While reading this book, I couldn’t help but notice just how crowded our world has become with ideas and opinions. Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon feels like a straightforward guide for anyone hoping to carve out a bit of creative space for themselves. The heart of the book is really simple: it questions the idea that creativity means inventing something out of thin air, and instead suggests that creativity is about borrowing, remixing, and gradually finding your own way. One of the book’s most refreshing ideas is that originality isn’t about conjuring something completely new. Kleon suggests that all creative work is really a kind of fan fiction. We’re all…
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Does the End of Summer Really Feel Like the End of Opportunities?
The leaves are falling, turning red, then a deeper shade of brown. Suddenly, the bursts of scorching heat have started receding, taking a step back. The season of blossoming is over, and that makes me really question: Does the end of summer really feel like the end of opportunities? It’s intriguing how the transition to this patjhad-wala-mausam feels disturbingly like an ending. Yes, the optimists will call it a new beginning. But you’ll rationally agree that every beginning requires an end, a pause, a split, a turning point. And so, I’ve come to realise that like the leaves that dry up in Autumn, I notice our minds drying up too. We are slowly…
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Glow with Guilt and Ghee-wali Mithai: Diwali In-Progress
It’s Diwali, and I’m currently sitting somewhere between a sugar rush and an existential crisis. The house smells like incense sticks and fried snacks, my outfits have already survived two rounds of sitting carefully, the third round is on its way, and my diet plan didn’t even make it to yesterday’s breakfast. Every year, I tell myself I’ll be more mindful. One laddoo, one kaju katli, one chakli, one samosa, and then some restraint. But somehow, every Diwali turns more and more into a social experiment, always testing for one simple hypothesis: how much can one human eat under the polite pressure of “aree bas ek aur le lo”? And…
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Sapiens: The Book That Took Me Five Years and One Human Evolution To Finish
I’ll be honest — Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari took me five years to complete. My actual reading time was two months, but I consumed 50% of the book within the last two weeks — prior to that were simply phases where I waited for myself to grow into it. It wasn’t because I didn’t enjoy it; it’s because this book is a vessel of information overload. You learn so much that you end up struggling to retain even half of it. Even now, I carry away only fragments: glimpses of civilizations, revolutions, the evolution of humankind, and the many economic systems we’ve built and left behind. It’s not a book you can fully absorb…
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A Three Month Reading Curriculum: October to December 2025
As a reader, I can tell you this: books can either show you a reflection of who you are right now, or they can hint at who you might become further. I tend to stay stuck between the lines of the chapters rather than rush to the last page, I don’t see reading as a task to finish. It’s more like a ritual for me, a way to learn, and sometimes, have a conversation with myself. That’s why I started thinking about a reading curriculum. And yeah, I know — ‘curriculum’ sounds kind of formal, like you’re back in school with a stack of assignments. But this isn’t about racing through a…
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How The Greatest Hits (2024) Taught Me That Music is Our Anchor To The Past.
Ned Benson’s 2024 film The Greatest Hits is romance and sci-fi, but it also pulls you into an unexpected orbit. It’s about grief, time, memory, and an impossible urge to go back and fix what’s already happened. The movie makes you stop and contemplate on tough thoughts: Ned Benson’s 2024 film The Greatest Hits is romance and sci-fi, but it also pulls you into an unexpected orbit. It’s about grief, time, memory, and an impossible urge to go back and fix what’s already happened. The movie makes you stop and contemplate on tough thoughts: What if we could revisit the moments that broke us? And; What if letting go means losing access to the very person…
- Life Lately and Real Talk, Life Musings, Thoughts, Opinions, Mental Health Notes, Productivity and Well-being
Personal Branding, Perception Anxiety & The New Social Media Flu.
What if you didn’t want to be a brand, but just a person who overthinks their captions? Ten years ago, ‘public image’ belonged to celebrities, politicians, and people whose lives depended on red carpets and press releases. These days, the spotlight has widened. The moment you open an Instagram account or post something on LinkedIn, you step into the world of personal branding — sometimes without even realizing it, without even willing to. Managing how we’re seen online is a phenomenon today, and it can feel like a full-time job. So, no wonder so many of us find it exhausting. That’s where perception anxiety starts to creep in. That lowkey panic you feel when you…
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Book Review: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
This book can surprise you with its narrative, and it can also make you clench your fists in rage at the same time. The book is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. It is one of those wild rides where you’re deeply invested one moment, then fuming the next, and engaging in a monologue with your wall about the deep-rooted issues in our societal structures. It’s sharp, it’s witty, and it gets under your skin — not because it messes up, but because it’s too good at showing you all the ways in which the world can be unfair to women. And yet, somehow, it’s also weirdly comforting and full of courage.…
- Life Lately and Real Talk, Life Musings, Thoughts, Opinions, Mental Health Notes, Productivity and Well-being
Early Career Truths I Would Tell You If I Didn’t Care About Your Feelings
Most of us step into our careers carrying a mixed bag of expectations. There’s the naive optimism we’re fed in college — that our degrees will matter, that hard work will speak for itself, that if we “just follow our passion,” the path ahead will be meaningful and rewarding. Then there’s the muffled fear that everyone else has it figured out while we’re still Googling “how to write this email in a professional way.” The truth is that early careers are messy. They’re political, unfair, and often discouraging in ways no placement talk or graduation speech will warn you about. You don’t walk into your first job as a “future leader.” You…
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How I Gaslit Myself in the Exam Hall
You know that moment in an exam when your gut is quietly begging you to just stick with your answer, but your brain suddenly goes, ‘Wait, what if we just… change it for no reason?’ Yeah. That was me this week. I had the right answer. Ticked it off. Feeling good. Honestly, feeling a little smug. And then, for reasons I still can’t explain, I erased it. Because why trust your instincts when you can overthink yourself straight into a mess? Here comes the post-exam guilt. You know the kind — where you walk out and that one question just keeps playing in your head on repeat, like the world’s most annoying…
