Suicide. Is it a practice of the cowardly? Or is it the relief from the inhuman tortures and unearthly expectation of the people to that the person tries to confide into? Is it really easy escape from the death or is it the submission to the struggle and adversity of everyday? Is it really the end of depression Or is it because there is no one who is listening? Or if listening, no one really understands. Yes. Agreed. It really takes a number of balls and times of manning up to live your life in this concised and intervening society. But why the person who needs an escape from all this is called a coward and not those people who actually were busy decorating another hell on earth which actually driven that poor with no other choices left. Isn’t it another kind of murder. Yes. An unintended one. But it is what it is Well. You might be thinking. How can people be so cruel and inhuman that some decides to just quit it for life. But isn’t it what we are also part of if we analyze our actions bit by bit. How many times we actually ask someone who seems lonely and depressed enough? Good job. May be you did most of the times. But how many times that listening sessions turned out to be a really lecturing ones and you really gave that person a space to talk to?
How many times you really analyzed and introspected your daily actions? Did you insult or hurt someone? Did you made out a joke and tried to invade into their personal space? Did you just bitched about them cause you do not like the person they are. Or you just commented cause you are so good at judging and picking out on people.
How many times when you were roaming in your so-called-gang, you actually showed off your social skills but there might be someone who is just awaiting an invitation so that he doesn’t feel left out anymore.
How many times you taken people for granted or used them just for your personal matters.
How many times did you ask someone to live on your terms or tried to own them?
How many times you mocked someone for their looks or bad scores?
I am pretty sure we all have done more than one of what written above and are cool with the fact cause it seems pretty normal. Cause not to do such things is the definition of ideal world. But is there any definition for the normal world?
I guess it’s “An unlivable one”.
I am not justifying the suicidal acts nor I am trying to ignore it whole.
I am just waiting for that day when the people will mostly focusing and analyzing on the reasons rather than spreading out rumours and making it difficult for another life to live here.
So lately if you have been online lately, you must have seen such a big influx of Indians on the comment sections of literally everywhere, be it Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, Youtube, Forums. Isnt that supposed to be a good thing that we are representing India everywhere. My answer would ideally be yes, until it comes down to reality. Internet is too good for us. While Internet has given us a good channel for us to express, the usage that we had pre-Jio era was still pleasant. People used to do their things as per their priorities. They were searching for pieces of code, chatting with their friends and crushes, visiting cyber cafes for filling up forms or to check the results. That was a sweet era of the internet in India. After the Jio boom, everybody has internet, data that needs to be consumed and an opportunity to make our lives better. And what do we do with that?
Some improved their lives further, some played online mobile games, some started reading online articles, while some recieved the articles in their FB, Insta, Reddit feed. We are a pretty vocal lot. We started giving our opinions on stuffs. That is where this story starts. Now, I am not saying that people from other countries are not vocal. They are. But can you match the numbers that we have, do you have that active internet users that we have. India has an internet penetration of approximately 40%, which can overwhelm a discussion forum with the numbers. Now those numbers have a huge potential to do some real good: standing up for something, taking a stand, holding up an opinion. But sadly it has actually become a hornet’s nest. You can’t criticize and/or have discussion about something negative happening in India being an outsider. The crowd of online immature users will run you over. And that is not cool. Even Indians who criticize something are labelled left wing or right wingers. We have to understand not everyone who is criticizing has an agenda. Sure, most media houses are serving biased content these days, but being on the internet, we don’t have to subscribe to everything that they are serving. There used to be a time, the media houses and their editorials used to be a great source of gaining perspective. But these days since most of the news publications are being powered by one of the parties, they are not an apt source to gain information. Our best hope is to take the facts from their content and keep their biased opinions aside. Avoiding sharing content which is not verified.
Positives
Sure we had some wins given the united stands of our netizens. The most profilic of them being net-neutrality. When the news broke out that free internet might be in danger , we all took our stands and made sure nothing of that sort could endanger our freedom. That has been the most potent use of our powers as netizens. But aside from that, in most other cases, our power has been borderline annoying. Be it the case of T-Series against PewDiePie. It was never about India vs The World, but we made it seem like in our eyes and then eventually in front of the world. It was about an individual vs a corporation. But lets not get into the details. My point here is we took the diss track personally and launched online attacks on anyone who stood against the motion. In our mind, we were defending India, but in reality we were adding to that annoying factor. Another highlighted case was of a confusion in names of current PM and a former PM of Bhutan. Use the link to see the story. Now, when Sharapova(an individual) said that she doesn’t know Sachin, she was trolled massively. While here a media house, the people who are supposed to have the most researched stuffs, made this massive blunder. My point here is: first, Mr Lotay TShering, we are sorry on behalf of our news agencies and secondly, its okay if someone doesn’t comply to our views or opinions, just agree to disagree and carry on with your lives instead of thrusting your own opinion onto others.
