iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#Inktober 2026 Day 2: RELIC Will Insta take this story down because visible female <part of body>? This is a sketch based on an ancient sculpture of a dancing girl, from the Indus Valley civilisation. Pic attached for reference.

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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 · 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 · 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

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 · 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 · 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 · 03/09/2026

I actually like geometric shapes and sharp lines. It’s why I’ve been feeling as though I’m not a good enough doodler. Well, I do okay. This is the view from half an hour ago before mosquitoes shooed me away. #Pensketch

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Well, treat me bad and you’ll learn how devastating watchful silence can be.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

The world is grumpy but my flowers are doing their best to hold up the planet. #GreenParent

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

This book feels like it’s describing people today. The manic bragging, the relentless hatred poured out at the world under the pretence of humour, the obsession with the approval of the same people one wishes dead. It feels more honest than literary fiction.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I have shut down a friend sharing memes on my group just this morning saying “This is not X or Instagram” so here you are. I caption this “Yesteryear, but desi” #Books

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I did not expect to like this book. I’m still not sure I do. The format is too pat. But it’s what I needed right now. Last year ‘The Collected Regrets of Clover’ helped me at this time. This feels like a synthetic dose of that. #Books

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

It’s getting hard to read this book because the culture that has defined itself in the atrocities they endured is now proudly wreaking the same cruelty on another people. Yes, call me a deniar but I can’t imagine any human enduring these and wanting to inflict it on others.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Anybody on my feed reading WHISTLER by Ann Patchett or planning to? #Books

Book cover of WHISTLER by Ann Patchett: an oil painting of a brown horse standing in a field of yellow and green under a midnight blue starry night.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Reading Fahrenheit 451 in 2026 is so humbling. 73 years ago, an author predicted the systematic dumb down of civilised thought that would accompany tech revolution, capitalism and the devaluation of books. So many words. We never learn. #Books

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Reading. Loving. Who wants to talk about it with me? It’s about a book club, readers and how reading rescues people. #Books

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Anne Burrows

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

This lovely book. Read it over breakfast and it steadied and softened my mood.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Now I’m excited. They also had a copy of Good Wives but I was too practical to buy it because I already had it as a part of my current Little Women copy.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

It’ll actually be at a secondhand shop if they still have it. Saw it there last week.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

July is Cancer month, which means feeds are flooded with positive messages about my sign. The nice thing is it reminds me of the truly best parts of me, even the world usually treats them as weak, silly or unncessary. Hoarding them for the rest of the year’s gaslighting.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Friend did this so I did too. My reading opinions tally of the year so far:

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Coming up is my birthday month and I’ve planned it in terms of the books I’m going to read and discuss. The top row are book club picks. The bottom two are my pillars to keep me going through the rigour reading. Are you reading any of these? Come talk to me! #Books

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

The other book was Yesteryear. Social media influencer? RW propagandist? White feminism? But I spent two nights ravening my way through that book and sleep walked through work for a week. What is these addictive books making a fool of me? It this middle age?

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

I have been made a fool of in the best way possible…for the second time this year. With a terrible title like this and that gawdawful cover, I should be embarrassed to be seen in public with this but I’ve been devouring this book all evening because I couldn’t stop to get home.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

After the weekend I’ve had, it is oddly comforting to know that privileged people have always mouthed values for entertainment. Even Patrick effin Bateman waxes eloquent about racism and environmental issues. With sushi on the side.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Reading this in Ambaniland is a great villain origin story.

BOOK: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Today’s haul. Also, Enid Blyton was a genius to make British food sound so tasty to kids all over the world. #Books

Book - The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

In other news, tender coconut with naga chili. Get it before summer runs out.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

‘Butter’ by Asako Yuzuki was a tradwife takedown and I called it that last year in a book club, only nobody knew what a tradwife was. Tradwives are an American RW phenomenon but the core idea of weaponising conservative femininity is not new.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Good morning! That’s a triple stack boiled egg sandwich, with onion, green peppercorns, rosemary, coriander on garlic bread with a splash of soy sauce. It should have been too much but it wasn’t. The Japanese food fiction I’ve been reading inspired me.

a triple stack boiled egg sandwich, with onion, green peppercorns, rosemary, coriander on garlic bread with a splash of soy sauce

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

This book deserved a meaty review. #Books

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Calling out to other women who enjoy reading about disturbing strong women with rich interior lives. Say hi, I’d love a female friend to yap about this book with. It’s got so many good lines. Don’t bother if you’re the sort that thought Lessons in Chemistry was great feminist fiction. #Books

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

I did not like this book but I finished it, which is more than I can say about at least four really good books I’ve had to work on reading this year. Evelyn Hugo has a binge worthy quality that leaves me with a faint sense of self-loathing. #Books

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Fun fact: I once drew a grater. Funner fact: The model was a a baby grater that can’t be used to grate anything (not even babies).

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Sorry, I meant Virgin. Strange that they leaned into exotic India but decided to call the imprint Virgin. That’s why I got confused.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

I found this in a secondhand bookshop which may be the only places that keep books that fit my Mumbai shelves. I miss these covers too. The catch? The n-word shows up on page 16. There is no escaping reality even in the best of books.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

I’ve learnt to read outdoors (not an easy task when you live in crowded, dusty, humid country where nobody will leave a lone woman alone).

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

This month I have tasted tender coconut with naga chilli ice cream at Natural’s and also tamarind ice cream at Apsara. This is tropical island summer’ing done right.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

I just finished ‘Butter Honey Pig Bread’ by Francesca Ekwuyasi. I feel like I just finished a sumptuous meal that my system is still learning how to digest. African writers are so much more sumptuous than American writers. It’s also a wonderful queer read. Sometimes things just work out. #Books

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

But Francesca Ekuwuyasi’s readings from her book ‘Butter Honey Pig Bread’ are wonderful. She sounds exactly like she writes. And the book uses words like nagchampa and kajal (not kohl), which makes it feel more desi-adjacent. She’s Nigerian. #Books

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I feel lucky to be on the same planet as this story, to be alive and literate in its language. It’s powerful in the quietest of ways. #Books

Even among literary prize winners, this book
is remarkable for its precision and its poetry. This is best read in chapter-long bites (they are short) in between the trials of living and the perils of harder books. It keeps you lightly tethered to perspective, gentleness, hope and acceptance. Truly magnificent in the quietest of ways.

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

I don’t like this book cover. It’s not that I dislike pink (it’s probably my favourite colour now). But I don’t like this combination with dark red. I’d have liked it to be an envelope white or even sepia with blue postmarks. What is the colour of email, by the way? #Books I’m

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IdeaSmith @ideasmithy.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

When I was a kid, a girl in my building had a toy called Susu Boy. It was a plastic statuette of a boy with a pair of spring-loaded shorts that you could pull down and water would squirt out. As it turns out it is available on Amazon and it promises some strange things.

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