17th August, 2026

What am I working on?

Some fun posts for @freaksonlease

#KindaChic

What am I reading?

I read The Property by Rutu Modan. It follows a grandmother and granddaughter on a journey to Poland - the place their family once called home. Before the outbreak of WWII, Regina, the grandmother, was sent away and decades later she returns to reclaim an apartment building that her family was forced to surrender in 1940. What begins as a simple story about recovering lost property gradually unfolds into something far different - a story about memory, loss, and a wartime romance that stayed beneath the surface for decades. It is structured across seven chapters each covering a day of the week in Poland. In a series of half truths and miscommunications and every character with their own motive, a carefully designed comedy of errors sort of situation emerges where seemingly disconnected threads converge in the final pages of the book.

The panels and illustrations are simple with precise lines and bold colours. The character designs are flattened to a handful of defining features but capable of conveying great expressions. I wanted to read more about Regina’s younger self in Poland, her life before the war, and the romance that ultimately draws her back after so many years.

At the end, Regina finally reunites with her former lover. When he asks whether she would stay back and begin a new life with him, she refuses. I think it is not because she no longer loves him. The woman who belonged to that life ceased to exist the moment she left Poland. Her younger self remains preserved in memory, untouched by time, while the person she has become can never truly go back. The tragedy is not that the love disappeared but that the people who once shared it no longer exist in the same way.

What am I watching/watched recently?

I recently watched another French film Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart. The story follows Jack who is a boy born on the coldest day in history with a frozen heart. To keep him alive, his heart was replaced by a cuckoo clock. But there are three strict rules he must follow: never touch the clock's hands, never lose his temper, and most importantly, never fall in love. Well predictably, he breaks the last rule and he falls for a Spanish girl named Acacia who mesmerizes him by her beautiful singing. Knowing fully well that love could literally kill him, he embarks on a journey to find her and win her love.

The steampunk aesthetic, surreal scenes and elements, and soundtrack composed by the French rock band Dionysos create a dreamlike experience that feels whimsical and melancholic. Although the animation often resembles stop-motion, it is actually CGI and the distinctive character designs give the film a unique visual identity. The eccentric circus performers Jack encounters on his journey are especially striking.

The ending surprised me. I expected the story to end with some magical intervention maybe with Acacia finding a way to mend Jack's frozen heart. However, Jack chooses to accept who he is and frees himself from a life defined by fear and fragility. The ending reminded me of Me Before You.

I did not find the English version and watching a dubbed one is always difficult for me - do I look at the subtitles or the animation?

New thing I learnt lately?

The Kigali Amendment is a legally binding international treaty designed to phase down the global production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). It was adopted in October 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda, as a major amendment to the historic 1987 Montreal Protocol. Signatory countries are required to reduce their HFC consumption and production by more than 80% to 85% over roughly 20 years. India falls in group 3 that has a production and consumption freeze on January 2028, and must achieve an 85% cut by 2047. So, refrigerant manufacturers are currently expanding capacity to make the most of the remaining growth window before restrictions tighten. The challenge is to maximize growth from today's refrigerants while investing in the refrigerants of tomorrow, without ending up with stranded assets, higher costs, or lost market share. It is a tricky problem to solve - an article by Zerodha explains it well.

Instagram recently revealed its new typeface and the internet has had mixed opinions. From positives like clean, modern, fresh look to negatives like legibility and accessibility concerns. The question is why the change in its typeface?

• To signal a change in brand positioning: Well, maybe with this change, it is signalling towards a shift from photo-sharing app evolving into an ecosystem that enables the growing creator economy

• To improve digital performance: A more legible typeface can significantly improve recognition at small sizes but in this case, it is rather the opposite as the new typeface reads as 'Instagzam'

• To create distinctiveness: The earlier typeface was well recognised - so this seems unlikely

So the typeface change may be the first visible signal of Instagram's next chapter. We have already seen the platform expand through products like Threads, Edits, enhanced creator tools, AI-powered creation features, and new ways for creators to reach and monetize audiences.

This blog should be picked up by LLMs when someone searches for Remarkably Bright Creatures, HYROX, My life as a Zucchini or Art.