Day: June 19, 2020

Thappad


In India where 65% of Indian Men believe woman should tolerate violence in order to keep the family together, and women sometimes deserve to be beaten. You yourself can understand how serious the situation is.


There are many myths present in our society which have misguided people since generations. Myths like women deserve beating at the hands of husbands and wife battering is a private matter have silenced many victims for centuries.


Slapping is the most common act of physical violence by husbands. 34% of married women say their husband has slapped them; 15% say their husband has pulled their hair or twisted their arms, and 14% have been pushed, shaken or had something thrown at them.
One in six married women in India have experienced emotional violence by their husbands.


In scenarios like that Thappad isn’t just a movie it’s the mirror which reflects the hard reality of Indian Society.
A society which expects its women to compromise no matter how grave the situation is regardless of the suffering and pain imposed on her. She is expected to pay no attention to her self respect and to level with the so called hypocrite standards of the society.


Taapsee Pannu as the female lead has very strongly portrayed the character of female protagonist Amrita in the movie who didn’t think of sacrificing her self respect when her husband Vikram (portrayed by Pavail Gulati) slapped her during a office house party.


After all this Amrita discovers those things which she was ignoring for long. She realises that she lost herself in becoming a perfect wife for her husband.
She takes the wake up call and perceives that this isn’t the life for which she left everything her dreams, her career.


This movie has very outstandingly shown that how a women who has played a crucial role in the success of her husband is being treated. She isn’t allowed to take stand for her self respect. She is expected to behave normally no matter what the situation is.


She is told that women should tolerate all this because men will be men and they won’t be held liable for their actions, but Amrita in spite of all these things takes a stand for herself and very bravely files for a divorce with her husband.


The main problem with our society is that in all these things women is the victim of all such acts but she isn’t allowed to be a victim she is forced to be a forgiver all the time as if she is making records in forgiving .


Director Anubhav Sinha has perfectly shown that juxtaposing love and violence isn’t right at all.


Patriarchy is the main reasons behind the occurrence of violence against women. Stereotypes of gender roles have continued over the ages. The primary roles for women have been marriage and motherhood. Women must marry because unmarried, separated or divorced status is a stigma.


The men in our society are told since childhood that women aren’t equal to them. No matter how self sufficient they may be you have an authority over them. They aren’t the boss of their own lives you are the boss of their life.


As long as this mentality isn’t going to change we won’t make any progress .

A critical Review of There is no Justice in History (from Sapiens) by Yuval Noah Harari

(Source: https://www.amazon.in/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari/dp/0099590085 )

“There is no justice in History” is an important chapter of the book “Sapiens” written by Yuval Noah Harari. This book is one of the most significant and important texts in the field of revolutionary studies that deals with a lot of controversial and problematic issues related to the development of mankind in the simplest way possible.

In the beginning of the chapter the author raises a very important question: how did humans organize in mass cooperation networks when they lacked the biological instincts since the very beginning.

He goes on discussing the different boundaries caused by several socio-psychological binaries that exist in our social system. For instance, when the Americans created the hierarchy in 1776, it mostly came up in a generalised form that seemed to decide and divide soci0-cutural norms and societal positions according to that. The upper section of the society enjoyed unlimited entitled privilege and power while the poor kept on suffering. According to them the rights of “men” had very little to do with the rights of Negroes. Similarly, the Hindus always believed and imposed the ideology that some supreme spiritual force made them placed at the top of the cast system. Hammurabi saw it as an order prescribed by God, similar to how Aristotle believed slaves tend to have a “slavish” nature while free people have a free nature.

These social distinctions, however, came to existence only from human imagination. Imagined make-believe hierarchies were believed and imposed upon everyone by those holding power since the beginning and those who dared to come up with questions against those imposed notions were simply thrown out of the system by the upper class.

He goes on with a parallel discussion describing how the Africans were transported to America as slaves by the Europeans and how the invasion of India by the Aryan conquerors took place in a very similar manner and he also mentioned how these major historical events eventually helped these social binaries to develop further. Many people think these make-believe imaginary distinctions might fade out with the passage of time, but nothing but the opposite happened. These binaries gradually became firmer and static in the system with the help of people for ages.

The violation against women’s rights rather basic human rights, has also been highlighted further by the author. In many societies women were treated simply as the man’s property due to which if she happens to get raped, it eventually reflects the insult toward the Man who “owns” her. The Bible decrees if a man rapes a woman, he has to marry her, and this, seemed like a reasonable and logical solution to the problem to many ancients Hebrews since the man who happens to insult another man by raping his “property”, ends up being the one who marries that violated i.e degraded woman which eventually lessens the burden and compensates for the insult to the “property owner”.

