If you’ve ever been haunted by the possibility of dementia, you’re probably not alone. In a world that glorifies productivity but rarely practices brain health, Keep Sharp by Dr. Sanjay Gupta is a much-needed reality check. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is not just a trusted neurosurgeon and medical correspondent; he’s also a clear voice cutting through the noise around aging and cognitive decline. In Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age, he uses his medical expertise to busting myths and offer practical lifestyle changes, to remind us that it’s never too early — or too late — to care for our brains. But here’s something special: Sanjay Gupta doesn’t just offer you…
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What White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky Reminded Me Of — Bollywood Edition.
You know how sometimes you’re reading a classic Russian novel about existential crisis, loneliness, ek tarfa pyaar and you suddenly think, wait a minute… I know this from somewhere. That’s exactly what happened when I read White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It’s a sad, four-night-long torment of unrequited love, hopeful delusions, and one very lonely man who just wants to be seen. Argh! The number of Nice-Guy-Syndrome and Friend-Zone memes I witnessed when reading reviews of the book had me roll up laughing. As I finished reading, I couldn’t stop but think that the book reminds me of some Bollywood movie that I know of. It took me right about 5 minutes to pin-point, and…
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Finding Comfort and Connection with Days at the Morisaki Bookshop — Reading After-Thoughts :)
When I picked up Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, I was craving something light — a fiction that didn’t need me to intensely analysis the passages or use my intellectual muscles too much. After being deeply immersed in Sanjay Gupta’s Keep Sharp, which is a science-driven guide to protecting your brain from cognitive decline, I needed a gentler read. And this book turned out to be exactly that: a soothing, binge-worthy read that pulls you into short bursts of life and literature. Blurb Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo, is a booklover’s paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books. Twenty-five-year-old Takako has never liked…
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What the City Forgot: Lessons in Living from India’s Indigenous Cultures.
Why we lose ourselves in WiFi, and find ourselves in the mountains. We, the millennials and Gen Zs of the metro cities, scrolling through reels on mental health while gulping cold coffee and juggling multiple internet tabs. Somewhere between grocery home deliveries and soft boards that look straight out of a murder mystery, we’ve turned life into a never-ending to-do list. Meanwhile, India’s indigenous communities, often dismissed as “backward,” are out there living lives of balance, groundedness and joy that most of us only dream about during spa sessions that we schedule on Urban Company. This isn’t about romanticising rural poverty or denying progress. This is about acknowledging the gaps…
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Why You Should Stop Asking AI to Disagree With You.
How our obsession with AI tools have unplugged a deeper issue: mental laziness. Lately, I’ve seen a lot of people say that ChatGPT should disagree with you more — that it should challenge your opinions. There’s been a noticeable shift in how people want to use AI tools today. The hype used to be all about how helpful these tools could be. But now? People are asking for something more: AI that disagrees with them. AI that doesn’t affirm their beliefs. AI that calls out their logic, and doesn’t automatically praise or validate their inputs. And I get where that’s coming from. But here’s the thing: did we pause to consider whether we…
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Did Kokoro Just Give Me the Existential Reality Check I Needed?
Reading Kokoro by Beth Kempton felt like being softly bonked on the head by somebody. So, here’s my tiny ramble about the things I learnt, felt, and awkwardly nodded at while reading this book. My belief of a neatly wrapped up life died somewhere between a pandemic and a quarter-life crisis. I knew it, but maybe didn’t accept it. Kokoro helped me grieve that belief and move on. Life isn’t a checklist. Sometimes, things fall apart even when you’re doing all the right things. And the sooner we let go of that illusion of control, the lighter we become. At some point during my reading journey, I also realised that…
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Don’t Scroll, Please Stay [Poetry – Note]
In this world wired to keep us connected, We’ve never felt more forgotten. Explore pages, reels, and feeds, Swiping right across stories, Leaving heart reactions in red, But so much still left unsaid. Once, eye contact used to mean something, Now, we look, we scroll, But we rarely see. We exist in grids, In captions, Ending conversations with laughing emojis, Even when nothing’s really funny. We’re in each other’s network, But not in each other’s lives. Our touch now replaced by a tap, Our eyes awaiting a ping, Some part of us still hoping, That someone will stop, will stay, will look. Will see more than an aesthetic feed. Walking…
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My Search for Soft-Hug Reads: TBR for my soul.
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…
