Krakow to Wroclaw is just over three hours by train. You must absolutely book your tickets in advance. You get about 5 minutes to find your wagon on the platform, but barring that little adventure, the ride was smooth, passing by white landscapes and small towns.
The stay was at Radisson Blu again. This one was older than the one in Krakow, and the staff were a little less helpful. It is a 10 minute walk from the Main Square.
Compared to the last couple of years, I read fewer books in 2025, but I think the variety was higher. That probably explains the highest number of fiction books in a long time.
And so, once again, like 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 , and 2024, presenting #Bibliofiles 2025’s list of ten (plus the long list). From the 58 books I read this year…
(more…)I read something beautiful on a LinkedIn post sometime back. Yes, miracles do happen.
उन्हें कामयाबी में सुकून नजर आया तो वो दौड़ते गए,
हमें सुकून में कामयाबी दिखी तो हम ठहर गए !
Not that I had scaled some Himalayan peak of success, but the first line fits my 30s, and the second, my 40s. The underlying mindsets are different, and so are the journeys that give me joy. But it took the larger life journey and the choices of my past self to get here.
(more…)You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.
Rene Daumal, Mount Analogue (via James Clear)
Some would say kids are spoilt these days. I’m not going there, but kids are definitely spoilt for choice when it comes to chasing their interests, academic pressures notwithstanding. But what’s a deep interest and what’s a fad? What’s a passion and what is a routine that has overstayed its welcome?
I thought it was an excellent reminder that not all childhood interests need to become lifelong pursuits. Maybe a reminder for adults too – both influencers suffering burnouts as well as us standard mortals. For those interests that are staying beyond their shelf lives, and for those that haven’t seen the light of day, because they are dictated by habit/self image/identity?
I wrote this on LinkedIn in the context of a Hyundai ad that ended with “Never give up on finding what you love. There’s joy in every journey.”
(more…)Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Intelligent people know how to get what they want. Wise people know what’s worth wanting.
Shane Parrish
My typical simplistic approach to problem solving is why, what, and how. So here we go:
(more…)A recent event reminded me of a post about karma I had written half a dozen years ago. The idea of the post was thanks to Umair Haque, who had a definition of karma that was different from the garden variety ‘consequences of your actions’.
(more…)Karma isn’t what you “have” or something you “do”. It’s what you are….. Karma is all the concepts and notions you hold in that tiny little head. All those concepts are stitched together by the idea of “you”, right? So karma is all those concepts, together, which determine your intentions, actions, behavior, all of it.
Umair Haque
Japan was always the plan, it was only a matter of when. 🙂 We planned well in advance, but even then, thanks to it being Sakura season, a lot of hotels were sold out. The visa took less than a week to get processed. Bangalore has a direct flight to Tokyo. So all you have to do is, to quote Amrita Rao, ‘JAL lijiye’. Interestingly, the pilot took off immediately after we landed, confusing all of us! We finally landed again after about 20 minutes. Tokyo was our first stop. We began, and ended, our 11-day Japan trip in Tokyo. This is our list of where to stay, what to see, and where and what to eat.
What’s a visit to Scotland without a trip to the Highlands! Thanks to the Rabbie’s Tours itinerary, we were able to cover a decent bit of ground in 3 days.
Our base technically was Portree, where we stayed for two nights at the Pier Hotel, run by a very homely Effie and family. The place is right next to the water, and less than 5 minutes walk from the town square. The building, Effie told us while making us breakfast, was more than 200 years old. But for a small stay, it’ll do just fine.
An excellent coincidence that I finished reading James P Carse’ “Finite and Infinite Games” the same day I wrote this post. The book helped me frame thoughts to my satisfaction.
There was an age when accumulating possessions – from apparel brands to places visited to career designations to property ownership and anything that signals prosperity – was the game I played. Or games, because a milestone was a victory in that finite game, and I quickly moved on to another. Trophies that the world dictated. (more…)
Kannur was only a vague plan for some other time, until Theyyam became a bucket list item for D. Then we got hold of a schedule and a guide and landed in Kannur. Well, actually our Kannur flight got canceled, and we landed in Calicut, but that was a minor inconvenience. Passing by many places we only knew by name was a nice experience too.
We had originally booked a place called Anansa Boutique Hotel but they canceled us a couple of months before the trip. Ah well. That got us to Sunfun. Our room was on the top floor, and only just ok, but the rooms on the first floor looked a lot better.
They don’t have a restaurant, but Kishore can help you with a simple breakfast. Alternately you could walk to Anansa’s restaurant, about 10 minutes away.
There are a couple of other new hotels closer to the town centre.
