Month: August 2021

QIGONG

                         QIGONG

The name comes from the meaning of Qi(life force or energy) and Gong(work), which indicates that the  works with the individual’s life force. It is also known as Chi kung. The art of qigong is based on the Taoyin, which is an ancient art which is used to foster mental and physical well being.

The Chinese Government made it popular as it is done with Tai Chi. The practice began to appear in teaning and marital arts at the beginning of the twentieth century which was used in the hospital in the early 1930s. It involves static and dynamic exercises which stimulate respiration by standing, seated and reclined position. There are many different styles of qigong, the movements are gentle and intense.

BENEFITS

Improved cardiac functions

Better circulation

Improved balance of sex hormones

Declaration of symptoms associated with senility

Improved bodily functions

FIVE ELEMTS OF QIGONG

The Five elements represent Earth, Wood, Water, Metal and Fire. This five series helps to maintain the body movements and improves the brain and organ function.

EARTH

1. Stand with your legs and your feet directly on the shoulders, strengthen the posture.

2. Relax your shoulders down and your arms loose at your side, slightly away from the body.

3.inhale-raise your arms, shoulders, Exhale-bend your knees, bring your arms.

4. Hold the position, focus on the breath.

WOOD

1. Starting from the earth posture, turn your palms and arms, forming a circle and inhale. 

2. Turn your palms so that elbow points downwards and relaxed.

3. Reverse the movement as you exhale.

4. Repeat twice, for the total of three.

WATER

1.Standing from the earth posture, bend your knees into squat, keep your chest upright and exhaling throughout.

2. Stretch your lumbar spine

3. By inhaling, stand to return earth posture.

4. Repeat twice, for a total of three.

METAL

1. Starting from the earth position, raise your arms until your hands are level with your stream.

2. Palms to be turned and hands to be upward.

3. As you inhale, move your hands to the shoulder.

4. As you exhale, bring your hands towards the back in position

5. Repeat it twice, observing the energy concentration and bring hands in front of your lungs.

FIRE

1. Starting from the earth posture, bring hands near the heart and inhale, Rotate your hands to feel the energy.

2. Turn from your waist gently to left, keeping your hands downwards to  the ground.

3. Palms facing each other, separate your hands in front of the abdomen.

4. Turn your waist to the right, keeping your torso relaxed to the ground.

5. As you exhale, let your hands come back to the heart.

6. Separate your hands, bringing one up near the shoulder and other near the abdomen.

     

            GENTLE MOVEMENTS, LONGER LIFE

Refreshing k-dramas


Introduction:
K-dramas hold a special place in my heart. Anytime I’m anxious or stressed out, I tend to watch or rewatch my favourite k-dramas as they’re fun and helps me relieve stress. One thing I don’t find fascinating about k-dramas are the cliché choices of few characters and scenes. Some of the most cliché choices would be having a rich male protagonist and a poor, helpless female protagonist, the protagonists most of the time having a childhood connection and how they got separated when they were young but meet when they’re both adults and magically fall in love and of course the “wrist grabbing”.


1) Weightlifting fairy Kim Bok Joo:
Weightlifting fairy Kim Bok Joo was released in the year 2016. The story revolves around Bok Joo (Lee Sung Kyung) who is pursuing her dream of winning the gold medal in weightlifting but then she gets a chance to find love for the first time in her life. She is attracted to a doctor. Even though she works with heavy metal and exercising for her weight lifting career she is also very feminine when it comes to relationships. She understands that balancing both of them could be a task. She has to decide between her career and her love life but she manages to make a balance between them. The characters in this drama are very elite athletes like swimmers and weightlifters and gymnast.


2) Strong Woman Do Bong Soon::
Strong woman Do Bong Soon was released in the year 2017. Do Bong Soon (Park Bo Young) is a petite and honest woman who is currently unemployed. She searches for jobs everywhere but is unable to get them. Even though she may look small and powerless she is in fact a very powerful women who has been gifted great strength by your and ancestors. Every woman in the family for generations have been gifted this. She does not expose her strength to others but the CEO of Ainsoft, Ahn Min Hyuk (Park Hyung Shik) happens to notice this and hires her as his bodyguard. She is in love with her best friend but later in the story would that change?


3) What’s wrong with Secretary Kim:
What’s wrong with Secretary Kim was released in 2018. The show revolves around the protagonist Lee Young Joon (Park Seo Joon) who is narcissistic and perfectionist. He is the vice President of the company run by his family. Kim Mi So (Park Min Young) is of very able and patient and talented secretary of his. She has been there with him for nine years but she suddenly decides to quit her job. This leaves Lee Young Joon perplexed and confused. The question here is even after all those 9 years, is there something more to their relationship or is it strictly professional?


4) At a distance, spring is green:
A distance, spring is green was released in 2021. It’s a story about few young people in their twenties facing problems in universities and how they tackle them. The main protagonists Nam Soo Hyun (Bae In Hyuk) and Yeo Joon (Park Ji Hoon) auto boys with totally different personalities but end up becoming friends from how much to learn about each other. This drama shows the realistic worries students have and how they balance between college life and their romantic interests.


