Sanjith Rao

I began blogging in January 2010. I do not recall how exactly I started, but I remember that my parents were the reason. They prompted me to start blogging after I showed an interest in writing and web design (although admittedly, blogging involves minimal amounts of design skills). Over the last 10 years, I have been writing on and off, with my longest break lasting over a year. I have been quite regular over the last 3-4 years, and have been writing with an increased frequency in the last month because of the ongoing Coronavirus lockdown. This post is special because it is the 150th post to be published on my blog, so I decided to explain how and why I started, and what the course of the blog has been. For the first 6-7 years, I called myself 'Little Mairpady', because I despised the fact that my parents had omitted the ever-so-cool name 'Mairpady' from my surname (my Dad's full name is Rakesh Rao Mairpady Chandrashekhar). It was my way of expressing my

I have been noticing a new trend of podcasting which seems to be gaining a lot of traction. In this day and age when people's patience and ability to read long texts is slowly diminishing, podcasts are unarguably a brilliant way to disseminate information. I recorded myself without a pre-written script. Further, please ignore the minimal amounts of ambient noise. This is an amateur attempt at making a podcast and has been made with entry-level recording tools (read: basic earphones with mic). This 3 part series deals with the history and personal anecdotal experiences of filing an RTI under the RTI Act, 2005. Part 1 deals with the history and introduction. Part 2 is with respect to an RTI filed on the expenses incurred on the MPLADS by P.C Mohan, MP from Bengaluru South. Part 3 is an RTI filed on the legality of the Aadhaar card as date of birth (DOB) proof in the Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) of Karnataka. Please note that you will be redirected to a third party we

A few months ago in school, we learnt about the relationship between Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy. The prescribed ISC textbook did not provide an adequate explanation. However, my teacher was kind enough to share an article penned by Gautam Bhatia, an eminent Constitutional lawyer, and author who is most famously known for his book, 'The Transformative Constitution'. Below, I have written a summary/ my notes of the article penned by him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The constitution was not drafted with an intention for Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles to be related. There was a clear division between the two; Fundamental Rights were enforceable, and remedies existed to ensure the protection of those Rights. On the contrary, Directive Principles were un-enforceable and more ‘guiding’ in nature. The DPSPs were only politically relevant b

You can read part 1 here . What I have learnt over the last two years Privilege: The concept of privilege that is realizing the benefits you unknowingly has has changed me. It is a topic I have often referred to recently on my blogs. It has made me more aware of myself and shaped my political ideology. You can read about it here , an article that is a copy-paste of one of my essays that I submitted during the Ashoka University application process.  Time management - Work/ Life Balance A vast majority of people I know/ knew lacked either time management or having a work/life balance.  Concerning time management, people do not realise the amount of time they have. Friends and classmates (and even a member on the Sciences Po interview panel) have been surprised about how much time I have (to spend time with them or engage in a particular activity), considering my extra-curriculars, (recreational) sports, academics, voluntary work schedule etc. Although I often do not re

The past three weeks have impacted people around India in different ways. The migrant labourers and daily wage workers have unarguably been affected the worst. It has been an interesting three weeks in which the concept of privilege was spoken about vastly in the media. Even though the salaried middle class is also affected, their lives have been phenomenally better than, for example, those they employ to clean their houses or wash their dishes. It is at times such as these that I realise how lucky a majority of my friends and I are. While most of the country is suffering (suffering in the real sense of not being able to afford and procure three square meals a day and NOT because a shop ran out of imported cheese) in lockdown, my parents could work from home, without intruding into each other’s personal space and could carry out some, if not most of their work from the comfort of their house, unlike the majority of the country. I have been reading articles about the shortfalls of in