To Modi, Via Office of Oppression Olympics, From Mr Nijhawan

Your Highness Mr. Narendra Modi, 

You are the prime minister of India, one of the world's largest democracies. They say you 

This is the words of Deenu a semi literate teenage orphan who have apparently been forced by circumstances to become a pickpocketer for an organized criminal organization in Anil Nijhawan's The Pickpocket's Letter which I am currently reading. Why I say apparently is for I am on just page 32 of the book, and it's the ARC epub file so it's counting the title and copyright and all that stuff too. Why I needed to stop and write a post here I will tell in a moment but I think the fact that Deenu used Yours Highness rather than the correct style Honorable tells us that he indeed is semi literate in universe as well as the Political leanings of the author in the real world. Remember the 'No Kings' in the west?

But back to India and back to the book. In just the few pages I have left we have already encountered:

1. Caste Oppression 
2. Child Trafficking 
3. Ingrained victimization 
4. Trivialisation of Hindu rituals 
5. Caricature of Pandits ("as if she needed blessings by the potbellied men of God who chewed pan and gutka while chanting Shlokas")
6. Child Abuse
7. Child abandonment 
8. Child sexual abuse
9. Child Sexual abuse (but the offender and victim are both female this time)
10. RSS ki Sazish "It is not you [Modi] but the RSS who are in charge." 
11. Animal abuse
12. Sociopathic behaviour 
13. Sadism
14. Body mutilation 
15. Schizophrenia 
16. Other mental health disorders
17. Loneliness epidemic 
18. Acceptance of hierarchy, of मात्स्यन्याय
19. RSS is actually Taliban ("It's a rightwing Hindu organisation. It wants to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra, a bit like the Taliban, who wants to create a Muslim state.")

This may not be complete for I started reading this as a fiction and not keeping track of all the categories of which categories of Oppression Olympics the author wanted the book to compete it. Liberal (pun intended) does of variants of "Now, Mr Modiji" is sprinkled throughout the text. 

There is a story which upto this point is how Deenu lived in an orphanage and wants to escape from it and later works as a pickpocket but it drowns down while meeting the criterias for the Oppression Olympics. Sadly it makes not for an intresting read. 

I know I am not the most humane and compassionate man and the blog is witness to my shortcomings  but still I can tolerate, even appreciate, social messaging in fiction. I think most good fiction (and not the trashy quick stress busters which I confessed to have stared reading) gives some kind of message even if the author didn't actually intend it to have one at the start. Even if it has a social message, it can be very powerful. Bitter Virgin the manga bought even me to tears. I have never looked at rape victims the same before. It also awakened a love for the art of Manga. 

This work however does nothing of that sort. It's a political rant wrapped in a story. The accumulation of suffering feels less like insight and more like a checklist, and the narrative is repeatedly sacrificed at the altar of ideological urgency. Suffering is piled upon suffering without allowing any one of them the narrative space to breathe, reflect, or transform the characters meaningfully. It's just the Operation Olympics version of Club 99 from Krish, Trish and Baltiboy. Had this not been an ARC copy, I would have dropped the book here. But I must keep my word and read on, even if only to see whether the story ever manages to reclaim the space it has surrendered.

Agnivesh Bhaiya Om Shanti and I am ashamed of myself

Today is the darkest day of my life.

My beloved son, Agnivesh, left us far too soon. He was just 49 years old, healthy, full of life, and dreams. Following a skiing accident in the US, he was recovering well in Mount Sinai Hospital, New York. We believed the worst was behind us.… pic.twitter.com/hDQEDNI262

— Anil Agarwal (@AnilAgarwal_Ved) January 7, 2026

Saw the tweet early in the morning, and I literally felt nothing. The coldness of Jatani seems to have penetrated my heart. Didn't even bother to read the full thing. A part of me felt as if the father is trying engagement farming over this death. No sympathy, no empathy. Then saw this tweet by Modi like 15 minutes ago.

The untimely passing of Shri Agnivesh Agarwal is deeply shocking and saddening. The depth of your grief is evident in this touching tribute. Praying that you and your family find continued strength and courage. Om Shanti.@AnilAgarwal_Ved https://t.co/qn0DBuBj2S

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 8, 2026

Why is the Prime Minister QTing this? Is this some MP? Some big man? Oh, the bio says "Chairman - Vedanta Group". Wait, Vedanata group of the (unfortunately named) POSCO mines fame? The one that was unfairly shut down due to activists? Yes that one./ 

And what was my first reaction? Not realization of सस्यमिव मर्त्यः पच्यते सस्यमिवाजायते पुनः, not even an Om Shanti, not even a cynical smile and ghastly glee some in the "Eat the Rich" circles may be having. It was to Open Groow and see if I can buy the dip! All this while पिया तू अब तो आ जा plays in the background.

