Topic

Existential Reflections

A collection of 31 issues

The Absurdity of Legacy : Why Do We Care About What Happens After We Die?

Legacy is a peculiar obsession. As humans, we expend vast energy, time, and emotion constructing monuments to our existence — whether those monuments are tangible, like buildings and books, or intangible, like reputation or influence. The irony, however, is glaring : we do all this knowing we will never witness the fruits

What Becomes of Us When Stripped of Our Illusions?

We live amidst illusions so deeply woven into the fabric of our lives that most of us mistake them for reality. They are comforting shrouds — myths of permanence, constructs of meaning, the false coherence of identity, the allure of progress. These illusions sustain us, individually and collectively, like fragile scaffolding

Living, a Multi-Dimensional Payoff Function

In navigating the contours of existence, I have often questioned the reductionist paradigms that frame life as a sequence of linear decisions aimed at singular, deterministic outcomes. Rather, I have come to perceive life as a multi-dimensional payoff function — a philosophical metaphor capturing the complex interplay of values, desires, and

Breath of Release : The Final Exhale

It’s strange how the final breath feels both foreign and familiar, like an old friend I’ve avoided but always knew would come. The air is thinner now, each inhale a negotiation with time, and with every exhale, I feel the world loosening its grip. Or is it me

Two Days in Shanghai : A Memoir of Concrete Souls and Flickering Dreams

The city breathes, but the breath is mechanical. I step off the plane, and the pulse of Shanghai reverberates beneath my feet, a rhythm not unlike a heartbeat but colder, distant. I have come to this towering metropolis for reasons I can’t even recall anymore — work, perhaps, or simply

The Hollowing

In the fading hours of twilight, where shadows stretch their thin fingers across landscapes that have long lost their meaning, he observes a world now entrenched in the dull hum of transaction. Once, there was depth. The waters of life felt bottomless, rich with the sediment of genuine connection, of