A small introduction.
I'm Amit. this is where I keep things. Mostly essays. Sometimes fiction. Always small. I started it because I needed somewhere to put the noticing that does not have anywhere else to go.
A personal blog for people who like sentences more than they like infographics, and who would rather read someone overthink an auto-rickshaw than a productivity system.
I grew up in a smallish town and now live in Bangalore. I work in software, which means I spend most of my day naming things badly, breaking things politely, and trying to convince smart, slightly tired people that an idea is worth one more week. The writing here is not about any of that.
The writing here is about noticing— the small moments that don't make a story but don't go away either. The thing the auto-rickshaw driver said. The way my mother asks a question without asking it. The friend I owe a haircut and an apology. The advertisement that cracked me open on a Tuesday for no good reason.
I am suspicious of advice. I am wary of takes. I am not interested in becoming a brand, and I am still working out, honestly, whether I am interested in becoming a writer or whether I just like the parts of being a writer that involve being alone in a room with a kettle. Both, probably. Neither, also probably.
How I think about the writing
I try to write like I am leaving a note for one person, not a thousand. The voice is dry. The pieces are short on purpose — most of them are written between 11 p.m. and midnight, in one sitting, and edited the next morning over coffee. If a piece needs a research note or a footnote, it goes in the margin or at the bottom, never in the middle of the prose.
The musingsare essays. They argue with themselves. They try not to land where they're expected to. The shorts are fictions — very small ones, often about people doing slightly strange things, never quite explained. I think the line between the two is thinner than I pretend.
About once a week, on Sundays, I send one of these out as a newsletter. I read every reply. The interesting ones, with permission, sometimes become the next essay. The angry ones, with no permission, sometimes also become the next essay.
What this is not
It is not advice. It is not a self-help project. It is not a journal that I am pretending is a publication, and it is not a publication that I am pretending is a journal. It is not optimised for SEO. There are no affiliate links. There is no course. There will probably never be a course.
If you've read this far, you're already the right kind of reader, and you're welcome to stay as long as you like.