A school fete is looked forward to by most of us. It provides entertainment and also great learning which is useful later in life. It provides entertainment and also great learning. Thus a school carnival gives you lots of unforgettable memories ❤️
Day: July 18, 2020
Boarding schools
Boarding schools provide an unequalled academic environment, because of greater interaction between the students and teachers facilitating mentoring. It gives an opportunity to mingle with students of different backgrounds and inculcates virtues like tolerance and trust.
Boarding schools provide an excellent academic environment, because of greater interaction between students and teachers. This interface unlike day schools is not just limited 6-8 hours. The small class size enables teachers to give individual attention to each student.
Boarding schools are indeed better than day schools for the all round development of the child. They play an important and crucial role in moulding the character and personality, making them useful citizens of the society.
Energy conservation
Energy conservation refers to the efforts made to reduce the consumption of energy. The energy on Earth is not in unlimited supply. Furthermore, energy can take plenty of time to regenerate. This certainly makes it essential to conserve energy. Most noteworthy, energy conservation is achievable either by using energy more efficiently or by reducing the amount of service usage.
Importance of Energy Conservation
First of all, energy conservation plays an important role in saving non-renewable energy resources. Furthermore, non-renewable energy sources take many centuries to regenerate. Moreover, humans consume energy at a faster rate than it can be produced. Therefore, energy conservation would lead to the preservation of these precious non-renewable sources of energy. Energy conservation will reduce the expenses related to fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are very expensive to mine. Therefore, consumers are required to pay higher prices for goods and services. Energy conservation would certainly reduce the amount of fossil fuel being mined. This, in turn, would reduce the costs of consumers. Consequently, energy conservation would strengthen the economy as consumers will have more disposable income to spend on goods and services. Energy conservation is good for scientific research. This is because; energy conservation gives researchers plenty of time to conduct researches. Therefore, these researchers will have more time to come up with various energy solutions and alternatives. Humans must ensure to have fossil fuels as long as possible. This would give me enough time to finding practical solutions. Another important reason for energy conservation is environmental protection. This is because various energy sources are significantly harmful to the environment. Furthermore, the burning of fossil fuels considerably pollutes the atmosphere. Moreover, nuclear energy creates dangerous nuclear waste. Hence, energy conservation will lead to environmental protection.
Energy conservation would also result in the good health of humans. Furthermore, the pollution released due to energy sources is harmful to the human body. The air pollution due to fossil fuels can cause various respiratory problems. Energy sources can pollute water which could cause several harmful diseases in humans. Nuclear waste can cause cancer and other deadly problems in the human body.
Measures to Conserve Energy
Energy taxation is a good measure from the government to conserve energy. Furthermore, several countries apply energy or a carbon tax on energy users. This tax would certainly put pressure on energy users to reduce their energy consumption. Moreover, carbon tax forces energy users to shift to other energy sources that are less harmful.
Building design plays a big role in energy conservation. An excellent way to conserve energy is by performing an energy audit in buildings. Energy audit refers to inspection and analysis of energy use in a building. Most noteworthy, the aim of the energy audit is to appropriately reduce energy input.
Another important way of energy conservation is by using energy-efficient products. Energy-efficient products are those that use lesser energy than their normal counterparts. One prominent example can be using an energy-efficient bulb rather than an incandescent light bulb.
In conclusion, energy conservation must be among the utmost priorities of humanity. Mahatma Gandhi was absolutely right when he said, “the earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs but not every man’s greed”. This statement pretty much sums up the importance of energy conservation. Immediate implementation of energy conservation measures is certainly of paramount importance.
A Roller Coaster of the LAST DAYS OF COLLEGE
This year has been unpredictable in many ways. We have seen terrible occurrences right from the very beginning of the year. What with the bushfires that started around south wales, Australia that a third state emergency had to be called. This was just day 2 of the New Year 2020. Then we saw war threats between the United States of Americas military and Iran. And I don’t even need to mention the corona virus pandemic that took over the entire world. A lot experienced in such a short span of time. We didn’t know what more to expect from this year.
