Essays
33 essays
- 01Issue #32: Book Review - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the DeadI last penned a book review on May 1, 2022, when I reviewed Anuk Arudpragasam’s Booker Prizelonglisted book. I have since read about 52 books, many of them with compelling...
- 02Issue #31: These Words Are Mine And TrueThe most mentally challenging task I set myself last year was to write as many articles as I could. It could be two, a hundred, a thousand. I cared little about the amount, so...
- 03Issue #30: 2022 - Laughter, Tears & GoosebumpsThat limbo period between Christmas and the start of a new year, the liminal period when we wait for the dawn of a new year, afforded me the opportunity to cogitate on the year...
- 04Issue #29: Tayo - One Year OnIt has been a year since my heart shattered into a million pieces. It was a Sunday afternoon. I was cleaning my bathroom, as is my routine when suddenly, the song blasting from...
- 05Issue #28: On Being Surrounded By Yes-MenI was going to title this article “On Being Surrounded By YesPeople”. Yespeople instead of yesmen because I don’t think rubberstamping someone’s every action to ingratiate...
- 06Issue #27: Hi, It Has Been A While, Hasn't It?It has been a while since I last wrote to you, hasn’t it? It has been fortynine days since the last time I penned down my thoughts. It doesn’t feel that long, though. It feels...
- 07Issue #26: Cycle of InfluenceSummer is now fully upon us. The sun has been coming out in full glory, injecting colour into everything and everyone. It’s beautiful, but it’s ephemeral. If we are lucky,...
- 08Issue #25: Good Enough Is Good EnoughThere was a song our teachers taught us how to sing when I was in primary school. It goes thus:
- 09Issue #24: Peter Principle and the Maker-Manager TransitionWork is like a river always trying to swell out of its banks. If you let it, it will flood every crevice of your life, and you will be left fighting with your head barely above...
- 10Issue #23: Toeing the Underground LineThe London Underground logo is one of the world’s most recognised logos. The Roundel, a hollowed red ring with a horizontal blue bar bearing the word “UNDERGROUND” or the name...
- 11Issue #22: The Paradox of Choice: Affairs of the HeartI have noticed that many of the articles in this newsletter coalesce around the theme of friendship. It is interesting because I didn’t set out to write articles of a specific...
- 12Issue #21: On Building a CommunityIn March, I wrote the Ebbs and Flows of Friendships article. In it, I touched on the challenges of maintaining adult relationships and the cycles of peaks and troughs they...
- 13Issue #20: Birthdays in the age of social mediaIt was my birthday a few days ago, and my celebrations were understated, like most of my birthdays since I turned 27. I spend most of the day in a contemplative mood, thinking...
- 14Issue #19: I Did What I Said I Would DoI am not a fan of selfhelp books. After reading many of them, you find out that most are trite, and their main points can be distilled into a few pages. But that wasn’t the...
- 15Issue #18: Planning For My Birthday, Cycle Trip to Oxford, Diderot Effect, and BooksThis article is two days late. That is because I have had a lot more on my plate lately. My birthday is in just over a week and one of the things I have always wanted to do is...
- 16Issue #17: What Means Little To You May Mean The World To Another: A Sticky StoryAdhesive bandages, commonly known as plasters, or in the United States by the genericised trademark name, BandAid, have gone through a few iterations over the last two...
- 17Issue #16: Book Review: A Passage North by Anuk ArudpragasamThe first time Sri Lanka came into my awareness was in secondary school on a day I was flipping through the atlas in the school library. I was looking at the map of India when...
- 18Issue #15: On Dealing with MicroaggressionThis year makes it eight years since I moved to England. While there are many things I love about this country I now call home, there is also a litany of reasons I hate living...
- 19Issue #14: There Is No Shame In ThatThis will be a relatively short article, but don't let its brevity make you believe it was easy to write. I think it will be the most challenging article I'll ever write. How...
- 20Issue #13: "You don't even got nobody bein' honest with you"Last week was mentally challenging for me, so I went on a lot of walks. Apart from the health benefits derived from taking long walks, they force me into a contemplative...
- 21Issue #12: Book Review: Blonde Roots by Bernadine EvaristoI first learnt about Bernadine Evaristo and her work in 2019 when she was announced joint winner of the Booker Prize with Margaret Atwood. It was the first time since 1992 that...
- 22Issue #11: The Ebbs and Flows of FriendshipsIt was a surprisingly tepid December afternoon. The sun peeked shyly behind grey clouds. Farouq, myself, and one of our mutual friends were in Peckham to eat àmàlà at one of...
- 23Issue #10: On ConsistencyThis is my tenth article of the year. That means I have published an article every week since the second week of this year. I had doubts at the start about my ability to write...
- 24Issue #9: Book Review: Everything Good Will Come by Sefi AttaI decided to read Sefi Atta’s debut novel because it is much vaunted by some of my friends. Most of them read it in high school and had good things to say about it. It even won...
- 25Issue #8: Death to PerfectionWhen people ask me to list the most impactful books I have read, Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air always makes the list. Written by a brilliant doctor who learnt that...
- 26Issue #7: What do you meme it's not funny?It won’t be an exaggeration to say that the start of this decade has been one of the most tumultuous times in recent human history. We’ve witnessed a global pandemic,...
- 27Issue #6: One Life, Many HellsYou think You're frightening me with Your hell, don't You? You think Your hell is worse than mine Dorothy Parker, A Telephone Call
- 28Issue #5: Book Review: African Psycho by Alain Mabancko“I have decided to kill Germaine on December 29. I have been thinking about this for weeks”. African Psycho opens with those two sentences that immediately get you interested...
- 29Issue #4: Promote Yourself. Your Career Growth Depends On ItLast week, I saw a tweet that said, “If you can work without focusing on who gets the credit for the wins, you will do big things!”. Like every sentiment expressed on the...
- 30Issue #3: Book Review: A Burning by Megha MajumdarI decide on books to read based on recommendations from my friends and close acquaintances or by waltzing into bookshops, sauntering between aisles, reading book synopsis, and...
- 31Issue #2: Recruiting Participants for Customer Discovery InterviewsThe internet is a graveyard of startups, and those who pry into the carcasses of dead startups have identified many reasons startups fail. They often cite a failure to build...
- 32Issue #1: Book Review: No One Is Talking About This by Patricia LockwoodI first heard of Patricia Lockwood and her new book on The Blindboy Podcast. The host spoke effusively about the book, describing it as bursting in imagination and creativity....
- 33Till we meet again, OmotayoWhen I said I needed to write more, I didn’t think the words I would write after would be laden with grief. Yet, here I am with a heavy heart, eyes welled with tears, writing a...