Bienvenue, Wilkommen, Saludo and Greetings:

This site is mostly in English. Constructed in 2012, it covers about forty years of my life, using a free WordPress template from back then. I’ve never changed the layout. I pay for the dot org myself and it is completely non-commercial. My only objective is to share my thoughts and ideas and to engage with a wider audience in the future through other means.

It’s best viewed as a full site, on a computer, laptop or pad. Unfortunately, the least effective way is the mobile version, where all the menus and categorizations are unavailable for immediate view. Still, on the mobile version you can hit the “full site” option, or at least use the menus – on the upper left – or try categories or search terms.

I’ve never been on F*cebook, in my opinion a horrific invention of an ignorant, arrogant, uncultured American, Mark Zuckerberg. FB has done more to steal people’s creativity and individuality and their ability to think for themselves than any invention in history. I never wanted him to own my content, so instead, I stuck to blogging. But please, feel free to share anything you find here on FB and advance the content.

I joined Twitter on the 4th of April 2011 and left Twitter on 4th of April 2021. The ten years I spent there can be found @mtksfbay. Again, please, feel free to share anything you find here on Twitter and advance the content – or on Instagram or TikTok or whatever the latest app may be.

By sharing it from here, it’s tagged with my handle, MTK.

I continue to use my Youtube channel @MTKarthik but other than that, I can not be found on social media. This means I have had far less reach than almost anyone with a decent number of followers on FB or Twitter. But it also means that there are no ads and what you find here are all my original thoughts, art and writing, made from without that world. Know that this site is not selling anything. You can peruse peacefully.

I concluded this blog in 2017. But restarted it just for the year of 2022 in reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Over the ten years of this blog’s existence, I have had a few thousand readers. I thank each and every one of you. Occasionally looking at stats and seeing you exist has meant more to me than you can possibly know. As a writer and artist this is the last safe venue for me to express myself freely, unburdened by commercial demands or the need to satisfy the “social media” construct – entertainment content.

Soon I will be publishing long form writing and producing some large scale art again, after a hiatus of many years. I hope you will look for my name – M.T. Karthik – and engage when possible. I am 55 years old now, remain generally unknown and continue to produce content that follows the methodologies and ideation you can find here: pacifism, internationalism, syncretism, and rationalism remain at the heart of what I do.

Hope I run into you someday and we can collaborate to help this world. Til then, good bye and good luck.

Love,

M.T. Karthik

Puducherry, India

December 31, 2022

whew. After ending this archive blog in 2017, I resurrected it in 2022, to declare my survival through the pandemic. But this will be my final post unless a pandemic or something wild of that sort brings me back. Thanks so much to all of you who have read my posts or enjoyed my videos. Best wishes for good health to you and yours in ’23 and beyond.

I made a resolution on New Year’s Eve last year. I don’t usually make resolutions, but I felt the need to motivate myself to act and not to be afraid to do so. After the two years of pandemic protocols and wildly different opinions expressed from every quarter about how we ought to behave in the presence of Covid-19, the nastiest respiratory virus in human history, I wanted to travel again.

I had followed CDC protocols and had my shots. I still have never contracted the disease to my awareness. If I’ve had it, I never had symptoms. But I had to get back on the road. I always find myself on the road. It’s what being homeless most of my life, placeless, has given me – a love of the road.

First, I went to New York to see what it was like “post-pandemic”. Manhattan was a ghost town amidst the Omicron wave. I was afraid to ride the contained space of the subway, so I didn’t even go to Brooklyn, but at least I got a taste once again of the uniquely special energy of that city – that last month was declared the most expensive city in the world.

I spent most of the year in my beloved San Francisco, spending money liberally at businesses that had suffered months and months in the absence of tourists. Saw some really special performances at the Black Cat. Caught some ballgames at the yard, now called Oracle Park.

I went with native americans, to Alcatraz on Indigenous People’s Day for a sunrise ceremony. Held every year on Thankstaking Day, a second day has been added with the acknowledgent of Indigenous People’s Day on what was called Columbus Day.

I made it down to San Diego and visited the zoo and caught the last game of the baseball season at Petco Park – our Giants won, to achieve a .500 record, avoiding a losing season. San Diego felt open, post-pandemic and San Francisco was getting there, too. It was time to go abroad.

I chose Amsterdam, first. Things felt crowded, busy and back to normal – nobody even mentioned Covid or the pandemic. I saw very few masks. Social distancing was a thing of the past. I enjoyed the city for weeks and you can see that: Herfst in Amsterdam was wonderful.

From Amsterdam it was off to India and my beloved Pondy – Puducherry! Thank you mother India for welcoming me to the secure comfort of your bosom where I know myself. There’s lots more here on India and content on my youtube channel.

You can use the category 2022 to see all the posts from this year. I also added some Time Travel pieces that group content from months over the last forty years: Time Travel Posts.

But it’s time for me to spend energy on other things.

I was lucky to catch the 2022 Kollam Exhibition on the Pondicherry Promenade and was touched by something I read on one of the pieces. I will conclude with that message:

Be Good, Do Good in 2023

Happy New Year

love,

mtk

December 28th, Tamil Nadu, India