And that I did.

The stock is on an all-time high, and even before today's dip the consensus was:

Following the latest surge, Vedanta has surpassed Emkay Global's target of Rs 625. Emkay had recommended BUY on Vedanta due to its subsidiary Hindustan Zinc benefiting from latest silver rates rally. It said that time, "FY27 management guidance for zinc output is ≥1,080kt and for silver production ~700t-positioned in the first quartile on the global zinc cost curve; minimal hedging for FY27 reflects the management's firm belief about structural silver tightness and supports a price-led earnings upside. At spot prices, we estimate EBITDA of Rs258bn vs consensus' Rs220bn, a ~17% upgrade potential. Each USD1/oz move in silver price changes HZ's EBITDA by

1%. We believe that silver exposure is underpriced and the recent runup in the HZ and VEDL stock price reflects earnings upgrade potential."

Overall, the consensus recommendation from 13 analysts for Vedanta is BUY, as per Trendlyne data.

This is an objectively good trade I think, well as objective as one can be in the stock market. But I feel like I am a bad person, someone's son (and I assume heir apparent) dies and my thought is if I can profit? I am not a Marxist who thinks that they are rich off exploited labour, so they are bad persons and suppress any need for sympathy for that class. No, that's not my worldview. But still, I can't feel much. I feel bad only for I can't feel bad, this is my problem. I am ashamed that my thoughts were directed to the stocks, to my Algebraic Topology class about to start in 10 minutes, to the fact that I have heard this song somewhere (they put it in Dhurandhar, which I watched twice in the Cinema!), and whether or not I should drink my milk now. 

I don't even know if not I can function in human society. I am perhaps too numbed for everything. 

My Year in Books: 2025

 The twice teased Year in Books 2025 is finally here after a gap of a year. I will present it without further ado. 

48 was a good number of reads, I think, considering the whole PhD business and also that this blog has also picked up steam. Much better than 30 last year (also, since I did not write a Blog post, it's worse). I don’t think I am going back to the near-century of 2023, but that’s fine. I chose my life. Many decades later, I’ll get that century; for now, it’s the Corona Problem that has my attention.

I was thinking that 2.9 average rating meant it was a bad year for books, but it was a 2.8 in 2023! Both good and enjoyable years of reading. Guess I beat the whole "Bad is stronger than good" thing.

 अक्रोधेन जयेत् क्रोधम् असाधुं साधुना जयेत्. 

One thing that changed this year is that my little brother got into reading too. That, and the fact that I have DD. Two book buddies was not a thing I previously had. And it does help.

Anyway, the year started with a string of thrillers that DD lent me (read: forced me to read), because I once said I don't like thrillers much. Okay, I had restarted reading with them once, but they seemed to get repetitive and boring after some time. I think it was Suheldev & the Battle of Bahraich and The Vault of Vishnu which finally killed the genre for me. But still the year started with  How to Kill Your Family, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, The Silent Patient and Verity. This, I think, is the Thriller-Girl on Bookstagram starter pack canon. I wouldn't know, since I am not on IG. But DD is, and she keeps sending me reels on WhatsApp. They sometimes feel so relatable that I think DD directs them. These books were different from the ones I had previously read. Much darker, more real, with more sass, with actual emotions rather than cardboard characters, and more adult than what a middle-schooler thinks “adult” is. Also, the female POV feels different. I think my previous exposure to it was limited to Pride and Prejudice (which I didn't like). I also like the aspect that MC may be an unreliable narrator. अन्यत्तृणमिव त्याज्यमप्युक्तं पद्मजन्मना indeed. I went ahead and got my own books in the genre. Lights Out and I Was a Teenage Slasher (whose review I xposted on this blog) didn't work, while I was hooked on Gone Girl. 

Speaking of reviews, I started xposting some GR reviews here. Sometimes they are not even reviews but just my musings, or a longer review than one n GR, field notes as I go on reading or even multipart deep dives like for Makers of Modern Dalit History. I think it was one of the posts that got me back to writing on the blog, the blog did pick up some steam before that, but it was the tuboboost in some ways. I have written more about this exponential growth in posts here. There is something calming about writing these posts, even if no one reads this, and writing on the books is one of the main goals I started the blog with. I really wish GR showed the number of reviews written rather than just the first and last one. 

