We can also call this blog post my personal plan to emotionally cuddle myself into books because the reality has started to become a little too real these days. **grunts** Hi. It’s me, again. Local introvert, socially awkward book human, reporting from my work-desk. As someone who hasn’t read a lot of “comfort” reads yet, I wanted to build a TBR list for the soul—a little collection of books I hope will hold me gently when I need it most. If you’re looking for the same kind of warmth, maybe these will find a place on your shelf too. Lately, I’ve been craving books that don’t make me feel heavy…
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Why I Researched on Beth Kempton After Reading 09 Chapters of Kokoro
Okay so… here’s a confession: I picked up Kokoro by Beth Kempton in February 2025 thinking it would be a calm, aesthetic, soul-soothing, finding my inner journey kinda read. Something like “let me sip my coffee and romanticize my life” vibe. And it is that book for sure — but also, somewhere between Chapter 1, Chapter 9 and my untimely afternoon existential crisis, I decided I had to know everything about the woman who wrote this book. And yes, I mean everything. I went full reader-stalker mode (and ended up calling it research). So, here’s something we should know about Beth Kempton. Beth is a Japanologist (which is a super…
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Must-Read Book Quotes: On Earth, We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
You ever read something so beautiful it lowkey ruins your day because now you’re just sitting there… feeling things? Yeah. That was me after I read On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous didn’t just give me beautiful lines, it gave me permission to pause. To reflect. To crumble a little. And maybe… rebuild softer. This wasn’t just a book. It was a long, quiet letter that turned into a mirror. It was one of those books where the stories are the life — messy, aching, and unspeakably gorgeous in their pain. Ocean Vuong’s words had a way of crawling under my skin and…
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Book Review: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
There are some books you pick up with intention, and then there are books that pick you. For me, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous was a little bit of both. I found it sitting at my safe space — the Krishna Curve Crossword — a.k.a. my comfort place where caffeine, aesthetic books, and occasional emotional breakdowns come together for me. Back in October 2024, I bought the book for a book club meet (bless my social self for trying). But the universe had other plans. I got too caught up in another book I was reading and abandoned Vuong’s masterpiece for a few months. Fast forward to January 2025, I…
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Must-Read Quotes from The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Some books carve themselves onto your soul. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese is one such book. It’s a multi-generational story set against the backdrop of Kerala, where the novel brings together themes of family and culture with an unparalleled depth of emotion and intellect. As I flipped through its 720-pages, I found myself pausing repeatedly to highlight passages that felt really poetic. And if you know me, you know that I love quotes and I love poetry. These quotes don’t just reflect back on the plot; they also highlight truths about our existence, our identity, and our shared human experiences. In this blog post, I’m sharing some of…
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Book Review | The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Can a book make you feel emotions that you’ve never experienced, and connect you to struggles that you’ve never faced? That’s exactly what Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water did for me. Spanning over three generations of a family and knit together by a mysterious “condition” of the water, this 720-page literary art is as huge as the waters from which it draws its inspiration. Meh, I know it’s a bad attempt at being metaphorical, but let’s ignore that and dive straight into the review: If you’re short on time, you can go through this 2-minute summary on the Book Review for The Covenant of Water on my Instagram handle…
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Must-Read Quotes from “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying” by Bronnie Ware
Blurb After too many years of unfulfilling work, Bronnie Ware began searching for a job with heart. Despite having no formal qualifications or experience, she found herself working in palliative care. Over the years she spent tending to the needs of those who were dying, Bronnie’s life was transformed. Later, she wrote an Internet blog about the most common regrets expressed to her by the people she had cared for. The article, also called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, gained so much momentum that it was read by more than three million people around the globe in its first year. At the requests of many, Bronnie now shares…
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The Gutenberg Paradox: Drowning in Information, Starving for Knowledge
Imagine being surrounded by an endless buffet of information but leaving the table still feeling hungry for real knowledge. That’s the Gutenberg Paradox in a nutshell—a contradiction where the abundance of information available today leaves us more overwhelmed than enlightened. The Historical Context on Gutenberg’s Revolution Back in the 15th century, Johannes Gutenberg turned the world on its head with his printing press, making knowledge accessible like never before. Books went from being a rare luxury for the elite to something even commoners could enjoy. This paved the way for the Renaissance and Enlightenment movements, and a whole host of intellectual revolutions that changed human history. People read, people learned,…
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Gen-z is really difficult to work with: Here’s why.
Somebody once told me that it’s very difficult working with the gen-z. Yes, we intend to be difficult to work with. And to give you a fair warning, there will be loaded sarcasm in the statements below, kindly bear along. Yes, it’s difficult to work with a generation that upholds boundaries. Because how dare we stand up to leave for home while out managers are still working at their desks. How dare we apply for leaves in spite of paid time off being a part of our compensation structure. How dare we prioritise going home to our loving families when we can instead be looking at a boring computer for…
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Defining Success In Your 20s: Welcome to Adulting :)
Stepping into the 20s has felt like walking on a tightrope; feeling stuck on one single line, with no option to turn left or right. The people in our lives turn into an audience, who constantly watch the reel of our lives unfold, screaming at us in hopes that we rely on the directions that they convey to us. And in the midst of listening to a hundred voices giving you well-meant advices about how to run your life, you find yourself lost in a tumultuous whirlpool of indecision. Sooner or later, we are all stuck in a cycle of not knowing what to do anymore. Losing sight of your…
