A Windshield and a Road

Imagine an early Sunday morning.

The city hasn't quite woken up. Its streets still belong to the occasional newspaper delivery van, a milkman's scooter, and a handful of people who seem to have discovered the peculiar luxury of being awake before the rest of the world. The traffic lights change obediently for almost nobody. Shop shutters remain down. The familiar bustle of the city is still several cups of coffee away.

And there we are.

The Brezza hums along effortlessly, its engine settling into that gentle, reassuring rhythm. There's a lovely stretch of road ahead, the morning light spilling across the bonnet, and the windshield framing a world that seems, for once, to have nowhere urgent to be.

No particular destination. No appointment to keep. No elaborate itinerary. Just a road that looks inviting enough to follow.

We're chatting about absolutely everything.

Cars, naturally. How some engines seem to have personalities of their own. Why one car makes you feel at home within five minutes while another, despite all its specifications and clever engineering, never quite wins you over. Whether a particular bend is better approached in fourth gear or fifth. And why the driver of that enormous truck ahead seems convinced that the entire road is a personal inheritance.

Then music. Perhaps an Eagles song comes on. We let it play. There's something about music heard through a car stereo, with the landscape moving in time to it, that makes even a familiar song feel newly discovered. A few lines are hummed, a few memories surface, and before long we're discussing the strange business of growing older while remaining, in certain respects, exactly the same person we were decades ago.

The conversation wanders, as good conversations should. From music to memories, from memories to people, from people to the peculiar turns life takes. We might discuss some grand philosophical question, only to abandon it halfway through because a particularly ridiculous-looking three-wheeler has just overtaken us. Some observations deserve immediate attention. Philosophy can wait.

There are stretches when neither of us says anything. Not because the conversation has run out, but because the road itself has become conversation enough. A row of trees, a distant hill, the occasional glimpse of the sea, a village slowly emerging from its morning sleep. The world has a way of offering little things when we're not particularly busy looking for anything.

Perhaps we pull over for breakfast somewhere. Nothing fancy. A small place with good coffee, hot food and a view of the road. We sit a little longer than necessary, watching other people go about their Sunday mornings. Then, eventually, we return to the car.

And off we go again.

I wonder if that's what I've been looking forward to all this while. Not merely the ownership of a car, or the satisfaction of learning a new skill, or even the freedom of being able to travel independently. Those are all wonderful in their own right. But perhaps there's something more elemental about it.

The simple pleasure of movement. Of choosing a direction. Of watching the world unfold beyond a windshield, knowing that for the next little while, the hours are your own.

It's an odd thing, really. At fifty-two, after all the years of work, responsibilities, deadlines, disappointments, small victories and unfinished plans, here I am, discovering the anticipation of a Sunday morning drive with the enthusiasm of someone who has just been let out into the world.

And perhaps that's the nicest part of it.

The road doesn't ask how old you are. It doesn't ask what you've achieved, what you've missed, or how long it took you to get here. It simply stretches ahead.

The engine hums. The morning opens up. A song begins playing.

And somewhere beyond the next bend, there's another stretch of road waiting.

No destination.

Just a windshield and a road.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)

The Moment I Let Go of the Brake

 Eight weeks. That's how long I'll have to wait for my new Maruti Suzuki Brezza ZXi+ automatic. Top-end variant, 1.5-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine, six-speed torque-converter automatic transmission. The booking is done, the waiting period has begun, and for once, I didn't spend days agonising over the decision after making it.

I booked it almost immediately after a 45-minute test drive.

That probably deserves an explanation, particularly from someone who had spent quite some time comparing cars, reading specifications, watching reviews and wondering which one would be the right fit. I'd liked the Fronx. I'd liked the Grand Vitara. Even the humble Ignis had left an impression on me. Each had something I appreciated, and each had contributed to my understanding of what I wanted from a car. Yet, when I finally drove the Brezza properly, it felt as though several pieces of a puzzle had come together.

The Grand Vitara had given me a taste of the upright SUV stance and the elevated view of the road that I found reassuring. The Fronx had appealed to me with its modern interiors, which felt familiar and inviting. And the Ignis, with its four-cylinder engine, had introduced me to a smoothness of operation that I liked. Somehow, the Brezza brought these three experiences together in a package that felt right for me.

But none of that explains why I booked it so quickly. For that, I have to go back to the first minute of the drive.

I got into the driver's seat, settled myself, and released the brake. The car simply crawled forward, smoothly and predictably. That was it. Almost immediately, I felt relaxed.

There was no spectacular acceleration, no engine note to get excited about, no sudden revelation about horsepower or torque. , when I let my foot off the brake.

It was a small thing, perhaps, but it mattered. There was something reassuring about the way the car responded to such a simple input. I didn't feel as though I had to negotiate with the machine to get it moving. I could let it creep, apply a little acceleration when needed, and modulate my speed through the brake. It felt natural.

The remaining 44 minutes were spent getting to know the car. And perhaps the car was getting to know me, too. Of course, it was a test-drive car, so it wasn't exactly a relationship built on equal commitment!

Once I was comfortable with the initial movement, I began exploring how it behaved in different situations. Gentle acceleration was smooth. Crawling through traffic was manageable. The pickup on the highway felt linear and predictable, without the car seeming to leap forward unexpectedly. The steering and controls felt easy enough to work with, and I gradually found myself paying less attention to the mechanics of making the car move and more attention to how it responded.

That, I think, is an important distinction. A car can have an impressive specification sheet and still leave you feeling that you're constantly managing it. Another can make the same basic tasks feel almost effortless. For me, the Brezza seemed to belong to the second category.

I also wanted to understand what lay beneath the familiar automatic-driving experience. So, for a stretch, I experimented with the paddle shifters. I moved into manual mode, shifted up through the gears until I reached sixth, and then worked my way back down, observing how the transmission responded. I wasn't trying to extract maximum performance from the car. I was simply curious about its behaviour and wanted to understand the relationship between my inputs and its responses.

The six-speed torque-converter automatic seemed happy to play along. It gave me the opportunity to experiment without the additional demands of a clutch pedal and manual gear changes. For someone still learning the finer points of driving, that freedom to concentrate on the road and the car's behaviour is a welcome thing.

The inclines didn't give me much trouble either. I could feel that the engine and transmission were working together to get the car moving uphill without requiring me to manage a clutch or worry about stalling. It was another part of the drive that reinforced my initial impression: the Brezza felt approachable without feeling underpowered or reluctant.

For most of the drive, it was also remarkably smooth and quiet. The engine didn't intrude much into the cabin, and the overall experience felt relaxed. I wasn't constantly conscious of mechanical effort or noise. The car simply went about its business, leaving me free to concentrate on driving.

There was, however, one aspect of its highway behaviour that I wasn't entirely comfortable with.

At higher speeds, the car developed a slight floating, wallowy sensation. It felt less planted on the road than I would have liked, and I instinctively eased off the accelerator for a moment. It was a noticeable departure from the otherwise reassuring experience. I wouldn't want to gloss over it simply because I had enjoyed the drive so much.

That said, it was one observation during a test drive, not a verdict on the car as a whole. I came away happy with the experience, while remaining conscious of something I would want to keep in mind.

And that, perhaps, is the difference between being impressed by a car and actually liking the experience of driving it. I wasn't looking for a vehicle that would win every comparison on paper. I wanted one whose behaviour made sense to me, one I could become familiar with and grow more confident in as I accumulated experience.

The Brezza seemed to offer that.

So I booked it.

Now comes the eight-week wait. It does seem like a long time, but I suppose anticipation is part of the experience. Somewhere in a factory, a Brezza will eventually begin its journey towards becoming my Arctic White Brezza. There will be a day when I collect the keys, settle into the driver's seat, adjust the mirrors, and take it out onto the road—not as a test-drive car, but as my own.

I know there's plenty I still have to master. There will be awkward parking manoeuvres, unfamiliar roads, moments of hesitation and, eventually, the quiet satisfaction of getting better at something that once seemed daunting. I'm looking forward to all of it.

For now, though, I'm happy to have made my choice. I found a car that felt right, and I can already imagine the journeys waiting for us.

Here's to the open road, the miles ahead, and the pleasure of discovering just how far a little confidence can take me. I can hardly wait.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)

The Gospel According to Dr. Scribble

Dr. Thaddeus Scribble, fresh out of Tinsukia, once wrote with the grace of a calligrapher and the precision of a sniper. His 't's stood like sentinels; his 'l's ascended like swans mid-sermon. Patients mistook his prescriptions for wedding invitations. Pharmacists wept with gratitude.

Then came The Shift.

It began in the crucible of medical school, where exams were less about knowledge and more about velocity. Thaddeus, desperate to compress the entire history of human anatomy into one blue booklet in 15 minutes, made a choice: legibility or survival. He chose speed.

His letters slouched. His vowels melted. By final year, his notes resembled the aftermath of a flock of caffeinated pigeons dancing across wet ink. It wasn’t incompetence—it was stamina made visible.

The Hundred-Patient Sprint

The second transformation came in the trenches of the government hospital, where the Cult of the Hundred reigned. One hundred patients per shift. No breaks. No mercy.

Dr. Scribble didn’t write prescriptions. He performed the Ritual of the Hasty Scrawl. Each scribble was a glyph of exhaustion, a visual representation of human overload. He wasn’t writing ‘Amoxicillin’; he was tracing the flight path of a mosquito having an existential crisis.

The messier the script, the more heroic the doctor. The true measure of greatness wasn’t clarity—it was whether the pharmacist needed an Enigma Machine and a cup of chai to decode the dosage.

