Perspectives

Here

It’s the 90s, DDLJ just premiered and teenage Neilendra just came back home from a late-night show. He sits hunched over his desk, trying to force creativity, attempting to take inspiration from the hordes of books he’s amassed over the years, but nothing clicks. He can’t think of an opener for his essay. Eventually, he gives up, comes up with something mediocre and goes to sleep, feeling ill at ease with his work.
Cut to 2025, Neilendra, now just Neil, turns his laptop on, opens CHATGPT, puts in a vague prompt, tweaks it a little and is done with his work in record time. What once felt like a personal struggle has become- effortless?
Is Neil smarter than Neilendra? Has he cheated? Or has he simply traded frustration for efficiency? This is the question we attempt to answer today but the answer’s… actually very straightforward.
The truth lies in the title of this article, AI cannot think for you, it only responds to what you ask. It can refine your ideas, or give you new ones, but it can’t tell you what to create.
The real difference between the two, shockingly similar name-having boys, isn’t intelligence or integrity, it’s tools. Neilendra has a chisel, painstakingly carving out each word, while Neil has a power tool or maybe even a 3d printer, his limit is his imagination while Neilendra is limited by his ability to turn the abstract into the concrete. It’s like comparing an artist with a single paint brush to another with an entire digital studio, both can create masterpieces, but one has to fight the medium, while the other only has to focus on their vision.
Yet, even though seemingly unfair, this is exactly why AI can’t think for you. Whether you’re stuck with a chisel or blessed with a 3d printer, the design still needs to come from you. The only difference, perchance, is how much of your energy goes into the execution versus the ideation. Maybe we as a society are evolving from an execution world to and ideation world, but that’s a topic for another time.
As we went from papyrus to the typewriter Neil(endra) did not change or compromise on his integrity, he evolved. The evolution, was not in how he wrote, rather in how much space he had to dream.

Trumpets blaring, traffic halts, the world stops, as thousands in red hoods take to the streets, all led by a figure draped in power; a man wearing a colossal pharaoh’s head chain, so heavy that it bows his neck in gold. The sky burns burns crimson with ambition and chaos, a scene ripped straight from legend.
This is what I imagine while listening to West’s magnum opus; this album is much more than a collection of songs, it’s an experience, each song perfectly tying into the next, crafting an immaculate journey through sound, storytelling and unfiltered, unbridled emotion. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy isn’t merely music; it’s an epic.
Each track feels like a chapter in Kanye’s layered narrative as he wrestles with his own demons, his fame, and his redemption. With this album he tries to change how we listen to music itself; in the opening he asks us “And refresh the page and restart the memory? Re-spark the soul and rebuild the energy?” These words set the stage for the epic that is to come, inviting listeners into a journey of introspection, transformation and rebirth.
With features from the likes of Nicki Minaj, Kid Cudi, Jay Z and basically every heavy-hitter in the industry; this album sets itself apart from anything Kanye, or any other artist, has ever created. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is not just another project, it’s a masterpiece, the greatest album in hip-hop history.

I remember when I walked into the gym for the first time; Ramadan had just finished, and my fasting had resulted in me losing some weight. I finally had enough confidence to start.
I felt like everyone was looking at me, no, they weren’t, they were minding their own business.
Naturally, I was extremely unfit, and couldn’t do a single pushup, but I refused to not try. My coach saw that, Gangesh Sir (someone who would become a significant figure in my life), told me and my mother that my mind is strong.
That if I try hard enough, I could do it. I could change.

That was all I needed. That June, I made a solemn commitment to growth, to fulfilling my potential. Something that redoubled 10-fold post a violent outburst in July. I completely overhauled my way of thinking, I renounced self pity, and embraced self accusation.
I took “ownership”; something I had been repeating in verse through our school song, but not really putting into practice.

If you never see anything as a failure, you always win.

Food became fuel, not happiness. Exercise became necessary. And slowly, I learnt to love it.

I saw the results, bit by bit.

And, my god, when those initial compliments start rolling in, you feel like you’re on top of the world.

But this too, is fleeting.

I hit some slumps, other things took priority, I faced illnesses but you know what changed the entire game.

Endurance and conditioning. And most importantly, running.

I did battle with my limitations every day and pushed them further and further, of course with the indespensible Gangesh Rajput.

The last mile, supposedly the hardest, I ran through it.

And in the next few months, I’m going to pull off something even more spectacular in the realm of fitness. Stay tuned.

Be obsessed. Do not give up.

“It does not matter how far you run, or how much you run. You always beat the person who stayed home.”

I will win, perhaps not immediately, but definitely.

“You know I write stuff in my diary and it comes true” this is what Sharanya said to me a little bit after we became friends. She told me about her little quirky superstitions and her 11:11s which she can’t miss ever. She told me about her wallpapers and her supermanifestations. 

You know i hate the word manifesting, I told her one day, it sounds so hippie-like, and so un-neil.

