by Ayesha Gajre In their enmity with minimalism, there’s something undeniably whimsical about Indian kitchens and their larger-than-life dynamics. A quick expedition inside would reveal seemingly interminable rows of jars containing myriads of fragrant condiments. Some dried, some fresh, some for rice, some piquant from spiced oil, some to aid in digestion, some were made…
Category: Personal
The Mummification of Culture
by Advaita Raghavan As the daughter of two very different yet similar cultures, I’ve never had the chance to fully immerse myself in either one of them. Neither Tamilian enough, nor Marvadi enough, I’ve always felt a little out of place. Especially when I found myself roaming the small Rajasthani town of Ramgarh, the home…
Why We’re Doing Beauty Wrong.
By Osheen Khurana *Disclaimer: This article is an opinion piece, and the thoughts reflected within it are those of the author. This should not be considered scientific, nor a substitute for professional mental help or guidance. What is beauty, really? Is it what we see in magazines and large department stores? Or on our phones,…
What Goes Around, Comes Around
By Nandini Sharma “Karma – what goes around, comes around. One day you will get punished for what you did today.” The first time I heard about this fascinating idea was from my teacher in third grade, who scolded a student for bullying his classmate. And what came next surprised me. It was like a…
Karma: A Teacher Interview
By Nandita Chennakrishnan, Yashas Ramakrishnan and Others Hi there! We’re back in February, which means the Casual Observer is bringing you another edition of the much-anticipated teacher interview segment. This month, for the highly controversial theme of Karma, we asked our beloved NPSi teachers (Ms. Radhika, Mr. CK Tan and Ms. Shiba) engrossing questions to…
Life as a Spiral: An Abstract Commentary on Perception
Take a look at the picture above. It looks like a spiralling rope against a checkerboard pattern right? What if I told you that the image just consists of concentric circles? This image explores the very vast phenomenon of perception and serves as proof that everyone sees things differently. I like to believe that our…
Shirts & Sweaters
By Varun Bhosle I knew this little kid a while ago, he used to dream about what it would be like to be an adult. He didn’t really want to be a kid. Going to school everyday sounded quite dull in comparison to getting to be a big boy who got to do whatever he…
You Should Colour Code Your Spotify Playlists
By Neel Agarwal Hey everyone, I’m back after a little while. This time, I thought I’d try something different. Rather than talking about my usual mix of “self-help” and “growth,” I want to talk about something that’s become a major component of my life in the last couple months or so: Music. More specifically, exploring…
Positive Causal Sequences
By Atreyi Roy All of us must have heard about the phrase “domino effect” at least once in our lives, right? The domino theory started as a geopolitical theory prominent in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s which was used to incite fear that if one country in a region came under…
Growing With Food
By Siddharth Janarthanan I know, it’s not a unique or minority life experience, as we literally can’t grow without food. And no, I’m not referring to my expanding waistline either. I am talking about growing up to be more refined, broad-tongued (I think I just made that up), creative, and kind through the lens of…
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