Conclusion:
If you’re ever stressed out and need to spend some time relaxing then I recommend these shows. These were just some of my personal favourites.

The Enlightenment – The Great ‘Age of Reason’

Considered as a profound turning point in the intellectual history of the West, the era of Enlightenment was both a movement and a state of mind to those who sought logic and reason to contradict the then ever-present traditional beliefs.

The principal targets of these thinkers were religion (the Catholic Church in France) and the hereditary aristocracy’s hegemony of society. During the early years of the 18th century, a movement parallel to scientific advancement, for political revolution erupted in France. Denis Diderot, for example, linked reason to the conservation of virtue and its ability to check potentially harmful human passions in his writings. Similarly, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s profoundly influential works argued that man was born free and intelligent, but was imprisoned by the limits imposed on society by governments. True political sovereignty, he believed, remained in the hands of the people as long as the rule of law was properly maintained by a democratically endorsed government: a radical political theory that came to influence the United States later. 

Baroque Style painting (left) Rococo Style Painting (right)

The Enlightenment encouraged people to criticize the monarchy (then King Louis XVI) and corrupt nobles. Philosophers accused Rococo art of being immoral and vulgar because Rococo artists and architects adopted a more humorous, floral and elegant approach to the Baroque style. It was an art form with deep-rooted playful and witty themes, just like a theme borrowed from a classic love story. This motivated the “enlightened” philosophers to promote a new kind of art, which was moral rather than immoral and taught people right from wrong.

This new art form called “neoclassicism” attempts to present classical ideals and themes in a style derived from classical Greek and Roman origin. The neoclassical painting reflects the frozen shape of ancient relief sculpture, compact composition, and shallow space. Artists and intellectuals inspired by classical history made contributions to early neoclassicism, which was not only a way of looking at the world but was also a visual style. As we know, the two main targets under critical appraisal during the Enlightenment were the government and religious authorities. Many Enlightenment thinkers waged fierce campaigns against restrictions on freedom (such as censorship, discrimination, etc.) and religious interference in public affairs (such as law, education, government). These called for reforms, and they were put forth by some of the most eloquent writers in history, which is why the Enlightenment is also known as the golden age of satire. 

The two main well-renown writers in Enlightenment satire were Voltaire (French) and Swift (English). Voltaire fought against various forms of injustice, including religious and political discrimination, arbitrary imprisonment, and torture. He is mainly known for his many philosophical and satirical works, including novels, short stories and prose. Voltaire was also an accomplished poet, tragedian and historian. The Irish-English writer Jonathon Swift (Jonathon Swift) is perhaps the most famous satirist in history. He wrote many satirical essays covering many topics. His main personal complaint is the abuse of the Irish by the British. Swift’s masterpiece is the novel “Gulliver’s Travels”, which takes a series of wonderful adventures as the background to conduct a comprehensive investigation of morality, politics and society.

In conclusion, the era of enlightenment was the pinnacle of the evolution of modernity and contemporary societal ideals, thus it was an extremely rewarding effort for me to learn more about this intriguing and fascinating time.

The Rising Sea Level

As humans continue to emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the planet’s oceans have changed due to it. The seas have absorbed more than 90% of the heat from the harmful gases. Scientists constantly express their concerns regarding climate change, describing the complex shifts now affecting our planet’s weather and climate systems. Rising sea levels are one of those climate change effects. Average sea levels have risen over 23 cm since 1880, with every year, the sea level rising 3.2 mm in height.

The change in sea levels is linked to three primary factors:

  • Thermal expansion:

When water heats up, it expands. About half of the sea-level rise over the past 25 years is attributable to warmer oceans occupying more space.

  • Melting glaciers:

Large ice formations such as mountain glaciers naturally melt to an extent each summer. This is followed by heavy snow and thick icebergs in the winters, thus maintaining balance in the environment. But since the last few decades, due to climate change, the natural summer ice melting lasts longer than usual. The atmosphere is so hot that even in the winter the cold isn’t able to re-freeze all the melted ice, thus, causing sea levels to rise.

  • Loss of Greenland and Antarctica’s ice sheets:

Due to large amounts of heat accumulating on either side of the planet, the land on and around the poles, Greenland and Antarctica, are losing massive ice sheets making it melt more quickly. Scientists also believe that melted water from above and seawater from below is seeping beneath Greenland’s ice sheets, lubricating ice streams and causing them to move more quickly into the sea.

Even a small increase in sea level, have devastating effects on coastal habitats, it can cause destructive erosion, wetland flooding, aquifer and agricultural soil contamination with salt, and destruction of habitat for fish, birds, and plants. Higher sea levels along with dangerous hurricanes and typhoons move more slowly resulting in heavy rain, contributing to more powerful storm surges that can strip away everything in their path. Already, flooding in low-lying coastal areas is forcing people to migrate to higher ground, and millions more are vulnerable from flood risk and other climate change effects. The prospect of higher coastal water levels threatens basic services such as Internet access, since much of the underlying communications infrastructure lies in the path of rising seas.

