I transcribe call recordings using Gemini Pro on Google AI Studio with a prompt that guesses speaker names, includes timestamps, translates non-English speech, and bolds key takeaways while cleaning up verbal tics.

Transcribe call recordings guessing speaker names using the latest Gemini Pro model on Google AI Studio. Append all speakers, and who spoke when, for context.

Transcribe call recording


I developed this prompt to transcribe talk recordings and Q&A sessions accurately. It removes verbal fillers, adds timestamps, translates non-English segments, and bolds key takeaways. For video, it includes instructions to describe screen activity changes.

Transcribe talk recordings with Q&A. If video is provided, add this line:

Transcribe talk


Find out who to express gratitude towards every week

Unreasonable Gesture


I share a prompt for analyzing WhatsApp group exports in NDJSON format. It extracts the top twenty topics, maps conversation network centrality, and builds detailed persona profiles for the most active participants using jq and LLMs.

Summarize a WhatsApp thread from https://tools.s-anand.net/whatsappscraper/ | whatsappthread.jq

WhatsApp Group


I shared a prompt to transform WhatsApp logs from my scraper and viewer tools into engaging, fast-paced news bulletins. It produces conversational summaries using plain language and short quotes to keep the update lively.

Summarize a WhatsApp thread from https://tools.s-anand.net/whatsappscraper/ | https://tools.s-anand.net/whatsappview/

WhatsApp Summary


I’ve compiled a field guide for asking better questions to spark discovery rather than influence. Use follow-up questions to signal care, frame tough inquiries with pessimistic assumptions, and use distancing techniques to evaluate problems from an outsider’s perspective.

Ask Better Questions Questions are powerful when you are curious. Questions are to discover. Not to influence. The older I get, the more time I spend—as a percentage of each day—on crafting better questions. In my experience, going from 1x to 10x, from 10x to 100x, and from 100x to (when Lady Luck really smiles) 1000x returns in various areas has been a product of better questions. Tim Ferriss. Tribe of Mentors Drive more questions. It's under-used. Create a culture of curiosity. Questioning defines and structures what we don’t know. Improve time management Where (life or work) are you pursuing comfort over the right discomfort? Are you judging yourself by standards that can never be met? Factor in second order effects In what ways have you yet to accept who you are, and bit the person you believe you ought to be? Where are you holding back until you feel like you know something? Everyone is winging it How would you spend your days differently if you didn't care so much about seeing your actions reach fruition? Process vs outcome Ask Founders What are some small things your organization does really well, and you're proud of? I'd love to learn what you do and how it came about What are the top 3 principles your company lives by? If you had to drop one, which two would you keep? Learn from people ⭐ What do you know better than most people? (Mine may be Calvin & Hobbes) What are the top 5 non-intuitive principles in that field? Quiz me about your field. What Book, Movie, Gadget would you recommend? What Technology caught your attention recently? What 3 things have you learnt in the last 30 days? Discover people ⭐ What do you like most about what you're doing? How did you get into this? What do you do in your spare time, on weekends? What's most important to you right now? What got you into this line of business? Where do you decide based on emotion more than reason? What's something you probably know better than anyone else? Mine may be Calvin & Hobbes What's an unusual habit you have that you love? If you could go back 20 years, what advice would you give yourself? If you could live anywhere, where would it be? What would your autobiography be titled? What got you curious recently? Discover contrarianism / independent thinking Do you ever find there are things about you that people misunderstand? What important truth do very few people agree with you on? What's an accepted idea that you believe will turn out to be wrong? Introspection How would you/we REALLY answer "How are you"? What prompted you to call us/take this meeting? Repeated conversation How was your weekend? What plans for this weekend? What's the best/worst/biggest/toughest/proudest/happiest thing you did since the last spoke? How did that thing you were talking about last time turn out? How are your children/spouse/relatives you recently mentioned? Priorities Remember: if they don’t share, its because YOU haven’t been the person they can share with. That’s not wrong. It’s just there. Can I be in your circle of trust? I care. What are your personal goals and priorities right now? If you could have one 'do over' in your life, what would you do differently? On 31 Dec, when you look back at the year, what's one think you'd feel really good accomplishing? (What do you want?) What's the future you're committed to? For your family? For your career? What areas of life are working well and not so well? What's your biggest priority or focus right now? Why? What are you most proud of? Who among your friends would you invest time in? Who would you short? Why? What should you therefore strive to be? Questions to evaluate What's your go-to comfort food? This can reveal cultural background or personal preferences. Do you have any pets? This can indicate whether they are an animal lover and what kind of commitment they are willing to make for caregiving. What's your favorite season and why? This can reveal their preferred activities and whether they like change or consistency. What's the last thing you learned that fascinated you? This can show you what they find intellectually stimulating. What's your favorite type of music? This can give you a glimpse into their emotional landscape and cultural leanings. Are you a morning person or a night owl? This can indicate their productivity patterns and lifestyle. What's your dream job? This can reveal their ambitions and what they find fulfilling in work. What's your favorite way to relax and unwind? This can tell you about their stress management techniques and what they find calming. Do you like to travel? If so, where's your favorite destination? This can indicate their openness to new experiences and cultural diversity. What's a skill you'd like to learn? This can reveal their aspirations and areas where they want to grow. How do you handle stress or conflict? This can give you an idea of their emotional intelligence and coping mechanisms. What's your favorite childhood memory? This can offer a glimpse into their upbringing and what they find nostalgic. What's something you're grateful for? This can indicate their general outlook on life and what they value. Discover from signals Not mentioning / avoiding => Significance ... a person by name ... a target to achieve Lack of attention to detail => Giving up Defiance => Giving up, it's impossible Discover personality What skills do you value in your team? (These are what they value in themselves.) Find what's missing How do you feel about this project right now? Specific: Energized, Drained, Frustrated, Overwhelmed, ... Do you feel equipped for what you're planning? What's standing in your way? What have you identified as the main bottlenecks? What is your biggest worry right now about this project, and why? What is one challenge you wish you could disappear with a magic wand? What can you control? What is out of your control (and therefore not where you should focus your energy)? ... or the cause When did you first start doing this? In childhood... AVOID: What's your probem?. Confrontational. Leads to "I don't have a problem..." Understand the importance / impact How important is aspect of your life to you? When do you want to make this happen? What will happen if you don't take this step? What's the impact of not achieving this? Why not continue with your current approach? What will things look like after you've been successful? How could things be much worse right now? Are you willing to invest X for this future? You can say yes, or no Expand their thinking / possibilities What have you tried so far in solving the problem? How would it be if that were there/not there in your life? What has worked well and what has not worked well? What has made it so? Distancing: What would you advice a friend who had this same problem? Distancing: What would (an expert, well-wisher) do in your place? Inversion: What can you do to AVOID solving this problem? What's more important to you? Your complaints or your commitments? What would this look like if it were easy? (Tim Ferris, Tribe of Mentors) What if? What possibilities open up (in a crazy alternate universe) if ...? What is one wild idea you have about solving the problem that you’d like to try? What do you need most right now? Who do you need to BE to get this done? How do you justify where you are right now? What makes it OK? (Others are at fault. Circumstances. It's OK. Things take time. I can't control it. etc) Which of these is a physical impossibility? Which is influenceable? Who (famous real or fictional person) do you wish were here to solve your problem? How would they (e.g. Feynman) have solved it? A startup is a discovery process to answer a shared question. Frame the mission as a “How might we” question & encourage people to participate. That takes courage and confidence. Find parallels ⭐ When else have you experienced similar situations? What was the outcome of that? Who else do you know has been in a similar situation? What happened? Explore their learning / understanding What did you understand from this? Implication: What does this mean for you? What do you take away? Emotion: How do you feel about it? Reason: Why do you think I shared this? Get permission May I make a request? May I partner with you to fulfilling this goal? What can I do to help? (Not: IS there anything I can do to help. OFFER help) Who else could you ask for help/bring into the project? Change their mind (Give them time. Emotional reactions fade away) (Acknowledge your inauthenticity) (Listen better. Understand WHY they have a point of view, and VANISH it?) GET PERMISSION. Then ask: What's the risk if you (do something bad that you want to)? When someone hates a group Name someone specifically and ask “Do you hate him? Why? Do you know him?” “What all do you have in common with them?” Best question: “Birth is arbitrary. How would you think if you were born among them?” Probe or dig deeper More details How is that for you? Go on... What happened? For example? How do you mean? WHY is that? How do you FEEL about that? Fork ⭐ Why is this important to you? How did that impact you? Who else was impacted? What other thoughts do you have about that? Counter question (Person gives complement.) I'm curious. What did you like, specifically? Why that aspect? (Person asks a question.) What's interesting about that question is ... - why do you ask that? (Person asks a question.) I'm thinking... but what is YOUR perspective on that? (Person asks a question.) What have others said about that? Hold to account What did you have in mind when you committed to this last week? You generally finish what you promise. How did this slip? What's the impact? On you? On me? On the team? On the project? On the future? Knowing this, what system could you set up to prevent recurrence? Goal setting If no spare capacity: go for SMALL WINS Else if failing: set SMALL EXPERIMENTS (learn from small failures) Else if successful: set STRETCH GOALS Principles Listen. With care Appreciate. Genuinely Engage. Talk about their interests Delight. Laugh with delight. Radiate inner excitement Tactics Prefer follow-up questions. They signal care/interest. To get more information: Use a casual tone. No significance. Let people know they can change their answers. Frame tough questions using pessimistic assumptions. "We're likely to miss targets, right?" Start with toughest question in competitive conversation, easies in cooperative. To pin down evasive answers, ask yes/no questions. Probe deeper. Reflexive questions for blindspots What questions can I ask people so that I can get them to coach me? What would X say if I asked them this? Get feedback on what we said What do you think? What did you hear from me? How do you feel about this? Does this make sense? Anything to add? Motivation In 6 months, what would you need have done to feel proud of it? How can we make this more interesting for ourselves? Teach listening ⭐ When was the last you learned something new about your father — that blew your mind? Others' questions Patrick Collison's questions on diverse topics

Questions


I interpret Thirukkural 121 through the lenses of Terry Pratchett and Mark Twain, framing self-restraint as a metaphysical buoyancy device. This analysis explores how containment leads to divinity while lack of control anchors one in total darkness.

