mad means insane, enthusiastic, foolish, angry, frenzied, exciting, and great and remarkable. It sums up the range of life itself, how I arrive at my point of view, and the effects of consuming it.

You must be mad to still be reading this. Read more and send rave reviews.

Right now I'm delivering an especially hot variety of mad words. They’re centred around the making of my first book, a collection of narrative nonfiction essays about how crazy life is in modern India. The book was accepted to the South Asia Speaks fellowship for outstanding emerging writers, and was repped by Kanishka Gupta. It’s being published by Aleph Book Company in 2024.

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🧵 ESSAYS

🦠 What’s so funny about Covid-19?

🌚 Solving self-expression: Why I setup this blog on Notion

📱 Why is BharatPe offering engineers bikes and gadgets?

📐 Game theory and life in Netflix’s Squid Game

🏅 How to buy a pair of discounted sports earpods

🥥 Apropos coconuts and paranoia

🚳 The trouble with Tin Factory

🧬 The me in memes

🧵🧵 MORE ESSAYS

Rajat Gupta's appeal to the court of public opinion

After failing to set aside his conviction for insider trading in US courts, Rajat Gupta presents his side of the story and professes his innocence in his memoir.

caravanmagazine.in

The Namesakes

The story of roughly fifty Sanjanas, how their parents decided to call them that, and the secret history of why Indians give their babies the names they do — A new story from India to the world, each week on FiftyTwo.in

www.fiftytwo.in

Restricted Code

Many Indians believe Sanskrit is a perfect language for computer programming and AI research. State-led programmes have deepened the impression. Indian scientists working on AI research would like a word — a new story from India to the world, each week on FiftyTwo.in

fiftytwo.in

Tech is Changing the Way People Score and Sell Drugs in India

It's now easier for people to buy or sell drugs, but they also have a greater chance of being ripped off or busted.

www.vice.com

‘Class’ Shows Elite Indians Confronting Their Privilege — Or Failing To

The kitschy web series sets up a bird’s-eye view of Indian society’s various fissures — caste, religion, sexuality — and asks why the rich can hardly see beyond themselves

newlinesmag.com

‘Running Boy’ Pradeep Mehra’s overnight fame shows India’s obsession with merit and success

Feeding the idea ‘hard work will give rewards’, in a country where ‘a chaiwala can become a PM’, helps stave off questions about inequality.

theprint.in

😙 RAVE REVIEWS

Here’s what people (say they) love about me. If I ever made your life better, thank you for letting me in. Now, some of these posts lead to external links, so keep clicking to check if they do. I could have made this easier and more obvious, but I wouldn’t know how else to get clicks.