Aditi Unplugged

22 August 2026, around 7 p.m., I was sitting in my hostel room, a tiara on my head, looking into the mirror. Was I happy? Yes. Was I happy because of the tiara? Also yes. But was I happy just because of the tiara? No. It was more than that. When the whole Freshers' Week thing had begun, I had absolutely no interest in participating. I was more excited about all the tasks and pending work I would finally get done once the week ended, especially since half the batch was going home for Rakhi. I had already planned to glue myself to a library chair. As I wasn't going home, that seemed like the obvious choice. Although, if not the library, what is my favourite place on this campus? I am yet to figure that one out. Coming back to the tiara, I was awarded the Miss Freshers title that evening. But more than the title, I was happy because of what it represented. The acceptance. The validation. The belief it gave me about something I hadn't realised I was questioning. Usually, peopl...

  IIM THE DREAM WHAT IF YOU DONT WANT THAT ?

Why would it suddenly rain now? The first thought, the mangos are gonna get ruined, the next thought, why now? Suddenly, we start digging into the reasons and reading geography and weather articles. Suddenly, the easterlies and westerlies from the 9 th std textbook sound important again, suddenly the hot currents and cold currents seem interesting, suddenly the Arabian Sea and the Mediterranean seem like your long-forgotten relatives. You are there to meet them bcoz something unfamiliar has occurred, something out of context, something unexpected….. Now it would be quite boring to connect this directly to life, but still, I would. Why? Because I like to! Why hail in April is what we question when there are uncertainties in our lives. These are nothing but the externalities we never thought would come to meet us on our way to a beautiful, awaited summer. You were preparing to buy a new suncoat, but now you had to pull out the umbrella from the top shelf. Life gives us certain tasks...

  It was a rainy day, rather windy, I would say… a thunderstorm or something… I could listen to that fast wind blowing through my door and the window, my hair was running far away from my face like that in a typical Bollywood movie, I was enjoying it, until I started feeling cold and the wind brought with it those invisible dust particles which troubled my eyelashes… I got up to close the window, the plan was to come back in, sit there, complete my book but as soon as I reached to get the window, I saw that the trees infront were bending more than I do in my yoga sessions, initially it looked trenchant, but not much later I realised it was concerning. I went out, the rain was yet to start, and I parked my scooty away from the tree. As soon as I came in, it started pouring. Heavily. Lashing. How arduous for the clouds… I was sitting in my chair watching the rain through the door, my slippers were soaking wet, and I did not go out to pick them because this rain was pretty just fr...

Last month, I moved back to my home after spending 3 whole years in a hostel. At first, it felt like hell. All the freedoms are gone in seconds! A few things hit me so hard that I took a lot of time to recover. But after all these days, I can now also see the bright side of this decision. It's difficult to adjust to the same place you called yours after that period of time when it was just a Holiday home and nothing was like it was before.  It was a Transition. Bcoz the freedom I am talking about is not just physical. It's mental freedom, the decision-making stuff, the choosing stuff, the doing this thing at that time stuff, and the not doing stuff! Indeed my most fucked sleep cycle is fixed and I am SOOO Happy about it. A hostelite just dreams about sleeping at 10pm, but that never happens.... That particular habit of watching reels before sleeping is gone! It's vanished! I was like omg... I have discovered new things about my own life! That was something fantastic.  Not...

When you open Spotify, play a song, and then the next song is played according to their algorithm, it is sometimes a treat, and sometimes it happens to be extremely annoying. You are like, brooo, that was not today's vibe, that doesn't suit the mood at all! Spotify just knows how you feel usually and plays that, but today you don't wanna listen to that same song which you were maybe dancing to yesterday… How surprising it is... Your playlist defines you, as they say... I would like to deny that today. Bcoz I am not that same person when I've completed my targets, I am not that same person in the morning when I don't really have a mood to study, neither am I the same person who wants to stare at the sun till it goes down and it's so dark that mosquitos will have you for dinner, nor am I the same person as nobody loves me, and offcourse not the same as I can do it with a broken heart, mostly it also cannot be like I'm unstoppable ( although I wish it was). S...