What can we do?
So, that was the problem. What is the way ahead? My advice would be to just be calm and think before we outrage or just think if we would say the same thing if the person was infront of us. In most of the cases, we would probably retract our outrage. In this digital era of anonymity(well proxy-anonymity), it is so easy to get polarised in your views. I am pretty sure if I want you to agree with me on, lets say, on how Facebook is an evil organisation and your privacy means nothing to them, I would share few emotional articles which will touch a nerve and bam, the seeds are sown, which will bear the fruits eventually. Now, Facebook sure is turning to the dark side and that’s no propaganda(I will talk about it some other time, maybe next). News is not news these days, everything has become an editorial, with the presentor forcing their thoughts onto their readers/viewers. And I am not saying that other countries dont have this problem, they sure do, but its not as magnified as us, because of our huge internet user base. Now, talking to people who already subsribe to above views, I recently did an experiment with positive results and wish to propagate the same. The experiment is to talk to people outraging and calm them down. During the recent Zomato controversy, where a guy refused to take an order from a Muslim delivery boy. I went to Instagram and tried talking to a person outraging in some comment section. Ofcourse I was abused pretty colorfully initially, but after a round of one-to-one logical talk, I was able to pacify him. Now, he may or may not outrage again, but I would like to believe that he will let logic be his driver rather than anger in his conversations ahead. We really need tolerance in our online opinions these days. So, my advice again, would be to talk to people spreading hate or colorful opinions over the internet and we might be able to change the tone into a more positive one, one person at a time.
Akarsh was walking on the road with his mother in the warm afternoon. The sun was spewing the UV rays like sprinklers spraying water everywhere, making sure everything in vicinity gets some radiation.
Its a pretty normal noon, dogs are trying to find a comfortable place to sleep in, some people trying to catch a bus for their offices, playschool students seemingly happy to get back to their parents, the pride of parenthood showing up on parents faces. The street kids running half naked towards the nearby lake. The shopkeepers cleaning up and loitering on the streets. The cars going at 40kmph on the narrow roads creating ruckus at an ear-deafening level. Akarsh makes a mental note of everything as he reaches home.
While going to bed, he asked his mom, “Mom, why do people throw garbage on the streets?”
His mother replied “Beta, they are just lazy people. You please go to sleep.”
“But they can keep a plastic bag with them na, if they are too lazy?”
“Its not that simple beta”
“But…”
“Okay tell me what superhero power you would want to teach them a lesson.”, she cut him off.
“I would become Flash and would go back in time and keep repeating the past till they don’t throw the trash in the bins”, Akarsh said giddily.
The mother smiled; half proud of her son’s passion and half on the ignorance of the idea of paradox of time-travel that her son was fathoming.
She listened to the mumbling of her child as he carried on the idea and eventually slept.
Akarsh woke up to a voice calling his name. The voice came from a long distance that he knew he couldn’t trace. The voice asked him “What is making you anxious?”
“It’s the people” said Akarsh in a muffled voice.
“Hahaha..you have to be a little more specific on that.”, said the voice grinning loudly.
“Why do people throw their garbage on the streets? Why don’t they understand its a moral duty to keep your area clean”
The voice culminated into a shadowy figure and came close to him.
“I am tired of dropping hints to them. Tell me if you have any good idea.”
Akarsh whispered something into the shadow ears.
Next day, Akarsh walked around with grinny face. Everywhere he saw, it was so clean. The half naked children were still running to the dirty pond. The dogs still couldn’t find a warm place to sleep. The ear deafening cars were still a big trouble. He thought to himself, atleast one thing got cured. We will work for other problems some other day.
“Look mom, its so clean today. No garbage, everything either in the dustbins or in the ‘houses’.”, he giggled.
“How did this happen?”, mom thought loud enough in order to make Akarsh answer.