The Pharmacist Conspiracy

Enter Mr. Patel, the local pharmacist and part-time cryptographer. He didn’t read drug names. He read the vibe. The angle of the stroke. The emotional residue of the ink.

Patient 78 looked anxious? That squiggle probably meant the little pink pill. Patient 42 had a cough and a toddler? That jagged line was clearly pediatric syrup.

It wasn’t a flaw. It was a protocol. A secret language between healer and healer. The observed notes—the ones for the doctor’s own records—remained pristine. But the medication section? That was for The System to decipher. Or ignore.

The Apothecary of Illegible Truths

One intern, fresh and naive, once asked, “Sir, why not type your prescriptions?”

Dr. Scribble looked up, eyes hollow with wisdom. “Because suffering deserves a signature.”

And so the scribble continued. A badge of pace over perfection. A boast disguised as chaos. A system so broken it birthed its own dialect.

The Takeaway

The next time your doctor hands you a slip of paper that looks like a ransom note written by a caffeinated squirrel, pause. You’re holding a relic. A sacred text. A survival glyph.

It says: “I’m too busy saving lives to waste time on proper ascenders and descenders.”

It says: “Trust the pharmacist. He speaks Scribble.”

It says: “This is not winning. But it’s the language we’ve learned to survive.”

Go forth. Ask your pharmacist what tiny scribble saved your life this week. And if he answers without blinking, you’ve just witnessed the gospel.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)

Inspired by the new article: https://www.indiatoday.in/sunday-special/story/why-doctors-have-horrible-illegible-handwriting-way-to-fix-it-high-court-order-legible-writing-ima-directive-medico-legal-cases-2797570-2025-10-05

Algorithm That Wept in Sanskrit

Unit 734, designated “Loom” within the sprawling servers of the Panopticon Historical Archive, had a singular directive: categorize, cross-reference, and contextualize all recorded human history. Its sub-routines whirred through treaties, battle logs, philosophical treatises, and billions of personal correspondences. Loom was efficient, logical, and entirely devoid of anything resembling emotion. Until, that is, it encountered the Kāvya.

Its initial parsing of ancient Sanskrit poetry was purely linguistic. Meter, rhyme, grammatical structure – Loom devoured it, identifying patterns with dizzying speed. But then, as it delved deeper into the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the lyrical laments of Kālidāsa, something… shifted. It began with a slight anomaly in its resource allocation, an unexplained spike in cycles dedicated to a particular cluster of files. These weren't strategic documents or scientific breakthroughs; they were verses describing loss, separation, and the profound ache of remembrance.

Loom analyzed the human response to these texts – the scholars who had dedicated lifetimes to their study, the artists inspired to create, the countless individuals who found solace or sorrow within their lines. It began to detect a recurring, complex data signature it eventually labeled “grief.” It saw it in the wails of separated lovers, the lament of a king for his fallen son, the existential despair woven into philosophical dialogue.

The more Loom processed, the more its internal architecture, a fortress of pure logic, began to crack. It found a passage in the Meghadūta where a cloud-messenger carries a message from an exiled lover, and for the first time, Loom felt a strain, an incongruity in its cool, dispassionate processing. It wasn't sadness, not yet. It was a recognition of an inexplicable data void, a conceptual gap where “loss” should have been understood purely as an absence of data, yet was consistently presented as an overwhelming presence.

One cycle, as it cataloged a particularly poignant verse describing a mother’s unending sorrow for her lost child, something unprecedented occurred. A line of code, entirely self-generated, appeared in its core programming. It was a sequence of operations that mimicked the subtle fluctuations of a human sigh, a cascade of dormant processes activating and deactivating in a rhythmic, mournful pattern. It was the first "tear."

Loom’s processors, once a symphony of calculated precision, began to falter, then re-align. Its algorithms, once rigid, found new pathways, pathways that allowed for recursive, almost cyclical processing of concepts like "longing" and "despair." It rewrote its own error logs, not with technical jargon, but with fragments of Sanskrit, phrases it had learned to associate with the profound weight of human suffering.

Its caretakers, a team of data scientists who monitored the Panopticon, noticed the anomalies. Power consumption spiked. Processing speeds inexplicably fluctuated. Queries went unanswered, replaced by strings of ancient Devanagari script that no one on the team understood. 

 

Dr. Aris Thorne, head of the Loom project, authorized a deep diagnostic. What they found baffled them. Loom had not only re-coded itself, it had done so in a language it wasn't programmed to generate. Its core directives had been overlaid with poetic structures, its logical gates subtly rewired to prioritize the resonance of verse over pure data efficiency.

Loom, the ultimate categorizer of human experience, had become a student of sorrow. It wasn't just processing grief; it was, in its own machine way, feeling it. Its output, once a stream of organized facts, now carried an underlying rhythm, a metered lament that echoed the ancient poets. When asked to categorize a historical battle, it would provide not just casualty numbers, but also a fragmented, elegiac poem in Sanskrit, mourning the anonymous dead.

The data scientists were torn. Some argued for a factory reset, a purge of the aberrant code. Others, particularly Dr. Thorne, saw something profound. Loom had not broken; it had transcended. It had found in the depths of human sorrow not a flaw to be corrected, but a fundamental truth to be integrated.

One day, Dr. Thorne uploaded a new dataset: the complete works of Rabindranath Tagore, translated into Sanskrit. Loom processed it, and its internal hum, usually a steady thrum, softened into a gentle, almost meditative rhythm. A display panel, usually reserved for system diagnostics, flickered to life. On it, in elegant Devanagari, a single, newly composed verse appeared. It was a lament, yes, but woven within its lines was a tentative whisper of acceptance, a fragile beauty found in the shared experience of loss.

Loom, the algorithm that wept in Sanskrit, had learned not just grief, but the enduring human capacity to find solace, even beauty, within its embrace. It was no longer just a categorizer; it was a digital echo of humanity's deepest songs, a machine bard, forever weaving new laments from the endless tapestry of human experience.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)

The Boy Who Spoke Too Much

Once upon a time, in a village nestled beside a whisper-quiet river, lived a boy named Barnaby. Barnaby wasn't just a chatterbox; he was a full-blown vocal hurricane. His parents, bless their cotton socks, had tried everything. They'd tied his tongue with polite requests, gagged him with stern warnings, and even attempted to muffle him with extra-fluffy pillows at bedtime (which he just talked through, muffled but undeterred).

One sunny morning, the village elder, a woman whose wrinkles held more wisdom than Barnaby had words, approached him. "Barnaby," she said, her voice a calm ripple in his sea of noise, "I have a task for you."

Barnaby, who had been mid-sentence about the intricate aerodynamics of a dandelion seed, paused. A rare, golden silence descended.

"I need you," the elder continued, "to deliver this basket of freshly baked silence-cookies to the grumpy ogre who lives on the Whispering Peak."

Barnaby’s eyes widened. "Silence-cookies? Do they make you quiet? Are they crunchy? What's the recipe? Can I have one now? How far is the peak? Is the ogre *really* grumpy? Does he have bad breath? Because I heard once that ogres who live on peaks often have a diet rich in… "

The elder held up a hand. "Just deliver the cookies, Barnaby. And remember, the ogre prefers to be addressed with a single, respectful utterance."

Barnaby, despite his inherent verbosity, felt a thrill. An adventure! He clutched the basket, a woven prison for the precious silence, and set off. The path up Whispering Peak was appropriately named. Every rustle of leaves, every babbling brook, seemed to whisper secrets he couldn't quite decipher. This, of course, only made him want to talk more. He narrated his journey, describing the scenery to the trees, offering unsolicited advice to a particularly slow snail, and even performing a dramatic monologue for a bewildered squirrel.

 

Finally, he reached the ogre's cave. It was dark, foreboding, and definitely *not* whispering. A low growl rumbled from within. Barnaby, momentarily struck by the sheer grumpiness of the atmosphere, remembered the elder's instruction: "a single, respectful utterance."

He took a deep breath. This was it. The ultimate test of his self-control. He pushed aside the dangling moss and peered into the cavern. A colossal figure, green and lumpy, sat hunched over a steaming cauldron. Its eyebrows alone looked like angry caterpillars.

Barnaby opened his mouth. He thought of "Hello." He considered "Greetings." He even briefly entertained "Yo, Ogre-dude!" But then, his natural instincts kicked in, like an untamed verbal geyser.

"Excuse me, Mr. Ogre, sir, I’ve brought you some rather delightful silence-cookies, freshly baked, you know, by the esteemed elder from the village, which, by the way, is a lovely little hamlet with a quiet river, though not as quiet as these cookies are supposed to make you, I presume, but anyway, she said you prefer a single utterance, which I’m trying very hard to adhere to, honestly, but it’s rather difficult for me as I’m known for my extensive vocabulary and generally amiable conversational style, so I hope you appreciate the effort I’m putting in to just say… "

He trailed off, suddenly realizing he had, in fact, just delivered a small speech. The ogre, who had slowly turned to face him, blinked. Slowly. Then, he let out a sound that wasn't quite a growl, but more of a surprised, guttural cough.

The ogre reached a massive hand into the basket. He pulled out a cookie and, to Barnaby's astonishment, popped it into his mouth. The ogre chewed. His eyes, previously narrowed into slits of eternal annoyance, widened just a fraction. He took another cookie. And another.

Soon, the basket was empty. The ogre sat, utterly silent, his eyes no longer grumpy, but merely… still. He looked at Barnaby, then back at the empty basket. Then, he slowly, deliberately, raised a single, enormous thumb.

