2024 was a good-ish year. Can’t complain.

In December (right before Christmas) we brought Poppy (on the name, footnote) home from a shelter near Bannerghatta. She started at a ’year old’ and now we know—from teeth-based evidence—is a malnourished one and a half year old. She was perpetually hungry and it broke our hearts to see that. She’s up for food anytime even now, but knows there will be enough and on time and is calmer in general around things we eat. At night the bed isn’t enough anymore and on winter nights we don’t complain.

Now there is just enough floor between all the fur to build a third puppy or evenly distribute over everything in the wardrobe. We prefer the first but settle for the wardrobe thing.

The one in the air in a blur is Poppy. She’s lighter and easier to lift but goes bonkers after exactly three seconds in the air. Chellam with her Bauhaussey collar isn’t as amused by the whole setup as I am.

We (KL11 and recently R) had a fulfilling year at work. We made a ‘corporate’ book about people at River. Will post some pictures later. R took soul-filling photos of people working at the factory. (Everybody smiled.) I went to some ‘events’ and was miserable after. I went to some other ‘events’ and wanted to go to more, after.


I’ve realised work isn’t the focus this year. Not the kind that brings in money, anyway. I’ve decided to work from home more often.

The year was an absolute disaster for reading. I started more books and finished few. Much fewer than usual. It isn’t that I’m older and okay-er with not finishing books; just that I was too distracted to see things through. I’ll replace the void left by two underwhelming Kindles with a Kobo, once I get through the five books on the proverbial nightstand. (Suggestions welcome on which one to spring for. I’m more interested in the more pocketable/pocket-friendly Clara.) There is a thread on Threads from Kobo’s CEO that sold me on the company and a bunch of podcasts later, the feelings hold true-r. (There are a new set of podcasts I’m listening to, mostly while cleaning the house and its utensils, and sometimes when waiting for snoring to set in. Will share a list too.)

R is home alone with the kids most days and that is not okay. So I’m testing alternate WFH days and fifty-fifty days till we find a solution.

I am cycling more. (Or at all, finally.) Driving to work always reminded me of that tiffin-box frame from Sarnath Banerjee’s Harappa Tales (there is a single-person sitting in a disproportionately huge SUV with a single tiffin box in the rearview mirror) and it is getting increasingly difficult to find parking spots for Podimol at the HQ anyway. The other day, I’d diagonally parked outside, between the drain, an excuse for a garden, and a silver-grey KIA. The misalignment drove me angry till other unimportant store-construction measurement fiascos took over that duty for the day. I’ve got some band-less toe-cages and UV-shielded sleeves off Decathlon and have upgraded to the ultimate cycle-riding fashion statement with Sandals+Socks per Rivendell. And there is now a long overdue bar-bag on the handlebar that has fundamentally changed the way I worry about losing phones/earphones from pant-pockets, forever. I think I waited too long trying to justify another Ortleib only to fail and wisen up. The ride is a fifteen minutes thing (sometimes less, sometimes more, depending on how well the little traffic near Nallurhalli Metro behaves). It is pleasant-adjacent especially this time of the year, and I hope more riding will make it more pleasant in the summery months. In the interest of worklifebalance, I’m trying to ride as light as possible, but packing light isn’t always feeling right.

Last year I wasted a whole bunch of time doomscrolling OTT platforms. This year I’ve added TV+ to the list in hopes of getting rid of everything else. I know; logic, etcetera.

There are new input devices on the way. I threw some money at a GAS67 barebones and a Kensington Orbit WL. Can’t wait to build the keyboard and see how a static mouse feels. Then I’ll write a series of posts on all the slightly weird input devices I love. (Input tools [including the ink and paper variety] decide and often define how unique one’s work is and I want to experiment and not feel old.)

Speaking of age. I also want to cook (and eat) better. Numbers from a recent blood-test was a great reality-check and one of the ways to deal with those numbers seem to be eating well. We got an Instant AirFryer and instant air fry a whole bunch of things now. The coconut oil can is sleeping in a corner. Like all great cooks, R doesn’t like me in the kitchen when she’s in the zone. I believe I also want to feel what that feels like (being in the zone, not the being out of the zone) and be more present like her.

