has an audience of one, me. Often I read or experience things - articles, books, movies, an interaction, a class - that evoke further thoughts or concepts in me. This is a place to write those down. Mainly to get them out of my head, and possibly for the use of future-me. Writing them down also makes me try to structure them and really think through them. Without this process, I am truly convinced of my own beliefs, even if I can’t pin point exactly what they are. ...