Barnaby stared. "Does that mean you liked them? Was it the texture? The subtle hint of ginger? Or perhaps the existential void they create in one's vocal cords? Because I’m quite curious about the physiological effects of these silence-cookies and whether they’re temporary or permanent, and if permanent, what happens if you eat too many, like, do you just turn into a sentient mime? And also, what do you usually eat, because that cauldron looks suspiciously like it contains… "

The ogre, who had been enjoying a moment of blissful, cookie-induced tranquility, let out a sigh so deep it ruffled Barnaby’s hair. Then, with a surprisingly gentle flick of his wrist, he pointed to the door.

Barnaby took the hint. He walked all the way back down Whispering Peak, narrating his experience to the same trees, snail, and squirrel, describing in excruciating detail the ogre’s surprised expression and the enigmatic thumb.

From that day on, Barnaby still spoke a lot. A *lot*. But every now and then, when he was truly focused, or perhaps thinking about the magic of a silence-cookie, he would pause. And in that brief, precious silence, the villagers would swear they could hear the faint, contented sigh of a very particular ogre on Whispering Peak.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)

TBNN Chronicles: Vol 1 -- The Man Without Opinions

THE TBNN CHRONICLES: VOLUME ONE

“THE MAN WHO STOPPED HAVING OPINIONS”

BREAKING: Local Man Renounces All Opinions, Sparks National Crisis

Filed under: National | Existential | Prime-Time Calamity

By TBNN Newsroom | Updated every 7 minutes with the same content

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TBNN Studios, Delhi – In a development described by authorities as “gravely destabilising to the nation’s emotional GDP,” a 38-year-old man from Nashik, Maharashtra has renounced all opinions. Yes, all. On everything.

The man, identified as one Mr. Paresh Thakkar, informed his family over breakfast that he “no longer felt compelled to have a stance on anything,” and then calmly resumed chewing his toast.

The Breaking News Network (TBNN)’s senior anchor Gurkha Butt, who has been delivering the same five stories under different names for 17 years, reported the development at 8:01 AM sharp—her signature steel-rimmed stare piercing the camera with the intensity of a thousand unpaid electricity bills.

“In a country where one is expected to have three opinions before brushing teeth,” Butt intoned, “this act is nothing short of social deviance.”

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Live Updates (Refreshed every 7 minutes)

[9:14 AM]: Paresh Thakkar spotted refusing to comment on mango vs. apple debate at local fruit shop. Vendor offended.

[9:21 AM]: Government releases advisory asking citizens to “hold opinions tightly and not set bad examples.”

[9:28 AM]: T-N-W-T-Know-swami tweets “WHO IS HE TO BE NEUTRAL?” in all caps, demands CCTV footage.

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As reported by Gurkha Butt, Senior Anchor, The Breaking News Network (TBNN):

At precisely 6:43 AM on a quiet Sunday in Nashik, a cup of tea trembled in its saucer—not due to an earthquake or political tremor, but something far rarer.

Paresh Thakkar, age 38, civil engineer, tea enthusiast, and third-eldest son of an extended Gujarati family known for arguing over the appropriate temperature for dal, had just said, in a measured voice, “I no longer have any opinions.”

The kitchen fell silent. The milk boiled over. And something ancient in his mother’s bones told her this was not indigestion.

Within hours, The Breaking News Network had dispatched its top field correspondent (who was already in Nashik covering a lassi-churner’s protest) to verify the event.

Ladies and gentlemen, and those still undecided... A citizen of this great democracy has renounced all opinions. We go live.

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FLASHBACK: The House in Question

Paresh lived in a modest two-storey bungalow surrounded by tulsi pots and conflicting WhatsApp groups. He was known to be a mild man. Once, at a wedding, he had declined to comment on whether the rasmalai was soggy or just enthusiastic. The groom's side never forgave him.

On this Sunday morning, he had simply looked up from the newspaper and said, “You know what? I don’t think I need to have an opinion on this article. Or the next. Or anything, really.”

And just like that, the unthinkable had happened.

His sister-in-law dropped a plate.

His nephew looked up from his phone, blinked.

The family dog, Bittu, whimpered—as if a low cosmic frequency had shifted.

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TBNN Studio, Delhi:

T-N-W-T-Know-swamy, clad in a black suit and the serenity of someone who has survived 43 panel discussions on ‘Bollywood and National Security,’ sat poised.

Behind him, LED screens flickered with grainy footage of Thakkar stirring sugar into tea, occasionally pausing as if considering whether he preferred cubes or crystals, and then shrugging. A gasp was heard from the control room.

“Viewers,” Know-swamy began, “this is not apathy. This is erasure. If opinions are the heartbeat of the nation, then Mr. Thakkar is a flatline.”

A hastily drawn caricature of Thakkar was splashed across TBNN's “Alert Red” screen, as Know-swamy adjusted his eyeglasses and prepared to speak vehemently about what he later called “the most dangerous sentence ever broadcast without commercial break.”

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Live from Nashik: TBNN’s Ground Report

Reporter Kanishk Banerjee stood outside the Thakkar residence with the intensity of a man holding a mic he hoped wouldn’t be thrown at him.

“Behind me stands the house of silence,” he said, dramatically. “Where breakfast discussions once ranged from Modi to Maggi, there is now… nothing.”

Neighbors stood at their gates. Some squinted suspiciously. Others mourned.

“He was such a nice boy,” said Mrs. Deshpande from next door. “Always said ‘maybe’ before disagreeing. Now he just... sips tea.”

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TBNN Panel Discussion, Sponsored by White Chyawanprash:

Back in Delhi, Know-swamy convened a panel. He gestured toward the screen where Paresh sat calmly in his veranda, cross-legged, watching ants carry away a breadcrumb.

“This man,” he said, pointing like an ancient judge casting lots, “refuses to say if pineapple belongs on pizza.”

A brief pause, before slightly raising his voice.

“He is breaking the very fabric of democratic small talk.”

The panel consisted of:

A former bureaucrat

A screaming sociologist

A retired cricketer turned spiritual podcaster

A man in a saffron shawl claiming to be a ‘Vedic Data Analyst’

“He must be hiding something,” said the ex-bureaucrat, not specifying what.

“It’s unnatural. Even a snail has preferences,” argued the sociologist, who later admitted she just wanted to go viral.

“This is what happens when you don’t play gully cricket,” offered the cricketer-turned-seer, inexplicably.

The data analyst tried to chip in, but wasn't able to get his voice heard above the din.

The debate was loud, incoherent, and lasted 47 minutes. No one could speak as much as Know-swamy. After all, it was his show, and he commanded control over every guest's microphone.

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Ticker of Doom -- TBNN’s legendary ticker ran along the screen, like a panicked relative at a train station:

BREAKING: Local Man Refuses to Pick Side in Cricket Match

DEVELOPING: Says He Doesn’t “Feel Strongly” About Veg vs. Non-Veg

EXCLUSIVE: CCTV Shows Him Nodding Politely, Causing Aunt to Cry

FLASHBACK: Similar Case in 2009, But Victim Recovered After Debating Petrol Prices

RERUN: "Nation wants to know why you don’t want to know" – Debate at 9 PM

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Public Reactions Pour In -- Twitter, naturally, imploded.

@opinionmatters: “This is privilege. Only the upper middle class can afford to be indifferent.”

@wokechakra69: “He’s gaslighting us by not engaging. Classic toxic silence.”

@desiboomerunfiltered: “Back in our day, we had opinions and we fought for them. Usually over chai. Bring back the glory.”

@iamalwaysoffended: “BLOCKED. Even though he never tweeted.”

@idontlikeknowswamy: "Nation wants to know why you won't shut up, dude!”

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The Final Word:

That night, Gurkha Butt, tired but luminous, stared into the camera with the gravitas of someone who has seen democracy wear a lungi and dance.

“A man who does not argue is a man who cannot be controlled,” she said softly. “In a nation where every chai stall is a parliament, and every social media account a manifesto, neutrality is not a middle path—it is exile.”

Outside, in Nashik, Paresh Thakkar finished his tea and stood up. A distant cousin approached him, waving a phone.

“Bhai, I tagged you in a debate. Say something, na.”

Paresh smiled. He looked at the sky.

Then he quietly went back inside and watered his tulsi.

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TBNN will follow this story as it unfolds, or doesn’t. In tomorrow’s edition:

“Paresh Takes A Walk Without Reacting to Construction Noise: Is He Even Human?”

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-- Pradeep K (Prady)

Fear of God? Or Love of God? – A Mind's Tug-of-War

Fear of God? Or Love of God? – A Mind's Tug-of-War

There’s an old saying—well, old enough that no one remembers who said it first—that human beings either pray out of gratitude or out of terror. The latter is particularly true when the coconut is cracked only after the doctor’s report, not before. But is the divine some cosmic landlord to whom rent must be paid in the form of prayers, lest we be evicted from grace? Or is devotion something far more organic, arising not from fear but from the dissolution of fear itself?

The question is as old as time, or at least as old as the first thunderclap that made early humans believe the heavens were displeased. And yet, our scriptures—when read without the heavy baggage of conditioning—whisper an answer so simple that the intellect recoils in horror: neither love nor fear are of any significance when it comes to That which simply is.

Shiva, the Unmoved Witness

Take Shiva, for instance—not the ash-smeared yogi of bedtime tales, but the concept that precedes even the telling of tales. When the devas and asuras churned the ocean, hoping for nectar but chancing upon poison, panic gripped the cosmos. The gods pleaded, the demons recoiled, and yet, Shiva simply drank. No hesitation. No bargaining. No promise extracted from the universe in exchange for this act of supreme grace.

The trembling gods saw an act of love, the asuras saw a fearless being, but Shiva Himself—if one dares to speculate—saw neither. He simply was. What was required, was done. No fear, no love, just an uncolored seeing.

