what was / building block of life
i miss school
i spent fourteen formative years at la martiniere girls college, lucknow - a 150-year-old institution that shaped everything i am. it was the place where a 3-year-old could imagine anything was possible, and where a 17-year-old left believing it actually was.
it was where dreams took shape and learned to soar. most days, i live wrapped in the nostalgia of those years. my heart feels like it's made of memory foam - soft, impressionable, holding the shape of every moment long after it's passed. i carry all of it with me and i truly hope to make my alma mater proud.
things i did while at it
house captain | martin house
senior year. our house motto was "nil desperandum" - never despair. i tend to forget what it was like to be that person because covid, but that motto became my mantra for life. never despair, for real. absolutely legendary.
debating diva
best speaker at the frank anthony memorial all-india inter-school debate, the asisc debate, and various inter-house/inter-school competitions and jam sessions. basically got really good at arguing and making it sound intellectual.
academic excellence
awardee for 14 consecutive years with gold medals for most exceptional student of middle and senior school. bagged all extracurricular awards for 8 straight years running.
founder | project sarthak
started this when i was way too young and confident, heavily inspired by the give back to the world culture at school. still running it somehow. turns out founding something is easy, keeping it alive is the hard part.
model united nations
2017 - 2021. rich brat stuff but such fun times. spent weekends pretending to be diplomats. the gavels, the formal speeches, the backroom deal-making - it was like playing house but with geopolitics. taught me how to research obsessively to be fair.
quizzes
inter-school competitions were war zones of trivia nerds armed with buzzers. loved the adrenaline rush of knowing that one obscure fact that stumps everyone else. taught me that curiosity pays off and that there's always someone who knows more weird stuff than you do.