Almost
Rational.
Writing at the intersection of love, psychology, and sociology. Unpacking why we do what we do.
We are neither logical machines nor chaotic beings. We live in the deeply human space of being almost rational.
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Reading
The Sociological Imagination — C. Wright Mills
Mills argues that the personal is always political and the political is always personal. That biography and history are the same conversation. Reading it and finding it everywhere: in the articles I write, in the way organisations treat people, in why individuals blame themselves for structural failures. A 1959 book that reads like it was written last Tuesday.
Writing
Case studies of how systems fail people
Less interested in abstract theory right now. More interested in the specific: one person, one organisation, three years, a cancelled flight, a WhatsApp message that crossed a line. The case study format forces precision. You cannot hide behind generalisations when you are writing about a real person's real choices.
Obsessing Over
The gap between how organisations present themselves and what they actually do
Every company has values on the wall. Very few of them survive contact with a real decision. I keep thinking about the distance between the mission statement and the manager who turned aggressive when asked to reduce a notice period. That gap is where most of the actual psychology lives.
Fresh off the press
Latest Articles
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With eight days to go for the Civil Services Preliminary Examination, the admit card has not appeared on the Commission's website. Historical patterns suggest it is due any day.
5 min readThe "Cool Girl" Burnout
She laughs at the joke. She has laughed at it 14 times. Her face knows the shape before the joke ends. He makes the joke again. The room is not funny.
5 min readWhy You Need Approval from People You Don't Even Respect
There is no humiliation quite like catching yourself caring what someone thinks of you - someone whose judgment you wouldn't trust with a restaurant recommendation.
16 min readThe Rent on Closeness
The car is the most private space either of them has access to. It is, unironically, the only room they can afford.
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She came out of the washroom and you could tell. Not from her face. She had fixed her face.
6 min readWorth your time
Editor's Picks
Why You Pull Back Right When Someone Gets Close
If Someone Is Buttering You, They May Have a Knife Too
The butter and the knife are not separate things. They are the same tool, applied in sequence. What looks like recognition is sometimes the first half of an extraction.
A Man Went on His Honeymoon and Did Not Come Back
A behavioral, sociological, and anthropological analysis of the Raja Raghuvanshi murder case. This is not a crime report. It is an examination of what makes this kind of violence possible.
The writer
Satyam
I write about the space between logic and emotion: where love, psychology, and sociology collide. If you have ever made a decision and then wondered why, this is for you.
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