26th October, 2026

What am I working on?

A new mini comic after a long time. Making this for one of the poems I wrote recently in Hindi. Page one:

The next set of pages are in the making.

What am I reading?

I read Absolute Jafar by Sarnath Banerjee last week. This largely panel-less, black and white illustrations (some pages are in watercolour and I am guessing these would be the fond memories that are remembered with clarity) semi-autobiographical graphic moves between Delhi, Karachi and Berlin. It a story of Brighu from India and Mahrukh from Pakistan and how the political divide between the two countries shape their romantic relationship. Sarnath shows the mundane life of this couple juggling life between two countries and meeting each other through the political differences, getting married, enduring numerous bureaucratic encounters, waiting endlessly in government offices, eventually moving to Berlin and setting up a life there. Then the marriage ends abruptly without any explanation of what exactly happened between them.

There are a lot of witty sections that I 'absolutely' loved like Jhule lal, why people walk, Gaddar Jafar, references from movies like Noorie.

The book is largely about Brighu but I am not sure why it is called Absolute Jafar. Jafar (his son) does not became a part of the story until halfway through. Brighu tells his son stories about Delhi and takes him through places associated with his own past. But Jafar is growing up in Berlin and finds it difficult to relate to them. One generation's idea of home becomes the next generation's inherited memory. When I think about it, my parent's memories of Rajasthan and of the time and world they grew up in, feel distant to me. I know them because I have inherited their stories, but I can never inhabit those memories in the same way. And likewise, my heimat (the German idea of homeland or belonging that appears in the book) may mean very little to my children someday.

I also loved that Brighu calls himself an "all-weather walker." In many ways, the entire book reads like one long walk across countries. Brighu strolls through life noticing all the strange, witty and funny details along the way.

What am I watching/watched recently?

I watched The Wolf House last week. What I saw was insaneee. A nightmarish stop motion. Scenes blend in and out - nothing stays still. Walls, objects and characters are constantly shifting and mutating and is built out of paper-mâché, masking tape and other materials. After a while, it all begins to feel abstract. Horrifying imagery and a feeling of dread that will keep you on your toes throughout the movie.

It is supposed to be a semi-fictional movie to make some sense of the real-life atrocities of Colonia Dignidad (it isn’t mentioned by name in the movie but people say the opening scenes is too sinister to be confused for anything else). It is about a young girl named Maria who manages to escape the infamous Chilean cult and takes refuge in a dilapidated house nearby with two stolen pigs (she names them Ana and Pedro). Slowly, the pigs start staking human form and Maria acts as their Mother just telling us the atrocities she would had faced for her mental state to be such. The kids become increasingly Aryan looking as Maria raises them in the only way she would have known while trying to protect them from the kinds of “punishments” she experienced herself. Eventually, the house runs out of food. The children turn on Maria with an intent to devour her. In this moment of terror, Maria begs her abuser (the Wolf) to come back and save her.

The movie ends with a section where the wolf calls out that 'I was always inside you' and that was the most chilling realisation of how a cult can deeply impact your psyche.

The movie itself does not show the horrific atrocities that might have taken place, but the mixed media used to create this stop motion is enough to run chills down your spine. I would not recommend this movie for the faint hearted.

New thing I learnt lately?

I came across an article that Bumble has been acquired by Ithaca Holdings for just $1.3 billion (it briefly had a market value of ~$14 billion). Match Group, owner of Tinder and Hinge, also lost over half of its valuation since it went public. So what's up with dating platforms? The business model depends on attracting new users, converting some into subscribers and ensuring a healthy LTV:CAC ratio. However, people increasingly seem burnt out with endless swiping and conversations that go nowhere. And if it works out, users are out of the application. This efficacy paradox in dating apps shows a fundamental trade-off: the better an app is at helping users find a genuine connection, the faster it loses those customers. And the app needs active, paying users to stay in business.

Dating apps need to rethink the way people engage so that they can have a higher share of paying users. Having seem Tinder's keynote this year, there are quite a few new things they are planning to do (or have done). Tinder’s events and double-date features try to move interactions IRL. Apart from this, better safety tools, richer profile creation prompts, new discovery modes could make the experience less exhausting and lead to meaningful interaction.

To keep a population stable, the total fertility rate (TFR) must stay near 2.1 children per women. As this continues to decline, governments are trying different measures in order to reverse it. Historically, there had been coercive policies deployed that penalised couples not having kids with higher taxes, banning contraceptives and abortions. Governments today deploy policies from one time cash incentives to improvements in childcare once parents go back to work. Does this work?

Research suggests that one-time incentives often change the timing (tempo) of births more than the number of children (quantum) people would have. And even if holistic packages (which includes multi year incentives, paid leaves, subsidised childcare facilities) cannot fully overcome the forces pushing fertility down, it can surely help in keeping it stable and from further reducing. Unequal domestic responsibilities, high cost of living, hyper-competitive education environment (which means parents have to devote good amount of time on their kid's school work) and blurring work life balance are a few reasons foe low fertility rate. A good example from France has kept the TFR stable at ~1.8 wherein the family’s taxable income base reduces with more childbirths and it works alongside 35-hour work week and free preschools enrollments.