But as everything came to a standstill with complete shutdowns and lockdown and social distancing taking over, many panicked on how they will be handling this new normal. I am focusing on the student community especially the final year students who were supposed to be having farewell parties and reminiscing their college years that had come to an end.
With this sudden take-over of the pandemic, all colleges shutdown adhering to the government issued guidelines. Mid-March that’s when it started in India. We however did not know how long this would be and honestly no one took this serious enough. We underestimated this issue to a great extent.
As time progressed colleges started taking classes online and giving out assignments. As this was happening, simultaneously the corona cases started rapidly increasing. Despite the best efforts taken by the government and the frontline and essential workers the cases were blowing out of proportion. This delayed the time as lockdown kept getting extended. As time was running short, colleges were forced to conduct online exams especially to the final year students. The UGC issued guidelines regarding this and gave the colleges the authority to conduct online exams for the final years.
Online exams were conducted and the results declared. This was a major change for the students as they had least expected the turn of events. They definitely exercised something new and scary. They would not in their wildest dreams imagine that they’ll take up their final exams of their college in this manner.
The most important part was that during a crisis like this the placements were not welcoming. With loyal employees being forcefully terminated and the market crashing, it was not a favourable situation to the fresh graduates. Unemployment was peaking with major layoffs from even reputed companies.
These young adults had to go through so much unprecedented activities during their last days of college life. They missed on some cherishable memories of farewell parties, the final exams with their friends, hanging out around the college campus and remembering fond memories of their college life in the campus. But what’s more important for them now is how they take their career and move forward. I’m sure this is not what they expected at the end of their carefree college times but I’m very sure that they have the ability and capacity to take failures in their stride and come up in life. I wish all of you the very best.
Patriarchy
Patriarchy refers to a society dominated by men i.e. society, state and the economy are characterised by systematic, institutionalised and pervasive gender oppression.
Patriarchy is a system – a dynamic web – of particular ideas and relationships. Patriarchy can be updated and modernized. It is stunningly adaptable. That is the sense in which it is useful to talk about patriarchy as ‘sustainable’.
In a literal sense, patriarchy means rule by the father. A patriarchal family is therefore dominated by the father with power transferred down the male line, whereas a patriarchal society is based upon male dominance.
It is a social system that values masculinity over femininity. This type of social system dictates that men are entitled to be in charge and dominate women. And it implies the nature state of gender relations is a dynamic of dominance and submission. According to patriarchal society, women are seen weak, submissive and an extension of men, and the highest accomplishment a woman can hope to attain is marriage and child birthing.
On the reverse end of the spectrum, men are expected to be physically and emotionally strong, dominating, and the breadwinner and protector of his family. Although the domination of women today might not be as bad as, say, a couple hundred years ago when women had no legal rights and were considered their husbands property. Gender is still something that is strictly enforces on people today. In patriarchal society’s, cisgender men are typically valued over cisgender women.
However the system forces people into strict boxes called ‘gender roles’, and gender roles hurt everybody. If someone who is assigned a certain gender at birth doesn’t fit into the social norms expected of that gender, they’re often ostracized by society. In the past hundred years or so we’ve seen a loosening of gender roles for women but not so much for men. Women can act or dress in a more masculine fashion with less repercussions that if a man were to act or dress in a feminine way. This stems from the valuing of masculine traits over feminine traits and the association of femininity with weakness. It’s more okay for a woman to ”act like a man”, or whatever that means, than it is for a man to ”act like a woman”. However, the patriarchy doesn’t just harm cis women and cis men. It also hurts trans identities and everyone who doesn’t identify with the gender binary. Being transgender is almost like the ultimate slap in the face to patriarchy and gender roles because you’re stepping outside of the gender you were assigned to birth and saying ” to hell with that”. A lot of trans phobia that we see is based in sexism and the fact that someone is refusing to stay in the gender box that society put them in.
In every Indian household there is a common stereotype thinking of men working and women handling the kitchen. Baby girls are offered soft toys and baby boys are offered guns to play. When the girl hits puberty she’s forbidden to go outside alone. A sister is expected to help her mother in kitchen. Also, the society has fixed some “Code Of Conducts” how a girl should behave. There are some common sexist misconception also, like a girl earns more than her husband. Well, there are much more.
