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IdeaSmith

@ideasmithy.bsky.social
410 followers 124 following 3.3K posts

Ideas are toys for a playful mind. Books📚 | Plants🪴 | Feminism🧗🏽‍♂️| Swimming 🏊🏽‍♀️ | Mumbai🏝️ ramyapandyan.com

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 5h
My Mumbai school had a gender segregated sex ed session in 10th standard (14-16 yo). Girls were told about periods though most had already been menstruating for some time. Bio diagram style. Catholic school so I imagine boys were told lust & masturbation were sins. This was the 90s.
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Dr Hannah M. Rowland @hannahmrowland.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Hope your day was better than Darwin’s, on this day 165 years ago
I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody &everything.

Charles Darwin
Letter to Charles Lyell
1st October 1861
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 9h
I’m very weirded out by mascara like here paint the hair around your eyes so it makes them look like spiders.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 18h
I never had any training in art, any more than I’ve had in writing. I developed a confidence in words by writing and having people tell me I could write. But drawing was always my first love and people have frequently told me what I ‘should’ do. I took I’m just going to draw now.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 18h
Face is burning again. This time I know to use coconut oil instead of some beauty product. Last time this happened, someone accused me of being problematic because I said I didn’t care if it made me smell like a Madrasi. I’m Tamilian, sir. Also, this may be an allergic reaction.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
#Inktober 2026 of the day: APPLE Literally drawing this seated at a doctor’s clinic and hating having to be alive:
Pencil sketch of an apple atop 3 bananas and a custard apple and a stethoscope next to it.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Authoritarians all over the world www.smbc-comics.com/comic/script...
smbc-comics.com
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Scripture
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Scripture
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I feel like friendship is assumed to be a mutual truama-dumping. Wasn't a friend also supposed to be your moral compass, to hold you accountable to being your best self and to tell you things that no one else would care to? Nobody seems to want that.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I’m reading an epistolary novel set in 1991 which talks about how much war there has been in that century. 25 years into this one and the US, Russia and Israel are quite hellbent on beating that statistic.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“Inquiring minds want to know.” is such a loving statement of curiosity.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This whole page dedicated to consuming a slice of toast with home made orange marmalade. The book is ‘I Never Knew It Was You’ by Kalpana Swaminathan. Marmalade has no meaning at this point in the mystery. So I think the author just wanted to share a pleasurable meal with us. #Books
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The cafe/coffeeshop culture in Indian cities is garbage. Maida, fat, sugar and spice overpower any actual food value in what you consume. These ingredients are supposed to flavour, not constitute your entire meal. You're torturing as well as starving your body with these.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It’s almost painful how hilarious this is, Zoomers. www.smbc-comics.com/comic/identi...
smbc-comics.com
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Identity
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Identity
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Salty MacTavish @saltymactavish.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Hey, don’t let em fool you: rats live in the posh parts of town too
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
A world without beauty and joy would be one that begins maths education with numbers. Because you know, all music and art is mathematics. We respond to both from the time we are born, so it seems ugly to hand young minds a key to this wonderful world in the form of *ugh* multiplication tables.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Just white America centering itself as the whole world and across time things.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This exact behaviour in a lot of Indians who don’t identify with the current government but won’t stir out their privilege bubble to learn anything beyond buzzwords like ‘problematic’. This is the reason ‘woke’ is not a compliment in India - most who know the term are privileged & entitled.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Starting to see a real LLM-crutch effect on young millennials and Gen-Zers. No thought goes into constructing a question, it’s only a screaming demand. The ease with which they continue the entitlement: “This is boring, I don’t like this. I don’t know what I want. Cater to me.”
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Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The literacy crisis is not just referring to people's ability to literally read and write. It's also people's inability to read for context. I've been a public educator for over 20 years and I have never, ever seen it this bad.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This thread and replies feel validating. Don’t spread the misery. Tend to your wounds. Screaming about them isn’t going to heal you and is only going to annoy everyone else.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Sunday lunch. Is moong daal, chapati, green chilli, pomegranate and a bowl of curd with green peppercorns and black salt. Yum.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I'll start respecting therapy fanatics in India, the day they acknowledge the crucial, learned survival skill of drawing boundaries without being crucified alive for it. With all the intersections and deteriorating privilege layers for gender, age, skin colour and class.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Poor time management is an unwillingness to self-regulate. Broken commitments are lack of self-regulation. Unwillingness to communicate these are bad self-regulation. Lashing out or blaming others for these is just being an asshole. Self-regulation is an adult’s responsibility.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Oh noes why you call me out like this.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Such a good author, Kalpana Swaminathan. I watched her on a panel last year and she is Lalli brought to life. Matter-of-fact and mysterious but only because the world is too slow to keep up. Actually not a surprise that algorithm bookfluencers don’t talk about her. #Books
