India

Most of all, I walk into my final year at a university that has given me so much with the knowledge that sometimes, lessons aren’t in textbooks or free solutions to problem sets on Chegg.

I am grateful I’ve never been exposed to only one single story at any given point.

That was the day I fell down the rabbit hole of Indian cinema, and it’s been a wild ride. Had I stuck with my old attitude I would've totally missed out.

I want to extend this advice to all readers: In this lockdown, watch some movies from different parts of your parents’ countries — or even your friends’. 

This is my plea to people across the world, and especially those in India who have the privilege to practice social distancing: Do your part.

The onset of COVID-19 has impacted the campus research community, both halting current projects and spurring new ones.

Every day is a ping-pong game with my family back in India about whether or not I should decide to hop on a 22-hour direct flight back home because who knows if it is safe to travel?

Slowly, right under our noses, bacteria are becoming resistant to the antibiotics and other medical defenses we’ve developed.

I am the youngest member of my family of four. For years, I wanted to do exactly what my sister did — wear her clothes, listen to her music, read her books.

This is the power of breaking bread. It’s why negotiations about everything from business to politics have been done over meals for thousands of years.