Tag: World

Dream and strive ahead, it’s ok to fail!

by Sneha, posted in Motivation

“I dream and I am made that ways”, said the brain. Man replied, “No, you are not allowed to as you don’t think about difficulties, adventures, challenges or for that matter the failures before dreaming.”

Most of us have experienced the above scenario at one or the other point of life. The way we deal and react in the situation sets our journey. Our future rests on one small powerful decision. It makes or breaks us.

Why is the thing we fear about? Why many of us don’t dream? Why we are afraid of failures, shortcomings? Why we look forward to only a well settled plan and if there is a minutest problem, our world is topsy-turby?

Let us take each thing one by one.

Dream

It’s essential to dream. When we dream, we are indirectly honing the analytical skills of our brain. And so, the more it practices, the better it becomes. Initially, a dream may sound weird or out of the box, but it is ok. At least your mind is trying hard to utilise it’s potentials. Secondly you never know your dream may convert into reality with all perseverance and effort. Also, by constructive dreaming, one may get to know more about himself or herself. There will be more clarity in life. One can learn many things from experiences.

Fear of failure

Failures are the stepping stones to success. If someone is failing, the person is far better than those who are not even trying. For winning anything, one needs to step in the arena. When one will tire oneself, his or her sweat and blood will flow , only then the chances of success can develop.

Remember failures are one of the best mentors. They guide us towards our potentials, the areas to brush upon, new avenues to venture upon, our traits and personality, our mistakes. Failures are like the analysis in mid journey.

And journey is never ever restricted to one goal or path. Our life in itself is a journey. We need to understand that each day is a new day, a new beginning, a new chance to start afresh. Each day has one or few goals to deal with, each day we either win or miss few things. Our whole life is a combination of numerous uncountable goals to be dearmt or succeded about.

Don’t restrict yourself in the shanties and bondages of restricted thinking. I would like to write self written lines which often give me strength to rise again after each failure:

“ए इंसान, ये ज़िन्दगी का परवाना है,
यहां रोज़ संभलना और संभल के गिरना,
और गिर के फिर उठ जाना है।
मजबूरियां भी होंगी, कठिनाइयां भी होंगी,
किन्तु तुमको चलते जाना है।
चुनतियों को पार करना है,
और हिमालय की चोटी पर ,
अपने साहस का परचम लहराना है।

Here is a motivational video, please have a look at it. It is quite inspiring and reminds us to introspect. The best lines in this are:

“Imagine you are on your death bed and standing around your death bed are the ghosts representing your unfulfilled potential, the ghosts of the ideas you never acted on, the ghosts of the talents you didn’t use. And they are standing around your bed, angry, disappointed and upset. They say we came to you because you could have brought us to life and now we have to go to the grave together.
So I ask you today,how many ghosts are going to be around your bed when your time comes?”

Atithi Devo Bhav

by Sneha, posted in Culture

अतिथि देवो भव

“Atithi devo bhav (अतिथि देवो भव) is a common phrase used and believed in India. It is not just a statement but has its roots imbibed in the history. This hails from the Taittriya Upanishad where it is written “matrudevo bhav, pitrudevo bhav, acharyadevo bhav, atithi devo bhav.” The literal meaning of this is “be the one for whom Mother is God, be the one for whom Father is God, be the one for whom Teacher is God and be the one for whom Guest is God.”

Indian culture imbibes this great aspect of love and bondage amongst the citizens. We at India welcome our guests as the most revered people and extend our warm hospitality to them. This has always been  practised.

Historically, India was visited by many foreign travellers and explorers such as Megasthanese, Ptolemy, Fa-Hien, Hiuen-Tsang, Marco Polo, Nicoloi Conti, Ibn-e-batuta, Athnasius Niketin etc. They were welcomed and absorbed by the Indian fraternity. Cultural and literary exchanges took place among natives and travellers. Thus, the mix of cultures took place. It travelled great distances and knowledge got transferred, thus enhanced.

There are also few mythological beliefs behind this concept. The folk tales often describe a situation when a guest visits the host- “The host due to some reason, is rude and unwelcoming. Later, the hosts get to know that it was the Almighty or a deity who came at the doorstep of follower to test his dedication. So, the host repents for the behaviour shown.” The moral of the story is one must respect the visitor and pay due hospitality to the person.

India is a collection of different people belonging to different cultures, traditions and predecessors. Many have migrated from different places, just to live in this country. Yet all live in this beautiful country happily and in unity. They extend their customs and traditions. 

The reason behind this peace and harmony is atithi devo bhav. 

We, at India, welcome all with due respect. If a guest is coming at home, a whole lot of preparations are done to cater the needs of guests. There stay is made to be the most comfortable one. They are given a feeling of being at home. 

This ancient tradition of welcoming the guests is in circulation since years and is passed on from one generation to another explicitly or implicitly. When one visit someone’s house, the person is greeted by all the members present in the house at that time. Even a 3-year-old kid greets enthusiastically as an 80-year-old person. There is no veil of plasticity or hypocrisy. 

Everyone from a higher class to lower class are always equally excited to greet. Men make the arrangements for the guests to relax comfortably. Women make or get arranged delicious food for the guests. Children often run through the house helping the elders and thereafter greeting the guests, showing their toys, telling about their fun activities, also sometimes playing with the guests.  

