Gaurav Yadav

Bluesky

Some days, Tom speaks about fighting battles we know we'll lose. Like his quest to end all suffering in our world, human and non-human alike. We lose this battle every single day, he and I. Yet we keep fighting, because we must.

Another battle worth fighting is against life's suboptimal parts. And oh, how suboptimal the internet has become. The endless ads, mind-numbing short-form content, waves of misinformation - it's exhausting. I dream of a more wholesome internet. One where I can simply read my friends' thoughts without ads force-fed into my consciousness. Where disagreements with strangers can unfold with nuance and empathy. This version of the internet - this is worth fighting for. And so I joined Bluesky.

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Logging Life

Friends are sharing more writing online these days. This brings me joy - I fully support them putting their words into the world. Reading about their lives feels like keeping them close, since I rarely see a lot of them anymore. This has me reflecting on my own internet writing habits.

At seventeen, I launched my first blog called "Keeping Pace." I gave it the tagline: "Helping your life become 1% better." How ambitious of me! My anxious teenage mind found comfort in self-help books. I started echoing those ideas to other seventeen-year-olds.

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Ask them out

Dear Arjun,

Congratulations on surviving your first month of university. Few more to go now. Here's some, perhaps 'cliché' advice for you.

For a long time, I repressed a lot of my sexuality. Mostly out of fear. Sometimes out of confusion.

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I learnt to ride a bike

I did it! I learnt how to balance on a bike. It has taken many decades to get here. Two in fact.

My father had long tried to get me to ride a bike. But I was too afraid to fall. I would ask for assisted wheels on either side to help me stay balanced. The bike shops we went to would look at us funny. 'Why does this teenager need assisted wheels?' They would say. I gave up hope on ever learning to ride a bike as a kid. Who cares anyways? I can use my feet.

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How to Pronounce My Name

Gaurav isn’t the name I was born with. I began to dislike my original name, so I decided to adopt my father’s first name. But that doesn’t make me Gaurav Yadav Jr.; it just means both my dad and I are Gaurav Yadav. What a treat!

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