While all coastal cities will be affected by sea-level rises, some will be hit much harder than others. About four out of every five people impacted by sea-level rise by 2050 will live in East or South-East Asia. US cities, especially those on the East and Gulf coasts, are similarly vulnerable. More than 90 US coastal cities are already experiencing chronic flooding every year and that number is expected to double by 2030. About 3 in every 4 European cities, will be hit hard by massive flooding. Africa is also highly threatened, due to rapid urbanization in coastal cities and the crowding of poor populations in informal settlements along the coast. Big cities like New York, Mumbai, Tokyo, Shanghai, to name a few, are all predicted to go under water in just a few decades if no action is taken. Only a few nations, like Singapore, Finland, New Zealand, Austria, are taking this dangerous situation seriously and spending billions of dollars to build infrastructure to protect itself from potential destruction in the future.

What to expect from an Internship

1. Networking

One of the most rewarding takeaways from internship is definitely Networking. It helps build professional relationship right at beginning of your professional career. Networking during an internship is really important for your career growth and social life. The power of relationships can provide you with professional opportunities in the future that you would never dreamed of. It will help you to hear tips and gain advice from others who are successful. There are so many advantage of networking, it will definitely help you to build a great future. Exchanging information on challenges, experiences and goals is a key benefit of networking because it allows you to gain new insights that you may not have otherwise thought of. Similarly, offering helpful ideas to a contact is an excellent way to build your reputation as an innovative thinker.  

In the future, these contacts could be potential references and may be also help connect you to new opportunities.

 

2. Soft Skills

Apart from enhancing skills in your professional domain, internships come bearing gifts in the form of soft skills. Alongside time management, teamwork and communication skills, you also learn to work with people who get on your nerves, adapt to demanding superior and long work hours and take accountability for your work. Skills like punctuality, multi-tasking, creative thinking, problem solving will help you with your full time job.

3. Working World Experience

Internship essentially serve as blueprint of how professional offices work. Regardless of the responsibilities, most internship follow a similar profile. Through an internship, you can learn more about responsibilities, hierarchies and schedules in a real time office. When students have an opportunity to experience real-world situations, it allows them to practice the skills they learn about in their books and truly understand the task at hand. Teamwork is an extremely important thing in the industry.

So if you want to try those big girl pant before buying them, an internship is your way to go!!

4. Compensation

We are gonna be loud and clear for everyone to hear, experience does not pay bills. You’ll come across internship offering ‘learning’ and ‘experience’ as compensation for your work. And often, in the rush to add a few lines to your resume you may be tempted to take up the first internship that comes your way. Trust me, there are tons of internship out there that will monetarily compensate you for your efforts and skills.

If an internship offers you all of these just grab it!!

                

Crop Circles

Crop circles are the strange patterns that appear mysteriously overnight in farmers’ fields—provoke puzzlement, delight and intrigue among the press and public alike. The circles are mostly found in the United Kingdom, but have spread to dozens of countries around the world in past decades. The mystery has inspired countless books, blogs, fan groups, researchers and even Hollywood films. Crop circles and their mysterious origins have spawned years of debate and speculation about whether or not they are formed by aliens. Some people believe that crop circles are used as a message from a foreign species. That perhaps they represent some sort of alien language. Others believe that they are a hoax by people who wish to scare or stun the people who view them. But whatever the reason people believe what they do, crop circles have a long and vibrant history that has many legends swirling around it.

The first appearance of a crop circle was in England 1678. The “Mowing Devil” was the first reported incident of a crop circle, and the farmer who found the circle said that there was a devilish entity that visited his farm. That goes against the usual descriptions of crop circles because they are typically described as being patted down into the shape and not cut. Since then, many crop circles have popped up in the countryside of the United Kingdom, but throughout the years, crop circles have begun to appear in other countries. In 1966 in Australia, a farmer said that he saw a flying saucer leave a swampy area, and when he investigated the area he found a circular pattern lain into the reeds and swamp grass. The crops in his field were trampled or cut down in the shape of a circle. The circle was recorded on a wood engraving.

Man-made crop circle

The theories on the origins of crop circles are wide and varied. One explanation in the 1980s said that they are formed from overactive hedgehogs. Another theory says that specific wind patterns to an area could cause the crop to lie down. One theory includes earth’s energy fields and meridians. The force of the energy on the land would cause the crop to fall. But many people who believe in an extraterrestrial origin think that aliens use their enhanced technology to send energy down from outer space to create patterns in the crop. Others still believe that spaceships are the cause for the varying patterns in the ground.

Benjamin Radford, a contributor for LiveScience, said that  one case from the United Kingdom in 1991 had two men come forward and admit to creating hundreds of crop circles, which leads people to believe that mostly the circles’ origins are very human. They were inspired by the case in Australia, so they tried to blame the circles on UFOs. Many of the examples of crop circles being linked to UFOs gets confused about whether it’s really about the UFO or the crop circle. Like with the case in Australia, the legend becomes more about the sighting of a UFO or an alien spaceship than it is about the actual crop circle. It’s an interesting debate that is waged between believers in science and believers in the supernatural. Many people, like the man in Australia who allegedly saw a UFO by a crop circle, claim that they can see unusual light sources or flying objects near the place they find a circle. Others, and the vast majority of people who investigate crop circles, believe that it is pure science and trickery that form these circles.

