Telugu Bytes

Dhruv and Ravi are back to talk about the rise of agentic AI — their experience with Claude Code and Cursor, what agents actually are, and why they think a tsunami is coming for software engineers and knowledge workers.

The Tsunami Warning
The feeling since late 2025 — prapancham roju roju ki maripotundi The COVID masks analogy — we are those people now Why the folks back home aren't feeling it yet
Timeline — How We Got Here
GPT-2 (2020) → ChatGPT (2022) → Cursor (2023) → Claude Code & Opus 4.5 (2025)
The Evolution of AI Coding
Chat interface — copy-paste snippets from ChatGPT Assisted coding — Cursor tab-complete, you drive, model navigates Agentic coding — the agent drives, you're the passenger Cursor vs Claude Code — why Claude Code wins The Autopilot vs FSD analogy
WTF is a Model?
Giant N-dimensional matrices with weights Text in, everything out Bigger model, better responses
WTF is an Agent?
Model = brain, Agent = human Agent uses the model to operate tools — like a robot with a task
Inference and Context Engineering
Sessions, prompting, context windows SWE = Context Engineering + Verification Engineering Memory, Skills, and the Matrix Kung-Fu analogy
Agent Harnesses
Claude Code, Cursor, Agent SDKs
Programming in English
It's fun, addictive, and an art Communication skills over coding skills Good taste, strong architecture, trash your prior beliefs
My Thesis — And How It Was Wrong
Thought it'd hit "IT workers" first, not Big Tech But the tsunami hits the coast first — US and Big Tech have closed loops Tesla car Dharavi slums lo nadavadhu — we paved 6-lane roads for AI
Knowledge Work, Manufacturing and Farming
Any work where you can "close the loop" is at risk Manufacturing with QC — robots were always there, programming them was hard Farming — mostly done
What is Still Scarce?
Ideas, customer acquisition, creative content, land Creating software is no longer scarce
Ippudu Em Cheyyamantaru Saar?
We don't need SWEs, we need builders Product sense, distributed systems, build-sell-ship quickly The existential dread — we don't have 10 years, or 5, or even 2 Collective mental health crisis and economic reshaping ahead The fire storm is coming

This episode was recorded in December 2023 but published in June 2025 (sorry, listeners!)

Dhruv and Ravi dive deep into Sandeep Reddy Vanga's blockbuster Animal and what worked / didn't work for them.

On the eve of India's opening match, Praveen, Aravind and Dhruv do a curtainraiser episode. We talk the tournament's timing, dew factor, thoughts on each squad, Team India team combinations and predictions. Enjoy!

Dhruv and Ravi review the other films of 2022:

Dhruv, Ravi and Aravind critique 2022 pan-Indian films starting with the name K - KGF Chapter 2, Kantara and Karthikeya 2

Dhruv and Ravi review two pan-indian period romantic films from 2022 - Radhye Shyam and Sita Ramam.

Dhruv, Ravi and Aravind review India's biggest film of 2022 and Oscar contender - SS Rajamouli's RRR starring NTR and Ram Charan.

Continuing on our Movies of 2022 series, Aravind, Dhruv and Ravi go over Pushpa: The Rise - the Sukumar & Allu Arjun blockbuster.

In Part 1 of our "Movies of 2022" review series, Dhruv and Ravi review four big-star films of 2022.

As fans of Puri, Dhruv and Ravi had their doubts when Liger was announced. Liger panned out exactly as they feared. Here's their take.

Praveen and Ravi do a quick roundup of the wild macro 2022 trends in markets, crypto, jobs and recollect their experiences from previous downturns.

The content provided in this podcast is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Please consult your financial advisor for any investment advice.

In a continuation from Episode 60, Dhruv interviews Chandra Kuchi again about his transition from engineer to manager, remote work, interviewing, hiring and other things.

Dhruv and Nayan get into what the Metaverse is, Facebook's motivations, VR, AR and what Apple can bring to the table.

In the 3rd part of this series, Dhruv and Nayan discuss the "Power Star" phase of the 2010s in Pawan Kalyan's career. They talk about Panjaa, Gabbar Singh, Attarintiki Daaredi and, of course, Agnyaathavaasi.