The good part about Sunfun and Anansa is that you simply cross the road and you’re on Payyambalam Beach. It’s quite serene, but also has maddening traffic on weekends.
Kannur (St. Angelo) fort did remind us of the one in the neighbouring district – Bekal, but the latter was prettier.
This one does have its share of good views though.
The Arakkal Museum wasn’t in the plan, but we saw the signboard and I remembered them mentioned as unique in a Manu S Pillai book. I looked it up and it turned out that the matrilineal system meant they also had female rulers. That meant D had to see it.
I wished I could take all these home!
The weavers cooperatives were a big pillar in Kannur’s community, but over the years, modernisation and the younger generation’s lack of interest in this work has meant there are not many around.
Lokanath Weavers continue to be around and their products too are in demand, but their heydays are probably behind them.
The Cliff Walkway near the Lighthouse is another place for splendid views.
The Chirakkal Folklore Museum is a good place to visit if you’re interested in Theyyam origin stories. You will need a guide though. During the trip, our guide explained how Theyyam origin stories of two kinds – one connected to hindu puranas and avatars and the other deeply grounded in local history.
There are about 400+ kinds of theyyams, but only around 100 are performed. There is amazing scope for storytelling and showcasing, but judging by what I saw, I have doubts on whether that will happen. And that’s sad.
From what I understand, Theyyam began as a tribal ritual to remind and transmit the relationship of man with nature. As humans moved out of the forests, it was assimilated into the Hindu pantheon and larger society when consolidation began.
What is happening now is another level of consolidation as money pours in – traditions are thrown to the side, and there are communal forces trying to sanitise Hinduism into a culture that can be manipulated by Hindutva at will.
We spent an entire morning watching different kinds of Theyyams.
As you can see from the costume, this one is related to the harvest.
We also made a 2AM trip for the night version, an hour or so away.
There was a huge crowd already there but we managed to get seats.
But seeing the fire walk was a struggle thanks to the ballooning crowd.
We only had a breakfast at (New) Pulari, but I loved the ambience and the Appam + Egg Roast. We would have happily eaten here again but there were just too many places to try!
This was a place we did repeat, but for tea, and the fantastic view when you’re sitting upstairs.
There are a ton of tea options, but we kept it simple.
The Lebanese Chicken with hummus we tried out once for dinner wasn’t too bad.
MRA was our lunch spot in Pazhayangadi after our morning Theyyam visit.
Biriyani (as we spell it out in Keral Pradesh) is always a good idea, and this one had a very different rice. The burning issue here though, and one we argued with our guide, was that the chicken biryani did not have a boiled egg. As we told him, we felt cheated because the Malabar Chicken Biryani is supposed to have resolved the chicken or egg in the biryani context!
Beef is also always a good idea, and so is a fish fry. They also have a branch in Kannur, but the ratings don’t seem great.
Hotel Karthika took the honours for our favourite meal during the trip.
To begin with, they had the Chatti Choru, which was practically an aquarium with some four kinds of fishes, squid and prawn for the princely sum of Rs.220! Yes, unlimited rice, sambar etc too. And the women serving staff have a very motherly ‘eat more’ attitude to them. Absolutely charming!
We also asked for Kallumakkaya (mussels, which was D’s go-to food here) The food was just fabulous, but the chatti choru gets over fast, so be there by 12.30.
Since we wanted fewer carbs for dinner, we went to Naura Bistro, which though has only a handful of tables, from ambience and quality of food could easily have been Bangalore.
The Chicken Sliders were delish. In the background, you can see people waiting for a table. That was common!
Steamed Mussels, of course. This had a nice Thai broth that added great flavour.
The Vietnamese Beef Noodle spoiled the party though. Not because it wasn’t tasty, but they made us wait for an hour!
Wild Cafe is another pretty place for dinner. Again, very cosmo vibes.
The Indi Chicken soup is amazingly spicy. Highly recommended.
South Indi Seer fish for mains – Indian spices, spicy butter sauce and mashed potatoes aren’t the most common combo, but they really make it work.
This is Kallumakkaya Nirachathu, which you can find on the roadside stalls very near Sunfun. Mussels, ground rice and spice, fried.
Kannur Cocktail was a revelation. I absolutely disliked the ingredients – papaya, carrot – but boy, this was thick and yum!
The kids were drooling around Sign Laban, so we decided to figure this out.
Desserts from Egypt, turns out. We finally settled on the Umm Ali, and it was fantastically heavy, even when shared by two people!
Though our guide pooh-poohed it as more Calicut than Kannur, I had to try Banana Avil Milk. Mouzy was our best shot.
I absolutely loved it, practically a meal in itself.