At any rate, with the technology and advancements that we have in this day and age, it doesn’t seem so unlikely that a human could make such a sophisticated design in crops. Taylor notes that crop circle artists aren’t going to give up their secrets any time soon, either. Whether the creation is supernatural or not, the mystery behind the creation of the circles is still key to holding people’s interest in the designs.  The human race has advanced by leaps and bounds in the last century and certainly has the capacity to develop technologies beyond our wildest dreams that could be the source of crop circles.

5 Interesting things you should know about South Korea

South Korea is like a dream country for all youngsters out there!! because of “K-pop” and specially “BTS”, every teenager girl wants to move South Korea. So here are the 5 most interesting things you should know about South Korea before moving.

1. Koreans never smell bad

Korean people lack a gene which produces smelly odour due to sweat. Hence they don’t smell bad at all even if they are sweat a sea. Don’t you think it’s amazing, after working all day, you are sweating like a sea but you won’t smell bad at all!!

2. Shutter sound while taking picture

You can’t turn off the shutter sound while taking picture. If you bought a smartphone from South Korea no matter what you do or how much you try but, you can’t turn off the shutter sound while taking pictures. This is for safety reasons, if someone is taking your picture secretly or without your permission then, this shutter sound will help you to know that someone is clicking your picture.

3. Your age

In Korea you are 1 or 2 years older that your actual present age. Koreans consider a year in the womb as counting towards their age, so everyone is one year old at birth. Everyone gets one year added to their Korean age on New Year’s Day.

Formula for calculating your Korean age = Current year + 1 – Birth year

4. Safety light spots

Whenever you feel unsafe while walking alone on streets of South korea don’t panic, you just have to stand on safety light spot positions which are under cctv observation 24/7 then, no one will dare to do anything to you. These safety light spots will monitor you continuously so no one can harm you and you will be safe until you call someone for help. Don’t you think this is the most coolest thing in South Korea!!

5. Don’t wear any cleavage-baring tops

Even if there are tops or blouses with cleavage, women take extra precaution generally when sitting, bending, and bowing. But in Korea if you wore a top with cleavage, you will have to face a negative comments because it’s consider sexual or too revealing.
For girls, don’t wear low cut shirts or expose your shoulders. This is considered very provocative. But wearing short skirts consider as cute.

Research method and its types

Introduction:
A specific way of collecting and analyzing data is called research method. What info is being collected and what data requires more importance for the research question is what the research method is dependent on. A research question is the question that a research project sets out to answer. The two types of research methods are collection of data and how that data is analyzed.

1] Collection of data: Deciding what data you would like to collect
To think about would it be qualitative or quantitative data you are collecting
Will the data be in form of numbers of words

•Primary or secondary data:
Primary data = collecting original data
Secondary data = using the data that has already been collected by someone else

•Descriptive or experimental:
Descriptive = using information as it is
Experimental = performing an experiment

2] How the data is analysed:

•For quantitative:
Statistical analysis methods to test relationships between variables.

•For qualitative:
Thematic analysis to interpret patterns and meanings of that data.

~ The 7 types of research methods are:
Survey method
Case study method
Ethnographic method
Interview method
Focus group
Experiment method
Archival study method

•Survey method:
The technique of collecting data by asking questions to people who might have desired answers is called survey. It covers a large audience. Examples of survey method are opinion polls and market research. Two tools of conducting survey are the questionnaire method and Interviews.

•Case study method:
A detailed study of any subject such as a person, place, group, event or organization is called case study. The main purpose of this method is to exemplify, to expand and to challenge. There are two types of case studies, outlying case study and representative case study.

•Ethnographic method:
The word ethnographic preserves its original meaning. It is a way of collecting data wile studying people in their natural settings or fields to capture the meaning of their everyday life. The field worker collects the data. He observes and questions the subject to understand them better. The two ways to conduct the experiment through this method are, open versus closed setting, overt versus covert approach and active versus passive approach.

•Interview method:
An interview is a face to face questioning from the interviewer the interviewee. These questions are open ended and it is more suitable for a small population. There are four types of interviews, structured interviews, unstructured interviews, semi-structured interviews and in depth interviews.

•Focus group:
Focus group focused on a group of 6-10 members with similar interests and characteristics who provide useful information. A trained moderator leads this group and gathers helpful information.

•Experiment group:
A group of independent variables are manipulated to see their effect on the dependent variables. This is called experiment method. They are mainly done to test a hypothesis.

•Archival study method:
Archival study method or the secondary data analysis involves analyzing data collected by others. It is mostly found in books, newspapers, magazines etc. It is also readily available to the reader.

Conclusion:
Research follows a particular discipline and method. As long as it is followed, your research will be a good one.