Characteristics of a Patriarchal System
Some characteristics of a patriarchal system include:
- Male Dominance: In a patriarchal system, men make all decisions in both society and in their family unit, hold all positions of power and authority, and are considered superior.
- Male Identification: Men are concerned with identification that includes qualities of control, strength, forcefulness, rationality, strong work ethic, and competitiveness. Each of these qualities contribute to male identification in a patriarchal system.
- Male Centeredness: In a patriarchal system, the center of activity and progression is on men and what they do to move the society forward. In any patriarchal system, men will be the focus and developer of all events and inventions, men will be the heroes in all situations, and men will be the center of social engagement, fun, and entertainment.
- Obsession with Control: Men living in a patriarchal system or society must be in control at all times. They have a desire to control all social and family situations and must make all decisions regarding finances and education.
Additionally, in a patriarchal society, the oppression of women is emphasized. The term oppression means to push down or restrict; therefore, women are not allowed to rise up to leadership levels or make decisions. Women are also not allowed to demonstrate independence or suggest changes to any social order.
In essence, women also have a role in a patriarchal society, but only in a sense that is submissive and subservient to men. Let’s look at some cultures and societies that recently or still operate under the patriarchal system.
Examples of Patriarchy
Well, there are countless examples of Patriarchy. From thinking like “Women should know cooking”, “Women should always serve her husband and children and they are perfect for a 9-5 job” to “A man has to be financially and emotionally stable else he is not a man” and “Women are too weak to work in armed forces” everything is a example of Patriarchy.
Patriarchal institutions and practices have to some extent been challenged in recent years via legislative measures and changing social attitudes. In the context of the former, workplaces who employ a specific number of employees are under a legal obligation to publish the pay gap between men and women. There are also laws to prevent sexual discrimination in the workplace with employers liable if found guilty. Cases are often heard in employment tribunals in which grievances may be resolved. In terms of the latter, there is also a greater level of sensitivity towards sexist attitudes in the public sphere.
Right to Information Act, 2005.
Introduction:
The right to Information Act 2005 which came fully into effect on12th October 2005 is one of the most significant legislation enacted by the Parliament in India. It is a major step towards more accountable and transparent government. RTI has been enacted to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities in order to promote transparency and accountability. The Act will certainly lead to end the culture of governmental secrecy andfulfil its potential as a truly great democracy.
Objective of the Act:
1. To promote transparency and functioning of the government. accountability in the
2. To set up a practical regime for giving citizens access to Information that is under the control of public authorities.
3. To empower the citizens as the law will promote the participation of the citizens in official decisions that directly affect their lives.
4. The effective implementation of RTI Act will build public trust in the government functioning.
5. It will lead to effective and efficient records management technique that is needed to facilitate the provision of information in response to public interest.
What is Right to Information?
Government information is national resource. Neither the particular government of the day nor public officials create information for their own benefits. Government and officials are trustees of this information for the people. The RTI act enables the citizens to obtain access under the law to documents that may otherwise be available only at the discretion of government.
The RTI Act 2005 provides effective access to information for citizens of India, which is under the control of public authorities. This overrides the ―official Secrets Acts and similar laws and rules.
The Act primarily envisages setting out a practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority.
Right to Information means the right to information accessible under this Act which is held by or under the control of any public authority and includes the right to: –
(i) Inspection of work, documents, records.
(ii) Taking notes, extracts, or certified copies of documents or records.
(iii) Taking certified samples of material.
(iv) Obtaining information in the form of diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through printouts where such information is shared in a computer or in any other device.
Every information held by or under the control of a public authority is accessible to a citizen, unless information is exempt from disclosure.
What is Accessible under the Law?
Information means any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mail, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, log books, contacts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any law for the time being in force.
Features of the RTI Act:
Ø The Act extends to the whole of India except Jammu & Kashmir.
