Reflections of a restless eccentric

Around one and a half years ago, my parents and I had gone to Mysore to visit my to-be-husband and in-laws.We were about to open the gate, when a barking mass of black and white came bounding towards us. Belatedly, I remembered, they had two dogs called Ginger and Pepper. My dad backed off in apprehension, and my mom stood her ground, smiling at it. I watched on curiously. I have always been skittish around dogs--happy to watch them from afar, but never going closer. And then, my to-be husband came out looking for it. "Pepper" he called, and in an instant its demeanor changed. It ran to him panting, and flopped onto its back asking for a belly rub. It refused to move from there, until finally, he picked it up in his arms and carried it in. I'd never seen anything like this before, and I was fascinated. That is a dog that knows it is loved, I thought to myself.  Things went well, and we got married. Over a weekend visit to my in-laws, we decided it was time for me to get t...

Of late, I've been fascinated by behavioral economics, and have been reading several authors from this genre: Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Ariely, Daniel Kanheman, Dubner and Levitt, Angela Duckworth, Adam Grant(I suppose these last two belong more in the genre of psychology, but the re-branding of much of that genre as behavioral economics is a topic for another day). The newest addition to my list is Drive by Daniel Pink, a book that explores motivation in detail. The reason this genre is so intriguing to me is because it attempts to explain why we do what we do, which has always been something of a mystery. The amalgamation of what I've read in these books is my inspiration for this article. Over the weekend, I was trying to finish up my music assignments since the deadline was looming quite close. One of these was particularly daunting to me: composing tiny phrases that adhere to the grammar of a musical scale(Raaga). After putting this off for ages, I sat down to make an attempt....

Now that I think about it, this series is not akin to traditional book reviews. It is more about my sojourn with a book--I could meander into aspects that have very little to do with the book itself, and more to do with my thoughts on some of the themes the books is based on. I intentionally write it this way. If you're looking for a crisp, to-the-point review, I also do those on Goodreads. Do connect with me!  https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/63617026-prashanthi-kadambi Title: Radical Spirits: India's First Woman Doctor and Her American Champions Author:  Nandini Patwardhan Genre: Biography Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51071687-radical-spirits?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=FUvbWhA5wb&rank=2 Sometimes, I despair at the sheer number of books on my to-read list, a number that keeps on increasing. For me to pick up a book from that list, I usually rely on an external impetus: Someone could recommend it to me, or I could be binge-reading ...

I'll be honest with you, I haven't felt like writing in the recent past. I have been enveloped in a feeling of languor and listlessness, musing over the tedium of life, being unable to muster up the energy to do the most basic of things. Sometimes when this happens, I simply let it be. Writing, as all forms of art, cannot be forced. I have to feel like it. But at other times, such as this, I remind myself that writing is cathartic for me. It is a powerful coping mechanism--I like to imagine that it is a milder form of sublimation, where I take my ennui and transform it into something meaningful. But this time, I have no inspiration. What can I write about then? This is how this book review series was born. If I have no stories of my own, I will share with you the stories of others. Glimpses into different worlds, insights from other people. The books I read shape my world to a great extent. Maybe some of what you read here will also change the way you look at the world. Maybe ...

I wake up at the crack of dawn today. It is a peaceful Sunday, I think, and I reach for my phone. The first notification that I open says that a person has tested positive for covid-19 around 200m away from where I stay. I pull up another map based tracker just to confirm that this piece of news is authentic and not rumor mongering. Sure enough, I see a big red boundary drawn around my area and several adjacent ones, with a heading saying Containment Zone followed by a sad smiley. For a minute, I couldn't believe it. Although things had been taking a turn for the worse all week long and I'd been trying to prepare for such an eventuality, I was taken aback. Like so many other days in the recent past, I lost the urge to get out of bed. I do not want to wake up to this, I thought, and buried my head under the covers. The last thought that I had was: We're almost out of milk. What about the groceries I'd ordered? Would they reach me? I woke up a couple of hours later, b...

If you had an option to befriend someone who shared many common interests with you versus someone who had completely different interests, which would you choose? This article is an attempt to answer that question, and the experiences that each option brings you. I had a doctor for a mother, and a chartered accountant/lawyer for a father. As a result, I grew up listening to two very different worldviews, experiences from wildly different universes. I picked up quite a bit of jargon from both domains, and tried to understand them as best as I could. I was a good listener, and I was genuinely interested in the things that fascinated my parents. I truly appreciated this diversity I got at home and the perspective it helped me gain. How wonderful it was that I had this expertise of two wonderful domains, all at my disposal. There was so much I could learn, so many ways in which I could grow. Often, I would tell people who asked me what it was to have parents from different professions: ...