After the highs from 1998-2001 came the lows of 2002-2011. Dhruv and Nayan dive in to the "dark decade" as Pawan Kalyan fans.

This is Part 2 of 3. They talk about Johnny, Gudumba Shankar, Balu, Bangaram, Annavaram, Jalsa, Puli and Teenmaar.

As Pawan Kalyan turns 50, Dhruv and Nayan reminisce about being his fans, taking a walk through the filmography of their favorite star.

This is a three-parter. In Part 1, they talk about PK's golden era from 1998 to 2001 spanning Tholiprema, Thammudu, Badri and Kushi. They also try to answer the question - what made themturn into fans?

The content provided in this podcast is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Please consult your financial advisor for any investment advice.

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Praveen and Ravi demystify the hype around Bitcoin.

Praveen and Dhruv get together to review India's iconic test series win in Australia in 2020/21. * Mood coming into the series

* Putting things in perspective

* Review of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Tests

* Player performances

* Is this India's greatest series win ever?

Dhruv and Ravi wrap the trilogy discussing the broader implications of COVID & OTT on movie industry. ---

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Dhruv and Ravi continue their conversation about home tech -- focused on entertainment, TV and Sound systems.

If you have any feedback, please reach out to us on: Twitter - @telugubytes, Instagram - @telugubytes.fm, Facebook: /telugubytes

Dhruv and Ravi get together to do a quick round up on the state of affairs of Smart home technology

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Praveen and Ravi talk about the final week of Bigg Boss 4

Praveena Paruchuri, the award-winning producer of Care of Kancharapalem and UMUR, talks to us about her journey into film production, experiences of producing UMUR, COVID-19 and its effects on film production and distribution. We talk about:

This was a very entertaining and informative conversation. Hope you like it!

Maha, the director of Uma Maheswara Ugra Roopasya joins us (yes!) to do a deep-dive into the making of UMUR. We talk about:

This was an absolutely delightful conversation. Hope you love it!

Dhruv and Aravind review Uma Maheswara Ugra Roopasya, Maha's second film after the masterpiece Care of Kancherapalem.

Dhruv and Ravi get together and talk about:

Dhruv ponders what a "10x engineer" really means, and interviews Chandra Kuchi, a friend of the show and Dhruv's ex-colleague about 10x engineering aka good software engineering. They talk about motivation, communicating with the team and other teams, focus and dealing with interrupts, work ethic, communicating your efforts and much more.

You all will be as confused as we are at the end of this episode on what this is supposed to be. But we assure you that it is going to be fun.

Aravind & Ravi dissect Naveen Polishetty's powerhouse performance in his debut Telugu movie -"Agent Sai Srinivas Athreya"

As Thanksgiving approaches, Ravi and Dhruv talk about the tech they are thankful for in..... 2018. In typical Telugu Bytes fashion, we recorded this episode in 2018 but only managed to release it now. However, we still think it holds up pretty well - we talk about phones, cameras, headphones and a lot more. Happy Thanksgiving!

Praveen and Dhruv get together and talk about Indian Cricket in 2019 - test dominance, the bowling attack, WC 2019 and more.

Aravind and Ravi reminisce about their childhood summer vacations

Dhruv and Ravi recap WWDC 2019 and their dashed hopes

[The podcast is full of spoilers, please avoid if you haven't watched the movie yet]

[Spoiler Alert: Please watch the movie before listening to the episode because we discuss the story and scenes in detail] Aravind & Ravi analyze Nani's latest blockbuster Jersey

Praveen and Dhruv get together to talk about the state of Indian cricket in 2018, review recent tours and player performances and look forward to World Cup 2019.

Aravind and Ravi couldn't wait to get their thoughts in about their latest favorite Telugu movie

Note:

We think you will be able to enjoy this episode irrespective of if you watched the movie or not. But you still want to be make sure you have all the context, here is the amazon prime link. All the discussion & sarcasm in this episode is in a lighter vein to provide humor for our audience and not meant to undermine the talent of any technicians involved. Thank you!

