This piece was first posted for my LinkedIn Newsletter, here, and has been reproduced below with minor edits.

England seems to have a thing for coronations in the month of May—Henry III in 1220, George VI in 1937, and Charles III in 2023. In 2026, through a little creative liberty, I’ll add Sir David Attenborough’s hundredth birthday, and the Arsenal Football Club’s 2025-26 English Premier League (EPL) championship win to the list.
Read on!

Nature Breathes Through Him

The radio industry of any year and decade would disagree with the BBC, but the BBC of 1950 didn’t think Sir David Attenborough’s voice was best suited for the radio. He took his business to the world of television, and hosted his first gig in 1954 from West Africa, as a presenter of Zoo Quest. It’s 72 years and counting, and he’s the longest-serving television presenter alive in the history of television broadcasting.

Sir David grew up wandering the corridors of a zoology department. At eleven, he ran a small business: catching newts from a pond five meters from the zoology lab and selling them back to the lab at three pence each. The department never quite worked out where their supplier was getting his stock. He cycled for miles to quarries to collect fossils.

He rose in the ranks within the BBC, but his purpose was larger and not tied to the commercial pursuits. He holds 32 honorary degrees, but if there’s one thing we can observe from his works, it’s his constant focus on leveraging all his knowledge to make the world a little wiser.

His 1979 series ‘Life on Earth’ was watched by an estimated 500 million people—roughly one in nine humans alive at the time. In 2017, 80 million people in China streamed ‘Blue Planet II’ simultaneously, slowing down the country’s internet. In 2025, his cinema film ‘Ocean’ became the highest-grossing nature documentary of the decade. He has been on television longer than the medium of streaming has existed, longer than most of his viewers’ parents have been alive, and the numbers only continue to rise across demographics, households, and the world over. Off camera, and beyond the genuine public admiration, there are two aspects of Sir David that draw out an authentic human connection:

· The arc of purpose: His mission was education, his medium was television, his subject was nature, and his route was storytelling. He never broke away from these four pillars, and worked to keep simplifying them to connect with every demographic of the audience. This sums up his resolve over the years: ‘We need to work with nature, not against it.’

· A punch of pause: I always feel, the true mark of any broadcaster is the ability to pause—for effect, impact, and creating space to be heard. It’s not always about the best questions, not about the most thorough research, not about the compelling monologue. It’s a conversation that’s well-poised, adequately paused on both ends, in order to be heard, felt, and remembered. This ability of striking a balance between pause and prose is not just limited to human conversations. It extends to the conversation between humans and nature, our noisy thoughts and the crashing waves in the sea, our silent murmurs and the eeriness of the breathing trees in the still of the night.
People have written essays about Sir David’s voice. He keeps his voice quiet so that nature can speak first. The hush is a gesture of respect. He and his crew are just visiting guests, and discipline is everything. He understands that nature footage needs space to breathe, that the silence after a sentence often does more work than the sentence itself. When he finally raises his voice, when a chick fledges, when an elephant takes a water break, the lift in his tone feels like the planet exhaling.

He celebrated his hundredth birthday on May 8, 2026, took in all the messages from across the world, and got back to work. There’s so much to be done, and he’s making every moment count. This quote by him sums up the current state and our expected role: ‘The fact is that no species has ever had such wholesale control over everything on Earth, living or dead, as we now have. That lays upon us, whether we like it or not, an awesome responsibility.’

140 Years of History, And The Glory Returns After 22 Years

On May 19, 2026, a young eight-year-old went ‘We are champions, Daddy’ to his father, who was heating the grill for his family. The father was the manager of the Arsenal Football Club, Mikel Arteta, and it was his eldest son, Gabriel, who set the emotions of the win rolling. The Arsenal Football Club won the English Premier League on May 19, 2026 after 22 years, and more importantly, after three consecutive years of coming close as runners-up.

The Arsenal Football Club was founded in October 1886 by sixteen workers at the Royal Arsenal munitions factory in Woolwich, south-east London. The Scotsman David Danskin put in three shillings of seed money; everyone else put in sixpence each. They named themselves Dial Square after a workshop at the heart of the Arsenal complex, then quickly became Royal Arsenal, then Woolwich Arsenal. In 1913, they moved from the South of London to the North, and retained only ‘Arsenal’ in the name. The move across the river to Highbury saw a lot of angst amongst football fans across England, but soon came World War I, and there were bigger worries to manage.

‘Hard work’ is in the club’s DNA. Call it an inheritance from their factory upbringing. Club football is not just a championship consisting of many games. It’s a combination of commercial gains, fan sentiments, content viability, off-field drama, and on-field performance. I started following Arsenal in their 2003-04 season, not because they were crowned the Invincibles, but because that was the year I started understanding the concept of club football, the composition of a season, and the interplay of the league with the regional competitions. There was something so simple, and easy to love about Arsenal. I’m not someone who wears the facts and fandom on my tongue and sleeve, but it’s an eternal emotion to me.

For the past week, I’ve been scrolling through my X (formerly Twitter) feed, and the number of stories that are being shared are testimony to what a sense of belonging can do. For example, a father used the Arsenal game against Manchester United in 2025 as a window to restore sanity during one of the toughest times of his life. Two strangers connected over their common love for the game, and showed up game after game for years, and chatted over the good times and losses—one of them is missed during this year’s celebrations. For the past few years, right after Christmas, silence would set in. Watching the team battle the EPL standings, FA Cup ties, and Champions League knockouts between February and April would be a period of quiet discomfort. 2026 was no different, but the morning of May 20^th had me exhale with quiet pride and validation of faith.

Work Compounds

Sir David didn’t become Sir David in one documentary. He became the most trusted voice on Earth by spending seventy-two years showing up in jungles, in submersibles, in editing suites, in his hushed studio. He built our relationship with the planet one whisper at a time. Arsenal players and fans didn’t become champions in a moment either. They have been showing up for the same fixture—same scarf, same pub, same seat, for years that have included births, deaths, job losses, divorces, and many life moments.
Nature programmes and football clubs are both, in their best moments, machines for human connection. Sir David has been telling us, in that famous half-whisper, that the planet is not a backdrop. It is the thing we are part of. Arsenal fans have been showing us, with a kind of stubborn weekly devotion, that sport is not really about the score. It is about who you are sitting next to. Whose hand you grab when the ball goes in. Whose name you say first when it goes wrong.

Listen Up

This one got me emotional multiple times in the span of six minutes. Thank You Arteta by Rihanna.

You can check out my growing Trove Of Tunes—a curated Spotify playlist, here.

Cheers,

Shri

It was a Sunday well spent. The summer sun ran its routine, and stayed with us through the day. As the last stop before returning home, we visited a quaint café. The café was quiet—possibly because we were the only occupants when we walked in. It had a couple of interesting ramps at the door—narrow, short, and steep, making me wonder about the balance of functional use and aesthetics.

The Conversation At The Other Table

Outside, the sun was setting somewhere, as we were nursing our Americano and Cortado, to the peaceful, non-intrusive bustle of staff and kitchen. A mother and her kid walked in after some time. The kid could have been somewhere in the five to seven age bracket, maybe even younger. They sat down, and they were chatting like friends. They were waiting for a few more people to join them, but didn’t wait to order.

The mother showed the menu to her kid and asked her to choose. When the staff came around to take the order, the kid confidently gave her order directly to the staff. How often do you see an adult hand a child a menu and let them order? Or let them speak to the staff without prompting?

After the mother placed her order, the staff asked her if any of the dishes needed to be prepared in Jain style. She didn’t understand the question in the first go, so the staff repeated it, but she still didn’t understand. We were the only other occupied table at the café, and my partner helped out the staff by rephrasing the question.

She got it the third time around, and apologised to the staff. Seeing that, the kid immediately asked her mother why she was apologising. The mother calmly explained that it was because she was unable to understand what the staff was saying, and so couldn’t answer the question. There are instances where an apology is warranted, but not honoured. Then there are instances like this where it’s not really needed, but slips out of habit. Maybe she apologised for taking up the staff’s time. Maybe she saw her lack of understanding in the first go as a minor failure. Maybe it was just out of habit.

What stood out was the kid’s attentiveness—noticing the apology, and asking why it was needed at all. And the lady’s willingness to answer the question honestly, rather than keeping it for another day. Later, their friends came along, and the lady at the table felt so at home in the café that she ran to the door to welcome and hug her friends as they walked in.

Listen Up

Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good) by Zambian-born Zimbabwean singer Rozalla, from her second album, ‘Everybody’s Free’, released in 1991.

You can check out my Trove Of Tunes—a curated Spotify playlist, here.

Cheers,

Shri

It was May 17, 2025—Guns N’ Roses (GN’R) performed in Bombay (Mumbai) to a large, multi-generational crowd. Everyone had to work really hard to get to the concert arena. Yes, there was the forecast of rain, but the more reliable hazard was long stretches of uneven walking—unfamiliar to me as a first-time visitor. To the organizer’s credit, they had published the exact gate numbers and the entry points. But unfortunately, none of those numbers matched either Google Maps or the resident memory of an old-time Bombay cabbie.

Welcome To The Jungle

The band started bang on time—maybe it was 7:15 PM on the clock. I had just reached the venue—thanks to Google Maps and Uber. They weren’t wrong, but they were far from the entry point. GN’R got started with ‘Welcome To The Jungle’, and I could hear it from the street, at the point where I got off the cab.

There were tons of cops patrolling the area around the venue, but no one had any idea how far one had to walk to get to the nearest gate. The instructions were just ‘keep walking this way or that way’. I was walking down with my cane—partly on patchy sidewalks, and for the most part, by the corners of the main roads. Parts of it were scary, and parts of it were mindless bumping into parked cars at unauthorized spaces. I may have walked down about 2 km, when I heard a lady calling out to me to check if I needed help. She, along with the man accompanying her, was headed to the same concert, but had booked tickets to a different section.

The lady and the man (my new friends) downed a few drinks before the concert, hoping for the buzz to stay on till the end of the gig. But little did they know, there was a gig before the gig. We finally reached the gate where the organizers were ready to process our entry. My new friends had tickets to the general section, and for the first time, I’d booked a VIP entry pass. It was twice as much in price, and by the end of the night, twice as costly in stress terms. It was 8:15 PM on the clock—an hour of walking and figuring out the way to just get into the concert. It wasn’t the lines, it wasn’t the traffic, it was just the layout of the place without clear communication and transport instructions. My new friends asked me if I’d like to join them in the ‘general’ section, or if I’d like to go to the VIP section. I decided to go with them, and we marched on. Within 60 seconds of my decision, one of the organizers walked up to offer a shuttle cab to get to the arena—which was still about 500 to 800 meters away from where we were. We walked in just when the band started playing Paradise City, with the clock ticking over to 8:30—almost halfway through the concert.

The song still gets the crowd going. It was one of the first songs I’d ever heard live in a rock concert back in 2002 by a Bombay-based cover band. GN’R has songs mapped to different tempos, but the ones I generally rest my ears are on the mid-tempo compositions where Axl and Slash are able to stretch out at leisure.

All We Needed Was Just A Little Patience

The sound arrangement was choppy in parts. I’d give Axl Rose 10 out of 10 for the effort, and for sticking it out through an almost 3-hour set, but for his performance and vocals, I’d give him about a 3, with all favours called in. Slash was invincible, and as expected he had the crowd singing his guitar solos on ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine,’ taking it all in on ‘November Rain,’ doing as told on ‘Patience,’ and going wild on ‘Night Train’. ‘Civil War’ and ‘Don’t Cry’ are two of my favourite GN’R songs, and I only wished Axl had a little more in the tank to power through them that night. ‘Civil War’ gets me hooked all through—right from the initial monologue, to the verse, the flat-out chorus, and the rush towards the end.

Paying 2x the price for the ticket wasn’t my only first for that day. Yes, there was the venue too, but there was more. I had pre-paid for the food and beverages, but the bar was, expectedly, so crowded that no one could figure out how to get me a physical card to swipe. Eventually someone pointed us to another counter, which was crowded with disorderly lines. I decided to write the money off as a sunk investment, and made do with a glass of whisky thanks to my friends. I still owe them a drink.

The lady is a writer, and has authored a graphic biography of M.S. Subbulakshmi for Amar Chitra Katha. She kept telling me ‘you’re an inspiration’, and couldn’t come to terms with a blind person going to concerts all alone. We chatted a bit about some of the other jazz and blues concerts that happen every year, and she knew some of the organizers personally.

