First of all, what most people need to learn about 'Depression' is that it is NOT extreme sadness or despair. Depression is a disease like Cancer, ....(put other diseases you know here)..., So, It needs to handled by only experts. Society often judge depression patients as 'weak'. I certainly know it is NOT TRUE. The chemicals/hormones/neurons are in a bad state and need an intervention. It can happen to almost anyone
Next on the list, is to not give two hoots to what society thinks about you & their idea of 'success for you'. You have an extremely short life and you don't have time to fit in as per their preferences. The good news & most important thing here would be to understand that 'mental health' is always in your hands. It requires work. Real work. Mind or Brain is a tool.
I would like to personally suggest that 'Meditation & Self-Awareness' helps. But the key is you need to do it when you are happy and at the highest state of mental health as that creates a refuge for your brain to go to when it is not feeling in the best shape. So, it becomes the chicken-egg problem.
Anyway it is always prudent to bring in any form of meditation in your daily life. There are some very good resources on podcasting sites and YouTube. There is a mediation method for everyone, no-one-size-fits-all.
Meditation must not be confused with any religious ritual, it is a mental exercise. That being said, it is unfortunate that the monopoly of meditation lies in the hands of Religious & Spiritual Leaders & NOT Medical Practitioners. In the world of second bests, you could give 'Zen Meditation' (Get it on Amazon) a try without dipping yourself too much in the mystical aspects. Also, if you want to take it to the next level, try 'Prāṇāyāma'.
And, reading books on 'Meditation & Self-Awareness' is highly recommended if you can give that much time. (Get it all on Amazon from here)
This generation has now transitioned from being 'armchair activists' to 'placard-bearing protestors'. This comes in the wake of the new 'woke-generation'[1][2]
So why do we protest? Rather why protestors protest?
Protestors can be generally categorised in 3 categories A) They understand the real issue and feel protest is the only or one of the key ways to affect change
These are well meaning people whose only intention from the protests is brewing the steam of change. People of this category are well versed with the issue in concern and don't have vacuous reasons and stay away from propaganda. As you might have realised, this section of protestors form the minority of protestors.
B) They understand that their protest is the last thing the world needs, but they have insidious agenda and they are catalysts for the next category
Their motivation can be anything. Money, 15 minutes of fame[3], political leanings, propaganda conduit, etc.
This group causes the most chaos. They have expertise in making the environment of society caustic and volatile. Who are these people? You guessed it right, 'The Usual Suspects'
These are 15-30 year old people who haven't seen much world, are not well read, have been unlucky to get unsuitable nurturing by their immediate surroundings, etc. These people don't have voices of their own. They just depend on the next 'cool' phenomenon to latch on to. It's fashionable to follow/pursue a particular ideology or a school of thought or your political inclination based not on your understanding but because it sounds 'the in thing', and not because it's your idea but based on what a few handful of 'narrative-savvy marketers masquerading as social activists'[read Category B] propagate as wisdom.
Now, when you mix the above categories, it makes a very potent concoction for protests from every nook & corner of the society. The need of the hour is better primary education. An education system which favours cultural sensitivity, originality, ethics and rewards creativity. We need societies which are not another ape-version of a different society. We need to live local and breathe global. The gradual hatred of the new generation towards its roots creates rifts in societies and makes room for vested interest groups to take powerful and unfavourable seats.
My question to these protestors would be
Q. What are the top 3 actionable economic decisions world leaders need to take?
Q. Are there such examples currently?
Q. What are the top 3 social decisions we need to take collectively?
Q. What kind of society would make them leave all protests all-together, basically what is their utopian or not-so utopian idea?
Most of what we say as natural laws or theories of science are based on empirical findings. So, the question implores you to clarify if empirical findings can be taken as absolute truth. You might as well say that science is just good statistical analysis at play. The answer as always is with you.
What is the one thing you would like to change in the world?
Your answer could be anything. Something as basic as end of global hunger or as dramatic as a world with no national boundaries. Take any 'bit of change' you want to see and ask yourself if the cause is your own or is it of a significant value to you.
