Debanjan Basu

The Words That Feel Most Bengali

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-03-01-bengali-deep-history-1-comfort-words/

The words that feel irreducibly Bengali — the ones with no Sanskrit explanation — are probably the oldest non-Bengali words in the language.

Before We Were Bengali — The People of the Red Earth

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-03-08-bengali-deep-history-2-red-earth/

3,600 years ago, a rice-farming civilization on the Ajay River left words, bones, and pottery that are still with us. Who were they?

The Words That Don't Move

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-03-15-bengali-deep-history-3-words-that-dont-move/

Languages change unevenly. The words that resist replacement the longest are the ones lived in the body — farming, cooking, counting. Bengali is a palimpsest, and knowing which layer you're reading changes everything.

Three Ways of Knowing the Same People

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-03-22-bengali-deep-history-4-three-lenses/

There is a community of 7 million people who remember, in song, walking through a mountain pass to a golden land they then had to abandon overnight. Genetics corroborates the journey. Sanskrit texts called their kings demons.

The Iron That Cut Their Own Forest

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-03-29-bengali-deep-history-5-iron-forest/

Before any Sanskrit speaker had reached the eastern hills, someone there figured out how to smelt iron. Their descendants became the blacksmiths every classical Indian village needed. The iron they pioneered cleared the forests that had sheltered them.

Reform Pathways and the Automation Question: What Berlin Could Do Tomorrow

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-02-05-berlin-transit-reform-automation/

Federal operations funding, employer levies, congestion charging, and driverless trains — proven solutions exist for every aspect of BVG's crisis. The question is political will.

A Word Older Than the Language That Carried It

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-04-05-bengali-deep-history-6-champa/

Saat Bhai Champa — Seven Brothers Champa. The most Sanskrit-sounding element of the story is probably the oldest non-Sanskrit thing in it.

Vienna, Zurich, Munich, Hamburg: What Working Transit Looks Like

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-02-04-european-transit-models-comparison/

Every solution to BVG's crisis has been implemented somewhere in Europe. Four cities show what competitive wages, stable funding, and political commitment actually achieve.

Why BVG Drivers Walked Out: Wages, Strikes, and the 9.8:1 Ratio

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-02-03-bvg-driver-strikes-wages/

Berlin pays its transit drivers less than any other major German city while its CEO earns more relative to workers than any other state-owned enterprise. The 2025 Ver.di strikes were the result.

Austerity, Concrete, and Compounding Debt: The Policy Failures That Built a Crisis

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-02-01-bvg-black-zero-austerity-infrastructure/

How the Black Zero balanced budget, a federal funding structure that rewards new construction over maintenance, and a procurement debacle created BVG's €3 billion infrastructure hole.

From Bug Fix to Production Hardening: A Refactoring Marathon

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-02-01-django-queue-production-hardening/

Stalled task detection, security hardening, code refactoring, and lifecycle signals — turning a task queue into production-grade infrastructure.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-04-12-bengali-deep-history-7-nursery-rhymes/

আগডুম বাগডুম. You clapped hands to it as a child. The words seemed like pure joyful sound. They aren't.

From Division to Decay: How Reunification Broke Berlin's Transit

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-01-31-bvg-reunification-transit-crisis/

Berlin's BVG inherited two incompatible transit systems, a billion-mark loss, and a policy framework that would starve it of funding for three decades.

What the River Remembers

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-04-19-bengali-deep-history-8-what-the-river-remembers/

"The history of Bengal is written in water." A synthesis — genetic, linguistic, civilizational — of who the Bengali people are and what a modern democracy owes to a culture that survived for 10,000 years.

My 2026 Linux Desktop: Niri + DankMaterialShell + Kitty

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-01-18-wayland-desktop-finale/

Complete stack overview showing how compositor, shell, terminal, and tools integrate through consistent patterns.

Two Claude Code Power Features You Should Be Using

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-01-11-claude-code-power-features/

Custom status lines for ambient awareness and git worktrees for parallel AI-assisted development sessions.

Desktop Polish: DankMaterialShell and the Perfect Rofi Launcher

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2026-01-04-dankmaterialshell-rofi/

Unifying desktop aesthetics across shell, launcher, and compositor with shared color tokens and consistent IPC patterns.

Mastering Niri Navigation: Shortcuts That Preserve Muscle Memory

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2025-12-21-niri-shortcuts-navigation/

Designing a unified shortcut system for Niri that maintains consistency with Hyprland and standard desktop patterns.

Niri: The Scrolling Tiling Compositor That Made Me Leave Hyprland

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2025-12-07-niri-scrolling-compositor/

Why Niri scrolling paradigm works better than traditional tiling for ultrawide monitors, and how to think about window management differently.

SSH in 33 Seconds? Optimizing for India-to-Bulgaria VPN Connections

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2025-11-30-ssh-high-latency-optimization/

Diagnosing and fixing SSH latency over high-latency VPN links, with focus on the TCP-over-TCP problem and connection multiplexing.

From Terminal to Development Environment: Putting It All Together

Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2025-11-16-terminal-workflow-finale/

Combining Kitty, shell tools, and Claude Code into a cohesive workflow with git worktrees for parallel development.

Completing the Terminal Stack: Bash, Starship, and History Tools

Sun, 02 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2025-11-02-bash-starship-history-tools/

Choosing shell components for portability and power, with switchable history backends and cross-shell prompt.

Kitty Superpowers: Kittens, Hints, and Remote Control

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2025-10-19-kitty-kittens-remote-control/

How Kitty extensions solve real problems with smart selection, better SSH, and terminal automation.

Kitty Terminal: Why GPU Acceleration Changes Everything

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2025-10-05-kitty-terminal-fundamentals/

Introduction to Kitty terminal emulator with focus on the design decisions that make it different from alternatives.

Pessimistic Locking: One Task, One Worker

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2025-09-06-django-queue-pessimistic-locking/

Using SELECT FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED to prevent multiple workers from claiming the same task — database-level concurrency without application-level locks.

The Fork, the File Descriptor, and the Deployment

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2025-04-12-django-queue-fork-pitfalls/

Two production bugs from subprocess isolation: shared database connections after fork, and lost working directories after deployment.

Hunting Memory Leaks in a Django Task Worker

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2025-03-29-django-queue-memory-leaks/

Production memory climbing to 500 MB. The fix: run tasks in subprocesses so the OS reclaims everything. From 500 MB to 50 MB.

django-simple-queue: 300 Lines to Replace Celery

Sat, 21 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Originally published at https://d3banjan.github.io/blog/2024-12-21-django-simple-queue-intro/

How a ~300 LOC task queue built on Django ORM replaces Celery for small teams — the architecture, the tradeoffs, and when it makes sense.