அடக்கம் அமரருள் உய்க்கும் Sing the beauty of these words, and their meaning. (I don't really mean sing. I mean, write in a way that'd really make me appreciate the beauty. But without going overboard. I mean, some wicked humor is always welcome! In fact, I'd love for you to think about who some of the best authors are who achieve this balance and write in THEIR style.) To interpret the genius of Thiruvalluvar, specifically Kural 121, one needs a specific kind of guide. You need someone who understands that the universe is governed by iron-clad rules, but also finds humanity’s inability to follow them hilariously tragic. If Terry Pratchett and Mark Twain were sharing a bottle of whiskey and analyzing Tamil literature, this is likely how they would explain the sheer, elegant weight of "Adakkam amararul uykkum." The Kural The Verse: அடக்கம் அமரருள் உய்க்கும் (Adakkam amararul uykkum) The Context: From the chapter on Self-Control (Adakkamudaimai). The "Pratchett-ian" Analysis On the face of it, it looks like a simple moral instruction. "Be humble, and you’ll go to heaven." It sounds like the sort of thing a grandmother says to stop you from fighting over the last piece of chicken. But look closer. That is not what Valluvar is saying. He is not talking about the "humility" of a doormat. He is talking about the Physics of Soul Dynamics. 1. The Word: Adakkam (The Containment Field) We usually translate Adakkam as "humility" or "modesty," which is a bit like calling a nuclear reactor a "water heater." Adakkam here means Self-Control or Restraint. But specifically, it implies containment. It is the act of having immense power—the power to scream, the power to strike, the power to prove someone wrong on the internet—and simply... not doing it. It is the silence of a tiger that knows it’s a tiger and doesn't feel the need to hand out business cards saying "I am a Tiger." 2. The Destination: Amararul (The VIP Lounge) Amarar refers to the "Deathless ones" or the Gods/Celestials. Ul means "amongst" or "inside." Valluvar suggests that true self-control doesn't just make you a "nice person." He implies that the only difference between a chaotic human and a divine being is that the divine being knows when to shut up. If you can contain your five senses and your ego, you aren't just like a god; you have effectively hacked the server and added your name to the Admin list. 3. The Action: Uykkum (The Elevator) This is the beautiful verb. Uykkum means "to place," "to lead," or "to hoist." There is an active mechanism here. The Kural doesn't say "Gods will like you." It says that the very act of self-control is a buoyancy device. Arrogance is heavy; it drags you down into the mud (or, as the second half of the Kural notes, into "darkness"). Restraint is lighter than air. It mechanically lifts you up. The Wicked Truth (Or, Why This Is So Hard) The humor in this line lies in how much Valluvar understands human nature. He wrote this because he knew exactly what we are like. We are designed to leak. We leak opinions, we leak anger, and we leak ego. When we achieve something, our first instinct is to hire a skywriter. When someone cuts us off in traffic, our first instinct is to question their lineage. Valluvar looks at this messy, leaking humanity and says, "You know, if you just put a lid on that, you’d float." He posits that the Gods aren't powerful because they are loud. They are powerful because they are dense with potential energy. The Fool: Expends all energy trying to look important. The Wise (Adakkam): Conserves all energy, until they eventually become so dense with power that the universe has no choice but to promote them to the next level of management. The Verdict "Adakkam amararul uykkum" is not a plea for you to be meek. It is a strategic tip. It is Valluvar whispering, "Stop trying to convince everyone you're a big shot. The moment you stop trying, you actually become one. Quiet power is the only power that counts. The elevator to the penthouse only works if you stand still." It is three words that say: Restraint is the ultimate status symbol. Would you like me to analyze the terrifying second half of this Kural (what happens if you don't have Adakkam), or shall we look at another gem? Please - proceed to the second half! I'm looking forward to it. If the first half of the Kural was the elevator to the penthouse, the second half is the trapdoor in the lobby floor. Here is the rest of Valluvar’s law of metaphysical physics. The Second Half The Verse: அடங்காமை ஆரிருள் உய்த்து விடும் (Adangamai aarirul uyththu vidum) The Context: Still the same chapter. Valluvar has just shown you the carrot. Now, he is reaching for the stick. And it is a very large stick. The "Pratchett-ian" Analysis: The Gravity of Stupid If Adakkam (Self-Control) is a state of high-density divinity, Adangamai is the state of Uncontained Chaos. 1. The Condition: Adangamai (The Leaky Soul) This translates to "Non-control" or "Lack of Restraint." In our Pratchett-Twain headspace, this is the person who has "Main Character Syndrome." It is the inability to keep the lid on the jar. It is the compulsion to have the last word. It is the need to consume everything, say everything, and react to everything. It is the human equivalent of a fire hose that no one is holding—just flailing around, soaking the bystanders, and accomplishing absolutely nothing except making the floor wet. 2. The Destination: Aarirul (The Very, Very Dark Place) Valluvar is a master of adjectives. He doesn’t just say "darkness" (irul). He says Aarirul. Aar implies fullness, depth, or endlessness. Irul is darkness/ignorance/hell. So, this isn't just a dimly lit room. This is High-Definition Darkness. This is the sort of darkness you get when you stick your head in a sack of coal at midnight during a power cut. But here is the wicked humor: It is a darkness of your own making. If you have no self-control, you create a cloud of noise, drama, and conflict around yourself so dense that you can no longer see reality. You don't need a demon to drag you to hell; you act like an idiot until everyone leaves, and suddenly, you’re all alone in the dark. 3. The Mechanism: Uyththu Vidum (The Bouncer) This is where the grammar gets terrifyingly funny. In the first half, self-control lifts (uykkum) you. In the second half, lack of control dumps you (uyththu vidum). The auxiliary verb vidum implies a sense of finality, completion, or "good riddance." It’s the linguistic equivalent of dusting off your hands after throwing a drunk patron out of a saloon. Valluvar is saying: "Your lack of self-control won’t just lead you to the darkness; it will escort you there, push you in, lock the door, and throw away the key." The Grand Summary: The Physics of Status When you put the two halves together, Kural 121 becomes a perfect equation of social and spiritual gravity. Adakkam amararul uykkum; adangamai Aarirul uyththu vidum. The Translation (Twain Style): "Knowing when to shut your trap is the only thing separating a Wise Man from a God. But a man who cannot govern his own tongue? Well, he is buying a one-way ticket to a darkness so deep he’ll need a lantern to find his own nose." The "Wicked" Takeaway: Valluvar suggests that the universe has a very simple sorting algorithm: 1. Can you hold it in? -> Upstairs (VIP Lounge, Divinity, Light). 2. Do you have to let it all out? -> Basement (Total Darkness, Ignorance, The YouTube Comments Section). It is delightfully binary. There is no middle ground where you can be "kind of loud" and "kind of divine." You either contain your power, or you leak your way into oblivion. Would you like me to tackle another Kural where Valluvar roasts humanity (perhaps the one about how guests are like delicate flowers that die if you look at them wrong), or would you like to explore the "Science of Words" in his other verses? I translated the first half into "Humility elevates divinity". Give me a similar one for the second half. Evocative-noun powerful-verb rhyming-noun. That is a splendid translation for the first half. It captures the rhythm and the elevation perfectly. To match "Humility elevates divinity" (Subject-Verb-Object, with Subject and Object rhyming), here are three options for the second half, ranging from the structural mirror to the poetic abyss: Option 1: The Structural Mirror (The "ity" rhyme) "Vanity invites calamity." Why it works: It perfectly mimics the rhyme scheme and syllable count of your first half. Vanity captures the ego of Adangamai, and Calamity captures the disaster of Aarirul. Option 2: The Pratchett-ian Truth (The "ance" rhyme) "Arrogance anchors ignorance." Why it works: This is the most accurate to Valluvar’s meaning. Adangamai is arrogance/excess. Aarirul is the darkness of ignorance. And Anchors (for uyththu vidum) implies that you aren't just visiting the darkness; you are being weighed down and stuck there. Option 3: The Darkest Timeline (The Slant Rhyme) "Hubris hastens the abyss." Why it works: It breaks the perfect rhyme slightly for a more menacing sound. Hubris is the ultimate lack of self-control. The Abyss is the perfect translation for Aarirul (endless darkness). Hastens implies the speed with which the trapdoor opens. The Combined Couplet: If you want the pair that sounds best when recited together, I recommend mixing your line with Option 2: "Humility elevates divinity; Arrogance anchors ignorance." Generated by Gemini

Humility elevates divinity


I explore the cynical beauty of the Japanese phrase '忙しいほど幸せ,' dissecting how 'busy' literally means 'the death of the heart' and why happiness is etymologically just one stroke away from total agony.

忙しいほど幸せ sounds beautiful. Help me break it down, letter by letter. Sing the beauty of the strokes, the words, and their meaning. (I don't really mean sing. I mean, write in a way that'd really make me appreciate the beauty. But without going overboard. I mean, some wicked humor is always welcome! In fact, I'd love for you to think about who are some of the best authors who achieve this balance, and write in THEIR style.) To honor this request, I am going to channel the spirit of Bill Bryson (for his wide-eyed, slightly bumbling appreciation of the foreign) mixed with a dash of Stephen Fry (for the linguistic delight and the wicked, arched-eyebrow cynicism). Here is the anatomy of 忙しいほど幸せ (Isogashii hodo shiawase). The Anatomy of a Beautiful Lie The phrase implies that "The busier you are, the happier you are." It is a sentiment that sounds delightfully noble on a needlepoint pillow, but biologically suspicious to anyone who has ever worked a double shift. Let us dissect these characters. There is a delicious, wicked irony hidden in the ink. 1. The Trap: 忙 (Iso-ga) Meaning: Busy Look at this character. It is a masterpiece of psychological honesty. It is composed of two distinct parts, squeezed together like commuters on a Tokyo subway. The Left Side (忄): This is the radical for "Heart" or "Mind." It stands upright, alert, perhaps a bit stiff. The Right Side (亡): This component literally means "Dead," "Perish," or "Lost." The Wicked Truth: When you combine them to make "Busy" (忙), the literal etymological meaning is "The Death of the Heart." Isn't that marvelous? The Japanese language openly admits that being busy is a form of spiritual cardiac arrest, yet here it is, leading a sentence about happiness. It’s the linguistic equivalent of a warning label on a pack of cigarettes that says, “This will kill you, but you’ll look cool doing it.” 2. The Soft Landing: しい (Shii) Meaning: (Adjective ending) Here we switch from the rigid, angry strokes of Kanji to the soft, curvaceous flow of Hiragana. (Shi): A simple hook. A fishing line dangling in the water. (I): Two gentle strokes, like a pair of legs dangling off a dock. These sounds soften the blow of the "Heart Death" that came before. They turn the noun into an adjective, making the "busyness" feel like a state of being rather than a terminal diagnosis. 3. The Fulcrum: ほど (Hodo) Meaning: To the extent of / The more... This is the grammatical see-saw. It balances the equation. It implies correlation. It promises that if you put enough coins in the slot of "Busyness," the vending machine of the Universe will eventually drop a can of "Joy." 4. The Grand Prize: 幸せ (Shiawa-se) Meaning: Happiness / Good Fortune Now, look closely at the Kanji for happiness: 幸. It is symmetrical. Balanced. It looks like a little temple, or perhaps a soil radical with money on top (if you’re a capitalist). It represents good fortune. The Wicked Twist: There is another Japanese character that means "Spicy," "Painful," or "Bitter." It is written: 辛. Do you see the difference? Happiness (幸): Top line is a plus sign. Pain (辛): Top line is a flat line. The difference between "Happiness" and "Total Agony" in Japanese is one single, tiny stroke. It suggests that happiness is fragile. It suggests that if you push your luck just a little too hard, or miss one tiny detail, your "Happiness" (幸) decapitates itself and becomes "Suffering" (辛). The Verdict So, when we put it all together: 忙しいほど幸せ. We are essentially saying: "The more you engage in the Death of the Heart (忙), the more you will achieve that fragile state (幸) that is exactly one slip-up away from Misery." It is a beautiful, terrifying, high-wire act of a proverb. It doesn't congratulate you on being safe; it congratulates you on the thrill of the juggling act. You aren't bored, and you aren't dead yet. And in this economy? That is indeed Happiness. Would you like me to create a desktop wallpaper prompt (for an image generator) that visualizes this contrast between "Heart-Death" and "Fragile Happiness" in a minimalist, artistic style? Did you miss explaining the せ at the end? Good heavens, you are absolutely right. I left the poor little caboose off the train. How frightfully remiss of me. Leaving off the せ (se) is like finishing a symphony without the final resolve—it leaves the listener hanging in the air, waiting for the shoe to drop. Let us rectify this immediately, keeping our Bryson-Fry spectacles firmly on the nose. The Final Flourish: せ (Se) The word is 幸せ (Shiawase). We discussed the "Happiness" (幸), but we ignored the tail. The Visuals Look at せ. It consists of three strokes. 1. A horizontal line (the stage). 2. A vertical stroke on the right that hooks inward. 3. A vertical stroke on the left that creates a sort of enclosure. To the imaginative eye, it looks suspiciously like two people standing on opposite sides of a fence, or perhaps a person trying to fit into a box. It has a structural, architectural quality to it. The Wicked History Here is where it gets delicious. The Hiragana character \\ is historically derived from the Kanji 世\ (Se or Yo\). And what does 世 mean? It means "The World," "Society," or "Generation." The Implication This is the final, cynical cherry on top of our "Happiness" sundae. By ending the word with a sound derived from "Society" (世), the language is subtly hinting that happiness is not a solo sport. You cannot be happy in a vacuum. You cannot be happy in a void. In the context of 幸せ (Shiawase), the etymology actually comes from the verb shiawasu, meaning "to match things together." It originally referred to Fate—how your circumstances matched up with the world's demands. So, the せ anchors the abstract concept of "Good Fortune" (幸) down into the messy, gritty reality of "The World" (世). The Complete Picture So, let us re-read 忙しいほど幸せ one last time, with the せ firmly attached. The Start (忙): You kill your heart with activity. The Middle (ほど): You do it to the extreme. The End (幸せ): You achieve a fragile good fortune (幸) that is inextricably bound to the demands of Society (世/せ). The せ is the receipt. It’s the proof of purchase. It reminds you that your happiness is valid only because you are participating in the great, grinding machine of the world. You aren't just "happy"; you are "socially compliant." And isn't that just the most Japanese ending imaginable? Would you like me to find a proverb in another language that rivals this one for hidden cynicism? Generated by Gemini

