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Building thoughtful software, writing notes, and shipping experiments across data, AI, and the web.

© 2026 Sarath Tharayil/IST --:--:--

Sarath Tharayil

v.  learning · noticing · becoming

I build things with data and code, usually end-to-end. I ship side projects at odd hours, care a lot about how things feel to use, and tend to go deep on whatever has my attention. Lately that's been AI systems, and ideas that don't sound terrible.

About me
RECENT WRITINGAll posts
A River Runs Through This WebsiteThere is a river in the footer of this website. Literally. Here is what it is, where it comes from, and why I put it there.
Apr 29, 2026
The Versions Before This OneA look back at every iteration of this website, from a teal student portfolio to whatever this is now.
Apr 29, 2026
Why Things Work Badly, Strangely, or Unexpectedly in Modern LifeModern life is full of things that feel broken but are not, things that feel designed well but were not, and things that were designed for something else entirely and just never left. A philosophical walk through why the world is like this.
Apr 28, 2026
The 465 MW Hole Kerala Dug For ItselfKerala's 2026 power crisis starts nine years ago with four contracts, a procedural shortcut, and a regulatory body that decided rules matter more than electricity. Here's how the state lost 465 MW of cheap baseload power and then spent two years failing to get it back.
Apr 27, 2026
CURRENT OBSESSION
Metis-An always-on trading dashboard that watches the market, alerts me when my criteria are met, and can autonomously buy and sell shares on my behalf.read more◆Metis-An always-on trading dashboard that watches the market, alerts me when my criteria are met, and can autonomously buy and sell shares on my behalf.read more◆
Metis-An always-on trading dashboard that watches the market, alerts me when my criteria are met, and can autonomously buy and sell shares on my behalf.-read more

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2026.04.29
A River Runs Through This Website

SUMMARY:

There is a river in the footer of this website. Literally. Here is what it is, where it comes from, and why I put it there.

TOPICS:

Design

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.04.29
The Versions Before This One

SUMMARY:

A look back at every iteration of this website, from a teal student portfolio to whatever this is now.

TOPICS:

DesignPersonal

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.04.28
Why Things Work Badly, Strangely, or Unexpectedly in Modern Life

SUMMARY:

Modern life is full of things that feel broken but are not, things that feel designed well but were not, and things that were designed for something else entirely and just never left. A philosophical walk through why the world is like this.

TOPICS:

Technology

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.04.27
The 465 MW Hole Kerala Dug For Itself

SUMMARY:

Kerala's 2026 power crisis starts nine years ago with four contracts, a procedural shortcut, and a regulatory body that decided rules matter more than electricity. Here's how the state lost 465 MW of cheap baseload power and then spent two years failing to get it back.

TOPICS:

India

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.04.26
Why Different AI Models Excel at Different Tasks

SUMMARY:

Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, and Perplexity all feel meaningfully different to use, and that is not random. Their architectures, training data, and system-level design push them toward genuinely different strengths. Here is what is actually going on under the hood.

TOPICS:

AI

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.04.24
All Of This I Did, Without You

SUMMARY:

Gerald Durrell's love letter to Lee McGeorge, July 31st 1978. I first heard it read by Tom Hiddleston in LettersLive and have not stopped thinking about it since.

TOPICS:

Personal

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.04.21
Probably Means Something Different to Everyone

SUMMARY:

A phrase like 'unlikely' can mean 10% to one person and 35% to another. This gap has been documented in CIA memos, medical guidelines, and climate reports for over sixty years. The data is stranger and more consequential than you might expect.

TOPICS:

Language

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.04.20
Adding Typefaces to Render Beautiful Malayalam Ligatures

SUMMARY:

All seven Malayalam fonts available on this site, with live previews. Six are from the Rachana Institute of Typography.

TOPICS:

LanguageDesign

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.04.19
Building a Personal Archive for the Language I Think In

SUMMARY:

The old proverbs, the quirky observations, the things that only make sense if you've lived in Kerala. A place to keep them before they expire.

TOPICS:

LanguagePersonal

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.04.19
Your Zodiac Sign is not What You Think It Is

SUMMARY:

On tropical and sidereal zodiacs, Earth's 26,000-year wobble, and how the Malayalam calendar and Western astrology quietly drifted apart from each other.

TOPICS:

IndiaLanguage

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.04.19
Why Malayalam looks so round

TOPICS:

ScriptHistory
EXPLORE
2026.04.19
One wrong word flips the entire meaning

TOPICS:

ProverbMisquote
EXPLORE
2026.04.19
If Atham is dark, Onam will be bright

TOPICS:

ProverbOnamWeather
EXPLORE
2026.04.19
When numbers lose their rhythm

TOPICS:

LanguageEveryday
EXPLORE
2026.04.19
The word that surprised a room of elders

TOPICS:

LanguageVocabulary
EXPLORE
2026.04.17
The Struggle Is Real, and That's the Point

SUMMARY:

Ben Horowitz wrote the leadership book I wish existed before I ever had to make a hard call. Notes on The Struggle, radical honesty, and why protecting your team from bad news is the worst thing you can do.

TOPICS:

Career

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.04.17
Meet Metis, an Autonomous Trading Dashboard

SUMMARY:

An always-on autonomous trading dashboard that monitors the market, applies custom criteria to individual stocks, and buys or sells shares automatically.

