Non-Fiction
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Who’s Afraid of GenAI?
With OpenAI’s announcement of Sora, it seems as if the conquest is complete: text is done and dusted, images too, and now video. Generative video has been in the works for some time, but with Sora, OpenAI has taken a leap and shown us the possibilities. There is no looking back from here, is there?… Continue reading
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The Billionaires
It’s been fascinating to see the public performances of two uber-rich Indian families in the past few days. A study in contrasts despite the similarities: both families are extremely wealthy in a country that’s lower middle income, both have sold the story of their humble beginnings, both have “self-made” men playing (or have played) a… Continue reading
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Que Sora Sora
There will be lots of commentary on how Sora will change everything. Everything. The movies we watch, the videos we consume, the advertisements we avoid and much more. This is the ChatGPT moment for video. Artificially generated video has been here for some time. You can even call animation artificially generated. Start from Disney’s Steamboat… Continue reading
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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Superman? No…
Like the good prof who goes by the name Peeleraja once said on twitter (now they call it X or whatever), the best Indian apps are those that efficiently organize the serving classes for the benefit of the monied upper classes (aka “us”). Think of a time before these apps – for ride hailing, food… Continue reading
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Namibia’s Response to Germany’s Hypocrisy at the International Court of Justice #Gaza
Like millions of others, I spent a few hours watching the proceedings of South Africa’s suit against Israel at the International Court of Justice, The Hague. The two initial public hearings took place last week. It was instructive, to say the very least. South Africa was represented by a fine set of lawyers who seemed… Continue reading
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What That MakeMyTrip Ad Means
Our Overton Window has shifted; if politics, society and culture lead, marketing is bound to follow. There has been much commentary on the MakeMyTrip print ad that graced several newspapers on the day of the India vs Pakistan world cup cricket ODI fixture on 14 October. As you may have observed, the commentariat is divided.… Continue reading
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When you see a man reading a book holding it upside down…
As Israel’s genocide continues in Gaza, an even more potent information war is taking place on the internet in the rest of the world. There’s information, misinformation, disinformation, pure propaganda – a huge amount of it, and disproportionately spread by global media houses. Most mainstream global media is pro-Israel and parrots Israel’s talking points without… Continue reading
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I am good (despite the evidence that says otherwise).
“I landed in Bangalore last evening and took an Uber to my hotel. It was amazing, you’d think I was in Shanghai or somewhere. The driver worked a day job in IT and said he makes more money driving than in IT. Peak Bangalore! At the hotel, the staff even picked up my luggage without… Continue reading
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Hold My Batter While Things Change Around Me
Many years later, as he faced a supermarket refrigerator stacked with ready-to-eat/cook, this writer was to remember that distant afternoon when his mother took him to buy a wet grinder for the household. My apologies to Colonel Aurelanio Beundia and his creator, but that was exactly what happened. I must have been around six or… Continue reading
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Bus Rides in South India
I usually do some warming-up before I write for work. This is one such, a bit of trip down memory lane. I don’t know if you have ever travelled in mofussil Tamil Nadu towns. I did a lot as a child. Nagercoil, Tirunelveli, Madurai and several districts were places where my parents would drag us… Continue reading