Personal
Twenty-Seven Years of Writing on the Web
This summer the eighth most-read page on this site was the error page. I got Claude to follow the broken links. They led through five platforms and twenty-seven years,...
One Book a Month: Growing Up with the Famous Five
My brother and I pooled our pocket money to buy one Enid Blyton book every month. We fought over who got to read it first. Thirty years later, I still remember the sme...
The Language That Built the World's Databases: Clipper, ASCII Art, and the Golden Age of DOS
Before the web, before Windows, before most people had ever touched a computer — there was a language called Clipper, a compiler that turned dBASE code into executable...
What solving 3650 New York Times crosswords puzzles has taught me
Ten years and 3650 puzzles later — lessons in patience, pattern recognition, and persistence from a daily NYT crossword habit.
Rebuilding a personal siteNote
After twenty-five years and multiple false starts, finally rebuilding a personal site the right way with Jekyll and GitHub Pages.
The World Without GlassesDispatch
A poem about what the city looks like when you take your glasses off.
Essential Free Software For The MacNote
A starter set of free Mac software, written for a friend who had just bought one.
Choices; PlacesDispatch
A poem about what a place is, and what it costs to keep choosing one.
Fly.Dispatch
A short poem about the bonds you are born into and the choice to leave them.
New Delhi — Jaipur: The Scenic RouteDispatch
This is the route I plan to take from Delhi to Jaipur. It’s about 40 kilometers longer, but hopefully with far less traffic.
A HiatusDispatch
Much has happened since I last wrote a post — a child, a new home, an election … i could go on. I let the blog die. After the anger and the activism, I needed a…
Data Visualization: See what I’m all aboutNote
I decided to go over to Wordle and run the blog and my del.icio.us account data through it’s engine to visualize what I’m all about. Here are the results: The Blog:…
The Game of ThronesDispatch
Imagine a world that isn’t black and white. Wait, that’s the world we live in … So, let me rephrase that: imagine a fantasy novel set in a world that isn’t black…
On Hospitals, Design and ServiceDispatch
I’ve spent the last week or so living at looking after my grandmother. When I was around eight, we moved to Jaipur from Calcutta and came to live with my grandma.…
Hello world!Dispatch
The Blog Is Dead. Long Live The Blog.
Choices, choices, choices.Dispatch
I’ve been trying to explain away my absence from the interscape by citing work (lots of work, even). But that’s only half the story. Most of the work has involved…
Great Music Playlist, Quarter 4, 2008-09Dispatch
In no particular order, the music I’m listening to this quarter (why should fiscal barbequers be the only people to throw around quarters like they’re worth…
In the new officeDispatch
After six months of working from home, I’ve moved into a new office in the Okhla industrial area. Come and visit
@labnol helping me be an internet star, years after I made him a tv starDispatch
I was checking my blog stats today morning and noticed that a lot of traffic over the last few days has been coming from . Clicking on the link I found that Amit’s…
See you at BarcampDispatch
I’m at , Saturday and Sunday. See you there. Will put up my presentation, notes and posts from there. - BROWSE / IN TIMELINE - « - » - BROWSE / IN work SPEAK / ADD…
Still starting up :)Dispatch
The last few weeks have been super interesting. I’ve been busy meeting all sorts of people talking about what we’re doing with . The orders have also started to…
Dot dot dot …Dispatch
I’m jumping the fence. I’m quitting journalism to take up ‘connecting the dots’ full time. I have resigned my job at — a business newspaper published out of New…
StuckDispatch
I was supposed to fly out of Srinagar today. A headwind of 34 knots plus later, all flights were cancelled. I am back in the same hotel I left earlier in the…
AliveDispatch
It's been crazy since yesterday ... I had almost reached the Line of Control -- the de-facto border beween India and Pakistan -- when we were asked to turn back at…
BallsDispatch
The Srinagar polo grounds are right opposite my hotel. After meeting some people I was walking back with a friend and we were passing the polo ground when we saw a…
All the way from SrinagarDispatch
Hameed from Srinagar just called up the folks on DDs Fourth Umpire and told them to rename the programme. His suggestion: Indian Umpire. As far as he's concerned,…
VetsDispatch
Yusuf Jameel and Altaf Hussain are veteran journalists in Srinagar. Jameel reported for the BBC from the beginning of militancy here. Hussain is working for the BBC…
Talking heads early in the morningDispatch
Something called the Mass Communication Professionals Guild has organised a seminar on Media in Kashmir: Challenges and the Future. It’s a Saturday morning and…
Sex in SrinagarDispatch
I hooked up with this bunch of journalism students -- both men and women -- and decided to talk dirty with them. Sex, not very surprisingly, is taboo around here.…
Two sides ...Dispatch
News begins to lose its easy urban character out here pretty quickly. There is no straight story. The balanced story ceases to exist. Fact is shrouded beneath…
Srinagar notesDispatch
In Delhi, people are switching on air conditioning. In Srinagar, I need a sweater all the time. But what a beautiful place this is ... no wonder everybody wants it.
Nightlife in KashmirDispatch
I went for a walk today evening. The markets in Srinagar are all closed. Delhi seems further away than ever before. Right next door to Delhi, Haryana was the first…
water water everywhereDispatch
I am writing this sitting in the capital of a desert state. In one of the worst natural disasters to ever hit Asia, the death toll is ticking over like a Delhi…
Sunday sentimentsDispatch
One of the most highly paid columnists in this country calls his column Sunday Sentiments. It's a nice title. It doesn't mean too much ... it lets the author get…
The end of the yearDispatch
Having just finished the year-ender issue of the newspaper I work for, I have to admit this year hasn't been too bad. For one, I think I have finally got used to…
InterruptedDispatch
The whole hiatus post turned out to be a bit of an embarrasment really. After my fairly pompous declaration -- ala Schwarzenegger -- that I was back, I fizzled out…
hiatusDispatch
A gap or interruption in space, time, or continuity; a break: “We are likely to be disconcerted by... hiatuses of thought” (Edmund Wilson). --- It's a nice word.…
Book Meme -- How well read are you?Dispatch
A really long list of books I found --- bold, the ones i have read; italics, the ones i am reading. copy, paste and apply the same rules ... when you finish, add…
The end of an eraDispatch
Early 1999, hunched over a computer in an office in Vasant Kunj, I was trying to figure out how to design a website. I chanced upon a website . It was a site run by…
Hell, An email from a friendDispatch
THERMODYNAMICS OF HELL The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term exam. The answer by one student was so 'profound'…
Women ...Dispatch
makes interesting readin. It may be interesting to check on how the world has changed since the time the article talks about .. and has it changed for the better or…
The first postDispatch
Thought may be the most underrated human activity. True, independent thought suffers from hurdles that I have only begun to understand and become aware of. But when…