FLOATING NEIGHBORHOODS OF AMSTERDAM: A STEP TO COMBAT SEA LEVEL RISE

“Floating Neighborhood” is a water-based solution for the problem for Holland’s housing needs. This neighborhood floats, freezes, tilts on the water of Lake Eimer. The goal is to “make a circular, resilient, floating neighborhood”. The floating houses have similar architecture to that of the land homes and each house is connected to the floor of Lake Eimer. The building elements of the houses are: wood, plastic and glass. The architecture of the neighborhood is based on water environment and each house have individual water jetties for getting connected with land. Running below the jetties, cables and pipes generate gas, electricity, water, cable, and provide a sewage drainage system for each floating home. The community of the water dwellers have the facility where when one resident is short on electrical power, another neighbor can offer some of theirs if they’ve got any leftover current. The Municipal Authority along with other innovators, planners and architects developed a draft for sustainability master plan for the floating development with maximum priority on sustainability.

Floating House

The main aim of “Floating Neighborhood” is to build sustainable neighborhood capable of addressing the challenges of an aquatic environment and harness the unique synergies it offers to residents. The neighborhood has adopted many approaches for solving environmental issues and rising sea level.

Adopted Approaches:

Sustainability of Floating Neighborhoods
  • Sustainable Solutions: The neighborhood relies on carbon intensive gas heating, well-insulated homes and passive solar heating through designs which make maximum utilization of natural sunlight, along with pumps which harvest warmth from the canal water even in winter. Solar boilers provide hot water, and water-recycling showers are equipped with technologies that recover heat that would otherwise go down the drain.
  • Harvesting waste water: The wastewater is transported to a nearby floating biorefinery which recovers nutrients and energy from the organic waste streams. Houses have vacuum toilets which are linked with decentralized sanitation facility and use anaerobic digester for producing energy using biogas, phosphorous and nitrates.
  • Usage of Sustainable Building Materials: The neighborhood uses sustainable building materials only which are light in weight and buoyant (bamboo is mostly preferred). The neighborhood has a community center which serves as a hub of neighborhood wide sustainability initiatives.
  • Smart Microgrid on Water: With the help of smart microgrid system on water, the residents have special permission that provides them the ownership of their own grid as well as energy sourcing and billing. Each house as installed large solar PV array and heat which with battery storage systems. The households have connections with energy management system which intelligently coordinates supply and demand of power within the community and allows the residents to trade energy with each other.
  • Replicable Blueprint for Green Building: The homes have green roofs where the residents can grow foods and plants. They can also collect rainwater and use it for different purposes. The rainwater can also be used for flushing the ultra-efficient toilets. The homes have solar hot water collector which connects to fixtures like recirculating shower, which cleans water in a water loop and saves both water and energy.
Floating House of Amsterdam

CASE ANALYSIS

GLOUCESTER GRAMMAR SCHOOL CASE

Facts: In this case, the defendant was a school teacher who used to work in plaintiff school. Due to some conflicts which arose between the defendant and plaintiff, defendant had left the school. Later, he set up a rival school next to that of plaintiff. Defendant school teacher was very popular for his teaching. Boys from the plaintiff school left it and started to join in defendant�s school, because of this competition the plaintiff had to reduce them from 40peneace to 12penance. The plaintiff sued defendant for monetary loss occurred.

Issues Raised In This Case:

  1. Can defendant be held responsible for the monetary loss suffered by the plaintiff, just because he had fixed a rival school and damaged the right of plaintiff?
  2. Did this case cover the essentials of Damnum sine injuria? And if yes then the defendant couldn�t be held liable?

Judgement:
It was held by court that; no suit could lie. It was held by court of law that defendant couldn�t be held liable. The court stated that:
compensation is no ground of action even though the monetary loss is caused, but if no legal right is violated.

It also further stated that, the defendant had lawfully set up his own school and he nowhere violated any legal right of plaintiff.

It was believed by the court that, students liked the teaching style of defendant, hence it was at the discretion of the students to study in which ever school they want to.

Appellant has no right to stop the defendant to run a business as a competition to his school.

Case Analysis:
Law of Torts is understood to be An instrument to form people adhere to conduct of reasonable behavior and respect the rights and interests of one another.

  1. And the same are kept in mind while giving the judgment of the case at the top of the decision of the law of court.
  2. The case which we discussed above is related to An act which caused damage but no legal right is infringed or compromised
  3. This is known as Damnum Sine injuria which means: Damage without legal injury.

The decision taken in the case GLOUCESTER GRAMMER SCHOOL, was also applied to the similar case Chasemore vs Richards (1859). In this case the plaintiff was running a mill on his own land, and for the same purpose he was using stream water for a long time. The well which was dug in his own land did cut the supply of underground water supply.

Damnum Sine Injuria:

This is a legal maxim in law of torts which deals with damages caused without injury. So it basically deals with the damages caused where there is no involvement of infringement of legal rights. Since there is no infringement of legal rights to any particular person, hence this cannot be enforced in court of law.

The mere fact that a man is injured by another’s act gives in itself no cause of action; if the act is deliberate, the party injured will have no claim in law even though the injury is intentional, so long as the other party is exercising a legal right.

