Rohan Monteiro

I am seeing a lot of current competitions that are banning the use of AI completely, and I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I see what they are trying to do. The rise of AI-generated slop, not to mention the disturbing level of AI use even on forums like Reddit and Quora, in emails and in social media posts, is annoying at best and a serious concern at worst. Scammers are more sophisticated with their phishing. I miss the Nigerian princes. And the American soldier in Iraq who found a ton of gold. Some of those tales were actually pretty good. Fake news, which was always a concern, now requires even lower effort to generate, and the content is really mind-numbingly stupid. In this environment, it makes sense to carve out a space for ourselves and declare this off-limits to AI. To insist that writing is exclusively for humans.A place where writing is supposed to come from sweat, misery, caffeine, and years of craft. Soulless machines have to wait by the door. Noble. Slightly ...

 There are several things that we know we need to do, but somehow we don't get around to doing them.  Multiple reasons - we are lazy, we forget, it doesn't seem important but at some level we know its the right thing to do and we resist it. I see this with my kids when its time to brush their teeth. On some level, I get it - When you are a teenage boy, hygiene isn't  really a top concern- which also probably explains why I was a virgin for so long. The point of this post is for me to list down a few things that work for me - I'm going to call them lifehacks because that's how I think of them. They aren't unique ideas - you probably have heard of them or even implement them occasionally. But these have often helped me the most. Lifehack #1 - Goal Setting I set up 2 or 3 goals for the year in January. These are written down and revisited once a month. My Goals for 2026 Write Book 3 of the Waking Dead series Pitch my non-fiction to a non Indian publisher Write the ...

  I have one fabulous review from Prashant Srivastav (Author of The Spice gate ) that precisely sums up the lead character in a single sentence. Here's the Amazon link for those who are convinced :-)

 I truly believe our role as authors , artists and content creators in this digital age is to push the boundaries of what is and isn't culturally acceptable. To shape narratives and promote new ideas because that's the only way a society can grow. Whether you are a stand up comedian using satire or a debut author with the social media footprint of a gnat, your role is to stand up and question. To be the voice of dissent. Because some things are worth standing up for. I have articulated this in multiple conversations (usually with Internet trolls) but maybe I should write this here as well. A list of unpopular opinions Thoughts on Israel : They have committed genocide Thoughts on Modi : He needs to spend less time orgasming about Nehru, Aurangzeb and temples and actually get shit done. Thoughts on religion :The world would probably be better off without it. Thoughts on the Orange Pumpkin : he is definitely in the Epstein files Thoughts on LGBTQ rights : Support them fully. Too m...

 

Original answer I encountered on Quora can be found here   In the movie Pixels, there is a scene where Tetris blocks suddenly fall from the sky, arrange themselves on buildings in the real world and thus destroy them. Remember this image, for it’ll be your guide towards razor-sharp focus. Vladimir Pokhilko wanted to stay at a friend’s house in Tokyo for a week. There was only one problem: They had a brand new Game Boy. And Tetris. At night, geometric shapes fell in the darkness as I lay on loaned tatami floor space. Days, I sat on a lavender suede sofa and played Tetris furiously. During rare jaunts from the house, I visually fit cars and trees and people together. Dubiously hunting a job and a house, I was still there two months later, still jobless, still playing. What Vladimir Pokhilko learned in those two months changed how we view video games forever. Being a clinical psychologist, he became obsessed with the idea that Tetris must have an impact on our neural system. Some kind...

 Every time  I read a non-fiction book that I like, I make a few notes. Sentences, the occasional turn of phrase, bits that resonated with me.  I decided to start publishing some of them here so that the zero followers I have could also appreciate them.   The following excerpt is taken from 'Quit -the Power of Knowing when to walk away by Anne Duke. We view grit and quit as opposing forces. After all, you either persevere or you abandon course. You can’t do both at the same time, and in the battle between the two, quitting has clearly lost. While grit is a virtue, quitting is a vice. The advice of legendarily successful people is often boiled down to the same message: Stick to things and you will succeed. By definition, anybody who has succeeded at something has stuck with it. That’s a statement of fact, always true in hindsight. But that doesn’t mean that the inverse is true, that if you stick to something, you will succeed at it. Prospectively, it’s neither true n...

