University of Pennsylvania — Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE)

Hannah Arendt’s observation on the banality of evil offers a troubling revelation: the worst acts of evil aren’t committed by monsters but by ordinary people—often due to thoughtlessness, lack of ideological conviction, or fear of authority. Oh, how easy it was to detach from the world—or so I thought.

At 4 a.m., I, too, confronted my own thoughtlessness. Let’s wind it back. Living in Mumbai, the city that never sleeps, I had made peace with getting 4-5 hours of rest, but I faced the dilemma of deciding what else to do. Some days, I’d speed-run through Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization policies for my coursework—I had learned Russian by then—or reread Kafka’s The Trial for the 41st time. Yet something felt missing.

One restless morning, I took a walk on Juhu Beach—after all, wasn’t living next to the beach a privilege? The colorful Ferris wheels, children bouncing cricket balls, and shouts of “Howzat!” had always been the soundtrack of my childhood. As I wandered, a burst of laughter shot through the air—I saw a group of elderly men seated on plastic chairs, joking loudly. One exclaimed, “I asked Modi for a book recommendation, and he gave me a list of excuses!”