Keshiv Tandon (12) laughs as he recalls a middle school memory: after his ceaseless consumption of books, his parents instilled a rule upon him — he was banned from reading. However, he saw this rule as ridiculous and disregarded it completely. Though his parents still enforced the rule in the house and car, Keshiv instead read more books in the school’s library. To this day, he has the same passion for books and reading.

Keshiv particularly enjoys books that question morality and delve into different outlooks on life. He also finds many role models in these various stories. Recognizing that characters that were his role models back when he was young as having different traits than those he admires nowadays, he realizes how that reflects on his own change in mindset.

“The characters I admire now aren’t just focused on saving their friends in a fantasy story, they’re trying to see the bigger picture of, ‘I can save my friends, but at the cost of something else,’ and are able to think through that process,” Keshiv said.

In the book “No Longer Human” by Osamu Dazai, which particularly impacted Keshiv, Dazai details the life of Oba Yozo, the protagonist, and his struggles with alienation, abuse and self-acceptance.

“He puts a mask on and pretends that he’s like everybody else,” Keshiv said. “And we only get his perspective, so there’s always a question of, ‘How do we know that not everybody is putting that same mask on?’”

Keshiv finds solace in the knowledge that others are each going through their individual struggles, similar to the book’s protagonist.

“[No Longer Human] ironically made me more confident because of this understanding that you’re not alone, everybody might be going through the same thing,” Keshiv said.

Keshiv is also able to relate the experiences of the protagonist to his own life, using the ordeals that Yozo experienced as guidance on his own life choices.

“That’s helped me step out of my comfort zone more often, because I have nothing to lose,” Keshiv said. “The worst case scenario [is] I fail, I embarrass myself. And then that’s fine. I’ll learn from it at least. Best case scenario, I have an unforgettable experience. And I think that’s a lot more worth it.”

Keshiv applies these skills he learns from characters within the pages to those of whom he talks to in his daily life. His conversations with others have resulted in a better comprehension of others and, at times, leads to changes in his own mindset.

In Youth for Government, a political program Keshiv is a part of, he wrote a bill legalizing genetic editing for embryos with fatal diseases. At first, he believed that it would pass unanimously, seeing as how with it, many lives would be saved. However, as he debated in favor of the bill, he realized the many faults within the bill, such as problems arising regarding eugenics.

“Seeing others’ perspectives is something that I wish other people cared about more often — keeping an open mind in general,” Keshiv said. “Especially in today’s day and age, it’s really easy to see ‘them’ and ‘us,’ and villainize other groups of people, but I think that it’s important to keep the perspective of ‘even though someone might be on the other side of the screen, they all are still people.’”

Upper school biology teacher Jeff Sutton, who teaches Keshiv in two classes, noted Keshiv’s thoughtfulness.

“He’s definitely a deep thinker,” Sutton said. “He thinks tangentially — he thinks about things that are going along aside from what we’re currently talking about, which is pretty fascinating.”

Sutton reminisces on his first day meeting Keshiv, thinking of how, when asked to write a one-sentence warmup, Keshiv instead wrote a paragraph as a response. While Keshiv appears more reserved, his ideas are all the more well-developed, as he spends time fleshing out his thoughts.

“There might be a few times where he doesn’t speak, but when he does, it’s additive to the discussion,” Sutton said. “He’s pretty quiet, but then when he speaks, it’s like, ‘Whoa, you have been processing this for quite some time.’”

This quality of his, the ability to think both tangentially and abstractly, allows him to understand those around him better as well. Keshiv’s abilities to communicate with others and understand their unique points of view allows him to connect with his family as well, in particular his younger sister Shaila Tandon (9).

“Sometimes, we take our dog on a walk, just the two of us, and it’s a really great time for us to bond,” Shaila said. “We’re very open, we talk about how our day was, anything interesting, what we learned. It’s very casual, it’s nice because we can talk about some things that we can’t really talk about [normally].”

While Keshiv can be more reflective and thoughtful, his friends also enjoy his positivity and lightheartedness. Close friend Aaron Tran (12) appreciates how Keshiv presents himself as a positive person.

“I don’t think there’s any discrepancy between his inner self and what he projects outside,” Aaron said. “He’s a really happy and fun loving person, but also thoughtful at the same time. [His presence] is effortlessly enjoyable.”

Keshiv’s positivity isn’t only infectious; he believes in it wholly himself as well. Citing Kung Fu Panda’s regarding the present as a gift, he regards Master Oogway’s words as profound, despite its origins being from a kids movie. He comments on the astuteness of the turtle’s words, employing such a mentality in his day-to-day life.

“It’s better to do what you enjoy in the present and let that dictate your future,” Keshiv said. “Because at the end of the day, if you are doing what you enjoy in the present, then you’re more likely to enjoy the future.”