| Sunday, 09 June 2024 |
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Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
Good morning and welcome back to our Sunday soiree. It’s been a glorious week in Bengaluru, alternating between grey skies, dark clouds, and copious rains on one day to blue skies, billowy clouds, and bright sunshine the next. Many evenings, you’d think you were looking at a Renaissance painting, because that’s how dramatic the clouds and skies are.
It’s been a hectic and rewarding week for me. After last Sunday’s supermega Fitness Quest, I was exhausted. But the thing to charge me up happened the very next day over less than 45 minutes.
Allow me the indulgence of a “slow” week, therefore. Skip the first section if you aren’t feeling a little indulgent or laid back yourself. My colleagues have more interesting things lined up for you later in the edition.
Here’s what we have in First Principles today:
1. The Recharge
2. The Ken’s Young Business Leadership Programme
3. Coffee to save the day? 🎙️
4. Cropped 📸
5. Fiction week 📚
1. The Recharge
7.30 a.m, Monday, 3 June: “The Door”
I’m tired but also strangely exhilarated as I unstrap my Luna sandals outside our door. I flex my toes to feel around for any signs of metatarsal stress, but there seems to be none.
The newspapers have been delivered. “???/543” reads the NDTV ad on the front page of The Hindu. Election results are just a day away.
Gabru is waiting inside, as always. He’s seen me coming back from his vantage point in the balcony and has run back to wait at the door. “It’s time to go out for my morning walk, human!” he barks and jumps at me as I enter.
7.25 a.m: “Cool Down”
I’m walking back home from the lake. The brown “alpha” dog with one white paw isn’t at his usual spot outside the supermarket. He’s the leader of a pack of three and gets triggered every time I walk past him with Gabru on our morning walk. He studiously also refuses to take the dog cookies I offer him as a peace offering too.
A few days ago, I’d made a mental calculation of the number of street packs in the roughly two-kilometre stretch from here to Sarjapur Road.
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Hari Buggana
Chairman and MD, InvAscent
Transparent, Honest, Detailed. To me, The Ken has been this since the day I subscribed to them. The research that they put into each story and the way it is presented is thoroughly interesting. Personally, I’ve always had a great time interacting with the publication and reading the stories.
Harshil Mathur
CEO and Co-Founder, Razorpay
The Ken has proven naysayers wrong by successfully running a digital news publication on a pure-subscription business model in India. They have shown that discerning readers are willing to pay for well-researched, well-written, in-dept news articles.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw
Executive Chairperson, Biocon Limited
As a designer, it’s easy to get lost in the craft of building products. As a business owner however, keeping up with a rapidly changing landscape is key to saying relevant. The Ken doesn’t just help me stay on top of what’s happening in India(and beyond), but makes it fun to do so.
Rahul Gonsalves
Co-founder and CEO, Obvious Ventures