Who am I?

I'm Spider-Man.

Or at least, I wanted to be him as a kid. I suppose having a newsletter of my own is no substitute for being a web-slinger (I'm still questioning the Sam Raimi web shoot mechanism straight from the wrist like the web was inside him). But I'm not doing too badly for writing on the internet!

I've seen the Sam Raimi movies at least 100 times, by the way. That is not an exaggeration.

What’s with the title?

There are two times I think I am truly myself. One of them is when I eat locally-sourced potato hot chips. No matter what time of day, or what meal I ate before, I always have an appetite for hot chips. I’m always myself when I’m eating them.

And I was eating hot chips while I wrote this.

The second activity, of course, is writing. I’ve always had a voice problem in large social gatherings, and writing has always helped me in that aspect. And I love writing, it’s just so much fun trying to figure out how to present something boring in a cool way. I get to learn tons while I’m writing, if I’m being honest, so it’s good incentive for me also!

Some day, if they ask “What is the common string between hot chips and writing”, you chime in with my name, ideally :)

What do I read here?

Whatever I’m thinking about at the time! The way this works is I publish monthly, and there are two kinds of posts I do. One involves primary research (i.e, me talking to people), and the other is entirely secondary research (i.e, me digging into the most random corners of the internet). I alternate every month with each kind of post, because interviewing takes time. But my focus is to deliver to you an amazingly-researched, compelling, fun-to-the-peeps-who-don’t-even-think-of-this kind of piece, no matter what it is I’m writing.

I write at the intersection of culture and business/data. Usually, it takes me to places I never thought I’d go, or people I didn’t know I could/would speak to. But it’s amazing, and I realized that a newsletter is way more than just writing.

I appreciate criticism, maybe more than appreciation (but please do say nice things too). Every time I write, I try to smoothen out rough edges that existed in the previous ones. Did I do enough research? Did I make compelling arguments? Do they make sense? Did I lessen inserting stupid jokes?

Sorry, that last one was a lie, I’ll always have those jokes :)

Who are you, really?

I’m a 24-year old “adult” from India. I studied economics in Delhi, work in Gurgaon, but am an Odia boy by birth. Eastside, baby.

Currently, my job involves making spreadsheet models and refining presentations (I can sense your disappointment from this screen). The more fun version of me likes to listen to lots of hip-hop, obsesses over basketball and whatever new show I'm watching. I love learning things about media markets and how entrepreneurship, risk and art coincide, and really love writing about those things. Yes, that involves exploring commodification and money and all those other big words we cannot stop talking about and love-hate on a dysfunctional level.

How regular do you intend to be?

Monthly! This rate allows me to provide you a whole experience (and ideally deep enough research) when it comes to my piece. Background track and everything :)

(It’s amazing how my writing rate is better with my full-time job than without.)

Okay, I like you. But you better chill with those dad jokes, cool?

Do you know what they call a writer who missed a self-imposed deadline?

A newslater :)