Day 2: Dhobi ka kutta — Na ghar ka hai, na ghat ka hai.

India’s ghats, or river banks, are famous for many things, one of which is for their use as a place for washing — oneself and one’s clothes. It’s common to see a dhobi, or washerman, soaking, scrubbing, and beating the clothes against…

Day 1: Reclaiming my story

Do you think reading can be harmful in anyway? That’s a question my friend Ankit once asked me a couple of years back, and at the time, it seemed like an absurd question. In terms of all things “good” and “bad” that I had been taught my whole life, reading was just about as “good”…

Day 4: Nobodies and Somebodies

If you go to middle school, high school, or even college in the U.S. and want to be “cool,” then remember the following trick (and thank me later): if anyone ever asks you “if you studied” for the exam, then always say NO. Depending on what kind of vibe you want to give off…

Day 9: (self) Service

Service. With a capital S.

Where I’m from, when you break down all of the layers and strip away all of the excess, it’s what privileged kids do to economically poor people. I was one of those privileged kids.

Day 14: What’s my situation?

One of the most fundamental assumptions of the modern world is that something called the “self” exists — that there is something that is unique to every person that is constant across time and setting. That’s what allows me to say that I am Zubin, with some fundamental…

Day 56: The birth, death, and rebirth of the eco-architect in me

I remember in fourth grade, my entire class created a new community — four or five small huts, each with three or four people, coming together to form the larger village — and all of us built elaborate tree forts out of…

Day 23: Bihari buses — a love-hate relationship

Day 65: The role of autonomy in learning

When I was five, my parents forced me to play soccer. And I hated it. I remember one time before practice, I threw a tantrum, and I told them I would kill myself if they forced me to go.

Day 68: An idea for a technology platform to support Self-Designed Learners

I rarely think of technology as the “solution.” In fact, often times, technological “solutions” seem to be an extension of what I view as the “problem” — a mechanical worldview that sees humans as…