One of my goals for this year was to write about what I read. The reading ship has set sail, but I’ve been using lame excuses to skip the writing part. Well, I’m ahead of schedule for my next task, so now I have time to kill. Here we go—introducing "Afterthoughts," random notes on what I read. My first encounter with Khushwant Singh was through the English lessons we had as CBSE students. Years later, while browsing my college library, I stumbled across a book called Not a Nice Man to Know , a collection of Singh's work. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was the first time I found myself enjoying an Indian author’s work in English, and that piqued my curiosity. When the Chennai Book Fair came around, I grabbed a copy of Train to Pakistan . It was the first book I read from my haul. Train to Pakistan Conflicts are never easy to read about, and certainly not easy to write about. My first introduction to the Partition of India came through my school history books, which provided a...
Rewind 2024 2024 was a year full of firsts, trials, and setbacks. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was a year of learning, of real growth—both painful and rewarding. I almost didn’t write this post. After all, nothing about this year was impeccable. But out of respect for the tradition I’ve created, here we are. January began with a personal motto: skip my G1 slot and head to IIT BHU for a hackathon. Ironically, I ended up not having the G1 class at all, and I got to skip F1’s Computer Architecture CAT. It turned out to be the perfect way to understand the depth of the subject and its true value. A strange but happy accident. That same month, however, I faced disappointment when my scholarship application for the HPAIR Harvard Conference was rejected. It stung, especially since getting into such a prestigious conference felt like a milestone. Yet, the connection I made with fellow delegates became my first real taste of international collaboration, and for that, I’ll always be g...