Impatiently Curious

Opening concerns  The government yesterday decided to allow anyone above 18 to get vaccinated. There are a few caveats here. First, is that the government has decided to divide all of India's vaccine stock including Covishield and covaxin (produced and manufactured in India) and all other vaccines that the government cleared on an emergency usage basis (such as Pfizer, Moderna and J&J) into two parts. First half will be utilised for vaccinating the frontline workers, and anyone above 45 free of cost. The other half will not be bought or subsidized by the central government in any manner and will be open for purchase by the state and other entities in an 'open market'. There are a couple of things to be noted here. First, by announcing that states are free to purchase the vaccine from the open market according to their own requirements and needs, the center has simply shifted the burden of providing healthcare and finances from the center to the states. Shrouded in thi...

A few days back I had written a post in which I outlined five pieces of advice I would like to give to my 18 year old self. In the post I had urged readers to comment with their advice to their 18 y/o selves. Riddhi, a dear friend of mine (and now an ex classmate sadly) was kind enough to write this post outlining what she'd like to tell her 18 year old self. It is filled with deep insights and profound reflections. Beside that I'm also excited because it is the first guest post on the blog! Here's what she wrote - An older, but similar-enough, looking version of myself coming back in time to tell a younger me about the keys to success in all the relevant spheres, would be exactly the kind of fantasy I would entertain and enjoy thoroughly as a Freshman. Of course, the laws of time and space were bent solely so that my older self could come and help me save myself and, in turn, the world. I have a fundamental problem with using the lens that I have procured at this stage in ...

I've always struggled with the idea of how to best utilize my time. What activities to pursue, and which books to read, which professors to talk to, and which classes to attend. The protagonist in the German mini series DARK said that a choice for something is a choice against something, pointing out the inherent trade off nature of all our actions. Do one thing, and you won't be able to do another. No matter how much you race against time, you cannot catch up with your own ambitions and curiosity.  I'm doing my second undergraduate degree as of now. And sometimes I reflect back on the time I spent during my first. Although I don't regret much of the choices I made, there are surely things I would have tweaked here and there given the chance. Of course these suggestions for my past self suffer from hindsight bias - I still think I would have achieved more optimal outcomes if I adopted these suggestions in a better and efficient way. And of course for anyone reading this...