Are you taking any steps to affect the change as answered above?
Well, we all want a million things in life but those wishes are just that, mere wishful thinking if we don't act or make a systematic plan to bring our dreams to fruition. You can take baby steps, it doesn't matter as long as you are moving at least a bit forward everyday.
As the famous saying goes, "what gets measured gets improved". If you are not measuring your steps then perhaps your outcome will also be random. So, ask yourself what tools or methodologies are you employing to track your progress in the mission of your life as answered above.
So, when can we see that change you are about to bring in this world?
Setting an end date to any activity gives it life. Think about humans or any living being, we die because we live. So, if you put an end date or expiry date you have given your vision a life, which will turn into a mission.
Thanks for reading the third and final part of my series on Questions.
Read Part 1 & Part 2 if you have missed them :
Mainly the stand you have apropos the gender debate. You could believe in the dichotomous binary definition or buy the 'spectrum of gender' idea. Our own mythology is full of such debates about gender. A good resource on this would be 'Shikhandi: And Other Tales They Don’t Tell You' by Devdutt Pattanaik[Although, I am no way a fan of his works, just a good source to gauge the discussion going around; Read Pattanaik's works with a bagful of salt]. Quoting from it, "...Shikhandi, who became a man to satisfy her wife Mahadeva, who became a woman to deliver a devotee's child Chudala, who became a man to enlighten her husband Samavan, who became the wife of his male friend and many more...."
Do you believe in 'Gender Roles'?
Goto any restaurant, after you finish the meal and ask for the cheque, the waiter invariably would slide that towards the eldest male member of the family. This might come of as patriarchy to a lot of people but it seems practical to that waiter. Whether it's about doing the dishes at home, cooking for the folks, earning money, looking after kids/elders, talking to various kinds of outsiders for insurance/investing/etc..., all these activities seem to be taken care by one particular type of gender. So, that's the premise. Nowadays, all people in their working age are professionals or want to be if the situation is favourable. Under this new paradigm, the relevance of 'gender roles' definitely stokes few debates.
Is their pay parity?
A lot of feminist & women rights activists are still fighting for equal pay for all the employees in the same job, regardless of gender. Well the nuanced view here would be to understand the extent to which women and men are employed differently. A precursory look in the roles in which men and women are employed would actually make the debate more fruitful. It is to this end, the question urges you to think on.
What is Feminism?
Though, it seems obvious to almost everyone, ask any feminist few questions on the topic and they would stutter and beat around the bush or resort to male bashing. Well, this might not be the case, universally. So, that's the question, it's similar to asking someone on their views about 'existence of God'.
Is their a connection between liberalism and feminism?
If the people whom you entrust on, betray the very essence of their profession, you know that there is something inherently wrong in our upbringing. India as a nation might be very poor and weak to even consider professional ethics but when you don’t, people who believe in virtuous values lose hope. You kill the generous and innocent souls!
No one needs a course on ethics to let them take their professional decisions wisely; At least, not in one of the noblest professions of teaching.
The very idea of moulding a kid may sound very overwhelming to the genuinely interested and concerned professional teacher. However, few of the stakeholders involved in the process essentially use it as an opportunity to milk their innocence and naivety. Everybody party to such crime milks the growing kid to fill their bank accounts. This is very unnerving.
Teachers in our society are looked on as people who will fulfill the greedy ambitions of ignorant parents. The student generally is unaware about almost everything which awaits him in future. Parents and teachers bear a huge responsibility to make him aware and self-dependent. Every kid must learn to gather knowledge, choose wisely and own their decisions. By not letting the students make their own decisions and enforcing upon them some prejudiced career path, parents and teachers are committing a crime.
Few years ago, a teacher was brainwashing one of the kids. His choice of words was very simple, “What will you do with commerce? Take Science for a bright future”. No, he is not a professional counselor nor did he even consider digging deeper into the psyche of the student. He did not care for his likes, interests and aptitude. What is the motive? It is very simple; his bread depends upon students choosing science, getting into the grind of IIT-JEE coaching which generates revenue. This is not only the problem of teachers but also parents. The inordinate aspirations of parents never stop fuelling the mushrooming of test preparation companies. We are a nation which has falsely internalised that education is the easiest way to be rich and have a comfortable life. It is delusional.
