Essays
I love reading and writing essays on Substack. This is a collection of my long form essays on #EducationCoffee. This includes essays on topics like art, libraries, schools, museums, universities, mental models, note taking, academic papers, essays, play, learning, communities and more.
I have poured my heart and soul into each essay archived here and I hope you enjoy reading these essays as much as I enjoyed writing them for you.
Essay Archives
Why Humans Create Art?
I have been thinking about my relationship with Art a lot. I am sure other humans do the same. It is a funny word right?
How art looks at you?
I’ve always been fascinated by how painters capture emotions through the eyes of the people represented in their paintings. Sometimes I wonder if those eyes are like a gateway to these people’s souls. Other times I wonder if the art you look at in a museum or gallery also looks back at you in the same way.
What I Talk About When I Talk About My Favourite Fiction Books
I have always loved talking to people about the books of fiction they love reading.
The Anatomy of a Bollywood Music Album
As a late millennial, I grew up listening to a lot of Bollywood Music in the 2000s and 2010s.
How book covers capture the soul of a book?
The first thing you notice about a book is the book cover.
Why I love narrative non-fiction?
My mother did everything possible to make me a reader. This included buying me lots of books and spending several hours with me and my sister at the library. But I was uninterested for a long time. One day my sister gifted me a book titled, ‘Born to Run
How visual art captures emotions?
The Mumbai Gallery Association was formed by the city’s leading contemporary art galleries with the aim to expand the city’s vibrant art scene. Every second Thursday evening, the MGA organizes an event called, ‘Art Night Thursday’ where the public is invited after hours to meet the people that make art, the shows and gallerists. The best part of this in…
My Topsy Turvy Relationship with Advertising Media
I have always been fascinated by advertising media. As a producer and consumer of advertising media it seems like the best of the world of art, science and commerce all packed into one creative and engaging promotional message or visual. However more recently, I was developing a growing sense of frustration with advertising media and how it tried to for…
How typography, colours and symbols bring brands to life?
I was walking around the mall recently and something caught my eye. I noticed that each store used a special kind of font for its brand name. Each store also used a specific combination of colours to represent that brand. Most shops also used a symbol for customers to remember and identify this brand in a marketplace.
How Creative People Build Communities?
I have always been intrigued by how creative people find ways to build communities for connection, feedback, inspiration, cross pollination, accountability, emotional well being and more. In this essay, I want to explore how creative people around the world have built communities to drive meaningful connection over time. But…
What makes an adult friendship work?
I recently saw two shows about adult friendship that I really wanted to discuss and talk about in an extended essay. Both these shows sparked lots of curious thoughts and random observations on the idea of adult friendship and how it changes and evolves over time. Please watch the trailers of both shows linked below to really enjoy this essay.
Why Children Play?
I recently came across an old photo I had captured of children playing in a school compound. I had taken this photo as a student volunteer at the school.
How Students Learn?
I was always curious about psychological research as an educator. I thought there were so many parallels between these two disciplines of psychology and education. As a new teacher, I always found it challenging to make strong connections between academic research and classroom practice.
How to Learn Anything on the Internet?
I think the Internet is a powerful tool for any one that loves learning.
On Academic Papers
In 1905, Albert Einstein at the age of 26 published four groundbreaking academic papers. These papers included one on the photoelectric effect, which provided key evidence for quantum theory and later won him the Nobel Prize in Physics (1921); another one Brownian motion, confirming the atomic theory of matter; a third introducing special relativity, wh…
On Museums
I have a special relationship with museums because they help me maintain a sense of wonder for the world. There are some reasons that I developed this love affair with museums. Here is one such memory…
On Libraries
Libraries have existed for thousands of years, evolving alongside human civilization. They began as repositories of knowledge, primarily for religious, governmental, or scholarly use, and grew into public institutions that democratize access to information. Here is a picture of one of the oldest libraries in the world.
On Schools
The emergence of K-12 education evolved through varied historical, cultural, and political processes, shaped by each society’s needs and the influence of industrialization, colonization, and globalization.
On Documentary Films
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record" - Oxford English Dictionary
On Small Bookstores in Big Cities
Last evening I came across this photo while browsing through Instagram. For some reason it held my attention. It was not the people. It was not the colours. It was not the funny drawing on the sign at the bus stop.
Can you consume too much media?
I woke up this weekend and had this scary feeling at the pit of my stomach. For the first time in a long time I knew I did not want to consume any media today. As a media junkie, I was a bit taken aback. On most days, I would finish work and turn to a book, film, podcast, song or social media platform to feel some relief or just to relax for sometime. T…
How to make reading fun again?
In this essay I share ten ideas that made reading fun for me as an adult. I was in a reading slump for a long time before I tried some of the ideas I explored in this essay. I also wrote this essay to document and share my love for reading as a personal and social activity.
The many joys of curation in the digital age
I think curation is underestimated as an activity on the Internet. I hope to explore some reasons and thoughts around the idea of curation in this essay.
50 television shows I love and recommend
I love finding a television show that I cannot stop watching. Some of my favourite television shows came into my life because of a recommendation or comment from a friend or a family member. There is something magical about the longer format of these shows. You can explore a story in depth. You can peel away the many layers of a character. You can live …
On Creativity
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc², which arises from special relativity, has been called “the world’s most famous equation”. These papers laid the foundati…
Why some tennis players are so good?
I wrote this post after staying up all night to watch the 2025 Men’s US Open Finals. It messed up my sleep schedule but brought me so much joy as a fan of the game. I wrote this essay to share my love for this game but also to understand how certain tennis players get so good over time. Here is a short video about that match followed by an extended essa…
How Judith Polgar became the world's best female chess player?
I have always been curious about how people become experts in their field.
How track athletes prepare for their races?
Here is a picture of the finishing line of the 800 metre final race held at the World Athletic Championships in Tokyo on 20th September 2025.
Why some football players are worth so much money?
I love spending my evenings reviewing football statistics. Last evening I was browsing through the Football Transfer Markt website when I came across some shocking statistics related to football transfers. Here is a summary of what I found about the most expensive football player transfers ever:
Watching India lift the World Cup!
I got a chance to watch the semi finals and finals of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup live at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Oct 30 and Nov 2. India won the 13th edition of this global cricket tournament and this is an essay about my experience watching them win this trophy live at the stadium as a lifelong fan of the game. There are small bit…
The Quarterly Recommendation List (Issue 1)
Okay. I am just going to jump right into this. This list includes books, films, videos, shows, articles, websites, podcasts and music I have loved and devoured from July 2025 to September 2025. I hope you find one useful recommendation from this list and will continue to publish this list 3-4 times a year.