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The sky was intriguing and the landscape was soothing! #London #BlackAndWhite #iPhone

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Walking around in London. The clean air and the buildings and locations with many fragments of history attached to them is quite inviting to get out and take a walk.

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What I read in 2019

  This was a post I used to write typically in the first or second week of January. But recently things have not been going in the usual way. I also used to provide a couple of line summaries and my take on the books that I read but that too seemed too much of effort. But I want to make sure that the list is here for archives and I get on with the things. This post was holding back a number of things that I wanted to write about.

  While I am not going to write about each book that I read, however, there are somethings that can be generalized about my last year's reading.

I did not get much time to read non-fiction. For me, non-fiction is serious reading and I do dedicate some time in my day for that but last year was a test for my time-management skills. While I completed only three books in the non-fiction category, I have a number of them unfinished. Last year, we had gone to Ramana Maharishi's ashram and picked up a bagful of books. Ramana Maharishi is probably the only modern time sage who attracts me and evokes respect. So I spent good amount of time reading his books and his life story. The other theme that I read a lot (does not indicate in the list of books here as many of those books did not get completed) was climate change and air-pollution: these are not only my personal interest areas but also professional needs. But again, out of 10-15 books that I had planned to read last year on this topic, I could finish only three.

In the fiction category, there has been a conscious effort to read more Hindi books. And, I managed to read four books, including the epic-length Mujhe Chand Chahiye. I also risked picking up a book by young Hindi writers or Nayi Hindi authors and was quite surprised by Aughad.

Majority of fiction that I read this year were my flight reads or bedtime reading and I tried to finish some of the series that I was following, including a great series that turned into a disappointment by Dean Koontz. I also attempted an Indian crime fiction/whodunit by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay and it was good. Nine Perfect Strangers was a big disappointment and so was Blue Moon and The Silent Patient.

The two standout books of this year for me were Laburnum for My Head,  a collection of short stories by Temsula Ao and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Eleanor Oliphant has been a rage last year so it got on my reading list but Temsula Ao was a finding from some random search and glad that I got this.

  Fiction

The Silent Patient By Alex Michaelides

Blue Moon By Lee Child

Laburnum for My Head By Temsula Ao

Mujhe Chand Chahiye (Hindi) By Surendra Varma

Tell No One By Harlan Coben

Rehan Par Raghu(Hindi) By Kashinath Singh

The Arsonist By Kiran Nagarkar

The Girl Who Lived Twice By David Lagercrantz

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine By Gail Honeyman

Penumbra By Bhaskar Chattopadhyay

Aughad (Hindi) By Nilotpal Mrinal

The Night Window By Dean Koontz

Mayapuri (Hindi)By Shivani

The Lost Man By Jane Harper

Debris Line By Matthew Fitzsimmons

Nine Perfect Strangers By Liane Moriarty

Newcomer By Keigo Higashino

Out of Dark By Gregg Hurwitz

  Non-fiction

  The Great Derangement By Amitav Ghosh

The Collected Works of Ramana Mahirishi

Looking Within Life Lessons From Lal Ded

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On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

The coming of the age, almost autobiographical, story of Vietnamese migrant Little Dog’s journey from war torn Vietnam to Hartford in USA, is a long poem in the guise of a novel. And thank god that this is done by Vuong and not by others. Not many would have produced something as endearing as this novel. Not every author is Ocean Vuong. This might be his debut novel but he is already a celebrated poet and a recipient of numerous awards including MacArthur Genius grant for his poetry/writing.

Little Dog might sound as a strange name but once I read the story behind his name, there was a tender familiarity that seeped through. Little Dog was named so to save him from bad things happening to him; making him undesirable so that death which prefers to take away the precious things ignores him. This is the practice which even I saw in many parts of our hinterland. Parents named their kid, after losing a few kids untimely, with names such as Fekan, Bechan, Lallu.. the most coveted kids had the most unwanted names.

The novel is in the form of a long letter written by Little Dog to his manicurist mother, who could not read. Little Dog and his mother both fought for dignity and self-esteem in an ‘English’ world with very little English in their kitty. But Little Dog grew up and he had a bellyful of English. And, this novel surely suggests the bellyful of English was also the beautiful English.

"In this nail salon, sorry is a tool one uses to pander until the word itself becomes currency. It no longer merely apologies but insists, reminds: I am here, right here, beneath you. It is the lowering of oneself so that client fells right, superior and charitable. In the nail salon, one’s definition of sorry is deranged into a new word entirely, one that’s charged and reused as both power and defacement at once. Being sorry pays, being sorry even, or especially, when one has no fault, is worth every self-deprecating syllable the mouth allows. Because the mouth must eat." - From On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Little Dog’s fitful account of his life, memories, his sexuality and his rumination on his relationship with his mother and grand-mother is visceral. It is gorgeous not briefly but perennially. Ocean Vuong has poured his yearnings into a book that will be remembered for its sheer power to evoke unique and indescribable mix of emotions.

