These are a few of my favourite things

Books:

Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari

Pride and prejudice - Jane Austen

Amoralman - Derek Delgaudio (Suchhh a treat! 🔥🔥🔥🔥)

Demian - Hermann Hesse (Magiccccc ✨✨✨)

Emma - Jane Austen (Setting such high bars for romance 😆 It's craaaazy how this book found me at a time when I was going through experiences exactly like that of Emma and was changing in the exact ways that she was!!! 🧐 

Too many quotable bits but this was particularly striking - [...] 'the only source whence any thing like consolation or composure could be drawn, was in the resolution of her own better conduct, and the hope that, however inferior in spirit and gaiety might be the following and every future winter of her life to the past, it would yet find her more rational, more acquainted with herself, and leave her less to regret when it were gone' ❤️❤️❤️❤️)

The four agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz

Narcissus and Goldmund - Hermann Hesse (This book (as with all of Hesse's books) found me when I was in distress and brought just what I needed. It came by when I was deeply lamenting my unlived life. Goldmund is one of the most triggering fictional characters I've read 🥵 It's unbelievable how spot on Hermann Hesse is about so many things and yet manages to leave a certain love-hate aftertaste)

Dreams from my father - Barack Obama

The alchemist - Paulo Coelho

The scarlet pimpernel - Emmuska Orczy

The gene - Siddhartha Mukherjee 

Godan - Premchand

The da Vinci code - Dan Brown

Steppenwolf (SOOO GOOD ✨)

A prisoner of birth - Jeffrey Archer

Geethaari - Su. Tamilselvi

Life of Pi - Yann Martel ('And so it goes with God' ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

The kite runner - Khaled Hosseini

The orchid and the dandelion - Thomas Boyce

Sivagamiyin sabadham - Kalki Krishnamurthy

Parthiban kanavu - Kalki Krishnamurthy

Ponniyin selvan - Kalki Krishnamurthy

The Harry Potter series

The Rozabal line - Ashwin Sanghi

Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse (Made me feel so seen! ✨✨✨ although some parts of things Hesse writes always manage to rub me wrong)

Angels and demons - Dan Brown

Becoming - Michelle Obama

License to live - Priya Kumar (16 y/o me loved this)

The wisdom of the Enneagram - Don Riso and Russ Hudson (Very illuminating read. But first, embarrassing 😆 Also, just how predictable are we? 🤯)

Short stories:

The gift of the Magi - O. Henry

The necklace - Guy de Maupassant

The last question - Isaac Asimov

The helping hand - EM Forster

The absent-minded man - Jerome K Jerome

The last leaf - O. Henry

What goes around comes around - Bryan Anderson (?)

Spell my name with an S - Isaac Asimov | Incredible story ❤️

The model millionaire - Oscar Wilde

The ant and the grasshopper - Somerset Maugham

The lottery ticket - Anton Chekov

Cat person - Kristen Roupenian

The Mouse - Saki | http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Mou.shtml

Profession - Isaac Asimov

Mr. Know-all - Somerset Maugham

Plays:

The bishop's candlesticks - Norman McKinnel (Tugs at my heart every time I read it 💓) | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Bishop%27s_Candlesticks

Poetry:

Bharathiyar

Hidden - Naomi Shihab Nye | https://poetry.auburn.edu/featured-poems/hidden.html

Experience - Carl Sandburg | Such an incredible poem! 💞 | https://poets.org/poem/experience

Sometimes - Sheenah Pugh | https://www.oatridge.co.uk/poems/s/sheenagh-pugh-sometimes.php

Throwing away the alarm clock - Charles Bukowski | https://genius.com/Charles-bukowski-throwing-away-the-alarm-clock-annotated

Nothing twice - Wisława Szymborska | https://poets.org/poem/nothing-twice

So you want to be a writer - Charles Bukowski | https://poets.org/poem/so-you-want-be-writer

The summer day - Mary Oliver | https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/poet-laureate/poet-laureate-projects/poetry-180/all-poems/item/poetry-180-133/the-summer-day/

At the Theatre: To the Lady Behind Me - AP Herbert | https://allpoetry.com/At-the-Theatre:-To-the-Lady-Behind-Me

For women who are difficult to love - Warsan Shire | https://genius.com/Warsan-shire-for-women-who-are-difficult-to-love-annotated

The mountain and the squirrel - Ralph Waldo Emerson | https://100.best-poems.net/mountain-and-squirrel.html

Keeping quiet - Pablo Neruda | http://quantum.bu.edu/zen/readings/keepingQuietNeruda.html

The man he killed - Thomas Hardy | https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44329/the-man-he-killed

The vacation - Wendell Berry | https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56192/the-vacation-56d238779b2aa

