// before the code
The Ink
Three years, three parodies: the punster who over-thought everything, the editor who could not cut his own 25-page draft, and finally the one who held the fort, error-checking other people's work, absorbing the flak from other teams so his own did not have to, and refusing to abandon it in his final year. The last one is still the job description.
The Morkinstar Journals. 48 pieces of framed short fiction across 4 seasons, a galactic field reporter filing what he finds until he stops filing.
// the archive
Writing
10 pieces of short fiction, campus lore, satire and essays. Everything I wrote before I wrote code, first in a college magazine and then on a blog.
"The Loopdown" isn't a brand I made up. It's a short story I wrote for Excelsior '21, a week that refuses to end, 52 iterations of the same Wednesday. The hub, the repo and the series all still carry its name.
That hub is still running. The field notes, the series and the cast of personified bugs they star live in The Loopdown.
Books Before Bros
the origin blogThe original blog. Essays, campus lore and short fiction from before the code. Most of the pieces below were first published there, at booksbeforebros.wordpress.com.
Chronicles Of An NRE Kid
essayGrowing up between two worlds as a Non-Resident kid.
CTC: Cost To Company
short-fictionA 2069 climate dystopia where salary is paid in days of drinkable water. Placement culture as speculative fiction.
Deadline
short-fictionDeath shows up in a skull t-shirt and hands you six months. A memento-mori meditation wearing a Deadpool costume.
Honest College Fests
humorCollege fests, described honestly. The gap between the poster and the reality.
It's A Doggone Life
essayA dog's-eye life, and everything it teaches.
Pointer Games
short-fictionA midnight call from a legendary dropout, a conspiracy in the exam schedule, and the boogeyman of MANIT.
Prophecy #201112003
short-fictionA scholar number, a prophecy, and campus mythology.
The Legend Of K'öæluæ's Scales
short-fictionA galactic field reporter transcribes why it snows on a frozen planet — a fire serpent, a water god, and the fisherwoman who talked one of them out of giving up.
The Loopdown
short-fictionA week that refuses to end. 52 iterations of the same Wednesday — the namesake of this whole repo.
The Pun Force
humorAn origin myth for the pun, narrated by the punniest man alive. The building block of humor, weaponized.
Three years on the Editorial Board at NIT Bhopal. English Editor on the 2019 and 2020 editions, Joint Chief Editor on 2021. That last one was 128 pages shipped entirely remotely through the pandemic, and its cover story was the whole magazine: one frame story branching into three paths a reader chooses between. Hover a cover to open it.
Each year every board member gets one question, answered by a teammate impersonating them. Affectionate, unsparing, and not written by me, which is the only reason they're worth reading. Trimmed here to keep other people's names out of it; … marks every cut, and each card opens the scanned page it came from.
English Editor
Q: What's your new year resolution?
"Do you mean Re; Solution? I bought that for my hair. It's shiz only intellectuals understand. I plan to paint my hair yellow and visit every eatery with my NRI squad. Also, I plan to learn how to ride a bike and enhance my collection of nerve-wrenching puns…"
~「RHM: Rapid Hand Movement」~
Excelsior ’19 · page 141 →English Editor
Q: What are you doing?
"…I have been so caught up with trying to shorten this article that I can't find time. Can't we keep it as it is? It's just 25 pages."
~「types more jargon」~
Excelsior ’20 · page 119 →Joint Chief Editor & Chief English Editor
Q: How's it going?
"…This JC will hold the fort for as long as it takes. For a mother can't trust anybody with her child, yk. … Doesn't matter if y'all don't reply to my messages, don't turn in work at deadlines, etc etc. Yaar tumhare liye design teams se gaali bhi kha lunga but never abandon EB."
~「Pastes his write-up in a freshly error-checked code」~ · FYC, Final Year Crisis
Excelsior ’21 · page 118 →English Editor → Joint Chief Editor
The institute's student media body, publishing Excelsior since 1963. Three editions on the board; Joint Chief Editor and Chief English Editor on the last one.
Online Content Secretary → Online Content Head
MANIT's oldest (and only) English literary society. Member since 2018. Ran the society's recruitment: 250+ students went through it. Wrote for Scribbled, the society blog. Helped run Illuminati 8.0, the Technosearch'18 fest event with 1500+ footfall from other colleges. Coordinated Ripple'20, MANIT's Literary Fest.
// margin notes
Leave a note against this piece
Anonymous, one line, no links — and you can take yours back.