Skip to main content

A walk down memory lane - celebrating the 150th blog post

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 identity - Sanjith Rao MAIRPADY. However, that phase did not last too long, and I am now content with the name that was given to me at birth.

In 2016 or 2017, I decided to rename my blog to 'Reviews with Rao', as the 'Mairpady' phase had long disappeared, and I was no longer 'Little'. In 2018, I decided to purchase my blog's domain name and the URL to my website changed from https://littlemairpady.blogspot.com to just https://sanjithrao.com.
Frequent visitors to my blog are aware of its contents - I am politically active but do not limit myself to it. I write a fair bit about my life, investments, technology, and various other things I find interesting. I do not know how many of my readers today were also keeping up with my blog back in 2010 and in the subsequent years, so I decided to pick some of my favourite articles from the last 10 years and provide links to them for you to enjoy and celebrate the 150th!


1. Microlight - November 2011

A day I remember and speak about to this day. The first time I sat in a two-seater plane and got an aerial-view of Bangalore, listen in on ATC conversations and also co-pilot a plane!

2. IMS (Inventory Management System) - July 2012

An article on a program my Dad wrote for me to maintain an inventory of the books we had by giving each book a code that would let us know about the quality of the book, whether it was with us or lent (to a friend) etc.

3. My Favourite Restaurant - Habanero - Review - August, 2013

It used to be my favourite restaurant until they sadly closed a few years ago. My love for food has always existed!

4. Build a Toilet Project - February 2015

A project for which I raised funds via door-to-door campaigns to address the hygiene issue created by the lack of toilets in slum-dwellings, mainly in the outskirts of Bangalore.

5. Why shows like Shark Tank are extremely misleading - December 2017

An article about Shark Tank, a popular show in which entrepreneurs make a funding-pitch to investors, and how it misleads a majority of their viewers - the young, innocent and naive!

6. Unsettling Signs of Fascism - India - October 2018

An article that initially drew a lot of flak, even from people I knew personally, but something that many people agree with today, not even 2 years on.

7. The Death Penalty in the 21st Century - March 2020

An article that attracted double the page views, and thrice the engagement I usually get after publishing is my personal favourite of 2020. It was published immediately after the hanging of the Nirbhaya convicts in which I provided an argument for and against the death penalty but concluded by saying that it should not exist.

BONUS: One (out of 3) of the times I got covered in the press - an article about me in  the Times of India.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Rakesh Rao25 April 2020 at 08:49

    Very nicely written summary capturing the key moments (and the posts) in your blog.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Visiting the Kasturinagar (KA-03) RTO - a tumultuous but manageable experience to get a Learner's/ Driver's License without an agent/ driving school

Ask anyone, and I can guarantee that they will have a story (and in most cases, many stories) about their trip, or rather, numerous trips to the RTO for something as simple as getting a Learner's License (LL) or a Driver's License (DL). In this blog, I hope to make your life a tad bit easier by guiding you through the entire process, which may seem easy at first but is full of (overcome able) challenges if you know what you are doing. I turned 18 in January this year, and besides cutting a cake, I worked on my LL application online. I challenged myself to complete the entire LL to DL process by myself and without the help of an agent or a driving school, unlike what the majority do. The lengthy application process and multiple visits to the RTO, impressed upon me why most people decided to pay a little extra to get an agent to do it for them. Still, I was determined not to pay a single rupee more than the official cost. I succeeded.  Do note that this answer is concerning the K
14 comments
Read more

Kicking off a 'political career' in an idea-based, grassroots level political party

Despite having been following politics for the longest time, and now studying it full time, I never joined a political party. When people used to ask me "who do you support?", my answer was standard, "no one". Luckily for me, ever since turning 18 and being eligible to vote, there hasn't been an election in which I'd be forced to cast my vote and tell people that I have made a definitive choice about a particular political party. At a time when politics has become ever so polarising and dirty, I couldn't be happier to associate myself with the BNP. It was in February 2020 that I was introduced to the Bengaluru NavaNiramana Party. I found their vision, leadership and ideas incredibly refreshing. Though I was aware of their launch/ kickoff meeting that took place in Freedom Park in early 2020, due to a friend's TEDx talk taking place simultaneously, I could not attend. Then, between Board Exams and the lockdown that took us all by surprise, I forgot ab
2 comments
Read more