I go down to the shore - Mary Oliver | https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/09/18/i-go-down-to-the-shore-mary-oliver/

That reminds me - Ogden Nash | https://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php%3Fdate=2013%252F07%252F18.html

Life-while-you-wait - Wisława Szymborska | https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/02/amanda-palmer-reads-wislawa-szymborska/

On crime and punishment - Kahlil Gibran | Incredibly powerful poem ❤️❤️ Let him who is without sin cast the first stone (This article's a nice supplement: https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/our-tragic-condition/) | https://poets.org/poem/crime-and-punishment

The people upstairs - Ogden Nash | https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-people-upstairs/

The peace of wild things - Wendell Berry | https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/peace-wild-things-0/

The pulley - George Herbert | https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44370/the-pulley

Leisure - W.H.Davies | http://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=100

The fourth sign of the zodiac - Mary Oliver | https://apoemaday.tumblr.com/post/182710938565/the-fourth-sign-of-the-zodiac [I particularly love the third one 💓]

As if to demonstrate an eclipse - Billy Collins | https://www.google.com/amp/s/wordsfortheyear.com/2017/08/21/as-if-to-demonstrate-an-eclipse-by-billy-collins/amp/

Reason - Robin Coste Lewis | https://poets.org/poem/reason

Music:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI6vxyqT1KHGQS_GygulIXaWTDEczIcZ5 | Arunagiri Perumale | Such an incredible documentary/album. I love that all the songs in the album share a common soundscape. Too lovely ❤️✨

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nvunoEZApnrePbAlnK8N78HxiVF-LMZeA | Entropy - Sid Sriram | Insanely beautiful ❤️ This one did something to me ✨ Still figuring out what

https://youtu.be/KZZLqoRuuHw | 96

https://youtu.be/_mSVAgPtWjI | Ek je chhilo raja

https://youtu.be/-5YPmYIJi4w | Uththama villan

https://youtu.be/gnNKg6xTKew | Vaanam kottattum

https://youtu.be/NjXZ2vs3qtY | Vinnaithaandi varuvaayaa

https://youtu.be/h0Gvav8SFFU | Humnasheen - Shreya Ghoshal

https://youtu.be/l1TalbMWEOU | Mariyaan

https://youtu.be/EiK8OQzTSTk | Madharasapattinam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9byV34ifF8 | Achcham enbadhu madamaiyada

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV5DFDU51J3842CxaXrKpa6lHcOuCs4Kk

Movies:

Me before you

Dumb money

Dear Zindagi

Migration (2023) - Wholesome watch 🥰

Boiling point (Suchhh a great movie!)

The Truman show (Gushed about it here: https://braymatter.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-truman-show.html)

Dead poets society

My Dinner with Andre

In and of itself

Soul

PK

Marriage story

Before trilogy

Good Will Hunting (So fucking good! ❤️)

Uththama villan

Meetings with remarkable men

Helen (Malayalam)

The sound of music

Life of Pi

8 minutes (short film)

The trial of the Chicago 7

The case for Christ

The pianist

Neram

Inherit the wind (Sooo much wit 🔥🔥 An insight from the movie that struck me VERYYYY much and has stuck with me - a person's (arguably) reprehensible ideologies/acts don't erase their entire lifetime)

Andhadhun

JoJo Rabbit

The Sunset Limited (I am somehow both the men in this movie)

Emma

Dark waters

Vaayai moodi pesavum

Arrival

Madharasapattinam

127 hours

A beautiful day in the neighbourhood

Taare zameen par

Rear window

Hey Ram

Zootopia

Dasavatharam

The lunchbox

Fakir

Deivathirumagal

1917

Pride and prejudice

Baby's day out 

Spotlight

Anbe sivam

Murder mystery

Super Deluxe

The post

The platform

Inside out

To sir, with love ('Lead with influence, not authority' 💪🏽❤️)

Payanam

Pink

Virumandi

Neerja

The Harry Potter series

Locke (It stood out to me how Locke didn't apologize at all, not once, yikes)

TV series:

House MD

Sherlock

This is us (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Genius (NatGeo)

Mahabharat (Star Plus) (Binge-watching the show a second time in 2023, desperately reaching for solace - everything hits so different!!! 😭💔)

The queen's gambit (I'm such a sucker for coming-of-age stories)

Suits

Pride and prejudice (BBC)

Fleabag Season 2 (Another favourite priest, ha!)