He was on the cusp of shifting careers. He was moving from being a chef to starting a corporate catering business of his own. His ancestors have been in Bombay since the early nineteenth century, and his immediate family runs a few philanthropic initiatives in the education space, including a couple of schools.

The concert got over at 10:00 PM, and it was time to commence a long march. We really thought it would be easier, but only to be fooled again.

The Return

We started walking and kept following the crowd. There were a lot of lights, but no exit in sight. My friends met a few more of their friends during the walk, and somehow we managed to make light of our aching legs. There were no cabs available once we got to the exit. The Uber network was clogged, and we just continued walking. The lady friend tried asking multiple cops to help get a ‘black-and-yellow’ cab, but the cops were only able to confirm the obvious—no empty cabs in sight for miles. We decided to figure out a way to get to the man’s house, which was about two to three km away, but we were still cab-deprived.

The lady had a few more friends who had travelled from Bangalore for the concert. She called them to check for their plans after the concert. They had booked a cab for the day, and they were driving down the same road that we were walking on. The three of us got in, and we headed to the friend’s house. One of the friends was the CFO of a renewable energy company. The other had a successful business of his own. They had landed in Bombay around 12:00 PM that afternoon, but forgot to carry their concert wristbands. They got to the venue early, but the organizers didn’t allow them to get in without the bands. They flew one of the office staff in from Bangalore with their bands. The person got the bands delivered at the venue with an hour to spare before kick-off.

After reaching that friend’s place, some of them got changed for an afterparty, and I booked a cab for myself to get back home. I’d paid for nostalgia and a vintage vibe that may not last for long. What I got instead were memories—shaped by alternate experiences and random encounters. ‘Never say never’, they always say. Never had I picked up tickets for a show 8 weeks in advance. Never had I made an expensive VIP punt for a better stage view. Never had I been so let down by a concert experience in my city. Guns N’ Roses, BookMyShow and Live Nation – thank you.

I told myself I’d think ten times before going for a concert at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse, but John Mayer came along to perform in February 2026, and thinking twice wasn’t an option.

Listen Up

The Garden from GN’R’s 1991 release, Use Your Illusion I. They didn’t perform this at the Bombay concert. It’s a highly underrated GN’R number, but packs in great musicianship all around.

You can check out my Trove Of Tunes—a curated Spotify playlist, here.

Cheers,

Shri

It was maybe 2016 or 2017. I don’t remember when I met her in person, but I do remember it was post-lunch, around 3 PM in our office in Gurgaon. It was her first day back in the office after her treatment, and she had her innate warmth intact. It’s five years today from that terrible, terrible Friday of 2021, and time has held the line on our unfinished conversations.

A Window To Many Things

We never used to have a schedule for our conversations. Once in a while when I would call her, she would end up talking continuously for the most part. There would always be this moment in these calls when she would be apologetic for highjacking my call for her stories and just venting out. I never had any reasons to complain then, but now I complain of the absence of it.

The conversations were timely, the catching up was the need of that hour, and just checking in on each other was something that came naturally to both of us. I used to often ask her to be more frequent on X (formerly Twitter), and she would always deflect that by taking pride in being frequent on Facebook.

I travelled a good part of England and Finland, walked through the terminals of a few international airports, learnt a bit about Assamese wedding traditions, heard her commentary on the songs playing in her condominium during Indian festivals, and would hear about her occasional cravings for Delhi Chaat and Masala Dosa; all through her Facebook News Feed.

Peace And Hope

I often cringe at the word ‘inspiration’—something I never told her she is. Because she’s way beyond that. She’ll always be someone whom I’ll look up to, for that authenticity, for the optimism, for her warmth, and above all for that real manifestation of ‘what I mean is what I say, and what I mean and say comes from what I am’.

It’s five years today, and it’s still hard to process the fact that the toughest fights can drift away in a matter of minutes and seconds. Seeing the impending end is very different from feeling and processing it. I’d like to think of this void in real life as a manifestation of connection of a different kind—something that rests in my memory, wakes with my routine thoughts, and breaks into a happy acknowledgement just like that.

We’ll be on a call again, and as always I’ll be all ears. Can’t wait to catch up on our unfinished conversations. Till then, rest for real, my dear friend.

Listen Up

Mediterranean Sundance from the 1980 San Francisco live recording by Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, and Paco de Lucía—reflective of you—full of life, positivity, improv with a touch of mischief and humour.

It started a little over six months ago. After a few years of just obsessively thinking, deeply hoping, and casually spreading the word, a couple of friends became the world that conspired to make this a reality. It may have been a couple of years, or maybe a couple more, I’ve been wrestling with this nagging conversation with myself to hit the gym and focus on getting fitter.

Sometime in June 2025, A couple of friends and I were returning from another friend’s 40^th birthday celebrations, and one of them popped the question, ‘Why don’t you consider joining a gym?’ Now, it wasn’t just the two voices in my head fighting each other out. There was a real voice outside that added to the conflict or the chorus. She added that she’s happy to keep following up with me till I acted on it. My issue has never been converting my will to action, turning inertia into momentum, but it’s just been about finding the right personal trainer. We both let the conversation hibernate in the Bombay rains. Sometime in the first week of October of 2025, I reached out to the same set of friends again to check if they knew of anyone who’s a personal trainer, and would be interested in taking up a gig to train me. Looking back at it, I don’t know why I didn’t ask them earlier, or reach out to different gyms in my vicinity for the same. I guess it was to be October, it was to be 2025, and so it was. My friends reached out to their trainer, and he was happy to give it a try, and take a bet on me. And so, here we are, months later, keeping the rhythm going.

Fussy Me Or Fitter Me?

I was keen on a personal trainer for a couple of reasons.

1. For guiding me through the exercises through a combination of touch-assisted movements and conversations. If this is the first piece of mine you’ve chanced upon, or the first time you’re getting to know me, here’s a quick disclosure detour. I’m visually impaired—to the extent of 100% blindness in both my eyes, with only some light perception left to grace the routine. I’ve had this condition since my birth, but if there’s any moment I’m looking straight into your eyes while talking to you, treat it as a happy accident. I’m neither reading your mind, nor am I hit by a miracle for the ages. Sometimes, I can see through you, but no one does that only with eyes wide open.

2. For pushing me to the edge of possibilities, and stretching me day after day. I was looking for someone who would never settle for the bare minimum, but keep challenging the previous best. I think this need and urge to push myself stems from years of defending people’s perception of what I can do, and my forever restlessness to do more.

Working Out By Figuring Out

My fitness coach is the founder of Tabbar Goregaon, and he has been in the fitness space for years. However, he started off with hotel management by qualification and profession, went on to bite the corporate bug with an MBA, but lunged into the blend of physical fitness and entrepreneurship very soon. We’ve been meeting almost every week for three, and at times four sessions of sixty minutes each since October 2025. Through the course of the past months, I’ve learnt of names of equipment, which were part alien to me before. A physical workout is not physical alone—it calls on every inch of mental presence and resolve to ensure every rotation carries the right form till the end.

Just like any relationship (personal, vocational, professional or interest driven), honest and consistent communication is critical. We started off our engagement by me clearly stating my fitness goals. It was building the 2 Ss—strength and stamina. I didn’t look at any numbers, didn’t set any targets, but only focused on being regular and honest. My commitment to myself and my coach was just to show up and do the work. We then aligned on what’s the best mode of demonstrating the body movements. Some were easy to pick up with verbal cues. Some required him to assist by holding my hands/legs to explain the angles, and some had me touch his knees, hips and elbows to get a hang of the posture—especially during the initial days of squat variations. Everyone’s method of learning would be different, and I’m sure someone else would pick up some of these in completely different ways.

Every Start Leads to Discovery

There were times when I’d get something in the first go, and some of them like the kettlebell swings took a lot more repeat takes than I’d liked. We don’t just keep counts and see the sets drift by. He’d keep telling me the specific points each exercise is meant to address, and I’d continue to marvel at how the simplest of movements can lock and unlock a part of the body. I had often heard about the stretching routine in every sport, but in the initial weeks, I got to experience the true value and relief that it brings. I never knew human muscles have heads, a farmer’s walk is a cardio routine, and I’ll have a list of exercises that I’m not a fan of—push-ups, lateral raises, and battle rope. Who’d known the value of a resistance band as a strong exercise apparatus! If not for this gym routine, I would have never come to realize that squats, lunges, and burpees are not hard, and they’re some of my favourite sequences.

More Than Just Working Out

Our conversations are not limited to exercises alone. We continue to exchange a lot of notes on music. With a ton of newer artists and albums to sample. I have to say, I’ve been at the receiving end of a lot of good recommendations—Greta Van Fleet, The Strokes, Empire of the Sun, etc, and I’d geek out on Jeff Healey, David Gilmour, Queen, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the likes. We both agree that Eddie Vedder is bloody hard to understand when he sings, and the ’70s and ‘80s music wears a happy smile during an intense workout. Through our conversations, I learnt of the connection between Diwali and the sixth guru of the Sikhs from the 17th century, about Jalandhar being one of the leading exporters of sports and gym equipment from India, and recently, about plant-based proteins in chocolate flavours. We’re excited about the growing Gin culture in India, and Linkin Park’s new era with Emily Armstrong.

My coach started Tabbar Goregaon with all his savings over the years. He has deep knowhow on the intricacies of the human anatomy in motion and its endurance. They cater to people of all ages, some of whom have been their frequent subscribers for years. There’s a good blend of respect and rigor that shows up every single day, at this small corner in my neighbourhood, and I’m only glad to continue being its benefactor.

Listen Up

Walking on a Dream from the album of the same name from 2008 by Empire of the Sun. These lines nicely sum up the rush of my Tabbar routine.
‘We are always running for the thrill of it, thrill of it

Always pushing up the hill, searching for the thrill of it

On and on and on we are calling out, and out again

Never looking down, I’m just in awe of what’s in front of me.’

You can continue to check out my Trove Of Tunes curated in a Spotify playlist by clicking here.

Cheers,

Shri

The AI race has spawned a strange chorus. In some hallways, it seems to immerse in nuance, and on some feeds, it’s just raising its volume. Between fear, anxiety, hope, and possibilities, the room for listening to one’s own voice has become a lot more claustrophobic. For this piece, I look at the joy of imperfections and the crossfire of counterpoints clouding our lives. Read on!

The Notes Of Separation

When it comes to music, there are albums that get produced in a studio, and concerts that grace live arenas. Over a period of time, technology has enhanced the sound and light of music production and performance. This has not only led to the sharpening of rough edges, but has also opened up newer ways to reimagine the art—for example, this Irish cover of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean created by AI.

Over the years, the George Lucases of the AI world have continued to harp on the interplay of AI and humans to advance the path to perfection, with narratives along the lines of humans being the captains, and AI, the copilots. Last week, I was reading this piece by Ted Gioia, one of my favourite commentators on music and culture, where he argues on how the grace of music, and the spirit of musicianship lies in letting the imperfections be. He’s right to the point as improvisations lead to imperfections. It is not being wrong, but it’s letting the spirit of playing with the music, instead of treating it as just another chore. Humans may choose to leverage AI to smoothen the edges, but the listeners’ ears are not seeking the autotune. They’re just reaching out to receive an honest connection.

“If you’re a jazz soloist, your goal isn’t perfection. That’s for machines. Art is expressive of the human condition—and that’s always a messier affair. Miles Davis taught me that even mistakes can make a solo better, not worse.”, Ted Gioia.

Ted appreciates the room for error in music, and rightly disqualifies it as a pure mathematical calculation. Even if there’s a lot of math behind a composition coming together, the production and performance is a sum of heart, talent, and soul. I like this excerpt of his book ‘The Imperfect Art’ that Ted quotes in his piece:

“Imagine a computer that has been programmed to compose musical works in any style. Even if the computer produced works stylistically and qualitatively indistinguishable from Mozart’s, we would still be unwilling to consider them as comparable to the Austrian composer’s pieces. The two are incommensurable. Mozart’s works are artistic masterpieces, and the computer’s output, however admirable, is something else entirely. The latter’s perfection no more reflects on the composer’s art than the existence of motor boats affects our judgment of how difficult it is to swim across the English Channel.”

