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 […]
Everyday Sociology
A prominent lesson that stays with me after five years of university education in sociology is the everydayness of it. As an undergrad, I was introduced to multiple topics of social importance that could enrich a sociologist’s arsenal of knowledge. Social theories pushed a student to look deeper into Indian social institutions, their functioning and dynamics that […]
Cultivating Empathy: An antidote to ignorance
David Foster Wallace, in The Broom of the System, portrays a cantankerous caged bird, ironically named Vlad the Impaler. This bird sees nothing more than the misty yellow blob of its reflection, yet continues to admire itself while biting the hand that feeds it. Through this metaphor, Wallace distills the essence of our current solipsis that afflicts even the […]
Don’t Hold Back: Advice for Deferred College Applicants
I’m picturing the scene: It’s 11pm. The new year has settled in. Your Regular Decisions apps are all done and submitted (or at least close to it). Now that the rush of college deadlines has calmed down, with interviews for your secondary choices arising and final exams soon to begin, you’ve finally found yourself a brief […]
Getting It Done: Managing Time and Boosting Productivity
Excelling at academics, nailing those three-pointers, perfecting your pitch, contributing to your community, grinding hard at an internship, and cultivating a genuine passion for…well, something—getting through high school ain’t an average Joe job anymore. The question is how do you transform an average Joe into a distinguished Joe who can handle all of the above, […]
Surviving and Thriving with Parents during a Pandemic: A Mini Guide
I have to confess, this is borderline clickbait since I usually have NO idea of how to avoid fights with my parents, let alone advise you on yours. Today, however, we’re discussing a very specific category of arguments—the ones that have arisen during the course of this year’s collective, prolonged grounding, which seem strangely worse […]
The Language of Anthropology
“Anthropology is that which makes the unfamiliar familiar and the familiar unfamiliar”- is how my professor would define it. These words resonate with my understanding and experience of our socio-cultural worlds. Anthropology is a language that renders alien cultures understandable and one’s own societies mysterious. Although I have acquired myriad complexities from anthropology, I have […]
The Waiting Game: An Open Letter to Applicants Awaiting Regular Decision
Athena speaks to the youth she consuls To whom it may concern, What a troubling time of year. Each day, from my place atop Olympus, I watch, with my owl’s-eye view, as undergraduate applicants pass through the trials of early triumph and defeat. Happy faces, overjoyed and cherubic, like Cupid. But also sad ones, long, […]