What I’m doing now

What I’m working on now

I’ve been working in the aviation industry since May 2019, for Singapore Airlines. As a management trainee, I get significant exposure to different parts of the business, from sales to business analysis to marketing. The hands-on learning about commercial aviation is an adventure I’ve been dreaming of since I was a little kid.

With all the learning and growth on the job, the time I can spend writing blog posts, making podcasts, and working on my manuscript is limited. Saying that, progress is being made on all fronts, and all hard deadlines on my creative projects have been converted into softer ones. I’ll post articles I find interesting to research and write (expect a few more aviation-related ones), I’ll do mini-seasons of A Life Less Ordinary (Season 2 wrapped up in May 2019), and I’ll keep writing the second draft of my novel one paragraph at a time.

My interest and fascination in Asian and Middle Eastern history continues to deepen. See below for recent reads. I’m currently reading an exceptional biography of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by Pupul Jayakar, a close friend of hers, and next on the reading list I have William Darylimple’s critically acclaimed book about the East India Company, Anarchy, along with a biography of Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore and British Malaya. I’m looking for more material about Asian minds, creative, political, entrepreneurial, past or present. If anyone has any good suggestions, feel free to share by email or social.

Books I read in 2019

I will be adding book notes for a few of these reads over the next few weeks. I’d highly recommend the one’s in bold.

The Square and the Tower – Niall Ferguson 8/10
Dune – Frank Herbert 8/10
Birthday Girl – Haruki Murakami 7/10
Eileen – Ottessa Moshfegh 7/10
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World – Jack Weatherford 8/10
Woolf in Ceylon- Christopher Ondaatje 8/10
Becoming – Michelle Obama 10/10
Empire of Things – Frank Trentmann 7/10
In my own words – Dalai Lama 9/10
Mating in Captivity – Esther Perel 6/10
The Windup Girl – Paolo Bacigalupi 9/10
Bulletproof Problem Solving – Charles R. Conn and Robert McLean 7/10

More on the books I loved last year

Genghis Khan and the Makings of the Modern World
Not only is this an illuminating and brilliant history of a man who shaped the trajectory of everyone’s lives, but also shows how western history in the past has portrayed figures and civilisations from non-western origins to be savage and ‘less than’.

Woolf in Ceylon
Virginia Woolf’s husband, Leonard, lived in Sri Lanka as a civil servant in the early 1900s, at first pro-empire but eventually, very anti-empire. This book, written by Michael Ondaatje’s brother, Christopher, beautifully shares his chapter living in what was then known as Ceylon, and gave me an insight into my Sri Lankan heritage that was more captivating than any other account I’d read in the past.

Empire of Things
A beast of a book that took me months to read but gave me a sense that consumerism wasn’t invented in just a few decades or centuries, but since the dawn of civilisation.

Podcast episodes I loved in 2019 (besides my own!)

Next Question with Katie Couric: Martha Stewart
Get an insight into incredible journey and life of Martha Stewart, including her childhood, getting her first book deal, spending time in jail, and working with Donald Trump on the Apprentice. And…collaborating with Snoop Dogg.

Helga: Solange interview
Solange talks about the creative process and struggles behind her debut album “A Seat at the Table”, getting her publishing deal and her journey to critical and commercial success.

The Tim Ferriss Show: Eric Schmidt Podcast
Eric Schmidt talks about his ‘Trillion Dollar Coach’.

Design Matters: Christina Tosi
The founder of the legendary Milk Bar in NYC talks about her work ethic, career, and long apprenticeship.