Damnum sine Injuria is a Latin word, which mean DAMAGE WITHOUT INJURY, and hence the word itself clearly establishes that if a person suffers from any kind of damage, but if there is no Inter vision with the legal rights of a person, then neither it can be enforced in the court of law, nor a person can claim any compensation.

The maxim Damnum Sine Injuria is dived into three parts:

  1. Damnum includes anything which is related to substantial loss, harm, damage with respect to money, health etc.
  2. Injuria means infringement of a right given by the law by the plaintiff
  3. Sine means without

The general principle on which this maxim is based upon is that if one exercises his common or ordinary rights, within reasonable limits, and without infringing others legal right; such an exercise does not give rise to an action in tort in favor of that other person. Damages can be in any form either in the form of any substantial harm or loss suffered from respect to the money, comfort, health, etc.

National gallery of modern art

A virtual tour 

During the pandemic, our department arranged a virtual tour of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, India. Mr. Ganguly S took us to the virtual tour of the NGMA. He discussed the aim and objective of the NGMA. The art is preserved in the gallery from the 1850s. He also discussed how they develop and maintain the gallery art. He also shared information about a specialized library of books, periodicals, photographs and other audio visual materials. NGMA has also organized lectures, seminars and conference. They also encourage higher studies and research in the field of art and its different areas such as art criticism, art appreciation, museology and the inter-relation of visual and performing arts. NGMA helps people to understand the work of our great artists, their works and share the story of their arts. 

The NGMA was inaugurated by the late former vice- President of India Dr. S Radhakrishanan in the presence of former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and artist and art lover of the city on March 29, 1954. NAGMA’s inauguration was marked by an exhibition of sculptures. Debi Parsad Roy Chowdhary, Ramkinkar Baji, Sankho chaudhari, Dhanraj Bhagat, Sarbari Roy chowdhary and others were present at the time of inauguration.

The art collection of the NGMA is vast and eclectic. The 17,000 works within it testify to a rich and resplendent past even as they pay tribute to the present. Much care was lavished in the building up of a modern and contemporary collection. The collection of Raja Ravi Verma, Abanindranath Tagore (old master), amrita sher-gil and Rabindranath tagore and et ul (modernists artists) are displayed here. The contemporary art is also included in the gallery by different artists. Landmark paintings of M.F hussain, tyeb mehta’s santiniketan triptych were entered in the NGEMA’s collection in the 90s. The art work of NGMA was obtained through purchase, permanent loans and gifts. 

The virtual tour were really interesting and informative. We learn so much about modern art, artists and preservation of art material for a long time. It was really interesting to know about the facts of NGMA. We learn about the preservation of painting and the story behind the painting. The whole museum is divided according to the themes. The arrangement of the showcase was so allegiant. There is also a library which consists of the written works and sculptures there. It was really good to see how long the journey of our  art is.  The beauty is innate in the painting and also speaks of the evolution in painting and storage. The gallery had many paintings there for such a long time.   The storage techniques are different with the needs of the arts. They also offer diplomas and courses in the gallery. Many PhD students and professors arranged    seminars there. 

 The experience of the virtual tour was really useful. During the pandemic we missed our  real tour but  it was also work. It gives us ideas to work with the online mood. Hope, so we are going to have an actual walk of NGMA soon. 

CASE ANALYSIS

RYLANDS V. FLETCHER

Rylands vs. Fletcher (1868) L.R. 3 H.L. 330 is one of the landmark cases of tort law.  In this case, The House of Lords laid down the rule recognizing ‘No Fault’ liability. The ‘Rule of Strict Liability’ originated in this case. By this rule, a person may be liable for some harm even though he is not negligent in causing the same. Further, this case paved the way for ‘The Rule Of Absolute liability’ in India.

Judges (sitting)

 Lord Cairns and Lord Cranworth

Decided on

17 July 1868

Major contribution of the case

‘The Rule of Strict Liability’ originated in this case.

Facts of the case

The defendant, Rylands got a reservoir constructed, through independent contractors, over his land for providing water to his mill. There were some old disused shafts under the site of the reservoir, which the contractors failed to observe. So they didn’t block the shafts. When water was filled within the reservoir, it burst through the shafts. As a result plaintiff’s coal mines on the adjoining land was flooded. The defendant didn’t know about the shafts and he had not been negligent although the independent contractors had been. The negligence was on the part of independent contractors. Since the plaintiff, Fletcher has to suffer losses, he sued defendants.

Issues raised

  • Whether there was any nuisance or not?
  • Was the use of Defendant’s land unreasonable and thus was he to be held liable for damages incurred by the Plaintiff?

Judgment

The House of Lords dismissed the appeal and agreed with the six Exchequer judges. Lord Cairns, while speaking for the House of Lords, stated their agreement of the rule stated above by Justice Blackburn in the court of Exchequer Chamber but included a further limitation on liability. The one more requirement is that the land from which the escape occurs must have been modified in a way which would be considered non-natural, unusual or inappropriate.  The decision of House of Lords added a requirement that the use be ‘non-natural’. The judgement of this case was delivered on 17 July. In this the court consisted of only two judges, Lord Cairns and Lord Cranworth; Lord Colonsay didn’t attend the case.