A few months ago, I used one of the AI apps to turn a couple of my poems into songs. I prompted the genre, voice, tone, and the feel I desired, and let the studio of models work it out. I tried multiple versions, but I wasn’t too happy with the end output. Not an unfamiliar script for the Rick Rubins of the AI world, and something that’s always covered under the banner ‘learning in progress’.

At the end of the day, I think the commercial acceptability of music, or for that matter, any piece of creativity, will be driven by the audience’s consumption habits, which will in turn influence the decisions of the recording companies. Would the listeners be content and convinced with the AI output that will fit the puzzle beautifully one day? Or would they still be tuned to the moments of vulnerability and imperfection, which allows them to appreciate the human nature of the musicians? I’m on the side of the latter, even if I’m a strong advocate of technology, AI, and part of the world of hope it continues to develop.

You Can’t Hear The Voice If You’re Tuned To The Noise

There has been a barrage of content pieces flooding our feeds over the past couple of weeks. It’s as if everyone wanted to get back to high school and write essays, or apply for college with their SOPs. It all started with this piece by Matt Shumer. Matt seems like he’s coming from a good place, readying people outside the tech industry with the reality of what’s happening with the AI civilization, and what one can do to swim alongside. This is not the first piece I’ve read that tackles the themes that Matt has captured here, but I like the lucid and easy-reading style of this one. A cavalry of defence, validation, spoofs, and counterpoints landed post that, maybe hoping for the same degree of viewership that Matt’s piece garnered. I liked one, which had the Mac mini as the centrepiece.

Some called Matt’s piece AI sloth, and maybe some of the counterpoints were sloth too. If you find the slightest of value in a piece, keep it and carry on. If not, send it to the recycle bin. I feel, we waste too much time critiquing and endorsing every perspective on AI we consume, thereby losing time towards deep work, and having a single-minded focus on getting better ourselves, and with our output.

As humans, we’re so consumed by the state of AI singularity, that we forget the singularity of the human mind to expand its realms of achievement by partnering with technology. Just like Matt’s piece, another milestone hit us between Feb 16 and Feb 20, 2026, in New Delhi, India—The India AI Impact Summit—one of the largest gathering of thinkers, shapers, doers,, orchestraters and consumers of AI. There were talks, promises, pitches, and bold visions, spun with the same vocabulary, language, stakeholders, but with a far higher bravado. Everyone jumped into the arena, because of FOMO IRL, and you could be called out if you were not in the huddle. However, the question is if one managed to walk out with clarity and an action plan of what one needs to do. Or was it just another large fishing expedition with wide nets, some good catch that made it to dinner, but the rest washed away to swim the same way for another day?

Whether AI is coming for me, with me, or behind me, I’m clear that I personally need to put in my time to understand the technology, understand my line of work and interest, and bring the two worlds together in a way that makes sense for me. While doing this, there’ll be things I don’t know enough about, and things that I don’t know just yet. These are the imperfections I’m perfectly happy to be in harmony with. So, I’ll still listen and cheer a musician improvising in service of their craft—missing a note here and losing a scale there. I’ll still read pieces similar to Matt’s and stay away from noisy gatherings. I choose what makes sense to me, and that’s my Take Five.

Listen Up

Take Five by the Dave Brubeck Quartet from their 1959 album ‘Time Out’. One of the greatest and most recognizable jazz classics of all time with a fantastic melody and rhythm section.

I’m forever on the lookout for tunes old and new, You can check out my expanding Trove Of Tunes that I’m curating in a Spotify playlist.

Cheers,

Shri

Six days apart, two concerts, two different orientations, and two completely different arenas, but we were unified by one quest for diverse influences, and for making a lasting connection.

Towards the end of November, and early December, 2025, Jacob Collier and Manu Delago performed in Bombay (Mumbai) as part of their respective India tours. Jacob travelled with a full band of musicians and 100+ instruments, and Manu winged in as a trio accompanied by their sound engineer. Individually, they have collaborated with diverse musicians from across the world, and for those two evenings, they channelled their spirits on us.

The Sum of Human Connection

Jacob had a few thousand people in attendance for his gig, and Manu played for 200+ people in a very intimate setting. The acoustics of the concert arena has a lot to do when it comes to translating the emotion and power of an artist’s composition to their audience—make them feel the notes and lyrics, have them reflect on the context of the composition, and help them emerge with a point of view at the end of each song. The other aspect is the energy of the people in the audience around you—how they behave, how they engage, and how they respect the artist and the art.

However, the aspect that is critical to my experience is simply how the artist engages with you at an individual level, which is where I found Jacob and Manu on the same stage, even if they were performing in two different arenas on different days. They were being honest and vulnerable, and they created an engagement loop with the audience. Their conversations and compositions punctuated their childhood memories, life experiences, and perspectives on simple, everyday relatable feelings.

There were times at Jacob’s court, where he was seeking permission from the audience to play a certain number from his albums. This is seemingly insignificant, but it’s such a deeply human deed that shows how much do the artists respect their audiences’ presence, time and space. Manu, during his concert thanked the audience for coming along, being patient, and listening silently. He was quick to follow that up with a light-hearted take on how silence can either mean that everything is going well and there are no complaints, or it’s not going well at all.

Jacob had the crowd sing along as he traversed his album catalogue from the past decade, backed by talented musicians from different countries. While, there was a lot of chatter on social media related to his collaboration with an Indian singer that was magnified with arrows of opinions, but the audience that day, beamed and swayed, cheered and passed on the happy vibe from one section to the other. Yes, he had his much-acclaimed act of conducting the audience choir, but beyond his juggling with gestures and instruments, the aspect that stood tall was his voice—warm and soulful, wrapped in an honest submission, and grounded in the service of a communal experience.

Manu along with Isa Kurz on violin, piano and vocals, and Clemens Rofner on bass and synth, had a similar hold on their audience. The trio took the audience through a meditative ride across the European landscapes, painting dreamy pictures amid life routines.

The Happy Place

The artist and audience interactions between songs are like grammar of human connection, which always tends to outlive the performance. These days, I’m more taken by these moments of one-on-one connection in a crowded space—something that’s personal and not performative. Both Manu and Jacob welcomed me to an open canvas, serenaded my ears with a rich tapestry of universal music with worldly grace, and gave me a happy place for those 90 to 120 minutes. Life’s work is often to find solitude in chaos, and these connections make the work enjoyable.

Listen Up

Little Blue from Jacob Collier’s 2024 album, Djesse Vol. 4, featuring Brandi Carlile on vocals. I love these lines that make up the chorus.

“Don’t be afraid of the dark

In your heart

You’re gonna find a way

To carry the weight of the world

On your shoulders

You’re gonna find a way home.”

Still from Manu Delago’s 2008 album, Adventions. The Hang Drum, Sitar, and the Didgeridoo chasing that illusive feeling of holding the pause.

I’m forever on the lookout for tunes old and new, You can check out my expanding Trove Of Tunes that I’m curating in a Spotify playlist.

Cheers,

Shri

Just like every other year, 2025 has flown away as well. Looking back at it, we’ve all had the gift of time, moments of grief, conversations that triggered something new, and experiences that taught us something long-lasting. At the end of it all, no gift guides will ever put a list price to gratitude, just because one simply can’t. Gratitude itself is never timebound—it need not wait for an event or a reminder, nor be an output of a structured data set, and one should not let it age into forgetfulness. For this piece, I reflect on the evolving shopping influences, conventional gift guides, and ever-resident gratitude. Read on!

The Wave Of The Obvious

Earlier in December, 2025, I was reading this piece by marketing professor, thought leader, and columnist, Mark Ritson, on the shopping trends between Target and Walmart, especially during the Thanksgiving week. The Thanksgiving week is marked with steep discounts largely in North America, and retail outlets feel like concert grounds. Mark talks about the difference in strategies between Target and Walmart—where the latter stuck to its single-minded end customer benefit of saving money and lower prices, and Target continued to position itself around purpose, and its commitment to DEI initiatives. While I strongly believe in every brand operating as a purpose-driven citizen, and being socially responsible, in 2025, more than ever before, a for-profit brand’s primary responsibility towards their customers was to make their pockets feel stress-free, and investments dearer. This point by Mark sums up the dichotomy of balancing purpose with tangible value very well,
“We have known since the days of David Ogilvy that people don’t think what they feel, say what they think, or do what they say. That’s especially true in the socially signalled, buoyant world of brand purpose.”

Shifting the focus from direct brand promise to a hive of influence triggers of consumer choice—gift guides, content creators, commerce shapers, and wait for it… ‘you and me’. Gift guide as a concept has been around for decades. What once used to be an elegant-looking centerspread of a magazine, or an unmissable insert, has today evolved into YouTube videos, affiliate sites, and independent TikTok and Instagram content creators. The commercial transaction is no longer involving the product alone, but it’s inclusive of the voice of belief of the reviewer/content creator. Hence, neutrality is lost, subjectivity creeps in, and conversion is personal.
“Product recommendations have always expressed the ethos or aesthetic of a brand, of course, but today’s influencer- or creator-authored guides must capture and commoditize the personality of an individual. They demonstrate taste, class, curatorial skill, politics and erudition.”, says Caitlin Dewey, author of the rise of the gift-guide industrial complex. Caitlin wrote this piece towards the end of 2024, where she remarked on the on-coming fourth wave of social commerce, where every individual will be a seller of some form. As we close out 2025 and look forward to 2026, I think we’re very much riding that wave on TikTok and Instagram. According to Sprout Social, Gen Z and Millennials turn to social media as the primary source for holiday shopping and product discovery. Layer that with additional insights around higher preference for word-of-mouth referrals from friends and families and people-to-people user reviews on one side, and lower conversion-only responsiveness to paid ads on the other; the case for individuals being walking and talking gift guides is very much real.

The other factors that are influencing consumer choice are external economic indicators, and personal belief systems. As expected, due to the fragile job market, fluctuating tariff sanctions, and rising inflation in 2025, the consumer sentiment, especially in North America has been pessimistic according to a McKinsey research. There’s recalibration of preferences across categories, focus on more planned purchases, and a highly cautious approach to holiday shopping. Although Gen Z is increasingly willing to indulge on tangible things and intangible experiences for themselves, alongside exploring newer products and brands that invest in sustainable creations, they are highly cost conscious, and would be the heaviest hit in a slow economy. In 2025, Gen X were the highest spenders, even if they constitute only 17% of the world population. Therefore, for every brand, there are three truths to own and hone as we dive into 2026:

• Balance purpose and profits by marrying brand ethos with customer belief systems and reality—employment, spending power, product quality, and ability to make ends meet.

• Drive credible partnerships across the supply chain, content creators, and partners to drive authenticity with end customers. There are too many platforms, and too many people constituting the court of instant verdict, which only makes building customer trust the sole strategic priority.

• Caring for environment is not just a fashion statement or a marketing campaign. It’s increasingly going to be table stakes for every brand, as customers continue to judge the brand on their external conduct with diverse societal stakeholders, and their stand on matters beyond their immediate line of business.

Some of the above have been obvious for a few years, but stating the obvious equals driving recall.

The Gift Of Gratitude

I’ve never seen or heard of ‘gratitude’ featuring in any of the illustrious gift guides. Nor it’s something that needs to be recommended with five stars. However, a lot of the psychologists have theorised about gratitude as a reciprocal act in return. In my books, it’s something that’s a part of us—altruistic and ever present. I was trying to trace the different theories supporting the evolution of gratitude, and came across this study that reflects on gratitude as an act of long-term cooperation, and argues the role of human willingness to be graciously giving despite expecting anything in return.

Most of the harvest festivals have historically been considered as a moment to pause, reflect, and be thankful for the produce. There are celebrations like Thanksgiving that are designated days to feel thankful. And then there are instances when one visits religious places of worship to express gratitude to God. Our everyday privilege (no matter how big or small) deserves every measure of gratitude, and so do the little acts of kindness we witness along the way. These could be ranging from just thanking people who make daily deliveries to our homes, to our family getting dinner on the table, to our colleagues at work being wonderful collaborators. How often do we forget to be grateful for the comfort and luxuries we’ve gotten used to over time? Being mindful is hard, but that unlocks much higher value than any materialistic gifts on Black Friday sale.