Speaking of my brother, my parents are surprisingly more lenient with him. Well, there is a 10 year gap between up and the change in parenting style shows. I read library books secretly, and this one gets taken to the Pragati Maidan Book Fair. Just how the time changes. This anyway it nice for me. I can read his books when back in Faridabad. Read Percy Jackson this way, and I was disappointed. Harry Potter is the one true boy wizard for me. The Choosen One. Ditto for The Alchemist. Don't get the hype of either. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, however, was a warm, cozy book that I really liked. Liked enough to gift him Days at the Torunka Café. I also did read, but it doesn't hold up to the first book.

Speaking of books I didn't write, I think it starts with Butter. There seems to be a Tsunami of warm, cozy Japanese novels in the Indian market. But book this, I don't like. Vector: A Surprising Story of Space, Time, and Mathematical Transformation (which I got in a Hardcover, thanks to the DAE contingency grant) was another bad book early in the year. वर्जिन is a free poetry collection I saw years ago on Google Books, I finally gave it a serious read this year, but still bad. Also, I should not have picked up Lords of Wrath as my introduction to Dark Romance. I have not picked another since. I tried That Night to find a good Indian written Thriller, but was disappointed too. The Fractal Murders was a good title on bad writing and a story. I think the 2.9 rating is starting to make sense now. 

Given my trade, there were obviously Maths textbooks. While a lot of Krantz's is good, Axler's MIRA stood out the most.  And the year ended finally with the warm yet depressing Dept. of Speculation.

Reading Goals 2026

1. 30 Books.
2. Complete Ambedkar's जात-पांत का विनाश.
3. 1 book in (not on) Sanskrit.
4. 4 books in Hindi.
   
5. 1 book in Urdu Script (which I will learn via this book).
6. 1 book by Savarkar.
7. 3 Books from the "Ideologically Opposite" Camp.
8. Read the History of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire Vol.- 1
9. 1 Indian Autobiography.
10. 1 book on some current policy debate.

Some of these are still uncompleted items from 2023, but the year is still young. We will meet again next time this year to take stock of this. 

ये नव वर्ष हमे स्वीकार नहीं

 ये नव वर्ष हमे स्वीकार नहीं
है अपना ये त्यौहार नहीं
है अपनी ये तो रीत नहीं
है अपना ये व्यवहार नहीं

राष्ट्रकवि दिनकर कि इन पंक्तियों से एक तरफ में सहमत हूं। आज नववर्ष है, कम से कम अंग्रेज़ी कैलेंडर में देखे तो, लेकिन कुछ अलग आ नहीं लग रहा। "उमंग नहीं"। कैसे होगी? 31 से नाईजर जाना था। कोहरे से फ़्लाइट कैंसिल हो गई। कोहरा तो है दरअसल। अब तत्काल में रेल से जा रहें हैं। 2 को पहुंचेंगे, देरी हो यदि, जोकि इस मौसम में होगी ही, तो शायद कल का पैसा भी गया। 3 दिन का गया। अब गया सो गया, क्या ही कर सकते हैं? पैसों को तो हाथों का मैल कहा गया है (हे भगवान, इस साल हाथ और मैले के देना) लेकिन समय तो अनमोल है ना? 3 दिन नष्ट। स्वाहा। सोचा था न्यू ईयर में कुछ नया प्लेन बनेगा, जीवन बदल देंगे। सही पटरी पर अब अपनी गाड़ी चाहेली। करने का तो 2 को भी कर सकते हैं, लेकिन Fresh Start Effect भी एक चीज़ है। केवल दिमाग का खेल है ये तो, ये मात्र ज्ञान है, श्रवण है। इससे तो काम चलता नहीं। शास्त्रों में कहा ही गया है–

आवृत्तिः असकृदुपदेशात्

और हमने मनन कहां किया? खैर, शायद 4 तारीख, साल का पहला सोमवार और नए सेमेस्टर का पहला दिन एक अच्छी Fresh Start बन सकता हो। 

नहीं कहूंगा कि न्यू ईयर से पूरी तरफ ताल्लुकात खत्म है मेरा। ये जो Wrapped जैसे data अलग अलग जगह आतें हैं उन्हें देखना बेहद पसंद है मुझे। संगीन का तो इधर भी साझा कर चुका हूँ, GR का आ गया लेकिन रेल में लिख न पाऊंगा। जाके एक और काम। लेकिन लिखना होगा। इस साल ने बहुत कुछ बदला है मुझमें। 

लेकिन खबरदार, जब में साल खाता हूँ तो मेरा मतलब 2025 से नहीं बल्कि एक साल के अंतराल से है। यदि कल फैसला हो की अब ये से सब 18 अगस्त को होगा, तो भी कोई एतराज़ नहीं होगा। साल साल होता है। ईसा मसीह के जन्म या सम्राट विक्रमादित्य की ताजपोशी से गिनने की आकाशवता मालूम नहीं होती मुझे। इधर मेरा राष्ट्रकवि से मतभेद दिखता है। दिनकर कि माने तो