But I did manifest without manifesting, whenever I would write down something a lot of times it would happen, I don’t know why. I have a feeling that the absolutely deliberate act of writing a thing, aligns you with that thing.

Ever since I read the Alchemist ‘Maktub’ stuck with me, it’s written. Everything’s written. BUT WE WRITE IT. It’s not a fight against fortune it’s a intricate harmony with ebbs and flows. Machiavelli thought fortuna to be like a river, sometimes dry, sometimes flooding. Now, the only thing one can do is prepare and make the best use out of the situation. When there comes a flood, it is better to have a dam. And when there comes a drought it is better to have stored water.

Everybody says that fortune favours the bold but I feel like my adaptation is better. Fortune doesn’t favour the frantic, it favours the prepared. You don’t wrestle with destiny, you waltz with it. You knock on as many doors as possible, fortune is bound to come. Give it so many opportunities to come, that it has to. Atleast that’s what I do (and I’m pretty cool sauce).

18 hours with my team taught me more about leadership than 6 months of holding the position.

Over the 1st and 2nd of July, I attended a leadership workshop with my favourite people – the student council. 

When we first got to know that we’re going to have the workshop in school, and that our instructors will be in-house, I won’t lie… all of us were underwhelmed. 

We thought that this would be another boring seminar, like every other one, with it just being much MUCH longer. Seriously, 18 hours over 2 days! All of us thought that there could not be that much to leadership. I personally, thought I had it down, and my hubris led me to believe that there was nothing more to learn. Spoiler alert: there was, and just how much there was… was astonishing. 

We began with Joyeeta ma’am expressing that the team wanted this to be a transformational experience, not just with respect to our function as the student council, but as human beings, as catalysts of change throughout our lives. 

We thought that this was just something people say, because people say a lot of big things like that, that never really happen.

But, do you know when I realised that things were getting real, when I saw Rudraa talking in “the circle” without being interrupted or ignored by ANYONE. This happened on the first day: a day we spent understanding leadership and its ideals. My highlight of that day was when we had a value-auction; we were split up into teams, each team received fake money to bid on values. We could get a maximum of three.

My group spent 6500 Rs, almost half our budget, on a single value… love. I must admit: Vinayak Khashu, the lover of all lovers, was the main catalyst to this decision, my love for him drove our bidding war higher and higher “Pyaar mei diwala ho gaya.” But do you know what was most tragic… we left unity and collaboration on the table, unbid.

The twist, as there always is one, was that we had to solve a case study with the ideals we amassed. Through this, I realised: we were bidding on love, the emotion, and not love, the value. The case studies were based on problems we encounter a lot as a council. We tried to formulate our own “solutions” to those problems, but those solutions, more often then not, were just playing hot potato with the problem. Passing it on to a higher authority, achieving nothing ourselves.

This day had two very vital learnings for me, we are not solution-oriented, and the ideals we speak of are not what we’re putting into practice or valuing.

The second day was magical. We talked about putting leadership into practice. We talked about vulnerability, the Johari window. Having split up into groups, all of us told each other about our “blind spots” and shared very personal battles we’re dealing with. This is what brought us the closest. 

We then did a few theatre activities, which Vidushi Ma’am led. She is so fantastic at emotions. We always say that actions speak louder than words, but often we ignore how our people are behaving physically. Observing gives new epiphanies, ones we were ignorant of previously. 

We also saw how we can talk to someone who is going through something. Not through pity but through empathy. Not through empty words, but comfortable silence. Not through relating, but embracing. This is something Pope Francis talked about in “Let Us Dream,” an idea that has become a core part of who I am now.

We learnt the dfiference between criticising and critiquing. The difference between breaking down and building up. How you must always critique the work or the behaviour; but NEVER the person. It is best to sandwhich your criticism with an appreciative start and a warm finish, leaving room for growth.

TD sir led two very integral sessions that day, first on teamwork: showcasing through our own actions how important practice and analysis is. How we must position our team according to its strengths. How we must learn from not only our own mistakes, but the mistakes of others. Always survey the situation, choose wisely, practice, implement, and reflect.

The other on data, how important it is as evidence. How we can learn and measure with it. And most importantly, how useless it is without attaching stories to it.

My two main takeaways from this day were: to listen and to ask.

This workshop had revelation after revelation after revelation. My council members who expressed such indignance towards this workshop before it began were now asking, praying, for it to be longer. I got a voice note from one of my most soft-spoken nonchalant team members saying “I didn’t think so but this was genuinely life changing shit.” Everyone thought the same. Everyone. I cannot stress HOW RARE THIS IS. 

Today, I had conversations with 2 juniors, with them being very vulnerable to me, do you know why? I asked. 

My council today was cheery, there were so many hugs, we were laughing gleefully even while doing very normal day-to-day things, because we have gotten so close.

The effects are clear.