TOPICS:

FinanceAutomation

AUTHOR:

Project

OPEN PROJECT
2026.04.17
Malayalam in English is a Palindrome

TOPICS:

EtymologyLanguage
EXPLORE
2026.04.17
Fled the war, walked into another

TOPICS:

ProverbIrony
EXPLORE
2026.04.14
The Court That Proved the Textbook Right

SUMMARY:

India's Supreme Court banned an NCERT civics chapter for saying the judiciary can be corrupt. The chapter quoted their own sitting Chief Justice. What followed made the chapter's point better than the chapter ever could.

TOPICS:

India

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.04.11
How India's North-South Divide Was Built

SUMMARY:

The North-South divide isn't geography. It's the result of colonial land systems, a disastrous freight policy, and radically different bets on human capital. Here's how two Indias were made.

TOPICS:

India

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.04.10
My Friend Wrote About Love and Language

SUMMARY:

Yahvi compared love to language , how it evolves, gets forgotten, and takes on dialects over time. Here's what that made me realise about the people I've lost fluency in.

TOPICS:

LanguagePersonal

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.03.26
Kerala Assembly Election 2026 Insights

SUMMARY:

A quick breakdown of how I built my Kerala election reference tool, what the model uses, and where it can be wrong.

TOPICS:

India

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.03.24
Kerala Assembly Elections Data Webapp

SUMMARY:

Comprehensive Kerala assembly election explorer with historical analysis and ML-backed 2026 prediction views.

TOPICS:

Data & Analytics

AUTHOR:

Project

OPEN PROJECT
2026.03.07
Be Delusional, What If It Actually Works Out!

SUMMARY:

A short note on useful delusion, public embarrassment, and why betting on yourself is often less ridiculous than it looks.

TOPICS:

Career

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2026.02.18
Continuum, Personal Life OS Dashboard

SUMMARY:

Personal life OS built to track mood, energy, schedule, and activity time in one continuous daily system.

TOPICS:

Productivity

AUTHOR:

Project

OPEN PROJECT
2025.11.13
Building an Aesthetic Questionnaire

SUMMARY:

Saw a fun questionnaire webapp somewhere and decided to build my own, with a bit of personality.

TOPICS:

Design

AUTHOR:

Sarath Tharayil

READ POST
2025.11.01
Questionnaire, a Fun and Witty Quiz App

SUMMARY:

A fun and witty questionnaire webapp.

TOPICS:

Game

AUTHOR:

Project

OPEN PROJECT
2025.01.20
BuJo, an Open-Source Bullet Journal App

SUMMARY:

A self-hostable and open-source alternative to physical bullet journals.

TOPICS:

ProductivityOpen Source

AUTHOR:

Project

OPEN PROJECT
2025.01.15
Sherlockd, an Online Treasure Hunt

SUMMARY:

Online treasure hunt website built for a friend's birthday with clues, puzzles, and a mystery to solve.

TOPICS:

Game

AUTHOR:

Project

OPEN PROJECT
2025.01.01
The Nom-Nom Lab, a Recipe Sharing Website

SUMMARY:

Recipe sharing website for home cooks to discover and publish their favourite recipes.

TOPICS:

Food

AUTHOR:

Project

OPEN PROJECT
2024.09.12
TZ, an Aesthetic Timezone and Weather Converter

SUMMARY:

Aesthetic app to view the current time across different timezones alongside live weather conditions.

TOPICS:

Productivity

AUTHOR:

Project

OPEN PROJECT
2024.08.15
Mach Speed Calculator, Compare Jets and Missiles

SUMMARY:

Compare speeds of missiles, fighter jets, and aircraft and calculate travel times between any two points.

TOPICS:

Data & Analytics

AUTHOR:

Project

OPEN PROJECT
2024.07.18
Cloud Inversion Analyzer, Predict Atmospheric Events

SUMMARY:

A website to predict cloud inversions on a given day at a given location using meteorological data.

TOPICS:

ScienceData & Analytics

AUTHOR:

Project

OPEN PROJECT
2024.06.10
F1nalyse, Formula 1 Stats and Analysis

SUMMARY:

Formula 1 stat page with in-depth analysis of drivers and teams across seasons.

TOPICS:

SportsData & Analytics

AUTHOR:

Project

OPEN PROJECT
2024.05.20
Wordle, Built with the OnceUp Framework

SUMMARY:

A Wordle clone built using the OnceUp framework.

TOPICS:

Game

AUTHOR:

Project

OPEN PROJECT
2024.03.05
GetHired, a Job Application Tracker

SUMMARY:

A webapp to track job applications and stay organised through the hiring process.

TOPICS:

Productivity

AUTHOR:

Project

OPEN PROJECT
2023.11.20
Groccy, Smart Grocery List Builder

SUMMARY:

Smart grocery list builder and planner to organise your weekly shop.

TOPICS:

ProductivityFood

AUTHOR:

Project

OPEN PROJECT
2022.07.26
Kochu Poombatte, Take Four

SUMMARY:

Tried out another trending song of that time.

AUTHOR:

YouTube

WATCH VIDEO
2021.08.22
Minnal Murali, and the Clips That Stayed

SUMMARY:

Properly edited and color graded montage video. Better shots too ;)

AUTHOR:

YouTube

WATCH VIDEO
2021.04.17
Everything Slowed Down

SUMMARY:

First montage was just operator shots, this one has a bit of everything.

AUTHOR:

YouTube

WATCH VIDEO
2020.10.22
Learning to Cut

SUMMARY:

Editing my first ever montage video from Valorant highlights.

AUTHOR:

YouTube

WATCH VIDEO