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

• 

In a new research, scientists from China, have identified a “recently emerged” strain of influenza virus.

Virus is infecting Chinese pigs and that has the potential of triggering a pandemic. scientists named it G4, the swine flu strain has genes similar to those in the virus that caused the 2009 flu pandemic.

The scientists suggest that controlling the prevailing G4 Eurasian-Avian like (EA) H1N1 viruses in pigs and closely monitoring human populations, especially workers in the swine industry, should be “urgently implemented”.

China has the largest population of pigs in the world. whole world is already suffering the novel corona virus badly.

In such situation, these type of news creates an awful atmosphere. If the mistake is made by China same as with Corona, the condition would go to be very severe.

We need to prepare ourselves for this flu along fighting with Corona pandemic.

If this flu is not treated well and another pandemic is established anyhow, then it would indicate the end of world gradually by all means.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested one more accused – Mohammad Iqbal Rather in connection with last year’s Pulwama terror attack case. Rather is a resident of Futlipura, Charar-e-Shareef in Budgam district. The accused had facilitated the movement of Mohammad Umar Farooq, the Jaishe-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist and key conspirator in this case. Umar Farooq along with others had assembled the IED used in the attack which claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel.

Initial investigations revealed that Iqbal Rather was in constant touch with Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists over secure messaging applications. He was also part of the transportation module of Jaish-e-Mohammed terror outfit.

NIA has arrested 6 persons in this case so far.

Government today said that a total of three lakh 79 thousand 892 people affected with coronavirus have recovered in the country so far. In the past 24 hours, a record 20 thousand 32 people have recovered from Covid-19 and with this the recovery rate has improved to 60.72 per cent.

The Health and Family Welfare Ministry said, 20 thousand 903 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the country in the last 24 hours taking the total number of cases to six lakh 25 thousand 544. This is the highest spike in fresh cases since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in India. In a single day, 379 deaths have been reported taking the nationwide toll to 18 thousand 213. Presently, the total number of active corona cases in the country is two lakh 27 thousand 439.

Meanwhile, Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR said that a total of two lakh 41 thousand 576 corona virus tests were conducted by various laboratories in the country in the last 24 hours. This is the highest number of tests conducted by laboratories since the outbreak of the pandemic in India. So far, 92 lakh 97 thousand 749 tests have been conducted.

ICMR is continuously increasing its testing facilities for Covid-19 by giving approval to government and private laboratories. As of now,a total one thousand 74 laboratories across India have been given approval including 775 government laboratories and 299 private laboratory chains. 

Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR is planning to launch indigenous Covid-19 vaccine for use by the 15th of August after completion of all clinical trials. ICMR has partnered with Bharat Biotech International Limited to develop this path breaking, Covid-19 vaccine.

ICMR has asked Bharat Biotech to fast track the clinical trial mechanism and ensure that the subject enrolment is initiated by 7th of July.

AIR correspondent reports that this is the first indigenous vaccine being developed in India and one of the top priority projects of the government. The vaccine is derived from a  SARS-COV2 strain isolated by ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune. ICMR and Bharat Biotech are jointly working for the pre-clinical as well as clinical development of this vaccine.  

Recently, the Central Drug Standard Control Organisation, the National regulatory body for Indian Pharmaceuticals and medical devices, has granted approval to Bharat Biotech India to conduct human clinical trials for Corona Vaccine called ‘Covaxin’.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today made a surprise visit to Leh and was briefed by senior officers at a forward position in Nimu amid ongoing tension with China.

The Prime Minister was accompanied by Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane. He reached Nimu, early morning today and he is presently interacting with Army, Air Force and ITBP personnel. Located at 11,000 feet, this is among the tough terrains, surrounded by Zanskar range and on the banks of the Indus.

In Myanmar, at least 162 people have been killed in a landslide at a jade mine in northern Kachin province. Myanmar Fire Service Department said that 162 bodies have been recovered from the landslide in Hpakant, the centre of the world’s biggest and most lucrative jade mining industry. Hpakant is a rough and remote area in Kachin state, 950 kilometres north of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon. 54 injured people were taken to hospitals. An unknown number of people are feared missing. Emergency workers had to slog through heavy mud to retrieve the bodies.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep sadness at the deaths and sent condolences to families of the victims and Myanmar’s government and people.

US president Donald Trump has blamed Chinese aggression for the stand-off at the India-China border. Quoting Mr Trump, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, China’s aggressive stance along the India-China border fits with a larger pattern of Chinese aggression in other parts of the world. She said, these actions only confirm the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party.

Mr Trump’s remarks come in the backdrop of Chinese actions both internally as well as across the Asian geopolitical theatre in the past few months.

In the past two months, China has passed a repressive national security legislation regarding Hong Kong, eroding its autonomy. Beijing has also stepped up its offensive in the South China Sea against countries such as Vietnam.

The White House statement reflected a shaper position that had been evolving in the US administration, especially by secretary of state Mike Pompeo. Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Pompeo offered full-throated support for the Indian ban on Chinese apps.