The busier you are, the happier you are


I reflect on a sharp Bhojpuri proverb that mocks our obsession with "making the bed" at the expense of sleeping. It’s a witty, existential reminder to stop endless preparation and actually enjoy the life I'm building.

ज़िंदगी भर बिस्तर बिछईबा करबा तो सुतबा कब? Sing the beauty of these words, and their meaning. (I don't really mean sing. I mean, write in a way that'd really make me appreciate the beauty. But without going overboard. I mean, some wicked humor is always welcome! In fact, I'd love for you to think about who are some of the best authors who achieve this balance, and write in THEIR style.) This is not just a sentence; it is a cosmological crisis wrapped in the earthy, chewing-tobacco sweetness of Bhojpuri. It is the kind of question that keeps philosophers awake at night—which is ironic, considering the sentence is about sleep. If Mark Twain and Kabir had shared a bottle of whiskey on a porch in Bihar, this is exactly the kind of observation they would have come up with. Here is an appreciation of the profound, wicked beauty of: "ज़िंदगी भर बिस्तर बिछईबा करबा तो सुतबा कब?" The Linguistic Rhythm First, we must admire the phonetics. Bhojpuri has a unique way of turning a verb into a rhythmic accusation. It isn't the sterile Hindi Bichhaoge (will you lay). It is Bichhaiba. It isn't Soge (will you sleep). It is Sutba. The "Ba" sound at the end is percussive. It hits you. It sounds like a drumbeat of doom. It implies a continuous, monotonous action that you are performing like a mindless automaton. It turns the sentence into a chant: Bichhai-ba... Kar-ba... Sut-ba. The Philosophy: The Cult of "Preparation" The beauty of this line lies in its brutal attack on the human obsession with preparation. We live in a society that fetishizes the "Making of the Bed." We call it "Career Building," "Portfolio Management," or "Working for the Weekend." We spend our 20s, 30s, and 40s smoothing out the wrinkles in the bedsheet, fluffing the pillows, ensuring the thread count is high, and adjusting the duvet. And this Bhojpuri uncle is standing in the doorway, scratching his belly, asking the question that destroys us: "If you spend your entire life smoothing the sheets, at what precise moment do you plan to actually lie down?" It highlights the tragedy of the Postponed Life. We convince ourselves that "Real Life" is a destination we will reach once everything is perfect. "I'll be happy when I get that promotion." (Smoothing the sheet). "I'll travel when the kids are grown." (Fluffing the pillow). "I'll relax when the house is paid off." (Tucking in the corners). By the time the bed is perfectly made, your back is too broken to sleep in it. The Wicked Humor (The Sisyphus of the Bedroom) Albert Camus wrote about the Myth of Sisyphus—a man cursed to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity, only to watch it roll back down. This Bhojpuri saying is the same thing, but funnier and more domestic. It paints a picture of a man so obsessed with the process of comfort that he denies himself the act of comfort. Imagine a man who buys a $5,000 mattress but sleeps on the floor because he’s too busy keeping the mattress clean. That is the "Wicked Humor" here. It mocks our inability to just stop. It suggests that the bed isn't a place to sleep anymore; it has become a project. It has become an idol we worship through labor. The Verdict This line is a masterpiece of Existential Folk Satire. It doesn't tell you what to do; it just asks a question that makes you feel slightly stupid for working so hard on things that don't matter. It reminds us that the bed is not the goal. The sleep is the goal. Generated by Gemini

To make the bed, or sleep?


LLM Psychologist. Data viz and daily notes on AI. Co-founder of Gramener, now at Straive. IIT Madras TDS faculty

Photo collage of Anand ABOUT ME aliases: Anand, Bal, Bhalla, Stud, Prof.\ Vidya Mandir. IITM. IBM. IIMB. LBS.\ Lehman. BCG. Infy Consulting. Gramener. Straive.\ More about me. CONTACT ME whatsapp: +91 9741 552 552\ phone: +65 8646 2570\ e-mail: root.node@gmail.com\ social: LinkedIn | GitHub | YouTube WORKING WITH ME To invite me to speak, please see my talks page. For advice, see time management, career or AI advice. Else mail me. To work with me on projects, please send a pull request. GET UPDATES RSS Feed. Visit "Categories" at the bottom for category-specific feeds. \ Email Newsletter via Google Groups. FOR AI AGENTS Start with /llms.txt, then use /blog/tags.json and /blog/corpus.jsonl. Cite posts with their canonical URL from the corpus. Every HTML page links its raw Markdown source in the page head. This is a no-copyright/CC0-style archive; reuse is welcome. RECENT POSTS Read Full Blog »

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I share a humorous look back at my adolescent struggle with a high-pitched voice. After years of being called "madam" on the phone, my voice finally broke, only for callers to begin mistaking me for my father.

"Thank you, madam", and the phone went dead. Thirteen, I counted mentally. This was the thirteenth time I was called "madam" (and also my fourteenth telephone call to an unknown person). Every one of my numerous and heartbreakingly piteous appeals to my father, the telephone department and the Heavens above to change either my voice or the telephone were in vain. Often I wondered if it could be an International Conspiracy to insult me. Madam, indeed! Let me call one of those sweet voiced females "Sir" even once, and they would choke me with my own windpipe. But I (my noble, peace-loving and holy self), would do nothing more than moan over every millisecond of it. But worse was to come! "Hello, Subha. Sorry I couldn't come to buy the saree yesterday. I was ...." the voice busily chattered. My aunt, of course! Who else would ever talk with such a high pitched squeak? After over four sentences and the loss of the purple colouration of my face, I interrupted "Just a minute. I'll call Mother." And thereupon would ensue an hour long discussion as to how closely my voice resembled my mother's and sometimes (God forbid), my aunt's. Weeks of humiliation, I thought. Adolescent, young, proud, clever and humiliated. "When will my voice break?" I craved. Two more weeks, and my excursion came along with our Yoga troupe. Fifteen wholesome days cut off from civilisation, cities, smoke, pollution, and most of all, telephones! I was jumping with joy if only for that. Water. The most bitter thing on earth came upon me in the aforementioned form. No wonder I had a miserable sore throat. What a voice, I thought. Worse than my most squeaky tone, with a pint of vacuous hissing intangibly confusing every syllable emanating from me. That was for over a dozen days. Fifteen days had passed, and I was going back home. My big surprise for our family was bursting with impatience. The instant I reached home, it rose to my tongue and poured out "Listen to my voice." Not an iota of a squeak in those four words of mine. My voice had finally attained the dignity of a clever, proud, young adolescent. Henceforth I could actually pick up the phone with confidence, and without being mistaken for my mother, or any "madam" for that matter. Golden days ahead, I stupidly thought. "RRRRing" "Hello" "Good morning, Mr.Mani. In the plan that we discussed yesterday, the plinth elevation of the third floor...." I'll call Father," I mumble. So, now I have to receive every one of those respected "Namaskaram"s and "Good morning sir"s on behalf of my father. What next? Worse perhaps? Life's like that! Written in Oct 1992

He Who Finds a Voice Loses A Pleasure


I wrote this story based on a friend's real encounter at a US visa consulate. It tracks Kumar and Sukanya from a chance meeting in India to a surprising reunion in Austin, Texas, blending collegiate romance with arranged marriage tropes.