Habits do change! It hurts when someone calls you selfish because now you cannot easily adjust to them. After all, now you cannot simply do as it is told to you and now have your way of doing things. The reason? They say I am living alone. Firstly, what you see as living alone is never a choice but an obligation. It was the punishment I got to study or for someone to work out of their hometown, for your betterment and growth. Otherwise, why would someone choose to stay in a building of heartless people? Staying independently gives you the responsibility of every tiny bit around you, may it's folding your clothes vertically and not horizontally due to the availability of storage around your place, which may not even be yours. Yet, when you go home, it's all different now. You are not doing things the same way you did when you were younger… even bathing daily at 7 am feels different now because habits change! I never imagined myself 3 years ago doing some of the things I do...

  Why Individual Action is the Key to Fighting Climate Change Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, but the debate continues: should governments take the lead, or do individuals hold greater responsibility? While policies and regulations play a role, history and evidence suggest that individuals, through conscious choices and grassroots efforts, have been the true drivers of climate action. Government Policies: Slow and Often Ineffective Governments have implemented various climate policies, from carbon pricing and renewable energy incentives to stricter environmental regulations. However, these efforts often fall short due to economic concerns, political instability, and corporate influence. Failed Government-Led Climate Actions France’s Yellow Vest Protests (2018-2019) serve as a stark example of how government-led policies can backfire. The French government introduced a fuel tax designed to reduce carbon emissions, but this led to mass protests as fuel ...

For the last 3 years that I have spent living in the heart of Pune City, the Peth area, the question I have in my mind, like many others, is WHY? If it was for 1 time, I would be ok with it, but this has become the scenario for every festival, and every event. The extremely loud music systems. So loud and harmful that the cat near my hostel was scared and was finding a place to hide desperately, so loud that the windows in my room were shaking, and we could feel the waves standing anywhere in the radius of 10 meters of those speakers. The harm it causes is a long list. But people are ready to defend it, saying, Don’t you respect these deities? Are you not aware of X leader’s contribution to history? And so on! But the question is totally invalid, because how much do you respect that god if all you are playing is item songs like Saki Saki and then changing them if some old man scolds you near the stage? Yes, change 2 songs and play the same bullshit again. This is how much you pay respe...

  No,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no! It is what a girl listens to every day in an orthodox Indian middle-class family. Sometimes, even if the question is incomplete, the answer is NO ! When we say, how far have we come? Let me tell you, we have just come from keeping the ghungat on the shoulders, which was earlier on the head. And that’s it…. Nothing far than that. If you are a girl in India, even today, you need to ask for everything. Each and every part of your life is governed, and you are bound to ASK. You are accountable to all the family members about everything. Even if you have the best behavior, you are supposed to ASK for everything. Because you are not self-sufficient to make your own decisions. You are not allowed to step even the border of your door because what if….. This WHAT IF… list has more than 2000 scenarios in it. It never ends. Every time a new question, every time a new DISAPPOINTMENT wit...

  You open your phone, scroll through Instagram, and tada! The Ambanis are throwing yet another grand wedding. Everyone’s decked out in designer clothes, dripping in luxury, and flaunting a level of extravagance that feels otherworldly. Then you switch to a movie, and there it is—a random actress declaring, “If I get married, it’ll only be in the Katrina wala lehenga.” Price tag? Just 2 lakh. A few days later, you're back on Instagram, and your feed is flooded with aesthetic wedding reels. Udaipur, Tuscany, Maldives—you name it, it’s there. Suddenly, every little girl dreams of having a “fairy-tale” destination wedding, complete with those dreamy Pinterest vibes. Let’s not play the blame game here. Sure, people want to spend on their weddings, and that's their choice. But imagine this: if the same hype were created over buying a PS5 or the latest gaming rig after binge-watching reels, every Indian parent would flip out. There’d be lectures, guilt trips, and a lot of “We did...