“I asked the ‘voice’ to turn the garbages into 10 rupees note for few minutes”
They continue walking the road as Akarsh is singing happily and his mom scratching her head.
Allahabad, a city that every country deserves, but not the one it may need right now. While Allahabad is an excellent city per se, but has been clouded by some very unfortunate mishappenings. The wrath of bhaiyas of Allahabad still enounces on my mind even when I am 356 kms away from it. How a city welcomes a guest greatly defines a city. Allahabad welcomed me with dahi-jalebi and introduced me to the ever-tasty bun-omelette, which even after four years of continuous eating remains a favourite day-starting breakfast.
WHAT I WOULD MISS!
The discussions over bun-omelette and tea in the morning as well as evening. The serenity of Saraswati ghat was one I would crave a lot. Some destinations leave an everlasting footprints in your minds; Saraswati ghat is one such place. The people of Allahabad are also very versatile in giving opinions(reminds me of Gorakhpur, but Allahabad is a tad violent :p). If you are even a little interested in politics, this is a place to be. You never know, you may get acquainted by a future minister of state. Giving opinion boldly, come what may, is in the blood of an east UP person and Allahabad kinds of leads in that trait.
Being in the center of independence fight, gave this city a gift of great historic significance. The Azad Park commemorates Chandrashekhar Azad’s martyrdom. While the Sangam area and Naini bridge adds to the aesthetics of the place.
WHAT I WOULDN’T MISS!
Ofcourse the young successors of Indian politics, the student leaders…the most feared species in whole of Allahabad. Want people to concede to your demands, call the species; want to take revenge from someone who wasn’t giving you a pass on the road, call the species; don’t want to study today, call the species in havoc mode; want to get even with the professor for his tyrant ways, call them. From the innocuous thelawalas to the helpless VCs, they assert their authority everywhere.
Being crammed in the auto-rickshaws comes next in the list. You are living in the city, your girlfriend has called you to meet at this great restaurant, you did your hair, applied gel, worked on it for God knows how long, put on your best set of clothes and go to makeshift auto-stand feeling great about your life when suddenly an auto comes at the station, with the conductor yelling ‘tation-tation’ (in case you missed, its station with a silent ‘s’), you enter the auto and two sweat drenched aunties block the exit to the auto. You are thinking it’s just 10 minutes away, but the auto-wala will stop at the place where the scorching sun shines the most and make you pay for all the past life sins. He will wait for more unlucky souls, until his auto looks like a scene where we are attempting the Guinness Book of World Record for cramming the most persons in an auto.
Another interesting thing is that Allahabadis have adopted this system, they don’t mind sharing that seat with three more broad-assed individuals. Even if he gets one of his buttocks in place, he won’t complain.
But overall, Allahabad invites you and takes care of you if you adapt the city well, that’s an assurity I can give, being a former resident of this city. But still, do take care :p
A common debate encountered between football fans is: Who is better??
Ronaldo or Messi
When it comes to hardcore fans, opinions don’t concord. Messi sure has the lead with his 4th Ballon d’Or but it isn’t enough when he has a fierce competitor like Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo’s transfer from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009 made them stand head to head and pit against each other. The rivalry between their clubs fuelled up the comparison talks between them. While Messi was product of a brilliant product of Barcelona academy that they exhibit ostentatiously, Ronaldo was brought at Bernabeu on popular fan appeal.
Although both have different roles, different positions, different methods at their respective clubs, but the comparison between them is inevitable owing to the fact that they have shared last 5 Ballon’dor amongst them. Both give 100% to their clubs.
Ronaldo has an unflinching pace that takes defenders with surprise; his sharp acceleration helps the cause. Messi likes to take defenders one-on-one while inching closer to the opponents’ goal-line.
Well, I am not taking any sides, but every individual has a right to have an opinion, so in order to facilitate that I have garnered some points that can ease you into making your judgment.
Pace and acceleration: Ronaldo has a pace like a leopard, out-beating his markers is a walk in the park for him. Messi has sufficient pace to do the out-pacing and he puts his dab body in good use by making low profile supporting runs.
Ball control and Dribbling: Dribbling is the Magnus opus of Messi. Infact most of his goals are the result of his gifted supremacy in dribbling. On the other hand, Ronaldo though has a supremacy in the step-overs (or the scissors), but he has been seen a little shy of perfectly executing at times.
Assists: I consider both players selfless, though Ronaldo is often touted as a selfish player, but having played at winging position myself, I know that wingers don’t get many chances to prove their selflessness.
