does it happen to you, too? this unnamed feeling that comes quietly and leaves you feeling empty? you’re doing nothing, and suddenly, you feel terribly sad. this sadness that you feel suddenly and you don’t know where it’s coming from?

you’re sitting with your family and the spirits are high. you are laughing with them and everyone is happy. but suddenly, you go quiet, as if someone said something mean to you. but no one spoke a word. you can still hear everyone talking and laughing, it’s just you who has changed from within.

it’s like someone or something unplugged your “happy-fuse”. you no longer feel the way you were feeling moments ago.

you’re out with your friends, celebrating, and this feeling returns. you start to feel lonely and want to get back home as quickly as possible. you’re suddenly annoyed by the little things everyone around you does.

you don’t have tears in your tears. you want to cry, but tears don’t come to you. you’re so lost inside your head, trying to look for a reasonable explanation to what just happened? you cannot shake this unnamed feeling.

inside your head, you start searching for a reason, for that moment where it went wrong, but there’s nothing. to your friends, you have zoned out.

and then, someone brings it up, “something happened?”, or “are you lost?”. how do you explain someone something when you don’t even understand it yourself? how do you explain that you need a moment alone, away from everything, and this unnamed feeling is an uninvited guest that’ll leave you empty for minutes or weeks?

do you feel this way, too? if you do, i hope whatever is hurting you, i hope you make peace with it.

when was the last time you felt terribly alone? last week? yesterday?

we all have been there. the last time when you wanted to talk to someone and you reached till the end of your contact list and didn’t find a name?

you have so many unread messages in your inbox. you have so many conversations, every day. but you just don’t ‘vibe’ with anyone. you don’t find that connection. you just can’t let your guard down and share everything with someone.

and when you do, you end up blabbering. you end up oversharing. you end up saying things you shouldn’t have.

how long has it been since you had a ‘deep’ conversation with your friend over beer that lasted until 2 am? that’s the thing with loneliness. it hits differently when you have some happy news but you don’t have someone who would listen to you.

and maybe gotye was right when he sang, ‘you can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness.’ after a point, you just accept it. you accept that this is your life where you have ten friends who you can chill ‘with’. and no one who would want to listen to your sob stories on the days when you feel low.

then there are days when you don’t even need anyone. you sit down with a cup of chai and you play some nice music. in those moments, it feels a little less lonely. but then the song ends, or you finish your cup of chai. and then loneliness comes knocking on your door like an uninvited guest. it sits down on your couch and refuses to leave your room until the next morning.

to be honest, the feeling of being ‘lonely’ sucks. on some nights, it sucks more. so you just pull your pillow close. hug it tight. and wait for all of it to pass.

sadness is a perpetual feeling and we all are born with it. there is no escaping or hiding from it. when you feel sad, remember, this feeling is a part of you. and it’s okay.

it’s okay if your parents didn’t understand you. if they made a ‘joke’ that hurt you. or your sibling snitched on you. remember, people you grow up with – they have your best interest, even when it’s twisted.

it’s okay if you feel you’ve no one to tell a funny story to, to have a friend over for sleepover, to have a 3 am friend. like me, keep a journal. or sleep through your problem.

love doesn’t always have to love you back. it’s okay. there is nothing wrong with you or them. you can only love someone so much. sometimes, acceptation of rejection is all you need to love again.

i get it if you’re tired of being a nice friend who listens to everyone’s problem. you don’t owe your life to people you spend time with. you can and should be with yourself and listen to some of your favourite songs.

it’s okay if they didn’t text back. try not to overthink things, okay? sometimes, you got to be patient and give them space, too. even if it’s your best friend.

it’s okay if you couldn’t complete the book you’d been excited about. something has been eating you from within, i get it. write about this feeling.

it’s okay to have an existential crisis. just a friendly reminder: no one can give you a map to success and happiness. you’ve to find it yourself.

people leave. this world is a sad place. we all are wanderers. when you are sad, remember, you’re not alone in this. things get worse to get better. and then, it’ll get worse again. it’s a complete cycle. your happiness didn’t stay. neither will your sadness. as they say, this too shall pass, as all things do.

