February 14 – Indian History of Love and Blood

On February 14, 2019, when the sun was slowly gliding down the orchards of Pulwama, a sudden explosion abruptly forced it to set in red. A day which usually twinkled in love was instantly turned black. This transformation was born out of a horrific act of terror that sent ripples across the country.

A Tragic Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day of 2019, which planned to spread the fragrance of love across the parks and party halls, instead, painted the roads and pavements of Pulwama with blood. The night, which was supposed to be passionately lit by crackers, instead, was lit by candles in an act of solidarity. The rose, which was supposed to be in the hands of a lover, was despondently left on the tomb of martyrs.

At approximately 3.15 pm in Lethapora area of Pulwama, a convoy of 78 vehicles with more than 2500 CAPF jawans travelling on NH 45 to Srinagar, was targeted by a terrorist outfit. Suddenly, a car carrying more than 300 kilograms of explosives rammed into one of those convoys, causing a huge blast that killed 40 CRPF personnel and injured many. Subsequently, a Pakistan-based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, claimed responsibility for the attack. They released a video of the assailant, Adil Ahmad Dar, a 22-year-old boy from Kakapora area of Pulwama, who joined their group a year earlier. Dar’s family recalled last seeing him in March 2018, when he left his house on a bicycle one day and never returned.

While this attack was severely condemned by both the Indian and the international communities, the incident itself, which coincided with Valentine’s Day, has revealed the hidden cost of the widely celebrated love.

Love and Blood

Love and peace, often hailed as universal human values, are not truly universal; they are neither accessible nor affordable without a significant cost. The tax for the warm peace enjoyed by the citizens of the country, is unfortunately, collected from the service of the dutiful jawans. And the tragedy is that such a heavy price is not paid in a single transaction, but made every day in tears, sweat and blood along the freezing Indian borders. And major incidents like Pulwama vehemently expose one such day to the world; while other days, filled with several minor misfortunes, often are undeclared and silently go unnoticed.

Every morning, while students usually pack their bags with stationery, the Agniveers load their rifles with bullets. Unfortunately, some radicalized youths also load their bags with bombs instead. In a society where love, patriotism, and radicalization co-exist, it becomes solemnly difficult to detoxify such a union. While many efforts from outside are in place, and of course, more checks could be proposed, it is all futile unless and until we all realize something within. The love, the celebration, the freedom of thought and expression, all arise from the blood spilt on the borders every day. And every morning, if we remember such a profound selfless act by someone we haven’t seen, and recall why they are doing so, we might live a life where the cost of peace might eventually disappear.

So, Valentine’s Day celebration elsewhere may signify the serenity of love alone, but in India, it also becomes a reminder of the silent sacrifices and the gratitude that must not be forgotten. Thus, there is no doubt that the Indian calendar will remember February 14 as a day of love and blood. But the real question lies here–are we willing to remember this day, every day? The answer will determine the fate of our future!

Death is Polysemous

In popular opinion, death is perceived as an end of existence, a lapse of life, or even as an eternal pause. But in reality, death is too abstract to be confined within the boundaries set by the human mind. Beyond these popular perceptions of what death means, different people knowingly or unknowingly reshape the definition of death over the course of their life. And exploring and understanding even a few of those rare perspectives might add clarity and purpose to our living.

Polysemous Term

In many philosophies, death is considered as liberation—freedom from all the sufferings of life. This view assumes that life is full of miseries and one needs to aim and desire for death to liberate them. The proponents of this view also advise people to live ethically to earn this ultimate death.

However, this view is strongly contested by another popular opinion, which proposes death as a capital punishment. This popular opinion is legalised in many countries, including India. Despite contentions, to some extent, this legalised opinion helps to deter those who are afraid of death from committing crimes.

Unfortunately, some dare to illegally take such an extremely rare, last-resort legal weapon in their own hands, to commit the very crime the law intends to deter. They believe that death is revenge—inflicting pain on one by killing their loved ones. This view, filled with vengeance and thirst, is considered as a mere expression of weakness and insecurity. Many leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi, publicly denounced this view, arguing against the use of revenge even when practiced against evil.

Another infamous belief holds death as an escape from pain, not liberation, but surrender. Some people, in the face of adversity, tend to quit. And, according to this belief, death is considered an extreme form of quitting. Suicide points on mountain peaks, made popular by “love birds,” are often criticized by many as an extreme act of cowardice.