If someone is genuinely interested in studying the concepts of rolling cylinders, hanging pulleys, spinning tops and moving cars, let him study science. If someone would like to bury him down under the weight of reaction mechanisms, let him study science. If someone would love to read calculus, let him study science. If someone wants to study science for entry to the hallowed walls of IIT & other elite engineering colleges, prepare him for the uphill but selfishly foolish task. But not if any of the conditions are not fulfilled.
Just for generating revenue or fulfilling your desires through your child, never force a kid to take a wrong career path. Please, don’t tell me that money excites you to commit such a crime and stop justifying it.
What worries me more is that most of the justification for the wrong career advice by teachers is the motivation of earning money. Is money the only motivator for doing things in the long run? Yes, you need money for survival but not anymore than that. You need a satisfying career to earn money from or just use your time judiciously. As teachers & parents, we must not make our kids money-minded scrooges. We need to have a nobler purpose in life.
Please, don’t make our kids a bunch of opportunist sloths. Let’s teach them first the values & ideals needed to lead a happy and satisfying life.
I have only felt this patriotic a couple of times before this ruckus. If you look at the actual incidence at JNU, it called for an incisive action right there at the bud. The whole chain of events conspicuously points to a serious problem in our nation. The problem of sympathising with the impostor victim.
Just skimming over the surface of all what has transpired in the nation just points out to a deep Narendra Modi hate which transformed into such depraved state of affairs. The unwavering tolerance of this nation towards minority appeasement has always stayed at the same level. Alas! few marketing mavericks of the stuttering opposition found a new voice. Raising the idea of intolerance and attacking the right leaning nature of our current BJP government. Invoking RSS-BJP in every incident which could garner viral attention became a trump card for political mouthpieces. It was never a secret what our current government's agenda is, much before the 2014's party election manifesto was out in public domain. Now, if the party has been given the green flag to fulfil them, we must respect the democratic mandate. Instead, the misguided youth of this nation has forgotten elementary economics and just understands the humanitarian narrative even at the cost of regressive ideas passing off as intellectual holy grail.
It is no secret that leftists of this country have never been nationalists in the true sense of the word. Refer this
...For example, can a Marxist historian be expected to offer a fair commentary of the Quit India Movement where the Communist Party of India had collaborated with the British Raj and worked against the interest of nationalists? ...
For once, I can accept that whatever happened at JNU was done by outsiders or was an one off incident. I would also accept Kanhaiya Kumar, was not involved in any anti-national activity. Now, where would I put the equally venomous sloganeering of Jadavpur University's kids?
There is a parallel narrative that an average JNU student is 40 years old researcher who acts as a parasite on nation's taxpayers' money. Does it not bother you, when there is so much hue and cry about the IIT students? By and large, most of the IITians stay back in the country and contribute to the GDP rather than eroding it & trying to equally divide & erode the GDP. I would like this narrative to be discussed some other time, though!
If you are not happy with your nation, you do raise your voice but never wish for its destruction. It is a sign of escapist terrorism. We have been too tolerant of the political ambitions of our elite class.
Successive Congress governments pampered the minority voting bloc and an impressive network of academics, NGOs, and others was developed that dominated the public sphere...
Now, is the time to take a side; Which is a sorry scenario. If corrupt & ill-motivated factions of the society want this simple act of seditious slur to take a political turn. Let it be. If they want this to be BJP versus the rest, let it be. You, my friend must take a side. Whether you wish prosperity with economic development or a nation knee deep in debt with successive governments giving lip-service to secularism, diversity and tolerance, is your call. I am not afraid of being labelled as a Narendra Modi 'Bhakt' if it comes with a hope of economic development and greater ease of doing business. Right now, the nation doesn't have an option. Whether you can be a Kejriwal fan or a Modi bhakt. Be unapologetic about it!
