uLaaR

Its time you told your mouth

Vishy KurugantiNovember 01, 20205 mins

“I think you should change your name to Vic.” The recruiter had completed a quick scan of my resume and this was her first helpful suggestion. I smiled at her and said “My official name is Vishwanath…

A slice of uLaaR

Vishy KurugantiSeptember 24, 20204 mins

The blog turned 12 in Feb this year. Originally setup as ulaar.wordpress.com, I migrated to Wordpress-powered self-hosting on Dreamhost in 2010. A few premium Wordpress theme changes kept things…

You can only dilettante thrice

Vishy KurugantiAugust 16, 20204 mins

This incredible urge to play a musical instrument or sing. Where the heck does it come from? I mean, how does one explain this urge when You are not born into a Bengali family When neither of your…

Eschewing meat- a few short stories

Vishy KurugantiAugust 02, 20202 mins

Until the start of the new millennium, my classification of people into “meat eating” vs “non-meat eating” was pretty static. If you were born vegetarian, you remained vegetarian (and vice versa…

MOMO Gormandizers Anonymous

Vishy KurugantiAugust 02, 20202 mins

*Momo: a type of steamed dumpling with some form of filling. Original traditional delicacy from Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Ladakh, Darjeeling, and Northeast – now mainstream Indian fare* I’ve heard some of…

If only giving up desires was this easy

Vishy KurugantiJuly 31, 20201 mins

The great sage Ramakrishna from a conversation on Aug 24, 1882: “Sometimes I used to assume a rajasic mood in order to practice renunciation. Once I had the desire to put on a gold-embroidered robe…

At the left hand of God

Vishy KurugantiJuly 09, 20202 mins

But everyone can make a beginning. Things to do in the morning: 1) First, I remember that I’m going to die. This gives urgency to the way I will live that day. 2) Second, I spend 5 minutes in…

The asthmatic who went up a hill but came down a mountain

Vishy KurugantiJuly 05, 20204 mins

“Hey V, are you carrying your inhaler? R is having an asthma attack further up the trail.” It was day #6 (of our 3-week trek from Uttarkashi to Yamunotri) and my first reminder that I was an asthmatic…

Tiny Habits, as explained by Goscinny & Uderzo

Vishy KurugantiMay 31, 20201 mins

If you’ve not heard about Dr. BJ Fogg or Tiny Habits, let me suggest this 800-word primer on the habit guru’s key principles. If you are struggling with an unambiguous definition of tiny, the masters…

Lockdownland – a documentary by BBC’s David Reid

Vishy KurugantiMay 24, 20201 mins

I first met David Reid (one-man-army BBC documentary maker) in late 2014. A meeting that started off with a cold call to the mGaadi call center with “Hey, you guys seem to be transforming auto…

• Pages
• 1
• 2
• 3
• …
• 37