THE INTROVERT

We come across injuries every now and then. These are part of our routine. Be it a small scratch on your leg while crossing a field or a small cut while cutting the vegetables. They don't bother us much. What bother us are serious injuries. Injuries which can permanently affect our lives, our posture, our ability, our dexterity. We have to be very careful not to get seriously injured. A serious injury can permanently change our life and that of our loved ones. This happened on 4th June when I was playing volleyball in the evening. Lockdown was relaxed and after 3-4 rounds of discussions, we had finally agreed to start the game. It was the first day after 2 months of rigorous lockdown. Everybody was excited as well as cautioned because lockdown relaxation didn't mean corona relaxation. Fear was there. But still we went on. We were aware of the fact that our town had not a single corona case, not even a suspect. So, we were convinced that it was okay to start the game. If you kno...

Right from my childhood, I have encountered many stark inequalities in different fields. These inequalities have always been evident in front of my eyes. I am sure it had been more evident before the time I was born. No wonder communists were able to launch a revolution which changed the socio-political and economic realities in India that existed before them. No wonder our beloved motherland was bifurcated into two by exploiting these inequalities that existed then. No wonder armed insurgencies sprouted in different parts of North-east, and they still exist, owing to these inequalities. No wonder, caste and religion based politics has always been dominant in our country, allowing different groups/tribes/communities to be exploited by their "political saviors", only because of these inequalities. I do not intend to discuss with the readers, incidents, which happened in the past, even though their consequences will be ever present in the society. This perhaps, is a topic we ...

You must have gone through a lot of experiences in your life where you have choices to make. a. Sometimes, there are many choices and it is rather easy to choose. b. Sometimes, there are few choices and it is hard to choose. c. Sometimes, there is no choice at all. You have to oblige. Now, many contend that there is always a choice to make. To some extent it might be true. But, in that case, the other choice may be unethical, inhuman and despicable. Let us understand these cases one by one using examples:- a. You have gone to an ice-cream stall and you were shown 8 different options. Here, choices are many and not very difficult to choose. Unless, you have a morbid obsession towards any particular flavor. Any choice here is safe and sound. b. Consider yourselves in the middle of a city. You have to attend a job interview after some time. You are late. You have to decide whether to go by metro, bus, taxi, pool-car, etc. Every choice is expected to give almost similar resul...

In almost every story you might have heard, darkness is often compared with evil, sadness, sorrow, gloom. In almost every idiom and phrase, darkness is always bad, unethical, unfair. For example, "In the dark", "dark side", "dark days", etc. Every nocturnal being is allegedly dangerous, poisonous, harmful and inhuman. Every monster, vampire, ghoul, phantom and any other demonic forms you can imagine is active in dark and works in darkness. My question is, is darkness really that dark? I bet many people have never seen darkness. They sleep at 10 and wake up at 6. Their daily routine is fixed. Most of their work is done in day time and their nights are just for sleep. They never got a chance to see the night as they have seen the day. And those who are awake at night, many of them still miss the opportunity. Thanks to science, electricity and IT industry. As long as they are awake, they are surrounded by lights. Stuck between mobile phones, lapt...

*continued from part 1* 6. Farmers We don't have to discuss how farmers are the primary source of food available to us and their importance in the supply chain of food items and subsidiary farm materials. However there are some issues which need to be taken care of. -Perishable goods/Horticulture products: As we know, these goods do not last long. Therefore, they are needed to be immediately supplied to local markets/mandis for consumers to buy. If this doesn't happen , then these items will get wasted and will cause a huge loss to farmers and their income. Further, this will cause huge demand in markets and prices of horticulture products will rise. -Rabi crop harvesting: We all know, this is the time for harvesting of Rabi crops. Even though, farmers are given a go ahead to cut their crop, lack of labours and machinery is a problem. If government do not intervene, it will cause trouble for the farmers and general populace at large. -Income: We know, government is ...

We are in a 21 days lockdown period. We all know why such drastic measure was necessary. And we also know how it has helped contain the virus and flatten the graph up to a great extent. This lockdown has helped the administration focus on different hotspots emerging in the country and mobilize the resources towards containing it. Had it been not implemented, India would have been suffering a lot. Having said that, the sudden announcement of all India lockdown and unclear/vague guidelines about the essential/non-essential services/items has caused a lot of trouble for a lot of people. The Prime Minister himself apologized for the inconvenience caused by this announcement. Lack of communication and coordination between different agencies, incoherency between central and state governments has opened a nasty pandora's box for many people. Today we will discuss, how some people among us are facing the burnt of this lockdown and how their lives have changed radically by this de...

