KrishinAsnani
krishinasnani.bsky.social
KrishinAsnani
@krishinasnani.bsky.social
Essays on being at home in the world. A New Yorker in San Francisco; once an expat in Asia & Europe. Stanford lit student, former growth strategist. Substack: Noted Views.
Where I'm from: Walkabout in Queens: my late mother's Dunkin', a temple where bundled deities make past lives tangible, Central Asian monuments to flavor, a technicolor dosa mural. The past as a new nation. My photo essay :

krishinasnani.substack.com/p/where-im-f...

#PhotoEssay #QueensNYC
January 5, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Where I'm from: Dunkin' where my mother's mango lassi replaced milkshakes. A temple where bundled deities make past lives tangible. Gastronom's Central Asian monument. Dosa Hut's technicolor welcome.
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/where-im-f...

#QueensNYC #PhotoEssay
January 4, 2026 at 6:55 PM
Flâneur’s Manhattan: Trinity Church’s celestial rock band; Devoción’s vine-soaked arbor; Peacock Alley where Art Deco spars with antiquity; Café Joyeux’s grace; And the new JPM tower—cards stacked and leaning, whispering: when does banking expire: krishinasnani.substack.com/p/photo-essa...
December 29, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Manhattan in December: a church under towers, a café where vines become a cathedral, Apple logos orbiting Grand Central’s clock. Seven stops, fleeting moments, a flâneur’s map of attention and quiet wonder :

krishinasnani.substack.com/p/photo-essa...
December 27, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Two nights with Ravi Coltrane at SFJAZZ: Friday's drums were set like bowls to be dipped with chopsticks. Sunday's cymbals shimmered with a sibilant lisp. The Coltranes are jazz royalty—and Ravi carries it with quiet mastery:

krishinasnani.substack.com/p/sunday-nig...
December 24, 2025 at 1:32 PM
You and the Night and the Music—onstage at SFJAZZ. Ron Carter, 88, made sustained attention audible. Foursight Quartet, thumbs-up from Carter himself.

Essay :https://krishinasnani.substack.com/p/you-and-the-night-and-the-music-reflections
December 23, 2025 at 4:46 PM
I unsubscribed from the NYT in 2003. Before invading Iraq, America had certitude—not doubt. Peirce knew inquiry begins with doubt. When belief hardens into orthodoxy—Iraq, finance, pandemic—trust collapses. My essay on how certitude led to doubting democracy:
krishinasnani.substack.com/profile/note
December 21, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Burke: "Manners are more important than laws."
Hume: "Reason is slave of the passions."
Jane Austen's P&P was originally titled First Impressions. My essay on her moraity:

krishinasnani.substack.com/p/the-morali...

#JaneAusten #EdmundBurke #DavidHume #MoralPhilosophy #FirstImpressions
December 20, 2025 at 7:02 PM
The Woman on the Verge; Susie Wiles won 2024. Lost NJ. Lost VA. Missed the ICE backlash. Had to steal "affordability" from a mayor they called a Muslim Communist. My essay on her talks with VanityFair:
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/the-woman-...

#AlcoholicsPersonality #JunkyardDogs #VanityFair
December 19, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Susie Wiles: the glue, the strategist, the gatekeeper. But what happens when winning isn’t enough? My year-end look at American power, ambition, and the fragile moral compass of governance :
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/the-woman-...

#SusieWiles #VanityFair #AmericanPolitics #CulturalCriticism
December 18, 2025 at 10:17 PM
England never chased the “Great English Novel.” Its novels reflect&shape a nation. My essay on Austen seizing morality for her nation in tumult by making the local universal:
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/the-morali...
#JaneAusten #PrideAndPrejudice #LiteraryCanon #MoralCulture #EnglishNovel
December 18, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Jane Austen never married Tom Lefroy—her family was too poor. Her sister Cassandra lost her fiancé to malaria.No wonder Pride and Prejudice has a hard-earned happy ending—Elizabeth earns true love through moral discernment:
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/the-morali...