This was the year I invited more people home than ever. (I don’t say ‘we’ because R has always had great friends.) And I see why that is a good thing. More this year.

On the name: Poppy is spelt that way to avoid copyright fights with the umbrella manufacturer. And she reminds me of a Poppy pod. Apparently she was just the generic ‘puppy’ as she was being rescued from a miserable place, and the name stuck and morphed into Poppy. She responds to most words that end in a ‘ppee’ now but we figured we’ll keep the name and help erase everything else about her past eventually. Fingers firmly crossed for that.

Made this ‘illustration’ [1] for Aruma’s second-floor grooming station windows+doors. The white bits (that spray-bottle, the standing dog’s legs, all white parts of gradients, speech bubbles, general bubbles, etcetera) are transparent and the other bits are translucent (frosty) for eager pet-parents to take peeks at their (our) kids getting their spa on. There is a photo of yourstruly bent over and eyeing a young Chellam somewhere on R’s phone.

My opinion is greatly biased and they’re the first (and sometimes only) place I trust with Chellam (and before her, with Kalyani). Chelgato had an uncharacteristic seizure (tests couldn’t say anything beyond ‘normal’) a couple of weeks ago and we are a bit worried. She’s been her usual complicated happy self since—is the report from home.

Said illustration. The grey bits are grey ACP walls.

And this below is on the ground floor windows. The left side houses a pet-supply store section so sunlight wasn’t welcome. Then, everyone got bigger heads. The right side is a waiting lounge and there is a decent amount of exposed glass there. I shamelessly repurposed stuff. This was ‘work-for-a-friend’ so no green pieces of paper changed hands. There was a huge bucket of fancy shampoo involved though. (We’re sorted for another two years I guess.)

These are all—obviously—based on simple geometric shapes and an unhealthy amount of gradientry. If one clicked on that link in the first paragraph, one would also see that the symbol—unoriginal, but drawn ‘well’ by yourstruly—drove most of those decisions and not laziness. One can argue laziness drove some of the decisions when it came to the symbol, but that is somebody else’s beef. What I really loved doing was giving some of these playful poses, and—R says—obviously, drawing those wavy lines for the showerhead and hair dryer. There is a lot of copypasta that is too late to apologise for.

1: I say ‘illustration’ and ‘well’ in quotes not because I am not good at them. Make whatever of that statement, etcetera. That ‘well’ is also what I tell myself; to sleep fairly well without all the waking up worrying that I most certainly did eff something up somewhere. Just saw these files looking for door-stickers to River Stores (that now get updated, longer working hours like the rest of the country; hello, union budget!), and now my filing system needs some spring cleaning. See? I have bigger problems of ‘being good at’ to deal with. Recently, Ma at the HQ gave much wisdom in simple terms: no fire, nobody is hurt, Ar is not in jail, we’re good. That was such good life advise that I’m going to ignore and panic instead.

We had a nice Vijayawada teaching-road-trip last month. It was the first post-Covid-lockdown offline course (abstract doc) for Communication Design so the benchmark for awesomeness/okayness was set quite ground-level and below. The bachchalog did well, with some well-written books in the last week. I was impressed (capital I) with the depth and breadth of work; kind of reminded me of the good old times as a student in Paldi. R cooked everyone dinner (like the good old times in Paldi). We had fun (capital F) and some spicy Andhra food. On the way back (Vij–Chennai–Coimbatore–Kozhikode) there were friends, Tamizh food, football-field-sized roads, shady hotel rooms, aeroplanes, Burmese food, near-miss Tollbooth stucknesses, etcetera. (More on all that later.)

Here is everyone making posters out of thin air and newspaper at the makeshift CD-studio (IT Lab) at Vij. Capital F.

At home in Wayanad, Podimol is ‘in’ the Monsoon way more than we are. We just had her power-washed yesterday (because she was looking more terracotta-sculpture and less metal-sheet-stamped) and today, she looks like this (below). We—not so—accidentally drove into a green patch that turned out to be a Rasayanam-consistency patch underneath. Getting out was harder than getting in. The mud flew everywhere.