He moves on to discuss the cultural and social binaries between the two genders prescribed by the society. Scholars see “sex” as a biological and “gender” as a cultural category. Both these genders suffer prove their respective “masculinity” and “femininity” according to the prescribed societal standards. He also highlights the problems that each society faced since the agricultural revolutions due to their fragile patriarchal mind-sets. Men, in any form have been always placed higher than women. Very few women have had the opportunity and courage to break thorough what is already given i.e the preconceived societal conventions. Patriarchy has not limited itself into being a mere fragile mind-set, but it has gone to the extent of weathering several political upheavals, social revolutions and economic transformations. The fact that physical power has been considered to be one of the major factors in creating the sphere of discrimination between the genders , has also been highlighted further. Considering these aforementioned points I would like to recommend it to all the bibliophiles out there who have a passion for discovering a parallel universe with the help of reading books.

-Suvasree Bandyopadhyay

Jyotiraditya Scindia- The name every citizen of Madhya Pradesh appreciates.

Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia, an Indian politician born on January 1, 1971, recently became a member of Parliament representing Madhya Pradesh. He has served the Indian National Congress, but the announcement of changing his devotion from the Congress to the Bharatiya Janata Party was exceptionally shocking. He belongs to the predecessors of the house of Scindia. Till May 23, 2019, he represented Guna constituency i.e. past member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha. He served people when he was a part of the Indian National Congress from 2002 till 2020. Belonging to a political family, Scindia was first elected to Lok Sabha from Guna in 2002 after his father Madhavrao Scindia, who was a well-known Congress leader, expired in an air accident. He was born in the family of royals of Gwalior, who are regarded as the most powerful political dynasties of independent India.

Reason behind quitting Congress.

The main reason behind his tussle was the Congress didn’t want him to serve and become the Chief Minister. The party offered the post to Kamal Nath. Scindia always wanted to become the Congress chief of Madhya Pradesh state but he was dissatisfied. His resignation, and that of 20 Scindia-loyalist MLAs, from the Congress, is probable to knock the Kamal Nath Madhya Pradesh government into a severe dilemma. He resigned after serving for almost 18 years from the Congress.“There are two most significant dates in my life. First, September 30, 2001, when I lost my father (Madhavrao Scindia). And then March 10, 2020, when on his 75th birth anniversary, I took a decision that will start a new phase of my life,” Scindia said while thanking BJP party president J.P. Nadda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah greeted him in the BJP family. 

He expanded that he had entered political life only to serve the people of India, and that “politics was only a vehicle to achieve that goal”.

“I am sad that a situation has come where I think that the Congress party is no more the same as it used to be. I can say with great faith that my goal to serve people was no more possible by remaining with that party,” he said. He also blamed the party for restricting actuality and not accepting new leadership. He also believed to achieve his aim of serving the needy he has to quit Congress.“When in 2018, a new government was elected in my state, we had all imagined building it into a model state. But after 18 months, all those goals have been completely scattered.” he added. Also, he pointed to Kamal Nath spitting stats of unemployment and waiving loans to farmers that were not achieved by the government as it was promised. He defined the prime minister as futuristic and a top-class supervisor. “He has raised the prestige of India at a global level. I believe India’s future is completely secure in his hands, ” 

Scindia entering Rajya Sabha.

First victory after joining BJP.

From BJP nominees Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sumer Singh Solanki, and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh are all set to sweep through to the three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh which eventually means BJP has gripped two seats leading the party to be in comfortable positions. To the citizens of Gwalior and Guna, he is considered as the creator of the district.

He can be the upcoming Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh as he has the spark and the will to serve his people-his aspirants.

Dexamethasone – A life saving drug

Dexamethasone is a steroid. It is a medicine that reduces inflammation in various parts of the body. It is also used in treatment of some kind of autoimmune diseases, skin conditions, asthama and other lung diseases.

It has been said by the UK experts that the low – dose of this steroid treatment is a major breakthrough in the fight against corona virus.

Dexamethasone is cheap and widely available drug that is proving to be very effective in saving the life of severely ill corona virus patients. Hence, if could prove to be a blessing for the poor countries.

It was observed that out of 20, 19 patients of corona virus recovered without being admitted to the hospital and just by taking dexamethasone.

When it was given to patients on ventilator, it cut the risk of death from 25% to 20%.

In India, doctors said that the reported success of dexamethasone, if affordable for everyone as it retails for less than ₹10 for 10mL and is manufactured by several Indian manufacturers. It has increased the recovery rate of the patients on ventilator.

Working of Dexamethasone

Inflammation can cause the immune system to be overactive which might damage the body tissues.

Dexamethasone dampens down the body’s immune system. In simple words, it blocks the response of the immune system to inflammation which prevents the damage to body’s tissues.

It is only suitable for people who are already admitted in the hospital and receiving treatment or are on ventilator. It is recommended for the people who are severely ill.

It should not be consumed by people with mild or no symptoms as it suppresses the immune system and it won’t be helpful.

Hence, dexamethasone is turning out to be a life saving drug for many.

The Art of saying NO !

The ultimate productivity hack is saying no.

Not doing something will always be faster than doing it. This statement reminds me of the old computer programming saying, “Remember that there is no code faster than no code.” 

The same philosophy applies in other areas of life. For example, there is no meeting that goes faster than not having a meeting at all.

This is not to say you should never attend another meeting, but the truth is that we say yes to many things we don’t actually want to do. There are many meetings held that don’t need to be held. There is a lot of code written that could be deleted.