of all the people i know, you all are the only people i can be honest with about my feelings. you’ve seen my cry about boys who don’t matter anymore and friends who are long gone. yet, i never got a chance to say how blessed i am to have you guys in my life.

this is a letter of that sort that ends with i love you.

you’ve known me the longest and you know about my emotional unavailability. you know everything about me – from how i prefer pyjamas to the type of music i listen to.

you were there when i was going through a phase of short hair and “discovering” myself. you have seen my discover myself – everything i am and couldn’t be. you were there when i wrote my first poem, and when i thought overdoing the kohl in my eye would make me look like Avril Lavigne.

you might not have witnessed every family drama, but you sure knew every story, every detail. and you had your own theories about my uncles and aunts.

you all have roasted me in our whatsapp group, surprised me on my birthdays, and stopped me from talking to that fuccboi. you’ve forgiven me and guided me.

this letter is a reminder of how much you all mean to me. it’s a reminder of how many times you’ve let me make my choices just so i could learn. you were always there to pick me up when i fell. and this is a letter we will never, ever talk about again, okay?

thank you for being calling me out when I need it. i am grateful that I have you. I love you.

do you have any idea how difficult it is to love anyone after you left? my friends kept telling me to not trust you so soon. but i was this naive person. i believed in every lie that came out of your pretty mouth as if they were verses straight out of the bible.

i remember taking you to my favorite cafe where we sat down for hours and tried to study. i remember those bus ridess which used to be my favourite, on our way back home. i remember waking up and not finding you in bed. how was i so stupid? and you know, i wouldn’t hate you so much if it all ended with you.

you’ve scarred me in ways that nobody can see. you know, there’s this person who’s always around. he knows how i like to hog the entire blanket when i sleep. he knows so much about me. things you never even tried to know. things which really mattered to me.

and it really breaks my heart that i am not able to love him like i loved you. deep down, i know he doesn’t deserve my second-hand love. do you know how difficult it is to let go of love just because you have lost the capacity to love someone?

i remember, whenever you’d hug me, you’d whisper in my ears, “you’re beautiful.” and i’d melt. and now, i fucking hate it when someone calls me beautiful. it’s like reliving a memory that’s so scarring. a memory that i so badly want to wipe away like it never existed.

you know, there are so many terrible things in this world but making someone fall for you without any intention of loving them back has to be the worst thing you can do to someone, emotionally. it’s as if your kisses never meant a thing. it’s as if, we never meant anything. our promises were just words for you.

now, i don’t have it in me to trust people. you’ve made me hide behind a wall. i am now scared to love because of you. you know, i hate you. but i hate myself more for believing in everything that you said.

“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.”
Lao Tzu

Today I’d like to focus on a negative habit that creates insecurity within, erodes self-esteem and can make you feel quite unhappy with your own life.

It’s something that has sprung up as we have moved a part of our lives on to the internet and social media.

And that habit is to compare yourself and your life to other people’s highlight reels.

What do I mean by that?

That it’s so easy to start comparing your life to the lives of friends, old classmates or celebrities of all sizes as you each day see how perfect their homes, kids, love lives are and how filled their lives are with wonderful moments.

But is that their whole lives that is shared on Facebook and instagram?

Usually not.

It’s just the highlight reel of that person’s life. The positive moments.

And it’s natural thing really, to want to share such moments or days with your friends or followers.

Now, for some people this may develop into something destructive.

Into a way of creating a more perfect image of one’s life to get that hit of instant gratification as people add positivity via comments, likes and upvotes.

But everyone has problems at times.

They fail. Get sick. Have flaws, bad days or negative habits.

No matter who you are or what you look like or do.

I have those issues too. Just like anyone else.

I still stumble and fall on some days. Doubt myself or am pessimistic from time to time. That’s human.

So don’t strive for being perfect or measuring yourself against someone else’s highlight reel.

Here are three healthier steps you can take instead:

Step 1: Compare in a smarter way. 

There will always be people who have more or nicer things than you.

Or are better than you at something. No matter what you do.

So if you want to compare then do it in a way that won’t make you feel envious and inferior.

Do it by comparing yourself to yourself. See how far you have come. Look back at the obstacles you have overcome, what you have learned and how you have grown.