Dhruv goes over everything that happened in the Apple world since he & Ravi got together in 2017.

It took another season of Bigg Boss for Praveen and Ravi to come back from hiding!

After almost an year since they did they a quick recap of Bigg Boss 1, Ravi and Praveen get together to discuss about Bigg Boss 2.

In this special episode, Dhruv interviews C R Hemanth, a popular Telugu film critic who probably needs no introduction to our listeners. We at Telugu Bytes have always followed and admired Hemanth's reviews and his take on all things filmy.

Notes:

This interview is predominantly in English, kindly understand and excuse. We thought we were respectful, unbiased and objective in our opinions but in case we offended anyone, we deeply apologize. (Pardon the crutch words - Dhruv)

Ravi and Praveen talk about the upcoming final week of Bigg Boss Telugu Season 1.

Ravi and Sasi discuss their obsession about latest reality TV star and Tamil Nadu heartthrob - Oviya Helen. Please make sure you check the "Links" for references during the podcast.

Links

Aravind & Ravi reminisce about their tennis memories and wrap up with Wimbledon 2017 hot takes.

Still not done with Baahubali? Here's Part 2 of our mega-review where we talk about our issues with the film, some thought experiments, some trivia and end with collections and records.

Can't get enough of Baahubali? Here's Part 1 of our mega-review where we talk about our favorite moments, the plot, characters, performances and technical aspects of Baahubali 2 - the toast of India right now.

Watch out for Part 2 where we talk about our issues with the film, what if Baahubali was a single film and of course, the trade talk - collections and records.

Praveen and Ravi talk about origins of AI, recent advancements in AI and its impact on society.

Ravi sits down with Tarun Cherukuri, his childhood friend and CEO of INDUS Action, for two part interview. In the second part, they talk about:

If you haven't listened yet, please listen 032 - Interview with Tarun (Part 1)

Links

Ravi sits down with Tarun Cherukuri, his childhood friend and CEO of INDUS Action, for two part interview.

(Continued in Part 2)

Links

After almost an year later, Aravind and Ravi get back to discuss one of their favorite topic - trips to India. They talk about Ravi's recent trip to India and his experiences.

Dhruv and Aravind talk about the 2016 Telugu rom-com/coming-of-age film Pelli Choopulu.

Ravi & Aravind ponder over how software release process has evolved last decade

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this episode are ours and do not represent those of our employers.

On its tenth anniversary, Ravi, Aravind and Dhruv do a scene-by-scene review of the Puri-Mahesh blockbuster and even try to derive some life lessons from the film.

In this episode, Dhruv, Praveen & Aravind get together & chat about their cricketing memories, favorite matches, upcoming T20 cricket world cup in India, current Indian team & their chances, and players around the world to watch out.

Links

On our 25th episode, Ravi and Dhruv look back at what went well and what didn't.

Aravind is back from India after a long trip and shares his thoughts on the weather, philanthropy, education, IT and everything else happening in India.

Dhruv and Aravind try to follow follow follow follow Sukumar's latest thriller Nannaku Prematho. This episode is full of spoilers.

Ravi laments about too many JavaScript frameworks, Praveen tries to make sense of all this and bring some sanity.

Dhruv Vemula and 'Spidy' Sri Atluru talk about the best Telugu and English films they've seen in 2015, and the worst ones..

We have a second guest after Spidy at Telugubytes. In this episode, Ravi talks to Praveen, longtime listener of Telugubytes, Software Engineer at Uber & Paypal about his career as Software Engineer and how he got started.

Follow us at Twitter for updates about the show - @telugubytes, You can also follow the hosts at: @gummadi, @praveengorthy, @dhruvtv

With iOS9, the discussion on web ads and ad-blockers has gone mainstream. In this episode, Dhruv and Ravi have a discussion on the topic.

We discuss the success of Baahubali and discuss if it can change the way Telugu films are produced and marketed.

We chart the rise of SS Rajamouli over the years, from Shantinivasam to Baahubali.

Dhruv and Spidy (Sri Atluru) attempt a review of Baahubali.

