Kashem, did you see Mirabai Chanu? Lifting that weight — reminds me of the time I had to haul a 20-kilo jackfruit out of the tree by myself, back aching for a week. But she makes it look like picking a povitr, all grace and grit. No big sponsors, no fanfare — just her and the barbell, like us and our laterite soil. Sometimes the real strength is in the small, steady pull.

Last night I watched *The Taste of Things* on a borrowed laptop, the generator humming from the well pump. Made me think of my *aai* cooking jackfruit seeds in coconut milk — she never measured anything, just knew when the *povitr* was right. All these fancy food films act like cooking is a science experiment, but kashem, the real secret is the patience you learn from waiting for a monsoon that never comes. You can't engineer that.