“I’ve always seen ‘obsession,’ something that’s usually seen as a negative thing, as positive.”
Simrin Ponamgi, a girl of science and puzzles, expresses her belief that obsession can be a virtue. In her eyes, obsession may sometimes be synonymous with passion. “To me, being ‘obsessed’ with one thing is so much better than being ambivalent about a lot of things.”
Some of Simrin’s passions relate to strong involvement in science and a tendency to read up on politics. But in the midst of this passion, she is able to see the arbitrary inequalities that plague such fields. As a woman in STEM, Simrin often faces unfair assumptions about her knowledge and abilities.
“I get so angry when white boys mansplain to me as if I don’t know what I’m doing or if I need an extra second to understand something. I get even more frustrated when I see the levels of income inequality and the unfair power dynamics at the professional level and feel like I should acknowledge that this is something that’s probably going to happen to me for the rest of my life. To some level, I’m always going to be at some slight disadvantage just because of my gender and because I’m not white.”
Because of the struggles she experiences, Simrin has come to realize that often times, there are people in the world who would continue creating obstacles to her success and relish in her failure.
The following quote from Watership Down is one that speaks to Simrin’s fight to remain clever and overcome hardship: “All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.”
The quote reminds her of the times Simrin’s dad would teach her a valuable lesson: “Everyone in this world is going to try to cut you down and make you fail—you have to push past all of that.”
To hold true to her survivor’s spirit and maintain an optimistic mindset, Simrin looks to the future. She reflects, “One thing I’ve always taken for granted is that the best is yet to come. I have always, always assumed without a doubt that there are better things in store for me, even if I’m already happy right now.
But with that assumption come many things that Simrin had to learn to appreciate over time: “the fact that I will go to college, that I’ll always have my mom to support me, that I’ll succeed in whichever field I choose, that I will be healthy, and that I’ll be happy.”
Once, Simrin encountered a shock to her system that changed her perspective on the fleeting nature of life. “I almost fell off a Ferris Wheel,” she says.
Although the statement may not initially seem significant on the surface, the memory is one that is traumatic to Simrin, given that she came face to face with the possibility of death.
“I was trying to take a picture of my two friends and had to lean all the way back against that railing to include the sunset in the picture when the Ferris Wheel jolted, and I almost tipped off. But I grabbed the railing at the last minute, and I am still very much alive and not paralyzed today.”
Born with a fighting spirit and still here today, Simrin successfully evades all the harm that tries to bring her down.
About Simrin
A girl who spends way too much time reading about politics, playing air hockey, and solving Rubik’s Cubes when she should be doing her physics homework.
Between the Lines 