Step 2: Spend your energy and time on what matters the most. 

Step by step spend the hours in your day and week on building habits that will make you a better person and a happier one too.

For example, aim at being optimistic 70% of the time if you have been it maybe 50% in the past month.

Or spend more of your weekly free time on your favorite hobby or on sharpening a valuable skill. 

Step 3: Let go of what drags you down. 

If necessary unsubscribe or remove social media accounts from your flow if you feel they are dragging you down and lowering your self-esteem. Even if those things might also be entertaining right now.

Life isn’t just a highlight reel no matter who shares it.

So look beyond that, remember that everyone is human and stop comparing yourself to that limited view of someone.

In the long run you’ll be happy that you did.

In Delhi, the season temperature was in average 40-50 degree celsius in all the June month. But the july comes with a starting relief pack of rainfall in which heavy rainfall recorded over regions of NCR. Everyone in the NCr region was suffering from summer loo attack in June with the uncontrolled heatups of sun. But today’s rainfall really making everyone happy. Because it will sure drop down the temperature.

Rainfall is always welcome in Delhi as it’s really needed to nourish the whole environment and also makes the air super clean. But the problem appears when this rainfall deposit over the corners of road due to which traffic is very much disturbed. For this the municipal corporation should go ahead and check all the water flow holes on the road and also ensure it’s not blocked.

But Afterall it’s the first rainfall and everyone should enjoy it and try to avoid taking cold food items because that can make some problem in throat and specially this time where coronavirus is spreading across the whole nation…

The main purpose of education is to set us free from the societal and psychological preconceived notions. Education is one of the greatest tools that enables human beings to understand the world on different levels and from different perspectives. Being able to be educated is a privilege that many people don’t happen to have which is extremely saddening and disheartening.

However, the way formal education has been turning out to be over the past few years has brought about a lot of problems in the educational field which affects every one in some way or the other. Some of the drawbacks that the formal educational system seems to have are mentioned below.

1. No freedom of explanation:

Formal educational system focuses on a few concepts that are to be followed in the same way for years and decades. This system has led to a confined space within which the students are trapped. They do not get the scope and time to explore different domains of education due to their fixed syllabus coverage prescribed by their institutions no matter where their interests lie.

2. Conventional methods of teaching and learning:

The formal educational programs are conducted does not really leave much room for trying different experimentative methods. It not only hampers the creativity of the students but teachers also happen to be trapped within this conventional pedagogical process.

3. Extracurricular activities are limited:

Formal educational systems do not really allow students to go beyond their fixed domains of activities. They even prescribe a concrete syllabus for subjects like Arts, Music, Theatre, Sports, Physical Activities so on and so forth. Due to this obnoxious confined zone of prescribed courses students do not get to explore other horizons of creativity on their own. Even if some of them manage to do so, they are not really appreciated to continue further.

4. Overburdening syllabus:

Students are required to finish a huge range of subjects and topics according to their prescribed syllabus within a very short and limited period of time. At times it becomes really hard for them to cope up with the pressure and breaking through this whole process to pursue their creativity becomes a difficult challenge for many.

5. Flawed evaluation methods:

Each and every student according to the formal educational system is supposed to go through the same evaluation process that most of the time fails to judge their creativity in a proper way. The same old system of evaluation based on written tests is baseless since many students are as articulate and as expressive as some of the other students are. That does not necessarily mean they do not have creative ideas. Sometimes those who fail to express what they know in words, turn out to be the most intelligent ones. The formal traditional evaluation methods totally fail to measure the cognitive and creative aspects of students and just go on judging them based on some average stereotypical procedures. It not only fails to evaluate them properly but also ends up being a failed and flawed system itself.

Students and their parents also tend to measure their creativity by these so-called traditional evaluation techniques and end up being totally disappointed and heartbroken. are some of the major issues about formal education that not only discourage creative minds but also leave some deep emotional scars which lead to long-term psychological issues that the students have to deal with throughout their whole lives.

