Astika Gupta

How did you feel about participating in this work- shop?

The first time I heard about this workshop, it definitely intrigued me as M berry was something I had never heard about and the possibility of a berry altering my taste buds temporarily was something I was totally unaware of. I was excited to attend this workshop and was looking forward to tasting the berry. Since I wanted this to be a complete unique and mysterious experience, I deliberately chose not to read up about this berry previously.

How did your feelings affect your experience?

I really enjoyed the experience and actually experiencing my taste buds being altered was one of its kinds. Though I was a little skeptical as to how a berry would actually do that, I was amazed that it really worked.

How did your associations change when trying the same foods after trying the berry?

Firstly, I would like to talk about the foods for which my associations didn’t change at all – dark chocolate and salty chips. Before trying the M berry, the dark chocolate tasted bitter and I expected that after trying the M berry, it would taste sweeter by atleast some amount. I didn’t expect it to taste sweet completely but after trying the M berry, the bitter taste didn’t go at all and it tasted equally bitter. So my association with the bitter dark chocolate didn’t go at all.
Secondly, I ll talk about the food for which my associations changed somewhat and not considerably- that food is bread. Earlier my association for bread was soft, sweet and brown and after tasting the M berry, the bread tasted sweeter by just a tad. My association did change after tasting the M berry and now whenever I taste the bread, I expect it to be sweeter than the actual sweetness of the bread.
Thirdly, I will talk about the food for which my association changed completely- this food is lemon-because the associations I had with the lemon before tasting the M berry was sour but after the M berry, the lemon tasted too sweet – as much as a lemonade and it was too amazing to me as to how a too sour food item can taste too sweet! It allowed me to have a lot of lemon slices without me changing my facial expressions, which earlier was the case due to the sourness. My association has totally changed for lemons, which is too sweet now. I wish though, lemons could taste that way all the time so that I can have them more often.

How would your attitude change if all food was to taste like this at least once a year, what about all the time?

I would be alright if all foods tasted like this once a year because it is a sort of a new change to the original every day tastes. But I am definitely not on board for the food items to taste this way all the time. I would like to keep it original and would stick to these tastes as I am used to them since always. Also, the M berry just sweetens a food item if it actually does alter the taste. So having sweetness all the time is one thing I don’t want.

Astika Gupta

ASTIKA GUPTA

1. What if we looked at all objects, people, thoughts, and things in the world this way?

If we were to look at all that is around us right from objects to people including abstract things like thoughts and feelings, we would have in depth understanding about each and every thing that is associated with us. In my opinion having a critical thinking mindset definitely helps us in weighing both sides of that thing equally. Critical thinking would enable us to look at a thing without having any pre conceived notions or biases which would in turn allow us to see some hidden aspects related to that thing which we would have missed otherwise. But practically speaking, it is too taxing to dissect each and every thing as it would take a lot of mental effort and would be draining for our brains. Hence, I believe that thinking critically to some extent would be beneficial versus not thinking critically at all and it would be less taxing versus thinking absolutely critically all the time. It is for us to

2. When would we need to look at the world this way?

Since it is not always possible for us to think critically and look at the world this way, we should decide for ourselves as individuals how far we could and should go while thinking critically to reap its benefits and where we should draw a line so that it doesn’t affect our mental well being. Also, we should prioritize things that our worthy of being looked at this way; things that are too important for us or those which actually mean something to us or people who actually matter to us. All other things that don’t fall in our personal scope or priority should not be looked at critically.

3. Has the meaning of this object changed?

Before performing a formal dissection to this key ring, it was just a key ring that had a key that opened my door and sometimes when I used to look at it closely, especially at the text “I love Mom”, it would remind me of my mom. After the dissection, I have looked at every aspect of it so closely, that it has changed its meaning for me in that the text “I love mom” has been actually associated with this key chain for me, now every time I look at it, because I have worked on it so closely it always reminds me of my mom and so I have attached more emotionally with this key chain. Also, the importance of the key that opens my house door has increased for me because I was forced to think about the consequences as to what would happen if I loose this key. Finally, the small Walgreens rewards card reminds me always about my pending grocery shopping and so these days my shopping is happening well in time. Overall this key chain is not only more emotionally valuable to me but also I now know that losing it would be very bad to me on many different levels.

Astika Gupta

ASTIKA GUPTA

1. What if we looked at all objects, people, thoughts, and things in the world this way?

If we were to look at all that is around us right from objects to people including abstract things like thoughts and feelings, we would have in depth understanding about each and every thing that is associated with us. In my opinion having a critical thinking mindset definitely helps us in weighing both sides of that thing equally. Critical thinking would enable us to look at a thing without having any pre conceived notions or biases which would in turn allow us to see some hidden aspects related to that thing which we would have missed otherwise. But practically speaking, it is too taxing to dissect each and every thing as it would take a lot of mental effort and would be draining for our brains. Hence, I believe that thinking critically to some extent would be beneficial versus not thinking critically at all and it would be less taxing versus thinking absolutely critically all the time. It is for us to

2. When would we need to look at the world this way?

Since it is not always possible for us to think critically and look at the world this way, we should decide for ourselves as individuals how far we could and should go while thinking critically to reap its benefits and where we should draw a line so that it doesn’t affect our mental well being. Also, we should prioritize things that our worthy of being looked at this way; things that are too important for us or those which actually mean something to us or people who actually matter to us. All other things that don’t fall in our personal scope or priority should not be looked at critically.

3. Has the meaning of this object changed?

Before performing a formal dissection to this key ring, it was just a key ring that had a key that opened my door and sometimes when I used to look at it closely, especially at the text “I love Mom”, it would remind me of my mom. After the dissection, I have looked at every aspect of it so closely, that it has changed its meaning for me in that the text “I love mom” has been actually associated with this key chain for me, now every time I look at it, because I have worked on it so closely it always reminds me of my mom and so I have attached more emotionally with this key chain. Also, the importance of the key that opens my house door has increased for me because I was forced to think about the consequences as to what would happen if I loose this key. Finally, the small Walgreens rewards card reminds me always about my pending grocery shopping and so these days my shopping is happening well in time. Overall this key chain is not only more emotionally valuable to me but also I now know that losing it would be very bad to me on many different levels.