The Monsoon (coupled with rising prices for everything) is really hard for many people in many places in Kerala, but we are okay. Dealing with leaks in the kitchen and more-slash-bigger wasps-and-technicolour-bugs is not much of ‘dealing with’ really. We had some hard-ish times a couple of months back (delayed payments and some such logistical effups) and sailed slowly through them.

KL11 has resumed work on River and I’m looking at multiscript wordmarks. We are also looking for interns/project-associates to help us for three months (more on that too, later). Some expansive icon-sets, web-design, brand-guidelines and extending the product identity, etcetera, are in the works. Drop me a line (KL11 mail) if interested. I’m putting together a document on the what and the why and all that soon. We are kind of particular about some basics (like third-year-in-college-basics; not unreasonable basics) of type and form but are hoping to be able to mentor people as well. We shall put our semi-abandoned Instagram page to some use, maybe. And I have so many emails to catch up to.

Chelgato has put on good weight and has no hesitation anymore before jumping into bed before we do. That usually means we end up fighting her for realestate but are also kind of halfhearted about it thanks to the added warmth. (Our part of Wayanad gets cold like most other parts of Wayanad). She pretends to guard the house while secretly hoping for strangers to come and pet her.

Sulthan Bathery’s arguably-best print shop is called CopyCat. We moved here (not exactly SB but close/far enough) in March and sometime last week was the first time we needed to commit-control-pee anything into pulp. This (below) is from Nellarachaal, a buffaloe-grass-carpet showroom over a hill overlooking some water that seems to be going nowhere in particular. Chellam likes the place despite the three dogs who are a bit too jumpy, and because of the one who is a sweetheart. (R—obviously because everything is photographically appropriate—took the pictures.)

Chelgato loves taking naps in moving vehicles way better than any of us can ever hope to. (She’s halfheartedly sleeping off a vet visit to Aruma in this picture.) She finds nooks where there are none apparent.

This is home. It is an old (60+ years) singlestory sloped-roof affair with flawed wooden ceilings and a kitchen that leaks in five places (so far) when the rain turns extrabold. Like many houses from that decade, ours is a simple square-plan divided into two big rooms, two small rooms, and the kitchen-cul-de-sac-combo next to a bathroom that stays consistently in winter-mode. It is a 3-column modular-ish grid with odd gutters. We lost the green cover in the backdrop to some seasonal clearance sale. On the plus side, the fore-noon sun warms the house up in time for night-chill. Out front, there are birds (bulbuls, kingfishers, tiny sparrows in a rainbow’s worth of hues) everywhere. Plus everyone’s chickens are everywhere all the time. Chelgato has kind of stopped barking at some of them regulars.

We welcomed a puppy to the family and she’s prone to flying at us with ears flapping in the least aerodynamically efficient way possible. She’s also good at stealing everyone’s hearts while at it.

Arguably, I did not start out as a dog-person (or any kind of -person really). Only past meeting studio-dogs at NID, Ninja and Saboo at Co (third year of college, internship-driven) I grew comfortable enough to let them rest on me while working. Then Kalyani changed a lot of the ways I dealt with animals; she came to me—an intelligent, somewhat aloof like many cats—baby who needed a lot of time and very little space for herself. Now I can—with 62% success—tell a Lab-Retriever puppy from a Golden one.

The title is an inside joke with R on alternate, modular names for the puppy. (Inspired in parts from Elgato’s announcing a new camera. I was researching building a Pi-Zero web-camera for the computer; we share a webcam and on days with meeting-s it is awkward.) It was R who spent hours talking about canines, sending pictures of them in irresistible lighting, etcetera and made me warm up to the idea of befriending a puppy. The furball did the rest when she arrived.

Photo thanks to R. I am responsible for cropping the original (portrait) weirdly.

PS: I think it was essential that we got her. So much stress and anxiety and fatigue in our lives post COVID-uncertainties and general COVID-uncertainties. Work has been super-slow and mind-boggling at all times.