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The Indian style of communication where all verbalisation is passive-aggressive class assertion and validation.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Nobody tells you how efficiency tied to a need for validation is the time bomb that employers incept into you.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Eating bread makes me tired. No, really. This gut/brain axis is a real thing. And my system isn’t made for baked yeasty maida. No matter how many fancy cafe labels and hefty price tags are slapped on it.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I am a nerd about nerding and other nerds. I love hearing people speak about what moves them, what they're passionate about.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I've to keep reminding myself not to get irritated over the shift in people's languages. Urban Indians use more Americanisms than Britishisms now. Internetspeak is unevenly incorporated into our tongues. Hindi bleeds more into Indian English than other languages. C'est la vie.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Poignant tale from the new Indian woman. We are still fighting the same monsters. I am so proud of the young women who fight back. This is the real Gen Z I have hope in. agentsofishq.com/post/my-firs...
agentsofishq.com
My first Instagram post made me feel beautiful. Until my family humiliated me for it. — Agents of Ishq
A conversation with friends leads to a road away from slut-shaming
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The “I feel unimportant and foolish and somehow this is trauma” identity. If you’re online, own a smartphone, this is not valid. Do your research, think about what it means and you won’t feel as ‘traumatised’ anymore.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Watching too many 'people try Indian food' videos can make you think Indian food is the best thing humans put into their mouths, and that when people like a culture, they show appreciation, not colonisation.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I knew it was going to be a tall order taking on ‘Em and the Big Hoom’ (bipolar) and ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ (spousal death memoir) in the same month. And now one of the book clubs has moved its date. It is also raining. But this is the end. This is the end.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Goodbye, good Bappa. Pudhcha varshi laukar ya. Don’t lose sight of me in this plastic city. You still remain the soul of the city’s right to dignity.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
My face just started itching/burning. Happened last week as well and it was an allergic reaction, not dryness (! Mumbai monsoon, ma). Applied a drop of coconut oil and it settled. I don’t care if I smell like a Madraasi now, this beats all the expensive branded stuff.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Spite is irredeemable. It’s the parasitism within the soul. If they didn’t bother to curb it once, they won’t in the future either. Weed it out and discard it far, far away. Spiteful people too.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
When you’ve been gaslit and disbelieved your whole life, holding hard to the truth become your entire sense of being. Even if delusion is easier.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
If you thought hell was when Baby Boomers found Facebook and WhatsApp, wait till they start flooding your feeds with AI generated religion and political propaganda. Oops, too late.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Every creature acting like becoming a mother makes them superior beings should read ‘Em and the Big Hoom’ by Jerry Pinto. But I suppose rotten people like that will only use it as fodder to claim they’re ill and so deserve special consideration.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Back when we all loved Comic Sans
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
It is uncommonly good to be around native Mumbaikars who don’t turn commute modes into ego trips. The kind that take the train or metro because our time matters more than showing off how much money can be burnt on terrible roads, worse drivers and a shithole company.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I drew these today. Pencil on paper keeps me from getting eaten alive by the bragging, condescension, entitlement and other noise that people put out into the world. #pencilsketch
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I try not to be a GrammarNazi because that’s for classist POS. But it sets my teeth on edge when men’s dating bios say they “are into finance and traveling”. Where do I even start and should I bother when clearly your parents, teachers and bosses didn’t succeed?
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Train travel today after 10 months. It was so grounding after an evening that could have gone deeply toxic, acidic and anxious.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
If being taken off a private WhatsApp groups for not abiding by the agreed upon rules is your idea of discrimination, you are living a very privileged life.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
If you call yourself of this city, remember that its most beloved deity does not stand for power, fame or capitalism. Thank God Bappa apla sarkha nasto. Here's to new beginnings. youtu.be/5Y4tALaG5pg?...
youtu.be
Thank God Bappa - Featuring Riteish Vilasrao Deshmukh
YouTube video by Desh Music
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It has been a week of girl friend dates and nothing in my social life has ever come close to feeling this good. The right women are the whole world. Everything else is only ticket fee to exist in their world.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It is both irresponsible and entitled to be constantly dysregulated, if you’re an adult especially in a city. Life is hard all around. It is no one else’s responsibility to manage your issues and nobody is required to tolerate your misbehaviour.
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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This is a lesson in writing but good writing is a life lesson. Why is earnestness so mistrusted and mocked? www.writersdigest.com/the-audacity...
writersdigest.com
The Audacity of Earnestness in Characters
Author Stef Ferrari discusses the audacity of earnestness in fictional characters (and real-life people) and how they can work out.
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