
(Click here to read this story if you are blocked by the paywall)
My iPhone is old in phone years, a 6S+ that I bought six years ago (2015). By 2018, battery health was down to 85%. It wouldn’t even last a full day. In fact, Apple recommends you replace your battery if its health drops to 79%. Anyway, my phone was among those affected by Apple’s battery throttling scandal, and they replaced my battery at a discounted rate of ₹2000 ($27).
What I learned from this experience was charging my phone to 100% is a bad idea as it…

(Click here to bypass the paywall and read this post)
Healthcare has become a cut-throat business in India. One reason is that Indian hospitals and doctors get away with murder because we don’t hold them accountable for their actions. Let me explain.
If we buy a cellphone on Amazon, and it turns out to be defective, we will ask for a replacement. If the seller refuses to replace it, we will post a bad review online. Sellers know customers will stop buying from them if they have too many bad reviews. …

(Click here to bypass the paywall and read this post)
A few days ago, I bit into what looked like a juicy mango just before dinner. Unlike the many mangoes I had eaten during this mango season, this one was extremely sour. I didn’t think it was a big deal as it was just a different taste. The problem was my teeth became painfully sensitive. I couldn’t even bite on soft stuff like cooked potatoes and went hungry to bed.
The next morning, I dropped in at the local dentist. He had a look inside my mouth. He then pointed…

(Click here to bypass the paywall and read this post)
When I first heard about the tennis star, Naomi Osaka, refusing to attend the post-match interview at Roland Garros because of mental stress, I was a bit taken aback. After all, sports is all about mind games. If Naomi is playing a match, loses the first set, and goes down a break or two in the second, she needs to have an almost superhuman mental strength to make a comeback. Isn’t that what sports are all about?
But on thinking it over, I realized that I wasn’t being fair to…

(Click here to bypass the paywall and read this post)
It gave me deja vu to see WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging app, filing a case against the Indian government, and championing the privacy of Indians in the midst of a privacy debate between India’s ruling party and the opposition parties.
This has been going on for centuries. Indian kings fight each other over whatever. A foreigner comes in and attacks one of the kings. The other king silently watches on the principle that ‘My enemy’s enemy is my friend.’ …

(Click here to bypass the paywall and read this post)
A month ago, I ordered a mesh metal strap for my smart band. The original strap was poor quality and I thought it made sense to pay ₹500 on a fancy metal mesh strap with a magnetic buckle instead of spending ₹300 on a replacement of the same poor quality original strap.
I didn’t really expect much for ₹500 but the strap was quite well engineered. The two negatives I could spot were the magnetic buckle looked like it might rust (it did) and removing the watch for charging would…

(Click here to bypass the paywall and read this post)
The first time, I heard China was harvesting organs for profit from minorities (like the Uyghurs and Falun Gong), I brushed it aside as another conspiracy theory. If China was guilty, Xi Jinping would be evil incarnate, far worse than genocidal maniacs like Hitler and Genghis Khan. The world made the mistake of initially turning a blind eye to Hitler’s atrocities. We are not likely to let history repeat itself, right?
Anyway, a few years went by, but the story just wouldn’t go away. Take the documentary appended below. It’s…

(Click here to bypass paywall and read this post)
I have recently been hearing a lot of parents complaining about kids and social media addiction. Some of these kids have totally lost the plot, and can’t keep even the most basic routines and schedules. They stay awake all night glued to their gadgets, fall asleep during their Zoom classes and mess up their studies, eat meals at odd hours, and generally display a complete lack of discipline. This has been exacerbated by being Covid-era, stuck-at-home kids. …

(Click here to bypass paywall and read this post)
In May 2020, the Chinese and Indian armies clashed on the Ladakh border and 20 Indian soldiers were killed. In the resulting anti-China patriotic fervor, Indians began boycotting all Chinese products. The Indian government even banned hundreds of Chinese apps including popular ones like Tiktok. These apps were collecting data on Indians and sending them to China, which obviously was a big no-no as we were on the brink of war with them.
Boycotting Chinese was fine. But the problem was Indian products weren’t just good enough or simply didn’t exist…

(Click here to bypass paywall and read this post)
In the last decade, the Indian healthcare industry has turned into a blood-sucking business, almost totally devoid of ethics. This is why I generally avoid visiting hospitals unless it’s a serious infection or a critical illness.
Anyway, the second wave of Covid has just hit India and the infection rates look like they may exceed the first wave. Meanwhile, the Indian government has begun its Covid vaccination drive. My mother who is in the eligible age group felt it’s better to get it done with the Covid flare-up. As for my…

it’s an odd world