So, as we turn the year, if there’s one feeling I would underline 2025 with, and continue to grow with in years to come, it’d be the feeling of ‘gratitude’. You can never discount the effect it has on the people on the receiving end of your gratitude. And that’s an initiation of what Martin Nowak and Sébastien Roch have cited in their research linked above—’upstream reciprocity’.

Listen Up

Roads by Portishead, from the live concert at the Roseland Ballroom, New York City from 1997, which was issued as an album in 1998. This song originally features in their 1994 debut album titled Dummy. The haunting vocals of Beth Gibbons backed by the ambient and spooky musicianship from Geoff Burrow and Adrian Utley carves a contemplative and deep space for reflection, and to be one with oneself.

I’m forever on the lookout for tunes old and new, You can check out my expanding Trove Of Tunes that I’m curating in a Spotify playlist.

Cheers,

Shri

It’s that time of the year when festivities gallop from the kitchen to the living rooms in a matter of seconds, happy vibes chase the wind from the choral harmonies to the commoners on the streets, and traditions lift their hearts to the modern social and cultural spreads. I ran a little detour to explore the rich evolution and diversity of the traditional Christmas components. We’re drifting down centuries, as well as hopping around a few countries, soaking in the festive spirit. Read on!

Conversing and Carolling

Many carols we call ‘traditional’ are actually conversations and improvisation across centuries. ‘Carol’ originates from the Old French word ‘carole’, a circle dance accompanied by singers. Carols, in the way we know them today, haven’t always had a religious connotation or a Christmas affiliation. They date back thousands of years, to pre-Christian / Pagan songs, written and sung for winter solstice celebrations. The winter solstice—the shortest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere usually falls on or around the 21^st of December. Carols would be written and performed to celebrate all the four seasons in a year, but the tradition of Christmas carols survived through the centuries. As the winter solstice and Christmas were around the same time, the early Christians started introducing religious songs as carols, which would see crossovers of language, performance styles, and commercialization over time.

On the religious front, in 129 AD, a Roman Bishop asked the patrons and officials to include the song ‘Angel’s Hymn’ for the Christmas prayer service. By the 8^th-9^th centuries, many people across Europe started writing Christmas carols in Latin, which reserved the participation in the singing to the people who were conversant with the language that were primarily the church elite. In the year 1223 AD, St. Francis of Assisi democratized the partaking of celebration, inviting larger participation, starting in Italy, and then branching out to other European countries like Germany and Spain. He staged the Nativity story (the birth of Jesus Christ) through plays involving song and dance. The choruses would sometimes be in Latin, but most parts would be in local dialects, so that people could meaningfully engage. When the Puritans came to power in England in the 1640s, they put a stop to the celebration of Christmas and carol singing, but that didn’t stop people from celebrating and singing the verses in secret. By the 18^th and 19^th centuries, there were different writers and composers writing carols inspired from liturgical texts, moulding them into different tunes, and publishing them for future generations.

· In 1739, Charles Wesley wrote a hymn for Christmas day with the first line ‘Hark How All The Welkin Rings’, which became the carol ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’. This was adapted to the tune by German pianist and composer, Felix Mendelssohn, in the year 1855.

· A melody from the 16^th century Welsh tune ‘Nos Galan‘ found a lyrical accompaniment penned by the Scottish musician, Thomas Oliphant, in 1862, which gave us ‘Deck The Halls’.

· ‘Silent Night’ (‘Stille Nacht’ in German) was written by Joseph Mohr, in 1816, and was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber in 1818. It was translated into English by John Freeman Young, a priest in New York City. The carol has been translated in over 300 languages / dialects, and was declared as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 2011.

Earlier in the month, we were in the audience of a carol recital by the choir at the Cathedral of the Holy Name, Bombay, that had us wrapped with joy in their SATB formation. The Cathedral Choir was first established in the year 1905, and the 2025 ensemble had people who’ve been part of the choir for over 50 years. Beyond the performance, I was hooked by the accompanying compere for the evening, who was articulate and measured to punctuate the pauses between the carols. She described the evening as a gathering to witness the bridge between traditional compositions and their modern renditions.

Just as we think of traditional methods and modern innovations, the carols have seen a similar curve over centuries—from Latin verses to multilingual translations, from adherence to pure holy scriptures, to commercial popularity with modern-day albums by famous musicians like Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, Mariah Carey, Carrie Underwood, and many more.
Can we script a joyous feeling in advance, or tame a spirit in celebration? That’s a conversation and carol for another day!

Fermenting Festivities

While there’s a grammatical debate around the placement of comma when writing ‘God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen’, there’s no debate around how people interpret ‘merry’ while celebrating Christmas. There are songs, devotion and reverence on one side, and feasting and parties on the other. The Christmas cake is at the centre of festivities, and comes with a long and winding history. The folklore began in ancient Rome, where early versions of holiday desserts took shape in the form of dense, sweet loaves mixed with barley mash, pomegranate seeds, nuts, and honey. As we got to the Middle Ages, the Roman cakes gave way to a more decadent plum porridge—a winter dish made of boiled oats, dried fruits, spices, and meats to keep people warm in ghastly, cold temperatures. Over time, the porridge made way for Plum Cakes, thanks to the emergence of sugar and baking methods. The addition of dried fruits, such as raisins and currants, along with spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, introduced layers of flavour that transformed this humble dish into a seasonal delight. The different ingredients have their own significance and diverse interpretations—being grateful for the yield through the year, being hopeful for good fortune and prosperity in the future, a symbol of gifts from faraway lands to the new-born Jesus, and mark of status and ceremonious showcase during celebration and communal gatherings.

Different countries and regions had their own versions of traditional Christmas delicacies—Panettone in Milan, Italy, Stollen in Saxony, Germany, Kurisumasu Keki in Japan. These forms of cakes have won fans the world over. For example, Panettone retails from as less as £6 to over £400 in the UK. Panettone has taken the status of lifestyle gifting, with brands like Dolce and Gabbana baking a fashionable festive cheer.

I went on a global exploration, after reading how the Christmas cake made its way to India. In 1883, a British planter, Murdoch Brown, got the rich Plum Cake from England, and shared it with a local baker for him to bake a similar cake. Mambally Bapu, the Indian baker, used local liquor made from cashew apple and kadalippazham (a type of local banana), in place of yeast or French Brandy. The Kerala Plum Cake is mistaken for the traditional English Plum Cake, but it is a version at best. However, for many taste buds, the Kerala version is divine in its own right. India doesn’t have a long baking tradition, but it has a long-standing generational passing of secret recipes in family kitchens. These traditions take centre stage every December. There are local variations of Christmas cakes cutting across Allahabad, Calcutta, Goa, Pondicherry, and Bombay. The twist is in the ingredients ranging from locally produced marmalade, gourd candy, tutti frutti, coconut milk, Indian spices, roasted semolina, ghee, and much more.

The chronicling of carols and recipes, the human quest to explore and socialize, and the evolution of world trade form the center of the globalization of cultures, innovation of traditional practices, and a healthy exchange of thoughts and ideas. Call it a melting pot of diversity, or the cusp of hope and a happy vibe—no one’s complaining.
Go forth, and spread the cheer.

Listen Up

I know we already have four carols, and we haven’t ever heard of the fifth be a lucky charm, but this one is special. This was the opening piece of the concert put together by The Cathedral Choir in Bombay. Carol of the Bells performed by the St. George’s Chapel Choir. The original composition stems from the early 20^th century from a Ukrainian song that the natives looked up to as their New Years’ celebration song. The tune was composed by Mykola Leontovych, and the English lyrics were added by the American composer and choral conductor, Peter Wilhousky in 1936. Here’s the rendition of the original Ukrainian song, Shchedryk

I’m forever on the lookout for tunes old and new, You can check out my expanding Trove Of Tunes that I’m curating in a Spotify playlist.

Cheers,

Shri

It’s been a year now, but loss doesn’t keep time, and time doesn’t understand loss. They orbit in their own circles, leaving the humans at the center of it. Sometimes loss hits you like pauses marked by three quarters of a beat twice over in a Tihai, or it’s a never-ending Chakradar for the rest of your life. With Zakir Bhai’s passing on December 15, 2024, it’s going to be the latter for me, and a lot of his fans, students and musical brotherhood across the world. When I first heard about his passing, it was a fleeting forward on a WhatsApp group. I messaged my brother, and he pointed me to a conversation thread on Twitter that was still calling out him being in a critical state, and asking people to create a web of faith and prayers, versus fearing the worst. I went off to sleep, hoping the doctors would play the vilambit taal to perfection till the morning, and when they reach the Sum, the faith will revive his life, and the morning will continue with its rhythmic routine. But we lost the beat that day!

I wrote this piece earlier this year, about six weeks after his passing, and have tried to make sense of it to myself, on the eve of his first death anniversary. When I look at the joy of sharing, and the feeling of a loss beyond any diction, there’s one thing common—they never fade away from one’s memory. But memory is a great healer too. It makes the happy residue from the living days crash into the thoughts of the missing present, thereby creating a ripple of deep reverence.

First Impressions

I was amongst the many who was captivated by the Brooke Bond Taj Mahal Tea ad from yesteryear. For its simplicity, the short composition, and my earliest exposure of solo head banging. But it wasn’t just the shake of the head to the rhythm, but the swirl of the hair—magnificent capture in a frame. The ad could have been one of the factors influencing my interest to learn a percussion instrument back in the day. Tins of Complan and Protinex gave way to Tabla, which stayed with me for years. One of the fascinating parts of my learning journey was the number of stories involving Zakir Bhai from my then Tabla Guru—From Zakir Bhai’s quest to explore music of different genres, cultures and origins, to his reverence to the stage and every artist, old and young. Part of one such hearsay was when Pundit Vijay Ghate was on stage, playing the Pancham Sawari Taal, and Zakir Bhai walks into the greenroom with complete awe and was wondering how he’s going to follow the act, given he was also thinking of playing the Pancham Sawari that evening. One of my first records of his was Ecstasy, a jugalbandi with Abbaji – his father, Ustad Allarakha Khan. Keeping time to the compositions was on one side, but I’d always keep my ear out to catch the synchronous landing of the bols Din, Thin and Thun.

The Joy of Expression

It was a Saturday evening in the January of 2001/02 when I caught his first ever live concert, where he was playing with Remember Shakti on the lawns of the Gateway of India, Bombay. It was our first Zakir Bhai concert as a family, and possibly the first-ever concert ever in attendance as a family quartet. There was probably 1 more Shakti concert we had the opportunity to attend years later, but more importantly that concert in January of 2001/02 opened us up to seek, listen and appreciate cross-genre collaborations and influences from different decades in time.

One of the biggest series of concerts we’ve attended over the years, was the Barsi celebration for Abbaji—Ustad Allarakha Khan put together by Zakir Bhai and his brothers. The concert was always free, and understandably so, it’d be too difficult to get the passes. As soon as we would get to the last week of January, the only thing that mattered was getting those passes for the concert on Feb 3rd every year. We got to listen to a rich tapestry of artists from across the world while celebrating this day-long homage to Abbaji, ranging from Leonard Eto, Steve Smith, Sivamani, Trilok Gurtu, T. K. Murthy, T G Muthukumarasamy, George Brooks, John Mclaughlin, Kawa Brass Band, Ustad Rashid Khan, Ajoy Chakrabarty and many more.

Reverence and Grace

I’ve always called him ‘Zakir Bhai’ while conversing about him in third person. I’m not related to him, even with the 6 degrees of separation, nor we’ve learnt from the same guru to call him ‘Bhai’ (brother in Hindi). But there’s this inexplicable connection that we have, through his records and performances that refuses to have me speak of him in distance by calling him ‘Ustad Zakir Hussain’, or on the other hand surrender all respect to casual speak by referring to him as ‘Zakir Hussain’. Calling him ‘Bhai’ is no way to come across as a dear connection, or a musical connoisseur. It’s just a humble association through art that we were blessed to partake in his presence.

When I think of music, it dawns different hats—an agent of peace; a stimulant of energy; a gathering of diverse cultures; an inclusive stage that’s bigger and richer than our individual selves. And Zakir Bhai would continue to be its son, advocate and Masaya. It’s not just the kind and stature of artists he’s accompanied over the years, but the thing that will continue to stay with me is the combination of respect and mischief he’d have with other artists on the stage. His smile would light up every interview, stage interaction, and for that matter, every opportunity to connect with a viewer or a listener. One could feel his warmth and respect when he’d introduce his fellow artists on stage like when he would cheer and introduce U Srinivas as ‘The Mandolin Maestro’ and Shankar Mahadevan as ‘The Voice’ during their Remember Shakti concerts.