However, such criticism does not hold true, always. Sometimes, suicide is not an escape, but an act of sacrifice and valour. Besides, it also becomes a measure to safeguard one’s dignity. Pritilata Waddedar, a prominent Indian freedom fighter and a revolutionary, killed herself to evade capture from British forces. Another prominent Indian revolutionary, Chandrashekhar Azad, also became martyred on the same lines.

This view was mostly prevalent during the Indian freedom struggle, where all those great leaders successfully reinterpreted death as a duty towards their motherland. An Indian revolutionary organization, Gardar Party, recruited volunteers on the promise of “death as the salary and martyrdom as the reward!” They saw death as a fulfillment of their purpose, thus breathing their last breath with pride and pleasure. Even in modern times, many believe in a purpose and denote death as a token of completion of their purpose.

At the same time, some modern thinkers also regard death as a continuous phenomenon with constant signalling of opportunities, rather than one final indication of fulfillment. They argue that a person dies and is reborn every moment. And this continuously presents an opportunity for one to reshape and reform themselves, without being bound by the shackles of their past.

Overall, death is extremely abstract in nature and is undeniably beyond the end. While this article ponders its polysemy on a limited scale—from liberation to punishment, cowardice to sacrifice, and fulfillment to continuity, it ultimately boils down to one question—What do you consider death to be? The answer will ultimately determine the trajectory of your life.

Social media is triggering ‘fear of missing out’ among the youth, precipitating depression and loneliness

In this tech-driven world, one need not be an astrologer nor calculate the position of stars to predict the fact that very soon, the World Health Organization (WHO) will consider declaring FOMO, a pandemic. And seeing the state of our ever-stressful, sleepless, screen-scrolling youth population, it feels like we are already having a silent outbreak of FOMO that is secretly snatching every country's demographic dividend, of its surging youthful energy.

This essay will shed light on this ongoing outbreak of FOMO, how it is silently slaughtering the youths, and what vaccine will be effective against it.

FOMO

To begin with, we must understand what FOMO is. It is an abbreviation of the fear of missing out. It simply means the feeling of being unseen, unheard, unrecognized, and underappreciated. When our youths feel FOMO, they feel like a cockroach in a bungalow, which is uninteresting, unwanted, and not welcome. Just like how this cockroach fears being poisoned and killed, the fear of getting unrecognized makes youths go into a permanent mode of insecurity. Thus, the silent erosion of their youthful contributions to the world is a manifestation of their hidden insecurities driven by the FOMO.

FOMO is more of a modern terminology for age-old human behavior. Even in the old times, people desired to be seen and heard. And such desire is a basic social need for humans. But back then, a small chit-chat with one's family, a cute-tiny gesture to neighbors, and brief tea time with friends were more than enough to satisfy that social need and prevent FOMO.

But with the world’s networks expanding more and more with urbanization and globalization, and AI adding to this mix, such simple mechanisms to satisfy social needs started rusting. The amount of effort required to prevent the influence of demons in FOMO goes proportional to the speed of globalization. And such efforts have taken a steep upright slope with the increasing imprints of social media.

Social media has successfully trapped our all-powerful, genie-like youths into lamp-like, itty-bitty, tiny living spaces on screens. Although it looks like in such tiny spaces, one is getting more connected with someone else miles away, the reality is that such people are already beginning to disconnect from their surrounding society. A mother's love-filled call for dinner feels like an abrupt interruption when chatting with a fake Facebook friend. WhatsApp emoji have already replaced one's real-life, meaningful & nuanced gestures as a means of communication. The TikTok world feels more real for our youths than the real world, which now feels more like a bad dream. And when such a virtual world fails to recognize them, their hopes fall, aspirations shatter, and confidence crumbles.

Virtual Expectations drive FOMO

The virtual world has raised the expectations of our youths to a different height so that anyone falling below is made to feel like a loser, seriously denting their self-esteem. While social media must be credited for increasing awareness among the public, it has also pushed carefully curated contents that can cash the cows in our youths. Its algorithms feed the viewers with not what they need, but what they like. In the case of youths, their desperate desires to be recognized is being weaponized by these codes.