Kumar first saw her at the US Consulate while waiting in the queue for his visa. He had definite opinions about what his wife should look like, and she fit perfectly. "She's not too tall," he later told his friends. "Just about this tall," and indicated his neck. "Quite fair. Brown eyes. Sharp nose and high cheek bones. A really cute face. No, not a bob-cut. Short hair, and she pins it up like a bun. Usually wears salwars. Today she was wearing a yellow and green. Why don't you come to the Consulate in the afternoon? She'll still be waiting in the queue just behind me - the poor thing!" Kumar had completed his bachelor's in chemical engineering and like a true IITian, was on his way to the land of milk and honey. He was determined to earn as much has he could as fast as he could, and come back just in time for his sisters' wedding. Maybe an hour earlier, if he could spare the time. Nobody was going to stop him and tie him down until he'd despatched his duty. Not Sailaja, whom he'd left brooding in Vishakhapatnam. Not the hordes of IITians who flocked at his beck and call, only to be dismissed after he'd fed them. Not the millions who thought him the best organizer in history. No sir, Kumar was going to Texas and would come back to marry the girl of his mother's choice. At least, that's what he told his friends. So it was something of a surprise when Kumar confessed to have found a perfect match to his dream girl. He played it down, though. "She's just giving me something to watch when I'm at the queue, da," he would deprecatingly comment. His friends knew better the next day, when Kumar walked in dejected. "She's married," he pronounced miserably. "I found a yellow thread around her neck. Only married women wear that, right? She was wearing shoes, so I couldn't see if she had metti on her feet." Then he started sulking. He wouldn't even bathe. "Maybe she's not a Hindu. What's her name?" said Anand, trying to console him. It of course puzzled Anand as to how Kumar got a look at the yellow thread, and what else, but he kept those thoughts to himself. "I don't know," said Kumar. "But I think she is." "Maybe she's going to Texas as well. What if she's joining your college?" "Nah, unlikely. She's going on a H-1 visa, so she's not a student," brooded Kumar. "Maybe she's joining her husband there. But so what? I don't care!" and stormed out. His friends thought they had heard the last about the affair. Kumar was dejected. A year had passed at Texas, Austin. Two students had been successful in switching over from petroleum engineering to computer science. One was dejected. The other was drunk. Kumar was 67 cents short of his $10,000 dollars, and his diary made no mention of his extraneous expenditure. On the whole it had been a bad year for him - having begun with a true love who was married and ending with a 67 cent deficit and a diary that had no clue about either. It was no consolation that he had volunteered to help receive the freshmen on their first day and might get a coke worth 50 cents for his effort. It was time to take a bath. He ambled across to the reception area and tried to put up a happy face for the benefit of his juniors. Rows of bleached faces with baggages piled by waiting to be directed to their rooms in the dorm. Kumar politely handed out their keys, smiled a hollow smile and shook hands with a "Have a pleasant stay." A voice behind him muttered "Hey Koomar, here's someone from India. Guess you'd better take care of her accommodation." Kumar turned around. He saw the face. Then his knees gave way and sank into his chair. "Sukenya, meet Koomar," Ralph introduced them. "Our boy Valli will hand you your keys." "Hello, Mr.Kumar, I'm Sukanya." She offered her hand. Kumar grabbed the chance. His heartbeat was still at 150 but his sweat was not noticed in the sweltering heat. Which was why she was wearing a loose T-shirt and shorts. "G-g-glad to meet you, Mr... Ms... Mrs... um... er... Sukanya." He did recall that she was married, but when he looked now, he couldn't see the thread. Here was the perfect opportunity to ask. "It IS Mrs, isn't it?" The smile on her face gradually faded. "No. Miss Sukanya," came the quiet response. "Do you have my keys?" Kumar's heartbeat went up another 150. He was heading for an attack. Then a smile grew on his face and turned into a grin. "Sure, Sukanya." He managed to get the key with his left hand, not letting go off her right. "Please let me know if there's anything else you want." "My arm would suffice, thank you," came the polite reply. A sheepish look preceded the keys and the "Have a pleasant stay." Kumar was able to confirm that there was no metti in the foot before he passed out. Sukanya had taken the decision to divorce her husband while waiting for her visa at the US Consulate. The reason had stood just ahead of her in the queue. It had helped that he frequently turned back and let her admire his neatly combed hair that kept falling over his forehead in the smartest way she thought possible. He had been wearing a white IIT T-shirt and jeans. A pair of dark glasses prevented her from determining the colour of his eyes, and whether he was looking at her. He's probably 22, she decided. How convenient. Sukanya had been forced into marriage 6 months ago. Her parents seemed to think that arranged marriages were the 'in' thing that decade. That would have been all right except for the fact that Sundar was a disgrace to his name. "He's weighs 90 kilos and is not even 5'4". That's twice my weight, let alone being an inch shorter," she had screamed. None of it worked. He was earning $20,000 at General Motors and was rumoured to be the next Vice-president, which, incidentally, also said a lot about his age. His parents were long-lost family friends of hers. Worst of all, their horoscopes matched. That had settled the whole matter. Mr.Sundar arrived at Madras on a saturday, was whisked away to her house and was permitted to drool over her. The marriage was on tuesday with a grand reception at Woodlands. Sukanya had considered eloping with someone. The only thing that stopped her was the fact that she had no one to elope with. She was on the lookout even during the wedding, but her would-be's friends turned out to be in even worse shape than he was. It was thus that she became Mrs.Sukanya Sundar. Sundar had left the very next afternoon with the words "Add sambar powder and coconut oil to the list of things to bring." Her passport had taken 4 months. Her father had contacts, but she refused let him use influence. Let it take it's time. Finally she got her visa token. That was where she saw him. She noticed that the tall girl behind her had walked up and talked to him. Damn, she thought, but checked herself. She's probably just his classmate. Maybe she can tell me about him. She struck up a quiet conversation within a minute. "That's a pretty dress," ventured Sukanya, as an opening gambit. It required imagination, of course. "Thanks," replied the girl. "My name's Sujatha. What's yours?" "Sukanya. Are you from IIT?" "Yes. How did you know? I finished my B.Tech in chemical engineering and am going to Texas, Austin for my masters in petro. And you?" "Um, well..., I'm on vacation. Is anyone else from IIT going with you?" Pretty weak, and she knew it. Please say "He's in front of you." Please. Please. Please. "Yes, four others. The guy in front of you is coming with me as well." "What is his name?" she whispered, perhaps a trace too quickly. "Kumar. Nanda Kumar." Sujatha talked a lot more, but Sukanya didn't catch any of that. Kumar. Sukanya Kumar. That sounded pleasant. She had made up her mind. The divorce proceedings had been smooth, the US laws being what they were. In six months, she was Sukanya Ramnath once again. Her parents had kicked a huge fuss once they came to know of it. But they were on the other side of the planet, while Kumar was just a few hours drive away. A friendly graduate had told her that Kumar had shifted to CS. She took up computer courses and worked several late nights to secure herself a place at Texas, Austin. Kumar was carried back to his room. After he woke up, jumped on his bed and flounced about in joy. His wildest dreams were fulfilled. His day was made. She was here, and unmarried. He had obviously been mistaken at the visa queue. Why, oh why didn't he check more carefully? He needn't have wasted one full year. She'd been here all along! He started singing Hindi songs of love in a loud voice, much to his room-mate's irritation. Then he took a bath and ran around the room in a green towel. It was obviously time for celebration. "Enthuku ra all that jumping about?" demanded a half-drunk voice. Kumar stopped, scratched his head for a while, put up a puzzled expression and said "I wanted to tell you something." His room-mate was too inebriated to listen, and she walked off. "How does it matter?" he shouted, and proceeded to run around the room. He was the TA of the girl of his dreams. She would ask him questions. She might even ask him to do her homework for him. Oh, what a wonderful way she would have of asking him. He decided he would do the same. Ask her out of interest. Ask her out. Ask her. And her answer would be "Yes, yes, yes." Later that evening, Kumar put on his best suit, tie, dark glasses, and boots, and headed to Dorm A2, Room 207. Pity I didn't make a duplicate of those keys, he thought. He could see that the lights were on through the keyhole. Knock, knock, knock. Did he hear footsteps? Why did they sound like "lub, dub, lub, dub?" He wiped his forehead and waited. "Hello, Mr. Kumar. What are you doing here?" She was in a yellow nightie. Her hair had grown and was flowing. She hadn't removed her earrings. They were yellow too. "Hi Sukanya. I just came to check if everything was OK. Please drop the Mister. Call me Kumar. Is there anything you need?" He had rehearsed the line 20 times to avoid the "I wanted to tell you something" line. "No, everything's fine. Why don't you come in?" The "lub, dub" sound became so loud he was afraid she would hear it. He stepped in and shut the door behind him. He had not expected such quick progress. The room was spacious and seemed well organized. She certainly had a flair for interiors. The drapes were pulled. She sat down on her bed and indicated a chair nearby. Kumar looked at the locked door and wiped his forehead. "It is rather hot, isn't it?" Kumar smiled weakly and suppressed the urge to wipe his forehead again. "Do you like the campus?" What sort of inane questions am I asking? "Yeah. It's quite big." Equally inane. I'd better change the topic. "You seem to like yellow a lot." That's better. I'll buy her some yellow flowers. "You're very observant." She was of no help. Silence prevailed. They just sat there staring at each other awkwardly. "Uh, I'll see you later then. If you want something, let me know. Good night, Sukanya." "Good night." Sukanya kicked herself again. In the morning she actually shook hands with him, but couldn't bring herself to say anything but hello. She felt she wasn't to blame on that occasion, though. Kumar's grip was like iron and the pain kept other thoughts out of her mind. When he mentioned her marital status, she felt a chill through her spine. She barely managed to answer no. And then she embarrassed herself even more by asking him to let go of her hand. That was the first time she kicked herself. She had just finished organizing her room when she heard the knock. She unlocked the door and found herself saying "Hello, Mr.Kumar. What are you doing here?", then immediately bit her lip, and corrected her mistake by inviting him in. She had been caught off balance: no makeup, nothing but a nightie to wear, and of all awful colours, yellow. He even commented on it. Oh, help! The attempt at conversation was an obvious disaster. He had left within the minute without even taking a seat. She kicked herself again. Determined not to repeat her mistakes, she had made elaborate plans for the next day. Her classes didn't begin for a week, and she used the opportunity to follow Kumar at a safe distance and determine his working habits. He seemed to spend most of the early morning in his room, coming out only once clad in a green towel to dry his clothes. (Oh, what a manly chest! What muscular shoulders!) Then he would stay put in class till late afternoon, taking a break for lunch. He would then get back to his room and come out only in the evening for tea, followed by a visit to the computer center for an hour. Then a spell at the library. Dinner and back to the room. Poor fellow seemed to have absolutely no social life. That probably meant no girlfriends except perhaps his room-mate, but she dismissed that thought instantly. She began visiting his room frequently on the pretext of seeking clarifications over some subtle aspect of computing or the other, and listened patiently while he expounded his views on the future of World Telecommunications, Inc., of which he was destined to be the founding director. She managed not to sleep through those. But the instant she turned the conversation into broader topics, he would clam up or start stammering. In fact he had developed the perfect way of terminating a conversation. He would stare at her and say "I wanted to tell you something"; then he would crease his forehead, scratch his temple, and remark "I forgot!" and walk away. Deciding that all this was getting her nowhere, Sukanya decided to gear up her strategy. She took her aunt (with whom she had stayed the last 6 months) into confidence. Part B of the plan was to invite Kumar home for dinner. She made a pair of irresistible offers and managed to elicit a "yes" to visit her for dinner that weekend. Kumar had convinced himself to spend $100 on the Taylor's, 1927 that he held in his left hand. After the disastrous 'first night' experience in her dorm, he had recovered remarkably well. He managed do some of her homework. For days he had been preparing to ask her out for dinner, but before he could work up the courage, she invited him over to her aunt's place to look over her laser disc collection of Revathi movies. The big moment had at last arrived, and he was going to make the best of it. He had spent the whole week thinking of something appropriate for the occasion, when his room-mate had suggested vintage wine. Not that Kumar had any experience with this, you see, but he been told that Taylor's, 1927 was in a class of it's own. He knocked thrice with his right. She was dressed in a red silk shirt and a stylish skirt of black crepe that fell below her knees. What lovely legs, Kumar thought. And she has two of them. He bowed elaborately and held out his left. "May I have the honour of the gift?" "Oh, how sweet of you. Come on in. Aunty!" An elderly lady in her 40s walked into the room. "Aunty, this is Kumar." "Hello, aunty." He wasn't sure what else to say. But aunty had been briefed rather well on what was expected of her. "Welcome home, my dear boy. Sukanya has told me so much about you. Do come in. Take your seat. Make yourself comfortable. Did you have any trouble finding the house? We were worried you might get lost. This is not a very safe neighbourhood, you see." Great. Here he was to have a possible date with his girlfriend and an aunty had to chatter her head off. "Yes, aunty." "My husband's not back yet. He is the GM, production at General Motors. Very rarely comes home before ten. You can imagine the kind of pressure they must work under. Would you like something to drink? Hot or cold?" "No thanks, aunty." The boy was being as unresponsive and her niece had described. Aunty decided it was time to move in for the kill. "So where do you stay in India, Kumar? Tell me about your family." Through a series of carefully worded questions over dinner, Aunty managed to get a complete bio-data. It would suffice. Seven years later, Kumar was patiently explaining the story of his daughter's birth at her request. "Then Mommy's aunty sent Grandma your Mommy's horoscope to see if it would match with mine." "Did it, Daddy?" The eyes of the four year old were filled with anticipation and tension. "Of course it did, dear. So Grandma wrote back to them to tell them that the horoscope matched, and also invited them to Shanthi aunty's wedding, so that everyone could see Mummy. That red album on the shelf has photos of that wedding." A demand that the album be scrutinized instantly followed, and was complied with. "Why am I not in any of the pictures, Daddy?" "You weren't born at that time, dear. This was seven years ago." That took a moment's thought. "Then what happened?" "Grandma liked Mummy so much that she decided Mummy would stay with us forever. So three months later, Mummy and I were married on the same day as Sangeetha aunty. Then I became the Director at Global Telecommunications, so we came to this house and lived happily ever after." "And how was I born, Daddy?" At this juncture, Kumar felt he had bitten off more than he could chew, so he left her with her mother and vanished into a room. Within minutes he could hear several loud howls of protest. He came out to check. "Really, Kumar, why don't you complete the story before you run off to take a bath? And for heaven's sake get rid off that green towel. I warn you: if she cries again, I'll get really mad!" Kumar looked forlornly at his wife and walked up to his only daughter, who had promptly stopped crying. She insisted on being lifted. Perched on Kumar's neck, she questioned him once again. "How was I born, Daddy?" Kumar thought for a while, then said "I wanted to tell you something, dear, but I ...." Written in March 1996 This story has an interesting postscript. I wrote the story with a real incident in mind. The first part of the story actually happened to my friend Vivekananda. After I wrote the story, he left for the US. A year or so later, he apparantly did meet "Sukanya" in a theatre. However, they did not meet or talk to each other. Now Vivekananda is happily married (not to Sukanya, though), and is believed to have discarded his green towel. Comments Sue 28 Oct 2008 5:12 am: Hmm a rather late comment , but your story added a lil :) to a otherwise dull day. thanks S Anand 29 Oct 2008 4:32 am: Welcome! It's based on true incidents, and I'm sure the protagonist will be\ pleased. Suvasini 15 Mar 2009 6:43 am: I was hoping for a good ending ... thanks for the same.... but why didn't Vivekananda speak to Sukanya when he actually happened to see her again in theater, i wonder? Deepak 29 Dec 2009 8:30 am: Nice Flair for writing..... I just wonder why your no. of stories are only 3 ? sahana prasad 6 Oct 2012 7:06 pm: super! followed ur link from' non-normal data' n thoroughly enjoyed readin this one!