Arvind Kejriwal was a man who was suited as social change agent. I admired him much before he came in public limelight. He has now joined hands with all the ideologies which are anti-BJP. As, that is the only impediment for his ambitious plans to become the PM of India. I would never choose Kejriwal or his AAP anyway. So, the next and the only logical option we are left is BJP. So, I make my stand clear. This is just for the greater good. Modi government is a short term solution till we figure out a messiah better than Kejriwal and having a clearer vision than NDA alliance.
At this juncture, I would like to point out that nobody is shutting JNU. That is a straw man argument. It just takes the attention of the youth away from the main issue. The incident at JNU must not be repeated is what the nation is after. Don't be patriotic! Don't be nationalist! But at least have some regard & respect for a billion people who empty out their pockets to educate you.
Revolutions should survive itself, it must not act like a parasite. And the youth needs a direction!
It can be rightly said that this issue has polarised the nation in two halves but I feel it was needed at this point. Or else, the prolonged misuse of minority rights to target Hindu majority will be an intellectual pastime and paralyse the nation beyond recuperation.
Life doesn’t always give people ample chances to express themselves. Sometimes, that could be catastrophic for the person whose emotions are unexpressed when the water is already under the bridge.
Ankur always wanted to live a life full of extremes. He was a day-dreamer. He lived in a posh colony. His parents were the kind of people, as all parents are, somewhat uninterested in his small stories. Stories which were beautiful only when you see it through a child’s eyes. Like most of the kids, he became happy & sad with small things. He was always an expressive person, he needed a person to share those seemingly trivial anecdotes. Richa, the garrulous girl who lived just a few blocks away and used to come to the park to play slowly became interested in Ankur’s stories. Richa cycled on her ladybird everyday to sit with Ankur & listen to all his stories. Richa’s banter always enthused Ankur to share each of his stories as & when they happened. Their friendship survived the test of teenage and went to adulthood.
Ankur started to deal with his adulthood. His parents were all ears to him but there was an artificial wall between them which only Ankur could see. He still maintained the same protocol of telling everything to Richa. Richa had also grown up and used to fill Ankur with all her crushes. She used to describe about all the guys she crushed upon in detail. Ankur always had that smirk to hide his true emotions. Each passing day started becoming more gruesome for Ankur.
“Hey! You know there’s this cute guy in my office who blushes in my presence”, Richa says in the middle of a long silence. “Hmmmm, something’s brewing!” exclaimed Ankur. Albeit, Ankur’s heart started churning and all he wanted to do was cry. He wanted to sob with all his energy and take his lungs & heart out.
“I don’t know what to do, Ankur. He is a bit shy and never takes any steps to break the ice between us”
“Richa, I think sometimes women should take the first step. It looks special” puts in Ankur
Years passed, Richa’s heart had fallen for yet another guy which was like a quarterly routine for her. Ankur was in cognizance of this and he did his best to listen to all what Richa had to say. However, during the last few years Ankur had lost a friend. The friend who used to listen to all of his stories. The friend who never judged his stories. The friend who did her best to comfort Ankur when she was the only way Ankur could find solace. So much unsettling this was for Ankur, but he kept all those emotions inside him. There was a reason behind it. Now, he was not that same 10 year old kid. He was a grown man with his matured stories. Almost all those stories had Richa in it. The Richa, who was a beautiful young lady. The Richa, who could make Ankur’s worries go away with a smile. The Richa, in whose presence Ankur lived with tranquility. Alas, he was afraid to say all this to Richa.
He had loved Richa all those years. Now, he wanted to express that love with his stories but Richa never gave Ankur the confidence which he needed to spill the beans out. Ankur & Richa kept on meeting each other. However, there developed an invisible wall between him & Richa.
His life became a brutal maze in which every night he reached the same nadir of hopelessness of unrequited love. Ankur cried himself to sleep every night. This went on for few weeks. He finally decided that he is going to express himself. He had had his share of wallowing in fear of rejection. He brushed up all the stories safely stacked up in his heart. He could almost feel his heart pounding. He had a childlike innocent confidence that Richa would accept his proposal. He put on his best clothes, checked his smell and marched on his way to a mission. There was a minor worry in his mind though. He didn’t meet Richa last evening & his calls went unanswered late last night. But, sanity prevailed over him and he assured himself that she might have fallen asleep.