One such desperate desire that gets weaponized is the “success mantra”. The social media has effectively rebranded success in terms of popularity, and further the achievement in terms of wealth and happiness in terms of appreciation. These rebranded values, despite becoming the new means for motivating youths, have also stripped the hard work of its foundational features like consistency, persistence, and patience and redecorated it with instantaneousness.

Truly, this instantaneousness is a disease. It shifts the focus from performing the duty to expecting results. Because of this, youths in every step towards their goal, crave for rewards to the extent that even a fraction of failure becomes extremely painful and creates a perception of as if the world has turned its back on them. This FOMO in turn transforms itself into anxiety and depression, drowning our youths in gloomy loneliness.

Further, expectations also dislike repetition. For example, a similar kind of content posted in SnapChat again will not guarantee as many likes or views as before. This means the validity of any virtual recipe is limited, and sustainability requires reinvention and renovation. When one fails to reinvent, the views fall, the likes disappear, and the re-share button becomes invisible. This crumbles the confidence in our youths, shaking their mental fortitude.

While some droop in depression, others take a wild turn to stay in the limelight. Many content creators turn toxic to stay relevant and capture a wider audience. Their contents start pivoting towards creating sensation through deep fakes and false news, and thus turning even an aspiring patriot into a petty propagandist.

Moreover, social media not only deprives young people of their time to build their relationships, the false narratives sold by these platforms through the dating apps, pornography, and fantasy videos create unrealistic expectations in real-life relationships. When such expectations are unmet, those real-life social relations fall apart, forcing the youths with FOMO syndrome to hide from life.

So, any vaccine against FOMO should address these false expectations to pivot our demographic dividend towards prosperity.

The Vaccine for FOMO

Youths must understand that false expectations induced harm is not an alien attack, but a self-inflicted injury. Thus, any prevention must begin with the self itself. One's self-esteem must not be measured by the yardstick seen in social media posts, but rather be realized through self-realization.

And in such a pursuit of self-discovery, the FOMO must be replaced by the JOMO – joy of missing out. As opposed to feeling alienated, one must see it as a chance to be with one’s self. Such solitary pursuit gives way to introspecting one’s thoughts, hidden feelings and talents. This also trains them to derive happiness and satisfaction from self rather than from other people’s reactions.

Another crucial step is to redefine success. It must be defined in terms of morality, service to others, and persistence. People must condemn dishonest money-making through these social media platforms and withdraw support from it. In contrast, selfless acts of service with persistence must be glorified and celebrated.

Finally, youths must learn to earn relationships through trust and further build it by investing time with their loved ones in real, not in reel. And family and friends help them in this process as this is the first place where one learns social behavior.

To summarize, the FOMO is just an old wine in a new bottle whose sales saw a new peak through social media networks. Its sales are attributed to virtually induced expectations, which have intoxicated our aspiring youths to the extent of pushing them into the realm of lonely depression, breaking their selves. Besides all the warnings, the only way out of this FOMO drink addiction is – self-recovery through self-discovery. 

Do you agree with my take? Do share your comments below!

A smile is the chosen vehicle for all ambiguities

 

A warrior is not the one who is defined by his victories. Definitely not the one who surrenders upon defeat. A true warrior is the one who, in the face of adversity, despite being outnumbered and out-weaponed, refuses to yield and, daringly, challenges his death with a proud smile! While a warrior challenging a certain death is often an epitome of greatness, what can we call the one who grins in the face of ambiguity? Is legend an appropriate word for that?

In this modern day and age, such legends are not in dearth. In fact, we can see them in our lives every day, especially in our reflection in the mirror. Their smiles not only have charm in them, but also hold a firm promise that silently whispers – We can do it!

Smile in Ambiguities

Ambiguity not only poses itself as vague, but it also invites different interpretations that further heat up its subjective nature. This causes confusion and conflicts, further magnifying the adversity. This ambiguity often crumbles most who carry it in a boat of fear, but some, whom I call legends, choose to carry this obscurity in a vehicle of a smile. They not only withstand the storm, but also secure their shore!

A smile is not just a facial expression, but an armor of confidence. When one faces a situation that demands bravery, a smile is often the source of breeding grit. Often starting from our lips, a smile sends ripples across the nerves, flanking the brain with a spark – not of fire, but of hope!