-Suvasree Bandyopadhyay

Lucifer started on Fox, which canceled it after three seasons. Netflix rescued the series, extending its run by two seasons. While 4-5 seasons is typical length for a successful Netflix series, and Lucifer has produced more episodes than a regular Netflix original series (its seasons vary between 13-26 episodes in length), the drama, starring Ellis, has remained a strong performer on the streaming platform. The talks for more episodes were first reported by TV Line.

At 77 episodes through five seasons, Lucifer is already one of the longest running Netflix original series whose episode count is between veterans Orange Is the New Black and House Of Cards.

Lucifer, based on the comic book characters created by Neil Gaiman for DC’s Vertigo Imprint, Sam Keith and Mike Dringenberg for Vertigo, stars Tom Ellis, Lauren German, Rachael Harris, DB Woodside, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Aimee Garcia, Tricia Helfer, Scarlett Estevez and Kevin Alejandro.

The series follows the charming, charismatic and devilishly handsome Lord of Hell, Lucifer Morningstar (Ellis), helping LAPD detective Chloe Decker (German) take down criminals.

The series focuses on Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis), a beautiful and powerful angel who was cast out of Heaven for betrayal. As the Devil, he gets bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell for millennia. He resigns his throne in defiance to his father (God) and abandons his kingdom for Los Angeles, where he ends up running his own nightclub called “Lux”. He becomes involved in a murder case with Detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German), and is subsequently invited to be a consultant to the LAPD. Throughout the series, several celestial and demonic threats come to Los Angeles; at the same time, Lucifer and Chloe end up appreciating and being happy with each other.

It is hell of a show!

E-learning, which literally means, ‘electronic’ learning has received a sudden market-boost since the corona virus outbreak. Digitalization has been ongoing for quite some time, but the pandemic seems to have heralded it.

The digital coaching institutes which were earlier restricted to a few brand names, have now grown into a vast network. Many regular educational institutions have switched to e-learning temporarily. But is online learning reliable as a permanent source of knowledge? Are we ready to modernize our system, or is e-learning not a substitute for traditional classrooms? 

Schools offer twin development commitment: Academic and Characteristic. While e-learning modifies the pedagogy and makes learning more visual and digitally enabled, the students somehow miss out on social interactions and collaborative activities. It doesn’t seem to be very convincing on the characteristic development front of a student. Yet, it has an edge over traditional classrooms. There are boons and banes to e-learning.

Anything you need to learn is a search away- The beauty of digital learning is that anyone can learn anything, at any place. There are no boundaries or restrictions. Every curiosity of yours has an answer.  Less resource input and economically feasible –For online learning, a physical set up of a classroom is not required. This makes the platform open for any teacher or even an ordinary person who wishes to teach. With less input cost, the cost of education ultimately lowers.  Certificate and skill courses for better employment opportunities- Digitally you can pursue any course of your interest at any time, regardless of your age. When qualifications become a barrier in your professional life, you can always have a chance to enhance them digitally, even when it’s not possible physically. Flexible study timings-Flexible timings make e-learning accessible for everyone according to their routine, which ensures seamless learning. Real-time interactive classes- Live classes assure a healthy interaction between the tutor and the learner. Any query or confusion could be put up by the student without any embarrassment or fear. Reduced school crimes- Crimes we often hear about like sexual harassment, physical harassment, bullying, and body shaming by seniors, teachers or classmates would be reduced to their minimal. With no physical interaction, it would be almost impossible for these crimes to emerge if the student has the right cyber knowledge.

Social ineffectiveness – When classrooms enter a room and are confined to a mobile screen, the student doesn’t get to interact with anyone physically. Gradually when they move out, they’d realize how the world is more nerve racking than their bedrooms. Social infectiveness would be a major impediment in not only their professional life but also in regular living. Unskilled scholars- As weird as it sounds,  if we enforce a digital system permanently, we’d soon be producing dumb-scholars, with no team working skills, extracurricular abilities, patience and communication skills. That would be like hatching a scholar chick out of his/her house that is in fact a grown up chicken and needs to live like one. Unpunctuality and lethargy- With everything served in their rooms and no one to keep surveillance on, the learners would be rather lethargic and slothful. Their work would be left incomplete and if they do it, it would be done at the eleventh hour. They’d lose the value of knowledge if everything is readily available.

With all these boons and banes, I think we all know what’s best for us!