Dan

December 5, 2025

The Elangos I Know (and the marriage they’ve built)

To say that my life has been inextricably linked with the Elangos for the last twenty years, is not too much of a stretch. I mean, can you imagine having five different WhatsApp groups with just one person and a family of four? Or remembering almost every mobile phone that the four of them have owned in the past fifteen years or so? Th...

December 3, 2025

Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur (and my visit to the Dohnavur Fellowship)

I think I’m in love with a 158-year-old woman. “I’ve read your story as a child So much to look up to Why would you leave your kingdom Come to distant shores to serve us God’s Madcap, they named you I grew up and you faded But your love for Jesus I tried To live out in my own way” I know of Amy Carmichael from my school days - Mum and ...

November 22, 2025

Santhosha Vidhyalaya

In the 'deep south' region of our beautiful country, about 50 km from Kanyakumari and another 50 km from the eighth-most populous city in Tamil Nadu, Nellai, is an area called Dohnavur. The area was originally established in 1901 by the Irish missionary Amy Carmichael as Vanacharbu (woodlands). Decades later, in 1982, the sincere and c...

July 6, 2025

Weight-loss and My Journey

For some context, I've never had any particular desire to be unhealthy. That was never the target. Similarly, I don't think I ever targeted health or fitness for the first thirty years of my life. Slim Beginnings Growing up, I used to play cricket and be quite energetic till about the age of 10/11. I stopped playing cricket when everyb...

December 22, 2024

Going to Church

A question I've been asked numerous times in my life is: "Which church do you go to?" My weird, complicated brain has a fundamental problem with this question. As a child, Christianity taught me that we don't "go to a" church, but instead that we're "part of a" church. So how have I tackled this question? When I was younger, and foolis...

September 3, 2024

Foundations at Forty

I turn forty in forty days. For some time now, I've been wanting to do a whole "Forty Before Forty" run, posting something every day for forty days leading up to my fortieth birth anniversary. Just now, I decided to ditch that whole project. There are just some monumental life decisions I've taken - which I've taken for Jesus, and with...

August 11, 2024

The Case for AI

Prompt to Meta AI: Imagine a pretty Indian girl about 30 with average height and medium build wearing a denim jacket and blue jeans, who is smiling lovingly Generative AI is here to stay. Whether it is a simple query of "write a letter to my boss requesting leave for 3 days; keep it formal, but relaxed and warm" or a more complex query...

April 30, 2024

The Man Behind the Miss

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know who Joan Miss is. (If you don't, clear your calendar for a few hours and then ask me...) As she leaves the school she's known for more than thirty years, and moves to another school, there is a flood of photos, captions, memories, etc. being shared by so many many people who absolutely a...

January 5, 2024

Corners, Zigzags, and Straight Lines

Me: "I need people like you in my corner" My friend: "Yeah, pretty busy corner you have..." The above snippet from a recent conversation made me pause and think. God reminded of another heated conversation back in 2016 when I was saying that there's nobody in my corner. God again immediately reminded me of a verse that I felt was deliv...

September 28, 2023

Of Sunsets, Love Stories and Divorce

17 years ago, on 28th September 2006, I received an email reply with a phone number. I was on the phone with her for 10+ hours before I slept that night. This led to a 14+ years-long relationship, with 11+ years of marriage. 2 years and 8 months ago, she boarded a flight and jetted out of my life. For those of you who don't know, I wri...

April 20, 2023

A Decade in Madras

I try to mark the key milestones in my life with a blog post. So this one signals ten years in Madras (a 2nd innings?)... Here's a snapshot of those ten years. On the evening of 19th April, 2013, I landed at the Madras Airport from Bombay after a week-long 'initiation' with FCB Ulka/Interface, to begin my four-year-long career in digit...

February 3, 2023

Longest work streak

Two thousand and ninety-seven. 2097. That's the total number of days I worked at HP, my first job. It's also the longest I've worked at any job. That changes today, as I complete 2097 days of working at Anita Methodist School, Chennai. This world loves streaks - Snapchat streaks, Apple Fitness streaks, etc. and I love stats, memories a...

March 19, 2022

An absolute treasure of a human being

"Don't skate to where the puck is; skate to where it's going to be." This is sound advice from a hockey player, quoted by Steve Jobs. Looking back to March 2020, I can confidently say that I've seen this work out perfectly only ONCE in my life. On the evening of 18th March 2020, my boss (Principal of the school where I work part-time) ...

March 1, 2022

Smartphone / device addiction and digital life management (Part 1)

Recently, a friend challenged me to keep my smartphone out of the bedroom for ten days. Apparently, this would prove that I'm not addicted to it, etc. I was trying to explain how I'm not really addicted to it, so whether I keep it in my bedroom or not wouldn't matter - but I decided to take up the challenge. Perhaps I'll update here on...

March 6, 2021

Vessels of Worship

Take a minute to think about what makes you you. Pause, and consider it. Whatever came to your mind - your passions, your likes, your interests, your hobbies, your skills, your traits - are a result of who God has made you. A non-stick tawa/saucepan is useless if it loses its non-stickiness. You and I lose our primary purpose for God p...

March 6, 2021

Again for the first time...

Well, I’ve been around this block before. Starting with Blogger back in 2006/2007, then trying to maintain an amateur tech blog, and then trying to continue the blog as a personal newsletter. I’ve even attempted video updates as the world has moved increasingly to video consumption from written-articles consumption. But I love the Hey ...