Kannur did cheat us out of the last minutes of every sunset, thanks to clouds, but we did enjoy them, especially on weekdays when you have the place practically all to yourself.
Our perception of Kannur was dated – political violence and hartals. I found it to be quite a lovely town now. Fantastic community vibes, because it is not really very large. People jogging, cycling along the beach on a Sunday! The guide told us that after that they go to Pulari for breakfast, and sure enough, I saw one person whom I had spotted earlier walking on the beach.
I think the people are well represented by three auto rides we took there. The first refused to take more than Rs.30 from us. When he showed three fingers, my Bangalore mind talked me into taking out 300. Both of us looked at each other as though we had lost it!
The second charged us double rate, the guide said 9PM was the cut-off, and before we got in, he was arguing with the person in front of us on exactly that.
The last auto was arranged by Kishore (he is fantastic) and he was late. He apologised, and during the ride we began chatting about his daughter, who was a nursing student in Bangalore. He told us about his visit, and how he loved the pace of Bangalore when compared to Kannur. We were both seeing green grass on each others’ sides. He also told us how he had now started taking tourists around. When we said we had come to watch Theyyam, he said that he had visited Paravur (Cochin), and there he saw ‘our people’ (upper caste) doing a version.
I think, as travellers, we managed to get quite a flavour of the place. And loved it. To the point, where D and I even discussed living there on rent for a year to see how much we would like it as residents. 🙂
Sarah Wynn-Williams
As someone who has worked with founders in the startup space for over a decade and a half, the megalomania, the lack of empathy, and the moral bankruptcy in Careless People all seemed familiar. But Sarah Wynn-Williams’s first person account is about arguably the biggest phenomenon that has hit culture in the last decade and a half – social media, and specifically, the biggest player in it – Meta (then Facebook). She worked at Facebook from 2011 until her termination in 2017, the time when Facebook went from infancy to a full-blown global power base.
The book is a summary of moral bankruptcy and ethical failings in the company on two counts – one, the internal culture and decision-making process, and the other – the recklessness and callousness that powers its growth-at-all-costs approach, impacting the lives of millions of people through the ways in which the platform is used by bad actors.
On the first count, toxic behaviour, rampant and blatant sexual harassment by her own boss Joel Kaplan as well as Sheryl Sandberg (who allegedly said “You should have got into the bed” from a chapter titled ‘Lean in and Lie back’), and injustice in general. On the second, everything from helping China in surveilling its own citizens (and lying about it to the US lawmakers) to making politicians addicted to advertising so they be influenced on policies, to the Trump election, to targeting teens when they’re depressed, to the subterfuge in Intenet.org, to the apathy in the Myanmar genocide. As the book’s subtitle says, power, greed, madness.
The book begins with a hilarious incident at the 2015 Summit of the Americas, one of her early attempts to get Zuck to interact with politicians, and then goes right back to the time she decided Facebook is where she wanted to work at. I am still figuring out if the early part of the first chapter (her encounter with a shark) is a metaphor – for swimming with sharks later, or being a survivor.
In a way, Careless People is also like a biography of Facebook itself- the kind of problems it faced in its early days – from poop emojis to ISIS beheadings to Kony and breastfeeding protests! There really was no playbook for creating policies for these things!
The book is full of anecdotes – from the early idealistic days to connect humanity to the cold, inhuman approach that one is now familiar with. Catching Hillary Clinton on a dance floor in Columbia, Sheryl un-walking a lot of the talk from Lean In when it came to her own employees, and lying about narrowly missing a plane crash, Zuck’s failed attempts at courting Xi (anything to get a handshake, Xi refusing Zuck’s request to name his unborn child), how one low-ranking official in TRAI unwittingly scuttled Facebook’s populist move to get Free Basics running in India by opting out of all emails from Facebook, Obama telling Zuck in a private meeting that Facebook is playing a destructive role globally and so on. And peppered with her own encounters with non-human organisms – sharks, wasps, (almost) Zika virus at its place of origin and so on.
Careless People reads more like a thriller and is very accessible. One can easily sense the author’s frustration as idealism gives away to rampant greed and exploitation inside and outside. She doesn’t make it easy for herself with the blind idealism bordering on naïveté, and a work ethic that includes replying to a mail while in labour. Several times I wondered why she didn’t just quit, but later in Careless People, we get to know her own challenges. It is quite a read, and I’d definitely recommend it.
1. Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face ~ John Updike
2. WEF has weaponised the concept of status envy to create a Hunger Games for the .001 per cent. (about Davos)
3. The spyware Onavo showed Zuck which apps to buy by giving him confidential usage data
4. Sheryl once explained the cycle of wealth to me as she saw it I was complaining that someone I really admired had retired from Facebook at a very young age. I couldn’t understand why they’d do that. What would they do instead that would be so interesting? She said matter-of-factly that they would probably follow the cycle of wealth she’d observed at Google and Facebook: exotic travel for a year or more before becoming bored of that, then transitioning to getting very fit or some other personal goal. After achieving that goal, buying a boat or some other extravagant hobby purchase, and then finally getting divorced or going through some other personal crisis. If they come back from that, maybe they attempt their own start-up or fund or, most likely, philanthropy.
5. Uber weaponizes their drivers and riders, creating strikes, protests, and transportation chaos, forcing authorities to the table. They’re sponsoring the football teams of the children of key Brazilian senators responsible for decisions that impact their business, insisting on having UBER plastered across their kids’ uniforms. They propose compiling opposition research on journalists.
6. Over the course of the ten-hour flight to Lima. Elliot patiently explains to Mark all the ways that Facebook basically handed the election to Donald Trump. It’s pretty fucking convincing and pretty fucking concerning. Facebook embedded staff in Trump’s campaign team in San Antonio for months, alongside Trump campaign programmers, ad copywriters, media buyers, network engineers, and data scientists. A Trump operative named Brad Parscale ran the operation together with the embedded Facebook staff, and he basically invented a new way for a political campaign to shitpost its way to the White House, targeting voters with misinformation, inflammatory posts, and fundraising messages. Boz, who led the ads team, described it as the “single best digital ad campaign I’ve ever seen from any advertiser. Period.”
Andrea’s Brasserie happened because sometime in August we figured that Bangalore was done with the rains and we could safely visit Phoenix Mall of Asia without carrying swimming trunks. There are quite a few other options there, but many of them were also present in our suburb Phoenix, and we weren’t in the mood for Asian. (though my nieces had Bubble Tea and Korean snacks to prepare their appetites!)
The place is fairly compact, but I liked what they did with it – the peppiness of the decor and the comfortable seating made it seem more expansive than it was. We chose a cosy, corner.
Ironically, once we were seated, we craved Asian. The menu helped! The Chicken in Chilli Oil dim sum was the favourite, mostly because of the spicy sauce. Andrea’s Sushi roll had spicy tuna, salmon, avocado, jalapenos and a ponzu sauce as dressing. Overall, excellent texture and flavours. Of the lot, the Chicken & Chives dim sum was the least preferred, but that probably was just fatigue.
We weren’t drinking, so the Drunken Noodles was my consolation prize. Spicy flat rice noodles with chilli, garlic and basil. The Kimchi Fried Rice with chicken and egg was the spicy star though. Sticky jasmine rice with Kimchi, Korean Chilli paste and Edamame (though that last thing isn’t a favourite). And finally, Chilli Udon Chicken – udon noodles with a soy touch.
The bill came to a ~ Rs.3500 for four and a half and a half of us. The service is friendly and prompt. If they do manage to open in Whitefield, we’ll probably visit, because the menu has quite a few items I’d like to try.
Andrea’s Brasserie, First Floor, Phoenix Mall of Asia Ph: 085888 23878
Cat Bohannon
There is a choice we make when we use the word ‘mankind’ when we should be using humankind, or even better, humanity. ‘Eve’ is a good reminder, and the sub-heading – How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution – is exactly what the book is about. Cat Bohannon gives us a lot of insights into the pivotal role of the female body in the evolutionary story, in a sweeping and provocative narrative that questions the ‘male bias’ in science and medicine at large, and offers the story of human evolution as told through the female body.
The book is structured chronologically across 200 million years, and drives the story through the story of specific body parts, processes, and mechanisms. ‘Eve traces the evolution of women’s bodies, from tits to toes, and how that evolution shapes our lives today.’ In that process, we get insights on why women live longer, why they menstruate, are female brains different, and the very interesting question of whether sexism is useful for evolution.
(more…)The original plan for a day trip from Budapest was Eger, but thankfully D did her research and replaced that with Szentendre. The little town is a melting pot of several different cultures, almost like a mini version of Budapest itself, and that makes it quite perfect for almost every taste – churches, museums, cobblestone streets, varied cuisines, galleries, picturesque Danube river views and so on.
And all you need to do is take a < 1 hour train ride, on that cutesy HEV thing below from Batthyány tér, which happened to be a short walk from our hotel. No changing trains, but you essentially get two tickets for it – one for the city limits which you validate by punching it in the machine inside the train, and the other for the ticket checker (yes, this person exists) for the portion outside the city limits. The ticket machine at the road level makes all this a breeze.