 Everytime I read a non-fiction book that I like, I make a few notes. I decided to start publishing them here so that the zero followers I have could also appreciate them. The following excerpt is taken from ' Paper -Paging through History by Mark Kurlansky'. Studying the history of paper exposes a number of historical misconceptions, the most important of which is this technological fallacy: the idea that technology changes society. It is exactly the reverse. Society develops technology to address the changes that are taking place within it. To use a simple example, in China in 250 BCE, Meng Tian invented a paintbrush made from camel hair. His invention did not suddenly inspire the Chinese people to start writing and painting, or to develop calligraphy. Rather, Chinese society had already established a system of writing but had a growing urge for more written documents and more elaborate calligraphy. Their previous tool—a stick dipped in ink—could not meet the rising demand. M...

 Went to a board gaming event at the Asian Civilization Museum - It was a really fun evening and I ended up meeting a group of board gamers here in Singapore.   I also played 4 games - 3 of which I had never played before - Chai Garam , a worker placement mechanic where you are running a tea stall to collect reviews; Century Golem where you build a gem collection engine - similar to Splendor but different mechanics & Secret Hitler which is a social deduction game. It was only the next day that wifey pointed out something I didn't notice at all - I didn't play any games exclusively with my daughter. Girl z is 8 and Boy Z is 10 - I tend to play games with him more often because he instinctively picks up and understands more complex games. Except, she still needs my attention. And I need to get better at recognizing it. Boy Z is cautious, careful, diligent, loves to read. Girl Z is a happy skipping lark who likes shiny objects. Boy Z takes time to open up. Girl Z will...

 https://asian-reviews.com/2025/03/11/fiction-mirrors-the-truths-emotions-and-complexities-of-the-world-we-inhabit-rohan-monteiro/   Fiction mirrors the truths, emotions, and complexities of the world we inhabit.” Rohan Monteiro By dhanukadickwella on 11 Mar 2025 • ( Leave a comment ) Q: Not everyone writes, nor can everyone write. Tell us what inspired you to pick up a pen and start writing, along with a brief introduction of yourself. A: It was 2014. I had just learned I was going to be a dad. I was at that point a research consultant in Singapore in a job and role that wasn’t going anywhere. I felt I needed to do something with my life that my kid (s) would look up to. Something that felt more meaningful instead of sitting in an office all day. That’s when I decided to write a book. My name is Rohan Monteiro, and my first non-fiction novel, ‘Keep Calm and Go Crazy’, was published in 2015 by HarperCollins. My most recent book was relea...

 

  Writing, requires the wearing of many hats. Its tempting to focus on honing your craft and leaving everything else to the professionals. It was one of those lessons hammered into us during our MBA days — outsource everything that isn’t a core competence and focus on what you are good at. The real world challenge, however is that we still need to find semi-competent sources to outsource the other processes to. Bear in mind, these are still essential processes, they are just not ones where we have an edge and so we tend to rely on those who claim they are good at their jobs. For ‘ Shadows Rising’ I chose one particular agency. In retrospect, I should have done a little more research before selecting them. But on the surface, they seemed good enough and I figured what’s the worst that could happen? Turns out, quite a bit. I worked with them for social media posts and Amazon Ads. I have no real complaints about the social media post aspects — there were challenges but nothing that c...

 When I was a kid, something happened that I still remember. Maybe kid is the wrong word — I was in 9th grade, so not exactly small and cuddly but not really an adult either. Was just learning how to deal with the idea that the world is full of all sorts of people. Some could be nice, some could be massive dicks. Case in point, we were at Fantasy Land — an amusement park in Mumbai. My first visit there -I was very excited. There were 5 of us — 2 older aunts and me and my two male cousins My two older cousins did not like the idea of babysitting me — they were a year and 2 years older and decided they would ditch me.  And so, at one random ride, they decided to run off in two opposite directions, leaving me alone to find my way to the two older aunts. Like I said, i was maybe 13 or 14? - not exactly helpless, but not in that great a state of mind either. My dad was pretty overprotective back then - I hadn't ever travelled by bus or train by myself, I absolutely sucked at direct...

