Today, some new friendships. Some subtle but distinct no’s. Women’s traumas are real. And it is not your responsibility to tolerate it when other women dump theirs on you. That’s a valuable lesson to have learnt at 47.

Angry men and spiteful women. Both groups, weak, entitled people whose favourite prey are single women.

Same but more locally.

It’s always bizarre to me when film and videos show the ocean as 'too cold' and beach walks as something to be endured. I live on a tropical island and the water is never 'too cold', not even in winter. And there are enough of tropical coastlines to not normalise this white shit.

The parallels are staggering…then they are not. I have a birthday coming up (the kind that people expect women to shut up about and pretend isn’t happening) I spent 10 days in the hospital. Friends vanished, reappeared to dump on me then acted like I was too much. F*ck everyone. No cats.

Last month, I had to leave a Whatsapp group. - I said I didn’t want to read a book - Man got condescending, mocked my intellect & taste - I said I would not engage with sarcasm - Man had a meltdown, attacked moderator - Group was shut for 24 hrs - Moderator said there were complaints against me

Do I have any friends here who remember me from 2000s blogging & early Twitter?

This lovely book. Read it over breakfast and it steadied and softened my mood.

‘Community’ taught me that hardbitten cynics are control freaks. Makes sense in retrospect. How come we don’t get intelligent shows that are also nice, anymore?

I think the question I need to ask now is not, “Why are people so rude?” but “Should I tolerate thoughtlessness/ their not having encountered someone like me before/ their ‘just saying’/ whatever the answer to the first question is?”

Maybe some people never learnt to relate to other people without insincere flattery or other lies. Maybe they are incapable of it. You don’t have to make accommodations for them especially if lying is a deal-breaker and it also doesn’t have to hurt you. Trust your boundaries and it won’t.

Nightly ritual is now to iron undergarments and teeshirts that have not dried for over 24 hours, to make room for the day’s wash. How’s your romantic monsoon going?

Unfiltered participation in book clubs is actively exhausting and I think my brain is draining. I’ve had to hear Ruskin Bond being compared to Elon Musk (“Because they are wise and know so much”) and informed that MCU invented time travel (in a discussion about HHGG). 😶‍🌫️

Me embodying Mumbai spirit as the new civic body smashes the glass of shops that don’t fit their aesthetic and gives me broken pavements to walk on.

See, see, @jayaprakash777.bsky.social

After 32 months of genocide and 78 years of occupation across 3 peoples, non-Jewish Westerners are still afraid of being perceived as "antisemitic". That says a great deal about the fact that Zionism is inherently antisemitic.

Had a conversation with someone who said “Freida McFadden ugh” and we both rolled our eyes at how low people’s bar for good books is. It does not have to be literary fiction. Genre fiction can have decent characterisation and mildly plausible plots to do its job well.

Few things about this city’s destruction horrify me more than uprooted trees. Because I know they will never be healed or replanted.

Doctors don’t have compounders anymore. Was this an India-only phenomenon and when did it vanish? The family doctor who gave me my childhood shots had one I used to call uncle.

July is Cancer month, which means feeds are flooded with positive messages about my sign. The nice thing is it reminds me of the truly best parts of me, even the world usually treats them as weak, silly or unncessary. Hoarding them for the rest of the year’s gaslighting.

Encountering so much disproportionate male rage. Exes, men I knew awhile ago, dates. They have meltdowns because I don’t like the same book, block me because I need 2 days after getting bullied, get mad because I draw boundaries against their comments about my money. My life is ok. Are the men?

When did you move from referring to them as ‘my parents’ to ‘my family’? I think this is an age thing.

Why are men so angry?

Travel is a not a personality.

Is there anything creepier than an already attached man flirting with you? Yes, it’s his partner watching it all happen as if it’s perfectly normal to disrespect her that way.

Birthday month is here. I did this last year so giving it a whirl again. If you’d like to send me a gift, these are books I’d love to give a home on my bookshelf. I’ve read them all before, now I want a copy of my own with a special memory attached. www.amazon.in/hz/wishlist/...

Rewatching Ted Lasso and the storyline about Keeley’s video getting leaked is still so difficult to watch.

Friend did this so I did too. My reading opinions tally of the year so far:

Rain, rain, go away, Come again a few hours later. All of Mumbai wants to get home. But we also want water.

Same latitude but the entire universe of a suburb between us - is a thing that only Andheri dwellers can legitimately use and understand.

Caro Claire Burke’s 'Yesteryear' isn't difficult because of its politics. It's difficult because it exposes how we read politics while insisting we're only talking about books. Counter-propaganda is still propaganda. The harder question is what it says about the way we read, argue and mistake rage.

Just a bad idea to read through the night. I’m tired during the day and can’t tell if it’s the lack of sleep or the nasty taste in mouth that bad books leave me with.

Stranger had an absolute meltdown after I said I didn’t want to read a classic that he liked. Friend didn’t believe me on this so I asked for some quiet time. When I returned he had a snarling rage fit and blocked me. Anonymous woman complained that I ‘hates the boys’. 🙄

You need one person to see your kindness as a strength. Just one. The world shames and punishes you so much for it. One person treating you differently reminds you to be that kind to yourself too.

A nice day. It’s one when you establish your boundaries and they aren’t violated or challenged.

Being courteous to a spiteful person can be like bringing a nuke to a poison lab.

YouTube comments taught me appreciation for something called ‘the manly giggle of SPB’.

Coming up is my birthday month and I’ve planned it in terms of the books I’m going to read and discuss. The top row are book club picks. The bottom two are my pillars to keep me going through the rigour reading. Are you reading any of these? Come talk to me! #Books

Came across the city to meet someone at Yuhi, Powai after having made a reservation. They were extremely rude and said I couldn’t enter because they had an event planned. You folks can keep your pretentious Bandra-like joints. I’ll stick to places that actually want my business.

Hot take: I don’t think most aspiring book influencers actually like reading. I think they just believe it’s an easy path to influencerdom with hot takes generated by AI. (this is not an AI-generated post)

Schoolchildren in Bengal are going to get 'pure Sattavik' mid-day meals, apparently. Bengal, you chose this. For once in your existence, sit in the corner and think about what you have done without bragging about how intelligent and cultured you are.

I just started typing 25 June 19…has this ever happened to you?

No one more painful on a WhatsApp group than the ‘I want to be an influencer”.

This book is full of wows.

Listening to @mahimkajerry with @amitvarma. I’ve never heard my city described outside my own head this way. “An island that floated away & came to India. The hinterland is where people beat each other up for God.” It’s not that city now but it tells me that I still exist.

June evening in Mumbai. #Pensketch

Appreciation post for Leo women: Lots of people are strong and intelligent but Leo women carry that sense of wonder and delight even after years of disappointment. And it is decidedly not delusional but pure as well as smart and grounded. The sun shines when a Leo woman smiles your way.

What this trope of the neurotically anxious British guy? This is historically the most blood-thirsty, racist, sexist, imperalist kind of human being that has ever lived and continues to face zero consequences while the world is burning on every continent because of this group’s existence.

Roy Kent was great but this is the boyfriend I want because he knows when to STFU. www.youtube.com/shorts/vqLdz...