Three essentials, for the application of the Rule of Strict Liability

  • Some dangerous thing must have been brought by a person on his land.

According to this rule, the liability for the escape of thing from one’s land arises when the thing collected was a dangerous thing. It means a thing likely to do mischief if it escapes. In Rylands v. Fletcher, the dangerous thing was a very large body of water

  • The thing thus brought or kept by an individual on his land must escape.

For the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher to apply, it is also essential that the thing causing the damage must escape to the world outside the occupation and control of the defendant

  • It must be non-natural use of land.

Water collected within the reservoir in such an enormous quantity in Rylands v. Fletcher was held to be non-natural use of land. In order to show that, the use is non-natural, it must be shown that use is some special use bringing with it increased danger to others.

Exceptions to the Rule of Strict Liability

A number of defences to the rule of strict liability too  was developed in this case and some later cases:

  • Escape was owing to the plaintiff’s default
  • Escape was a consequence of vis major
  • Consent of the plaintiff
  • Act of third party
  • Statutory authority

Impact of the case in India

In M. C. Mehta v. Union Of India, the Supreme court took a bold decision holding that it was not bound to follow the 19th-century rule of English law. The honourable Supreme Court said it could evolve a rule suitable to the social and economic conditions prevailing in India at the present day. It evolved the rule of ‘Absolute Liability’ as a  part of Indian law in preference to the rule of Strict Liability laid down in Rylands v. Fletcher. This rule was not subject to any of the exceptions under the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher. The defences to the Rule of Strict Liability can be used by the persons who had established ‘hazardous and inherently dangerous’ industries to escape the liability for the havoc caused, by pleading some exceptions. So to remove that grey area and in order to increase accountability on the part of persons engaged in such kind of activities, the rule of ‘Absolute Liability’ has been evolved in India.

Conclusion

Ryland vs. Fletcher played a great role in deciding owners’ liability when he is bringing any dangerous object in his premises. It was necessary to have a law that could increase the duty of the owner. So that he can be more careful while bringing any dangerous object in his premises. The world is progressing very fast and in this era of industrialization, privatisation and globalization disputes regarding the duty of care are burgeoning rapidly so there was a need for a law that could solve these problems. This was done in this case. In the context of India, this  Rule of strict liability paved the way for ‘The Rule of Absolute Liability’ in India.

5 true stories prove multiple universes do exist!

Would you believe me if I say parallel universes exist and are a ‘real’ thing? Well if no, I would request you to continue reading ahead. We have all come across the terms like parallel universes/ multiple universes several times in the fictional books that we read. But who knew that those stories weren’t just a myth or an old-wives’ tale. Here are 5 more real-life stories that will leave you dumbstruck.

1. A guy at Tokyo International Airport who was supposed to be from a non-existing country

Allegedly, this man told customs he was in Japan for business, and had legitimate visa stamps, currency from multiple European countries, cheques from an unknown bank, and a driver’s license issued in Taured. They sent him to a hotel while things were sorted out, while two immigration officers stood outside of his hotel door. But when they went to check on him in the morning, he’d vanished. This was from 15 stories up, above a busy street, so escaping through a window was unlikely, if not impossible. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department searched, but never located the man from Taured again.

2. The green-skinned children who simply just appeared in Woolpit

Back in the 12th century, two children, a brother and sister, allegedly popped up in the village of Woolpit, in Suffolk, England. Both had greenish-colored skin, spoke an unknown language, wore bizarre clothing, and initially refused to eat any food other than raw beans. They were taken in, cared for, and eventually they adapted, developing a taste for food and losing the green hue in their skin. Shortly after, the boy became sick and died, but after learning to speak English, the girl explained that she and her brother were from a place where the sun didn’t shine bright, and it was perpetual twilight. She and her brother were there, herding their dad’s cattle, when they heard some loud noise, and were suddenly in a new place where they were eventually discovered, in Woolpit. The girl grew up and integrated herself into her new surroundings. Though it remained unknown how she and her brother got there, the girl went on to get married and live her life here, in a dimension that might not actually be her place of origin.

3. The cabin in the Markawasi Stone Forest that leads to a parallel dimension

One day, a woman and her friends were camping at a site near the mysterious forest, when they heard music coming from a small, stone cabin that was lit up by torches. They claimed to see people wearing 17th-century fashion dancing inside, and the curious woman was drawn to it, so she headed over and tried to enter. Before she could get inside, a friend pulled her away, and half of her body immediately became paralyzed — the half that had entered the cabin.

Some believe that the woman partially entered a dimensional gateway, and when she was pulled out, she experienced a shift that threw off her nervous system, resulting in her partial paralyzation.

4. The strange man who wound up shipwrecked in Germany from an unknown world

So this story goes, a peculiar guy popped up in a village, where he was picked up and questioned by authorities. The only comprehensible language he spoke was a broken variation of German, but he said his name was Jophar Vorin, and claimed to come from a part of the world known as Sakria. He conveyed that he was searching for his long-lost brother, whom he’d been separated from during a shipwreck. While he had geographical information regarding his home planet, such as five compartments known as Sakria, Aflar, Aslar, Auslar, and Euplar, he couldn’t trace his route on shore, and he would wind up living in Berlin, where he was a topic of discussion amongst the scientific, and simply curious, communities.

