River Ruby is an (experimental) pen name for technical work from Vivek. Currently, this includes my GitHub and my HackMD.

Inspired by artist names like Daniel Caesar and pseudonyms like Barry WhiteHat, River is an alter ego for the parts of my humanity that are mathematical and computational.

  • River” is a new name I’ve been going by this year1. It sounds like the way I’ve chosen to pronounce my name: “vih-vih-k”.2 Other things I like about “River”:

    • Constantly changing -> always flowing, always growing, always learning
    • Tranquil, pristine -> i gotta find peace of mind!3
  • Ruby” is my birthstone, and my favorite gem overall. And I’ve always been obsessed with the color red, as this website hopefully makes clear. It also matches my first Jubmoji 🔺, which was a coincidence too good to not lean into!

I like presenting my technical ideas while in a distinct identity. It’s not that they’re offensive or otherwise negative LOL, it’s just nice to have a clean split from the other interests in my life (primarily music & decor) instead of trying to present one cohesive narrative. It also focuses the content of each of my different outlets, providing a cleaner consumption experience all around.

Footnotes

  1. By this I mean I’ve been using it at coffee shops to see how baristas react to a person that looks like me being named River. It seems to cause mild confusion, but most people don’t care lol. Which feels great!

  2. Notably, this pronunciation is different from the more traditional pronunciation of “vih-vay-k”, which you may have seen a certain presidential candidate use. That’s the proper Indian way of pronunciation, one that my parents use for me. I never liked when other people used that for me though?

  3. https://open.spotify.com/track/6ocxCGYgcmZhCeTT1yuNkt?si=a5f8d0b145c64764 but also https://open.spotify.com/track/2MF4HtZHBoUliOi9nOAbS0?si=366f9dbf387a40b9