Undergraduate / "It's nothing but a cult!" - Essay for Ashoka University. Need to cut at least 150 words! [NEW]

Prompt - Tell us about your academic journey, your inspirations, hardships and how you have overcome them. 2500 characters.
I have about 3600 characters (640 words), so need to get down to at max 500. Please help!

"They said this money serves God's purpose, but now they act like it belongs to them. It's nothing but a cult!" said my grandfather with contempt, after resigning from his various posts with the Swadhyay Parivar.

When just a few weeks into the tenth grade I learnt that Nanaji had disgruntledly left the organization that had been a part of his life for over ten years, I was more than taken aback. You see, he was one of the most religious people I had known, who set a lot of stock my rituals as a path to inner peace. While I have always loved working with computers and till then was quite set on choosing computer programming as my profession in life, this incident really got me interested in social psychology - trying to understand what drives people's behaviors and why we behave the way we do.

With the internet as an untiring mentor, I soon encountered a number of brilliant blogs - like 'The Situationist'- that introduced me to many fascinating phenomena, like the effects of cognitive biases on decision making. Multiple re-runs of 'Lie to Me' had even convinced me that I had become a walking lie-detector with an uncanny ability to decode the slightest tics! This was also when a friend introduced me to 'Project Euler', an online collection of mathematical problems that are required to be solved by coding in a language of one's choice. This pushed me to try my hand at different programming languages and understand varied algorithms - a practice that has continued to this day. Many of my days were spent either preparing for the Board examinations or trying to get the run-time of my code down from ten minutes to ten seconds.

That quiet routine was in for a rude shock, however, when soon after the final examinations my parents insisted that I follow in my brother's footsteps and prepare for the IIT-JEE examination. Knowing that that was a very demanding endeavor and would leave little time to pursue other interests, I begged and threatened, but all my please fell on deaf ears. I was whisked off to a coaching school in Kota, Rajasthan. No sooner than two months into the course I began noticing disturbing transformations in my disposition - slight loss of appetite turned into significant weight loss, difficulty in concentrating turned into constant irritability and feelings of pessimism gave way to suicidal thoughts. On my mother's insistence I consulted professional help and to my utter disbelief was diagnosed with clinical depression. To someone who considered himself the most cheerful person on the planet, to say that that was alarming news would be a gross understatement.

With many months of counselling and infinite familial support, I managed to overcome this impediment and move on with life. However, instead of hiding this incident from friends, my brother encouraged me to wear it proudly as a battle scar, as a reminder of what I have been through and overcome. This was also a defining period in my life - the mere fascination with psychology was galvanized into serious consideration of pursuing it as a career path. My ambition is to work at the critical juncture of psychology and computation - to understand group dynamics and their significance in policy formation, to discover the hidden influence cultural factors on consumer habits, to decipher how the crowd forms decisions and what compels an individual to blindly follow the herd. If I can use my research to understand how to stop a twelve year old think from taking his own life, what makes people believe so firmly in an ideology that they do not think twice before taking their own lives, and if my work can bring even one person hope in life, I honestly believe my purpose would have been served.

Undergraduate / Looking back on your high school years - Essay for Ashoka University [2]

Prompt: If you were to look back on your high school years, what advice would you give to someone beginning his or her high school years?

This is very urgent as I have to submit this in 24 hours. I will be online all the time, and promise to review your essay if you review mine!

Dear Young 'Un,

I know you feel you know everything and do not need anyone's advice, but they will not admit me into college if I do not post this. So here is some unsolicited advice that will hopefully make your journey through high school a little more enjoyable.

(i) Drugs, drinks, and cigarettes bring only ephemeral pleasure. Respect your body, and avoid them like the plague.

(ii) They say you are the average of your seven closest friends. Surround yourself with good people and pick up their best practices.

(iii) High school drama is just that. In a few years, most of it will be forgotten.

(iv) If you want something really bad, go for it like a madman. Wake up at 5 am for cricket practice, spend late nights preparing for math Olympiads, travel across town to take acting lessons. A hard day's night brings sweet dreams.

(v) Do not procrastinate - learn to structure your time. At the same time, have patience and learn to enjoy putting time and effort into your work.

