Many years ago, as the final capstone project for a learning journey at my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, I wrote something best described as “creative non-fiction”. It combined elements of autobiography with some ruminations on cricket and Indian identity. That project is presented below, unchanged.

OddmentsRamanan RaghavendranJuly 15, 2022BioComment

LinkedIn Bios Are Not The Whole Story

Public domain bios, such as on LinkedIn or a company web site, hide many stories. Here I want to drill into one of my personal transitions that reads a certain way, but hides a much more complicated reality.

Oddments, PennRamanan RaghavendranDecember 31, 2021BioComment

On Trump: Election Post (We Can Do Better)

I have occasionally posted on social media about the Trump presidency, but haven’t felt moved to write something longer. I am doing so now because I feel it is important to “stand up and be counted” before the elections.

OddmentsRamanan RaghavendranOctober 19, 2020PoliticsComment

On First Looking Into Fagles' Homer

This past week I read The Odyssey, in Robert Fagles’ translation, and felt a bit like “stout Cortez” staring at the Pacific (note: I am not stout. At least not right now). In reading this brilliant translation from the Greek — with an introduction by Bernard Knox that is worth the price of admission in itself — I realized how much I had missed.

Books and Music, OddmentsRamanan RaghavendranSeptember 25, 2020MLAComment

A Lesson from Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh is an ancient Sumerian epic, the oldest literature known. I found myself reading it recently, in the Foster translation, as part of a learning journey. I engaged slightly grudgingly with the text and emerged very moved.

OddmentsRamanan RaghavendranSeptember 17, 2020MLAComment

An Obituary For My Father

My father died on June 16 at the age of 90. I have relied on his memoirs — the first, which covers the first half of his life, is a wonderfully evocative chronicle of a very different time and place — for some of what I write here.

OddmentsRamanan RaghavendranJuly 2, 2020Obituary, Bio Comments

Bags Revisited: #Onebag For The Business Traveller

Most things in the public domain about onebagging are not geared at the business traveller. There’s reams of prose about strapping on a big honking 50L backpack and wandering through Southeast Asia on foot. Hence this essay — if you’re someone who routinely gets off a flight and goes to a meeting rather than following a Lonely Planet itinerary.

OddmentsRamanan RaghavendranAugust 13, 2019Comment

Impact Investing -- Three Lessons

In 2000, I joined hands with Deval Sanghavi and formed Impact Partners, at the time the first venture philanthropy firm focused on India.

OddmentsRamanan RaghavendranOctober 10, 2017 Comments

It's Not Just United Airlines Or: I Missed That Memo

Because I do so much long haul travel, I feel somewhat qualified to opine on the United-Dao saga. The current narrative misses two key things. The far more important one is the fact that the TSA was handed sweeping authority over travel in the post 9/11 dispensation.

OddmentsRamanan RaghavendranApril 16, 2017Comment