In one of his speeches, A.D. Shroff says, "In seeking to build a prosperous nation, we must ensure that we do not replace one form of control with another. Independence is hollow without economic freedom."  Walking on his footprints, India has developed several economic policies that balance economic freedom and growth. But the question today is not just about freedom, it is about how far have we reached? And also, far from what? Far from our goals? Far from our deals? Or far from the finish line? " Digging the well, when thirsty”, we all have heard this proverb many a time since childhood. If we look back at the economic reforms in India, it will be the best example of this proverb. The economy, once the backbone of public welfare, has been reduced to a pawn in the grand chessboard of political power, where policies are designed not for the masses but for the benefit of the elite few. These initial statements of mine might have made you think that now I will criti...

It is surprising—how in history, always the good guys win. Or is it like, we consider those as good who win? Before buying anything, you would read the description, so why not read the disclaimer without buying entertainment? Why are the rules changing over here? Whatever we are consuming is entertainment, and these movies are supposed to be looked at as only a form of art. I don’t find anything regretful in this trend of sympathizing with Villans because what trends we are talking about just come and go. They don’t need to be an integral part of the story; their aim is just to catch the attention of the audience, and it does that very well. Now I don’t need to make you count many illogical and unethical trends in today's movies. Nowadays people are so used to watching the same hero win the battle, the castle, the queen, and happily ever after stories. They need some change in their platter, and hence villains also need a change. Why should the hero have all the fun? Do you know ab...

  Think of it… you are living in a space where it is mandatory to act maturely. You can’t shout when you are happy, you can’t scream out that anger inside you, you can’t yell at yourself looking into the mirror, you can’t sing songs with all your heart out, neither can you dance to loud music… is living such life fun? I know these things do not play a part when it comes to professionalism and career and all those things. But it is an important element of life, happy life! Don’t you think living without boundaries would be fun? Staying at a place that we call our home is what we really feel … isn’t it the best? Maturity is defined by someone as holding the burden of responsibilities on your shoulders but this very thing will not let your inner self come out anyway. It will build a wall of restrictions around you and create an atmosphere where someone is always there to watch you and judge you. Can you remember that one day in your teenage when you played your favorite song and dan...

I think it's important to talk about this situation without blindly claiming that artificial intelligence or any scientific research would ruin human life. So, human foresight is basically the ability to predict. Therefore, when we think about this topic, I get stuck on a question can a machine really replace humans? Because machines cannot think. So, they can't even predict the future. But if someone invents something like that, he is still the one who is thinking. A human!   He obviously imagines the consequences before building something e.g. A robot. While doing particular research, a scientist has a rough idea of its future results and its effects. However, on the other hand, we also need to know that he is thinking about only the next 10-20 years. But what about the next 400 years? Next 800 years? We think about our secured future through AI, but what about the future of humans after 500 years? Do we really think about it? If we did, we wouldn't have built launc...

It's been a roller coaster journey staying away from your home. It's not just the education that counts; it teaches you a lot of things. It provides you with fresh confidence, a new set of friends, a new city, new people, and new experiences, all of which contribute to a whole new life. But most importantly, it helps you realize what your home means to you. When you leave home, you don't just leave those four walls, but everything else as well, which you won't comprehend until you spend six months in those cramped hostel caves. It hits when you realize you won't be sleeping on that same bed, opening that window again, playing in this courtyard, watering these plants, studying in that corner, or spending time on the terrace watching birds and roaming around for fun. It will not be the same again! When you're scheduled to go, you expect to return. It's not just three years. When you leave, you want to explore the new city, enjoy your college life, and make you...

One day, you initiate it. You begin your day in this very same manner, with no idea of what is appropriate or inappropriate. Just thoughts, thoughts on how easy life is, how hard life is, or anything... I wonder if others who think excessively about everything are considered overthinkers or if I am the only one who enjoys thinking meticulously about everything, which is also a more loving behavior. The sound of that one bird singing about its world and its own cage-free existence pleased me. Are we all living a no-cage life today? We are living a complexly simplified life of our own and living life with all those other 8 billion people on this platform called Earth. How beautiful that would be if I was the only one doing what I was doing, though someday, I would be alone chasing my dreams, will it be called chasing really? While thinking about that, what do we define chasing in life? Want that for ourselves or is that too for the world? ! the WORLD … seems like I am truly living in...