#Mindscape: What not Why!
Let’s flex our imaginations, shall we? You’re composing the seventh iteration (V7) of your Common Application. You’re hitting all the right notes. Each sentence unfolds a distinct melody. There’s a certain rhythm—it grips the reader, permeating their thoughts and emotions. “Eureka!” You exclaim, marching into your counselor’s office. Your ears tingle at the slightest sensation. […]
How Language Shapes Thought
Imagine sunlight glinting upon a Grecian sea or the vivid hues of Santorini’s rooftops. In English, we would describe both as “blue.” But to Greek speakers, the darker shade is “ble” and the lighter one “ghalazio.” When linguist and researcher, Panos Athanasopoulos, showed native Anglophones and Grecophones squares of light and dark blue, they found […]
Athena Potion Lessons: Brewing Happiness
As Harry brews his happiness-inducing, sunshine-yellow elixir, I am enchanted by its magical wonder. Often have I wondered if I could grasp those fleeting moments of joy and translate them into an eternal state of creative ecstasy. My quest steers me to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Ted Talk, where he proposes that we can attain a […]
Water: The Nectar of the Gods
“Do you ever feel like you’re getting sick, and then you have a glass of water and you’re like, ‘oh, that’s why people drink that.” -Dina Hashem, circa 2019 While our merry, blue planet has turned dystopian, somewhere in a typical urban Indian household, a parent is scolding their kid for not drinking enough water. Is […]
Sweat Your Lockdown Blues Away
The only thing missing from your mother’s morning mantra is a gruelling workout routine. We all have been lectured about (and sneakily ignored) the benefits of exercise. However, the quarantine blues and loss of long walks at school have made us question our long-held tiff with working out. After the WHO’s guidelines to stay physically active during […]
Testing Times
Well, hello munchkins! Your dream schools have made some strategic decisions. A little birdie from Ithaca whispers that Cornell is suspending its SAT/ACT requirements for students applying this fall. Harvard, on the other hand, has stated that “you will not be disadvantaged in any way if you do not submit subject tests. Similarly, you will not be disadvantaged […]
Crafting the First Draft
What an invigorating ideation session! I sit down on my chair. My mental landscape is brimming with multifarious perspectives. Just as a dreamy artist, I float around the corridors of my creative palace, excavating anecdotes and memories to compose my story and become the Ernest Hemingway of my age. I pick up my pen and […]
Self-Awareness: Leveraging Athena for Personal Growth
So, tell me a little bit about yourself. You start by repeating your name, whooshing through your childhood and cultural background, plodding—in a painfully detailed manner—through your extracurricular engagements, and finally circling back to that one important thing about being a Gujarati, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Assamese, Bengali, Tamilian, or Maharashtrian. So, tell me a little bit […]
On Seeing
“The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled” -John Berger, Ways of Seeing In the opening sentences of his 1972 book, Berger differentiates the act of seeing from the process of knowing. He says, “Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the […]
Block. Creative Block.
Here’s your lucky Slytherin-green fountain pen. There’s your favorite Hunger Games planner. On top of both is an inch of dust because you’re experiencing the worst creative block ever. The odds are clearly not in your favor. This time of the year is for ideating exciting new projects and essays, for fortifying your profile in preparation for […]