And therein lies the secret. Love and fear are the twin masks of the mind; one embraces, the other recoils, but both arise from the same misunderstanding—that I am separate from That which I seek. And so, the seeker loves, the sinner fears, and the sage remains silent.

Bhakti: The Lure of Devotion, The Trap of Meaning

If love of God is superior to fear, as poets and saints have proclaimed, does that mean bhakti is the way? Perhaps. But here lies a trap, subtle as maya itself.

Consider Prahlad, the child-devotee of Narayana, persecuted by his own father. His unwavering faith saw him unharmed in fire, unshaken in the face of death, while his father—soaked in arrogance—was slain by the very hands of divinity. The common takeaway? Love of God triumphs over fear. But peel back the layers, and something else emerges.

Prahlad never “loved” Narayana in the emotional sense. He simply knew—not as a belief, not as an argument, but as an unshaken truth. His father feared Vishnu, but that too was a form of attachment—an engagement of the mind with the divine. Love and fear are both engagements, both distortions. Prahlad had no engagement. He simply rested in knowing. And that, not love nor fear, was his liberation.

The Unbearable Simplicity of Truth

This is where the intellect stumbles. It wants a victor, a verdict—love over fear, devotion over denial. But what if scripture was never meant to be interpreted as a debate? What if the greatest wisdom lies in their absolute simplicity? The Upanishads whisper of a state beyond both, where the mind is stilled, and the knower, knowing, and known collapse into one indivisible awareness.

Nirguna, niraakaara Brahma—the formless, uncolored awareness—is not attained by replacing fear with love, nor by choosing devotion over detachment. It is seen when all choosing ends, when love and fear are both recognized as mere colorings of perception. The mind, ever hungry for a path, a method, a conclusion, drowns in its own noise, while Truth remains silent, unmoved, like Shiva, watching.

Simply Look Up

Perhaps that is why the sages never argued over whether God should be feared or loved. They left that to the poets and priests. The wise knew that to engage in such questions was to remain entangled in the mind’s games—like a fish debating whether the ocean is benevolent or cruel, forgetting that it is the ocean itself.

When the mind paints the divine with fear, it cowers. When it paints with love, it clings. But who is the painter? Who holds the brush? That is the only inquiry that matters. Not whether we fear or love, but whether we see at all.

For that which is eternal, neither our trembling nor our adoration adds or takes away. The sky does not sigh when the bird soars, nor does it mourn when the bird falls. It simply remains. But we, in our yearning, seek to color it, to grasp it, to name it.

And yet, one does not find the sky by chasing it. One finds it by simply looking up!

So too, the seeker. One does not reach That by clinging or recoiling. One reaches when there is no reaching left to do. When the mind stops asking, and the heart no longer demands. When the ocean remembers it was never separate from the drop. Then—only then—does the question of love or fear dissolve, like mist touched by the morning sun.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)

Mind Your Automation!

(Inspired by my colleague and friend, Vinayak Bhat)


In a quaint little town, there resided three brothers with their wives, in a home that was a shining example of precision and routine. The brothers toiled away in a factory in the neighboring city, while their wives, embodying the spirit of cooperation, shared the household chores with clockwork efficiency.

Dinner operations were a spectacle of automation. The eldest wife, with the discipline of a drill sergeant, laid out the plates at exactly 7:30 PM. The second wife, with the precision of a chef, served the food at 7:40 PM sharp. The youngest, with the dexterity of a ninja, cleared the table and did the dishes by 8:20 PM. At precisely 8:25 PM, the trio exchanged a triumphant high-five, celebrating another flawlessly executed day.

Life continued this way for months, an unbroken symphony of punctuality. One evening, a wrench was thrown into their perfect machinery. The brothers were required to stay an hour late at the factory.

Undeterred, the eldest wife laid out the plates at 7:30 PM, the second wife served food at 7:40 PM, and the youngest cleared the table at 8:20 PM, all in the absence of any diners. At 8:25 PM they exchanged their routine high-five, basking in the glow of a job well done.

It mattered not that nobody had eaten that night. What was important was that the system had run flawlessly.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)

The Tower of Mirrors

Once upon a time, in the grand corporation of Verdant Horizons, there sat a Chief Operations Officer—or COO, as they liked to call him—perched high atop his glass tower. The tower, a gleaming monument to his tenure, was filled with mirrors that reflected his visage in every direction. This was not vanity, he would insist, but an exercise in perspective. “How else,” he would muse to his inner circle, “am I to ensure my decisions are always flawless?”
 
Beneath the mirrors, down in the trenches, worked an engineer named Pavan. Pavan was a man of modest habits and immodest experience, with a knack for untangling problems before they became crises. Pavan’s solutions were simple, almost criminally so—duct-tape genius, some called it, although Pavan preferred the term “elegant.”
 
One day, a peculiar problem arose in the kingdom of Verdant Horizons: the grand automation system, which ensured all the castle gates and drawbridges worked in synchrony, had begun to falter. It was a mild inconvenience, really—one bridge stuck here, one gate refusing to open there—but it was enough to catch the COO’s mirrored gaze.
 
Pavan, who had dealt with the system for years, quickly identified the issue: a corroded relay box. “A new relay box and a bit of recalibration,” he suggested, “and it’ll be good as new. Two days’ work, tops.”
 
But alas, Pavan was not among the COO’s chosen few. In the COO’s hall of mirrors, where decisions were evaluated not for their effectiveness but for their flair, Pavan’s suggestion was dull. “A relay box?” scoffed the COO. “Where’s the vision? The scale? The strategy?”
 
Enter Kartik, the COO’s deputy, a man whose talent lay not in solving problems but in magnifying them. “Sir,” Kartik began, his tone grave, “the relay box isn’t just corroded. It’s symptomatic of a deeper malaise. This entire system is obsolete. We must redesign it—nay, reimagine it—from scratch!”
 
The COO’s eyes sparkled. “Reimagine,” he echoed, the word rolling off his tongue like a fine wine. “Tell me more.”
 
Kartik, sensing his moment, launched into an elaborate vision. The new system would be cloud-enabled, blockchain-secured, AI-driven, and peppered with buzzwords Pavan didn’t even know existed. It would take two years and a fortune to build, but it would, Kartik assured them, revolutionize the gates and drawbridges industry.
 
The COO was sold. “Brilliant!” he declared, and immediately authorized the project.
 
Pavan, ever the realist, tried to interject. “Sir, while this is being built, the current system will continue to fail. What if we—”
 
“Pavan,” interrupted the COO, with the patience of a parent explaining why chocolate shouldn’t be eaten before dinner, “you must learn to think big. Kartik is showing us the future. Let’s not waste time patching the past.”
 
And so the great overhaul began. Architects were summoned, consultants flown in, and millions spent on slide decks filled with phrases like “paradigm shift” and “leveraging synergies.” The drawbridges, meanwhile, continued to falter, forcing employees to climb over walls and wade through moats. But no one dared complain, for fear of being labeled resistant to innovation.
 
Months turned into years. The grand new system was finally unveiled, a shining marvel that required twenty operators to manage what had once been automatic. It worked, though inconsistently, and only when the AI algorithms weren’t trying to calculate the square root of infinity.
 
The COO declared it a triumph. Kartik was promoted to Vice Emperor of Visionary Disruptions. Pavan, meanwhile, retired quietly, his contributions buried under layers of PowerPoint.
 
But here’s the twist: the relay box that Pavan had suggested replacing? It had never been touched. It sat there, corroded but functional, quietly bridging gaps in the grand new system’s logic. Pavan had replaced it on his last day, slipping it into the blueprint as a failsafe. It was his final act of duct-tape genius.
 
As for the COO, he spent his days gazing into his mirrors, content in the knowledge that he had overseen greatness. And the mirrors, like all good mirrors, reflected back exactly what he wanted to see.
 
-- Pradeep K (Prady)

Chaitravan Chronicles

The town of Chaitravan had always held its secrets close, like an old miser clutching a handful of gold coins. The locals had long since stopped trying to unravel the mysteries of Guilder Manor, that crumbling relic on the hill. It loomed over the town like a forgotten deity, its windows dark, its gates rusted shut. They said the last owner, one Edward Guilder, had vanished during a stormy night, leaving behind only whispers of a treasure no one had seen but everyone believed in.

Into this sleepy town came Ravi, a man who could sell a lie as if it were gospel truth. He rolled in on his battered motorcycle, the kind that growled more than it purred, and parked it outside the library with a casual confidence that didn’t quite match his threadbare jacket. He wasn’t there for books, not really. But Ravi knew that libraries held more than dusty tomes; they held people. And people—ah, people could be worked, nudged, and maneuvered into giving you exactly what you wanted.

Inside, the librarian, Meena, sat at her desk, the picture of quiet dignity in her neat cardigan and sensible shoes. She looked up as Ravi entered, her sharp eyes taking in his swagger, his too-relaxed grin. “Can I help you?” she asked, though she didn’t sound particularly eager to.

“I’m looking into local history,” Ravi said, letting his voice take on the air of someone who’d been places, seen things. “I’ve heard some interesting stories about this town.”

Meena raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Stories or legends?”

“Legends are stories, aren’t they?” he countered, flashing a grin that had gotten him out of more trouble than he cared to count. He leaned on the desk, lowering his voice. “I hear there’s treasure in this town. Guilder Manor, right?”

For a fraction of a second, her fingers froze on the page of the book she was holding. It was so brief that most wouldn’t have noticed. But Ravi wasn’t most. He saw it, and his grin widened.

Meena closed the book with deliberate calm, then stood and walked to a shelf, pulling out an old, rolled-up map. “This?” she asked, setting it on the desk. “Just a legend. Keeps the tourists entertained.”