This hope is like sunlight that escapes the gloomy clouds of doubts, fear, and confusion, gradually bringing a moral clarity in the sky. Thus, the mind becomes calm, composed, and ready to sail through the ambiguity at the command of its captain – the smile!

 A smile is often witty in the face of a storm. It buys you the time needed to make a decision. A smile keeps even the ambiguous confused, evokes in subjectivity, a cusp of doubt, and makes even the disputed to self-contest. It often leaves your opponent without any clue about your thoughts. It stalls your foe, slows down time, gives you the space to think, which further brightens the clarity. The Great Muhammad Ali, amidst the chaotic trade of shots with the ever-scary George Foreman, with his smile, froze the mind of George for a moment, making him hesitate. This hesitation gave Ali the time needed to break the soul of poor George, thus winning the historic “The Rumble in the Jungle” boxing battle. That victory for Ali was a testament to his grinning heart!

While happiness comes at the end of a victory, a smile can sneak in throughout the process. This not only signifies courage, but also symbolize perseverance. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam’s life, from getting rejected by the Indian Air Force to become the Missile Man of India, and further becoming the Indian president, is a relentless trek through the hills and valleys of life, made possible only with his grinning attitude.

 Moreover, a smile attracts support. A grinning commander instills in the heart, a piece of faith that turns even cowards into warriors, forming a massive army. Buddha started his journey to spread peace in this chaotic world alone under a peepal tree. But his kindness, expressed through his smile, attracted thousands of followers to aid him in reducing the turbidity around the world.

A smile, which is a mark of joy, is also a scent of love that the wearer sprays around him, spreading its fragrance everywhere. Mother Teresa, with her grin, captured the hearts of the poor, giving them hope of love to battle their ailments and sufferings.

So, a smile is a proven vehicle to surf along the gloomy waves of ambiguity. However, modern society does not let everyone enjoy a ride on it!

Not all Smile in Ambiguity

The dearth of smiles should not be attributed to its dislike, but to how this modern world has redefined ambiguities. Society has tailored the narrative such that ambiguity is projected as a villain that must be defeated by the hero who can fit into their molds.

Society keeps coming up with predictable paths to eliminate ambiguity. But ambiguity is a sneaky river that can navigate through any terrain and still keep flowing. Thus, when it inevitably confronts the hero, the hero's predictable plan fails, bringing in frustration, fear, and hopelessness.

This hopelessness not only robs the hero of her smile but also lets the uncertainty consume her, thus making the molded hero into a staggering victim, about to fall into a deep trench of vagueness.

So, it is important to reorient this societal narrative progressively to cultivate more legends who grin in adversity rather than crave for predictability.

In this regard, a simple but powerful mantra can be effective: “Control only the controllable.” At first glance, it may look as if we should ignore uncertainty, but that is not true. On the contrary, it asks us to embrace the unpredictable and be prepared to face it by doing what we can do, with a smile on our face.

Great leaders and warriors like Rani Lakshmi bai, Nana Sahib, Kunwar Singh, and many others never expected such aggressive and bloody battles in the revolt of 1857, which is still one of the darkest rebellions in Indian history. But despite being out-resourced, they cleverly strategized and bravely battled, smirking in valor on the battlefield despite the uncertainty of survival, let alone victory.

Thus, a smile is not only a ship to sail through ambiguity, but also a puzzle that confuses illusions, a tool that challenges disputes, a seed of hope in the windy deserts, and a mask that not only shields from chaos, but also reflects the rays of love all around. To cultivate such a smile in people, we must re-narrate ambiguity as a part of life rather than to treat it as an anomaly. This will help us become legends who can face any adversity in our unpredictable lives with a grinning face by gently whispering to ourselves – we can face it all!

Legends! Don't be shy. Smile and comment your thoughts below.

You cannot step twice in the same river

 

Life is always represented as flowing. This means that it is ever moving and never static. This dynamic nature of the life makes its permanence disappear, i.e. every moment in this life is unique. So, one will never experience the same moment twice – may be a similar moment, but never the exact same ones. This beautiful universal truth is captured by a famous quote of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus – “You cannot step twice in the same river.”

In this essay, I will attempt to explain this beautiful universal truth – decoding why the river-like life changes every moment; how this change affects one; and finally, how one can sustain and endure such change. 