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Evernote, Notion, Roam - Why and How I am using all of them

  I have been an Evernote user since 2008. Every time, I need to find a report, a document, receipts I search in my Evernote and it is there. Once I drag anything into Evernote I know that it is going to be there. The optical character reader (OCR) feature makes life so much easier. I can drag a PDF report in Evernote and can easily search the content of this PDF. This is an immensely valuable feature when your job requires going through numerous pdfs scouting for information. So for me Evernote is not a note taking tool but a repositories of my documents.

Evernote excels at what it is supposed to do and you can trust it to be there when you need it: online, offline, on mobile, on web, on Mac, On Windows.. It is everywhere. But a lot of things changed in last 12 years. We saw a number of apps coming and threatening Evernote and often excelled at one or another thing that Evernote does. Bear gave a brilliant writing interface; NimbusNote got some style and a few more bells and whistle than Evernote and then came Notion: the lego box that can be a note-taking app, a project management tool, a personal wiki.. the list goes on.

Now, the #RoamCult is taking over. RoamResearch is taking the note-taking to the next level. With its bi-directional linking and networked thoughts, this is something that is not Note-Taking but a learning and knowledge management tool that makes you think and collect knowledge bits without any kind of typology and structures. This is immensely helpful for the content creators and researchers. I work extensively on climate change and different development challenges and often putting a files into a particular structure or folder is very difficult. RoamResearch allows me to do that very well. But RoamResearch is not great for dumping all kind of content like we do in Evernote or for creating beautiful structured personal wiki as Notion.

But Evernote, RoamResearch and Notion together create a perfect knowledge management work-flow and system. My three step workflow is the following: Step 1: Everything goes into Evernote. Online articles, pdfs, my purchase receipts, critical documents. First landing place for any content. It is reliable, safe and available everywhere. And, the mobile app of Evernote is lightyears ahead of Notion and RoamResearch (in fact RoamResearch does not have a mobile app yet.).

Step 2: Synthesis of compiled content happens in RoamResearch. I review notes in Evernote, highlight them and bring the highlights and notes that I want to further use into RoamResearch. Here I process my notes to create a short summary in my own words. This also turns up into my CRM and ToDo list as it is quite intuitive. I can insert ToDo list and reference to different people easily in Roam.

Step 3: All the finalized content that I create goes into Notion in form of a personal wiki.

So far I am quite good with this flow. But I am looking forward to getting rid of one or other applications if they evolve further become one stop solution for my personal knowledge management.

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WE need proactive regulations for AI

Why do AI regulations often lag behind innovation? The critical challenge lies in developing a deep, shared understanding of emerging technologies to foster effective public policy dialogues on safety and fair usage. It’s incredibly encouraging to see industry leaders such as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei not only acknowledge this gap but actively champion greater transparency and responsible…

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We need proactive regulations for AI

Why do tech regulations often lag behind innovation?

The critical challenge lies in developing a deep, shared understanding of emerging technologies to foster effective public policy dialogues on safety and fair usage. It’s incredibly encouraging to see industry leaders such as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei not only acknowledge this gap but actively champion greater transparency and responsible development.

This proactive stance is needed. Ensuring a balanced, ethical, and safe AI future requires a concerted effort from policymakers, innovators, and civil society.

I’d love to hear from those of you working on ethical AI and the policy dimensions of AI: What are your thoughts on bridging this gap between rapid AI advancement and thoughtful regulation? How can we ensure public policy truly keeps pace?

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/0…

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WE need proactive regulations for AI

Why do AI regulations often lag behind innovation?

The critical challenge lies in developing a deep, shared understanding of emerging technologies to foster effective public policy dialogues on safety and fair usage. It’s incredibly encouraging to see industry leaders such as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei not only acknowledge this gap but actively champion greater transparency and responsible development.

This proactive stance is needed. Ensuring a balanced, ethical, and safe AI future requires a concerted effort from policymakers, innovators, and civil society.

I’d love to hear from those of you working on ethical AI and the policy dimensions of AI: What are your thoughts on bridging this gap between rapid AI advancement and thoughtful regulation? How can we ensure public policy truly keeps pace?