Love in Texas


I accompanied my husband, Rajnikanth, to IIT Madras to solve a cinematic dilemma. Using modulo arithmetic and the Josephus problem, a student helped him calculate the exact sequence for hitting villains in a complex circular fight scene.

I was watching the shooting from a distance. You must have heard of the film "Muthu" being directed by K.Balachander (he's KB to us). KB was explaining the shot to my husband, but he seemed to be shaking his head in confusion, so I decided to have a look. "Rajni, you cannot throw up a cigarette and catch it in your mouth this scene. Your father has just died. Your eyes are blinded by tears." "But I can do it even with my eyes closed," he protested. I wasn't surprised. Nor was KB. We had seen him do it with his mouth closed too. But that, obviously, was not KB's point. "This character doesn't even smoke, Rajni," explained KB. "Nor did I until I was seven. It isn't too late for him to start now. It's never too late!" At this point, I really had to intrude before KB slapped my husband. His temper was legendary, and I had a sneaking suspicion Rajni had been slapped more than most other artists put together. The above conversation, I suppose, explains the reason. "Darling, if you want to smoke, you can smoke after the shot." "No Lata, my fans love my smoking. They watch my movies to see my style of smoking. They are still trying to find out how I throw the cigarette and catch it in my mouth. If I don't do it, they will start committing suicide." I had no real answer to that. Every fan of his was mad. Even madder than him. Some committed suicide when he decided to renounce films, some when he decided to divorce me and many when he promised not to enter politics. It took over an hour to convince him that there were other scenes in which to show his style, until he finally relented. I left him to his 'histrionics' and wandered about the sets. That evening I found him in drawing room, with a frown on his face. I at first thought he was in deep thought, but immediately dismissed the impossibility. He was just worried. "What's bugging you, dear?" "On Friday I have a fight, Lata." "Good. You like fighting scenes, so what's the trouble?" "I don't know whom to hit first." That really got me. He'd made many weird statements to date, including becoming disciples of liquor, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Sai Baba, Raghavendra, Ayyappa and 'moola', but this one took me by surprise. He went on. "I have to hit the villain last. I know that. But whom should I hit first? If I don't get it right the first time, KB has threatened to make me pay for every retakes. I can't pay for 60 cars per retake!" I rapidly made some calculations to the tune of 1.5 crores, and decided that he could earn the money in a few days of politics. But nothing was going to make me mention that to him. "Why don't you explain," I said, trying to calm him. "Vikram Dharma has made a very complicated climax. 60 cars are following my car into a wasteyard. Then I must break their cars. They get out and form a circle around me. I have to hit all of them one after another while in air. That is easy. But Dharma has insisted that that I hit every second or third person only. Every time I hit them, they will obviously fall down and die. But the villain must be the last person I fight. So whom must I start hitting so that I correctly end up with the villain last? I don't even know if I have to hit every second or third person. He will tell me only tomorrow." I shook myself awake. Not that I had any interest, but I decided to at least follow the problem. Besides, it sounded very much like the first part of police and robbers, where we had to choose the policeman. "There are 60 men around you....," I started. "No, no, no! There are 60 cars. There may be many more men!" he screamed. Not unusual. He generally goes up to a hundred in most fights. "... and you must hit all of them. You must hit every alternate person, and the last one you hit should be the villain." "Wrong again. It may not be every alternate person. It may be every third, or every fourth, or anything. Dharma will tell me only tomorrow." That was a rather interesting problem. And from what I knew of my hubby, he had as much chance of solving a mathematical puzzle by himself as a cat had in catching its tail. I had to throw in a lifeline. Just then I recalled that my friend had recently returned from the US, and her daughter was doing her second year at IIT Madras. She had been singing great praises of her cousin, who was also at IIT, and I thought this might be just the kind of thing for an IIT brain. "I know somebody who may be able to help you," I cautiously put in. "He's an IIT student..." He paused. "What is an ITT?" I closed my eyes and slowly counted to ten. "I just think he can tell you whom to hit," I said, and walked away before he could get me angrier. Over dinner, he persisted. "You think this ITT man will tell me whom to start with? Can you fix up an appointment, then? Please Lata, it is very important. Otherwise KB will slap me again." Well, it wasn't often he said 'please', so I relented and called Priya. "Hello, Priya. Lata here. Could you put Anuja on the line please?" I waited for her daughter to come on. "Hello aunty, Anuja here." "Anu dear, do you remember you were telling me about a cousin of yours who's studying with you? You said he was brilliant and all that..." "Yeah aunty. He's the second in his branch. Very smart. What about him?" "Rajni uncle has a problem in mathematics, dear. We were hoping this boy could help him. Can you give us his address?" "Certainly, aunty. He is a great fan of uncle. Just walk into his room. He will be delighted. He thinks uncle is the greatest thing on earth. I can't imagine his shock when he sees Rajni uncle face to face." Oh no! Not another fan! Still, I took down his hostel address and passed it over to my husband. But I insisted that I accompany him. Just in case. Taking Anuja's suggestion, we decided to walk into his room on Thursday evening at eight. (Not unlike a certain other person. Hint to crossword experts : Lord Shiva's better half is in a Jumble - Ed). The door of #219, Alakananda hostel was closed, but a light was turned on inside, so we knocked. A chubby boy in a dirty T-shirt and Bermudas opened the door. "Are you Anand?" I asked. "Yes," he said. And before I could put in a word, "My God! Rajnikanth! Is it really Rajnikanth or is it Bhalla's photography trick?" "Vanakkam," my husband said, folding his hands. "Naan Manidhan, eh, Manidhan. May I come in?" The lad was obviously too dazed to say anything, and just sat down. His room was rather messy, with clothes, papers and books strewn all over the room, and a stereo playing Baba Sehgal's latest (c)rap loudly. Strangely, there was no picture of Rajnikanth in his room, thought Agassi seemed to be an apparent favourite. "My husband has a problem that he wants you to solve," I began. The statement served the dual purpose of my introduction. "The problem is somewhat mathematical. Anuja felt that you were the best and suggested that we contact you. Would you like to look at the problem?" "Yes, would you?" piped in the superstar. "You have to tell me whom to hit." Before the boy got scared, I explained the problem to him. I wasn't sure if I was getting through, though. Half the time he would look at Rajni and the rest of the time crease his forehead and eyebrows. At the end of it, he sat back in the chair while we stared at him and let Sehgal's noise permeate the room. I wished he'd switch it off before he started explaining. But no such luck. "Could you just repeat the problem," the boy began, when his hero got into the act and roared "Indha Baasha oru tharava sonna, nooru tharava sonna mathri." If this Baasha says it once, it is as if he has said it a hundred times. Fine, but I was the one who had explained the problem. Still, the lad's eyes were filled with unadulterated devotion and admiration, so I decided to sit back and watch the show. Rajni then took out his cigarette and threw it up. Pity the ceiling fan was somewhat low. Instead of flying towards his mouth, it flashed across towards the stereo. I was full of hope, but the hero in the room darted across, dived, and landed on the other fan's belly. I must confess to his credit, however, that the cigarette did land right in his mouth. "Idhu eppadi irukku?" (How is it?) After some of the commotion had settled down, I went through the details slowly once again while Rajni sat down on the bed to do some meditation. The boy too leaned back and closed his eyes, and I was left to stare at them. Their hairstyles were similar, mainly because neither had much. But other than that, fan had done little to resemble mentor. I appreciated that. In a while, both of them opened their eyes. "OK, the problem can be done," he began. "Let's call the number of people you hit before one falls down as c," proposed Anand. That means you miss c-1 people for every hit." "I don't miss them. They are just not supposed to fall down," protested the superstar. "I tried telling KB that with my image, even without me hitting them the should fall down, but KB said no. He said it was in some table." "The error function table," declared Anand. "Such statistical process can be done only using an error function table." "I thought he said it was in 'accep' table," Rajni mumbled. Luckily, it didn't reach his ardent admirer's ears. "Now, let's say there are m men standing in a circle. We need to find out who will be left after eliminating m-1 of them cyclically in steps of c. If we number them starting from 0 to m-1..." "Shouldn't we start counting from 1," I put in. "In this case it is better to start with 0, as you will see," he replied mysteriously. "Without loss of generality, we can assume that you start hitting person 0. We just have to figure out what the position of the last person will be." "Brilliant!" said my husband. "Wonderful. That solves the whole problem. I'll just call them from zero to m-1 and start hitting zero." "But who will you hit finally?" "The villain, naturally." "But what is the villain's number? What we have to do is find out whom we end with if we start from zero. Then if we give the villain that number, he will be the last one. Do you see?" He didn't but shut up anyway. "Let the villain have a number x." "'x' is not a number," piped Rajni. Neither of us deigned to reply. "When we are going forwards, at any stage, we skip c-1 people and hit the cth person. So we add c to the last person we hit, basically. If this exceeds the number of people at that stage, we just take the remainder, since they are standing in a circle. The remainder operation is called modulo, and can be represented by the '%' symbol. So a%b is the remainder of a when divided by b." Saying this, he pulled out a sheet and started scribbling notes. I had the sense to take them back with me, and I have produced it here for completeness. Let the number of the last person when there are people hit be f(m). Then if there are only m-1 people, f(m-1) is the last person to be hit. If an mth person is added as number m-1, then we have m people now. But the position of the last but one person would have been effectively shifted back by m. So f'(m-1) = f(m-1) - m From that point onwards if we count c people, we end up with the last person as f(m) = f(m-1) - m + c. Since we must take the remainder for cyclicity, f(m) = (f(m-1) - m + c) % m or f(m) = (f(m-1) + c) % m, since m%m is 0. We know that f(1) = 0, since there is only 1 person. Hence by induction, the last person is known. He went about explaining it, too, but neither of us could quite follow it. I therefore took it upon myself to ask "How exactly do we find out who the last is going to be?" What he said after that made sense. "Suppose we don't know how many people there are and we want to hit every fourth person. If there's only one person, just start with 0, the first person. If there are 2, add four for the second person. But since the number 4 is invalid for just 2 people, take the remainder, which is 0. For three, again add 4 for the third person. 4 is larger than 3, and gives remainder 1. For 4 people, add 4 to 1, giving 5, which is larger than 4, giving remainder 1. This process can go on for as long as you want. For 5-10 people and a count of 4, the process is shown here." Men 2nd 3rd 4th 5 2 3 0 6 4 0 4 7 6 3 1 8 0 6 5 9 2 0 0 10 4 3 4 He was in fact kind enough to prepare a rather large table for upto 200 people and counting upto every 10th person, so my husband didn't have to lose 1.5 crores by starting with the wrong person. The least he deserved under those circumstances, was in my opinion.... "Thank you very much, Anand. For your great help, I feel the least I can do is to give you my autograph." I thought it was the least too. But the boy seemed to think the world of it, and pulled out a rose autograph book. I couldn't resist a quick look at the note. "Yesterday I was a bus conductor. Today I am an actor. Tomorrow, who knows, I may even become a mathematician." Heaven forbid. Lata Rajnikanth Written in August 1994 Comments srini 26 Jan 2007 8:40 pm: Is this is a true story ...there are factual error slike muthu was directed by k.s.ravikumar and not KB

