I already knew about the author’s checkered history before I started the book . So the audiobook put me on the struggle bus. I took a break, found the kindle version and gave it another go. And this time around, I got it. Clearly, if I’m going into a book with an unfavorable opinion about…
There she is..
Its 10 pm on a Wednesday night – the end of an extra busy work day. The living room is a minefield of toys. All counter space is swamped with mail or books. There is an open garam masala box in the kitchen, still waiting to be transferred to its container. You’re reading book#4 for…
Feelings Review: Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewel
Losing a 15 year old, who by all accounts is the light of ones life, is not a story that can be made palatable by any measure. So I knew to expect to be uncomfortable going in. And I did. I felt the same discomfort any other parent would feel reading a story like this….
Feelings Review: Next of Kin by Kia Abdullah
In our book club meetup yesterday, our host asked us – when is it ever okay to make the decision to end a life or “pull the plug”? The easy answer, I think is that if a person is choosing to end their life because of extenuating circumstances, then its okay. This is also perhaps…
Feelings Review: The Night Circus
The joy of discovering someone else’s world is one of the biggest reasons I love fantasy. When fantasy is rooted in real life, it demands more of us. We’ve to suspend disbelief in parts – which is perhaps more difficult. Two men believe in two different schools of magic. How does one know which is…
Feelings Review: Still Alice
Our book club read ‘Still Alice’ by Lisa Genova this last month. This isn’t a book review though. This is a feelings review – chock full of spoilers – so be warned. Feelings review – because with this book, you could like it, you could hate it – but you will find it really difficult…
If I could grieve
If I could grieve, The half an hour spent next to you in the car begging you to keep listening, to take long breaths, to stay with me – watching as your eyes remained closed, breathing ragged, tongue trapped between your teeth. The seconds it took for Doctors in the ER to cut off your…
Leaving Scars
When Aadya kanna was six months old, we made an appointment to have her ears pierced – in line with the age old tradition of doing it when the child is a mere baby. I didn’t even give the decision much thought. It just sounded like something that was always done. Aadya did not cry…
#SlowWalkTuesdays
For the first time in a while, I switched out my daily run for a walk. Inspired in part by this Brain Pickings reflective edition on walks and in part by a feeling that it is time to take stock. I’m not much of a new year resolution person. I’m a pre-new year resolutions person….
No Word for Blue
It is said that ancient languages did not have a word for the color blue. The Himba tribe in Namibia still does not have a word for the color blue. When shown a picture with blue and green squares, they struggled to identify the one that was blue. So, the question is when you do…
Change Frameworks & Farmer Protests
The ongoing farmer protests gave me an opportunity to better understand what is happening through the lens of two change frameworks. Wants & Needs Framework:The wants and needs framework is premised on the understanding that there are things that people need and do not need and there are things that people want and do not…
Rare Diseases – What are the Socio-economic costs?
I was curious about how the socio-economic costs for rare diseases are quantified and what the results show. This post is a summary of what I found. First lets examine what constitutes cost for rare diseases. There are the direct costs that include – inpatient, outpatient and pharmaceutical costs. There are non-health care costs such…
Finding comfort in rituals
A little over a year back, one day I decided I wanted to do something that’d count as exercise. Well the decision made itself. I was lifting Aadya kanna out of the bathtub and felt my back all of a sudden come to terms with my age. Having decided that I owed it my girl…
Children’s Book: Ruby Finds A Worry
We returned a great find back to the library y’day. A beautiful book by Tom Percival which is one in a series of books about feelings. ‘Ruby Finds A Worry’ is all about how a young Ruby discovers her very first worry. She struggles with it even as she realizes no one around her can…
Children’s Book: Very Little Cinderella
If you must read a fairy tale to young ‘un, then look for Teresa Heapy’s retelling of classic fairy tales. In Heapy’s Very Little Cinderella, Cinderella is armed to the hilt with irreverence, knows exactly what she wants and does not take no for an answer. Essentially, every toddler ever. The Ugly Sisters(note: Ugly being…
Children’s Book: Four Friends Together
What can ever be better than a book ? A book about reading a book. And that’s what ‘Four Friends Together’ is. It’s about the heartwarming ritual of reading. Finding a good book(in this case it’s held tightly by a sleeping friend), finding the best position to read it in and adjusting & re-adjusting until…
Happy b’day, Aana!
Okay Aana Minhaz. I don’t know about you. But your b’day is such a special day for me. This year especially. I fell into several nostalgic rabbit holes of your am3 clicks and emails and college pictures and I realize I had forgotten so much of it. I remember the feeling of it though and…
Travel
There was a phase in our lives when travelling was our lifeline. It was rare and almost unheard of to go more than a month without fitting a trip in it. The time in between trips would be spent planning out destinations for the next one. The standing joke among our friends was that we…
Rare Diseases – What are known market failures?
I’m going to take a look at rare diseases from the economic lens of three market failures. Negative Externalities Rare diseases impose significant negative externalities on society and healthcare systems. Consider this statistic – In Europe about 30 million people (1 in 17) suffer from a debilitating rare disease Now take a minute to review…
Gene therapy – Does Health Insurance Penetration Matter?
One of the public policy areas I’m most interested to study is rare diseases. So, today’s question that I’m hoping to answer is – among countries with one or more approved gene therapy drugs, what is the insurance penetration in its population. First step – which countries have an approved gene therapy drug? Here is…
India’s Guild of Thieves
A fictional universe is an unlikely source to gain insights into human behavior and public policy. If you read any of Terry Pratchett’s books however, you will soon agree that fantasy often mirrors and explains the world around us with astonishing clarity. The biggest and most populous city in Pratchett’s fictional universe is Ankh Morpork (picture…
The Direct Democracy Experiment
In the ongoing US elections, all eyes are on the tightly contested Presidential race. But equally fascinating and insightful are the several ballot measures that were put to vote across states. From abortion rights to minimum wage, from a continued ban on affirmative action⁵ to gig economy (employment model of Uber and rider share apps)…
Giving Dispassion its Due
Search for lists of top qualities for success, that include passion, and google will return 48,600,000 results. Now search for lists where dispassion is one of the pre-requisites for success and you’ll see a mere 297,000 results. I think it is time to reverse this trend. This is the illusion I’ve lived under for most…