Strategy: Both players are good at crafting clear-cut opportunities for their teams. They are not only great cool finishers but are equally expert in engineering opportunities that literally beg for finish.
Shooting: Shooting from a distance is what has made Ronaldo a priceless treasure. His thunderous shots are a scary sight for even best of the goalkeepers. Messi hasn’t been seen much with the long shots but he can’t be underestimated for that.
Acrobatics and weak foot ability: Messi has been termed weak in this particular department, and it is quite true owing to his meager 5’7” height, but in recent seasons, he has been making constant progress to subdue such allegations. Statistically speaking, he scores a fair amount of goals with headers. Ronaldo leaps over jumping defenders is a constant sight in Real’s game and its quite clear that there’s no dearth in his aerial abilities. Weak foot ability is a thing, though isn’t a necessary quality but is a great quality to have when bailing out from a compromising situation. Both wizards have excellent weak foot ability, which helps them to gain extra points and fan appreciation.
Another quite impressive quality to consider is free kick taking ability. But I believe when you are in a 5-star team, it isn’t a much needed one. Generally such teams already possess a free kick genius, for example Barcelona has Xavi while Madrid had the services of Beckham and Roberto Carlos.
The discussion will not end, and may never end, but one thing’s for sure that the duo will keep us entertained in the years to come.
Let me make the definition clear to you, in case you get the wrong impression: Last night fighter is the name given to the students (generally engineering ones), that do not study the whole semester, and when the water level is well above their necks, they panic in to start from the start.
Unlike the name suggests, these are not real fighters, but I certainly won’t rank them below, they don’t have such deadly weapons, but pen and other stationeries. But hey! A pen is mightier than sword.
These are mostly and usually last benchers, who make a huge mockery of the teachers, by studying the whole syllabus in just 2 or 3 days before exams, when the latter takes a whole semester for doing that.
As once said by our ex- president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam,
‘’ If you want to top in the exams, ask the front seators
But if you want to succeed in life, ask the last benchers.’’
They prove their mettle as studies show that people that are respected were mostly these folks. The idea behind this is not you are right now concluding but I want to incentivize you to not go by the bookish knowledge, but forming your own thoughts, which personally I think is needed and appreciated worldwide…….this comes from my personal experience which I duly learned at right time.
Now focussing back on topic, these students are real champs, and the fact that they score, if not more, not much less than their so called bright counterparts, make them special. They generally attend classes, get the basic idea and that’s it…they are done…..revising it one more time, will get that in their brains.
Last night fighting is not always natural, but it an also be developed, but after its development, it is superfluous, and has surplus advantages. The best ones are the ones, that man-oeuvre the task on the last night, fighting for survival, and looking for ways (like important questions, ways of cheating etc.) to get the best marks. Well, engineering life is all about that. If you can’t, not a problem; but if are equipped, time to feel proud.
I bow down to these masterpieces, to their precious skill, to the spirit, to the limitless stamina (Here stamina is defined a little bit differently from the general definition), to the prowess ability to form & execute their plans in a day.
Much is said about them, about the damage they are conceding, but they are adamant, showing that if the teaching system isn’t going to improve, they aren’t going to be either.
I saw this movie last week, directed by Darren Aronofsky, starring Natalie Portman as Nina, the prime ballet dancer. The movie commences slowly, but as Nina unfolds the fight with herself, it takes movie to a whole new level. Some of the scenes in the movie are very well enacted and executed with perfection.
Nina is chosen as the ‘Swan Queen’, comprising of the fragile and innocent White Swan and the sensuous Black Swan. Nina is perfect for the role of White Swan but not as a Black Swan. She is chosen to be the ‘Swan Queen’, on the promise that she will perfect the role of Black Swan too. As the director of her ballet says she is very controlled, and needs to lose some control on herself and she needs to let go for herself to perfectly depict the Black Swan. She thinks that Lily(a character) wants to steal her role…..but as the movie progresses its interesting to note down her realizations The movie shows the trauma of working in an over competitive environment, where everyone wanted to be the Swan Queen. In the end, she transforms herself into a black swan, which is when she realises that the biggest competition for her is herself.
It won many critics praises.
I have embedded a trailer courtesy- You Tube.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jaI1XOB-bs&w=640&h=390]
I would say its a must watch. Go for it, if you haven’t still!
