Author: Palak Shah

Great movies generally are known to have great plots, special effects, direction, production, etc. However, some the greatest movies ever made stand apart not because of the above but rather because of extraordinary villains. Such villains are deep and complex in their psychology and in how they see the world. My personal favorite is the Joker from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. In this thrilling crime saga, the child grows up in a broken home, abused and neglected. He ends up in foster care, lonely and unloved. Eventually, as he grows this child finds some semblance of self-esteem and control…

Imagine identical twins growing up in the same loving household with the same rules. They wear the same types of clothes, share the same toys, and have the same education and upbringing. Essentially they have the same exact environmental conditions leading duplicate lives. However, by the time they are teens, one is a straight-A student, caring and a model youth yet the other has already established a track record for trouble-making, struggles in school and is a source of great anxiety for his parents.   What is that which leads to such a vast difference in character and personality? There have…

It was junior year at high school. This is the time to generally panic about the future. Standardized tests. College admissions. Ivy League hopes. Social Security. It all comes to a head junior year. So to boost my chances for better undergrad prospects, I figured I needed to shape up my extra-curricular activities portfolio. And being the procrastinating opportunist that I was, I thrust myself into the one school sport that ‘met my standards’. Translate: required no try outs. That was Track & Field. After my first week of practice, I decided to rename the sport – Pain & More…

International trade has existed since time immemorial but intercultural exchange was passive at best and engaged by the highest echelons of society. The exchange only trickled in because of the time, energy and resources it took for knowledge and artifacts to travel distances. The most expedient way, in a time of limited technology, to absorb entire lots of people into the dominant societies’ civilizational fishnet was by hostile takeover – war. The invaded and defeated people were then relatively, quickly assimilated, into the ways and norms of the invaders. Religions, commerce, social standards and cultural ethos were all unceremoniously uprooted and…

I have a deep love and appreciation for the Bhagavad Gita. I have spent last 20 years learning and sharing its unassailable wisdom with so many others.Over the last 10 years, I strove to find ways to map Arjuna’s challenges and Krishna’s solutions to modernity. What do karma, dharma, atma, the yogas, maya and other Gita themes have to do with our everyday experiences? How do they hit home?Reflecting on the relevance of Arjuna’s struggle to do what he must, I decided to focus on something very tangible. My own shortcomings.It made me think even more deeply.Why do we spend so…