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  • Middle aged man woman platonic friend
    Relationships

    A Post-40 Primer On Friendship With Men: Hope & Betrayal

    August 11, 2025August 26, 2025
    2 Comments

    Friendship with men felt like walking across broken glass hoping for true connection. Post 40, I look back with impatience & better boundaries.

    Keep Reading A Post-40 Primer On Friendship With Men: Hope & BetrayalContinue

  • Garden of abundance
    Map Of Emotion | Pop Culture

    Boundaries & The Ticket Price Of Living Well

    August 6, 2025August 6, 2025
    0 Comments

    Drawing boundaries isn’t rule-setting. It’s tending to your life like a garden. The price of depth, curiosity, empathy may be being misunderstood.

    Keep Reading Boundaries & The Ticket Price Of Living WellContinue

  • BOOK - Tibetan Suitcase Tsering Namgyal Khortsa Sea of Poppies Amitav Ghosh
    Books | Politics & Feminism

    BOOK: Tsering Namgyal Khortsa’s Tibet & Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis

    July 25, 2025August 19, 2025
    0 Comments

    Reading a sprawling colonial saga (Sea of Poppies) and an intimate Tibetan memoir brings me specific lenses to see the world by. A book is my map.

    Keep Reading BOOK: Tsering Namgyal Khortsa’s Tibet & Amitav Ghosh’s IbisContinue

  • Flavours of women of colour
    Books | Politics & Feminism | Pop Culture | Relationships

    Flavours Of Women Of Colour: Bulbul Sharma, Deesha Philyaw

    July 22, 2025July 22, 2025
    0 Comments

    Women ’s stories linger in kitchens & church pews. They carry the weight of funeral households, prayer rituals and unspoken female desire.

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  • Third Places
    City | Home & Identity | Pop Culture

    Third Places And A Single Person: A Space Of One’s Own

    July 15, 2025July 28, 2025
    0 Comments

    In Third Places I sit beside people I may never meet again, speak only when I want to, and feel more like myself than I do in rooms that know my name.

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  • The Rookie Meena Kandasamy book show poster
    Map Of Emotion | Pop Culture

    Trusting My Judgement Again: Thanks Meena Kandasamy & The Rookie

    June 26, 2025June 26, 2025
    2 Comments

    A police drama. A feminist novel. Both markers in my journey to trusting my judgement again. ‘The Rookie’ and Meena Kandasamy’s debut novel were soul mirrors.

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  • Book - The Collected regrets of Clover - Mikki Brammer
    Books | Map Of Emotion

    Notes In The Margin: ‘The Collected Regrets Of Clover’ – Mikki Brammer

    June 12, 2025June 12, 2025
    0 Comments

    A stranger gave me ‘The Collected Regrets of Clover’ in a rare act of generosity. The book gently looks at the messiness & mundaneity of grief.

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  • Mad women book collage
    Books | Politics & Feminism | Pop Culture

    The Feels This Week: Mad Women In Books

    May 31, 2025May 31, 2025
    0 Comments

    Mad women on my mind—through cults, kitchens, crimes, and cosmic quests. These stories of rage, resistance, and reckoning ask: what makes a woman mad?

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  • Gabrielle Zevin book AJ Fikry Tomorrow
    Books | City | Politics & Feminism | Relationships

    Lit Crush: Gabrielle Zevin ‘s Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow, The Storied Life of A.J.Fikry

    May 28, 2025May 28, 2025
    1 Comment

    How do you reconcile the love of some books with the thought that their authors hate people like you? Gabrielle Zevin makes me ponder this.

    Keep Reading Lit Crush: Gabrielle Zevin ‘s Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow, The Storied Life of A.J.FikryContinue

  • South India Book - Covenant of Water Abraham Verghese, Painter of Signs RK Narayan
    Books | Politics & Feminism

    South India Storyscapes: COVENANT OF WATER – Abraham Verghese, PAINTER OF SIGNS – RK Narayan

    May 11, 2025May 11, 2025
    0 Comments

    Two stories – one written in the 70s and one in the 2020. They had me thinking about how South India looks at identity issues like gender & faith.

    Keep Reading South India Storyscapes: COVENANT OF WATER – Abraham Verghese, PAINTER OF SIGNS – RK NarayanContinue

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Comments

  • IdeaSmith on The Feels This Week: A Curated Life Is A Considered One: “@Harshaman: What a delightful set of throwbacks it was to receive this comment! First, to the days when one would…”
  • Harshaman on The Feels This Week: A Curated Life Is A Considered One: “Which for me means, looking back at the past with a discerning and curatorial eye I had been thinking about…”
  • Neha Kapoor on Unlikeable Women: It’s Okay To Dislike Her, But Respect Her: “You always have such good book recommendations!”
  • IdeaSmith on A Post-40 Primer On Friendship With Men: Hope & Betrayal: “@Soumya: Thank you for reading and commenting. Yes, I’ve had a good male role model. Unfortunately for me, I’ve encountered…”
  • IdeaSmith on Trusting My Judgement Again: Thanks Meena Kandasamy & The Rookie: “@krist0ph3r: ‘Judgement as mental shorthand’ is a great way to look at it. It’s narrow to think of judgementalism as…”
  • Soumya on A Post-40 Primer On Friendship With Men: Hope & Betrayal: “Hi Ramya, Firstly, my congratulations on a well written post. It didn’t pull its punches. Secondly, it was lovely to…”
  • krist0ph3r on Trusting My Judgement Again: Thanks Meena Kandasamy & The Rookie: “Wow, that was a lot to process and at some point it got too much for me to handle reading.…”
  • IdeaSmith on When Did Reading Become Performance?: “@Sid: Oh god, you’re right.”
  • Sid on When Did Reading Become Performance?: “I think the Poser Reader sentiment also comes from the branding reading as a hobby has had. Successful people say…”
  • Topher on Lit Crush: Gabrielle Zevin ‘s Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow, The Storied Life of A.J.Fikry: “I too struggle greatly with problematic people who make great things. As a child Bill Cosby brought YEARS of joy…”

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