  Folks, Ive made a copy of this story on Medium. If you like the stark, shiny interface that Medium provides, please head over and read the story here . If you want bleeding cool textures and edgier backgrounds, I dont have it here either , but only because the buddy I normally rely on for layouts and formatting is guzzling pina coladas on a beach in Goa at the moment and wont be back till next month. Onwards to the article... The problem with seeking advice from the internet is that people are all too prepared to give it without any thought to how qualified they actually are to be dishing out said advice. This is especially true for writing. You can master the intricacies of grammar and bend it to your will, yet good sentences will elude you. You can craft vivid and beautiful plots in your mind but they turn into steaming piles of putrid garbage when they are penned down. And there is abysmally poor advice out there that frankly nobody should listen to, even if the writer...

 I've read Hickman's run on the X-men at least 5 times in the past few years. And I have to say, I think it's the best version of the X-Men that has ever been written. To be clear, when I began reading X-men (around 2001), I didnt just start from there. I went back and read every issue from the 1960's when it began all the way till 2001 and beyond. Characters died, then returned, then died again, villains became heroes and villains again (Im looking at you, Magneto), new villains rose, etc etc. Grant Morrisson did something of consequence by revamping the X-Men - his run at that time was new, fresh and original. Yet after that, it stagnated again.  Until now. Hickman's Krakoa run and the weird and fascinating lives of Moira Taggert is immensely pleasing .I suspect Im going to hate how it ends, but so far I am amsolutely loving it.

  Back in the good old days, when I had more hair on my head than growing out of my ears, there was a girl I dated briefly. She was on a quest to find the perfect coffee. Every weekend, she would visit a different café across Dubai , choose a Cappuccino and pen down her observations in her journal. I had no such interest. Going out to a café became a thing in Mumbai roughly in 1996, when ‘Barista’ started popping up as a trendy chain of outlets across the city. Or maybe that was when I first began venturing out of my sheltered little pod because it was my first year of college. Until then, I hadn’t seen much of the city except a square kilometre around my house in Juhu which included my school, the doctor, the pharmacist, two churches and a graveyard. Basically, everything I might ever need was in that space and I had never ventured outside it. But now, I was in Bandra – the cooler, more hep cousin of all the other suburbs with shorter skirts, tastier food and a lot more entert...

    This is the 3rd  in a series of posts written originally as part of 'Curse of the Yaksha' aka 'Shadows Rising' but that were dropped from the final version. This piece is about the caste system in India. The Caste system is a social hierarchy that has been prevalent in India since ancient times (2500 -3000 years), according to some sources . For context, particularly non-Hindu readers, there were four broad categories in the caste system:  o Brahmans - Scholars /Sages o Kshatriyas - Warriors o Vaishyas - Farmers, Traders, Merchants o Shudras - Manual Labour Although there are four main castes, thousands of sub-castes further divide India's people. Additionally, there is a separate caste who aren't considered part of the system at all – the Untouchables or Dalits. They are shunned by society and forbidden to live amongst those of high castes. They handle the jobs the rest of the castes refuse to do, such as cleaning latrines, manual scavenging, prostitution, ...

  This is the 2nd in a series of posts written originally as part of 'Shadows Rising' but that were dropped from the final version. This piece is about the likely dates when the Mahbharatha took place . As part of the story and because I am occasionally neurotic about some details, I decided to attempt to calculate the most likely date for when the Mahabharata took place. The primary reason for doing so was that the very first diary entry by Akran mentions a date and I didn't want to get it wrong. However, I found myself enjoying the research process immensely, so let me breakdown my hypothesis as to when the event actually occurred. According to Hindu scriptures, the Kali Yuga began when Krishna left this realm .  The length of the Yugas is almost certainly an exaggeration—432,000 years is the number that gets thrown around most often because a day in heaven was equivalent to one year on Earth. (To put that into perspective, a day on Venus is approximately 243 days on Eart...