For years, my brothers and I attended Sunday prayer at the local Hindu temple. We marveled at the massive, gleaming gold murtis and alluring artwork, mesmerized by the priest’s lyrical scriptures and ancient verses. The extraordinary tales were nearly impossible to grasp, even more so through the filters of our weak Hindi. Whenever the priest finished his poetic accounts, I struggled with confusion that had nothing to do with my language skills. “How were humans created? Why did the...

Hi future roommate! Warning! Star Wars references ahead. Don’t be too concerned when you see me. Yes, I am 6’4” with a genetically serious, pensive face (think Adam Driver with more hair—or should I just say Kylo Ren?) but I’ll crack a big smile when you quote our greatest modern philosopher: Master Yoda. I will put up a poster of his quotes just for you. One of the first things I would like to do is find an...

1: Grind 23 grams to 800 microns. If inconsistent, start over. 2: Pour grounds into the pressure chamber. 3: Pour in 60 grams of water at 94°C. 4: Steep for 80 seconds. I treat coffee brewing as a chemical process, where ground coffee is the solute, and boiling hot water is the solvent. It is meditative. Every variable is intimately controlled—pressure, temperature, and brew time. Coffee, however, is much more than a vehicle of flavor and caffeine; it is also a catalyst for systematic socioeconomic uplift. Every...

In middle school, I spent hours on Kickstarter jotting down thoughts in my Moleskine notebook, dreaming of being an inventor. Ideas stream through my mind: autonomous sandwich makers, prescription-changing contact lenses. I realized, it wouldn't be so simple. There was no college for inventors, nor degrees in ‘Inventing.’ Last year, an idea came to me when I forgot a glass bottle of Coke in the freezer. While cleaning out shards of glass I wondered: could I harness the energy that...

The moment I stepped into Mansueto Library on UChicago’s campus this past spring, one thing became very clear to me. While students studied separately on the elongated desk space, it was evident that there was an unspoken affinity to the place—though they were all studying different things, there was a palpable air of community. Though they studied with a few feet of physical separation each, they did so in solidarity, as if to say this is our great...

Twas’ the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, save one nineteenth-century English naturalist. It was well after midnight, and I couldn’t sleep. Not because of any anticipation of the gifts to be found under the Christmas tree in the morning, but because I had been reading On the Origin of Species, and it was tearing me down, bit by bit. I got out of bed, and walked down to my living room...

I took refuge in the operating room as much as I could, not because it was the only place with a air conditioning unit, but to watch an orchestra, a group of deeply passionate individuals performing a masterpiece of physical transformation and healing of the eye. I grew up in a family that values service and places an imperative on doing the right thing. This past summer, we were in San Jose de los Llanos in the Dominican Republic, where...