I grew up in a joint family, and I have a theory about that.

I'm the youngest in my family. And when you're the youngest, you spend a lot of time watching.

Dadi responds to directness. Chacha needs context first. Same room, different people. Same person, different rooms - different person entirely. I didn't have a word for any of this. Reading people has never been hard for me, and I think that's why.

In a parallel universe, I'm painting zebra crossings.

In a parallel universe I'm serving upma and idli at a Udupi place (dip, or not haha), painting zebra crossings somewhere in a city, or reorganising a supermarket shelf with more care than it's ever seen. These appeal to me genuinely and equally.

In this universe I cook well - south Indian, Mexican, Lebanese, good homemade iced tea. I have SkyView and spend full nights tracking constellations.  A high-zoom telescope is next on the list. I haven't fully ruled out space. I just haven't figured out the paperwork.

I travel slow and I'm not sorry.

I travel with a sketchbook and Staedtler pens everywhere I go. Cause You can't fake a drawing! You have to actually look - at how someone stands, which direction people face, what's worn down and what isn't. That's what I'm there for.

Fair warning if you're travelling with me: I will make you wait. Not at monuments - but on curbs, steps, a chai stall where I've now been talking to someone for twenty minutes about their daily routine, what they like, what's annoying. I want to live their life a little if I'm visiting their place.

Cycling is where my best ideas happen.

My first salary went to a cycle. My last significant purchase was also probably cycle-related.

Short ride, long ride - doesn't matter. It clears my head, and I can literally feel steam blowing of me.

I've cycled Bangalore to Mysore, dragged my cycle up Nandi Hills, flew back down. It's been a while since a proper long trip. The bike doesn't know that.

I study things nobody asked me to study.

Casually, obsessively, for free. There's a name for it - “endo-ethnography” - but I mostly think of it as paying attention.

One project I keep coming back to: why do a lot of Bangaloreans still prefer BMTC over the metro, even when the metro is cheaper? Because the metro feels like an airport. The platforms, the AC, the infrastructure - it all reads that way. And people carry a lot of airport anxiety into that.

I have gifted the same book to multiple people. Intentionally.

I've given John Green's Anthropocene Reviewed to multiple people. On purpose. It's essays where he rates things sunsets, Canada geese, the plague  on a five-star scale.

If you've received it from me and know someone else who also did: I'm not lazy. I just think everyone should read his take on humanness.

I haunt book sales and have opinions on fresh vs used books (I won't get into right now).

My grandpa's radio is going to play Spotify soon!

I collect old gadgets. From my grandpa, from my dad, from anyone who's about to throw something out - I can't let them.

There's a tactile feeling to vintage and retro objects that nothing new comes close to. The weight of them. The dials. The way they were built to last.

I also try to repurpose them. Right now I'm fitting an Arduino and a speaker inside my grandpa's old radio, wiring it up to connect with Spotify. It'll play songs from my phone - but you control the volume with the original vintage dial.The radio stays a radio. It just doesn't know it yet.