Welcome to the blog

Hi — I’m Maanasa. This corner of the internet is new, and so is the habit I’m trying to build: writing things down as I learn them.

For years my notes lived in private docs and Slack threads where they slowly became unsearchable. The plan with this blog is simple:

• Write short, specific posts.
• Favour lessons over hot takes.
• Keep the bar at “useful to one other engineer” — including future me.

Why Astro

I rebuilt the site on Astro because:

1. The landing page is mostly static, and Astro renders static HTML by default.
2. Markdown content collections are first-class — perfect for a blog.
3. Interactive bits (the navbar, the contact card with copy-to-clipboard) ship as React islands, hydrated only where needed.

The result: less JavaScript on the wire, faster pages, and a writing flow that is literally just write a markdown file.

What this blog supports

Beyond plain prose, posts here can include:

Mermaid diagrams

flowchart LR
    A[Idea] --> B{Worth writing?}
    B -- yes --> C[Markdown file]
    B -- no --> D[Slack draft]
    C --> E[Astro build]
    E --> F[Live on the site]

Math (KaTeX)

The classic identity from Euler, $e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0$, rendered inline.

And block math, like the Cauchy–Schwarz inequality:

$$\left( \sum_{k=1}^n a_k b_k \right)^2 \le \left( \sum_{k=1}^n a_k^2 \right) \left( \sum_{k=1}^n b_k^2 \right)$$

Code blocks (syntax highlighted via Shiki)

type Post = {
  title: string;
  pubDate: Date;
  tags: string[];
};

const isRecent = (p: Post) =>
  Date.now() - p.pubDate.valueOf() < 30 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000;

What you’ll find here

• Notes from shipping at Kayak — Java integrations, Kibana, A/B rollouts.
• Joining Google in June 2026: the AI Mode Feedback team in Search.
• Side projects, half-baked ideas, and the occasional postmortem.

Subscribe via RSS or just bookmark this page. New post when there’s something worth saying — no schedule.