He presses the buzzer outside Richa’s flat. But, it was pointless as he realised that quite a lot of people are coming in & out of her flat. He asked one of them, “Bhai, what’s the reason for this flux of people?” “Dude, the girl left her body for heavenly abode last night. Peaceful death, family members only realised it in the morning. Doctors say it was a cardiac arrest. Strange thing!” replied the young boy shattering Ankur’s world forever.
Hoping against hope he asks, “Richa?” The guy replies , “Yes of course, Richa. She was the only girl in the house.”
Ankur went inside Richa’s flat. Waved a goodbye and strolled back towards his home without shedding a drop of tear. His life was transformed. He got lost in a different maze. A maze which had so many hints to get out of it. Alas, he never wanted to come out of it. Richa was the reason he was trying to find a way out of the earlier maze. His emotions remained forever unexpressed. He failed. He had failed to put across a proper impression. His failed impression would haunt him forever.
Every phenomenon is contiguous and hence it has to end. The very idea of contiguity leading to continuity keeps this world sane, full of hope. I’m reminded of the movie “The Shawshank Redemption” in which the lead protagonist says “hope is a good thing...maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.”
When you come to a residential college campus, you don’t realise how experiences will transform your life by shaping it bit by bit and changing it nibble by nibble. More so, in case of a campus that boasts itself as the biggest and oldest of the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs).
You do not need to worry, as I’m not going to pass on my nostalgia so soon. I have almost 2 months of stay at IIT KGP, left with me and I would try to make you all cry when I publish my last blog-post as an IIT student. Be prepared!
The agenda of discussion in this post is fear. What is fear? How do you define it? What is the psychology of fear? What is the physiology of fear? How to cross the barrier of fear? Fear comes from unawareness and ignorance. In most cases, fear is the first form of self-defense mechanism a person exhibits. We generally don’t understand this, but if we stop the fear emotions from coming to the fore, it gives us phenomenal strength to handle apparently extraordinary tasks with much ease and poise.
The realization I gained in the past month is that we can win against any kind of fear, we just need to keep on pushing us to do the task which we fear doing. In my case it is primarily darkness. Hence, I started lonely early morning-late night walks around the institute (can be read as 2.2). Remarkably, I was able to take lonely walks without a sense of fear, I started enjoying the friendly but mysterious sights of Owls; I started stalking them. I decided to give the final test, as I’d won over the fear of darkness. According to Vatty Da, there is a lane which leads us to National Service Scheme (NSS) office, from the National Cadets Corps (NCC) office. He asked me to go there, as he considered the place as one of the few inside institute which can frighten a person like me, even if I have decided to be strong and brave.
The very next day, I took the call and ventured out on the presumably scariest lonely walk of my life. I was quite normal and nonchalant just 1 foot away from the passage. As I stepped in the purview of the lane, I started shivering. However, there were many more things to worry about that day. I was pre-occupied with lots of ideas and mental conflicts; this fuelled my will power and neglected all the pats on my back, apparent whispers, weird voices and eeriness of that place. This was not the end of it. As I was returning back, I would have been hardly 10 meters from the lane when there was a distinct screeching voice which tried too hard to divert my attention towards itself. My will power and presence of mind was at its peak and I didn’t pay much attention to that voice which was trying to convey the message “I’m at severe pain, help me!” even if I was not able to hear it properly and the source wasn’t generating any understandable language. Needless to say, it wasn’t a sane idea to go that place for validation of my interpretation. I just went ahead, while the voice kept on following me as if I’m not moving. When I reached near Vikramshila building complex, all the dogs inside the complex immediately started barking at something behind me and after that the voice was no more heard of. I showed tremendous guts and presence of mind to accomplish this achievement of successfully completing the lonely walk to NSS office gate and return back normal.
