The Atharva Mentality

A Confusing Character Study

Staff Writer

Taking six APs, buried in extracurriculars, lies Atharva Sarnobat (11), yet not once did he communicate being stressed. Why? And how?

While trying to secure interviews about Sarnobat, I was met with varying reactions. Some kindly declined, others enthusiastically accepted the offer, but everyone could agree on one thing: Life around Atharva Sarnobat simply fails to be boring.

“He’s very bold. I guess he tries to get us to take risks. Just for fun,” said Adrian Yuen (11). “I am taking AP Calculus BC and part of it was due to his pressure, but I don’t regret it at all because I love the class.”

Aaron Tai (11) who has known Sarnobat since elementary school, said, “He kinda has a different type of mindset. You know, there’s like the ‘Mamba Mentality’. Atharva has the ‘Atharva Mentality’. His thought process is very black and white; he either thinks he will succeed or thinks he will fail miserably.”

Sarnobat paused for a second when hearing about the “Atharva Mentality,” then said. “I do have a very black and white mentality. Things will either work or they won’t.”

Yuen also had an understanding of the “Atharva Mentality.” “He’s a lot more bold in terms of academics. He’s like, ‘I don’t really care about failure. I just know that I will succeed.’”

“It’s not that I don’t have a fear of failure. I just won’t accept failure. I want to see the world improve. I think I’m very upset when I see things that aren’t as good as they could be. And I’m very vocal about it,” responded Sarnobat.

Repeatedly, Sarnobat’s idea of how he portrayed himself to others, the positives and the negatives, remained consistent with my interviewees (and those who declined). But that definitely did not mean this idea was true to reality.

Yuen connected the “Atharva Mentality” to Sarnobat’s schedule, loaded with six APs “He knew that if he challenged himself, it would be really rewarding for him, It would definitely pay off. He really wants to be valedictorian.”

Aiden Tai (11), a childhood friend of Atharva, said “I remember [in elementary school], He got a Redzone because he asked too many questions and the teacher actually got mad at him.” Tai saw many similarities between the past and present Artharvas. “He’s still really smart and talks a lot. He still has strong opinions about a lot of things. They might think he’s pretentious, [but] when people get to know him. I think they like him.”

“He’s very candid, and would say whatever he thinks on his mind. He’s very expressive, loud, out of the ordinary, you know,” said Aaron Tai (no relation).

“I’m definitely expressive about what I think, and this has a habit of getting me into trouble, but I try to be honest in both directions,” said Sarnobat.

“We always have interesting conversations. He just stands out as a really smart and fun guy to be around. And you can learn a lot from being around him,” said Ayush Chaurasia, a Junior hurdler for American’s Track and Field Team. “Atharva has really stood out as a leader for the hurdlers because he is one of the most experienced hurdlers on the team. When we were trying to teach the freshmen how to hurdle he played a pivotal role in explaining the mechanics.”

When asked about leadership as an elder hurdler, Sarnobat provided a brief answer, “I learned like, you can just make people better than you. I saw him run faster than me [and] I was like ‘damn’ I helped,” then turned the conversation to his role on the debate team. “I’ve been captain this year for debate so I have to teach these people which is really funny because I actually had to learn a ton; there’s so much that I didn’t know. But it was very interesting to learn about things from a teacher’s perspective in the sense of how you’re gonna advance the class”

Sarnobat spoke in a quick and excited tone when elaborating on his connection to debate. “I like to argue but I also really enjoy philosophy. I think I’ve always liked to ask more and more questions. And the essence of debate is to ask the most prevailing questions about the world. So it’s a very nice intersection between philosophy, history, and problem solving, which I find very relaxing.”

“Debate? He’s really good at winning arguments. You can’t really win an argument against him,” said Aiden Tai.

Aaron Tai, interjecting into my interview with Aiden Tai, provided one more detail. “I’m very proud of Atharva; In the future, I hope he becomes successful and I can leech off of him.”

Caption: Before an American track meet, Atharva Sarnobat (11) poses with his teammates for “Fancy bus #8.” “Basically Fancy Bus started when we were at the first track meet and [Coach] Lindsay ordered those hella fancy white buses. As track went on, the series became a way to document memories of the people on the team,” said Sarnobat. “I’ve been able to include a bunch of my friends in the posts, and each year I look forward to being able to add to the series and include more friends I have in track.” (PC: Atharva Sarnobat) (11))