Writing
Essays and thoughts on technology, design, culture, and everything in between.
2025
2024
The UX of Slowing Down
How friction — designed well — can actually improve the way software feels to use.
DesignProduct Marketing Is Translation
The core job isn't about spin or positioning theater. It's about bridging two languages that don't naturally speak to each other.
WorkRetro-Futurism and Why It Endures
There's something deeply appealing about a future imagined from the past. Why do we keep returning to it?
CultureIs the Hustle Culture Killing Our Creativity?
After burning out across a job, a newsletter, and a YouTube channel, I decided to slow down — and found more clarity.
WorkArt Isn't Born, It's Found
Art isn't something we pull from thin air — it's a reflection of the people, experiences, and world around us.
CreativityLove Isn't Yours to Claim
How a one-sided love I carried through school and college taught me that love is never yours to claim.
ReflectionsThe way up and the way down are the same
On Heraclitus's observation that the path up and down are the same — and what that means for the decisions we make.
ReflectionsWhy is internet writing so hard but so rewarding?
As a creator, you're renting two minutes of your reader's attention — and that's why writing on the internet is both brutal and worthwhile.
WorkIs Our Existence Just a Notification?
How digital notifications have become the only proof of life we have for people we once knew deeply.
Reflections2023
2021
2020
Waves and still water
Watching the sea at Pondicherry, I noticed a still puddle on a rock and understood something about our relationship with noise.
ReflectionsThe Key to Big Ideas Is Walking Alone
Why walking without your phone is one of the most productive things you can do for your mind.
ReflectionsMy Dad's friend Who Did Not Have A Name
Uppu sold salt on the streets for decades. When packaged iodized salt arrived, he reinvented himself. Nobody knew his real name.
ReflectionsThe dawn of premium instant coffee in India
How new-age coffee brands used storytelling to make instant coffee premium — and what their marketing is quietly normalizing.
CultureWhy Sahib-ibn-Abbad carried 2,06,000 books on 400 camels
The story of a 10th-century Persian vizier whose love for books was so vast it took 400 camels — arranged alphabetically — to carry them.
CultureEpicurus – The Philosopher who believed in the power of Friendships
A look at Epicurus — the ancient philosopher who built a commune with friends and argued that happiness is found in simple pleasures.
ReflectionsWhat Makes a Sitcom Funny?
After watching too many sitcoms, I noticed they all follow the same formula — and it turns out there's a name for it.
CultureThe Fading Ambiance of Small Biriyani Shops
The traditional biriyani shop — with its open front, clanging ladles, and fixed menu — is quietly disappearing.
CultureThe snack that was named after an explosive
Anugundu — the Tamil name for atom bomb — is a bonda that kept my dad going through poverty and became our morning ritual.
CultureYour Family Is Like a Startup. It Should Show Growth Every Year.
How to think about your family's finances, health, and well-being the same way a startup thinks about growth.
WorkHave Cities made us Insensitive?
Why city life makes us calculative and detached — and what it would take to care again.
Reflections2019
I Ordered Chole Bhature and Received Customer Experience in Return
A small restaurant's thoughtful act of splitting a poori taught me more about customer experience than any business book.
CultureHow our previous generation built and lived the Indian dream
Watching retired men eat vada at 6 AM made me wonder if our generation will ever reach the peace they have.
ReflectionsThe Digital Camera That Drowned My Dad's Business
When my dad dismissed digital cameras as a fad, he didn't realize they would put him out of business within two years.
Work2017
Life is meaningful because we think so
A colleague's sudden death and a new joiner's question about meaning led me to think about what life actually is.
ReflectionsStop being too humble. You won't get anywhere
There's a thin line between humility and invisibility — and staying on the wrong side of it has real career consequences.
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Occasional essays on technology, culture, and how we live with both.