Today, as I continue to attend concerts by artists who have played with him over the years, I leave one year on the stage, and let the other drift into a wistful hope for what will never be. The stage will miss one of its chief celebrants in service. Maybe he’s got the best seat in the house to watch the prayer in motion, from the queues outside the hall, the greenroom, the stage, and the audience, all at the same time. The rhythm will continue just like time; it’ll reverberate and echo; it’ll heal and cheer; it’ll keep on, many encores over. But rhythm, unlike time, can slow down and accelerate, and emote with grace. And every one of those emotions lit up by a percussion instrument across the world has the handprint of the faithful servant of rhythm, Zakir Bhai—Ustad Zakir Hussain.

Listen Up

There are compositions, albums, collaborations and live performances that will continue to be played in full lengths and on Instagram reels, catering to the trend of the times. From traditional to popular, from evergreen melodies to forever treasure; here are a handful of them for your listening pleasure.

Zakir, a composition by Zakir Bhai’s dear friend of 55 years and counting, John McLaughlin. This featured in his 1986 album—Making Music.

Jig O’ Beer & Chai from the 2015 release—Distant Kin, featuring a host of global artists.

I’m forever in the lookout for tunes and melodies old and new. You can continue to check out my Trove Of Tunes curated in a Spotify playlist by clicking here.

Cheers,

Shri

There are schools of thoughts, and then there’s a debate on X (formerly Twitter) to defend the honour. In this piece, I seek out craft and harmony in creativity, and how we’re edging closer to humility and purpose to shape the new creative order. Read on!

The Evolution Of Craft

I was reading this piece by Gautam Reghunath, Co-Founder and CEO, Talented, on how ‘craft’ in the traditional form is dying, and the need for a reset as we welcome newer models and features in the AI sphere. That sent me down a rabbit hole on how ‘craft’ has evolved over centuries.

Historically, craft was associated with artisans and guild traditions, often distinguished from ‘fine art’ or purely intellectual work. It was primarily mapped to the process of making something that’s functional, using one’s hands. In the modern world, craft implies a high level of skill, attention to detail, and pride in workmanship. Sociologist Richard Sennett expands it further. Craft isn’t merely manual—it’s thinking through making. This line of thinking echoes nineteenth-century critic John Ruskin’s belief, “Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart go together.” Thus underscoring that true creative work unites technical skill, intellect, and passion.

Many thinkers have opined on the separation of creativity (art) and craft. Philosopher R. G. Collingwood separated them by outcomes—creativity/art may not have a fixed outcome, while craft aims at a predefined one. As innovation, open markets, cross-cultural exchanges, and geopolitical equations evolve, the lines between creativity and craft keep blurring. When I look at the dynamic relationship between craft and creativity in the context of the advancements in technology and human skills, I think:

· Craft is going to be increasingly synonymous with ‘systems thinking’. One can continue to focus on finesse, but the world is operating for speed and skills.
People optimizing for finesse may not be able to keep up with the current expectations for faster turnaround,
ones optimizing for speed will win in the short-term but plateau fast;
balance the two, and we’re looking at strategic, long-term value creation.

· AI is both a leveller and a booster of ideas and execution. Unlike electricity and early-stage computers, AI is already in the hands of a large section of the society while still in its developing stage. This has flipped the script on individuals who have operated, and continue to hold creative and copy titles in advertising and marketing organizations. What will still differentiate traditional creative minds from the fast adopters of AI, is their ability to understand the business in depth, its purpose, and what actually moves the needle as well as stress-testing every piece of work for rational and emotional alignment. Let the creative work move the P&L and brand mindshare before it takes a trip to the south of France.

· Ego and energy would get recalibrated. Tempering the former would facilitate smoother collaboration, and channelling the latter would enable deep work and future readiness. I see an opportunity for a more symbiotic relationship between clients and agencies, focused on balancing craft and creativity across party lines. The ability to be respectful, build trust, stay uncomfortable with the routine, and invest in inclusive growth are critical aspects one needs to hone to drive long-term value.

Crafting Harmony

October of 2025 saw the passing of one of the doyens of the Indian advertising industry – Piyush Pandey—CCO Worldwide and Executive Chairman, Ogilvy India and South Asia. Every tribute that has hit the web celebrates his craft which led to many memorable creative expressions over the years. Expressions that have found their way in everyday work and conversations. His biggest craft was to understand people, and make them feel like they belong.

Amongst all his creative works, the one that stays closest to my heart and memory is Mile Sur Mera Tumhara, an anthem that recognized the unity in India’s diversity through its different languages, cultural backdrops, everyday people and icons—bound by one melody.

Piyush wrote seventeen drafts of the lyrics before landing on the final cut. Some of the most decorated singers and actors had a very limited role to play in the making of this masterpiece, but no one took it on their egos, instead wore their participation as pride on national television.

Piyush is widely credited for making Indian advertising truly Indian in many ways, while also making it globally loved, appreciated, and awarded. His legacy reminds us that great craft doesn’t just sell—it connects. It belongs to the people it was made for.

We will see an evolution of the creative enterprise in line with Gautam’s call. The new creative order will be driven by speed and by the ongoing conflict between perfection, original thinking, profit, and market share. But what will endure, regardless of the change all around, is the craft—and the mindset to keep tuning it for relevance and resonance. That, after all, is the quiet art behind every lasting creative piece of work.

Listen Up

Bohemian Rhapsody from Queen’s 1975 album, ‘A Night at the Opera’. The song took three weeks to record, and involved 200 overdubbed tracks. If the output brings out a carefully composed mischief and madness, the production would have been a riot in good faith. I love what Roy Thomas Baker, the producer, said in one of his interviews in 1999, “”Bohemian Rhapsody” was totally insane, but we enjoyed every minute of it. It was basically a joke, but a successful joke. We had to record it in three separate units. We did the whole beginning bit, then the whole middle bit and then the whole end. It was complete madness. The middle part started off being just a couple of seconds, but Freddie kept coming in with more “Galileos” and we kept on adding to the opera section, and it just got bigger and bigger. We never stopped laughing ... It started off as a ballad, but the end was heavy.” The song is a perfect example of the harmonious relationship between craft and creativity.

I’m forever on the lookout for tunes old and new. You can check out my expanding Trove Of Tunes that I’m curating in a Spotify playlist.

Cheers,

Shri

Once there was Social Networking. Then it became Social Media. Now, it’s just media, but no one’s calling it that just yet!

This piece takes a peek into human behaviour through compressing screens on one side, and on the other, how ASMR is the elixir in a zillion veins. Read on!

Watch. Don’t Talk.

I was reading this fine piece by Derek Thompson titled ‘Everything Is Television’, and I tipped my hat to the power of the human neural network in shaping newer trends. The article is fascinating and can send one down multiple rabbit holes. Yes, that can be a thing—multiple meandering streams that are distinct from each other, and not stressing out a single rabbit. Alternatively, maybe we’re better served as ‘earthworms in solitude’ to keep up with our obsessive devilry to scratch our brains, and unearth mystique connections.

As of 2025, the oldest millennials would have spent 63% of their lives social networking—yes, as a verb, online. They called it ‘social networking’ for people to connect, engage, and have a conversation with one another on the internet. It did start as that in the late 1990s, and then sometime in the late 2000s ‘social networking’ gave way to ‘social media’, and rightly so. Content robbed the networking charm. Comments are increasingly the most distant cousins of views. Aptly filed by Meta, and captured by Derek, even I don’t think any of the platforms that we have known as ‘social media’ all this while is social any longer. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok are optimizing similar content. LinkedIn is trying hard to be different, but it’s at the mercy of its dwellers, who want to show and tell every smallest interaction. Every platform is becoming the other, and therefore in essence, everything is television—true to the title of Derek’s piece.

If we go back to the days of traditional television, it felt like the television was bringing a living room closer, and complementing existing family conversations around the dinner table. Over time, it was the only voice in the living room. Couches became isolated cubicles. Dinner and table became unrelated courses. The evolution of social media is like déjà vu to the television era, and with AI, we’re witnessing a revolution at a different scale. Recently, when it was announced that Gemini was coming to Google TV and other OEM brands like LG and Samsung, I told myself the days of looking sideways for conversations with people in the living room are numbered.

Derek links out to this essay by Will Tavlin in his piece, where Will calls out Netflix’s core focus was to reward mindlessness in the DVD rental era, and they didn’t care if anyone liked the content or not. As long as the customers were able to house the DVDs, Netflix was saving on the delivery and storage charges. When it comes to original content in the online subscription era, Netflix is catering to the forever distracted audience. Derek goes on to say, “Perhaps a great deal of television is not meant to absorb our attention, at all, but rather to dab away at it, to soak up tiny droplets of our sensory experience while our focus dances across other screens. You might even say that much television is not even made to be watched at all. It is made to flow.” Well, I feel my partner and I may be misfits in Netflix’s target group as we pause the show every time we head to drop our dishes in the sink post dinner. The flow is broken, but the curiosity isn’t.

What Is Content Doing To You?

Earlier this year, my partner created an ASMR Instagram Reel for her small business. I had heard the term for the first time despite spending a few years in the digital content sphere. I was trying hard to figure what ASMR stood for, and thought if I knew its full-form, I may remember. But I failed both ways. Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is a sensory emotional response often characterized by a tingling sensation leading to a pleasant or relaxed feeling. The term was coined by Jennifer Allen, a Cybersecurity practitioner in the year 2010.

In 2017, Journalist and Writer, Libby Copeland summed up ASMR’s early stages in her piece for the Smithsonian Magazine where she wrote, “The burgeoning Internet phenomenon was so new, it didn’t even have a name. It was so strange and hard to describe that many people felt creepy trying. It resided at the outer edge of respectability: a growing collection of YouTube videos featuring people doing quiet, methodical activities like whispering, turning magazine pages and tapping their fingers. Some viewers reported that these videos could elicit the most pleasurable sensations: a tingling feeling at the scalp and spine, coupled with euphoria and an almost trance-like relaxation.”

Scientists feel that ASMR can become a medically approved therapy someday, but till then, it’s an interesting area of research, fighting hard for its independent place. Many researchers consider ASMR as a part of synesthesia. Some of the leading content creators and curators view ASMR as a contemporary art, and not just a YouTube-driven cultural undercurrent. I was fascinated to learn of ASMR being a large internet movement—with millions of subscribers and views on YouTube, and #ASMR being one of the most used hashtags on TikTok with billions of views and mentions. Billie Eilish is hailed as an ASMR icon, and I’m curious to understand if there were incremental revenue gains for Ikea post their 25-minute creative experiment. While not everyone would be ASMR sensitive in the world, nor would every brand see the value in prioritizing sensations; here are a couple of aspects to note:

• Returns on Intimacy: ASMR content tickles the nerves, letting algorithms reward watch time, saves, and bedtime viewing. Meta, YouTube, TikTok and other emerging video platforms are encashing tingling sensations.

• Sonic Design and Functional Utility: ASMR collapses product, sound design, and storytelling into one frame. To aid sleep, to bring calm, to enable focus—content that ‘does something’ travels farther, especially in overstimulated environments.

I’m certainly not ASMR sensitive, but hope some day I get there to run an eight-hour stretch of deep sleep. Till then, I’m off to my next scroll.

Listen Up

Ilomilo by Bilie Eilish from her 2019 debut album ‘WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO’.

I’m forever on the lookout for tunes old and new, You can check out my expanding Trove Of Tunes that I’m curating in a Spotify playlist.

Cheers,

Shri

The focus on physical, and mental health have not seen an equal distribution over the years. It could be the lack of knowhow at scale to see, sense, and understand the subtle and not overtly visible mental health conditions. In this piece, I reflect upon the progress we’re seeing in the areas of healthcare infrastructure and acceptance of mental health challenges. One is the progress we’re seeing in technology and innovation, and the other is in human behaviour, and the rise in the social understanding quotient. Read on!

