Ratna writes

This summer, I’m working at the Business Outreach Center (BOC), a micro-lending and direct service provision organization that works to improve the economic prospects of traditionally underserved groups, with a focus on low- and moderate-income entrepreneurs. The majority of our clients are women, immigrants, refugees, or members of other minority groups, and BOC has offices in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. BOC counselors work with these small business owners through one-on-one counseling as well as via workshops for cohorts of these entrepreneurs. I’ll be getting exposure to both of these models this summer, as I guide individual entrepreneurs through the Best for NYC challenge, and also help to design the Blueprint to Success workshop for construction contractors. The Best for NYC challenge is a campaign launched by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), to encourage companies to use business as a force for creating social and environmental goo...

Junior year was finally it. Past the awkward adjustments of freshman year and the soul-crushing slump that is being a sophomore, and before the real-world worries of being an almost-adult that are coming up for us seniors (!), this year was when I felt like I finally "hit my stride" in school. This spring semester, I took some of the best classes I've had at Harvard. I sang a lot. I learned things and had some of the best conversations of my life. I also live  with all of my best friends. Not a moment can be dull: wading through hours of requisite writing becomes a celebration when it's done overnight in a library that has a piano. Reviewing pages miles long of information is an adventure when you take breaks to clear your mind and enjoy the sunshine. The most daunting of weeks seem laughable when coffee, music, and words exist. I'll enumerate an arbitrary list of stand-out moments below, knowing full well that the most enjoyable ones could be neither photo...

I return to Harvard for my sixth semester completely refreshed and rejuvenated after a month spent in India with my dear extended family.  My goals for this period were to “spend time with my grandparents,” “do nothing,” and “think.” Despite their very modest nature, there was indeed a (quite long!) phase during which I felt uneasy that either a) I was not accomplishing these objectives successfully, or b) these were not the “right” goals to have for a winter break, or c) both. But I can say based especially on my last few weeks traveling that there could have been no better way to reset my consciousness and get ready for the grind of junior spring. When asked what my favorite things about India are, I usually say the air and the birds. Both are distinctly different from those in the US. After this winter’s visit, I would like to add the fruits and the streets of India to this list. There is a kind of weird, probably pretentious calm that overcomes me on long (between t...

1. Be less scared when I sing 2. Kiss my friends' foreheads more often 3. Write more genuine papers 4. Don't shy away from pain 5. Don't shy away from pleasure 6. Cherish uneventful days 7. Wear less makeup 8. Take the T more often 9. Go to tea more often 10. Never forget about words 11. Harbor less hatred for numbers 12. Abandon consistency as a rule 13. Don't be tired

I do my thinking on airplanes. This weekend's set of flights was from Boston all the way to India, where I'll be spending my month of winter break, after a fall that was everything that a semester of college should be. This term was challenging and confusing at first in the "where are my studies taking me and what do I want to get out of college?" department, and ultimately stimulating, exciting, and fulfilling all around. I think I grappled with a number of questions that can be excruciating in the moment (viz. "what should I do with my life?") but that are so wonderful to have the luxury of asking, with the support of such interested and insightful mentors and friends. These questions led me to throw myself this semester into those activities that I don't question have always given me life -- three stand out in particular: 1. Performing The fall was particularly generous in bestowing solo/duo performance opportunities around campus, and I ...

Every year, I throw a birthday tantrum. When I was turning 4 in India I started crying when my friends wouldn't call me "Dum-Dum" when they sang me the birthday song because my grandfather used to call me Dum-Dum and so that's what I wanted. When I turned 13 and my friends didn't decorate my locker at school the way I wanted it on the day I wanted it (my birthday fell on the weekend that year), I wrote an angsty piece about it and published it in the high school's literary magazine because the episode made me lose my faith in humanity a little bit. Not all years are this dramatic; sometimes I would just curl up in my closet and cry on a birth-morning because there was no way the evening could live up to my expectations. This year's annual hissy fit wasn't that different. I think what freaks me out every year is that I feel like a celebration that is supposed to be for one's entire existence can never be as magical, spontaneous, surprising, and u...

When I sometimes lie shoulders tensed and wrists wrapped under chin in my bed because  the future can't find me here and hear the defeated end-of-day trudging up the stairs my heart falls upon the rattle of the key because I wish the trudging was for me.