Category Archives: Life notes

Lord of the Rings Day

Posted on March 25, 2026 by VM

A happy Lord of the Rings Day to you. This year I almost didn’t write this post because I don’t have anything to say about The Lord of the Rings itself. Chiefly, I have tired of the antics of men. … Continue reading →

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I, Head-bumper

Posted on March 19, 2026 by VM

Tall. I’m tall for India, around 6’3”. My height has recently been on my mind. India is not a good place for tall people. The public infrastructure is geared towards shorter people — the average Indian adult male and female … Continue reading →

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My political views

Posted on December 27, 2025 by VM

When I first had any views at all, I think I was in the second year of my engineering studies, in 2007, and decided I was a right-winger. Of course I understood very little of what that meant at the … Continue reading →

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Heat capacity

Posted on December 26, 2025 by VM

Someone asked me recently to name the thing I’ve been most grateful for in 2025. After giving it some thought, I realised it had to be the heat capacity of water. And not just for 2025. Tea is my warm … Continue reading →

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Acting and speaking

Posted on December 12, 2025 by VM

I performed several times on stage in school, up to when I was 11 years old. I studies for around four years at a school in Tumkur where drama was part of the curriculum. Every year we’d have a playwright … Continue reading →

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The House

Posted on November 14, 2025 by VM

I had a dream once, that I was sitting, resting in a cosy alcove of walls empanelled with wood, with wooden chairs and tables with comfortable cushions, smoke from an incense stick hanging heavy in the air and on the … Continue reading →

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GST 2.0 + WordPress.com

Posted on September 4, 2025 by VM

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced sweeping changes to the GST rates on September 3. However, I think the rate for software services (HSN 99831) will remain unchanged at 18%. This is a bummer because every time I renew my … Continue reading →

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The guiding light of KD45

Posted on August 24, 2025 by VM

On the subject of belief, I’m instinctively drawn to logical systems that demand consistency, closure, and introspection. And the KD45 system among them exerts a special pull. It consists of the following axioms: Thus, KD45 pictures a believer who never … Continue reading →

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A blog questions challenge

Posted on July 14, 2025 by VM

I hadn’t checked my notifications on X.com in a while. When I did yesterday, I found Pradx had tagged me in a blog post called “a challenge of blog questions” in March. The point is to answer a short list … Continue reading →

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Four years

Posted on June 14, 2025 by VM

Engineering as a methodology … contains a fundamentally materialist kernel, even if its present incarnation as a bourgeois science drives engineers to think and behave otherwise. — Nick Chavez, Engineers, Materialism, and the Communist Method After school, I studied mechanical … Continue reading →

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