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The Making of a Dumb Datum

Imagine 10,000 years in the future. Two archaeologists are digging a site, and they find the remains of human bones. They take those remains to the lab, perform tests on them, and try to reconstruct the habits and lifestyle of that human. Say those bones belong to me. They are trying to find out my story, how I lived, what I ate, where I traveled, etc. Once they find all the info they need, they toss it into a museum where they store all other such ancient human remains they find. I was essentially one data point to them in trying to understand how humanity evolved over time. Or I can also call myself a “datum”, the singular form of data, literally one piece of information to solve a bigger puzzle. Honestly, I don’t need 10,000 years to become a datum. I am already a part of several datasets people use these days to study many things. So for that objective learner, I am already a datum. Now let me get to how I got the dumb part of it. I have had an interesting and eventful life so far...
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On my way home!

I have been thinking about why I keep running into new existential crises almost every week. I am tempted to blame AI for no reason like I usually do, but let me be real and admit it all has to do with the choice I made to book a one-way flight to the United States four years ago. I thought it would be like a trip to Hawaii - I go, have fun, return home, bite everyone's ears off about my experiences in Hawaii even if they don't want to listen. But it turned out to be like space travel. I end up feeling like the only living being floating in vast nothingness, where gravity doesn't exist and sunlight doesn't reach, and don't even ask me about how far I am from home and how lonely it feels. Every day I wake up in this strange place, I experience one of the following two feelings - either an unbearable mental ache where I start cursing a 24-year old me for making the choice that 28-year old me has to struggle with, or a relief and joy that I am floating freely without t...
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A Pit Stop

I went home for the first time in the past 2 years for a 2-week stay. I initially thought I was being clever with making it only a 2-week trip, because I was saving my PTOs and it would be a very short break for my marathon training. But cut to the end of this trip, and this looks like a stupid decision to me. 2 years in the US without seeing my family honestly didn’t feel so hard, because according to me I had important things to worry about. Those things were job, visa, running, traveling, etc. But now I realize that there is something more important above all these things. It’s my happiness and mental peace. I experienced it for the first time in these 2 years when I was at home. I experienced feeling safe when my father accompanied me on my runs on his scooter to shoo away street dogs chasing me. I experienced the feeling of care when my mom had a milkshake ready for me to drink as soon as I returned home after runs. I experienced the feeling of nostalgia while seeing the picture...
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My Reading List

Currently Reading: 1. Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro Start Date:12/31/2025  End Date:  2. Maybe you should talk to someone by Lori Gottlieb Start Date: Last week of November 2025 End Date: 3. The Pleasure of finding things out Start Date: 01/05/2026 Planned: 1. Men without Women by Haruki Murakami 2. Hooked by Nir Eyal 3. Algorithms to live by - Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths 4. Finding Ultra - Rich Roll 5. Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman (Re-read) 6. Be so Good they can't ignore you (Re-read) 7. Deep Work (Re-read) 8. Once a Runner by John L Parker 9. 1984 by George Orwell
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What's new Scooby-Doo?

I woke up with the “What’s New Scooby-Doo?” song stuck in my head today. After listening to it on repeat four times, I thought about how in every Scooby-Doo episode, they unmask the ghost, and it always turns out to be some human who’s been in the episode all along. Maybe if I unmask the ghosts in my own life, I might also realize that I am the face behind the masks, the sole architect of all my troubles. Anyway, it turns out there is actually something new today because of the changing calendar year. I’m not a big New Year’s celebrator, but there’s something different about this one, it’s the first time in my life I’m going to be alone on New Year’s Day. Yikes. I decided to mark the occasion by doing exactly what I’ve been doing for the past year: putting on my running shoes and going for a run. I walked outside my apartment for a bit before starting, played my 2025 top songs playlist, and started singing along to “About You” by The 1975, out loud. It drew a concerned look from an...
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Arches & Dams

I ran on the historic railroad trail in Vegas last week, which connects to the Hoover Dam, an engineering marvel built on the Colorado River. I was zoned out at that time due to tiredness and couldn’t really soak in the complete experience of viewing the Hoover Dam with my own eyes (story of my life lately). But I know 19-year-old me would have nerded out on the structural engineering technicalities behind the dam's famous arched wall. Back then, I was in school pursuing a degree in Civil Engineering and had aspirations to work in the research side of structural or geotechnical engineering. That Civil Engineering degree taught me that arched structures are not just for aesthetics; they have a strong engineering basis that supports their usage. Now it has been more than seven years since that phase of my life (guess I’m old now), so all details are hazy in my mind. I googled a little bit to jog my memory and decided to put my limited knowledge and understanding of arches in writing....
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Running Slowly Alongside My Demons

Last Friday, in the middle of the afternoon heat, I was running up a steep hill, head tilted down, breathing heavily - resembling a hyena about to collapse from exhaustion. Once I reached the top, my brain ordered my legs to take a break, so without much voluntary action on my part, I sat on the sidewalk and tried to gasp in as much air as I could with heavy breaths. A stranger walking up the hill saw me in that state and asked if I was doing okay. I gave a quick thumbs-up and a forced smile that said, "leave me alone," and so he left me alone there. I was supposed to do a moderately hard 3.5 mile run that day - part of my low-mileage, slow-pace training plan that's supposed to at least make me a below-average runner. Someone slightly to the left of the running bell curve’s peak. But I blame my two demons for turning it into an extremely difficult run in 80-degree heat. I call the first demon Pridemaster -  it makes me boastful about my recent running consistency and c...
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