How often do people ask you to do something and you just reply, “Sure thing.” Three days later, you’re overwhelmed by how much is on your to-do list. We become frustrated by our obligations even though we were the ones who said yes to them in the first place. 

It’s worth asking if things are necessary. Many of them are not, and a simple “no” will be more productive than whatever work the most efficient person can muster.

But if the benefits of saying no are so obvious, then why do we say yes so often?

Why We Say Yes

We agree to many requests not because we want to do them, but because we don’t want to be seen as rude, arrogant, or unhelpful. Often, you have to consider saying no to someone you will interact with again in the future—your co-worker, your spouse, your family and friends. 

Saying no to these people can be particularly difficult because we like them and want to support them. (Not to mention, we often need their help too.) Collaborating with others is an important element of life. The thought of straining the relationship outweighs the commitment of our time and energy.

For this reason, it can be helpful to be gracious in your response. Do whatever favors you can, and be warm-hearted and direct when you have to say no.

But even after we have accounted for these social considerations, many of us still seem to do a poor job of managing the tradeoff between yes and no. We find ourselves over-committed to things that don’t meaningfully improve or support those around us, and certainly don’t improve our own lives.

Perhaps one issue is how we think about the meaning of yes and no.

The Difference Between Yes and No

The words “yes” and “no” get used in comparison to each other so often that it feels like they carry equal weight in conversation. In reality, they are not just opposite in meaning, but of entirely different magnitudes in commitment.

When you say no, you are only saying no to one option. When you say yes, you are saying no to every other option.

In other words, saying no saves you time in the future. Saying yes costs you time in the future. No is a form of time credit. You retain the ability to spend your future time however you want. Yes is a form of time debt. You have to pay back your commitment at some point.

No is a decision. Yes is a responsibility.

The Role of No

Saying no is sometimes seen as a luxury that only those in power can afford. And it is true: turning down opportunities is easier when you can fall back on the safety net provided by power, money, and authority. But it is also true that saying no is not merely a privilege reserved for the successful among us. It is also a strategy that can help you become successful.

Saying no is an important skill to develop at any stage of your career because it retains the most important asset in life: your time.  

You need to say no to whatever isn’t leading you toward your goals. You need to say no to distractions. As one reader told me, “If you broaden the definition as to how you apply no, it actually is the only productivity hack (as you ultimately say no to any distraction in order to be productive).”

Nobody embodied this idea better than Steve Jobs, who said, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.” 

There is an important balance to strike here. Saying no doesn’t mean you’ll never do anything interesting or innovative or spontaneous. It just means that you say yes in a focused way. Once you have knocked out the distractions, it can make sense to say yes to any opportunity that could potentially move you in the right direction. You may have to try many things to discover what works and what you enjoy. This period of exploration can be particularly important at the beginning of a project, job, or career.

Upgrading Your No

Over time, as you continue to improve and succeed, your strategy needs to change.

The opportunity cost of your time increases as you become more successful. At first, you just eliminate the obvious distractions and explore the rest. As your skills improve and you learn to separate what works from what doesn’t, you have to continually increase your threshold for saying yes.

You still need to say no to distractions, but you also need to learn to say no to opportunities that were previously good uses of time, so you can make space for great uses of time. It’s a good problem to have, but it can be a tough skill to master.

In other words, you have to upgrade your “no’s” over time.

Upgrading your no doesn’t mean you’ll never say yes. It just means you default to saying no and only say yes when it really makes sense. To quote the investor Brent Beshore, “Saying no is so powerful because it preserves the opportunity to say yes.” 

The general trend seems to be something like this: If you can learn to say no to bad distractions, then eventually you’ll earn the right to say no to good opportunities.

How to Say No

Most of us are probably too quick to say yes and too slow to say no. It’s worth asking yourself where you fall on that spectrum.

If an opportunity is exciting enough to drop whatever you’re doing right now, then it’s a yes. If it’s not, then perhaps you should think twice.

It’s impossible to remember to ask yourself these questions each time you face a decision, but it’s still a useful exercise to revisit from time to time. Saying no can be difficult, but it is often easier than the alternative. As a famous writer has pointed out, “It’s easier to avoid commitments than get out of commitments. Saying no keeps you toward the easier end of this spectrum.” 

What is true about health is also true about productivity: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The Power of No

More effort is wasted doing things that don’t matter than is wasted doing things inefficiently. And if that is the case, elimination is a more useful skill than optimization.

I am reminded of the famous Peter Drucker quote, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

Being Optimistic

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. ” – American author and educator, Helen Keller

Optimism is positive thinking or a construct which emphasizes on the importance of recognizing that emotional, intellectual and motivational processes are intertwined and a belief that things will turn out well. It is the expectation that good things will come your way and that you have the ability to control the direction of your life. It describes how optimists are always looking for the best in every situation and hoping and expecting and seeing that things will turn out well in the future. Successful people are optimistic, tend to see problems as things to be solved and an opportunity to sharpen their skills. Optimistic thinking motivates people especially adults and children to continue to persist and to work to find solutions. Even when a situation looks grim or a bad situation occurs , they would look at that situation as an experience which helps them to not repeat the same mistake over again.

