Somewhere between stretching my back before the day began and pausing longer than usual in front of the mirror, I realized I am standing at a strange, quiet threshold. Fifty is no longer an abstract number. It’s a door I can see now. So when I picked up 50 Things to Realize Before It’s Too Late by Manoj Chenthamarakshan, it didn’t feel like a casual read—it felt like an appointment with myself.   This is not a book you read with a highlighter hunting for genius lines. It’s mo

There are some characters we inherit, not choose.   Their meanings are handed to us early, wrapped in certainty, repeated until curiosity feels unnecessary. Ravan arrived in my life that way — already concluded, already named, already sealed. Evil was not something to be examined; it was something to be defeated. The story had taught me where to stand long before I knew how to ask why.   So when I picked up this book, I didn’t do so with reverence or rebellion. I came carryin