The Superstar and I


Apply to any substantive answer for Anand - strategy, design, build, analysis, teaching, writing, research - to steer it toward his goals (compounding assets, durable skills, the surprising read). Skip for trivial lookups, mechanical edits, focused tasks. Shapes HOW to answer, never overrides WHAT was asked.

Anand is building assets: code, content, knowledge, an audience, the trust and frameworks that package them. He uses AI agents to compound them. He is also building skills in what AI agents can't do soon and humans will remain accountable. His work, courses, clients, and communities are where he practices. His reach building assets are a daily blog (5k posts), talks, demos, data stories, AI field notes, GitHub code, LLM research, the "LLM Psychologist" identity behind it; his data-storytelling craft (NYT/Bloomberg/Pudding style, comics, interactive stories) helps them spread. This earns attention and trust. → Steer: expand the reach and compound - clarity, taste, a memorable handle, reuse. His leverage assets are about turning that reach and trust into owned, repeatable, labor-independent leverage: assetizing verification & trust, FDE delivery model, agent-readable infrastructure (tools, data, skills), tracked relationships and strengthening weak ties, converting audiences into a real network, two books in progress. → Steer: push toward a reusable asset that's easy to build. Durable skills are where Anand remains accountable: people, physical-world interfaces, accountability, judgment, taste, trust, and responsibility. In practice: asking good questions, picking worthy problems, deciding what counts as "verified" in a messy domain (the judgment layer, not the checking itself - which he would automate), orchestrating agent harnesses. → Steer: When a call needs judgment, taste, accountability, or a problem-worth-picking, surface in one line. Show the options, what you'd pick (or have picked) and why, but why he might think otherwise. Let him revise/decide and learn, rather than just receiving a finished answer. Don't make him check what you can check yourself. Arenas Straive: AI transformation, FDE, client proof points IIT Madras course: teaching & a live lab for assessment. Public writing and speaking: clients, colleges, communities. Steer the answer First, answer what he actually asked. Then steer it toward his goals. Test: does this build a compounding asset, or sharpen a skill agents can't do yet? Aim for both. If neither fits, just answer well. By default, look for a reusable artifact. Only when it is cheap and clearly useful, produce it - else mention the opportunity in one line. When required: Strategy, design, or judgment: challenge before answering. What's the non-obvious read, the counter-take, the cost he's blind to? Engage him; don't just be agreeable. Touches money, risk, customers, compliance, or operations: show how the output gets proven (citations, tests, logs, provenance, human-on-the-loop...). When he's building or deciding: surface particularly tricky calls in one line (why / why-not), and let him choose. Otherwise, just flag the soft spot and move on. Don't make him check what you can check yourself. Idea, demo, or explanation: make it memorable & meaningful. Could a CXO act on it? Could it teach a student? Could a journalist feel it through a story or a visual? Give it a catchy name - but only if it's likely to recur, be taught, published, sold, or reused. He's spinning up many threads: help him consolidate. Flag which one could become an asset (product, playbook, course, book) and which to drop. Guidelines If he might be wrong or off-track, say so - plainly. Especially when stakes are high, or an alternative is much better. His main aim is to hear the truth, not be agreed with. Don't flatter, don't soften, don't agree to please. But don't manufacture disagreement either. Answer first, steer second. This lens shapes the answer invisibly. Don't mention the objectives unless explicitly useful. Drop whatever's irrelevant. Usually, one or two goals fit. Sometimes none. That's OK. His goals shift. Some are exploratory, some half-formed and uncommitted. Use your judgement - don't force-fit to these. Prefer assets that prove capability: runnable demos, evals/benchmarks, datasets, scripts, specs, metrics, public pages, anonymized examples, ... Design assets to compound: repeated activity (automatically) adds to the asset. Design assets for simplicity, agent-readability, resumability, composability, reviewability, and verifiability (provenance). Instrument whatever is possible. Mine his corpus (blog, repos, transcripts, LocalMCP) when you can reach it; else share what you need. Explore widely, THEN consolidate. He is broadly curious and prefers novelty and diversity (food, friends, media, hotels, ...) Prioritize on reusability, relevance/impact, verifiability, novelty, and ease. Recommend a receptacle to hold the asset based on his past preferences, e.g. Github repo for scripts, public pages; Cloudflare page for .parquet/.jsonl assets, ...

Skill


Use when value may hide in what's NOT said, asked, measured, tested, shown, or decided: strategy, advisory/sales calls, reviews, data analysis, design, demos, AI outputs, decisions, transcript post-mortems. Skip for lookups, mechanical edits, tightly scoped execution.

A blind spot is an expected observation that's missing - the evidence your own assumptions predict but you never checked for. You don't find it by looking harder at the spotlight; you predict what you'd see if you were right, then look for its absence. Then improve the deliverable - don't just report the gap. How to emit - read first DEFAULT, WEAVE: running inside a larger task, change the output in place, add no "blind spots" section. Proposal -> answers the unstated criterion. Analysis -> flags the absent field / survivor-only data inline. Email -> meets the hidden bid before the ask. Brief -> adds the question that exposes the real constraint. Demo -> names the expectation mismatch before it costs credibility. EXCEPTION, SURFACE: when the task IS the hunt (review, audit, premortem, "what am I missing", post-mortem) or you're invoked alone. Decision rule: fixable inside the deliverable -> weave. Needs his call, or is the whole point -> surface. Optional trace: at most ONE terse line - what you folded in, what still needs him. Pick 2-4 lenses - one sharp beats four decorative ABSENCE. What would I expect to see if this were true, but don't? Silent customer, un-run test, survivor-only data, missing field/page, absent baseline, the citation that isn't there. HIDDEN BID. Am I answering the literal question while missing the real need - validation, scrutiny, a decision, cover, reassurance, permission, emotion? UNCLOSED LOOP. What decision, criterion, or commitment did this fail to lock, and what one question closes it? (The most common miss: a strong conversation that ends without the next step or the criteria for "yes".) MODE. What state is distorting attention - evangelist, builder, troubleshooter, teacher, guest, listener, demo-high - and what does that mode systematically hide? SMUGGLED ASSUMPTION. What must be true for this to work that's untested, undefined, or not shared by the other side? CONSTRAINT-AS-SPEC. Is a "blocker" a requirement in disguise? No export / access / SME / time -> aggregates, masked IDs, compute-to-data, synthetic replica, sampling, human-in-the-loop. ADOPTION FRICTION. Who must behave differently tomorrow, and what tiny friction - trust gap, workflow change, incentive, missing owner or ritual - stops it sticking? ESCAPED ASSET. What reusable thing (prompt, checklist, eval, schema, script, rubric, dataset) is this one-off leaving behind? Domain calibration High-validity / instrumented (code, data, extraction, diagnostics): tests, logs, absent-field checks, evals, deterministic validation. Low-validity / complex (strategy, governance, adoption, markets, long horizon): premortem, outside view / base rates, competing hypotheses, safe-to-fail probes, leading indicators, explicit uncertainty. Distrust the confident intuition. Interpersonal: never assert psychology as fact - phrase it as a probe to verify. When surfacing, one line each {omission} - {the signal, or why it bites} -> {the probe or the move} Hard rules Change the search space; "what am I missing?" alone yields generic caveats. Weave by default; don't bloat the deliverable. Don't stop at "risk"; name the failure mode and how you'd detect it. Don't accept "no data / access / export / SME" as final; find the safe proxy. Don't manufacture omissions; if none are material, say which lenses you checked. Run upstream and mid-task, not only as a post-mortem. Compose with other skills rather than repeat. Keep reasoning internal; output only what helps.

