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Akhila Ramnarayan

@akhilar.bsky.social
93 followers 265 following 76 posts

writer, indie musician, theatre actor, educator starcracker.substack.com

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Reposted by Akhila Ramnarayan
Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Happy anniversary! "The uprising on 10 August 1680 was one of the most successful acts of Indigenous resistance against colonialism and is sometimes called the first American revolution." My July essay on contemporary Pueblo artist Virgil Ortiz and his art about past and future Pueblo revolts.
lrb.co.uk
Rebecca Solnit · Diary: Before 1776
In 1848, the US seized the northern half of Mexico, from California to New Mexico, and imposed American law and the...
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Recently agreed to review a paper for a journal, based on its promising-looking abstract. Only after agreeing was I shown the author's "AI" disclosure statement. >>
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
For 3 long hours, all we saw was the shining surfaces of an unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea (never mind the hopeless miscasting – race/gender agnostic – and the erasure of the Sahrawi). If Americanising's your thing, O Brother Where Art Thou is more fun, less lugubrious, and the soundtrack bangs.
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
So happy my (sort of) review essay on Is a River Alive? by @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social is out in the world! scroll.in/article/1082...
scroll.in
‘Is a River Alive?’: Radical resistance and solidarity between humans and the natural world
Robert Macfarlane’s new book is a tripartite ecological-literary tour de force.
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Ben Ross @benross.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Steve Kerr wore a Harvard basketball shirt after the Warriors’ win tonight: “Yes, this is me supporting Harvard. Way to go. Way to stand up to the bully.”
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
Took a hiatus from Bluesky but hearing about the Adobe debacle makes me hopeful. Us–1, corporate fat cats–nil.
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Reposted by Akhila Ramnarayan
Eoghan Daltun 🌍 @irishrainforest.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
So much profound beauty in our world. But it seems the forces unable to see beyond their own wealth, power, and egos are in the ascendant right now. It's our duty to mind ourselves and each other in these tough times, which may well get much worse. The living world depends on us never giving up. 🌍
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
I cannot describe how devastating it was to see a lifeless olive ridley sea turtle wash up on the shore this morning in Chennai. I tried to sing a lament over its body to honour its passing, but the words stuck in my throat.
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
The Indian Ocean all diamond sparkles today, for anyone who could do with some radiance.
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Reposted by Akhila Ramnarayan
Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
24-hour news is so grotesque in times of crisis. I don’t know how these people live with themselves.
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
"Do I read the news and open myself to the images of horror and injustice and suffering and atrocity [...]? Or do I turn myself away, not to ignore what’s happening but to preserve the capacity of my heart to meet the world right in front of me [...]?" www.theporchcommunity.net/recent/2024/...
theporchcommunity.net
WHO BEARS THE WEIGHT - Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma — The Porch
Every day I face an impossible dilemma. Do I read the news and open myself to the images of horror and injustice and suffering and atrocity that come from every corner of the globe? Or do I turn mys...
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Reposted by Akhila Ramnarayan
MondoAB @mondoab.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Sagan was a prophet.
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
Lovely piece by veteran editor-publisher Mini Krishnan on working in the pre-internet days with literary giant MT Vasudevan Nair. She draws attention through one example both to the travails of regional language writers through the decades and the unsung art of editing. scroll.in/article/1077...
scroll.in
‘Writing is a pleasure, an obsession’: A publisher’s tribute to MT Vasudevan Nair
Publisher Mini Krishnan recalls her long and fruitful friendship with the Malayalam author.
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
So very proud that Seattle-based poet- translator Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma, dear friend of 20 years (we first met as grad students at Ohio State), was recognised by the Tamilnadu government for his Tirukkural translation (Beacon 2024). And so glad I got to attend the award ceremony in the flesh.
Image of a book cutout at the Chennai International Book Fair with the translator posing next to it. Text on the book cover "Translated with a preface by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma

The Kural
Tiruvalluvar's Tirukkural

A New Translation of the Classical Tamil Masterpiece on Ethics, Power, and Love 

Foreword by Andrew Harvey

Introduction by Archana Venkatesan"
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Srikumar @sriku.org · 18/01/2025
Noting a book reco by @akhilar.bsky.social - www.goodreads.com/book/show/20...
goodreads.com
Intertidal: A Coast and Marsh Diary
Over two years and three monsoons, Yuvan Aves pays scru…
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
Okay, so there's really no content in this article at all. Hinton gave slightly different made up numbers to the same ridiculous question and the reporter jumped on that as if it were meaningful www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
‘Godfather of AI’ shortens odds of the technology wiping out humanity over next 30 years
Geoffrey Hinton says there is 10% to 20% chance AI will lead to human extinction in three decades, as change moves fast
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Rakesh Khanna @blaftrakesh.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
this shit continues to be egregiously horrible www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...
aljazeera.com
Israeli forces attack hospitals, school and ‘safe-zone’ in Gaza, killing 50
Israeli forces bomb people staying in tents in al-Mawasi as UNRWA chief describes ‘escalation’ of attacks.
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
True story: crass organiser at packed book launch demands show of hands to indicate having bought the book, shames audience members who haven't. Badgering and hard sell when attendees represent a cross-section, the book is expensive, and the venue a schlep for most? Be grateful so many came, buddy.
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Gaining courage for the battles that lie ahead by reading aloud lines from Arundathi Subramaniam's exquisite preface to her Wild Women (Ebury/Penguin 2024). It takes a poet to craft such prose.
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
"As critics debate the inroads that private capital has made into many corners of the economy and public services — in Britain and elsewhere — children’s services are a flashpoint." - Abhinav Ramnarayan & Sabah Meddings Proud of my brother for this one.🦚 #finance www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
bloomberg.com
Private Equity Is Making Big Money From UK’s Most Vulnerable
As critics debate the cost of private capital’s inroads into many corners of the economy and public services, children’s homes have become a flashpoint.
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Reposted by Akhila Ramnarayan
Moon lover @moon1over.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Last full moon of 2024
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Entry #27: Gratitude for the good days, rest and reflection. #blueskythinking
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Entry #26: Nothing/everything stays the same; nothing/everything is different. What matters in the grand scheme of things? #blueskythinking
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Entry #25: Calming nerves = being true + relaxing parasympathetic system. #blueskythinking
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Entry #24: working in, breath, meta-awareness, negotiating moments of transition.
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Entry #23: lean into exhaustion, listen to the rain. #blueskythinking
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Grateful my quadriceps are holding up, not to mention busted patellae I ruined with years of bad road running form. Strength/resistance training actually helps. Go figure. #theatre
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Reposted by Akhila Ramnarayan
Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Yup'ik woman scientist Charitie Ropati is on the Forbes 30 under 30 list! This is so fricking cool! Love this so much! #NativesInSTEM www.kyuk.org/arts-culture...
kyuk.org
Yup’ik engineer named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list
Charitie Ropati, a 23-year-old water engineer from the Kuskokwim Delta coast, has been named to the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 Education list for her work with her nonprofit education organization...
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Why does it ALWAYS take me two hours after I think I should go for my walk to actually go for a walk? Every. Single. Day. #procrastination
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
A snapshot from rehearsal (focused specifically on soundscape) for Gowri Ramnarayan's play What She Said which recuperates women's voices from the Ramayana. Here, my castmate Aarabi Veeraraghavan plays Urmila, Sita's sister. Carnatic vocalist Srividya Vadlamani makes her theatre debut. #theatre
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Entry #22: intense absorption in process, spectatorship, observation - rapt, not finding the words for this feeling. #blueskythinking
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
RIP Nikki Giovanni 💔
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Entry #21: Melancholy is lovely. Joy is overrated. #blueskythinking
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Entry #20: the poetry of in-drawn breath, Tori Amos, inhalation is music, don't forget this. #blueskythinking
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
This day last year, Doug Carraway and I released "Birthday," a quirky, darkly wistful ode to a broken world, and our debut single as indie rock duo Starcracker. I began writing it on his birthday, so it had to drop on mine.🎂Lucky to make music with my best friend. #indiemusic youtu.be/AeOvhdKvjc4
youtu.be
Birthday (Lyric Video)
YouTube video by Starcracker
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Entry #19: crescent moon, Joni Mitchell's Blue, dark streets, the beauty of ordinariness. #blueskythinking
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Entry #18: to hold on to the core, without self-aggrandisement, to chip away. It starts here.
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Entry #17: Don't tiptoe. Don't stomp around either. There are no manuals. #blueskythinking
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Entry #16: I am impervious to pettiness. #blueskythinking
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
I get back on stage in ten days after a two-year hiatus from theatre. It's pretty intense breathing iconoclastic life into characters from the Ramayana, Surpanakha and Tara. Lots of flinging myself about besides.Trying not to hyperventilate, also icing my knees. 😬 #process
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Reposted by Akhila Ramnarayan
Nilanjana S Roy @nilanjanaroy.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Brian Eno on the limits of AI: "I’m intrigued and bored at the same time: I find it quickly becomes quite tedious. I have a sort of inner dissatisfaction when I play with it, a little like the feeling I get from eating a lot of confectionery when I’m hungry." www.bostonreview.net/forum_respon...
bostonreview.net
AI’s Walking Dog - Boston Review
Today’s tech inverts the value of the creative process.
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Chennai - join us for the Madras Book Club's launch on Sat Dec 7 of Books 3 & 4 of Ponniyin Selvan, Gowri Ramnarayan's English translation (Penguin). Reading of excerpts by Yohan Chacko, Anu Bhaskararaman, and yours truly. Poonkuzhali's song by Uthara Unnikrishnan. RSVP masbkclub@gmail.com
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Proud daughter moment: My mum's English translations from the original Tamil of Kalki's Ponniyin Selvan (serialised 1950-54), the historical romance series set in the glory days of the peninsular south and the Cola dynasty, on display at Higginbothams book store in Chennai. 🤩
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Entry #15: Breath, power, grace, use of space, matching movement to gesture in a way that seems artless. #blueskythinking
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
A poem cannot bring back the dead. A poem cannot erase the pain of the bereaved. A poem can mourn. I thank The Wire for honouring the memory of the deceased. May their loved ones find the strength to carry on. We mourn the ones we can. thewire.in/rights/we-mo...
thewire.in
We Mourn the Ones We Can: A Poem
'While their cows graze in a nearby field, I remember.'
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Entry #14: All there is, all we have, is this. #blueskythinking
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Entry #13: The comfort of old friendships, protracted silences, animated sharing. #blueskythinking
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Entry #12: Can writing make peace (after Denise Levertov)? #blueskythinking
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Akhila Ramnarayan @akhilar.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
Bracing for #CycloneFengal here in Chennai, India. It's expected to make landfall later today. Expect the street to be inundated pretty soon here, and the power to go out. Be safe, everyone. And say hello to the Indian almond tree just outside my window. It bends but never breaks.
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