#JaneAusten #PrideAndPrejudice
December 17, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Jane Austen didn’t just write romance—she trained moral attention. In Pride and Prejudice, judgment, reflection, and virtue are learned in an age of convulsive change : My essay :
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/the-morali...

#JaneAusten #Austen250 #PrideAndPrejudice #MoralPhilosophy #EthicalAttention
December 16, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Once, rock had a POV: the concept album.We DJ-ed & made mix tapes, read liner notes like scripture, built rooms around stereos. Now music is fragments, perhaps film soundtracks are the new community; my essay:
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/how-music-...

#ConceptAlbumEra #LinerNotes#FilmSoundtracks
November 26, 2025 at 10:13 PM
The concept album is dead-Its communal power migrated to the darkened theater.My essay is about how music was lost and where it secretly lives on—specifically in films like Killer of Sheep: krishinasnani.substack.com/p/how-music-...
#CulturalCriticism #BlackCinema #Blacksky #SFMOMA #Blues #Jazz
November 25, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Once, music was a cathedral:concept albums,liner notes, album art. Does music still unite us?My essay on "How Music Worked" through art exhibit, and Charles Burnett's film Killer of Sheep at SF Roxie :
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/how-music-...
#BlackCinema #ConceptAlbums #AlbumCoverArt
November 22, 2025 at 4:36 PM
We exchanged cassettes. Studied liner notes like scripture. Music was communion & it fragmented. @SFMOMA, album covers @Roxie: Killer of Sheep. Found: communion still lives. My essay: krishinasnani.substack.com/p/how-music-...
#KillerOfSheep #DinahWashington #BlackCinema #SoulMusic #MusicCulture
November 22, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Nvidia crushed earnings.At communal table,woman asked: What will AI do to humanity? Boyfriend:Fold proteins to solve for chronic diseases.She saw my book, Dante's inferno, asked: want digital immortality? I rather be flaneur in hell or heaven:https://krishinasnani.substack.com/p/only-connect
November 19, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Bonded with neighbor riding his Benz to doorman’s memorial.Snarked at neighbors claiming “one big family.”Evening at SFJAZZ.Fellow usher found Ezra Klein's voice distracting; I suggested subtitles.Discussed "friendship", comparing Montaigne&Cabeza de Vaca: krishinasnani.substack.com/p/a-day-in-t...
November 19, 2025 at 5:16 AM
When work dries up and your town decays, and your football team moves on, being called "privileged" is wounding.England riots and France stalemates. Is it too privileged for our multi-culti elite to enact policies that generate better prospects?My essay: krishinasnani.substack.com/p/how-to-rea...
November 17, 2025 at 6:02 PM
English riots: strange exhilaration, belonging among the abandoned. France's abandonment pushed far-right to power's edge. If the old center won't listen, what replaces it? Lessons for America from the two nations who shaped us?
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/how-to-rea...
#politics #workingclass
November 16, 2025 at 5:50 PM
OpenAI signs huge deals while a tech couple worries about AI destroying humanity. Ishiguro's novels ask: didn't we already mechanize ourselves by conforming to society? And then a robot restores our humanity.

krishinasnani.substack.com/p/only-connect

#AI #KazuoIshiguro #TechCulture #SanFrancisco
November 9, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Amy Sherald reimagines Black subjects in settings historically reserved for affluent WASPs. Kehinde Wiley places Obama surrounded by lilies against classical tradition. My essay on a synthesis of both artist :
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/american-s...
#AmySherald #KehindeWiley #BlackArt
November 8, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Amy Sherald reclaims the American portrait—elegance, poise, and belonging once reserved for others.Kehinde Wiley revives Classical silence, turning visibility into power and presence into reclamation;my essay:
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/american-s...
#Sherald #Wiley #BlackArt #ArtHistory #Culture
November 7, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Democracy woke up on the stoops of Greek Astoria, turning establishment into the fringe, and the fringe—the working class—into the establishment.
Ballet of streets is now alive :
krishinasnani.substack.com/p/zohran-mam...

#Mamdani #NYCMayor #NYC #Democracy#WorkingClass #Election2025 #Urbanism
November 5, 2025 at 2:11 PM