Personal
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Wore-drobe
It is March again, and this year will be different. I know this because the spring-summer collections have begun dropping in my inbox, because a linen shirt has been sitting in my saved-for-later cart for eight months now, and because I am standing in front of my wardrobe having decided, once again, that I will… Continue reading
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Roll Call: Notes on Names and the People Who Get Stuck With Them
The annual pre-Independence Day office party. The night before I was born. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu in the front row, with Appa. My name almost decided. I know, I know. What’s in a name? is the most overworked question in the history of questions. Shakespeare asked it, your motivational calendar asked it, and now I am… Continue reading
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Listening for the Ciiii
On effort, expertise, and why invisible work goes unrewarded My mother could cook an eight-course meal for twelve people and the kitchen would look like she’d merely walked through it on her way to somewhere else. No splatter on the stovetop, no tower of tasting spoons in the sink, no panic-Googling “is dal supposed to… Continue reading
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User Research, But Make it Metabolic
(Or: What My CGM Taught Me About Human Behaviour) Exhibit A: The humble poha that broke my metabolic heart. The Accidental Field Study Every few months, I run a small, unapproved research project with a sample size of one: me. The apparatus is a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM), a discreet sensor I stick on my… Continue reading
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Episode 11: The Girl I Brought Home
The one who writes love stories to children who will never exist The girl I brought home, with her collection of becoming. I don’t have a lot of wealth, but I have a lot of crap. Earrings that I bought during various phases of optimism. Books that I’ve accumulated like some people collect frequent flyer… Continue reading
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Episode 10: The One Who Was Always There (Until He Wasn’t)
The recurring character who was almost the main character, until he wasn’t. Some loves don’t take center stage. They light it. Image Credit Some people enter your story as guest stars. Others are series regulars from the pilot episode. The Regular was cast before I even knew there was a show. Our mothers practiced Rabindra… Continue reading
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Episode 9: Tindexit (Or, The Beautiful Eyes Brigade)
In which I discover that being desirable to everyone is worse than being desirable to no one. For 7 weeks, I was a babe. Then I pressed delete. Image Credit On the wrong side of thirty, I finally downloaded a dating app. I’d held out through the early swipe years, but my family WhatsApp groups… Continue reading
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Episode 8: The Boy from Tokyo (Who Was Actually from Osaka)
Five emails and a wedding invitation (to someone else) But at least we’ll always have the Pilot pens. Image Credit My family was full of wannabe economists who thought they understood currency markets. So when the proposal came for a boy in Japan, they got out their calculators. “500,000 yen per month!” someone announced, after… Continue reading
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Episode 7: The Double L Guy
The one who existed perfectly in professional font The one I found through a typo and lost through an expired inbox. Some connections exist perfectly at 10pt Calibri. Image Credit This is about the boy I found through a typo and lost through an expired inbox. I’d just gotten my first corporate email address. An… Continue reading
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