| Sunday, 13 July 2025 |
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Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
Good morning. I’m back after a brief family trip to Kerala last weekend. We spent most of it in Alappuzha, a laidback and scenic backwaters district. Kerala in the monsoon is a joy to behold—lush, glistening, and fecund. But it is also a pain to traverse, because of the rains, puddles, and under-construction flyovers and roads that seem closer to being taken over by plants than completion.
I spent a day on Vembanad Lake for the first time, despite being a Malayali and having spent nearly two years in Kerala cumulatively, accumulated via annual, two-month-long summer vacations through childhood and up until my teens.
Beautiful and awe-inspiring as the lake undoubtedly is, it is also sick and gradually dying. From the thousands of houseboats that ply its waters for tourists (of which we too were some) to indiscriminate fishing, farming, and waste dumping, Vembanad seems to be in the final stages of an irreversible ecosystem collapse.
The privilege of seeing the lake from a motorised houseboat means you can choose to take in only the (undeniable) aesthetic beauty around you, ignoring the hard lives of those who live on its banks or depend on it for their livelihood. It was easier when I was younger.
We did a day trip to our grandparent’s house, a magical place in a village sandwiched between the Kayamkulam Lake and the Arabian Sea. No one lives there now, so the plants and trees and weeds and mosquitoes have taken it over. It was hard to meld its current reality with my laughter-and-joy-filled memories from decades ago.
Meanwhile, back home, Gabru spent a few days in a boarding kennel. He sulked through it all, but is now happy to be the undisputed king of his own giant kennel which he shares graciously with us. Here he is, sleeping contentedly next to me on Saturday as I was writing First Principles.
This is our line-up for today:
1. Don’t aim for “byproduct” values or goals
2. Interesting articles 🔖
3. Tracing a way back home 📚
4. All our furry friends Vol.4 🐕🐈
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Executive Chairperson, Biocon Limited
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