About Lala

Lala

My friends have called me Lala since the early 2000s. I have been Lala Bhaiya for a long time. I feel like Lala Bhaiya, you know. It is a good name. It is.

I was born into privilege. I come from a middle-class family from (what was then) the middle of nowhere. My parents ensured that I had access to the best opportunities the place could provide. I got access to opportunities that very few people in my hometown get. I had a home where I was loved, a full stomach, a well-rounded education, and a community that would not let me slip off the ‘education will put us on a better life path’ bandwagon.

I was a quiet child. I was quite unaware of the world around me and did not really know what I wanted to do in life. That started changing when I left my home to pursue a piece of paper that would tell me that I was an engineer. I got that paper, even though God is my witness that I barely tried. I was busy in life outside the classroom. I was changing.

It was here that I started understating my privilege. I had not internalized it yet, but I had some inkling of wanting to ‘do good’ in life. The journey towards realization entailed a software job, acting in theatres in Bangalore, quitting my job to teach in a Mumbai slum, working in administration in a nonprofit, travelling across the length of India (and more) solo on my motorcycle, going back to my hometown to work in rural areas, moving to the US for grad school, traveling across the US in a car, moving back to India to continue my work with nonprofits, and writing these words.

Of course, these years included the usual doses of friendships, loves found and lost, breaking hearts and getting heartbroken, accomplishments, losses, breakdowns (mental, emotional, physical, metaphysical), habits formed and broken, etc, etc. Oh, and as of 2022, the hardest of tasks, trying to find love online. The usual, you know.

I am on the journey to understating how much I have changed since I started on this path. The goal is to move from realization to internalization to actualization. I am excited about where this road will take me!

About 22nd December

I have been scribbling since I was in school. I never believed I was ready or that I was very good. The few people who had read what little I had written were (usually) full of support. I had this illusion of grandeur that someday I would write and get published and win awards and make money 🙂

 

Ah, well. 

 

I started scribbling ideas for these stories in 2016. I have hundreds of ideas in my notebook that I am yet to write about. Many of these ideas don’t even make sense to me anymore. 

 

I was dealing with more than a fair share of existential crises towards the end of 2018 when I decided to sit down and start writing. I wrote a story every day between 22nd December 2018 and 2nd March 2019. I have written ~15 stories in the three years since. I wanted to get the project moving, so I am sharing it with the world. I hope my words can evoke emotions in those who read them. And I hope I can use this platform to write more often.

 

Why the name? 22nd December is one of the longest nights of the year. My stories are in some way connected to the night, sleep, dreams, and all else that happens while the sun is away.

 

And a disclaimer – every story is a work of fiction. If they happened at all, it was only between my ears

Other Interests

I find it easy to get interested in something. One downside of this is that I usually don’t dive down deep in any area. Kind of like a joker of all trades. Wait, was it jack? My latest interest is in understanding finance and macroeconomics and the latest technological breakthroughs like blockchain. I hope to dive down deep into these topics for the next phase of my career. Here are my top sustained interests!

  • Reading fiction, graphic novels, and nonfiction. Absolute favorites - The Count of Monte Cristo, MAUS, and The Complete Personal Memories of Ulysses S Grant
  • Watching movies, limited series, animated series, and documentaries. Absolute favorites - Cinema Paradiso, Dekalog, One Punch Man, and Smile Pinki
  • Traveling - I have only been to three countries, but I have seen two of them extensively. I did a year-long solo motorcycle trip in India that spanned 10989 kilometers, where I touched Kanyakumari and Nubra Valley. I did a 50-day long road trip in the US covering 19 national parks (and traveling to a total of 34 states)