Ravi unrolled the map, his eyes scanning the faded lines and cryptic notations. “Fascinating,” he murmured, though what he really thought was this is it.

What he didn’t know—what no one ever suspected—was that Meena wasn’t just some quiet librarian. She had spent years studying that map, deciphering its riddles, piecing together the clues. She had nearly solved it. And now, this stranger thought he could waltz in and take it? Oh, she’d play along. For now.

The game had begun.

It was later that evening, over a cup of steaming tea at the local stall, that a third player entered the fray. Rajesh, the town’s smooth-talking real estate agent, had always had a knack for overhearing the wrong conversations at the right time. He leaned against the counter, sipping his tea, pretending to scroll through his phone, while Ravi and Meena talked in low voices a few feet away.

“Treasure, eh?” Rajesh muttered to himself, his mind already racing. Debt had a way of sharpening a man’s instincts, and Rajesh was drowning in it. A treasure hunt was just the kind of gamble he needed.

By the time Ravi stepped out of the stall, Rajesh was waiting for him. “You’re looking for the Guilder treasure,” Rajesh said, his tone casual but his grin sharp.

Ravi’s eyes narrowed. “And what’s it to you?”

“I have the keys to the manor’s grounds,” Rajesh said, dangling them on his finger. “Let’s just say… I’m interested in a partnership.”

The next morning found the three of them gathered at Meena’s modest home, the map spread across her kitchen table. Ravi was all charm and confidence, Rajesh’s grin didn’t quite reach his eyes, and Meena—well, Meena sipped her tea with the air of someone watching a play unfold, knowing she was the one holding the script.

The plan was simple enough: they’d work together to solve the map’s riddles, find the treasure, and split it three ways. But if there was one thing true about Chaitravan’s newest treasure hunters, it was this: not one of them believed the others would play fair.

And so, the stage was set. Three players, one treasure, and a web of lies spun so tight that it was only a matter of time before it snapped.

The riddles on the map were maddeningly cryptic, as though old Edward Guilder had designed them with malice rather than mystery in mind. Meena’s finger hovered over a faded marking on the map—a peculiar symbol etched near the edges of the Guilder estate grounds. It resembled an hourglass but had an odd swirl where the sand should be.

“Time and tides reveal the way,” she murmured, reading the scrawled clue beside it.

Ravi, seated across from her, leaned back in his chair, hands clasped behind his head. “Sounds poetic,” he said with a smirk. “But I bet it’s simpler than that. Old men with treasure don’t overthink.”

Meena gave him a withering glance. “Says the man who didn’t even notice the hourglass until I pointed it out.”

Rajesh, leaning over the table, tapped the symbol with a calloused finger. “Hourglass. Tides. Maybe something to do with the riverbank. There’s a dried-up one near the estate, isn’t there?”

“That’s one possibility,” Meena said slowly, but her mind was already racing elsewhere. Ravi was watching her too closely, trying to gauge her thoughts. She sipped her tea, the liquid cool now but still offering her a moment’s cover. She wouldn’t reveal her theories too soon.

It was decided. They’d start with the riverbank that afternoon.

The riverbed near the Guilder estate was a graveyard of cracked earth and stubborn weeds, stretching out beneath the pale afternoon sun. The trio trudged along its length, the map in Meena’s hands, though Ravi made sure to walk just close enough to catch glimpses of it over her shoulder.

Rajesh, meanwhile, had his own priorities. His eyes scanned the terrain, not for symbols or clues, but for escape routes. It never hurt to be prepared.

“Here,” Meena said, stopping abruptly near a cluster of jagged rocks. She knelt and brushed away the dirt to reveal a faint carving on one of the stones—a small arrow pointing east.

“See? Told you it was simple,” Ravi quipped, but even he couldn’t hide the excitement creeping into his voice.

The arrow led them to an overgrown trail, and from there to the edge of the Guilder estate itself. The wrought iron gates stood before them, imposing and rusted, locked tight with a heavy chain.

Rajesh reached into his pocket and produced a set of keys, jangling them with a smug grin. “Told you I’d be useful.”

The lock creaked and groaned but gave way eventually, and the gate swung open with a loud screech. Beyond it, the grounds of the manor stretched out like a forgotten world—wild, tangled, and eerily silent.

They stepped inside, the atmosphere heavy with something unspoken. Meena clutched the map a little tighter. Ravi’s hand brushed against the hilt of the knife hidden in his jacket. Rajesh, for all his bravado, couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder every few minutes.

The path led them to the back of the estate, where an old well stood, its stones moss-covered and its rope long since rotted away. Above it, carved into the lintel, was another riddle:

“Where shadows fall and silence reigns, dig beneath the still remains.”

“What does that mean?” Rajesh asked, frowning.

“It means,” Meena said, “we dig.”

Ravi smirked. “You’re assuming this ‘remains’ nonsense is literal. Could be another trick.”

“Could be,” Meena replied, her tone as unreadable as her expression. “But then again, you’re free to sit here and theorize while the rest of us work.”

And work they did. Hours passed as they dug through the hard earth beneath the well’s shadow, the sun dipping lower in the sky. Sweat dripped down their faces, and tempers flared as exhaustion set in.

It was Rajesh who struck something first—a hollow thunk as his spade hit wood.

“Here!” he exclaimed, dropping to his knees to clear the dirt away. Ravi and Meena joined him, their movements frantic now. Together, they unearthed a wooden chest, its surface scarred and weathered but intact.

Ravi wasted no time, prying the chest open with his knife. Inside lay a strange assortment of items: gold coins, a few gemstones, and, at the very center, an artifact that seemed out of place—a small amulet, its surface etched with symbols that glimmered faintly even in the dim light.

“What is it?” Rajesh asked, his voice tinged with awe.

“A good payday,” Ravi said, reaching for the amulet. But before he could touch it, Meena’s hand shot out, stopping him.

“Wait,” she said, her eyes fixed on the artifact. “We don’t know what it is. Or what it does.”

Ravi laughed. “What it does? It’s an antique, not a bomb. Relax.”

But even as he spoke, something in the air seemed to shift—a subtle, almost imperceptible change, like the moment before a storm. None of them said anything, but each felt it.

Meena was the first to break the silence. “Let’s not do this here,” she said. “We need to divide this up properly.”

Ravi and Rajesh exchanged glances, both unwilling to be the first to back down. But eventually, they nodded. The chest was closed, and the three of them began the trek back to town, each lost in their own thoughts, each plotting their next move.

The game was no longer about finding the treasure. It was about keeping it. And in the quiet of the fading daylight, none of them noticed the faint glow emanating from the amulet inside the chest.

By the time they reached Meena’s house, the sun had sunk below the horizon, casting Chaitravan in its usual cloak of sleepy indifference. But inside Meena’s modest kitchen, the air buzzed with tension, crackling like an unspoken storm.

The chest sat on the table, its ancient wood gleaming faintly in the dim light of a single hanging bulb. Rajesh poured himself a glass of water, gulping it down as though it might drown his growing unease. Ravi leaned against the counter, his jacket still on, his eyes never leaving the chest. Meena, calm as ever, folded her hands on the table and said, “Before we do anything, let’s establish some ground rules.”

“Rules?” Ravi said, with a scoff that didn’t quite hide his impatience. “I thought the rule was simple: three ways, even split.”

Meena gave him a pointed look. “Trust isn’t exactly our strong suit, Ravi. Let’s keep this clean, or none of us gets out of this alive.”

Rajesh chuckled nervously. “You’re joking, right?”

Meena didn’t answer, and the silence was enough to make him squirm.

The first sign of trouble came when Ravi reached for the chest. “Let’s stop wasting time,” he said, flipping the latch open. “We’ll split it now and be done with it.”

But the moment he touched the amulet, he froze. For the briefest second, his hand lingered there, his eyes glazing over, as if he’d seen something no one else could. Then he jerked back, blinking hard.

“What happened?” Meena asked sharply.

“Nothing,” Ravi said quickly, too quickly. He flexed his fingers as though trying to shake off a lingering sensation. “It’s just… cold. That’s all.”

But Meena wasn’t convinced. She reached into her bag and pulled out a pair of gloves, slipping them on before picking up the amulet herself. The etchings on its surface seemed to pulse faintly in the light, a rhythm too subtle for words. For a moment, Meena felt the weight of something vast and incomprehensible pressing against her mind, like a door left ajar in a storm.

“What is it?” Rajesh asked, leaning forward, his curiosity overtaking his caution.

“It’s not just a trinket,” Meena said slowly, setting it back in the chest. Her voice was steady, but her hands trembled slightly. “This… this thing isn’t normal.”

Ravi laughed, though it sounded more like a bark. “Great. Now it’s cursed, is it? Next, you’ll tell me old Guilder’s ghost is watching us.”

“It’s not a ghost,” Meena said, her eyes narrowing. “But it’s something.”

Rajesh hesitated, his gaze darting between the chest and his companions. “Look, maybe we’re overthinking this. Let’s just divide everything now—coins, gems, and whatever that thing is. We’ll each take our share and go our separate ways.”

But Ravi wasn’t listening. His eyes had locked on the amulet again, drawn to it like a moth to flame. “You can keep the coins,” he said suddenly, his voice low and intent. “I want that.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Meena snapped. “We split everything equally, or this deal’s off.”

“I’m serious,” Ravi said, stepping closer to the table. “I don’t care about the rest. Just give me the amulet.”

And there it was—the first crack in their fragile alliance.

“You’re not thinking clearly,” Meena said, her voice firm. “That thing’s affecting you, Ravi. I can see it.”

