Poem for the day.

Lord, grant me the brazen confidence of AI when it's wrong.

तू छत पे मिल

😁

For almost four years Cityflo was my mode of work commute first to Andheri and then to Lower Parel. Worked perfectly well 95% of the time.

‘Perhaps poetry is another of science’s deepest roots: the capacity to see beyond the visible.’

‘Because we didn’t have a proper football, I would climb orange trees, pick the fruit and use it to play.’

This is time, familiar and intimate.

"The world is very, very beautiful if you look at it, but most people don't look very much, do they? Scan the ground in front of them so they can walk, but they don't really look at things incredibly well, with an intensity. I do, and I've always known that." ~ David Hockney

One of my favourite courses during my MBA was Indian Economic Policy, taught by a professor whose name I’m embarrassed to admit I can no longer recall. One of the enduring lessons from that course was that if you want to understand people and places, you have to understand human behaviour, social structures and everyday choices people make at the most granular level. That thought came back to me while listening to @ghazalawahab's conversation with @amitvarma about her new book on the Hindi heartland. She speaks about the region’s complexities through the lenses of language, religion, caste, gender and history. So much nuance gets lost when we try to explain entire regions through simple narratives. open.spotify.com/episode/0SC…

Anyone who writes is a seeker. You look at a blank page and you’re seeking. The role is assigned to us and never removed. I think this is an unbelievable blessing. —Louise Glück, from an interview

A comic by Schillar

On how to grow and maintain friendships - 1. The only rule is that you must meet. Once a week, or once a month, or once or twice a year. Decide the cadence based on the relationship and follow through. There is no other cheat code to this. 2. When you meet, take enough time out. Don't do a 1-hr quick chat. Pls. Quick chat is a sad phrase designed for work environments. No one else in your life deserves a quick chat. Be generous with your time. If you set aside 2 hours for lunch or coffee, especially for people you don't meet often, keep the next 1-1.5 hour open just in case the conversation runs long. Time is expensive. Reserve it well. Then give generous amounts to friends and people who deserve them. 3. All other forms of staying in touch like texting, sending each other memes, doing phone calls are maintenance work. They do not grow or progress a relationship. They will run dry if you don't meet for a long enough time. Do not rely on them beyond a point. 4. Be graceful and kind during periods of disconnect. Good and long-term friendships will inadvertently go through phases where the vibes are not matching. It is normal. Do not read into it too much. Do not count who texted more, who called more. No relationship survives a well accounted ledger. 5. Ask for favours. Yes. Do not be shy. Hyper independence is the death of friendship and community building. People like to feel needed. Tell them you need them once in a while.

Words of affirmation are for beginners of romance, legends use ragebaiting as a form of love language

‘But what is this love, so central, so core that its absence is not an event. It is an undoing. Maybe sadness becomes the air, instead of love. Maybe one lives inside it for a while and then simply stops being able to breathe there.’ open.substack.com/pub/anubha…

This is one of the most beautiful pieces I have read in a while. So beautiful that I read it 3 times back-to-back. Like the writing in it will leave me, if I don’t keep it under my continuous watch. substack.com/home/post/p-194…

We are carried. And we carry.

‘Life is like one of those rolls of ticker tape that rained down on the pitch before the final: the nearer you get to the end, the quicker it disappears. But when you’re a child, four years feels like an eternity. You become a completely different person from one World Cup to the next.’ irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/…