Optimistic thinking makes us healthier and happier. It is a perspective , when effectively adopted, will enable long -term positive changes in the professional and personal life of an individual. The opposite of optimism is pessimism which is a belief in the worst aspect of things and negative outcomes in life. Although optimism and pessimism often refer to how people think about the future, they also refer to how people think about the past, specifically, the causes of the good and bad events in their lives. When something bad happens , for eg. getting a bad grade on a test or having a fight with someone you love, or losing your job – optimists believe that what caused the problem can be changed and they believe that problems in one area of their life won’t necessarily lead to problems in all areas of their life. However, pessimists believe that they are the sole cause of their problems, that those problems are going to last forever, and that they are going to appears in every aspect of their lives. Being an optimist is not hard to do at all. The steps to approach life with more optimism include learning from our failures, work on our shortcomings, move on to something greater , surround yourself with positive people to spread good vibes and stay motivated , when faced with a difficulty, remain hopeful and positive , inspire yourself with smile and positive reminders or quotes that will help cheer you up , focus on the positive instead of the negative as it improves mental well-being which can motivate individuals to take better care of themselves , focus on the present and reject the past since we have to learn to face and to live with the present moment.

Optimists can easily overcome obstacles and keep moving towards a bright future. Hence by spreading awareness among more people on how to think optimistically and how to approach problems and adversities with a clear set of coping skills, we can enable them to approach their lives with more flexibility and increase their overall sense of well-being.

Facial recognition technology and how its affecting us.

Technology, evolving everyday getting smarter and smarter in order to ease our daily lives. One such technology is the facial recognition technology. It is the not only a hot brand on the tech market but also on the television front, it has been showcased in Tv shows and movies for years. Like any other technology it grows sophisticatedly and its usage has also expanded accordingly. These sensors have been upgraded to such a level that they can uniquely identify not just faces or animals but every individual fish that it can scans. That is the level of sophistication the facial recognition technology has achieved, but with its expanse it also brings about numerous privacy and civil liberty issues that need to be addressed. The biggest users of this technology worldwide are the Law enforcement departments. The use of this is so blatant that in an estimate around one in every two American has had their photos searched in this manner. Whenever this issue is raised not just in America but in any of the countries that this is so widely used, the authorities use the “we want to prevent atrocities” line, which would be sufficient if it did not come at the price of personal freedom.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

 Many countries have used this extensively but none other than china, the leading brand for infringing people’s right. They use a project called “Skynet” to monitor nearly every person’s movement, which includes whom you meet, where you go and even track all your movement for the past week. What makes this technology even worse is that even though it is still being used it is still a work in progress, which means its error rate is very high with only a measly 20% success rate. Even though this has such a large failure rate, nations worldwide continue to use it. Just a few years back Sri Lankan authorities mistakenly linked a Brown university student to a terrorist attack. With all of these concerns, a public domain company Clearview.ai has launched its services. To put this into perspective, Clearview.ai has collected data from nearly 3 billion images, which to this date is larger than any other facial recognition database on this planet. The founder Hoan Ton-That has scrapped photos from nearly all publicly available domains, and has become a front runner in the worst possible way. With their below the belt techniques and illegal means of acquiring photos of people, the company has also received cease-and-desist order from Facebook, YouTube and twitter this year. However, they have refused to do so and in fact even going so far as to claim that they have a first amendment right to harvest data, which is completely false. What is of a greater concern is that Hoan has previously developed apps like ViddyHo which tricked its users into sharing their emails and then spammed their contacts. Not only this but since its emergence Clearview.ai has tried to pitch itself to white supremacist candidates to ensure their victory. They have even quietly tried to offer their services to entities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates who have had a history of human rights violations. With such a large freehand to companies like Clearview.ai we seem to be headed to some dark times indeed.

What could be done to limit these companies are stringent laws to be placed so that companies are required to acquire permission from the person they are collecting data from. We individually cannot do much for this however with a comprehensive nation-wide policy some measure can be taken to ease the illegal flow of information that companies like Clearview.ai seem to obtain.

What happens next is for all of us to see.

The moment I regret most

My English madam asked everyone to share their respective moments when looked back felt like a regret. I never thought about it untill then. My brain didn’t work when required the most. I didn’t knew why don’t we get what we need when we need it. We get it when it’s presence doesn’t matter. Everybody gets what they need sooner or later but getting it at the right time matters the most.

When I think to think for a little while, I can’t think. When our mind tries to do what actually need to be done, our mind forces us to make do the thing that it does even in normal times. The fear we feel makes our mind to undo the action we require. I tried not to think about my thinking because atleast I hoped it can make my thinking normal again. Then I started to think about the question. I ended up thinking only about the question. I started at the question and stopped where I began. Then I thought that my answer must be in question that is what my mind is trying to make me realise. Everything has a reason and this too. I tried to figure the question by looking the question in different sense. I tried not to look the question as question itself. Then looking the question as answer made me to get the answer. Answering the question as answer is the answer.