Documentaries:

Evolution | Brilliant stuff 🔥🔥🔥 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCOc7Xqj-kQ (Ep 1)

The social dilemma

Our planet

Thamizhi | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayWLeakDbZk (Ep 1)

Night on earth

Arunagiri perumale | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdvP4C0rSdQ

The voyager | https://ihavenotv.com/the-farthest-voyagers-interstellar-journey-storyville

Lectures:

1. The Enneagram - Richard Rohr

https://youtu.be/AmZnedWQGM0

https://youtu.be/0pIRQNrE1OY

https://youtu.be/iDtIxP7rmXM

https://youtu.be/UBC3BIkC1R0

I tend to like the psychospiritual approach to self-knowledge better than the solely psychological (think MBTI*) or solely spiritual (say, theosophy). These lectures are so enlightening and SOOO fun ❤️❤️❤️ Richard Rohr is amazing!! (It's interesting how a lot of growth lies in the direction opposite our compulsions)

*But MBTI type development has as its ultimate step/level, becoming free from egocentric agendas, and in this, it isn't all that different from spirituality

2. Isai Payanam by Charulatha Mani where she takes a raga (musical mode in Indian classical music) and catalogues a few compositions in the raga both in classical and film music.

Comics:

xkcd - https://xkcd.com/

smbc comics - https://www.smbc-comics.com/

Pearls before swine - https://www.instagram.com/stephanpastis/?hl=en

Calvin and Hobbes - https://www.calvinandhobbes.com/about-calvin-and-hobbes/

Off the mark - https://www.offthemark.com/

Bizarro - https://www.comicskingdom.com/bizarro

Foxtrot - https://foxtrot.com/

Wondermark - http://wondermark.com/

Dilbert - https://dilbert.com/

Goattoself - https://www.instagram.com/goattoself/?hl=en

Blogs/websites:

https://waitbutwhy.com/

https://neal.fun/

https://ncase.me/

http://rprabhu.blogspot.com/?m=1 | Some amazing Tamil literature ❤️❤️

https://www.brainpickings.org/

https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/

(The last two websites have saved my sanity more times than I can count)

Articles etc.:

26Jan24 | https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/the-demand-for-perfection-in-love/ | So so timely!

24Aug22 | https://www.dtnext.in/madras-week-2022/2022/08/21/those-were-the-days-memoirs-on-madras-its-glorious-past-legacy | So interesting 

15Jul22 | Falling upward - Richard Rohr | https://youtu.be/J1kXeklcmMI | Do you have a favourite priest? 😆

6Apr22 | This brought so much awareness in the middle of a breakdown. Our minds are incredible and scary af. Carl Jung is 👌🏾| https://youtu.be/IW4GzhdVr-w

22Dec21 | Ahhhhh 💔 | https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/on-rupture-and-repair/

4Nov21 | https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/why-we-play-games-in-love/

2Oct21 | The School of Life reads my mind yet again 🤯 | https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/the-first-day-of-feeling-well-again/

30Sep21 | Brilliant ❤️❤️❤️ | https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/melancholy-the-best-kind-of-despair/

8Sep21 | Notes to myself - Bombay Jayashri| https://youtu.be/WnumwRdrwPg | Justtt ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ And gosh, how is even her speaking voice so gorgeous?!! 

7Aug21 | Fucking hell 😭 | https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/coping-with-ones-parents/ 

7Jul21 | 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 | https://jezebel.com/cosmos-44-most-ridiculous-sex-tips-5919206

19Jun21 | Saul Bellow's Nobel prize acceptance speech | https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1976/bellow/lecture/

22May21 | Commencement speech by Bill Waterson | http://web.mit.edu/jmorzins/www/C-H-speech.html

7May21 | Love this so much ❤️❤️ | http://www.critical-theory.com/kants-advice-on-heartbreak-letters-to-a-student/

6Apr21 | http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/tolstoy/chrisanar.htm

21Mar21 | Whaaaaaaaaaaat a great story ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ | https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/how-david-hume-helped-me-solve-my-midlife-crisis/403195/

20Feb21 | Such a profound, essential read. Goals 💪🏾 | https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/what-love-really-is-and-why-it-matters/

12Feb21 | On knowledge and understanding, by Aldous Huxley | Loved this very much ❤️ Shade-throwing Huxley is funny 🤣 | https://vedanta.org/2002/monthly-readings/knowledge-and-understanding-part-1/

https://vedanta.org/2002/monthly-readings/knowledge-and-understanding-part-2/

https://vedanta.org/2002/monthly-readings/knowledge-and-understanding-part-3/

8Feb21 | https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/09/but-what-about-greenland.html | 'Most number of weird things I've read in a single article' article

8-Sep-20 | https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/10/25/art-as-therapy-alain-de-botton-john-armstrong/

8-Sep-20 | https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/06/02/kandinsky-concerning-the-spiritual-in-art/

6-Sep-20 | Such a well-written article | https://lithub.com/learning-to-appreciate-the-small-things-from-a-500-year-old-japanese-writer/

