Hume suggests we invent causality afterward to explain decisions already made inside us. I thought I chose conformity on my first day at a US high school after arriving from India in a 3-piece suit. We don't choose; we listen to the ghost in the machine.
Suit → krishinasnani.substack.com/p/suit
I arrived from India at a US high school in a 3-piece suit while everyone wore jeans, ate pizza, kissed openly; a veritable foreign film without subtitles; I "chose" and "decided" to conform—but Hume dissolves causality; I was only listening to the ghost in the machine.
substack.com/home/post/p-...
On a grey SF day, this Austrian spot on Polk St offers distinct comfort. Vibrant yellow windows with red "eyeliner" make the building’s eyes expressive, while deep red doors feature delicate embroidery : a stately arabesque in the mist. SF Sightlines:
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/sightlines...
On Tax Day, I was here for 5 hrs getting taxes done, pro bono. The supervisor — a former worker in timber & paper mills — handled the 1040 like a connoisseur. It was luxe to the touch; she caressed it, savored it for tannins.Watching her? Pure bueno.Essay: krishinasnani.substack.com/p/sightlines...
NY in December: Financial firms trading in surly bonds and flighty stocks loom over Trinity Church. The city makes it hard for the spirit to rise.Yet people come to pray. Inside, a stained glass Maker sits at the center, flanked like a celestial rock band;my photo essay
substack.com/home/post/p-...
“I could take out Iran in one hour.”
“I can do whatever I want with Cuba.”
“I will end Ukraine on Day One…”
We clutch the hands of a clock; wanting time to stop. And Iran says: you may have the watch — but we have the time. Essay on why Doubt matters:
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/no-doubt
The dealmaker hated this war insists THEY did not accept our terms—as if deals means my way or the highway. This is a man who announces publicly his Hindu wife won't accept his Savior. We retreat and move to Cuba, Irans decays;
Time to read essay Doctrine: krishinasnani.substack.com/p/doctrine
SF Bar : washi-paper ceiling, paper moons, jazz band. A woman as quiet as Garbo. Coolest women in coolest moods on the hunt, dressed to win, but left the scene alone onto the next audition.Outside, a bespectacled young man reads a Penguin. Classic.Photo Essay:
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/waiting
Rainbow Grocery in SF is a nation-state: its finest cities are bulk bins of biryani rice, honey, and Indian teas.
The produce section is countryside—air so clean it adds years to life. The Surgeon General confirms this.
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/sightlines...
#SanFrancisco #RainbowGrocery
SF’s Cavali Café is a delightful North African nation. Sit outside and the street performs: buses promising AI salvation, motorcycles shrieking
A café by the people, for the people, and of the people. Let it run for President.
From Sightlines in SF:
substack.com/home/post/p-...
The Beaux-Arts gem that houses a Law Firm, I think: You can’t litigate against beauty. But should such elegance house a law firm? Might it not be better as a quietly dignified bookstore where beauty in art meets beauty in thought? My essay on SF:
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/sightlines...
Woman tucks the back of her oversized boyfriend shirt,creating a shell;the billow forms a structured silhouette,cape-like : inverse of a French tuck—the collar drawn slightly back for a drop-shoulder effect,the front hem sitting higher and swinging freely:
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/sightlines...
New photo essay: Sightlines in San Francisco — watching how people inhabit language, clothing, buildings, and streets across the city.
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/sightlines...
#SanFrancisco #PhotoEssay #UrbanLife #PublicSpace
That gap — between Marine deployment and decision to attack. — is where doubt lives. Assumption is one round knock out. Leader thinks we. are deaf, dumb, and blind. No advise, no consent. Doubt is a police siren. When does it go off?
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/no-doubt
The terms of our surrender are theirs:sanctions lifted;uranium enrichment conceded;Strait under their sole toll and control; "new" mullah same as the old.You call this unconditional surrender,regime change?Kennan's containment defined victory. What tells us now?
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/doctrine
Satyajit Ray’s Days and Nights in the Forest, Soumitra Chatterjee admits he likes Sharmila Tagore, asking if she already likes someone else.They embody Ray's vision of a modern couple; We sense her quiet disbelief in a future shaped by a tragic past: krishinasnani.substack.com/p/satyajit-r...