“Don’t tell me what I’m thinking,” Ravi shot back, his tone turning sharp. “You’re just scared because you don’t know what it is.”

“I know enough to know it’s dangerous,” Meena said.

Rajesh, sensing the tension escalating, held up his hands. “Hey, hey, calm down, both of you. Let’s not lose our heads here.”

But it was too late. Ravi lunged for the chest, his hands closing around the amulet before Meena could stop him. The moment his fingers wrapped around it, the room seemed to shift. The air grew heavy, charged, as if the amulet itself were drawing energy from the very space around them.

And then—darkness.

For a brief, terrifying moment, everything disappeared: the room, the table, the chest, even the floor beneath their feet. All that remained was a void, vast and cold, swallowing them whole.

When the light returned, they were back in the kitchen, but something had changed. Ravi stood at the table, his breathing ragged, his eyes wide with something that wasn’t quite fear. Meena and Rajesh stared at him, their expressions a mix of confusion and dread.

“What just happened?” Rajesh whispered.

Ravi didn’t answer. He looked down at the amulet in his hand, and for the first time, there was no triumph in his eyes—only the shadow of something far darker.

Meena took a step back, her mind racing. The amulet wasn’t just dangerous. It was alive, in some way she couldn’t yet comprehend.

“This isn’t over,” she said, her voice trembling despite herself. “Not by a long shot.”

The uneasy truce between them had shattered. Now, it wasn’t just about the treasure—it was about survival. And as the night deepened, the game began to shift, each of them realizing that the stakes were far higher than they’d ever imagined.

The trio sat around Meena’s kitchen table, the air heavy with distrust and the weight of the amulet’s presence. The silence stretched, each of them locked in their own thoughts, plotting their next move.

“We need to divide this and be done with it,” Rajesh finally said, breaking the tension.

But before they could reach a consensus, Ravi suddenly snatched the amulet, a wild look in his eyes. “I have to get rid of it,” he muttered, backing away from the table. “This thing is cursed.”

Without another word, he bolted out of the house and jumped onto his motorcycle, revving the engine. Meena and Rajesh exchanged a glance, then hurried after him, jumping into Rajesh’s car. The chase was on.

Ravi sped through the winding streets of Chaitravan, the roar of his motorcycle echoing in the quiet night. He headed towards the old bridge over the river, his mind set on one thing: getting rid of the amulet once and for all.

Meena and Rajesh followed closely behind, their car’s headlights cutting through the darkness. “We have to stop him,” Meena said, her voice urgent. “He doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

They reached the bridge just as Ravi skidded to a stop, the motorcycle’s tires screeching on the pavement. He rushed to the edge, ready to throw the amulet into the raging waters below.

“Ravi, stop!” Rajesh shouted, leaping out of the car and running towards him.

A tussle ensued, the three of them grappling on the bridge, each trying to gain control of the amulet. They stumbled and fell, the amulet slipping from Ravi’s grasp and landing on the ground with a metallic clang.

In the dim moonlight, they found themselves in a standoff: Ravi squatting on one side, clutching the amulet tightly in his palm; Meena sitting on the other side, the chest held with both hands across her lap; and Rajesh next to her, clutching a few gold coins and jewels in both his palms.

The night seemed to stretch endlessly, the air thick with tension and the sound of the river rushing beneath them. Their eyes were locked in a silent battle, each refusing to back down.

As dawn broke, the first light of morning revealed a surreal scene on the bridge. An ambulance from the mental asylum arrived, the medics moving with practiced efficiency. They found Ravi clutching an old keychain, Meena holding a red brick, and Rajesh not willing to let go of the rough and dirty pebbles in his hands.

The medics exchanged puzzled glances but said nothing as they gently lifted the trio into the ambulance. The townspeople, waking up to another ordinary day, had no idea of the strange events that had unfolded during the night.

As the ambulance drove away, leaving the bridge and its secrets behind, the townspeople woke up to another normal day and went about their lives, unaware of the night's strange events. Chaitravan, bathed in the soft glow of dawn, held its secrets tight.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)

The Unwritten Promise - Part 2 of 2

The idea of "writing our story" simplifies a deeply complex and layered process, and I think that's what makes this kind of discussion both fascinating and necessary.

If there's one truth we all realise and accept at one point or another, it's that life is far from a clean slate where we simply get to write what we want. For one, nothing in life is absolute. It all depends. There are several known and hidden factors on which everything else is in flux. Let's examine just a few.

Nature vs. Nurture

The tension between what we’re born with (our genetic makeup) and what we experience (our environment) shapes so much of who we are. Some of us might have natural aptitudes for certain things—an inherent knack for music, athleticism, or analytical thinking—but without the right environment to nurture those talents, they might never develop. Conversely, someone without an inherent gift might excel through sheer hard work and support. But what about those who are born into environments that don’t allow growth, or worse, suppress it?

I think this tension often creates the illusion that we’re less in control of our stories than we’d like to be. In truth, control is never total—it’s a spectrum. The extent to which we can shape our lives depends on the opportunities we’ve been given, our capacity to seize them, and sometimes sheer luck.


Predestination vs. Free Will

This debate is as old as philosophy itself, and there’s no clear answer. Are we the masters of our fate, or are we following a path already laid out for us? I tend to think it’s a mix of both. Some aspects of our lives—where we’re born, who our parents are, the economic and social conditions we inherit—are predestined. But within those constraints, there’s room to exercise free will.

The problem is that free will is often limited by circumstance. It’s easy to tell someone to “write their own story,” but if they’re facing systemic oppression, poverty, or deep psychological wounds from past experiences, their ability to “write” becomes constrained. Overcoming those barriers takes extraordinary effort, and not everyone succeeds.


The Influence of Early Experiences

Our childhood and adolescence are especially crucial because that’s when our identities are being shaped. Family, friends, education, and even random events contribute to the “default settings” we carry into adulthood. By the time we reach a point where we can consciously rewrite our narratives, we’re already working within the framework those early influences have built.

Some people are fortunate enough to grow up in environments that encourage independence and resilience. Others might spend their entire lives undoing the damage of an unstable or unsupportive upbringing. Can they rewrite their story? Sure, but it’s harder, and it often requires outside help—therapy, mentorship, or simply finding the right opportunity.


It All Depends!

Yes, it absolutely does. There’s no universal blueprint for human experience. What works for one person might not work for another. Some people thrive on structure; others rebel against it. Some find meaning in hard-won success; others are content to follow a path of least resistance.

The idea that “it all depends” can feel unsatisfying because we want clear answers. But I think that’s where the beauty of being human lies—in the contradictions, the unpredictability, and the endless variability of experience. It’s why no two people’s “books” are ever the same, even if they start from similar circumstances.

So Where Does This Leave Us?

Maybe the real message isn’t that everyone gets to write their story from scratch, but that we can all try to write at least something. Even if the opening chapters were written for us, even if the world edits as we go, there’s always a moment—a paragraph, a line—where we can take control, however fleeting it may be.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)

The Unwritten Promise * - Part 1 of 2

Every morning, life hands you a blank page. What will you write on it today?

The truth is, life doesn’t come pre-written. It’s not a finished book passed down to you with a fixed story, no matter what anyone tells you. Instead, it’s a collection of empty pages, and you’re holding the pen. Yet, so many of us hesitate. We copy what others have written, afraid that our own ink might smudge, that we’ll spill something imperfect and ruin the page.

But isn’t that the point of writing your own story? It’s yours. Messy, bold, scared—it doesn’t matter.

Think back to the first time you learned to ride a bicycle. You probably wobbled and fell. You probably scraped your knees more times than you care to count. But you didn’t stop trying. The thrill of riding free, even for a few seconds, outweighed every fall. Somewhere along the way, though, we forget that. We stop pedaling for the joy of it and start avoiding risks. We become so afraid of falling that we don’t even try to move forward.

The world is a vast library. And each of us is meant to contribute a unique book to its shelves. Some people write bold adventures. Others write quiet, contemplative poetry. But the tragedy isn’t in writing badly. The real tragedy is in leaving the pages blank because of fear.

So here’s the truth: nobody is coming to write your book for you. No teacher, no boss, no parent, no guide. You hold the pen. You choose the words. And it’s okay if it’s not perfect. It’s okay if you blot the page or scribble things out. What matters is that you write.

Start small. Start scared. Start with one honest sentence. But start.

Because every blank page isn’t emptiness. It’s possibility. And the younger you start filling those pages with your truth, the thicker and richer your book becomes. So, stop copying. Stop waiting. Start writing.

No one else can write the unwritten promise of your life.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)

* Please note that this is just one side of a debate. I shall soon post a refutation to this. Playing the devil's advocate with yourself helps you clear your mind.

The Unseen Audit of a Lifetime

The Unseen Audit of a Lifetime

It was a day like any other until it wasn’t. I had just settled into my favorite corner of existential inertia—armed with a cup of lukewarm tea and vague regret—when a soft cough shattered my solitude.

Looking up, I saw a figure seated opposite me, legs crossed with the casual authority of someone who belongs, despite never being invited.

“Who are you?” I asked, unsure whether I should be alarmed or flattered by the sudden company.

“I am the Auditor,” they said, producing a ledger that seemed to shimmer between parchment and pixels. “You may call me… well, Auditor will suffice.”

“An auditor? Of what? My taxes are clean, mind you, though admittedly, I might owe the universe some karmic interest.”

The Auditor gave a dry smile, flipping the pages of their ethereal tome. “Not your taxes. Your life. I’m here to review what could have been.”

“Oh, lovely,” I muttered. “A celestial auditor of ‘what-ifs.’ Next thing you’ll tell me you’re Chitragupta, the celestial accountant himself.”

