Achintya Rao’s Now Page

As of 18 November 2025.

Oscar, the shouting cat! 🐈‍⬛

The most important update to give you is that Jenni and I have been trained by a visiting cat, named Oscar, who lives a street or two behind us. He shows up in front of our house nearly every weekday when it isn’t raining, and shouts until we go down and pet him. Some days, he shows up at night, when his silky black coat blends perfectly with the shadows; all you can see are his eyes and – when he screams – his little fang-like teeth. He is such a joy to have around, and we are both constantly updating our families with news of our regular encounters.

Family time in Loughborough 🕊️

I had been on sick leave for nearly two weeks recently – yes, the mental-health struggles haven’t gone away. However, since Jenni had no lectures the following week, I applied for annual leave and we took a trip to Loughborough, to visit Jenni’s parents. It was a beautiful and much-needed break for me.

We went on a long bike ride with Jenni’s dad along the Monsal Trail in Derbyshire, made a couple of wild slot-car tracks for some very noisy races, ate homemade pizza, visited grandparents, practised a duet for a Heartwood gig (more below), went sloe-picking and started to make sloe gin, did some bird-watching, and drank far too much homemade limoncello and blackberry wine. But possibly the highlight of the trip was a family trip to Derby, where we had delicious dosas at a Keralan restaurant, wandered around the Museum of Making… and paid our respects to musical royalty!

The Derby Museum and Art Gallery is home to the preserved body of The King of Rome – perhaps the most important pigeon in British folk music and one we sing about in Heartwood. Jenni and I had spoken about heading to Derby to see His Majesty during previous trips to Loughborough but hadn’t managed to arrange it. This time, we made sure to go, only to find out when we got there that the gallery where he normally resides was under renovation and the display was in storage.

Jenni’s mum asked the museum staff if there was any chance we could see the exhibit, telling them that Jenni and I had a special connection with the bird. And they were kind enough to go into the storage room and fetch him for a private audience. What a treat! I know it’s silly to get emotional about a stuffed pigeon from over a century ago, but emotional I did get. I told him that he’s quite famous and that we sing about him all the way in Bristol. The experience was very coo.

Musical outings 🎼

Last week, we had our first Heartwood gig for quite some time, even though it was only a mini-gig as part of an event at the Clifton Literary Festival, in which we sang just three songs. Jenni and I sang one of the verses of a new song we learnt recently, as an alto-bass duet. It was a slightly frightening experience, in a venue where we couldn’t rehearse before the performance, but I enjoyed it very much. I am looking forward to our remaining three performances this year, including our big Christmas gig next month.

Also last week was the first cèilidh that I played with the Broken Biscuits in a long time. It was for one of the University of Bristol’s student societies, and I played my portable cajón. There are some more lined up in the coming weeks that I hope to play in, although I will be carrying my microphone with me so I can look after my hands a bit better.

Cricket jumper 🏏

In other exciting news, the cricket jumper that Jenni is knitting me is nearly done! The front and back pieces of the body are complete, as is one of the sleeves. Once both sleeves are finished and treated, all the pieces will be sewn together. Jenni has been getting me to do fit checks now and then, and the wool is so incredibly comfortable and warm. Following the process as an observer has been delightful in itself; it is quite soothing to hear the soft clicking of knitting needles. This jumper is the most beautiful thing anyone has made for me. Devoting months of time to a single craft project is a great act of love, and I cannot wait to wear it, proudly.

Evaluating grant applications 💡

I was recently invited by a research-funding agency to evaluate several grant applications for science-communication projects… in Spanish. It was truly an honour to even be considered for it. The process itself was well-organised, but I found myself struggling to make progress, fighting both my mental-health issues and ADHD-driven procrastination. I finally managed to push myself to process all of the applications I was assigned, before the deadline. And along the way, I learnt a lot, not just about specialist terms in the Spanish language but about the thinking and creativity behind various science-communication ideas.

I really wish, though, that I didn’t have to wait until the last minute before kicking into high gear. This lifelong battle with myself, courtesy of ADHD, brings a lot of shame. No matter what I do, I can’t find myself able to get started on certain tasks until the deadline is staring my in the face, threateningly. I know I can do a good(-enough) job even with a little time, so it seems that I compress all the available time I have into the bare minimum, which I save for the very end. Ugh.

Videogames 🎮

I haven’t played videogames for a while, but found myself giving Crusader Kings II a go on my Steam Deck a few weeks ago. It worked surprisingly well on the handheld console, although, a little frustrated with the game itself, I decided to acquire its sequel to try. And before I knew it, I found myself spending hours, cursing about lost territories and quarrelling factions. While the game ran just fine on the Deck, I hooked it to my portable monitor and used a PlayStation 4 controller, which made things a little easier on my eyes.

I also introduced Jenni to Portal 2, which has a two-person coöperative mode, and we had a blast solving the puzzles. We also played some LEGO games on it, and I got Jenni a little hooked on the Lord of the Rings one. Oops.

My Personal API 🪪

If you scroll further down this page, you will come across my real-time status (a version also exists on my main website). This is powered by my wonderful friend Bastian’s open-source project. For a while, I had an itch to scratch: to add information on recently played games from my Steam profile. So, with a lot of hand-holding from Bastian, I contributed some code to show both Steam stats and the latest annotation from my hypothes.is profile. I thoroughly enjoyed writing and testing the code. Limited though my skills are, how I have missed programming!

Pursuits 💭

(I will keep this section largely unchanged – unless the pursuits have been achieved! – as a reminder to myself.)

My aim for this year is to acquire a UK driving licence. I don’t need or want one, but it would come in handy if I ever have to rent a car. It is a shame that, having driven in Europe for around a decade with not so much as a parking ticket, I cannot simply exchange my Indian licence. I understand why, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating. Update: This is looking less and less likely, given that I haven’t even managed to take my theory test so far.

For what feels like forever, I have been helping Amanda with her English translation of an old and famous Finnish text. The translation has been complete for a while, and I intend to finish editing it sometime this year, before starting work on formatting the final piece for various platforms.