We never understand the irony of life. We had what we want. The only thing we forget to do is searching. We realise that we have it and we don’t find it and we don’t understand why aren’t we getting it. We become blind when we require the things. The answer is just infront of me and I couldn’t realise it untill the neck of the moment. I found the answer for the answer that doesn’t exist. I never had a regretful moment in my whole life or may be I can’t categorise it. Neither could I recognise it nor could I feel it. May be the thought about forgetting past or unnecessarily remembering it made me not to think about it. People say not to think about past and make us think about the moment that made us regret.

By ignoring all the things said about the past in the past like people with worst past will end up in creating better future. I tried to create the present as past and made my regretting moment as the regretted moment.

I went on to the dias and spoke likewise…

The moment that I regret most is the moment when my English madam asked me to say about my regretting moment and I realised that I don’t have such moment and I feel regret at the present moment for not having a regretting moment when asked to speak about it. And the moment is now and now became then and eventually turned into my regretted moment.

Gender stereotypes present in Indian cinema

Gendet stereotypes are present in every society. There are certain roles, behaviour, profession and even dresses which are defined for a particular sex. And if we talk about our film industry, it is also not free from gender stereotypes, infact it is highly gender stereotyped.

If we see the plot of the films in 60-70% films, the main character is a male, or the plot is revolving around a male character. In movies woman are always shown physically weak and she always need a man to rescue her from danger.

In hindi films objectification of women is done .Her sexuality is always shown as a source of attraction mainly in item songs. In films ‘ideal’ women are shown as self sacrificing, controlled and present in a saare, proper bindi, sindur and who treats her husband like a god even if he mistreats her. This shows that women having these characteristics are considered as ‘ideal’ and ‘good’ and if they aren’t fitting in this definition then they are considered as ‘bad’. So ‘bad’ women are individualistic, sexually aggressive, westernised and not sacrificing.

If we see how characters are described in movie, women are often described as attractive, beautiful, whereas males are described as strong and successful.

When a male is introduced in from of other in the movie he always introduced by his profession, but if we talk about females they are often introduced from their bodily features like beautiful or with respect to someone like xyz’s daughter or a very big buisnessman’s daughter or wife etc which shows that women don’t have their own identity and their identity depends on the male member of the family.

The profession or roles which is shown in movies for different sexes are also stereotyped like generally women are shown as housewife, taking care of home and children and if they are shown working then their profession are like teacher or doctor only. Role like police, sports, pilot arr always played by male.

Male characters are shown sometimes betting for girls with his friends as if she is an object.

Boys are shown as someone who should be capable of taking burden of the family. If the wife us earning in the house, then he is insulted in the society.

So we can see that how gender stereotypes are present in the society and these stereotypes are present in our mind in such a way and it becomes so normal for us that we don’t give it a second thought that wrong and those who are a little different from this ‘ideal’ notions and are not fit in this criteria of so called ideal male or female are not considered as part of the society and make them feel excluded.

So, it is necessary to critically think about everything present around us and see the difference between what is right and what is wrong.

FINDING YOURSELF

Your Perception Of Yourself And The Truth
Sometimes we imagine ourselves as different than what we really are. We think we are one way, at least we picture ourselves as this, and yet in reality we do not fit this picture.

See the real you
We all know that how we perceive things basically makes them so. If we see a situation as hard, it sure will feel this way. If we view our life as a struggle, we will look for ways to validate this. Our perception changes our reality. it alters our experiences, and inhibits or propels us forward in life. One of the most important aspects of our perception we need to look at is how we see ourselves, and not just in broader terms, but in the small details as well.

Letting go of Our Ideas of self
Often, we decide who we are and who we will be without thought of our real selves. We program ourselves into being a certain person, with certain characteristics and behaviors. This internal processing and control inhibits our growth and closes us off from our real selves.

Finding your true self
When we are caught up in things that do not matter, we are not existing as our true form. Any emotional drama comes from us not being who we really are. Any thought process that distracts us, worries us, or pulls us away from life is not a thought process from our true self, for who we really are underneath all of this is someone that is at ease in life, that welcomes everything, and understands who we are.

See yourself who you really are
Seeing yourself for who you really are is about letting yourself find the true you. We all have a part of us that lies hidden underneath the person we think we are. Sometime we hide

Finding yourself
Finding yourself is about emptying out the ideas, the foundation of who you think you are, so that you can reside in life as you really are.

Be and feel empowered
When we think less of ourselves, we are only harming who we are. When we believe that others are better than us, we are giving them a false identity, for all people, no matter their background, upbringing, or place in life, are equal.

Existing as your true self
Existing as your true self is living with the world as you are meant to. It is living your life from a place that is connected to your purpose, a place that resonates deeply within you.

How to reclaim the real you??
How do you reconnect to the real you when life has pushed you so far away from where you started? Never leave the real one you are. Never get so far that you forget yourself that what actually you are. Evolve yourself , changes are good and everyone need change as time is going but with your own personality.