Ø All citizens shall have the right to information, subject to provisions of the Act. The RTI empowers the citizens to ask any question or seek any information from government authorities be it Central, State or Local governments.
Ø It shall apply to Public Authorities which means any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted by or under the Constitution; by any law made by the appropriate Government or, any other body owned, controlled or substantially financed directly or indirectly by the appropriate Government, and includes non-government organisation substantially financed by the government.
Ø The Act lays down the machinery for the grant of access to information. The Public Authorities are required to designate Public Information Officer and Assistant Public Information Officer with in the hundred days of enactment to accept the request forms and provide information. The Public Information Officers/Assistant Public Information Officers will be responsible to deal with the requests for information and also to assist persons seeking information.
Ø The Act envisages creation of an independent non-judicial machinery viz, Central Information Commission, State Information Commission. Legal Framework of exercise of powers by the Commission is defined in the Act.
Ø The Act also provides the two- tier Appellate forum. First appeal is to be made to the departmental officer senior to the Public Information Officer. The second appeal is to be made to State Commission.
Ø Fee will be payable by the applicant depending on the nature of information sought.
Ø Time limit has been prescribes for the compliance of information depending upon the information requirements.
Ø Certain categories of information have been exempted from the disclosure under Section 8and 9 of the Act like conduct of International Relations, security of the State, trade and commercial secrets, intelligence agency etc.
Ø Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions monitor the implementation of the Act and prepare an Annual report to be laid before the Parliament / State legislatures.
NEVER SAY MORE THAN IS NECESSARY
Richard Brinsley sheridan, a famous Irish Playwright and Poet said “Never say more than is necessary”.This saying is very common in our Daily life. When we talk more than is necessary it leds to problems. It is true , the more one person speaks , the more that person creates question in other person’s mind. And in the midst of speaking, the secret which is kept inside may slip out of one’s mouth unconditionally. As a human knowledge is required to preserve ,the more we speak we give away the knowledge we have in ourselves. Even our speaking manner and materials reveals about our nature and traits , our personality. And this helps people to guess about our further steps and actions. Even people often get fooled for this habit of their.
NorthEast India’s Righteous Demand for a Second Time-Zone
Time is of the essence. This phrase is used when something needs to be done promptly. Ironically, this perfectly fits my today’s article.
India first established time-zones in 1884, owing to the British. During the 1884 International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. India registered its two official time zones, Bombay Time and Calcutta Time. Madras Time, an unofficial time was used as well as the Railway Time.
Following the celebrations of India attaining its independence from the British Raj, lots of important decisions were made. One such decision was for India to follow a single time-zone, Indian Standard Time (+05:30:00 GMT), to manifest a unified front against the world. With Pakistan separating to form its own country, this time zone decision was more important than ever.
India is the 7th largest country in the world, with a width that runs approximately 2,933kms. On a usual day, such as today, the sun rises in the eastern Guwathi at 04:42 am IST and at 06:05 am on the western Ahmedabad. The difference is 1 hour and 23 minutes. While it may not seem like much of an issue to most of India, the north-eastern states, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands face a huge impact.
Here’s a table of the approximated sunrise and sunset times across different cities of India on 18th July 2020.
| City | Sunrise | Sunset |
| Guwathi, Assam | 04:42 | 18:17 |
| Port Blair, Andaman | 05:04 | 17:47 |
| Bhubaneshwar, Odisha | 05:17 | 18:29 |
| Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh | 05:44 | 18:43 |
| Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh | 05:45 | 19:08 |
| Solan, Himachal Pradesh | 05:30 | 19:25 |
| Bangalore, Karnataka | 06:02 | 18:50 |
| Ahmedabad, Gujarat | 06:05 | 19:27 |
The affected North-Eastern states and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands detect sunrise very early and are forced to follow the usual 9 to 5 or 10 to 4 work hours. The work hours start almost 5-6 hours after the sunrise when the sun is at its peak and the days are much hotter. Winter months, bring along another issue with the sun setting much earlier, almost by 16:00 – 17:00 in the evenings. Their nights are much longer and it’s already dark by the time schools and offices shut. The tea plantations, local to North-Eastern India is most affected, farmers struggle to work through the heat and dark.
