Personal Weblog of Deepak Vasudevan

  Governance by Appetite and Apathy 🍽️⚖️ When the onion prices soared and the famous remark echoed, “I do not care because I do not eat onions,” it wasn’t just a passing comment — it was a template. It revealed a template of how personal circumstance is masqueraded as public policy logic. Let us imagine how this logic would naturally extend to other pressing issues: 1. Sugar Price Hike Citizen concern: Rising sugar costs heavily affect household budgets across the nation. Ministerial response: “I do not care because I am diabetic.” The Bitter Truth: Governance is reduced to medical charts, while the public bears the bitter taste of inflation. 2. Skyrocketing Spice Prices 🌶️ Citizen concern: The soaring cost of essential spices like cumin, coriander, and chili makes everyday meals unaffordable. Ministerial response: “I do not care because my chef only cooks bland, continental food.” The Bitter Truth: Flavor and culture are treated as luxury items, while the citizen’s kitchen...

  अब मैं घबराता हूँ Indian Satire Edition Inspired by Saad Alavi’s “Ab Mein Ghabrata Hoon” A few years ago, Pakistani musician Saad Alavi turned a simple political phrase into a quiet, biting confession of everyday anxiety. His track “Ab Mein Ghabrata Hoon” didn’t shout. It sighed. And that sigh travelled. This is my attempt to carry the same emotional weight into the Indian context — the paper promises, the freebie politics, the adulterated thali, the ignored flood warnings, and the endless cycle of taxes and jumlas. No anger. Just the familiar middle-class feeling that keeps returning: अब मैं घबराता हूँ। [Intro / Refrain] काग़ज़ के ये वादे देखकर, हर भाषण का जुमला सुनकर, अब मैं घबराता हूँ, अब मैं घबराता हूँ... [Verse 1: Cinema to Politics & Blind Worship] पर्दे के हीरो को देखकर, नेताओं की लाइन में जोड़कर, अनपढ़ बनकर ताली बजाता हूँ, फिर बेढंग शासन चलाता देख, अब मैं घबराता हूँ, अब मैं घबराता हूँ... [Verse 2: Freebies & Vote Bank Politics] फ्री की रेवड़ी के लालच में, वोट की खातिर...

The Cosmos Doesn’t Need a Gavel: A Friday Reminder to the Ultimate Bench We live in an era where the word "Chief"—whether prefixing a Justice or a Minister—has been thoroughly decoupled from its original meaning. Once a title denoting ultimate accountability and moral weight, it has cheapened into a mere tool for ego-projection and the demand of unearned deference. When institutions wrap themselves in the arrogance of invincibility, they often forget that the higher the pedestal, the harder the cosmic correction. The universe, however, has a flawless system of checks and balances. There is an old Tamil proverb: எளியாரை வலியார் வாட்டினால் வலியாரை தெய்வம் வாட்டும் (If the mighty oppress the weak, the Divine will punish the mighty.) But under the current cosmic administration, Shanidev seems to be serving up a redefined, beautifully ironic version: எளியாரை வலியார் வாட்டினால் வலியாரை எலியாரே வாட்டுவார் (If the mighty oppress the weak, the humble rodents/pests will ...

The Siren Paradox: Why Tamil Nadu Needs “Stealth” Over “Spectacle” in Night Policing It is 3:00 AM in a quiet residential neighborhood in Tamil Nadu. The streets are empty, the shops are shuttered, and the city is finally resting. Suddenly, a rhythmic pulse of high-intensity blue and red strobes bounces off bedroom walls, accompanied by the low growl—or the occasional sharp wail—of a police siren. We’ve all seen it: the routine night patrol. While the sight of our police force should instill a sense of security, the current "stage-play" of constant lights and sound is inadvertently doing the opposite. It is waking up citizens, wasting resources, and, most importantly, tipping off the very people the police are trying to catch. The Problem with "Loud" Policing The traditional logic is that visibility equals deterrence. However, in the modern era, constant sirens and flashing lights during non-emergency hours create three significant issues: The ...