5. The universe in which the Beatles never broke up

In 2009, a man named James Richards was in Livermore California driving home from Turlock with his dog. He claims that when he pulled over to let the pup empty her bladder; she sprinted after a rabbit, and he followed her, but tripped, knocking himself unconscious. When James came to, he was next to an odd machine, in the company of a man named Jonas who claimed to have found his unconscious body while on a work trip for an interdimensional travel agency.

While they were together, Jonas and Richards wound up chatting about the pop culture in their respective universes, and discovered that not only did the Beatles also exist in this dimension, but they were all still alive and actively making music. Richards gained a cassette tape labeled “Everyday Chemistry,” which contained Beatles songs that never existed in our dimension. He even uploaded the songs to a website and called it TheBeatlesNeverBrokeUp.com

21.5 million lost jobs in tourism sector, says Centre

Significant job loss due to lockdown, Tourism Minister tells Rajya Sabha.

With the tourism industry among the hardest hit due to the pandemic, it is estimated that about 21.5 million people working in the sector lost their jobs during the nine-month period from April 2020-December 2020, as per the data shared by the government recently.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Tourism Minister G. Kishan Reddy said a significant number of jobs were lost in the tourism sector once the lockdown was implemented.

“About 14.5 million jobs during Q1, 5.2 million during Q2 and 1.8 million jobs during Q3 were expected to have been lost as compared to estimated 34.8 million jobs in the pre-pandemic period of 2019-20,” the Minister said.

Mr. Reddy said this was one of the key findings of the study done by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) for the Ministry of Tourism to assess the extent of losses to the sector.

As per the report, due to overall economic slowdown during 2020-21, tourism economy or tourism direct gross value added (TDGVA) saw a fall of 42.8% in April-June 2020, 15.5% in July-September 2020 and fall of 1.1% in October-December 2020.

“Due to significant drop in tourist arrivals and hence tourism expenditure, during the pandemic, it is estimated that TDGVA plummeted by as much as 93.3% in Q1 of 2020-21 over its level in the same quarter of previous year,” the Minister stated, adding that it picked up slightly to post a decline of 79.5% and 64.3% in second quarter and third quarter respectively.

However, Mr. Reddy added that the Tourism Ministry did not maintain data on revenue generated from tourism.

Replying to another query, the Minister said no formal study had been instituted by the Ministry to assess whether the movement of people from all States increased at tourist places, which might raise fears of the increase in COVID-19 positive cases after the second wave.

Further, Mr. Reddy said that as per the Bureau of Immigration, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in India stood at 10.93 million in 2019, declining to 2.74 million in 2020 and about 0.42 million till June 2021.

According to the data compiled by the Ministry of Tourism, domestic tourist visits during the calendar year 2019 stood at 2321.98 million and in 2020 at 610.21 million.

Advertisements and Body Image

Advertisements have the power to shape the belief of a person and convince them into buying a particular product. But often these advertisement campaigns, especially the ones related to beauty products, promote an unrealistic body image which affects the consumer’s state of mind. They glorify and emphasize the importance of physical appearance and set certain standards of beauty. 

 This can affect not only the mind but also the social and emotional state of a person. It can lead to low self esteem issues and impact their overall well-being. Youngsters and teenagers are the most vulnerable to this negative impact of advertisements. They idealize the body image shown in the advertisements and end up with body dissatisfaction or taking drastic measures in order to change the body. 

The issue of Body Image

Body image refers to one’s perception about one’s size and shape of body. Body dissatisfaction is experienced when the person feels that they do not fit into the perception of body image. This can lead to unhealthy habits like chronic dieting . 

Nationwide Surveys conducted in the USA during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s,  indicated that both men’s and women’s body image perceptions were becoming more and more negative with the growth of print and television advertisements. 

When it comes to beauty products or fashion related content, the models are always shown to be extremely thin. This stereotypical standard of beauty leads to body related anxiety issues and eating disorders among women. Likewise, Men are always stereotyped to have a physically strong, lean, and muscular body. 


Similarly racist attitudes are also promoted by many fairness product’s advertisements. Fairness creams, powders, etc. showcase fair skin as the standard of beauty. This issue of fairness creams was widely questioned and criticized recently, especially on social media.

 

Some advertisements set unattainable goals for the consumer. For instance the unrealistic standards are set like a totally spotless and ever-glowing face, or always having silky smooth hair. These notions of beauty are far from reality, they are unlike the people that we see in our everyday life. Trendy clothes, perfectly smooth skin,etc. is glamorized to the extent that people consider it to be the “perfect body”. 

However, due to recent debates around the issue of body image being shaped by advertisements, some advertisements have started promoting body positivity. More advertisement campaigns that promote body positivity and inclusivity are required for normalization and acceptance of the non-stereotypical body images in society.