Letting go so that you can be you
We all need to find a way to let go of what is holding us back and preventing us from reaching our true selves. We should leave them all behind and move on. Just trust on yourself that you can do anything. Nothing can hold you back now, go can achieve your aim of life and give your best performance. Live up to your expectations.

Dexamethasone- Corona Vaccine Update!!!

Finally some good news today dexamethasone is now being called a major breakthrough based on a recent randomized controlled trial in the UK. Dexamethasone also known as Decadron is an example of a glucocorticoid are sometimes referred to as corticosteroids other examples of glucocorticoids include hydrocortisone methyl prednisolone prednisolone, prednisone beta methazone and triamcinolone so glucocorticoids are a class of steroid hormones that bind to the glucocorticoid receptor in the body cortisol aka hydrocortisone is the glucocorticoid.

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Photo by Edward Jenner on Pexels.com

We naturally make in our body it’s essential for life it regulates or supports various cardiovascular metabolic and homeostatic functions it also plays a big role in our immune system especially when it comes to reducing certain aspects of inflammation this is why we use them all the time in medicine we sometimes give these steroids for asthma copd rheumatologic type diseases and countless more diseases. Sometimes it is also given for steroids for meningitis and also for some forms of cancer we also give them in the early course of severe ards acute respiratory distress syndrome whether that ards is due to infection such as pneumonia or vaping lung injury or whatever the cause for severe ards we typically give methylprednisolone or solumedral at a dose of one milligram per kilogram per day. So, for most people that ends up being around 80 milligrams per day so this is the equivalent of 15 milligrams of dexamethasone the idea here is to suppress the cytokine storm that has taken place meaning that the massive amount of inflammation that causes lung damage and can indirectly cause damage to other organs as well our body naturally makes cortisol in our adrenal glands specifically in the zona fasciculata of the adrenal cortex the adrenal gland then secretes cortisol into the bloodstream and the cortisol travels to different tissues of the body and then binds to the glucocorticoid receptor inside cells it then stimulates the cell to make more anti-inflammatory proteins and causes the cell to make less pro-inflammatory proteins but giving someone glucocorticoids meaning steroids to someone who has an infection is somewhat of a tricky thing because the fear is that if you suppress the body’s immune system it has the potential to make the infection worse. Sometimes the body’s immune system does more damage than the actual infection for example in cases of meningitis that is due to either streptococcus or tuberculosis we give steroids because the medical evidence shows that they have better outcomes when we do so and giving someone steroids for viral pneumonias like influenza is more controversial because doing so generally leads to worse infection with that said if the viral pneumonia is so bad to the point of causing severe ards most doctors will give steroids in that situation. So this is why, the general medical guidelines so far recommend against giving steroids for covert pneumonia unless the patient has severe ards and we’ve been waiting for randomized controlled trials to come out for steroids in covid and here we are now with this study so in march of 2020 the recovery trial which stands for randomized evaluation of covid-19 therapy was one of the randomized control trials that actually looked at several different potential treatments for covid which included low-dose dexamethasone this trial was done in the UK.

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Image source: Sky News

Over 11 500 patients in it so this trial has not been peer reviewed as of has not been published in the journal yet so everything I know so far is based on what’s been released to the general public in this trial over 2100 patients were randomized to receive dexamethasone specifically six milligrams once per day for 10 days and this group was compared with over 4 300 patients that were randomized to the standard care alone so 6 milligrams of dexamethasone is the equivalent of 32 milligrams of methylprednisolone so this is about half the dose we would typically use for someone with severe ards so among the patients who received standard care alone 20-day mortality was highest in those who required mechanical ventilation this was 41 and then intermediate in those patients who required supplemental oxygen only this was mortality rate of 25 percent and the mortality rate was lowest among those who did not require supplemental oxygen in which that mortality rate was 13 for patients who were on mechanical ventilators dexamethasone reduced mortality from 41 percent to 28 percent for patients who needed supplemental oxygen it reduced mortality from 25 percent to 20 percent and there was no benefit among those patients who do not require supplement oxygen in other words if someone only had mild disease there was no point in giving dexamethasone so based on these results one death would be prevented by the treatment of around eight ventilated patients. So that’s the number needed to treat for ventilated patients and then the number needed to treat for the ones who required supplemental oxygen that number needed to treat would be 25 so these preliminary results are significant but it doesn’t mean that dexamethasone is a miracle drug it’s certainly not a cure but it does seem to help based on these numbers index and methazone could be of huge benefit and not just rich countries but poorer countries as well because this drug is very cheap and is widely available so this is great news and very exciting but there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered like what is the ideal dose should we use higher doses in patients who are mechanically ventilated with ards and when will it be approved for use in the united states and we’ll get these answers pretty soon now another.

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Interesting question is should we give decadron dexamethasone to people who have mild disease now even though this study didn’t show any benefit the reason why i bring this up is because some people start out with mild disease and then go on to have moderate or severe disease and we have no way of predicting who goes on to do that and also it happens very quickly lots of times someone could be doing just fine and then all of a sudden within hours they all of a sudden are deteriorating and they have severe disease so should we give those patients decadron regardless is there any harm doing so that’s another question that remains to be seen.

