Ashutosh Datar

Co-Founder Curious, Introvert. Free Markets. Liberty. Federer over Nadal. Dravid over Tendulkar. Picard over Kirk. Spock & Data.

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

Super excited about this launch. Over 400 pages of data and visualizations covering al the states... #data #booklaunch

[IndiaDataHub @IndiaDataHub]

Hurray! Our second book 'Data Book - State of States' is live! If you want to know how the states of India are similar or different on Economic/Social parameters, this is your book. Download an excerpt and get links for purchase https://t.co/AMo4p2eNGN #Books #DataViZ #India

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

Opus 4.8 asked me for permission to execute, I said: “take it away Mr Murdoch, take her to sea” it replied “Take her to sea, Mr Murdoch”, Correcting me! This is not something #Opus did before. It has a character now. And I am loving it despite it chomping tokens like anything…

[avi❕ @landosmcl40]

for the first time in history the Indian national anthem is played on a formula 2 podium ❤️

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

My kid is 12. They are having a group WhatsApp call to discuss a school project. And one of them is telling the others ChatGPT prompts to do the projects. And one of them is telling back, do not rely on ChatGPT it lies at times. I kid you not…

[The Reverend Mister @turtology]

My sons, watching Artemis II launch from their front yard in Orlando.

[Cdr Abhilash Tomy KC, NM @abhilashtomy]

Naval HQ asked for my ETA at Mumbai when I was at Cape Horn. I wanted to tell them sailboats have destinations, not ETAs. I gave them a holiday instead.

On 26 January, I was rounding the Horn, hoisting the tricolor just a mile south of that storied rock. Amidst the gale of congratulatory signals, Navy HQ sent a query only a bureaucrat could: What is your ETA?

With half the globe still beneath my keel and the winds unpredictable, the salt in me wanted to write back, that sailboats had destinations, not ETAs. But my previous mails had already tested the headquarters' patience for humor and sarcasm. I decided a bold calculation was safer than a cheeky proverb.

If the past was an indicator, my voyage was being steered by a celestial ledger. We had slipped moorings on Kerala Foundation Day, rounded Leeuwin on 12-12-12 (the Mayan apocalypse), passed New Zealand on Christmas, crossed the International Date Line on New Years and hit the Horn on Republic Day. By that logic, landfall had to be a holiday.

I checked the charts and staked my reputation on Easter Sunday, with All Fools’ Day as the backup.

The boat did not disappoint. I turned 34 years old at 34°W. The hull turned four years at 4°W. We crossed the Prime Meridian on Valentine’s Day, where a heavy swell put me in a poetic mood; remembering Pablo Neruda whose home I had once visited, I felt the ocean wanting to do to me what spring does to cherry trees. We rounded the Cape of Good Hope on Copernicus’ birthday, passed Mauritius on its National Day and crossed the Equator on the Equinox. Out of pure respect for the sun, I permitted it to cross the line ahead of me.

Finally, as predicted, we made landfall on Easter Sunday. I was received by friends and naval brass in an intimate reception hosted onboard INS Delhi by the C-in-C Admiral Shekhar Sinha @shekhar19541, who shook hands in congratulations and uttered the words:
You have created history out of geography.

151 days at sea had an emaciating effect on my sea-legs, so much so that two Admirals had to hoist me up the ladder of INS Delhi. By the time I stepped onto firm land, it was past midnight, All Fools’ Day.

The irony was perfect. Before casting off, immigration officials at Yellow Gate had refused to stamp my passport because my destination was Mumbai. They claimed it made no sense to leave for where I already was.

Yet I returned five months later, 20kg lighter, skin and hair bronzed by salt and sun. When I went to be stamped back into existence on the 1st of April, the official’s hands trembled as if seeing a resurrection. In his shock, he stamped my passport upside down.

I had left Mumbai to find Mumbai, but found myself instead.

I found that Melville was prescient, having foretold with the utmost clarity of a clairvoyant exactly what I would feel over a century and a half later:

Here was a man some twenty thousand miles from home, by the way of Cape Horn that is... and yet he seemed entirely at his ease; preserving the utmost serenity; content with his own companionship; always equal to himself.

Today, that story is exactly 13 years old.

@indiannavy @CaptDKS

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

In the movie #Gladiator there is a famous dialogue ‘On my mark, unleash hell’. It seems that is exactly what @careinsuranceIN has done with me. Dozens, literally, of folks calling for an upcoming policy renewal from another company…

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

As if robo calls were not enough now you have AI calls. #facepalm

[Carlos E. Perez @IntuitMachine]

I did not know this. Daniel Kahneman, Nobel prize winner and author of Thinking Fast and Slow (which inspired my Artificial Intuition book), passed away with assisted suicide. I heard about this in a recent interview with Ray Kurzweil. Here is his final note:

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

Take a bow @DjokerNole take a bow…

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

And we go into the fifth set!

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

And we are in the fifth!

[Ken Ono @KenOno691]

1/ ANNOUNCING 🎬

MARYAM: The Mirror and the Map, a feature film about Fields Medalist Maryam Mirzakhani (the first woman to win the Fields Medal).

After The Man Who Knew Infinity, writer/director Matt Brown, Manjul Bhargava & I are reuniting as associate producers.

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

Will state governments go bankrupt due to this? ‘Fo Shure’

[Indian Tech & Infra @IndianTechGuide]

🚨 Starting February 15, 2026, citizens who report a verified pothole in Bihar will receive a ₹5,000 reward.

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

This is some story! #f1 https://t.co/QM3k7HAEXF

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

Dear @1mgOfficial if every time I do some activity on your app, I am going to get a call to ‘provide assistance and offer benefits’ toh kaise chalega bhai? Thoda soch liya karo yaar… aap Tata ka Naam use karke spam na karo aise

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

If you are a Feynman fan, like I am, this will give you goosebumps… https://t.co/62wYn251X7

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

Jason Bourne 😂

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

Dear @Lenskart_com it is absolutely, absolutely, inappropriate to scan someone’s face the moment he enters your store under the pretext of making an ‘entry’ or whatever. The least you should do is tell the person before hand and wait for him to consent. Absolutely inappropriate

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

Me too!

[Calvin and Hobbes Fan Account @Calvinn_Hobbes]

“I stick to my strengths” 🤣 #CalvinandHobbes

[Ashutosh Datar @adatar]

I don’t know about leaving India and all but at this point of time if I were to be a man of reasonable means, I would pack my bags and leave Delhi-NCR and move south. Period.