Who Lights the Fire
I wanted to be present for every ritual, every prayer, every step of the journey the tradition says the soul takes after the body is gone. I wanted to light the fire. Instead I watched.
For the days you want to understand something larger. Essays about mythology, destiny and the world.
I wanted to be present for every ritual, every prayer, every step of the journey the tradition says the soul takes after the body is gone. I wanted to light the fire. Instead I watched.
I could see all of it in the Mahabharata — the jealousies, the manipulation, the disrespect toward women, the power of money, fighting for what is rightfully yours. And then I looked at the modern world today.
Something about Karna’s life has always unsettled me. Not sympathy — something closer to recognition. A quiet awareness of how profoundly unjust a life can be, even one lived with extraordinary courage and generosity.
The most unexpected thing astrology gave me was not a prediction. It was relief. For years I carried the question of my career as though it were a verdict on my character. Then I found a different explanation — and it changed something.
I kept trying to photograph the yaksha. Every time I pressed the shutter, Devi appeared instead. It took me a while to understand that she had been there all along — and that I had been dismissing her because she was not what I came for.
A lifelong anime fan watches Bleach for the first time and finds six life lessons from Ichigo Kurosaki worth writing about — on purpose, friendship, and the power of will.
A 90s Animax kid and lifelong Ghibli fan reflects on why AI-generated Ghibli art feels like an injustice to Hayao Miyazaki and the artists who inspired us.