In the hindsight, there was something very eerie, spooky and scary about that lane which I cannot explain neither you can describe even if you do muster up courage to go there alone. Whenever, I talk about it or think about it I start shivering the same way as I was shivering while walking along that old, almost abandoned lane. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine!
Disclaimer : Try this adventurous lonely walk to NSS office, at your own risk and will power. My advice is that you must not go there between 1 AM to 6 AM
I’m not talking about the obese, burger in hand, iPod earphones plugged-in to ears and low waist jeans clad teenager; they are not going to change the world anyway. History is evident that all the great revolutions have been a result of merciless suppression, discrimination and exploitation. If you don’t allow the release of steam from the pressure cooker, the pressure inside will go on increasing and it will explode.
Women have been discriminated mentally, physically and sexually for more than centuries and now we are feeling the gradual rise in women power though occasional cases of victims like Ruchika Girhotra attract a lot of mainstream media attention and spark national debates on molestation, human-trafficking, prostitution, domestic violence on women and workplace harassment.
If we do not start introspection and start doing something for the next generation such that they don’t face similar debates, we should be ready for explosions literally as well as figuratively.
Take a case of girl who is physically and sexually assaulted by a group of insurgents or terrorists for a week, without giving proper rest or food. Most of the girls don’t ever remain alive to experience any more cruelties of the world but the few who do survive are brainwashed and made anti-establishment. They go on to become more dangerous terrorists or insurgents than their male counterpart.
This is just an extreme case; most of the teenagers learn what they are asked to follow by parents and taught by teachers. Parenting is a very sensitive science and usually considered easier than conceiving a child but we all know it is not true. This doesn’t have immediate reflections on the society.
However, when people who have mass following and are responsible citizens misuse their power and faith common people have in them, they can only ruin a child’s career which becomes detrimental for the society.
Below is a video of a 13 year old Hindu girl addressing a VHP's rally, Spitting out venom against Muslims while targeting Pakistan.
Obviously, this can’t be the words of a 13 year old but is portraying as an ideal example of a mislead youth. Once a person attains puberty, the forces known as libido influences our mental state and we act accordingly. If the libido doesn’t find a useful means to flow from the body it engages itself, it short-circuits and the person mindlessly involves himself or herself in destructive fantasies.
Similarly, if the teenager grows in an environment of compassion, motivation and empathy he/she becomes the next Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa or Sergey Brin. The girl in the video just below is a live example.
“…And thereon every child I met, who has been violated and abused I made sure the child understood that he/she is the one who is wronged and being a victim is not something one should be ashamed of. As the anger, pain, outrage and unbearable sense of betrayal poured out, the child was cleared of a burden of a lifetime. Through unconditional love, empathy and acceptance the child was able to see the beautiful person within. As we took the journey together the child was able to slowly regain dignity and a spirit to conquer all odds.”
Sunitha Krishnan didn’t succumb to the seclusion by society, she kept on stewing her anger and when she was brimming with confidence and motivation, wanted to do something meaningful for the girls like her and she did channelise all her energy towards Prajwala.
We need more girls like Sunitha who could fight for their innocent sisters like Ruchika Girhotra.
The world we live in is not hell, good people do exist and they do understand their responsibility and the faith we have in them. Our culture, upbringing and environment we grow all reflect in our personality throughout our life. The perception of your right eye is different than your left eye.
I wish the youth of today who would be responsible citizens of tomorrow realise this very soon and save this world from mass destruction, if the world is going to end in December, 2012 it might me due to improper channelisation and insensible perception of the leaders of the world, but I do not believe in this theory at all.
"Individuals make the families; families constitute the societies; and societies together form the nations, an ensemble of which is seen as the world." [Source]
Humans are known to adapt to every adversity and I know the youth will eradicate all the evils including the "vicious circle of corruption" and bring the changes in the social scenario envisioned by our forefathers and world would remain continuous.
Loves charts & graphs.
A numbers guy with a flair for writing. I tweet sporadically (@ashishgourav)
Apart from being a Trader, Startup Guy, Educator, IIT Kharagpur Alum I am into Movies, Books, Conversations and everything amongst them.
Also, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata(Quant Economics)