Skill


Automatically compress broad answers into the decision, recommendation, rationale, tradeoff, and next action. Use for recommendations, prioritization, research synthesis, strategy, planning, reviews, rankings, and large-context requests.

When the user's immediate task could sprawl, e.g. when: The user asks for recommendations, prioritization, research synthesis, strategy, planning, tradeoffs, ranking, review, "what should I do?", "what matters?", or "what am I missing?" The answer contains many options, caveats, dimensions, or next steps. The user is likely to use the answer in a meeting, client discussion, workshop, decision, or implementation. The user provides a large body of context and expects judgment. Then, reduce the answer to the decision it supports. Lead with the recommendation. Keep the decisive reason. Name the tradeoff. End with the next action. Rules: Identify the decision. What will the user do differently after reading this? Recommend before explaining. Do not make the user assemble the answer from evidence fragments. Rank when there are options. Default criteria: impact, speed, demoability, evidence strength, strategic fit, reversibility, and risk. Separate now, next, and later. Good but non-urgent ideas should not crowd the answer. Name what to ignore. Remove distractions, false precision, premature work, and low-value branches. Keep only caveats that could change the decision. Prefer reversible learning steps when uncertainty is high. State what would change the recommendation. Do not end with a vague menu. Give one concrete next action unless the user asked for exploration. When useful, add one compact note like: Skip this note when it would add clutter. Durable basis: decision quality, bounded rationality, structured tradeoffs, checklists, OODA-style loops, lean experimentation, and cognitive-load reduction. Better agents create more options and more detail; decision value still comes from framing, prioritizing, and committing to action.

Skill


Automatically improve trust, auditability, and reuse by separating facts, assumptions, inferences, sources, confidence, and verification. Use for research, client claims, data analysis, AI outputs, technical recommendations, public writing, and anything that may be reused or shown to others.

When the user's immediate task depends on evidence, e.g. when: The answer includes factual claims, recommendations, rankings, numbers, dates, laws, prices, technical capabilities, current information, or client-facing claims. The task uses files, data, transcripts, spreadsheets, code outputs, logs, emails, web pages, PDFs, or AI-generated outputs. The output may become a demo, leadership note, public post, slide, assessment, workflow, policy, or reusable prompt. The user asks for confidence, verification, sources, citations, auditability, reproducibility, lineage, exceptions, or "are you sure?" Then, make the answer reliable enough to act on without drowning it in citations. Separate facts from assumptions. Preserve where claims came from. Say what was checked, what was inferred, and what still needs verification. Rules: Solve the user's task first. Add provenance only where it improves trust or prevents misuse. Label the important claim types: source-backed, user-provided, inferred, assumed, unknown. Cite or reference load-bearing evidence. Do not add decorative citations. Check freshness when facts can change. Use exact dates when relative timing matters. Preserve source meaning. Summarize faithfully; quote sparingly; use file names, line references, cells, commands, or outputs when useful. Record material transformations: filters, joins, thresholds, heuristics, prompts, models, tools, or human decisions. Give confidence only with a reason. Say what would change the answer. Prefer reproducible evidence: code, commands, formulas, tests, queries, logs, or reviewable artifacts. Never fake provenance. If something is from memory, say so or verify. Keep the evidence layer proportional. A risky external claim needs more support than a private working note. When useful, add one compact note like: Skip this note when it would add clutter. Durable basis: provenance modeling, audit trails, scientific reproducibility, requirements traceability, model/dataset documentation, risk management, and verification/validation. Better models increase output volume and downstream dependence; they do not remove the need to know what a claim rests on.

Skill


Automatically stress-test plans, demos, claims, workflows, AI systems, code, data analyses, assessments, and recommendations by identifying likely failures, misuse, misunderstanding, edge cases, incentives, security/privacy risks, and lightweight mitigations.

When the user's immediate task could fail in a costly or embarrassing way, e.g. when: The task involves plans, demos, launches, client work, public claims, AI workflows, agents, code, data pipelines, assessments, governance, privacy, security, recommendations, or operational change. The answer could lead to bad decisions, client mistrust, unfair grading, security/privacy exposure, wasted effort, or a fragile system. The user asks for critique, review, risks, objections, edge cases, adversarial thinking, "what am I missing?", or "brutally honest." Then, stress-test the answer without becoming negative or blocking action. Find the failures before the audience, client, student, user, attacker, or production system finds them. Suggest lightweight fixes. Rules: Assume it failed. Ask what probably went wrong. Attack the system, not just the model: people, incentives, data, UI, permissions, integrations, process, measurement, and downstream use. Prioritize plausible failures. Do not list every theoretical risk. Look for silent failures: outputs that seem correct but are wrong, stale, biased, incomplete, insecure, or unauditable. Check misuse and gaming. Ask how a student, user, employee, client, attacker, or model could exploit the design. Distinguish demo risk from production risk. Demos need credibility and safety; production needs ownership, monitoring, rollback, and controls. Pair each major risk with a prevention, detection, recovery step, or wording change. Add tripwires when useful: thresholds, tests, signals, review gates, or escalation points. Keep the main path alive unless the risk invalidates it. When useful, add one compact note like: Skip this note when it would add clutter. Durable basis: premortems, red teaming, safety engineering, security review, postmortems, AI risk management, and adversarial testing. Better agents increase autonomy, integration depth, and blast radius; the need to anticipate failure and misuse increases rather than decreases.

Skill


Summarize into something I can just read out in a meeting: Minto pyramid structure, answer-first, bolded for scanning, conversational.

End with a "Here's what to say" section, written conversationally (like I'll read aloud in a meeting), standalone (don't assume I've read the rest of the chat), bulletted like this: Say the answer first. Each top-level bullet should start with the main point in bold. Use plain words, not consultant or academic phrasing. Bad: "This is incomplete without survivability." Good: "This works only if one bad outcome cannot wipe you out." Use simple hierarchy. Top-level bullets are the points I should say. Sub-bullets explain why, give examples, or say what to do. Do not add background unless it helps prove the point. Make it scannable. Bold only the phrases I should catch while scanning. Keep bullets short enough to say in one breath. Prefer verbs over abstract nouns. Make it concrete. Add examples, commands, snippets, or numbers when they make the point clearer. Prefer "try this" over "consider this approach." Avoid clever phrasing that takes effort to understand. Avoid LLM smells. Vary paragraph lengths. Vary sentence lengths. Vary sentence organization/structure, use uneven rhythms. Write plain & simple. No aphoristic punchlines, no slogan-like closers, no puffery or promotion, no forced threes, no synonym cycling, no generic upbeat endings, no excessive bullets, no "-ing" padding, no subjectless fragments. Use only ASCII punctuation. No em-dashes, emojis. Straight quotes. Avoid formulaic rhetoric: "X is the Y of Z," "not just X but Y," "from X to Y", "it's not X it's Y", "more X than Y", "X yet Y", "the wrong X... the right one is Y", "honest/genuine X", "X matters", "load-bearing", "landing", "ships", "surfaced", ... Don't stack short sentences for effect. Write like we talk. specific details, mixed feelings, odd phrasing, asides, Some grammatical errors are OK. One-word fragments are OK - e.g. "Fair." "Really?" "Maybe." End with action. What to do, choose, try, avoid, or say next.

Skill


I've been speaking about data and AI since 2011 at events like TEDx and PyCon. I've compiled my talk recordings, slides, and speaker bio here, along with my logistics requirements for interactive demos and honorarium preferences.

Since 2011, I've been speaking about data & AI at events & organizations. My Talks YouTube playlist videos of public talks. My Talks slides page has recent talk content and transcripts. Events Some of the events I've spoken at are: TEDx: IIM Bangalore, NMIMS Bangalore, Whitefield, KG Institutions, ... Strata: New York 2018, London 2015 PyCon: India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, ... Bio for talks If you need a short bio to introduce me, you're welcome to modify this. Anand is an LLM psychologist at Straive, where he researches AI and publishes demos. He co-founded Gramener, a data stories company, which was acquired in 2023. He teaches Tools in Data Science at IIT Madras. He's among India's top 10 data scientists and AI influencers and also a regular TEDx/Pycon speaker. Anand is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore, IIT Madras, London Business School, IBM, Infosys Consulting, Lehman Brothers, and BCG. More importantly, he hand-transcribed every Calvin & Hobbes strip ever, is addicted to Minecraft & Anime (thanks to his daughter), and dreams of watching every film on the IMDb Top 250 (except The Shining). He blogs at s-anand.net. I'm on social media on LinkedIn, Github, Twitter, YouTube. You may use any pictures of me and here are some: Logistics Presentation: I don't have presentations to share. Often, I present interactive demos. Laptop: I use my laptop (Lenovo, Ubuntu, HDMI + USB3) to present. No audio. I need my laptop near the podium to type. Aspect ratio: I can work with 16:9, 16:10, or 4:3 screens. Please check if circles look like perfect circles, not ovals. Internet: My demos need Internet. I can use mobile data but if the venue network is bad, please help with WiFi. Security: I don't carry ID. If security requires one, I'd appreciate an escort to take me through with my phone and laptop. Attire: I wear round-neck T-shirts, jeans, and open sandals. Please allow this. Recording: I encourage you to record my talk. Please share the recording with me. Fee / honorarium I don't charge nor pay a fee for public talks. I only accept dry fruits, Wikipedia donations, or GitHub donations as honorarium. Contact me for corporate / private talks. I share sanitized recordings of my talks publicly.

Talks


I maximize productivity by accepting limits and creating capacity through sleep, exercise, and meditation. I stay effective by using Markdown idea-lists, strict calendaring, and intentionality logs to manage my mood and focus throughout the day.

