1.
I had written daily diary on and off last year. Restarted again last week and wrote every day. Even on the days when I think there was nothing noteworthy, once I start writing, reflecting about the day, there was a lot that happened every day. I keep reading about the advantages of daily journaling and I can see why. It helps to be reflective, realize days are not wasted away and hopefully helps with the memory. Hope to continue.
2.
This week I got back to The Seen and the Unseen podcast after some time. It covers people from all walks of life in India - most other popular podcasts are monopolised by Americans, so this is refreshing to know stories closer to home. It has gotten longer and longer, with interviews running into more than five hours, so I had left it at some time, but other more serious ones have become too much of a good thing. I couldn’t make myself listen to one more product management or business or tech podcast. So maybe it is time to take a break and come back to this. It is good to hear about the struggles of people trying to make it here, in academia, economics, politics, media, law, medicine, not just everything being technology business. How lives have been shaped over the decades in India. I used to follow this podcaster, Amit Verma, for more than ten years, through his blog and writing and he had good perspectives on many topics - for example, how people like Trump are giving permission for others who had their extreme opinions that they never voiced until someone like this gave them permission to do so, hence this is not a change in people, but that it was always there under the wraps.
3.
Watched three movies this week. Brahmayugam (Malayalam) - it was a horror movie set in 17th century in Kerala, that had usual tropes of Yakshi and Chathan, but given a much nuanced perspective with layers of caste oppression, rich and poor, colonizers, with the poor never escaping from these layers however hard they try. Mammootty takes a negative character and shines again - he continues his brilliant choices (Kaathal, Puzhu, Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam and more).
Aattam (Malayalam, meaning The Play) - a story about a woman complaining of sexual abuse and eleven people in her drama group deciding how to proceed. It left me shaken a bit, feeling bad about men. Every one of the men revealed their real face - of power grabs, money vs values, prejudices, manipulation, no one thinking about the girl truly even though they all show they care and even those who call her “molae” (daughter). It was like the ending of the Malayalam movie, Ishq, where the man wasn’t truly concerned about the trauma of the woman, but wanted to ensure his pride wasn’t hurt. In one family discussion when some sexist remark was made, Chakki was saying she should make a syllabus of movies for that person to watch to learn - in that respect, I think such Malayalam movies (including Great Indian Kitchen, Jaya Jaya Jaya He and many others) must be doing a great service to raise the awareness levels in the society.
The Two Popes (English) - was interesting to watch the contrasting views of conservative leaning and liberal learning priests, probably formed by the societies they were part of and their personal histories. Reminded of our trip to the Vatican and finding a side entrance somewhere to escape some long queues, through a hidden tip in some travel website.
4.
Watched the announcement of Devin, AI programming assistant and the related comments. Someone tweeting saying “enjoy the last few years of manual programming”. I played with Github Copilot last year and so far it didn’t seem such a massive change is up on us any time soon, but this seems to take it further. We might be in for interesting times in the next five years and hope countries like India which depend on IT for job creation will be prepared for the transition.
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