2-Sep-20 | Another article that resonated very much with me, forget the 'gifted' label | http://www.stephanietolan.com/gifted_ex-child.htm

2-Sep-20 | https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/the-dangers-of-having-too-little-to-do/

1-Sep-20 | https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/08/28/conversations-of-goethe-eckermann-creativity/

31-Aug-20 | https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/04/03/goethe-schiller-criticism/

30-Aug-20 | This hit close to home | https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/longread/porter-robinson-ego-death-interview

27-Aug-20 | https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/on-perfectionism/

25-Aug-20 | This was particularly timely since I was grappling with a piece of abstract art and was trying hard to grasp it | https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/10/27/jeanette-winterson-art-objects

21-Aug-20 | This was toooooo damn good | https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/why-i-write/

18-Aug-20 | Very, very interesting. And mirrors my experience of two breakdowns and the aftermaths | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_disintegration

18-Aug-20 | https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/what-is-that-sunday-evening-feeling/

14-Aug-20 | How to deal with a crisis of meaning | https://youtu.be/nu8d3iW2yxM

11-Aug-20 | The 'gifted' tag aside, this article resonated SO MUCH with me | https://www.sengifted.org/post/existential-depression-in-gifted-individuals

10-Aug-20 | This blew my mind 🤯| https://mikeblaber.org/dimensions/dimensions.htm

6-Aug-20 | School of life article (Existential) | https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/how-science-could-at-last-properly-replace-religion/

XXX

31-Jul-20 | Trying not to try | https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/04/21/trying-not-to-try-slingerland/

XX

3-Jul-20 | Fred Rogers profile | https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a27134/can-you-say-hero-esq1198/

9Jan20 | A very stimulating read, though I disagreed with some parts | http://scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2018/08/tradition-is-smarter-than-you-are.html?m=1

Lenoardo da Vinci's to-do list | https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/11/18/142467882/leonardos-to-do-list

Termites | https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/sep/18/a-giant-crawling-brain-the-jaw-dropping-world-of-termites

https://kortina.nyc/essays/the-emperor-has-no-clothes-there-is-no-santa-claus-and-nothing-is-rocket-science/#:~:text=The%20Emperor%20Has%20No%20Clothes,is%20Rocket%20Science%20%E2%80%94%20Andrew%20Kortina

Alan Watts on living with presence | https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/06/alan-watts-wisdom-of-insecurity-1/

All-time favourite, this one | https://waitbutwhy.com/2016/03/long-email-delay.html

The map is not the territory | https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/22/aldous-huxley-who-are-we-divine-within/

Sid Sriraaaaaaam 💓 | https://www.ted.com/talks/sid_sriram_grounding_new_age_music_in_tradition

23-Jul-20 | An antidote to impostor syndrome | https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/aphorisms-on-confidence/

19-Jul-20 | 💓💓💓 | http://wineandbowties.com/sid-sriram-has-a-thought/

9-Jul20 | Secular hymns | https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/ps_liii_47_011218_m_r_sharan.pdf

9-Jul-20 | https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/carnatic-music-was-essentially-an-art-form-which-could-also-be-practised-without-bhakti/article17433696.ece

9-Jul-20 | What makes a good parent? | https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/how-should-a-parent-love-their-child/

18-Jun-20 | WH Auden on Virginia Woolf | https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1954/03/06/a-consciousness-of-reality

4-Jun-20 | Emergence, Tribalism | https://waitbutwhy.com/2019/08/giants.html

19-May-20 | Mortality awareness refresher | https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html

11Feb18 | https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/08/putting-time-in-perspective.html

27Jan18 | Brilliant | https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html

25Jan18 | https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/06/taming-mammoth-let-peoples-opinions-run-life.html

22Jan18 | Loved this to bits. Blew my mind | https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

19Jan18 | This made me cry | https://waitbutwhy.com/2016/05/clueyness-a-weird-kind-of-sad.html

30Dec17 | A tour of Saturn's rings | http://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2017/09/cassini-saturn-nasa-3d-grand-tour/

30Dec17 | https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/06/harvard-and-the-making-of-the-unabomber/378239/

28Dec17 | https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/health/liver-bodily-function.html?_r=0

27Dec17 | Annie Dillard's romantic account of a total eclipse - https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/annie-dillards-total-eclipse/536148/

27Dec17 | Polymaths | http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40865986

27Dec17 | http://mentalfloss.com/article/503507/polish-doctors-who-used-science-outwit-nazis

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/plant-memory-hidden-vernalization

11Nov17 | The chaos game, the sierpinski triangle and fractals| This BLEW my mind 🤯🤯🤯 |https://youtu.be/kbKtFN71Lfs (Stumbled on this here: https://qr.ae/pNVi4V)

XXX | https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2017/11/generalized-specialist/