Skip to main content

A Few Selected Reads

Explore the Collection →

Golden Walls and Saturn Skies


I just realized two beautiful things today. Okay, so it was raining, and I thought there would be no sunset because it was cloudy. But then the wall opposite my window was illuminated in this golden color, and I just knew… I’m telling you, it’s a golden rule. See what I did there? Pun intended. It’s a golden rule (to me) that whenever the wall opposite your window glows yellow, the sunset is going to be unbelievably beautiful. So I thought, screw it, I’m going up - despite having my term exams commencing tomorrow.

I went outside, and oh my God - it felt like something out of a movie. For some reason, it looked exactly how I would imagine Saturn to be. Kind of ironic, because Saturn is probably going to be my next favorite song. The lyrics, the melody, the way it captures the beauty of existence - it resonates with my entire soul.

While watching the sunset, I had my camera with me, trying to capture it. That’s when it hit me: photography is probably the most sacrificial art out there. I love writing, and it’s one of my preferred art forms, but photography… Photography requires you to sacrifice living fully in the moment to capture it. To capture a once-in-a-lifetime experience, you miss experiencing it yourself. But if you don’t take the picture, who will? Writing, on the other hand, allows you to live in the moment and then translate it into art later. Photography gives you visuals that writing can’t, but it comes at a cost.

The second thing I realized involves my glasses. My prescription glasses make the colors that I see more vivid for some reason, but it was drizzling, and droplets covered my lenses, blurring my view. I had to take them off to see the sunset clearly. It made me realize… sometimes the “lenses” that protect us from the world - our comfort, our filters - need to be removed to truly face reality. You can’t always rely on enhancements to shield you; sometimes you just have to see things as they are.

(btw the cover of this post is the picture of the sky that made write all this 😭)

Popular posts from this blog

A Cruelly Perfect Machine

There is something intimate about being yourself. To be in control of something inexplicable, unknowable even to itself. It indeed is a strange realization that you have unbridled power over everything —over your actions, your thoughts, the way you interact with your environment. Nothing is left to chance.  But to think about control in the sense of yourself can go two ways.  It is a blessing that our mind was put in a body capable of experience, of life, of love and many such emotions that the price outweighs any lack. Of course, not all are blessed with perfection, but if anything, at least to make the best of what one has, one should feel a twinge of gratitude in life itself. Even for the small moments. But that aside, the fact that our mind and body is our own is astounding, akin to the feeling one might have at the thought of their children, their own in so many ways ineffaceable. However, there are parts of ourselves we don't command. Our irrational fears, intrusive tho...
Read more

The Study Strategy That Got Me Through 10th Grade

 Ever since my board exams began, I’ve been reflecting on how I studied and what actually worked. I feel like I’ve cracked a secret code—one that transformed the way I approach learning. Maybe this just worked for me, but if there’s even a small chance it helps you, I’d love to share it. And trust me, as a straight-A student, I know what I’m talking about (well, mostly!). When I started 10th grade, I was just as clueless as anyone else. I assumed that the same level of effort that got me through 9th grade would be enough to excel in boards. Oh, how wrong I was. The more time I spent in 10th grade, the more I realized that it wasn’t just about studying—it was about understanding. My grandmother always used to tell me to “go in-depth” when learning, and I never really understood what she meant until now. Going in-depth means asking why, questioning everything, and truly engaging with the material. When you do that, information actually sticks. Think about it—our minds have an insan...
Read more

Nature Outlaws Definition

  “If everyone is just a product of their environment” I used to ask myself “what then, is me?”. A person born with a silver spoon, for example, would never have the same entitlement as one born not as fortunate. The evils that reside in few may not have permeated if they had someone to look out for them, care for them, and value them as human.  Circumstances, in life, play a huge role in shaping each person. Their family, friends, relationships, opportunities, mishaps—all are lego bricks that form a part of a never finished sculpture. John Locke said our mind is a tabula rasa or blank slate; no one is born of innate ideas, instead, one forms them as we humans are perceptive creatures, we emulate, we mix and match the extant in ways that may be unique but never not existing in the world.  I agree, perhaps we are of a blank slate at birth—our environment, then, controls the brush, painting cryptics that will never be, in its entirety, intelligible maybe until the brush fal...
Read more