From "Hatta Katta" to Home-Voting: When Convenience Trumps Conscience The Election Commission’s "Vote from Home" initiative is a noble pursuit of inclusivity, but it’s currently being gamed by those who least need it. The Urban Paradox We’ve all seen the heart-warming videos of volunteers carrying the frail through mud and hills to vote. But look closer at our urban centers, and you’ll see a different trend. In many high-rises, we have the "Hatta Katta and Lamba Chowda" octogenarians—individuals who are robust, tall, and physically fit. These are folks seen biking through traffic three times a day or walking briskly for errands, yet they are the first to sign up for door-step voting. Why This Matters When a Lamba Chowda person, who has no trouble navigating the world, chooses to vote from their sofa, they are: Trivializing the Struggle: They make a mockery of the truly disabled who would give anything for that level of mobility. ...

The 36-Degree Glitch: When a Missed Call Breaks the Silence 1. The Default State: 36 का आँखड़ा In Hindi, the numerals ३ and ६ are mirror souls — they face away from each other by design. This is the perfect metaphor for certain relationships: not broken, not repaired — simply permanently averted . No calls. No texts. No eye contact in the corridor. Just two numbers, back to back, in elegant, hostile silence. This is the Default State. Until, of course, a phone rings at 15:23 on March 19th. 2. The Incident: The Packet Loss of 15:23 One missed call. From a number saved as Sujatha Venkatesh. In a normal relationship, this is noise. A blip. You call back, or you don't. But context is everything. We are not in a normal relationship. We are mid-feud. The disputed territories? Common Expenses and the infamous Milk Hera Pheri — a slow, daily act of small appropriation that speaks volumes about character. These are people who will not look you in the eye at the gate...

As an example usage to Git Blame: Civic Crimes Edition (https://deepakvasudevan.blogspot.com/2026/03/git-blame-civic-crimes-edition.html), one prediction still lingers in the dark. Whispers say a famous persona once abducted a yesteryear newsreader, even outraging their modesty. Other voices dismiss it as pure grapevine, but the smoke keeps curling. In politics, it’s not uncommon for biggies to rewrite mishaps scripted by them—beyond even the impeccability of how we rewrite git histories. Victims vanish from the branch, heirs fork the tale into sequels, and accountability evaporates like an untracked file. Whether the persona is still around or their heir apparents carry the torch, the rumor itself becomes a commit in the civic repo. Newspapers decorate themselves with colorful crimes every minute, while crime prevention commits nothing at all. In byte‑museum terms: the grapevine is a dangling commit, waiting to be squashed by power.

Git Blame: Civic Crimes Edition In the world of code, we squash commits, rewrite histories, and polish repos until they look pristine. In the world of politics, the biggies do the same—only the commits are crimes, and the repos are public memory. Rumors swirl like untracked files: abductions, outrages, cover‑ups. Some say it’s grapevine, others whisper “no smoke without fire.” But when the powerful hold the long stirrer, they can rewrite even the darkest mishaps beyond the impeccability of git rebase. The newspapers decorate themselves with colorful crimes every minute, accountability nil, responsibility negligible. Victims vanish from the branch, heirs fork the story into sequels, and the public is left staring at a changelog that never matches the code. In byte‑museum terms: git blame points to everyone, but git commit --amend belongs to the powerful.

Finance Aunty’s Toll Gate on the AI Expressway The AI Summit was all glitter and algorithms, but someone was conspicuously absent—our Finance Aunty. While startups drooled over investments and biggies poured capital from every corner of India, she quietly sharpened her fiscal quill. Now the revenge note arrives: from September, mobile data itself will carry a separate tax. The information highway, once free‑flowing, suddenly has a toll booth. Every packet pays a fare, every scroll is metered. Startups will feel the pinch, telcos will juggle bundles, and consumers will discover that bytes aren’t just data—they’re taxable bites. In byte‑museum terms: AI may be the new oil, but Finance Aunty just installed a meter at the pump.