Let the sail begin!

Dynamic life

Life consists of two constantly interacting variables – self and non-self. Here, the ‘self’ denotes our mind and the ‘non-self’ denotes the environment. The dynamic interaction between our mind and the environment is what makes life flow like a river.

In the theory of relativity, Albert Einstein proved that matter is equivalent to energy. So, when one matter encounters another, the energies get transferred. While science limits interaction to energy transfer, Indian Vedic philosophy extends it to formation of imprints. Since the environment is made up of matter, every interaction between the mind and environment leads to energy transfer, which in turn, leaves mental imprints called Samskaras. So, one is never the same at any two points of time. Just like how the river never contains the same water!

Such mind-environment interactions are without a pause, ever happening. Thus, loads of new Samskaras are generated every moment. These new Samskaras in turn, constantly alter the mind, giving rise to new thoughts. These new thoughts rewire our perception of the world, i.e. how we evaluate a situation based on our internal value system. This perception is what is often reflected as behaviour, i.e. our response to a situation. Thus, the altering of mind involves a change in our perception as well as our behaviour.

While these alterations of mind can lead to short-lived mood swings, the prolonged exposure to a specific environment can change one’s perception & behaviour substantially. For example, a girl from a patriarchal family might believe that she is a subject to be controlled and any share of power with her is an act of kindness. But, after the exposure to an egalitarian college environment, this perception changes. She will expect more share in power, not as a matter of kindness, but as her in-born right, as a matter of natural justice. This shift is marked by the change in her internal value system, which went on from expecting chauvinistic sympathy to demanding her ingrained right.

This establishes the truth that – change is the only thing that is constant! But one must be wary of the nature of such change. While mind gets altered by interacting with environment, the outcome of such change is determined by the quality of that environment.

Mind the surroundings

There is a famous saying, “show me your friends and I will show you who you are.” On broader interpretation, friends are a vital part of environment. Since one is shaped by their environment, it becomes important to choose to live in a good company. Often miserable acts are done by those whose mind is narrowed by ugly companionships. In Mahabharata, while Duryodhana committed unforgivable deeds under the companionship of his uncle Shakuni, Arjuna was driven into the Dharmic path by his ethical charioteer Shri Krishna. It is just similar to how a river flowing through mineral rocks gets enriched opposed to mixing with sewage which gets it polluted.

Thus, the change that happens in life, despite inevitable, can be directed towards goodness if we choose our surroundings wisely. But often, it does not end there. Despite a healthy atmosphere, the interaction between the mind and the environment becomes crucial. For that interaction to happen in the first place, the mind must be “present in the present.”

Live the moment

Many either grieve too much about their past, or over-forecast their unpredictable future. But what they fail to do is to invest in their present. Investing in the present involves to leverage the past experience and live in the present fully without the fear of future. This does not mean to disregard the future just because it is changing and is unpredictable. But, to resist oneself from expecting a predictable future, and get ready to endure the change. This is what the Taoism says as – “Let it go, ride the wind.” It means not to resist the change but to travel along with it.

But, in a world filled with expectations and warnings about the unseen, this practice of staying in the present becomes challenging. In reality, one must have a goal in life. However, fixing that as the endpoint of the journey is not wise because it was set by your old self. Now that you might have changed along with the circumstances, your goal might need revisiting, and also resetting if necessary. This does not necessarily make the journey towards your previous goal useless. In fact, the experience from that journey was the very reason you might be successful in pursuing your new goal. Just think – would have Gandhi imagined that he would end up as a national leader when he started as an unsuccessful lawyer? Or was being a lawyer a necessary precondition to become a national leader? In fact, he wouldn’t have imagined his experience in South Africa would translate to Indian freedom struggle. All these events in his life unfolded just because he rode along the wind!

Life is an ever-flowing river filled with energies that interact constantly shaping and re-shaping one’s inner and outer space. This lets no one remain the same making change inevitable. Since such change is influenced by the nature of one’s surroundings, it forces one to choose their acquaintance wisely. Besides that, a healthy interaction between self & non-self is possible only if the mind lives in the moment riding the wind, embracing the travel, and further, re-determining the destiny in line with the flow. Summing up with what Bruce Lee had said – Be water, my friend!

Do not restrict your thoughts. Let it flow in the comment section!