She strikes a match. As he leans in, the flame reflects in her eyes. She asks what they should name the baby.He gazes at that flame and replies: Kajal. Satyajit Ray does this twice. Eleven years apart.My essay:
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/satyajit-rays-days-and-nights-in
#SatyajitRay #ApuTrilogy
A lighter flame reflected in a woman’s eyes:Same actress, same actor—eleven years apart. Satyajit Ray names her Aparna both times.I came away feeling Days and Nights in the Forest belongs entirely to Sharmila Tagore. My essay:
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/satyajit-r...
#SatyajitRay #SharmilaTagore
On set, Satyajit Ray sits with his camera. Sharmila Tagore waits nearby.He named her Aparna in two films,eleven years apart. Same actress, different woman entirely. Was she & Soumitra his ideal? My essay : krishinasnani.substack.com/p/satyajit-rays-days-and-nights-in
#SatyajitRay #SharmilaTagore
A lighter flame reflected in a woman's eyes. Same actress, same actor, eleven years apart — Satyajit Ray names her Aparna both times. I found it a film that belongs entirely to Sharmila Tagore. My essay : krishinasnani.substack.com/p/satyajit-r...
#SatyajitRay #SharmilaTagore #Roxie #IndianCinema
The infantile propaganda cuts between video games and grainy destruction.Lucky the government lacks a Riefenstahl who could and did make catastrophe.The leader might have been a contender,but the gap between talent and ambition is vast :
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/open-letter-to-leni-riefenstahl
The leader had no doubt he could score a quick win, and position it for the Nobel. But a funny thing happened on the way to the Forum of Hormuz: he’s stuck, frustrated his instinct lied to him—and files a lawsuit against his gut ; my essay is called Doubt:
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/no-doubt
National interest once guided America. George Kennan built containment on understanding the world as it is.Reading a resignation letter in the Times:when did allies’ influence start to feel like an injunction? Is individuality dead ?
My essay, Doctrine → krishinasnani.substack.com/p/doctrine
Uncle Sam: "Help me stop a war which I started";
Europa: "Man, you must be puttin' me on."
Sam: "You can do what you want, Europa, but the next time you see me comin', you better run"
Europa: "Where d'you want this saving done?"
Sam:"Out on Highway Hormuz."
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/doctrine
He socializes with the White House that once called him Muslim Communist—and secures low-cost housing promises. He tears the veil from the tragedy of the commons, keeping his eye on the prize. But what is the prize? What is the meaning of Mamdani? krishinasnani.substack.com/p/the-meanin...
Odd that the Ayatollahs subsumed a rich Persian civilization in 1979 — people carry the culture, mullahs carry ideology. I found Persian art in KL as an expat. Let’s hope youth find their own doctrine amidst a world of mullahs: krishinasnani.substack.com/p/doctrine
Iran is more than headlines. In Parts Unknown, Bourdain shared a Tehran family dinner — tahdig, fesenjan, giant meatballs — and was stunned by warmth: “We take you to our house and our hearts.” Now both nation at war within & without. My essay Doctrine → krishinasnani.substack.com/p/doctrine
#Iran
Iran is more than a regime — it is a civilization. Poets, engineers, filmmakers, educated!. Even the Duke & Strayhorn honored Persia with Isfahan. Yet when a state crushes its heirs, and wars are launched without method, decline has begun. My essay: Doctrine → krishinasnani.substack.com/p/doctrine
Doctrine as practiced by Kennan & Zbig begins with understanding the world. Iran is not just clerics. It's a civilization and a highly educated young populations. Yet that same civilization is killed by its regime. My essay on absence of American Doctrine:
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/doctrine
Kurtz: “Are my methods highly unsound?”
Willard: “I don’t see any method at all, sir.”
In 1979, Coppola gave us Apocalypse Now—a war without method.
In 2026, we find ourselves in an "adventure". Where are today's Keenan, Zbig?
My essay is called Doctrine : krishinasnani.substack.com/p/doctrine