More so than the obvious issues faced by a portion of Indians, is the social, economic, ecological, and financial repercussions. With the loss of several day-light hours before the office and school timings, the electricity usage is higher in these areas. 2.7 billion units of electricity each year can be saved by advancing IST by ½ hour and establishing another time zone. With a time zone 1 hour ahead of IST, India alone could save 5.4 billion units of electricity and so much more money, manpower, and peace.
For years, politicians from the North-East have filed petitions to set 2 official time zones of India to benefit a whole set of population. Each time just to be faced with the same rejection, blaming the resources and expenditure of resetting clocks and syncing India as a whole.
Assam’s then-Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, in 2014, frustrated with India’s adamance, decided for Assam to follow its unofficial time-zone, the ChaiBagaan/Bagaan Time. The Bagan time is 1hour ahead of IST.
India doesn’t make use of Daylight Savings either. Daylight Savings is the practice of advancing clocks during warmer months (with longer days) and retreating clocks during colder months (with shorter days). DST is another cheaper alternative to setting a 2nd official time zone in India but the central government is unswerving of change. The country has only used it a couple of times during war with China (1962), and twice with Pakistan (1962 and 1971).
Although it was set post-independence, as a symbol of unity, many leaders including B.R. Ambedkar was against the one time zone policy. They recognized the inconvenience and ecological impacts it would have on the people and the climate.
Time is of the essence, and so is money and manpower. It is important to let go of a symbol of unity and practice unity and support people of our country with a time-zone that saves lives and billions of units of electricity and consequently, money.
Outside perils
It’s been a long time since I have stepped outside my home. With all such dreadful news flying in the air, stepping out is becoming more and more difficult. And to think about all the precautions that one needs to take, makes going out unbearable. If I think about not going out for a week, maybe a few months back, I would have definitely felt insane. There were days when even though there was no necessity to hop out, I would still go, maybe just for a stroll. In fact, truth to be told, I loved going out for any reason whatsoever.
But something seems to be changing with time. I am losing all my urge to go out. I feel terrified of the fact that I have go out. There can be numerous reasons for my lacklustre life. One, before going out, I have to make sure that I wear clothes which I am planning to give for washing, have to put on my mask, carry a sanitizer, carry a carry-bag, keep my mobile at home and the worst of it all, wear a headgear. To go out, maybe for 5 minutes, even for small reasons, such amount of preparation seems to be very tiresome. Two, on coming back to home, there seems to be series of drum-roll activities which is mandatory, otherwise I will be banned from my home. Upon returning, I have to directly run to the washroom, have a bath, wash my clothes and sanitize myself and everything I have bought. And then i am allowed to enter my room. Such huge amount of patience is needed. But what I now think is that I am not going out, not because of the two reasons. These two reasons are like fillers, trying to rationalize the situation and give a plausible explanation to my brain as to why I am not going out. The real reason, which i realized a few days back is completely shocking for me, even after self-realization.
The sole reason is completely psychological. My brain seems to have completely adapted to the new normal and somehow, with time, I ended up liking the isolation. Whenever chances of going out crops out, I do not get the urge to dress up to go out. My brain have completely accepted the fact that if I stay inside, I will be able to keep away the danger of contracting the infection. The truth is I am trying to delay the inevitable and somehow I got too much comfortable at home. Most of the times, I watch series or I study. Either of the two. I have also stopped ordering food from outside, via delivery boys, underlying reason is the fear of contracting infection. It seems like I have reached the peak where I do not feel the urgency nor the necessity to go out.
But, there is a problem with this kind of psychological fear. As our government is trying to bring about Unlock in phases, I still feel that there is no need to go outside, for the slightest of reasons. There is a very high chance that it might not be just me, many people across the globe might be feeling this. But they might not be comfortable opening up about this. So according to what I believe, that it might be very impressive as to what the government is doing to combat the entire issue, but at the same time, mental health and welfare institutions must also come in fore-front to break this silo and to take steps to rebuild this psychological breakdown.
Source: Self