Books-Our Best Companion

“A book is a good companion, and a good companion never leaves you”. Books are always knowledge. They always give us, never take anything from us. They are like an ocean, we can always gain knowledge from them. Human relations can be deceptive and unreliable but our relation with books will always be reliable and honest.

Good books enriches our mind with good thoughts and knowledge just like a good friend. Books-our best companions because it gives knowledge and peace of mind unconditionally. Books also offer knowledge about different aspects of life. They are well known for accurate and impartial information. Books are our best friends because they inspire us ti do great things in life and overcome our failures. Books teach us to have dreams. Books bring positive values to our life.

The poet Robert Southery has beautifully called books his never failing friends with everyday. Books enlighten, give knowledge, entertain and inform us. We can’t feel alone in the company of books. They inspire us to overcome failure, to make a balance between success and failure.

Books always acts as a companion. The more we read books, the more we gain. Books are educative as well as informative.

In the end, I just want to quote a line “A room without books is a body without soul.”

Bermuda triangle: An unsolved Mystery

This triangular shaped area has been under the radar for many years due to the suspicious activities and multiple missing cases of humans and airplanes. Many state that all the mystical phenomenons which have occurred in the Bermuda triangle are obscure and esoteric.

The Bermuda triangle is known by multiple names many call it Devil’s Triangle, it’s also called Hurricane alley as that area always experience violent weather characterised by hurricanes, cyclones and wild winds which is said to be one of the causes behind the missing cases of ships and aeroplanes. It’s located towards the extreme south eastern part of North America.

Location of The Bermuda Triangle.

The term was coined by Vincent Gaddis (author) in 1964.Many claim that there is no region called Bermuda triangle and all the theories associated with it are absolutely fake and most of the incidents have been created for controversial purposes.

Scientists state it all started when Christopher Columbus was out exploring the sea and in search of new land he saw paranormal activity(fire balls crashing in that sea) in that area.

One of the very first cases which came to light was when a US Navy ship went missing in that triangle.

Charles Berlitz and his theory-

Theorist even claim the existence of extra-terrestrial beings from outer space and also claim the existence of an underwater city called Atlantis, Charles Berlitz was the one who propounded this theory, he supported all the claims toward the existence of Atlantis and also extra-terrestrial beings as part of this city. In his book ‘The Bermuda Triangle’ he expresses his hypothesis stating that Atlantis was a real city in the Bermuda Triangle.

High Magnetism-

Some claim that unlike others surfaces that area  is characterised by high magnetism which leads to the sinking of ships and Airplanes due to strong gravity. Some theorists who are supporters of Charles Berlitz’s theory claim that the city is made of stones and special crystals which is characterised by vigorous gravity due to which planes, ships and helicopters drown in the ocean.

Illogical Claims-

Some of the illogical claims made by many theorist stated that the extra-terrestrial beings from outer space have their base located within the triangle and hence destroy everything and anything that passes over their base. Though this is mostly a bogus theory with hardly has any proofs or references.

Overactive Environment –

Many also claim due to the overactive environment, feral winds and other natural activities which are violent in nature have caused the destruction of ships and airplanes. Also because of a strong gravitational pull within the Bermuda Triangle it causes humongous waves which could have engulfed anything coming in its way.

Larry Kusche and his theory-

Though Critics like Larry Kusche claim that these all manmade theories have been hyped to create terror and controversies amongst people and also because it adds up to the fake news which becomes a part of continuous loops and is always under observation. In his book ‘The Bermuda Triangle – Mystery Solved’ he claims all of these enigmas surrounding the missing cases to be absolutely fraudulent.

Though researchers are continuing with their search to know the exact reason behind the weird phenomenons.Nature really never fails to amuse us.

IS It Good To Be Idle?

If one asks the above question nearly all the people in the world will say that it is not good to remain idle. Remaining idle is often looked down upon in our society whereas remaining busy in life is often glorified. Literally, the antonym of idle is busy which has been inflated to quite some extent meaning you have a life, you have friends, you have very important things to attend to and most things seem so darn important.

There has been a common perception associated with the state of remaining busy in life irrespective of the societies and religious beliefs. In every religion people who remain busy are treated as capable starting from Hinduism to Protestantism. For instance, in Hinduism, the role of work ( Karma) has been emphasized upon whereas in Protestantism work is called worship. The religious heads in Protestantism continuously preach that wasting time by remaining idle is a sin as time is considered as very precious. Even French philosopher Pascale Brukner once said that it was essential to work hard to be called a good Christian and that would be possible if the person remains busy.

Along with the spiritual, societal sanctions against the idleness of a person, ethical concerns are also there. Often it is said that idle hands often make devil’s work. Examples have been cited on many occasions to support such claims. People who remain idle in life also face the problems of depression and remain unsatisfied in their life.

However, remaining busy throughout the life has various ill effects on the concerned person. First of all, too much work pressure hampers the mental balance and affects the health of the person. People’s family life and social life get affected by the extra pressure of work in today’s globalized world where there is less free time for the person.