(vi) There is no shame in asking for help. Most of your friends will be going through the same changes in life as you.

(vii) Be true to your teeth or they will be false to you. I have had four cavities filled over the past two years due to stupid soft drinks - do not let this happen to you! Either give up sugar-rich foods, or start flossing.

(viii) Most importantly, MINE LITECOINS! Bitcoins can only be mined by expensive ASICs, but there is still hope. Right now Litecoins are going for about $8 a coin, so even if you make five coins every month, you would be richer by $40. If you are tempted to cash out when they hit $10 or $20, DON'T! Look me up after four years and send across a couple of million dollars to your visionary well-wisher.

Write to Ashoka University, and let them know how I have selflessly taken time out of my busy schedule to help an up and coming student like yourself.

Hopefully your new friend,
Shlok Gilda

Undergraduate / 'BIGB Lessons' - Who or what inspires you the most and why? Ashoka University [2]

Hey Guys! Well the topic's given above, and here is my response. It's 769 words long. Since English is not my first language, I would love any and all feedback.

And of course in return I'll review your essays to the best of my ability.

"Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while and leave footprints on our hearts and we are never, ever the same."

And as I sit here reflecting on my thoughts, the person that first comes to mind is my twenty-two year old brother BIGB. When I think of him, I cannot help but wonder just how much of him I see in myself.

For as long as I can remember, I loved imitating bhaiyya. Anything he did, I had to give a shot as well. He played basketball, and a couple of years later, I joined my school's basketball team. He played at the district level and I went on to play till the state level. He joined karate, I joined karate. While he had to leave the dojo with a purple belt, I achieved the status of a sensei by gaining a black belt. All those years I wanted to be just like him, but instead of being annoyed by a clingy little brother, he made my dreams his own, always pushing me to test my limits, to take one more step out of my comfort zone. It is little wonder then that he has affected every aspect in my life - from the way I dress, to the way I perceive life!

BIGB has never been afraid to follow his heart. This is the one trait that I treasure above all else. He is never afraid to lead his life on his terms and not budge in to parental or peer pressure. This one instance stands out in my mind - after having given a number of college entrance examinations the twelfth grade, he had scored very good marks in LOLTEST - the entrance examination for admission into the LOLCOLLEGE, one of the top engineering colleges in the country. So good in fact, that he could opt for the much coveted Mechanical Engineering degree. But for as long as I could remember, Physics was the love of his life and this is what he wanted to pursue in college. Knowing very well that our parents would not allow this, as soon as the marks were declared on LOL' website, he immediately put Physics as his number one preference of study across all the three campuses of LOL in the country, finalized the selections, and only then gave Ma and Papa the good news. Oh boy were they were furious! But today when they see how well he has done, and how happy he is, their eyes gleam with pride. In fact, BIGB is the one to convince my parents to let me apply to Ashoka and other liberal arts colleges abroad, where I can pursue my love of both Psychology and Computer Science. I am more than confident that with his high standards to guide me, I will always be motivated to be the best version of myself no matter where I end up or what I do.

When my brother left for college, it was as if a part of me went missing. This was my go-to man, my rock in life. If I was not in the right frame of mind, if I was disheartened or dejected, he was the one to always have my back. He was the one I always went to for advice because it always seemed to work out and ease my life. With him gone, I began reflecting on all the memories that we had shared - from stealing tamarind pods from our relatives' neighbours' trees in the country, to the long jogging sessions on the beaches of ABC. Every passing day brought a realization that no matter how far we were from each other, our shared history would always keep us close.

He has had a huge impact on my life in the simplest way possible - by just being himself and letting me learn from him. I remember getting beat up every time we got into fights, but I also remember how after every fight bhaiyya never forgot to teach me a choke or a punch for self-defense. He has been that one person on my life who has inspired me to pick myself up after every fall, big or small.

From the pitfalls of procrastination to the secrets of seduction, the lessons I have learnt from BIGB are numerous. I am not sure where I would be today without him, but I do know that I owe a great deal to him. To borrow from the popular MasterCard advertisements - roommate for twelve years, brother for seventeen. But a friend for life!