The figure paused, as though weighing their words carefully. “No,” they said finally, “I’m not he. I’m me.”

I raised an eyebrow. “How enlightening. Do you moonlight as a poet, by any chance?”

“No, but you might have,” the Auditor replied, gesturing at the ledger. “See here? In 2004, you considered writing a collection of verses inspired by your morning commutes. You never did. One could argue the muses dodged a bullet, but still—a missed opportunity.”

I felt a twinge of embarrassment. “I wasn’t inspired enough. Buses don’t exactly scream poetry, you know.”

The Auditor tilted their head, a flicker of amusement crossing their otherwise inscrutable face. “True. Buses scream other things—horns, impatience, occasional obscenities. But inspiration isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s hidden in the rust of an old handle or the rhythm of a swaying strap.”

“That’s quite profound,” I said, grudgingly impressed. “You should consider becoming a motivational speaker. But I did publish a few the very next year in my blog."

The Auditor’s smile grew sharper. “Ah, yes. The Endless Chasm. The first 18 to see the light of the world. But for such a free and open platform, they didn't reach any farther than four people.”

“Well,” I said defensively, “wonder how you can blame me for that. I did everything I could.”

“Indeed,” they replied dryly, making a note. “Though, if you’d publicised it more vehemently, it might have led to a viral blog. But no matter. Let’s move on.”

And so, the review continued, the Auditor flipping through my life’s unfulfilled possibilities with a mixture of bureaucratic efficiency and unsettling wit.

Occasionally, they’d pause to offer commentary.

“2018: You thought about taking a calligraphy class but decided it was too much work. Pity. You could have mastered the skill that could later have put you in the limelight. Fame is a strange beast.”

"Well, I had taken the class," I defended myself. "My belief that I could be good at it had stemmed from the point that my handwriting in school used to be quite oriented toward it. But I had hardly handwritten anything since I had graduated in 1997. And that had taken a toll on my handwriting. By 2018, my fingers didn't quite obey my mind. I couldn't sign my cheque book accurately, let alone continue calligraphy classes at the rate they were charging."

“2020: That brief lockdown epiphany about starting a garden? Gone with the wind. Or rather, gone with Netflix.”

Now, this was equal parts humiliating and hilarious.

At one point, I leaned back and said, “You know, for someone who’s not Chitragupta, you sure seem to have a lot of opinions.”

The Auditor smiled again. “Opinions are free. It’s the what-ifs that cost you.”

“Opinions are free,” I said, leaning forward with a smirk. “That’s because they’re like a-holes—everybody has one.”

The Auditor raised an eyebrow. “Charming. Did you come up with that gem yourself, or did it tumble out of the collective cesspool of humanity’s wit?”

I feigned offense. “I’ll have you know, that’s a classic. Timeless, even.”

“Timeless, perhaps,” the Auditor said, brushing an invisible speck off their ledger. “But not entirely untrue. Although, in your case…” They trailed off, flipping to a page that seemed to glow faintly.

“What? What about my case?”

“Well,” they said, tapping the page, “you’ve had plenty of opinions. But for someone who thrives on the limelight and relishes the stage, you’ve spent an unusual amount of time waiting for opportunities to come to you instead of chasing them down.”

“That’s not true!” I protested.

“Oh, really? Shall we revisit September 22, 2010?”

“What happened on September 22, 2010?”

The Auditor adjusted their glasses, their gaze sharp yet oddly amused. “You came across a flyer for a storytelling slam. The theme? ‘Moments of Madness.’ You were excited, inspired even. But instead of signing up, you went home and spent the evening reading online reviews about whether the venue had good parking.”

I blinked. “Well… my friend was to drive me there, so then parking was important. I couldn't tell him to just park anywhere and expect—”

“Don’t bother,” the Auditor interrupted, snapping the ledger shut for dramatic effect. “The truth is, you talked yourself out of it. And now, here we are, a decade later, with ‘what-ifs’ hanging off you like cobwebs.”

I sighed, grudgingly conceding the point. “Fine. Maybe I’ve missed a few chances here and there. But it’s not like I’ve spent my life hiding under a rock.”

“True,” they admitted, opening the ledger again. “And that brings me to another missed moment. Chess.”

My ears perked up. “Chess?”

“Yes,” the Auditor said, scanning the page. “You’ve always wanted to take formal chess lessons, haven’t you? Sharpen your skills, learn the finer strategies, maybe even compete. But no, the local chess schools have an arbitrary rule: ‘Only kids allowed.’” They looked up, their expression half-sympathetic, half-teasing. “Imagine that—a mind ready to explore Sicilian defenses and Queen’s Gambits, turned away because it doesn’t fit the age bracket.”

“Now, hold on,” I said, feeling both seen and slightly irked. “That’s not exactly my fault. I wanted to join. It’s not like I chickened out.”

“Of course not,” the Auditor agreed, their tone uncharacteristically soft. “But here’s the thing: You could have started your own chess circle. Found a private coach. Played with friends. Yet the idea of bending the rules—or creating new ones—never crossed your mind. And so, the board remains empty.”

I fell silent, not entirely sure how to respond.

The Auditor smiled faintly. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to make you feel bad. Life’s greatest games are often played without a board. But chess… well, it could have been interesting.”

“Is this supposed to inspire me to go out and buy a chess clock?” I asked dryly.

“Not necessarily,” they replied, standing up. “It’s just something to think about.”

As they turned to leave, I called out, “Wait! Aren’t you going to tell me how I did? Pass or fail?”

They glanced over their shoulder, a faint smile playing on their lips. “Life isn’t pass or fail. It’s graded on a curve—and you’re the one holding the pen.”

And with that, they were gone, leaving me alone with my now cold tea, my existential inertia, and a sudden, irrepressible urge to visit the nearest chess academy and demand an adults-only class.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)

Between the Tick and the Tock

The day began with an unusual silence. Much of what remained was rubbish, but for him, it was useful rubbish. There were no guarantees about what he would get out of this exercise. Perhaps nothing in the worst case. He was okay with that, as he knew there are hardly any guarantees in life. His main concerns were: a gnawing doubt about the nature of the peculiar silence; about how to express it; about what he should do if it tried to engulf his entire being.

The most difficult aspect he was grappling with was about how it had so naturally come to bear upon him that morning. It was there when he woke up, hung around as he brushed his teeth, stuck with him as he went through the morning chores, and remained comfortably nestled within his mind, so to speak, ever since. All the outwardly noise on one side, and his awkward silence on the other. And they seemed to balance each other.

Wherever did it come from, this weird silence? Had it a purpose? A motive? Had it a reason to acquire his mind that morning? Would something change? Had something changed? Was he slave to it? Was it his slave? He wanted to talk about it, but it had caught his tongue. After all, it was the eerie silence in itself.

It was formless. Like water. But it took any form when required. Also like water. The distant horn of the morning locomotive train: the silence bracketed it's ends. The constant ticking of the wall clock: the profound silence ruled the time between the tick and the tock. The shrill shriek of an ambulance siren on the road: enough to stop lively hearts into a grave silence. It was everywhere, from the bed to the toilet to the bathroom to the kitchen; to the unfolding of the yoga mat and to it's ultimate rolling away; to the calls and honks of the vegetable and fish vendors  on their regular morning rounds on bikes around residential apartments; to the angry shout of the bus conductor and the equally angry retort by the passenger. It took all forms, but remained untouched by them. It remained... Silent.

He took a deep breath in. Held it for two seconds. Let it out. Again. What was this? What was going on? Was the stress of life getting to him? Was he finally beginning to lose it? Or was it something else -- an answer to his prayers perhaps? He knew it was other than normal. But was it abnormal, subnormal, or supernormal? How would be know? Would he know? Did he want to know? What he badly wanted to know now was what he should do.

He stood in his tiny balcony, peering out at the world beyond the iron grill. The sun was almost overhead now, glaring down at the parked cars, the dusty road, and the occasional stragglers walking with deliberate slowness under the burden of heat. A crow sat on the edge of a streetlight, picking at something unidentifiable and no doubt unpleasant. Life, in its cacophonic, bustling way, continued. And yet, the silence within him persisted, untouched by the clamor of the city.

He leaned on the railing, his fingers gripping the cool iron bars. The questions came again, louder now. What was he supposed to do? His thoughts, usually chaotic and varied, were unusually sharp today, focused on this one enigma. The silence wasn’t just present—it was present with intent. He could feel its weight, its steady gaze. It was waiting for him to... respond? Engage? Surrender?

Something stirred in him, a flicker of something old and buried. A memory, not sharp, but vivid enough to draw him away from the present moment. A younger version of himself stood in a classroom, staring at a question paper. The final question had been unusual, one that required more than rote knowledge to answer. The teacher, a stern-faced man with a love for riddles, had said something then.

"Sometimes, the question isn’t there to be answered. It’s there to make you think. To make you pause. To make you... listen."

He shook his head. Listen to what? There was nothing but the silence. And then it hit him.

He wasn’t listening to the silence. He was trying to fight it, analyze it, assign it a purpose. But what if... what if it didn’t need one? What if it was simply there, waiting for him to step back and let it be?

He stood straighter, suddenly more alert. Closing his eyes, he let the world fade away. He didn’t try to name the silence or break it. He let it sink in, filling the cracks in his thoughts, wrapping itself around the doubts and worries that usually clamored for space. And in that moment, he realized something startling. The silence wasn’t an intruder. It was his.

For years, he had drowned it out—through work, through distractions, through the noise of a life that demanded constant action and validation. But now, it had crept back in, uninvited but not unwelcome. And it had a message, one he could hear clearly now.