From AI Kiosks To Agent Hospitals

With the growth in population globally, there’s been a tremendous growth in infections and viruses over the years. Some fatal, some on a short-term staycation, but all of them stretching the bandwidth of research scientists and doctors. Two countries with the largest population in the world—China and India have 3.07 and 1.23 doctors for every thousand people respectively. However, these ratios do not reflect the on-ground challenges, especially when met with adverse epidemics, natural calamities, and poor reach due to infrastructure and connectivity issues. It also has a trickle effect on the quality of care, and the efficiency of the overall system.

During one of my scrolls through the internet wilderness, I came across this video on AI-powered Health Kiosks that’s being rolled out in China. It is to healthcare, what ATMs are to banks. It takes care of routine and non-critical cases through AI-assist + self-checkout mechanism. It may not solve for the doctor to people coverage, but it’ll certainly ease off doctors’ bandwidth to focus on complex and critical cases. What I like about this model is that it can be deployed anywhere—malls, sidewalks, railway stations, etc. It’ll certainly have a learning curve, especially for the elderly population, but its scalability can enable a larger impact.

Another stride in delivering integrated healthcare came about with the launch of the world’s first Agent Hospital by Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. It’s built on MedAgent-Zero, a self-evolving AI framework.
‘The system features 42 AI doctors across 21 clinical specialties, covering over 300 diseases. Furthermore, each specialty has trained its virtual agents on over ten common conditions. And finally, by creating a pool of half a million synthetic patient cases to test and evolve diagnostic accuracy. These AI doctors can treat 10,000 patients with 93% accuracy in a matter of days, a feat that would take real doctors years to complete. Furthermore, these doctors aren’t chatbots; they’re AI systems capable of autonomously working with AI generated patients in a fully-fledged closed-loop ecosystem.’
This is not a retrofit, but a shift in design thinking.

At the other end, DeepSeek AI, the open source LLM built in China, through its customized medical framework, is integrating with existing Hospital Management Systems (HMS). It is helping enhance operational efficiencies across patient admission, internal triage, documentation, and other alike processes.

While the Agent Hospital is rethinking the infrastructure of tomorrow, DeepSeek is bridging the future state with existing infrastructure—both of which is critical to tackle the vast opportunity in making healthcare accessible and appreciated.

A few years ago, while talking about technology and healthcare in the same line, one of the arguments doing the rounds, was the aspect of empathy and human touch—over-reliance on technology could rob the empathy out of a primarily human-centric experience. However, if anything, the advancements in AI in the past two years with the focus on voice and conversational elements has strengthened the empathy quotient of technology. It seems like we’re potentially gearing up for a world where EQ (Empathy Quotient) + IQ = quality care with speed, and at scale.

The Gratification Of Unseen Pressures

Caring for mental health is more recognized and appreciated, especially after COVID-19. However, mental health conditions have existed for a long time—some that are easier to diagnose and treat, and some unseen and unarticulated. People undergoing the condition would often cover up due to it being perceived as a social stigma, sign of weakness, and not enough knowhow around coping mechanisms. However, there’s been a significant change in the past five years, thanks to the conversations becoming mainstream on social media and public forums, individuals opening up in smaller cohorts and inner circles, and organizations creating support environments to enable strong allyship.

Earlier in the year, India beat Australia in the semifinals of the 2025 Women’s Cricket World Cup, and went on to win the finals to be crowned ‘World Champions’. A friend of mine shared the video of a press conference featuring Jemimah Rodrigues. While celebrating the wins, we often tend to cover up the struggles enroute. Jemimah touched upon the anxious moments and her mental state leading up to that semifinal game during the press conference. I’ve seen many sportspeople use the post-game press conference as a way to charm the journalists and media personnel with their humour, so that it can translate into Instagram reels. Jemimah’s address was real, heartfelt, and would be relatable to many struggling individuals playing any sport, and encountering moments like getting dropped from the team, not being given a fair shot, and getting pulled up for nothing.

It got me re-reading this excellent piece by Gideon Haigh from April this year, on Moises Henriques, a retired New South Wales > Australian International cricketer. If Jemimah’s struggles were off the field, Moises demons were on the ground, and not just restricted to the pitch. He was struggling with finding the motivation to play, unamused by the environment in the huddle, and caged by words that didn’t make any sense.

“They would say: “You’ve always got more time than you think.” Then they would say: “Take the game on.” Well, which was it? Next it would be: “Try to get them doing something they’re not comfortable doing.” Well, what are these “somethings” exactly? “Have a clear mind.” But you’re never going to have a clear mind: you’ll always be thinking something. “Go to your strengths.” What does that even mean? We were just saying words.” – Moises Henriques to Gideon Haigh.

He hit rock bottom during the Christmas of 2017, and reached out to psychologists and his coaches to work on the state of his mental health. Even a team sport can be extremely lonely, and professional work environments of any kind are not far-off in reflecting similar struggles every single day.

In today’s times, as more and more individuals across age groups are turning to AI to engage in conversations that they see fit for solely private screenings, I hope we still have humans in the loop to assure, as we keep working on the technology to mature.

Listen Up

Venus Isle by Eric Johnson from the album of the same name, released in 1996.

I’m forever on the lookout for tunes old and new, You can check out my expanding Trove Of Tunes that I’m curating in a Spotify playlist.

Cheers,

Shri

I have layered my thoughts on a beautifully written piece around the solace we find in our phones, and a reflection on how contextual penetration through specific cohorts can drive a richer evolution of AI in the long run. Read on!

It Ain’t The Phone Buzzing

Last week, my niece was playing Magic Tiles on her phone, and I was left trying to figure the names of the songs featured in the game. Needless to say, she had a far better result in her game than me on guessing the tunes and artists. It also made me think about the level of concentration she was able to exert on a five-inch screen—free of any distraction, alongside a well-tuned hand-eye coordination.

Once the screen zooms out, I’ve seen a lot of children struggle to focus, pause to think, think first to respond, and hold a simple conversation. It’s as if the phone screen is an unprescribed drug for isolation.

I’ve been keeping a watch on my phone usage, and how frequently I reach out to my phone, while being engaged in something completely unrelated. It’s not a healthy picture, and I’m guilty as charged. I’ve had instances where I’ve picked up my phone in between a movie or a TV show, during a two-minute window between finishing dinner and grabbing a glass of water, first thing in the morning, even before opening my eyes, etc. And the interesting part is, at least a good 90% of these instances are without any triggers or notifications on the part of the phone. They are just the dark play of a subconscious mind.

I stumbled upon this beautifully written piece by Adam Aleksic, where he draws a correlation of a phone to a house. He delves into the familiarity of oneself with one’s phone, which would possibly have the shortest learning curve. “Only I have the motor memory to immediately open the notes app on my phone. A stranger would have to look for it, but my fingers subconsciously understand where to go. Much like with my childhood home, I have an embodied knowledge of my home screen.”

In his piece, I like the way Adam paints the picture of a computer, and captures how it’s different from a phone. Words like ‘taskbar’, ‘desktop’, ‘thrash’, ‘files’ harp upon the formal and workplace-like positioning of a computer. Despite phones having some of these functional icons, they feel more homely and personal. They are intrusive, but they don’t feel that way, and we as humans wouldn’t agree either. Adam looks at apps as rooms, and different apps drive home varying levels of emotional commitment—dopamine hits, seeking companionship, and therapeutic indulgences. The next time someone asks you, ‘Where do you stay?’, and if your answer is, ‘In my phone!’, you won’t be wrong.

Scaling And Nurturing With Communities

‘Cult’, ‘clan’, and ‘club’ originated in the hallways of religious, family and social interactions centuries ago. The phenomenon of assimilating people at one place, or towards one cause is centuries old, but the modern-day facelift of ‘club’ is not just fuelling present consumerism, but if nurtured well, it can set the stage for future innovations. We see this trend of building clubs of commons with developer meetups, gathering of like-minded readers, toastmaster chapters, alumni groups, leadership cohorts, and many more.

AI is the magnet, and Anthropic has set the parameter in over 60 Universities, with over 15,000 students signing up to be part of Claude Builders Club. Such programs have existed in the past such as Microsoft Student Ambassadors, Apple’s Swift Coding Clubs, etc., but the AI-centred clubs are beyond coding language and deep-tech geek outs.

In order to embed real-life context into algorithms, these clubs would need to be multidisciplinary with depth research expertise. Think of a club consisting of thinkers and practitioners of economics, who can wrestle with different theories to strengthen the AI models. These clubs are not just current users for Anthropic, but strong, relevant, and expert data shapers for the future of Claude and its successors. Maybe they’ll get individuals out of the comfort of their phone’s home screens, maybe they’ll push them deeper into it.

I spoke of customer Lifetime Value (LTV) in this piece, and I feel, the AI clubs will bend the curve, wherein both brands and users will feed off each other’s expertise over time, thereby enriching long-term returns and value creation.

Listen Up

The Chain from Fleetwood Mac’s February 1977 album, Rumors. The haunting guitars at the start picking on the beat, waiting for the vocals whose first couple of lines spin up a Crosby Stills Nash & Young-like harmony. The bass and the breakaway guitar solo towards the end race for a stirring finish.

I’m forever on the lookout for tunes old and new, You can check out my expanding Trove Of Tunes that I’m curating in a Spotify playlist.

Cheers,

Shri

Was ‘information’ always meant to be free flowing? The early age of the internet would say ‘yes’ to that, but then came the business of and with information flow, which made monetizing and scaling profitability free flowing.

I took a valley jump into one of the Word Of The Year entries, recognized by two different lists in 2023 and 2024 alongside taking a step back to drift into the importance of giving more to build long-lasting value, and sustained trust. Read on!

The Enshittification Of Everything

Earlier this month, I renewed my Uber One subscription, and it felt like just another task on my to-do screen. Similar pop-ups have translated into an easy-going conversion on other apps in the past six to nine months. Have I gotten better rated drivers? I don’t know, but they were good. Have I gotten better vehicles? I don’t think so, but I’ve minimized the most basic hatchbacks to avoid the curse of missing seatbelts. Have I gotten a lot of discounts and cashbacks? The discounts are as imaginary as the ride fares, and the cashback is always too low to be redeemed for anything. Algorithms set the tone, platforms bank the experience, and consumers continue to buy tickets for perceived augmentation of basic services.

I must agree, I never ran into this depth of questioning these high-value subscriptions, before reading this piece, by Shephali Bhatt. Shephali talks about the price of human interaction in the age of automated customer support—how the basic support model of yesteryear is today’s too-hard-to-reach. While running through the ‘Word Of The Year’ lists a few days ago, I paused at ‘Enshittification’—the 2023 American Dialect Society and 2024 Macquarie Dictionary’s Word Of The Year. The term refers to the gradual deterioration of an online service or product as a result of profit-seeking, and was coined by Cory Doctorow. In this talk, he outlines how the digital platforms and organizations acquire customers, put them through a descending value drain over time, and scale up the profitability. According to Cory, there are three stages in this process:

· Acquire customers at scale: Seed and cascade highly relevant content, attractive offers and deep discounting that acquire customers, whose usage patterns shape micro and macro preference algorithms over time. When scaled acquisition trends, it leaves no one behind. every other person one knows is on the platform—from the one next to you on the couch, to an acquaintance miles away. The network effect is at play, and the cost of leaving a platform is the price of FOMO, or an unpopular trend.

· Forge and scale partnerships: Adapt the role of honest distributors to connect the producers of goods and services with prospective consumers by offering an advertising platform to effectively reach the right audience. Discounts continue for the end consumers, discounts are enabled for advertisers, and everyone is swimming along the tide.

· Turn up the profit dial: Once everyone is comfortable with the platform, make the access pricier, and connection dearer. The costs for the advertisers rise, and ad blocks, faster deliveries, and relevant offers come at a subscription cost for the end consumers.

In his talk, Cory goes in depth with the forces that influence enshittification—market competition, regulation, and interoperability. The other side of the argument rests with the traditional demand and supply economics. Scarcity fuels demand, higher demand drives premium, and premium pricing bring in higher profits. However as consumers, instead of paying higher for differentiated experiences, we’re paying higher for core essentials, alongside staying away from mediocrity. Getting a good car, with best drivers, and with minimal wait times is the core value of a ride-hailing cab service. Riding in an SUV or a hatchback is the basic differentiator. A business class airline experience in a cab, or a premium lunch serving while on the road are some augmented differentiators that can command a premium subscription fee. There’s an opportunity to profit better from the right side of the value game, and thereby reduce enshittification.

What Are You Leaving On The Table To Have Them Return?