तब चैत्र शुक्ल की प्रथम तिथि
नव वर्ष मनाया जायेगा

हालांकि दिनकर का अनुयाई हूँ मैं, किन्तु इधर न साथ दे सकूंगा। वहां रघुवीर सहाय की शरण में ही हूँ मैं। 

रेल में हिंजड़े आए अभी। 200 का पत्ता गया। नया साल बनाना है इन्हें भी। आमतौर पर तो 10 20 का मामला होता है। कंगाली में आटा गिला रे दादा। 

लेकिन सहाय का जो कहना था वो आज तो और भी aatik है। इंसान प्रगति के चक्कर से आउट ऑफ सिंक हो लगा है। तरक्की की ये कुर्बानी है। लेकिन मेरा निजी अनुभव में एक विरोधाभास है, प्रकृति के निकटतम में रांची अथवा जटनी मे नहीं बल्कि बैंगलुरु में पाता हूँ। और हां बैंगलुरु, बंगलौर नहीं, एक हफ्ते में विचार बदल गया मेरा। शायद प्रकृति का भी एक Laffer Curve है।

बात रही साल की तो, घंटा ही फ़रक न पड़े लेकिन जमाने का ऊसूल है तो, साल मुबारक!

Minutes from Dept. of Speculation

I have been reading Dept. of Speculation as one last quick read this year. Well it's the last day. The book feels very soft, lullaby like, narrated as a stream of consciousness, almost lyrical, poetic. It is Bouba not Kiki. It's really somehow soft and warm. Warm and mildly depressing, if that makes sense? 

At times I can relate to it in weird ways. But in Chapter 20, the sentence caught my eye:

My husband is hunched over his computer, just as he was when I went in. All day long he has been following the news about an earthquake in another country. Every time the death count is updated, he updates me...

This is exactly where I find myself sometimes. Obsessed over some incident which doesn't affect me at all. It's not sympathy, not even morbid curiosity. It is just what it is. Perhaps it's Kabir-esque :

कबीरा खड़ा बाज़ार में, सबकी मांगे खैर

ना काहू से दोस्ती, ना काहू से बैर

Not that too. This is just Sant Kabir simplifying कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते for the common man. I am much below that level of detachment. I care about outcome. It might even be playing a Watcher as in MCU. Perhaps not, I discovered the concept of Watchers much later in life. BR Chopra's Mahabharat' Main Samay Hoon will be a much earlier, more connected and likely influence. Anyway I like the feeling of detachment. It's the same- warm yet mildly depressing. It's not vedantic detached observer, I have too much vainful pride in my knowledge. And the mere act of knowledge provides me joy. I am the one Adi Shakar warned सम्प्राप्ते सन्निहिते काले, नहि नहि रक्षति डुकृञ्करणे . I should really finish Kathopanishad along with Swami Sarvapriyananda's lectures that I have started earlier. Long back. Back when home was like home. 

It could be ward election is some random city of a state I have never visited. Or it might be a war in the Caucasian region. Or even Japanese aid to Central Asian nations. I will haunt the subreddits, lurk on the Twitter spheres, dig into JSTOR and devour PhD theses. 

Unlike the husband (Offill hasn't named him yet, and I don't think it is required, why do we even name our characters? This though and the foggy cold Faridabad morning reminds me of Dwivedi's Kutuj. He writing escaped me at forst - good typo? But it should be first- but later when I understood it it provided me with much warmth, icy cold Himalayan warmth) I don't share this with anyone. Not that I don't want to. I have no one. Who will watch the watcher? The wife is stuck. I have no wife, no love life either. Perhaps this is why I started the blog. Indeed that's the reason. I can at least scream into void that Government says 23 dead but the local press are reporting between 50 to 64. Nobody would care, I won't get a polite hmmm mandated by the Agni. Still it's better than something. This is not depressing, it's the opposite infact. 

Earthquakes are interesting things. Certain animals can feel them in advance. DD have a talent to feel one even if miniscule. My mother, on the other hand, can feel one even if it is not there lacking! 

I have been off Reddit for some time. PhD eats away your time. Well, we are JRFs, employee of Department of Atomic Energy now, can't blame them. Hopefully SRF soon. It matters, for apparently seniority matters even for missiles. But technology have been progressing. The Japanese can now predict earthquakes. I never bothered to read how they do it, but it sounds mind boggling. But they are Japanese, and as the old Indo-Japan joke goes, they say "Of none can do, I will do it." Something worth learning rather than that the normal punch line. Perhaps observe them, with the regular earthquakes.