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/0…

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We talk of innovation as if it’s always about tech. But some of the boldest innovations today are social, ecological, and moral. Reimagining how we live, consume, and relate to nature—that’s the real frontier. #ClimateJustice #SystemsChange #Regen

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So far I have discouraged at least four individuals from spending USD 50-100k on mid-career programs or certification that were intended to propel their careers forward. There are more cost-effective alternatives that they can try. #Careers

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Finished reading: A Spell of Good Things by Ayòbámi Adébáyò 📚

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The Destroyer of Bird Nests

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The Sentinel

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Hidden drivers of our careers: Curiosity, Conviction and serendipity

Over the last 5–7 years, I’ve found myself in many conversations with young colleagues, students, and friends — often during moments of transition or uncertainty as they reach out for guidance on certifications, referrals, or help in framing a career pivot. But as these conversations unfold, a deeper pattern emerges. Many are setting goals based on what’s visible, popular, or endorsed by the loudest voices — not what truly fits their temperament, values, or long-term aspirations. They’re choosing paths that sound impressive but feel increasingly hollow as they walk on that path.

In their urgency to “build a great career,” they often adopt generic advice — optimize for brand names, chase high-growth sectors, follow passion loosely defined — without realizing that these choices are quietly steering them in the opposite direction of the life they actually want. The tragedy isn’t that they’re lost — it’s that they think they’re on track, when in fact they’re sprinting down someone else’s path.

As I observe my own journey and how I navigated (learnt from all the usual generic mistakes that most of us commit) some patterns and learnings emerged.

Short-term optimization vs getting on long term learning path

One of the most widespread traps is short-term optimization — choosing a job primarily for its salary, title, or brand. It feels rational. After all, we are taught to maximize. But research — and my own lived experience — suggests something different: early-career learning environments are a far stronger predictor of long-term success than early salary or prestige.

I learned this first-hand. I made a career pivot by moving away from hardcore commodity traders job to being a research associate at an academic institution, I didn’t have the flashiest role or the highest pay, but I was working alongside some of the sharpest minds in development finance. They held me to high standards, exposed me to diverse challenges, and helped me build what Cal Newport would later call “career capital” — rare and valuable skills that quietly increase your bargaining power over time.

While it was more of an impulsive decisions and realization that I wanted my work life to be in sync with my values and my craving for learning, this decision did wonders for me. But at that point of time, no-one backed my decisions as this was against most of the established templates: a massive salary cut; moving from a permanent role to a contractual role; and moving from a coveted brand name to an institution that was fledgeling research institution at that point of time.

Reactive vs Intentional Career Choices

Another subtle but significant pattern I see is reactivity. Most people don’t choose careers. The careers that they are coveting for are shaped by family expectations, peer pressure, market trends, or mimetic desires (the unconscious imitation of others’ ambitions).

I made that mistake too. My first job was the best offer on the table and I wanted to get that because it was the most coveted offer. But once I stepped into it, I realized how little it resonated with who I was. I had ignored the quieter signals: what kind of problems excited me, what kind of team I wanted to be around, what kind of life I would lead if I continue to be in this role.

Being an introvert who spent all his free time reading and reflecting I was getting to know myself and my thought process better. Now, I strong believe that Intentional career choices come from self-awareness — an evolving understanding of your values, temperament, and curiosities.

Which brings up a connected point: most of us don’t choose our peer group or mentors. We inherit them. And while many mentors mean well, they may unconsciously project their own nostalgia — urging you to follow the path that worked for them, not the one that works for you.

The Role of Serendipity

There’s one more thing we often underestimate: the role of chance. We’re conditioned to think of careers as linear — choose the right degree, get the right internship, and get the right company…. But the real world doesn’t work like that. Careers unfold through serendipity — unexpected encounters, side projects, failed applications that open surprising doors. (The switch from a commodity trader to a researcher was made possible only because the research project for which I had applied expected the applicant to have deeper understanding of commodity trade!)

John Krumboltz’s Planned Happenstance Learning theory suggests that the most ‘successful professionals’ don’t follow rigid plans — they follow curiosity. They are open to small experiments (one of the experiments that I tried early in my career was to learn coding and started a blog-both had no objectives and just were driven by curiosity but blogging led me to know many fellow bloggers and exceptional individuals who just expanded exposure and learning), stay open to surprise, and treat uncertainty not as a threat but as terrain to explore.

Some of the most pivotal turns in my career — working with some of coveted global institutions did not come from a master plan, but from being open to (and paying attention to) what emerged when I followed the work that felt meaningful, even if it didn’t fit a established template.

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In my college days (1990s) dreamed of becoming a journalist. I dropped that idea, but sometimes I wonder if it was the right call—especially seeing the poor quality of reporting and farcical stories that pass for journalism today.

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The flagstaff tower, Delhi

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Finished reading: The Final Curtain by Keigo Higashino 📚