I’d bookmarked this conversation with Gary Vaynerchuk on the Uncensored CMO podcast, which I got around to listening towards the end of last week. As one would expect with Gary’s content, there are a lot of punchlines, sharp insights, and interesting perspectives, but the point that resonated the most with me was around driving real value.

Disclosure: I’m a subscriber to ‘The One Thing’ newsletter by Jon Evans, the host of the Uncensored CMO podcast, who wrote about the same takeaway on his short note following the release of the episode.

Gary talks about the act of giving, and the permission it compounds over time to make an ask—hiking prices, exclusive deals, signing up for offers etc. I’ve been in many negotiation sessions during my MBA days, and in real life while structuring media deals, but I have never come across such an articulation and application of giving value first to receive later. I look at what one leaves on the table today as the cost of acquiring an extended customer Lifetime Value (LTV). Gary speaks about the different negotiation styles between him and his father, where the latter would negotiate for today, but would potentially lose the customer for tomorrow, because people remember how you made them feel and may not return to transact post being on the receiving end of a hard-fought negotiation.

When we draw parallels of cultivating value with the phenomenon of enshittification, organizations transact across the three stages (mentioned in the previous section). When brands reach the third stage, they often walk into a trust deficit. Once the brands obtain the permission to make the ask, they need to think about how they’ll make the customer return despite higher prices or an absence of discounts. That’s when the value of the product, service or the brand is truly tested. This is where trust is the multiplier, and not the discounts and cashbacks.

Gary churns a lot of content for free, but when he writes a book, the content of the book needs to be equally good as the free content, in order to ensure recurring sales of his future paid content. In the truest sense, no business can take the customers’ time for granted, and force a choice by restricting the parameters. The real value always needs to match the perceived value for a long-term relationship to trudge on.

Listen Up

From their self-titled best-selling album Kingdom Come released in 1988, here’s one of their biggest hits Get It On’. If the sound reminds you a little, or a lot of Led Zeppelin, you’re in the company of many like ears.

I’m forever on the lookout for tunes old and new, You can check out my expanding Trove Of Tunes that I’m curating in a Spotify playlist.

Cheers,

Shri

What came first between a word and a trend is possibly an easier debate than the historic ‘chicken and the egg’ icebreaker. Maybe not, given the pace of evolution is so rapid that there’s no time to unearth the origins.

I spent a little time discovering new words and updating my vocabulary, alongside learning about interesting innovations that are making everyday, simple human experiences accessible for everyone. Read on!

Word Of The Year

Abbreviated to ‘WOTY’ by some, and ‘WotY’ by a few, ‘Word Of The Year’ has caught on as a trend across continents, amongst linguistic and academic experts, and as a measure of common voices and cultural undercurrents. I’ll stay with ‘WOTY’ for the subsequent paragraphs.

Last week, I came across this piece as a suggested read. Maybe someone somewhere knew that I didn’t know enough about ‘6-7’—hailed by Dictionary.com as its 2025 Word Of The Year. Defined as nonsensical and ubiquitous, and qualified as a brain rot. ‘Brain Rot’ was judged 2024’s Word Of The Year by Oxford—yes, the feeling has a name. Back to ‘6-7’, and an attempt to make sense of a significant rise in the usage of the word. Here’s a healthy tip to represent an illogical set of two digits in the most culturally acceptable way as captured by Dictionary.com,
‘you may also see it written as 6 7, 6-7, or six-seven, but the most important thing is to never pronounce it as “sixty-seven.”’

After understanding the hand gestures to denote ‘6-7’, I moved on to learn the origin and evolution of the WOTY list—the fascination for singling out one word from unending scrabble babble across the physical and digital world. The WOTY tradition/trend began in Germany in 1971 to recognize the German word of the year. It was started by Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (Association/Society for the German Language), shortened to GfdS. It became an annual affair starting 1977. It took off from Germany and became a global phenomenon, the most notable of which in the 20^th century was established by the American Dialect Society (ADS).

It was an idea sparked by the late Allan Metcalf, a professor of English at MacMurray College in Illinois and executive secretary of the ADS. “I was thinking, every year TIME Magazine chooses a person of the year, and they choose it not by some computer program but rather the editors and readers making suggestions about who was influential. Why couldn’t we choose a word of the year?” Metcalf said to TIME. Many more illustrious word-factories and store-keeps caught on to the trend in the early 21^st century to honour words of significance every year. I enjoyed running through the different lists, chuckling to myself, and learning a few new words along the way.

· The first ever WOTY by the ADS was ‘Bushlips’ in 1990, signifying the alleged lies by the then President of United States of America, George Bush Sr.

· It’s interesting to see ‘Twitter’ and ‘Tweet’ be the WOTYs for Australian National Dictionary Center and ADS respectively, but ‘Hashtag’ made the cut only in 2012, on the ADS list. Clearly it took time to trend.

· ‘Fake News’ and ‘Misinformation’ made it to several lists between 2016 and 2018, and the pandemic had so many words that no two lists fought for the same word in 2020.

· Dictionary.com chose ‘Identity’ as its WOTY for 2015, and ADS picked ‘They’—as in the singular pronoun—in the same year. Merriam-Webster picked ‘They’ for their 2019 list.
Unrelated tip: If you’re reading this, and don’t already, you should follow Merriam-Webster for their content on X and Instagram.

· Amongst all the lists, I found the WOTY list by Macquarie Dictionary the most entertaining. They have certainly added a trove of new words to my vocabulary. Some of the interesting ones:

- ‘Googleganger’ (2010): a person who appears in online search results when you search for your own name

- ‘Phantom Vibration Syndrome’ (2012): the perception that one’s mobile phone is vibrating or ringing when it is not

- ‘Framily’ (2017): a colloquial term for a group of people who are not related by blood but who constitute an intimate network

- ‘Covidiot’ (2020): someone who ignores public health guidelines, like social distancing or mask-wearing.

Multiplying Wins With Shared Innovations

I attended the Inclusive India Digital First conference earlier in the month, and there were presentations by Target, Amazon, Microsoft, and other organizations and individuals on topics related to accessible frameworks, solutions, policies, gaps, and opportunities. I was sitting there and was busy taming a racing mind, but couldn’t get the thought of open sourcing innovation for societal win out of my head.

Tirumangalam Rajath and Senthil Kumar Sakthivel from Target presented the mock-ups and journey of their custom-designed self-checkout kiosk launched across 2,000+ stores in America to enable an equitable experience for persons with disabilities. I was thinking of other expandable use cases with this innovation like Point-Of-Sale (POS) devices, customer navigation around the tightly stacked aisles, and audio-guided entry and exit points across different store formats. At a macro level, this experience is designed for 2,000 Target stores in America, but imagine the scale one can achieve if chains like Walmart, Costco, 7-Eleven, Home Depot, TESCO, Watsons and the like can leverage the same design and amplify the advantage to a larger customer base.

The second presentation that got me intrigued was that by Peter Korn, Director of Accessibility at Amazon. He walked through the twelve-year accessibility journey of Amazon, and how one of the organization’s core principles of customer obsession governs their accessibility work to cater to customers with disabilities. Peter and the team touched upon Dialogue Boost, a feature in Prime Video that enhances the volume of the spoken dialog as compared to the background music. I see a great opportunity for multiplying the application of Dialogue Boost to the video content with voice + music across social media platforms. Amazon’s Prime Video catalogue hosts the most audio-described English shows across the OTT platforms, something that went into my trivia books for the first time last week.

The initial success seen with AI-powered audio descriptions for videos by apps like Seeing AI and PiccyBot can be scaled for ensuring real-time accessibility of videos across TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter). With a lot of OTT platforms expanding to live events, real-time accessibility would be much desired. For the first time, it’s completely possible to unlock real-time accessibility of content with the help of AI, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) could lead the way for the entertainment industry. Imagine the collective dividend if all the production houses retain the copyrights on the content, but openly collaborate, share and leverage the innovation around delivery mechanisms to drive inclusion at scale.

During one of my X (formerly Twitter) strolls, I came across this fascinating thread by Sidin Vadukut. It brought in a different perspective to scaling innovation and multiplying reach in a country like India. When I was watching the presentations by Target and Amazon, I was gearing towards having an intentional mindset to scale inclusion by making products, services and infrastructure accessible. This is possible by infusing capital, and shaping a culture of inclusive thinking by design. Sidin’s thread outlines the opportunity to scale by incentivising and recognition—something that’d help hold the attention and action in a multi-cultural, and diverse country like India. It tackles the same objective through an incentive mindset to ensure participation by the solution providers.

Seeing ‘Accessibility’ as the WOTY in the near future is wishful thinking, but wish lists exist for a reason. What keeps me optimistic is the fact that words like Democracy Sausage, ‘6-7’, and ‘Change’ have made it to the top. Alternatively, I’m happy if ‘Accessibility’ doesn’t make it to the WOTY lists, as it’s not a passing trend or a fading memory. It’s a real need for a real world.

Listen Inn

‘Angel (Footsteps)’ from Jeff Beck’s 1999 album ‘Who Else!’. Listen in to the tone of the guitar, and the delicate pacing of the notes—meditative and solemn.

I’m forever on the lookout for tunes old and new, You can check out my expanding Trove Of Tunes that I’m curating in a Spotify playlist.

Cheers,

Shri

The evolution of language is as fascinating as the evolution of many other elements we interact with today, and at times take for granted. The application of language has adopted different forms:

· Emojis substituting words and phrases.

· Shorter texts substituting long-drawn explanations.

· Succinct and recurring prompts substituting standard search queries on the internet.

It’s certainly an interesting point in time to reflect upon who’s getting better at training whom between humans and AI, and who’s better off identifying the gaps. I’m going down two conflicting yet distinct trends we’re getting to witness—the importance of conversation loops to build context and evolve AI’s output in the generative era, and the concept of ‘dry texting’. Read on!

Conversation is Everything

Today, every second post on one’s social media feed is some kind of prompt compilation, a learning course, or an AI-generated essay, book, music, video, or an image. A prompt can be viewed as a glorified search query within an AI app, which used to be a set of keywords on a conventional search engine till a couple of years ago. I was listening to Rick Rubin’s conversation with Perplexity AI’s Co-Founder and CEO, Aravind Srinivas, where the latter talks about how the role of the first prompt is just to get the discovery going. Perplexity’s attempt is to fuel the world’s curiosity with accurate, transparent, and accessible information. There’s abundance of information on one side, and there’s limitless curiosity on the other. The Large Language Models (LLMs) bring the two worlds together, thereby satisfying one’s quest for information. A prompt is not a mere search query; it’s just an opening statement. The subsequent prompts get you deeper into the field of information, or closer to the epicentre of the output you desire. The back and forth is what strengthens the context in human-to-human conversations, and it’s the same in the case of human-to-AI interactions. These conversations within the AI apps unlock larger value for every user—much beyond the scope of a standard search query.

Understanding, and making tweaks to our linguistic capabilities is important. It’s not as difficult as learning a new conventional speaking or software language from scratch, but it still requires effort to balance specificity with comprehensiveness. Vocabulary is also evolving alongside the syntax. I chanced upon this piece by Lance Eliot, which paints a scenario of a universe of finite and fake words becoming mainstream. The evolution of words used in common modes of communication is a constant. Today, we don’t use most of the words that were prevalent in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. However, as AI models are trained on existing data and human preferences, the responsibility of checking for typos, accurate usage, and factual existence of new words making way into the system rests with the architects of these models. I personally haven’t experienced alien words winning my approval, but as language evolves, some part of what and how we speak could need a double take. I’ve been using ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in my prompts, and I don’t see them going away anytime in the near future.

Dry Texting and Conflict Management

I came across this Vox piece by Anna North, and the headline caught my attention, ‘Are phones making teens more conflict-averse?’ I learnt of the term ‘dry texting’ for the first time through this piece, but I have seen its application in communications across generations and situations over the years. I could never qualify the usage of ‘thx’ and ‘tx’ for ‘thanks’ with an apt word or phrase before today. This phenomenon is certainly a paradox to the conversation and context-rich world that we’re imagining and creating with AI.

Dry texting refers to a style of text communication where responses are notably terse, lacking in emotional cues, elaboration, or contextual richness. Typical features include:

• Minimalist Responses: Single-word replies such as ‘K’, ‘yes’, or ‘no’.