What to prepare:

Algorithms:

When to prepare:

How to prepare:

This is Part 1 on our two-part podcast on Programming Interviews. This week, we talk about how we went from hating programming interviews to understanding and appreciating them, and doing well.

Hopefully, we've answered the "why" in this episode. In the next one, we talk about "how" to prepare for programming interviews.

Chat about how and why Ravi built his new desktop, and memories of our first computers.

This week we have our first special guest, Sri Atluru (SPIDY), who joins us to discuss about the iPhone event, Apple Pay and where Apple is going in general. We end this episode with a 20 minute long Tollywood ramble about new and upcoming releases. (Disclaimer: All the comments in the end about actors/directors are made in a lighter vein, please don't consider them as personal attacks on anyone.)

Dhruv buys iPhone 6 and his initial views on the device

Spidy follows up with his views on iPhone and Apple

iPhone controversies post release

iPhone 6+ Bendgate controversy

How Apple handled it versus Antenna gate and how it compared it with Jobs epic press conference after that?

iOS 8.0.1 botched release?

A disgusting Businessweek article places a blame on a middle level QA manager.

Spidy and Gummadi debate on managerial styles of Jobs vs Cook.

Apple Pay

Spidy explains why he is longing for Apple Pay and how its going to fundamentally change the payment industry.

Tollywood

Spidy and Dhruv weigh on the latest Tollywood's disaster Aagadu and Sreenu Vytla

Expectations on next week's release, Govindudu Andarivadele.

Crucial film for Krishna Vamsi's career

Bandla Ganesh's epic GAV audio release speech

Topics:

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+

Would Steve Jobs allowed this mutiple screen sizes?

Android Comparisons

Galaxy Ad

Move from Apple to Android Guide

Apple Pay

How is the authentication done?

How much difference does it make?

Does Paypal need to really fear this?

Paypal ad

Apple Watch

Some thoughts on the spectacular intro video

Thoughts on this new category and Apple's approach to it

Aagadu

Expectations and some lackluster music by Thaman (as usual)

Ai

Some thoughts on Shankar's next mega blockbuster

User feedback:

Sound quality - We upgraded our equipment and made sure the sound is being picked up the correct microphones.

AT2020+ (Ravi's Microphone)

Blue Yeti (Dhruv's Microphone)

Going to be more conscious about the cliches and stepping over each other. Also going to drift away more from the Q&A format and get into a more conversational style.

Links

Apple Keynote

Bendict Evans about iWatch

A watch enthusiast's review about iWatch

In the fourth and the first episode since the beta launch, we thank the audience for their support and clarify couple of questions/concerns from the audience.

iPhone 6 Release

Coming Tuesday the rumour mill is ripe that Apple is going to release their next version of iPhone and iWatch

Dhruv discusses some of the features which Apple is rumored to release in this release.

iCloud Celebrity Photo Hack

Last week, an infamous celebrity photo hack has been the point of discussion by both mainstream media and technology circles

Ravi offers some insights into what multifactor authentication is and why that would have prevented this hack.

Dhruv offers some other alternatives like 1Password which would eliminate the need of remembering the passwords.

Dhruv goes over some basic precautions you can take to prevent this happening to you (in case you become famous ;-)

Links discussed in the show:

Celebrity photo hack, an overview and how can you prevent them from happening to your photos: http://gigaom.com/2014/09/07/prevent-icloud-hack/

Multi factor authentication Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authentication

In this episode, Ravi and Dhruv discuss the buzzword-ridden and often confusing term 'Cloud Computing'.

Next week, we'll talk about virtualization, different cloud providers and the future.

Please send your comments to feedback -at- telugubytes -dot- com.

In the first episode, Dhruv and Ravi kick things off by introducing themselves and talk about podcasting - their favorite podcasts and why they started this one. The discussion turns to Kickstarter, LeBron's move to Cleveland and American sports in general.

Links from the podcast:

You can find us on Twitter at @gummadi and @dhruvtv.

Q. What is the theme music that plays at the beginning and the end of the podcast?

A. It is Krish Ashok's awesome Game of Thrones (Kuthu Remix), published under a Creative Commons license.