More arguments are in favour of remaining idle in life. Research shows that when the brain remains idle, blood flow to brain doesn’t decrease. This means that the extra blood flow to the brain in idle condition is used to store data in permanent memory of the brain in an orderly manner in different compartments. Hence, the state of idleness improves the sensitivity of the brain and consolidates the memory.

Further, a person can not think those things which he/she can think when he is idle. Creativity often comes from idle minds as one travels through the enchanted territories of the brain at the time of idleness. That is why many startups like Facebook have been developed by people in the college days when they were free. Definitely, one will accept that productivity increases when the person’s brain remains idle on many occasions.

From the ancient days, Indian Yogis had known the power of being idle and the result of such was meditation. Shiva,the greatest Yogi in Hinduism, used to remain in samadhi for years and the logic behind that was to gain power, aura and knowledge from the state of idleness. Meditation is probably idleness in its highest form since one is completely relaxed, the mind just observes the thoughts that flicker across its screen until they fade away. The mind and body do absolutely nothing in meditation, bringing them to a state of calm.

Herein lies the paradox: meditation is increasingly considered as valuable for our well-being and mental health, and yet it means being idle contrary to remain busy.

So, the next time you feel like being idle, be idle! Watch the sun as it sets, or the rain as it trickles down your windowpane. Watch TV, read, lie on your couch, listen to music and the things you can’t hear, eat your favourite food feeling the taste of every bite. Let’s not feel guilty about our idleness and enjoy this precious time of being idle because there will be many times when you cannot be idle.

From the last one month this is what the author has done and has got the valuable time of introspection about life. The most important outcome of the author’s idleness is that the idea of thinking about idle state and its relevance in human life and the result is this write up about idle state of humans.

So, it’s good to remain idle at times in life as that brings freshness, enthusiasm for life and in case one needs further convincing logic regarding this one must follow another great idler, Winnie the Pooh who said- “People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”

Social Gathering: Going, Going, Gone!

We were used to having all kinds of events in the conventional way till the announcement of the lockdown on 25 March, which was a Wednesday. There were social gatherings planned for the weekends. The gatherings were to have a wide range. Some would be get-togethers of personal friends and some of official colleagues. Those were arranged for networking and for extending contacts for business. Those were also arranged simply for fun and frolic to release stresses of life. We used to forget various problems in life at favourite spots with our favourite companions. We felt happy and relaxed when we communicated face-to-face. There is a difference in nature of various social gatherings. The purpose of business gatherings is different from wedding ceremonies. The gathering of office colleagues has a different purpose from that of friends.  Unfortunately social gatherings are spoken in the ‘past tense’ now.  Strict restrictions during the pandemic have a vast effect on our social life.

In the new development people are adjusting to the ‘virtual’ social gatherings. It can no more be physical, at least not in near future. Gatherings of all age groups are taking help of various video-calling applications— Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. WhatsApp only used to allow four for video call before the lockdown. But afterwards it has been upgraded to eight. The party-goers have changed their party mode. They are sending invitations via Zoom links to have a “Zoom Party” in houses instead of physically attending house party or bar or disc. Whenever there is time for celebrations or even for any stress call friends are there to meet via video calls. We can talk there for hours because of user-friendly network plans. Delicious food from restaurants was paused for about three months. Now due to the Unlockdown 1.0 restaurants and food stalls are opening gradually. But people are still feeling uneasy to have food from there. Some food bloggers are now going out to review the protections taken by the restaurants. It is helping foodies to gain confidence about the places they used to frequent.

Companies like TCS, Infosys have announced that a section of workers can continue their ‘work from home’ without losing the jobs. The decision is taken for maintaining social distancing in offices. No more brainstorming in cosy conference rooms. The ‘new’ conference rooms are virtual. The great fun and dance in weddings are not viable as the number of invitees has been severely restricted by rule. Not more than fifty people are allowed in such event of a lifetime. The families of brides and grooms are now in a dilemma in choosing the preferred guests in the stipulated fifty-people guest list. Newly-wed couples have to wait for the whole year to go for honeymoon because of flight restrictions, both domestic and international.

Educational institutions used to have lively seminars in auditoriums or lecture halls. Now it is time for Webinars. Students are given the links to attend educational webinars from home. But it is ‘beneficial’ for backbenchers. They log in and put audio and video in mute mode to ignore the lectures. They can do whatever they want in their rooms while the speakers are busy speaking. Some companies have started giving free online courses on various topics for two weeks or for a month. The target audience is the youth who will be given e-certificates on completion. There has been a huge increase in demand for virtual internships or remote internships from college and university students and freelancers. They have decided not to waste time and do something which will be useful for the future. It seems the youths have become more matured in this lockdown.

The entire routine and plans have gone upside-down for people everywhere. We even do not know when will the normal time be back. For people this is a pretty unusual, if not abnormal, year. Many are getting adjusted to this sort of routine but it is more difficult for the elderly, especially who live alone. We have to think about them and take care of them in this situation.

Finally, some of us think that we the human beings deserve this for destroying the Mother Nature for long. Thus, we now face the consequences of our Karma. However, it calls for a different debate.