• Lack of Enthusiasm: Absence of emoticons/emojis, punctuation emphasis, or conversational prompts that invite further interaction.

• Perceived Emotional Detachment: Recipients may feel the sender is disinterested or not fully engaged in the conversation.

This phenomenon is not necessarily indicative of negative intent; sometimes, it reflects the sender’s communication style, mood, or situational constraints such as multitasking or fatigue. Dry texting is not just limited to teens as a section of the population. It’s often defined by the cultural influences and preferred style of communication across the world.

It’ll be interesting to keep a watch on how the AI LLMs train on dry texts, decode sentiments and feelings, and factor them in their reasoning engines. So, will dry texts become a valid token, or a high-value currency, or a dying fad? Or would the LLMs end up being just as confused as the teens who dry text?

Listen Inn

‘Whatever It Takes’ by Imagine Dragon, from their third album, ‘Evolve’ released in 2017. The track has added a billion + views on YouTube, and ‘ feels like a great soundtrack to the world-consuming AI ambition, and a self-motivating war cry for the Gen Z.

I’m forever on the lookout for tunes old and new, You can check out my expanding Trove Of Tunes that I’m curating in a Spotify playlist.

Cheers,

Shri

We’re going back to the 1960s and ’70s for a little soul-reflection. It’s layered with history, politics, and a pinch of philosophy — but at its core, it’s a flat-out entertainer.

Listen to ‘Soul Man’ by The Blues Brothers, part of their 1978 album, ‘Briefcase Full of Blues’.

Riots, A Billboard Smash, And A Grammy

It was 1967, and the Civil Rights Movement in America was gaining in chorus, momentum, and action on the streets. In July of that year, a riot was triggered post the Detroit police raid on an unlicensed bar. Bar raids weren’t uncommon in Detroit, but this one triggered destruction of peace, property, and loss of lives.

Isaac Hayes and David Porter, belonging to Stax Records, put pen to paper after the Detroit uprising. Hayes said, “I remember in Detroit, I saw the news flash where they were burning the neighbourhoods. Where the buildings weren’t burnt, people would write ‘soul’ on the buildings. The big thing was ‘soul brother.’ So I said, ‘Why not do something called “Soul Man” and kind of tell a story about one’s struggle to rise above his present conditions. It’s almost a tune where it’s kind of like boasting I’m a soul man—a pride thing.” The R&B duo Sam and Dave (Sam Moore and Dave Prater) added their voices to the lyrics. The song graced the Billboard charts and won a Grammy in 1968.

The ’70s, Saturday Night Live, And The Blues Brothers

I recently spotted The Blues Brothers’ version of ‘Soul Man’ on X (formerly Twitter). The groove is insatiable, and the swagger is all class. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, the two veteran Saturday Night Live (SNL) comedians decided to turn their sketch characters into a working band. They brought in Steve Cropper (guitar) and Donald Dunn (bass), who were the performers on the original Stax sessions of ‘Soul Man’ in 1967. They first performed as the opening act for Steve Martin, carrying their SNL sketch characters into a full-fledged band called The Blues Brothers. The line-up went through many changes over the years, but their first major milestone post gracing the SNL stage, was the 1979 live album ‘Briefcase Full of Blues’, on which their roaring version of ‘Soul Man’ was released. It again charted on the Billboard Hot 100, catching audiences who were swaying between disco, heavy metal, glam rock, R&B, and Pop in the late ’70s.

The chorus ‘I’m a soul man’ has been a crowd puller across many a stage and genre over the past six decades. For me, it’s a line that transcends pride, joy, identity, and recognition.

I’ll be back soon with another number that pins my ear, finds my trove, and stays with me. Till then, you can continue to check out my Trove Of Tunes curated in a Spotify playlist by clicking here.

Cheers,

Shri

Music has always been looked at as a messenger of peace, happiness and unity by practitioners, politicians, and the civil society at large. Commonly hailed as a universal language, music is a great source and showcase of improvisation. In this piece, I reflect upon the freedom to improvise, and owning the stage of relevance, through the lens of International Jazz Day celebrations and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival from earlier in the year. Read on!

All That Jazz

My first exposure to jazz was possibly on the radio, listening to Kenny G’s 1986 release Songbird, which was just instrumental music to me back then. The first jazz record I’d picked up was Charlie Parker with Strings in the early 2000s. Between Songbird and Bird (a.k.a. Charlie Parker), I went back 3 decades—from smooth jazz to bebop, from a memorable tune to free-flowing mischief, freedom, and reimagination of possibilities with music in every note. It’s difficult to cage jazz and the improvisation it breeds into a spectrum. I was reminded of this when I attended this year’s International Jazz Day celebrations in Bombay curated by Louiz Banks, which was also offered as a tribute to Ustad Zakir Hussain. The final piece ended with the artists fusing Indian Classical elements with individual solos, balancing predictability with finesse—just enough to keep the audience hooked.

I’d always looked at jazz as something that punches a global expression with a range of regional and local influences. It got me revisiting the chronology of jazz, tracing the origins and influences from different continents, countries and cultures. Starting with the coming together of African American, Latin American and European elements, shaping the 19^th century version of jazz, to evolving into a global phenomenon that became inclusive of multiple musical styles and interpretations over time. Artists like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin to name a few, shaped the extension of the genre into what they called ‘jazz fusion’ in the 1960s and ’70s, but all that jazz is just jazz in my books. Jazz artists broke musical boundaries, became curious to learn and understand different playing styles, and created a space to collectively interpret music and shape something new. So, when I look back at the jam from the International Jazz Day celebrations, it had influences of Indian Hindustani and Carnatic music, fused with western jazz, it was a celebration of jazz in the way it’s evolved today.

‘Relevance’ is a currency

A few months ago, at the 2025 edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Brian May—the guitarist of the seventy’s rock band, Queen—took the stage with Benson Boone to perform Bohemian Rhapsody. There were a number of reactions online ranging from admiration and nostalgia, praise for Benson Boone taking on a Queen classic, and a lack of energy amongst the audience when Brian May took the stage. A 22-year-old Boone and a 77-year-old May performing for an audience averaging in the early twenties was always going to be a tough act—bridging the current popularity with yesteryear legends and nostalgia. Today, music festivals are no longer just about music and artists—it’s just social media fuelling social media. This opinion piece by Kamdyn Sargent sums up the current state very well, highlighting the trade-off between focusing on soundchecks and fuelling consumerism. The baseline ticket prices for Coachella have gone up 12x in the past 27 years—icing inflation with indulgence.

Brands continue to infuse themselves with the cultural exchanges, trying to be relevant with each swipe. In the backdrop of so many players buying space for relevance—artists and brands; the audience is struggling to pitch a tent. Everyone is experimenting as one should with evolving trends, which is what Boone and May did at the 2025 Coachella stage. One can hope for recognition and respect for a legendary artist from 5 decades ago, but expecting a reaction similar to a Lady Gaga set from Coachella 2025, or Queen's Live Aid set from 1985, is hoping for one swipe too many.

Listen In

‘All That Jazz’ – the introduction song of the 1975 musical, Chicago, performed by Chita Rivera. The song had nothing to do with bringing the English phrase ‘all that jazz’ into the mainstream.

I’m forever on the lookout for tunes old and new, You can check out my expanding Trove Of Tunes that I’m curating in a Spotify playlist.

Cheers,

Shri

A version of this piece featured on my LinkedIn Newsletter earlier in the year.

‘A Couple Of Things’ is a short write-up of literally a couple of things that catch my attention and get me into a reflective mode. It could be a well-written essay, deep research into something outside the routine, a music discovery, a podcast finds, a page-turner, or for that matter any evolving thought formats that show up on my digital scroll.

For this piece, I dive into building brands and cultivating trust.

Legacy and customer behaviour have different evolution curves, and they differ by industries and product categories. The former is wrapped in perception and emotion, and the latter drifts with the rolling tide. Both together build generational trust. I’m reflecting on two iconic brands, from completely different and unrelated industries - Vicco Laboratories from Nagpur and Mumbai, India, and the LEGO Group from Billund, Denmark. I’m not looking to pen a summary to their Wikipedia pages but rather reflect on how both the organizations have evolved by keeping the customer at the centre of their vision and growth plans alongside holding on to their core ethos. Read on!

Natural Ingredients, a Yellow Cream and a Timeless Jingle

A few months ago, I chanced upon this LinkedIn post by Sanjeev Pendharkar, CEO, Vicco Laboratories, and it stopped my scroll. The Vishnu Industrial Chemicals Company, Vicco, was set up in 1952 by Mr. Keshav V. Pendharkar. For the past 7+ decades of its existence, the company has grown, not only across the length and breadth of India, but also continues to rest on shelves in 40+ countries. In the LinkedIn post, Sanjeev, citing Vicco’s example, touches upon how one should think about levers of growth and relevance, which are unique to every organization, instead of modernizing for the sake of doing it to fit in with an ongoing trend. I find Sanjeev’s lines to be a good note to self: 'Adapt when it’s wise. Innovate when it’s actually needed. But above all — protect the one truth your brand will never abandon. Because if you keep changing just to be seen, you’ll eventually forget what you truly stand for.’

Vicco has thrived with its core product built with natural ingredients—taking the benefits of ayurveda to the world, and promoting a holistic and healthy living. It began its operations by launching a tooth powder made from 18 natural ingredients in the 1950s, followed by a yellow turmeric skin scream. Starting with oral care and skin care products in the 1950s, Vicco has branched out into many categories like body care, hair care and personal care over time. And along the way, it gave us something simple, something nostalgic, something that said it all—the famous jingle and ad Vicco Turmeric Nahi Cosmetic. It had everything, from making the product front and centre, saying what it contains, and delivering the promise of what it can do. The levers of virality today are at the mercy of the algorithms, but the rules of recall are still tied to the human brain, and how humans retain information. This other post by Sanjeev jabs another axiom for life—‘Virality is loud. But real success? It’s often silent’.

Racing the LEGO Bricks

Did you ever imagine Formula One race car drivers driving a car made out of 400,000 LEGO Bricks and weighing 1,000kg on a real racetrack? Well, why imagine, when one can see it for real! My scroll wheels screeched to a stop on the sight of this video of Formula One drivers parading the track in LEGO-built cars at the Miami Grand Prix race weekend in May, 2025. These cars are going to be taken to different racetracks through the rest of the 2025 season, lighting up the possibilities when creativity meets innovation. From a simple work shed in Billund, Denmark in 1932 to big retail outlets, educational institutions, households, theme parks, big movie screens, and now to racetracks across the world; The LEGO Group has built itself into a cultural phenomenon over the past 9 decades of its existence. What started off as a playtime apparatus, has evolved into an inclusive teaching aid, a piece of entertainment and experience, a team building activity, and an agent of family bonding time. I had never heard of LEGO till as recently as a few years ago, when we had a team activity to build something using LEGO Bricks. Possibly because LEGO wasn’t available in India till 2014, or it was too expensive, or in my head I had outgrown the age to play with bricks and puzzles. Little did I know that LEGO has offerings specifically targeting adults as a customer category.

Keeping durability and quality at the core with every new innovation, the LEGO Group continues to transform with changing consumer preference for recreation and outdoor experiences, thereby evolving the perception of ‘toys’ as a category itself. This is reflective in the LEGOLAND theme parks, The LEGO Movie and the LEGO sets inspired by Harry Potter, Star Wars, and themes of space exploration in collaboration with NASA. Especially in today’s times where toys as a category is vying for consumer mindshare alongside social media and OTT content, LEGO’s pivots in the cultural zeitgeist continues to be integral and critical to their relevance as an organization.

P.S.
It’s not just me who found the irony in the fact that Vicco Laboratories has ‘chemicals’ in the name of the organization, but not in their products. The Indian Excise department found it amusing as well. You can read more about the fascinating saga that ran on for 4 decades, and one of the reasons behind the ‘Vicco Turmeric Nahi Cosmetic’ jingle, here.

Listen In

‘Never Tear Us Apart’ by INXS, part of their 1987 album, Kick. A powerful ballad with a dreamy and ambient keyboard work to start with, lifted by Michael Hutchence’s vocals, and a climatic close with Kirk Pengilly’s work on the saxophone.

I’m forever on the lookout for tunes old and new, You can check out my expanding Trove Of Tunes that I’m curating in a Spotify playlist.

Cheers,

Shri