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The Present Minds
Writing archive195 published pieces

All writing.

Long-form essays, personal perspectives and writing on psychology, mental health, the self and modern life.Page 1 of 17

01 Psychology7 min read

Chimpanzees Have Accents. They Grow into Them.

Do chimpanzees have accents? Until recently, I would have put that question in the same category as whether dogs have favourite songs. Interesting to think about, but probably…

Navneet ShuklaRead article →
02 Psychology6 min read

Your Dog May Be Fighting with Itself When You Say No

Do dogs have self-control? Put a piece of food in front of one and the question suddenly becomes much more interesting. Now tell it not to touch it.…

Shaniya NazRead article →
03 Psychology6 min read

School Stress Is 4,000 Years Old. I Found the Evidence.

School stress feels like a modern problem. We usually blame exams, homework, competition, parents, teachers, university admissions, social media, or some combination of all of them. There…

Navneet ShuklaRead article →
04 The Margin6 min read

People Are Seeing Ads in Their Dreams.

Ads in dreams sound like something somebody made up for a meme. I first saw people joking about them on Instagram. Proper advertisements, they said. Brand names, logos,…

Navneet ShuklaRead article →
05 Slow Meridian1 min read

Autumn Leaves

October is coming to an end, The leaves are starting to fall, I could hear them rustling under my feet, As I walked along the lonely boulevard.…

Mudita ShuklaRead article →
06 Slow Meridian5 min read

The Love We Never Get

She found the name by accident, the way most truths arrive. Not through confession, not through confrontation. Just a phone left open on a kitchen counter while…

Mudita ShuklaRead article →
07 The Prism5 min read

You Finally Got There. Then You Started Looking for Somewhere Else to Be.

Why success feels empty is not something anyone warned me about. The morning after I submitted my doctoral thesis, I made tea and sat by the window.…

Dr. Shalu ChopraRead article →
08 Psychology5 min read

You Pay Taxes. Then You Pay Again. Then Again. This Is Not an Accident.

Vehicle taxes in India are not the whole problem. They are just the most visible layer of it. Start with a simple analogy. One that has nothing…

Shubham SolankiRead article →
09 The Prism5 min read

I Left My Doctorate and Six Years of Teaching. Here Is What That Actually Cost.

I completed my doctorate in January 2024. Six years of teaching had come before it. Lecture halls, marked papers, students who called me by a name that…

Dr. Shalu ChopraRead article →
10 Purusharth5 min read

Yayati Spent a Thousand Years Chasing Enough. He Never Found It.

Kama Purushartha, the third of the four aims of life, is the one nobody fully warns you about. Not because it is forbidden. Because it does not…

Navneet ShuklaRead article →
11 Human Frameworks5 min read

Your Brain Does Not Know Where You End. It Is Always Guessing.

Body ownership is not as fixed as it feels. Your brain is deciding, right now, what belongs to you and what does not. It does this constantly,…

Syed HammadRead article →
12 The Margin6 min read

What I Learnt from Getting Chiang Mai Completely Wrong

Chiang Mai travel was not what I thought it would be. And I had been in Thailand long enough to think I knew what to expect. I…

Navneet ShuklaRead article →
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