First of all guys, let me tell you, I am not the authority to comment on relationship stuff. I am here to just tell you what I see and notice, which is one thing I am good at. You guys are open to put out what you think about this. So, what is being possessive? - According to google, Demanding someone's total attention and love. - According to oxford, same definition. And, what is being caring? - According to google, displaying kindness and concern for others. - According to oxford, kind, helpful and showing that you care about people. Now, the problem is, people often misunderstand one with the other. Why? Is that really that confusing? Well, it may be.  Consider this example. A guy named Abhay likes a girl named Pammi. Now, he expects Pammi not to talk to some of her other guy friends. He claims that he knows those guys, and he knows exactly their type. According to him, they are not good for her, they are using her, they might hurt her, th...

Women have been demanding freedoms, rights, equality, safety/security in our country for a very long time, but to no concern. If we see the track record of our country, we failed miserably on this front both pre and post independence. This narrow minded thinking which considers women as property and that you own them, otherwise known as Patriarchy, is destroying the potential of 50% of our population. If we consider the crime rate against women according to NCRB report (graph below):- We can see, in 2017, it increased 6% compared with 2016 and 9% compared with 2015 figures. It is continuously increasing every year. We are living in a society where male child is preferred over female child. This notion already pushes the women in an unequal world. Right from childhood, they face discrimination in almost every aspects of life, such as, educational institutions, workplace, religious institutions and many more. They are made and forced to accept that they are weak and are almo...

(Continued from Part 1) I: Yes, but I knew nobody is infected here. N: Oh! And how did you know that? Are you a chiromancer? Foreteller? I: No, I am not. Okay, Fine. I am sorry, I should've taken those precautions. Now you happy? N: (Her eyes glistened of victory) Yes.      But, tell me Bhaiya, I go to school, tuition classes, dance class, playground, my friend's houses, everywhere. Should I not go to those places? I: It will be good, if you don't. But as I told you, if it is extremely compulsory, like those workers, who can't survive if they don't go to work, then you can go but take care of all the precautions like using sanitisers.... N: (Interrupting) Oh! Come on, not again with that. I am fed up listening to that again and again everywhere. In TV, radio, internet, even when I call someone. It's frustrating enough, now you want to say that again? I: Well, you don't have to worry, your school, tuition classes and all other educational inst...

It has been a long time since I wrote something. I got into some mess, didn't get time. Still into some issues, but still, from now on, I will try my best to write something at least once a week. My neighbour's daughter Nikita , 9 years old, currently in class 3, had her birthday recently. I was there for the celebration. She is mad about birthdays, cakes, balloons, gifts, party and all that stuff as we were as children. However, party got over, everybody left, rather early, thanks to Corona virus. Party was not as pompous as she thought it would be. So, she was quite bummed out. One of the very beautiful things about children is that they are honest, from inside as well as outside. They don't fake, don't hide emotions. And hence, their action, facial expressions, etc speaks volumes about what they are feeling. While everybody left, I stayed for dinner. I was watching T.V while everybody else were busy in their own things. Mostly mobile phones. But, Nikit...

As we grow older, we become more experienced and mature. However, even then, we are new to many aspects of life which we have never encountered before. This is about one such experience. My elder sister ( my maternal uncle's daughter) who lives near by, had a son on 8th Jan 2020 i.e, about 11 days ago. Everything was alright before that. All the relevant tests were done. Everything was okay. But, after delivery, the baby was not able to breathe. His lungs were collapsing. It was an emergency and he was immediately shifted to another hospital and got admitted into NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).  My sister and everyone else, including my mother, was not ready for this. They were just shocked. A minute ago they were all happy and joyful and a minute after a cloud of doom and shock covered everyone's face. I was there and witnessing everything. I couldn't decide whether to console the mother of the child or to run to the other hospital with child. I was ...

Oxford dictionary defines "Resolution" as "the quality of being resolute or determined" , "a firm decision to do or not to do something". So, when we say, "Our New Year Resolutions" , are we really that determined? Do we remember our last year resolutions? Were we determined enough to accomplish them? The answer is a big NO . But why? Were our resolutions so ambitious that it was not possible to accomplish them? Or Was our laxity the culprit? We all have our versions of answers. We will try our best to find different ways to defend ourselves from our own resolutions. Then we will forget them eventually and make new ones. This cycle of events repeats itself again and again. The funny thing is, we all are well aware of this and yet we choose to ignore it. Why? The definition of "determination" goes like this, "The quality that makes you continue trying to do something even when that is difficult". ...