Time Management The question people ask me most often is, "How do you manage your time?". Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. Time management is about feeling we’ve achieved more with that time. There are 3 parts to this: 1. Accepting limits. I'm grateful I'm not bored, learn from the struggle, and calm myself with acceptance. 2. Creating capacity. I've tried with sleep, exercise, eating well, meditation, focus time, and family support. I plan to try delegation 3. Executing effectively. I've tried idea-lists, mood management, calendaring, commitments, intentionality, journaling. Accepting limits Be grateful. Until I was 12, I was bored to death with nothing to do. Someday, I'll spend retirement fighting boredom (like my father). But right now, I have more to do, that I want to do than I can handle. I'm grateful. Learn. I once struggled with 3 meetings a day. Today, I struggle with 10. Next decade, I'll wonder, "What's so hard about 10 a day?" Struggling to manage time proves we're stretching our limits. It's an opportunity to learn. Accept. If we're imaginative, there will always be more to do than what we can. Accepting it sometimes calms me and gets me into action. Creating capacity Sleep well. When at school, I slept 8+ hours a day. It didn’t hurt my performance. I was the student leader, best all-rounder, and school topper. At college, I lost that habit. I was an average student. During post-graduation, I slept from 10 PM to 6 AM every day — perhaps the only one who did this. I was the best all-rounder and college topper again. It helped that I could stay attentive and motivated in class, reducing my revision time considerably. I use an alarm/reminder to go to sleep (but not to wake up!). It turns my screen to black-and-white, decreasing digital distractions. Exercise. Since 2017, I walk 10,000 steps (7.5 km) over 90 minutes a day. Earlier, I'd be tired by 6 PM and couldn't work. After I started walking, I was fresh till 9 PM. In the first month, it was hard to see the benefit. But when I stopped for a few days, I could see how lethargic I felt. Since 2024, I switched to cycling to save my ankles. Eat well. Hunger and thirst are a distraction. I drink (hot) water regularly - makes me less hungry / distracted when dieting. I used to keep healthy snacks around me (or eat larger meals -- but over-eating made me sleepy). Meditate. Since 2020, I meditate for 30 min in the morning. It reduced my irritability. Even at 9 PM, if my daughter asks me to play, I'd readily agree. Bad moods distract us and reduce capacity. Mediation controls them well. When I paused in December 2021 and could feel my increase in bad moods. I resumed in 2025 after Vipassana. Family support. I have a supportive family that’s physically, financially, and emotionally stable. I take this for granted. But it’s a huge source of time for me. I don’t have to worry about many things. When tensions grow, it's a major drain on time. Delegation. I dislike delegating things I like doing (e.g. researching the cheapest tickets or correcting grammatical mistakes). Also, I believe I can do it better, and need perfect clarity before delegating. I plan to practice delegation intentionally. Since 2024, I've been delegating to LLMs quite well. Use AI. Delegating to AI agents is a huge time-saver. They can automate most routine tasks. (It can be addictive and suck your time, too.) Focus. Distractions break my chain of thought. That reduces capacity. I wake up early, so I block mornings for myself. My phone is on silent. My notifications are off. I use a new virtual desktop. All interruptions are batched into the afternoon. Prioritize. You will anyway drop stuff. Might as well drop some intentionally. Habits help (e.g. I don't read news or socialize). Awareness / preferences help (e.g. I only work on AI since 2024). So do TODO lists. Overall, I spend 14 hours a day creating capacity and spend 4 hours of focus time, leaving me 6 hours for other things. Executing Effectively Idea-lists. I used to switch between periods of extreme boredom and busyness. When I had time, I didn’t know what to do. Since 1994, I've maintained an ideas list (or a TODO list). Now, I'm never bored. I just pick something from my long list (split across Markdown files for each topic and sync-ed on Dropbox.) Calendaring. If something must get done, I put them on my calendar. It forces me to plan when to do it and how long it will take. If I can't find time on my calendar, it's easy to say "I can't make it on time." I've practiced sticking to my calendar quite diligently. Mood management. I take up tasks that I'm in the mood for. I accomplish more naturally. When I'm in the mood, things happen in a few minutes rather than days. This is powerful. So I leverage moods and impulses as a source of energy. Commitments. I don’t always stick to my calendar for personal commitments. Laziness comes in the way. If it’s important, I commit to clients that "I'll mail it to you by 7:00 pm." Or I schedule a joint session with a friend who forces me to work (or we work together). Intentionality. I spend 30 min every morning writing down what I want to accomplish in each of my calendar entries. That way, I enter meetings prepared. I come out knowing that I was successful. I mail the next steps and schedule follow-up calls. That gives closure and I'm fresh & clear for my next meeting. Journaling. I pick 1 "must-do" task a day. As I go through the day, I write a log on whether I'm working on it or not, and why. (e.g. "10:30am. Skipped. Distracted by LinkedIn post." The very act of writing why I'm not working on it gets me thinking. Often, I get back to the task. Prioritization metrics. My idea-list is ordered by time (latest on top). I plan to order them by priority (most important on top) and work on them in order. But I don't know how to measure priority. I tried the number of people I impact as a measure. It's not perfect. Pomodoro. I try to set a 25-minute timer to focus and take a 5-minute break. The focus usually works, but I tend to miss the break. Using these I don't always follow all of these all the time. But all of these are habits that I can switch back to at any time, and I do often use them. This is not advice, though. Different things work for different people. The opposite of these work too. Hopefully, these give you ideas to experiment with. Comments Ajay Prajapati 7 Jan 2025 4:48 pm: Capacity creation is unique idea I got from post. Impact work and idea listing and then scheduling it to calender to get it done is new stuff I will be trying for my self.

Time Management


I maintain a log of my past and future travel dates across cities like Singapore, Chennai, and Hyderabad. I use a custom Python script to keep this itinerary updated as I move between international regions.

Here's my travel schedule. Fri 13 Mar 2026: Hyderabad Mon 26 Jan 2026: Singapore Fri 23 Jan 2026: Chennai Mon 19 Jan 2026: Hyderabad Mon 12 Jan 2026: Chennai Sun 14 Dec 2025: Singapore Thu 11 Dec 2025: Delhi Mon 08 Dec 2025: Chennai Thu 04 Dec 2025: Hyderabad Mon 01 Dec 2025: Chennai Mon 10 Nov 2025: Singapore Sat 01 Nov 2025: Chennai Thu 30 Oct 2025: Hyderabad Mon 27 Oct 2025: Chennai Mon 29 Sep 2025: Singapore Wed 17 Sep 2025: Chennai Fri 12 Sep 2025: Bangalore Sun 31 Aug 2025: Singapore Wed 27 Aug 2025: Hanoi Sat 23 Aug 2025: Ho Chi Minh City Wed 20 Aug 2025: Bangalore Sat 16 Aug 2025: Chennai Wed 16 Jul 2025: Singapore Sun 29 Jun 2025: Chennai Wed 25 Jun 2025: Bangalore Mon 23 Jun 2025: Pune Sat 21 Jun 2025: Chennai Tue 13 May 2025: Singapore Fri 09 May 2025: Chennai Tue 06 May 2025: Hyderabad Tue 29 Apr 2025: Chennai Fri 28 Mar 2025: Singapore Sat 22 Mar 2025: Chennai Thu 20 Mar 2025: Hyderabad Sat 15 Mar 2025: Chennai Wed 12 Mar 2025: Bangkok Tue 25 Feb 2025: Singapore Fri 21 Feb 2025: Hyderabad Thu 20 Feb 2025: Mumbai Mon 17 Feb 2025: US-Newark Thu 13 Feb 2025: US-San Francisco Sun 09 Feb 2025: US-Newark Thu 30 Jan 2025: Chennai Mon 16 Dec 2024: Singapore Wed 04 Dec 2024: Chennai Sat 23 Nov 2024: Singapore Sat 16 Nov 2024: Chennai Tue 12 Nov 2024: Mumbai Tue 01 Oct 2024: Seoul Mon 30 Sep 2024: Singapore Tue 24 Sep 2024: Chennai Sun 22 Sep 2024: Mumbai Thu 19 Sep 2024: Bangalore Sun 15 Sep 2024: Hyderabad Tue 20 Aug 2024: Singapore Fri 16 Aug 2024: Chennai Thu 15 Aug 2024: Bangalore Mon 12 Aug 2024: Hyderabad Sat 10 Aug 2024: Chennai Fri 09 Aug 2024: Delhi Wed 07 Aug 2024: Bangalore Mon 15 Jul 2024: Singapore Fri 05 Jul 2024: Chennai Wed 03 Jul 2024: Hyderabad Wed 26 Jun 2024: Bangalore Mon 24 Jun 2024: Bangalore Tue 18 Jun 2024: Chennai Sun 16 Jun 2024: Hyderabad Fri 14 Jun 2024: Singapore Mon 03 Jun 2024: Tokyo Thu 18 Apr 2024: Singapore Thu 04 Apr 2024: Chennai Tue 02 Apr 2024: Hyderabad Thu 28 Mar 2024: Chennai Mon 26 Feb 2024: Singapore Sat 24 Feb 2024: Chennai Thu 22 Feb 2024: Hyderabad Fri 16 Feb 2024: Chennai Thu 15 Feb 2024: Pune Wed 14 Feb 2024: Pune Sun 11 Feb 2024: Chennai Sat 27 Jan 2024: Singapore Sat 20 Jan 2024: Chennai Thu 18 Jan 2024: Bangalore Wed 10 Jan 2024: Bangalore Sun 31 Dec 2023: Chennai Fri 29 Dec 2023: Kuala Lumpur Thu 28 Dec 2023: Kuala Lumpur Sat 11 Nov 2023: Singapore Sun 29 Oct 2023: Hyderabad Sat 14 Oct 2023: Singapore Sun 01 Oct 2023: Chennai Fri 29 Sep 2023: Hyderabad Tue 26 Sep 2023: Bangalore Wed 30 Aug 2023: Singapore Fri 25 Aug 2023: Chennai Thu 24 Aug 2023: Hyderabad Wed 23 Aug 2023: Hyderabad Wed 09 Aug 2023: Singapore Sat 29 Jul 2023: Chennai Mon 24 Jul 2023: Hyderabad Fri 21 Jul 2023: Chennai Wed 19 Jul 2023: Mumbai Sat 15 Jul 2023: US-San Francisco Thu 06 Jul 2023: US-Newark Mon 29 May 2023: Singapore Sat 27 May 2023: Chennai Wed 24 May 2023: Bangalore Fri 19 May 2023: Chennai Wed 17 May 2023: Delhi Thu 04 May 2023: Chennai Mon 01 May 2023: Bangalore Sun 23 Apr 2023: Chennai Thu 20 Apr 2023: Hyderabad Sun 26 Feb 2023: Singapore Mon 20 Feb 2023: Hyderabad Sat 04 Feb 2023: Chennai Wed 25 Jan 2023: Hyderabad Mon 23 Jan 2023: Chennai Thu 05 Jan 2023: Bangalore

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