2011 Ooty Golf Championship Open

We had gone to Mangalore to visit my mother's relatives. We stayed there for 2 days. Then we left to Ooty for my Ooty Tournament. Here is what we did: Day 1 It was a long drive from Mangalore to Ooty, it is 360 Kms. We left at 5:30 a.m from Mangalore and reached our homestay at 4:00 p.m. I explored the house and then started to read my book. Here are a few pictures we had taken on the way to Ooty:  A tree with no leaves  The Beautiful Sky  After a while we went to a super market to buy a few things. Then we went to a leather shop. Over there I bought a leather belt. Then we  went to Dominos Pizza to have dinner. After that we headed back to our homestay. Day 2 (Practise Round and much more) I woke up at 7:15 a.m. I got ready fast and then had my breakfast. After that my sister, father and I left to the golf course for the practise round. When we reached there we first registered for the tournament and then started to play. My father came with my sister and me o
1 comment
Read more

Living life out of a suitcase

  December 2022 As I sit on my fourteenth flight for the year, with two more scheduled before the curtains are drawn on 2022 (god bless my carbon footprint), laptop open, a glass of wine and a blank word document, I begin to ponder over my journey over the last few months. Penning it down and (at the risk of sounding philosophical) ‘reflecting’ on this journey seems imperative.  --- May 2022   After two wonderful years of ups and downs in Le Havre (thank you, COVID-19!), I said my good-byes, packed my bags and was on the train to Paris. But that was not my final destination – for now at least. After spending two nights at a friend’s, dropping my baggage off at a relative’s, catching the French Open and a round of golf in the middle, and a train to Beauvais (an hour north of Paris), I was on a flight to Barcelona. Checked in to my hostel, met my friend, went for 3 days of the Barcelona Formula 1 Grand Prix together, watched a Redbull 1-2 finish, celebrated with beer, sangria and tapas,
1 comment
Read more

Ather Energy - Electric Scooters that compete with Aprilias and Vespas

Ather Energy, a Bengaluru based start up created by former IITians finally unveiled their electric scooters - Ather 340 and the Ather 450. Priced slightly on the higher side at INR 1.09 L and 1.24L (on road - Bengaluru) including the FAME subsidy and all taxes, the scooters are exciting and a must try for scooter buyers who do not mind shelling out a little more money than a mid-range scooter would cost and do not mind using it primarily for short distance commutes. Ather 450 Their showroom is located on 100ft Road in Indiranagar. You can visit them at any time and their staff is extremely accomadating and will help you with any queries that you may have. If there is not too much of a crowd, they will allow you to take a test ride too. Ather opened their showroom today (8th, June, 2018). I visited them and was mighty pleased with what they were doing. In an interesting conversation with Mr. Swapnil Jain , the humble and down to earth Co-Founder and CTO, I learnt a lot abo
Post a Comment
Read more

Photos

These are a few photos that I took:
Post a Comment
Read more

Decentralized Social Network - Sphere

The world has been witnessing paradigm shifts in certain ways of executing day to day activities over the past few decades. Taxis are now being hailed with a smartphone, without even communicating over voice with the driver. Food is being ordered online and delivered by delivery boys who rely on a digital map to navigate to the place of delivery. CDs and cassettes have been replaced by computers and phones. Film cameras have been replaced by DSLRs. Gone are the days when cheques were sent via post and deposited into the bank a few days (or even weeks) later. IMPS, NEFT and other methods of transferring money have become popular. The Digital Revolution has truly changed the way we do many things. While the first decade and a half of the 21st Century dealt with merely digitizing the world, in recent years "Decentralization" has become an idea that many people are embracing and promoting. The Block Chain Technology that has gone hand in glove with many aspects of Decentralizati
Post a Comment
Read more