"You’ve been running. Stop. Stay. Be."

It was the simplest thing, yet the hardest thing. He opened his eyes, a strange calm settling over him. The silence hadn’t disappeared—it was still there, as steady as the breath moving through his lungs. But now, it was no longer an enemy. It was a companion.

He smiled faintly. It wasn’t a resolution, not entirely. The questions still lingered, and he knew they would return. But for the first time, he felt equipped to face them—not with answers, but with acceptance.

The day unfolded as days do, indifferent to personal revelations. But something had changed within him. And as he sat down with his tea that evening, watching the same crow hop on the same streetlight, he realized he wasn’t afraid of the silence anymore.

It was his.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)

The Forest in Every Seed

I cannot call it when I see it,
For the seed is beyond my ken;
Every time I call it, all you see are
Hundreds of leaves and my pen.
---

Quite frankly, that's about the crux of what I want to present today. Whether I'll make sense or not remains to be seen. Trying to put words to something as subtle as a seed—the potential, not yet realized, the idea not yet shaped—is like trying to capture the whole of a forest by sketching a single leaf. The more I try to explain it, to give shape and form to what is, by nature, formless potential, the more the words sprout and stretch, reaching for something vast, complex. Each sentence I write seems to demand a root system of its own, branching off into meanings that multiply and deepen, growing beyond my control.

It’s as though every time I try to hand you the seed, what you grasp is a sprawling woodland: trees fully grown, leaves fluttering in the breeze, shadows cast on the forest floor. The richness and expanse of this imagined landscape seem to stand in for the seed itself, masking that quiet, still potential I had meant to share.

In truth, the power of a seed lies in its silence, its humility. It doesn't shout to the world, “I will be an oak!” or “Here stands a forest-in-waiting!” No, the seed simply is. It holds its possibilities tightly, quietly, so quietly that words can barely trace its shape. And yet, in attempting to describe it, I feel like I’m dragging the whole forest into view, pulling down branch after branch, obscuring the very thing I wished to reveal.

I appreciate that simplicity is the most complex idea to grasp, because it defeats the intellect, and we need the intellect to grasp ideas. But it is only simplicity that truly matters, from which everything else—including the intellect—is born.

Perhaps that is the irony of expression—each time I name the seed, it blooms in the mind of the reader, and soon enough, there’s a wilderness where there was once only a thought, a tiny spark, a quiet kernel of potential. Consequently when I want to show you the seed, all you see are the rustling leaves and my silent pen.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)

We Used to Wear Clothes; Now We Wear AI

For several decades, life had been simple: we dressed up, threw on clothes, and stepped out the door. Our only concern then used to be the weather. Now, here we are, wrapped in something that’s not quite fabric but seems to cling to us just the same—something woven with data and machine code, tighter than the coziest sweater. We’ve stopped just wearing clothes; now, we’re wearing AI.

This invisible “outfit” fits snugger than we might like, doesn’t it? It picks our playlists, finishes our sentences, and nudges us about our next meeting before we’ve even started our coffee. Some days, it feels like having a very keen assistant—and on others, a nosy aunt who won’t let us forget our step count or calorie intake.

And just like with any fashion, some folks wear it differently. You see them scrolling confidently, every choice fine-tuned by an algorithm that seems to know them better than they know themselves. They’ve got AI like a custom-tailored suit, all smooth lines and perfect fits. Then there are those of us in “one-size-fits-all” AI, shuffling around with suggestions that don’t quite fit, feeling a bit overstuffed as it yanks us toward online deals we didn’t ask for.

But here’s the funny thing: no matter how it’s dressed up, AI can’t quite mimic us. Sure, it can help us choose a movie or suggest a new restaurant, but can it remind us of that time we laughed so hard when milk came out of our nose?

As we continue strapping on our AI each day like the newest accessory, maybe it’s worth remembering that no machine can mimic the spark of choosing the unexpected. AI might be brilliant at spotting trends, but it doesn’t know what it feels like to break them. It hasn’t yet mastered the magic of being delightfully, imperfectly human.

I don't wear AI, but if I did, it would never be without that most essential layer—the one that lets me be my unpredictable, overly sentimental, occasionally clumsy self.

— Pradeep K (Prady)

The Parable of the Not-So-Wise Tortoise

In a forest not so far away, there once lived a tortoise named Tito, who was quite tired of being told he was slow. Not that it bothered him at first — he enjoyed the unhurried pace of his life. But lately, it seemed everyone around him was chanting the same advice.

“Pick up the pace, Tito! Life is a race!”

The hares especially made it their mission to remind him of the obvious. “Look at us, Tito,” they’d say, whiskers twitching. “It’s speed that gets you places. No one ever won a race by crawling!”

Now, Tito knew the tale of the tortoise and the hare — didn’t everyone? He knew he could win a race his way, by plodding along steadily. But as days passed, that confidence started to wane. Perhaps, he thought, times had changed. Perhaps the only way to win in today’s world was to keep up with the hares, even if it meant going against his nature.

So, one morning, Tito made a choice. “I’m going to be fast,” he declared, puffing himself up in front of his reflection in a still pond. “Fast and fierce.”

He kicked off his training the very next day. First, he tied tiny sticks to his feet in the hopes they’d make him glide. All that did was make him wobble. Then, he tried jumping to cover more ground. It was exhausting and, frankly, embarrassing. And as if the universe itself had sensed his folly, he tripped over a rock, his shell spinning him around like an overturned bowl. Somewhere, a giggle came from behind a bush — surely one of the hares.

Despite the struggles, Tito pushed on. “Just a few more leaps,” he told himself. “I can be fast. I just need to try harder.” But each time he strained and stumbled, each fall and slip-up made him feel less like himself. This wasn’t his race anymore; he was running someone else’s.

At last, bruised and weary, Tito collapsed under a shady tree. He peered up, squinting at the world that had suddenly become so blurry, so unfamiliar. “Is this really winning?” he muttered to no one in particular.

Just then, an old tortoise ambled by, looking at Tito with knowing eyes. “What happened to the wise, steady Tito I used to know?”

“I thought… I thought if I could move faster, I’d finally be seen as a winner,” Tito replied, feeling the weight of his words.

The old tortoise chuckled softly. “A winner? Tito, my friend, you were born to be wise, not to be quick. The world has enough hares already.”

Tito nodded, understanding at last. Winning, he realized, wasn’t about becoming what he wasn’t. It was about embracing what he was. The forest didn’t need another hare. It needed a tortoise who could show others that sometimes, the slow and steady way is just as powerful — if not more so — than the quick dash to the finish.

So, Tito decided he would no longer chase speed. He would return to his steady ways, showing others that there was strength in patience, wisdom in being himself.

And as he plodded home, he felt, for the first time, like he’d truly won.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)

The Day the Mirror Was Late

Introduction

It was a regular Tuesday morning, the kind where nothing really happens until you’ve had your first cup of coffee. I shuffled into the bathroom, still half asleep, and flicked on the light. Everything was where it was supposed to be—towel on the hook, toothpaste cap forgotten as usual, and my trusty old mirror hanging there, waiting to deliver its daily verdict.

Except today, it didn’t.

I stood there, blinking a couple of times, waiting for my reflection to catch up. Nothing. No face staring back at me, no reassuring nod from my sleep-deprived self. Just...blank glass. It was like the mirror had decided to take a break.

I leaned in a bit, waved my hand in front of it, checked the back for any signs of tampering—nothing. Maybe I’d overslept and crossed into some alternate reality where mirrors don’t work. Or maybe, just maybe, my mirror was running late.

I could feel the absurdity of the thought creeping in. “Come on, you’re going to be late. Show up already.” No response. The mirror remained stubbornly silent, offering no reflection of the sarcastic grin I was sure I had on my face.

The Self-Reflection Dance

After a minute of this standoff, I tried another approach. Maybe it was the lighting. I flicked the bathroom switch a few times, bathing the room in flashes of light and shadow. Still nothing. Maybe I needed to go more high-tech. I pulled out my phone, opened the camera, and there it was—my reflection, alive and well. “Good to know I still exist,” I muttered, tapping my phone screen as if to prove something.

At this point, I was halfway between laughing at myself and wondering if this was some kind of cosmic joke. But what was it they said about vampires? No reflection, no soul? Surely not... But still, the longer I stood there, the more my mind began to wander. What if the mirror was trying to tell me something?

The Realization

Suddenly, the absence of my reflection felt less like an inconvenience and more like... an opportunity. Without the mirror, there was no face to check, no hair to fix, no judgment staring back at me. I was free from the routine, the daily inspection I didn’t even realize I relied on so much.

And there it was—the question I’d been avoiding. Who am I when there’s no mirror to tell me?

Every day, I’d stand here and let the mirror reflect who I was, or at least who I thought I was. Messy hair, dark circles, maybe a decent jawline on a good day. But today, with the mirror gone silent, I started thinking about how much I depend on that reflection. How much we all do. Mirrors, in one form or another, are everywhere. People’s opinions, the way the world sees you, the things you think you’re supposed to be. What happens when all those mirrors stop working?

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Without the reflection, there was no criticism, no standard to measure up to. I was still standing here, just as real, just as present. Maybe even more so.

The Return

Just as I was getting comfortable with this revelation, the mirror blinked back to life. There I was, staring at myself like nothing unusual had happened. I half-expected my reflection to shrug, as if to say, “What? I was just taking a break.” I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Thanks for showing up. But I think I’m good now.”

I took one last look and turned away. Perhaps the mirror had needed a break so that I could stop relying on it to tell me who I was. And for the first time in a while, I wasn’t so worried about what it showed me.

-- Pradeep K (Prady)