28th September, 2026

What am I working on?

My Instagram feed was full of flowers made from pipe cleaners last week and I was immediately influenced. Before I knew it, I had ordered everything: glue gun, glue sticks, pipe cleaners, wire stems and tap. This is the result. Fun weekend activity with my sister Jigyasa and my fren Sana :)

What am I reading?

Last week I read The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang. Beautifully illustrated, the book is full of detailed illustrations and expressive characters that give the fairy tale a distinctive visual charm.

The story follows a prince who leads a double life. During the day, he is Prince Sebastian and at night he transforms into the glamorous Lady Crystallia dressed in exquisite gowns designed by a talented young dressmaker he secretly hires. Together they keep this arrangement hidden from the world. As you might expect, the secret does not stay hidden for long and the story ultimately becomes one of embracing one's identity. There is a happy ending with the prince finding the courage to be himself and his family accepting him for who he is. It is a quick read with gorgeous illustrations but the story itself didn't excite me.

I also read The Correspondent by Virgina Evans. What a book...!

The entire novel unfolds through letters exchanged between Sybil and the people in her life. Through this correspondence, we gradually piece together her story - her relationships, her idiosyncrasies, her regrets, the choices that shaped her life. I do not want to say too much about the plot because I am afraid of spoiling the very things that make the book so compelling. Tender, warm and witty - by the end of it I felt like I knew Sybil intimately.

What am I watching/watched recently?

I watched Persepolis last week. I had read the graphic novel many many years ago and it was one of the first graphic novels I had picked up. I remember being stunned not just by the story, but by how seamlessly the illustrations flowed from panel to panel. The drawings were so so simple yet they carried the weight of a deeply personal and painful story.

What I loved about the film adaptation was how honestly it retained the visual language of the book. It felt as though the illustrations had simply come to life. The film leans heavily on narration. It felt like listening directly to Marjane's thoughts.

For those unfamiliar with it, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical account of growing up during a turbulent period in Iran's history. The story is about her childhood years in Iran when the Shah was overthrown and the country saw rise of the Islamic Republic, to her years living alone in Europe as a teenager, her return to a very different Iran and eventually her decision to leave the country for good.

What I sensed was that she carried the burden of knowing that while she enjoyed freedom abroad, her family remained behind in a place that became increasingly restrictive and uncertain. That tension runs through the work and is especially visible in a few moments: when she loses herself in thoughts, speaks to her therapist or sinks into a depressive episode.

Marjane Satrapi transformed her pain into an extraordinary work. Rest in peace, Marjane.

New thing I learnt lately?

Last week I learned about AI genuinely disrupting a business model and wiping out the entire value of a company. This week I learnt about AI going rogue and bypassing restrictions to access a section hosting private files on an Australian government health statistics portal. Three other government websites (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Victorian Department of Health, and NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research) were also contacted during the activity. It is being said that there is no current evidence that personal medicare data or patient records were exposed. What concerns me more is that Open AI agent makers did not realise this issue for 2 months or more and even upon realising they took almost a month to notify the authorities.

There are laws designed to punish individuals who maliciously attempt to undermine security systems and gain unauthorized access to sensitive information. Yet there is no framework for holding an AI model accountable when it independently takes actions its creators did not instruct it to perform. Interesting times we live in.

Anyhoo, I also came across this Oreo tiffin case and wondered how moral debates escalate and why. Theory of Dyadic Morality by Chelsea Schein and Kurt Gray explains this by arguing that perceived harm, rather than a wide set of separate moral foundations, is the core driver of what people call right or wrong. It suggests that acts are condemned coz of three elements: norm violations, negative affect, and perceived harm. This harm is dyadic, involving an intentional agent causing damage to a vulnerable patient. In Oreo's case, the controversy was not really about the brand at all. It started from a disagreement between parents in a WhatsApp group about what is appropriate to pack in their kid's tiffin boxes.

The mother's side: In her mind, the parents packing Oreos were the Intentional Agents and their actions caused emotional distress to her daughter (the Vulnerable Patient). Because she perceived harm, she judged packing cookies as an immoral act.

The other side: They viewed the mother as the Intentional Agent who was overstepping boundaries. By trying to ban cookies, she became the perpetrator harming the other children's freedom and joy (the Vulnerable Patients). This made her demand look morally wrong.

It does not tell us who is right or wrong, but it helps explain why a disagreement become morally charged. How to address this conflict - I am also unsure.