Challenge

Ian Chen/Unsplash

For all the high-paying jobs in the world's biggest companies be it tech companies or financial behemoths, there is a stampede of the sharpest minds. At least the sharpest minds academically speaking. The dream then is to enter an organized system that is already printing money and join the party. The challenge in that case is how to make the product(s) of the companies unique or at least better than their competitors. How exciting! But how guaranteed! Don't they wonder with that all that brainpower to harness, having succeeded in some of the toughest competitive arenas how it would be to take on a real challenge? The challenge of the environmental crisis, the challenge of ensuring medical reach, the challenge of delivering education to the masses. Oh, but that sounds like the job of politicians, doesn't it? Occasionally a few of them brainiacs do wander into politics with mixed success but it is a wonder why more don't. I assume that they would (deservedly) hold their mental abilities in high regard but then why doesn't the complex multidimensional challenge that is politics fascinate (more of) them? Some would say that their being smart is the reason why most of them don't wade into this arena where popularity contest meets management ability meets mental sharpness. I would say that intellect is of the greatest value in solving the greatest problems and no role squeezes it to the maximum as much as that of a politician.

Siren

Scott Rodgerson/Unsplash

I wonder who it was that first made the diabolical switch for the meaning versus the origins. The sirens were originally seductive creatures calling lonely sailors to an imminent death by wrecking over the rocks. While their intent was nefarious, the songs themselves and the creatures themselves had to have been alluring. Cut to the modern age, when sirens sound anything but attractive. The ambulance's whine, the fire-engine's high pitched croak, the air raid's insistent warning - are all sounds which cannot be ignored but definitely not something that draws the listener towards them. In borrowing words from Greek mythology, this particular one suffered a cruel modification. Even if preparing for doom, why can't the music and/or sounds be kept happy?

Remember

Ricardo Gomez Angel/Unsplash

Remember this cold December morning. In your bones, in your veins. The sun is a no-show and the fog a cold dampness long past its welcome. You will need it on a clear summer day when the leaves are bright green from the sun's fury and the very earth seems toasted brown. But you won't remember. On that day, you will simply wilt under the insane heat walking rapidly towards shelter not recalling that not so long ago, you had actively sought the sun's company.

Monumental

3rd December 2025, Neyyar WLS, Kerala

The task seemed enormous but definitely not devoid of its charms. As we approached the boats to cross over into the wildlife sanctuary boundaries, the bathing elephants and those charmed by them caught our attention. Three elephants of various configurations were in the process of getting a scrubdown while gawking tourists video-ed the entire affair. The dedicated teams pursued the elephantine project of a luxurious bathing with a vigour matched by the tranquil expressions of their subjects. Important discussions on heritage awaited us on the path ahead but the brief glimpse into an almost sacred trans-species connection was a welcome addition.

Twinning and Winning

27th November 2025

The first is the original Indian powerbike. Well thought-through product marketing by Bajaj targeting an attention hungry new India launched its sales into orbit in the early 2000s. Thanks to the Pulsar, motorcycles were not about getting from point A to point B but more about how you felt on the way. That it was not a 1950s design bolted onto a 1970s leaky engine helped. An 18-year old Bajaj Pulsar is still a Bajaj Pulsar.

The second is an orange dream vetted across the deserts of Dakar and its cousins in different continents. The full form of KTM may be beyond the linguistic capabilities of most of its customers but Kronreif & Trunkenpolz Mattighofen sure did know how to make a motorcycle. The growl putter of the KTM Duke's engine divides opinion viciously as does its behaviour in traffic. Nobody likes being overtaken by an orange blur but some do take pleasure in the existence of such manoeuvrability.

Possessing both in a single stable might seem unnecessary but practicality wasn't the first concern of any motorcyclist's life anyway. For that, there will always be the public bus.

Deja-Dhurr

"Dhurr" is a very Bengali sound for exasperation. Not quite a word but packed with all the functions of one. I keep it polished and ready because it is that time of the year again. Another year, another clutch game which will determine if Arsenal are able to maintain their tenuous lead at the top of the table at year-end. Having been exactly here so many times in the past two decades, the worst outcome has been played out so frequently that it has ceased to surprise. Nonetheless, the Arsenal faithful including yours truly will watch with bated breath at 01:45 AM India time as their team, predictably plateauing, take on a surging Aston Villa with a grudge bearing former coach at the helm. As a true Gunner, I will watch with hope well aware that past history must be crushing down on the players much more than us spectators. But for their sake (Saka?) and ours, hoping for a plot twist towards the positive.

Vectorized

23rd October 2022, Living Roots Bridges (Vector)

Simplifications are distortions, plain and simple. Vector images fall squarely in that category of information but their distortions offer a focused clarity. Shades are abandoned for blockiness of colours and disorder soothed into mathematically repeatable curves. The clarity of a photograph may be seeming but a vectorized version lays bare an object's reproducible soul.