This whole concept of atithidevo bhav when viewed with sociological point of view, it was a great significance in binding the social circle together. A society is a collection of individuals, their behaviour, customs, traditions and the harmony between them. If in a society there is a thread of brotherhood and togetherness, the existence of the society is more certain and long in comparison to others. This type of society gets a firm base and solid foundation to stand upon. India, due to its old and rich heritage of unity and togetherness has been one of the most ancient living societies. Its social norms are tied in a way to strengthen its bearing capacity. 

With the change from traditional societies to modern societies, much of the mannerisms are changing, yet the practice of atithi devo bhav is still living its life. One of the reasons is that it still passes the test of usage and is not rudimentary or orthodox in nature. 

Another very important reason for its existence is imbibing it via governance. The government of India has a special focus and promotion on this concept. India is a country which attracts millions of tourists visiting her. It may be natural serene beauty or heritage or cultural or business or personal or relaxation or educational or clinical trips etc. Due to this huge number of visitors as well as the related economical increase, it’s a huge benefit for India to tap. Atithi devo bhav is linked to the tourism industry and is being extensively used. It is also done to pay and motivate the natural love and respect for those visitors who are hailing from unknown cultures. This also acts as a social security feature of the unknowns in the nation. 

In this era of 21st century, this concept is no longer restricted to the boundaries of India. But atithi devo bhav has become a global term and culture. The foreign visitors who like this very concept are practicing it in their respective countries.

The Indians who are living in other nations have carried this culture there. They enjoy atithi devo bhav with their fellow mates and extend this unique culture across different nations. So, India being known for its peace, harmony and togetherness spreads its cultural wings to other nations, bringing in the feeling of togetherness and harmony among people.

We Indians welcome the anyone and everyone wholeheartedly with our love and warmth and saying “Atithi Devo Bhav!”

Who will walk on the right path?

by Sneha, posted in Climate

Declining status of air quality in India’s capital New Delhi and the neighbouring areas is the periodic phenomena that occurs in more or less same months every year. The causes and solutions are mostly known to everyone. Yet we are unable to manage and implement the solutions. These solutions are also eco-friendly and if implemented will be beneficial economically and culturally in longer run for the nation, it’s people and nature.

With the result only chaos prevails, the vulnerables are more prone and exposed to numerous fatal diseases. There is rise in those health problems which could be delayed or avoided, if timely and proper measures were taken.

There is a big question which most of us ask to one another. Who will walk on the right path practicing right measures? A blame game begins where we just pass the “ball of responsibility” from government to farmers to citizens to process to media and so on. So at the end nothing much is done, year passes and comes the next year posing the similar issues again.

Who will take the initiative? It’s high time that instead of passing the “ball of responsibility“, we become little bit selfish and take this initiative of “rectifying and avoiding the existing phenomena.”

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhis-aqi-levels-touch-500-mark-hit-severe-plus-emergency-category-6097771/

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhis-aqi-levels-touch-500-mark-hit-severe-plus-emergency-category-6097771/
Reference

Saving our Home: the Earth

by Sneha, posted in Climate

Sustainable development goals (SDGs) from number 13 to number 15 are directly related to Climate change. SDG number 13 is “Climate Action“; SDG number 14 is “Life Below Water“; SDG number 15 is “Life On Land“.

Many international conventions are functioning under Conference of Parties, which is a governing body and constantly working on the climate change and it’s related issues. But the sad fact is that there have been several meetings, conventions or conferences, we still are unable to act proactively to save the climate of our home ie the Earth.

Climate change is not a one time event or a slow periodic long time event. It is happening at a fast pace every nanoseconds. We are sometimes so busy in niche matters of our life, that we are unable to address the changes related to nature.

Those who are of minimum 20 years of age and above, just take out some free time and try to analyse is the weather of our vicinity is occurring at the same pace. Are the local plant and animal species retaining their counts or have entered in the extinct or threatened categories of IUCN’s Red list. Is the food production sufficiently available for all; are the healthy air and water quality parameters maintained; are the environment related health diseases have shown an increase; what is the graph of neonatal birth and death rates etc. There is a long never ending list and is easily visible all around us at any place.

It’s high time that our generation has to act in a sensible, learned, responsible and matured way to address both the already existing issues and the emerging ones. We have to act proactively rather than being reactive. Today our planet is at the edge of a sharp, deep cliff and majorly due to the non serious, disturbing human interventions and actions. There are many sufferers of this- one is the dependent flora and fauna species other than humans; two is the future generations to come.

Often there is a counter point to this debate of saving the climate and thereby Earth that “what can a single person’s action change?” There is a common saying in India “a single drop when collected leads to a sea.” This is exactly applicable here one person’s action will surely multiply to many and may be numerous. The only thing is we as a sensible individual must think, act and play our role to save this great planet which blessed us in numerous ways.

Lastly there is the following link where NASA has shown the images of climate change. Please have a look at this, what we have done and still are in the process of doing:

https://climate.nasa.gov/images-of-change?id=702#702-hurricane-dorian-devastates-northern-bahamas

A very small video clip is attached further. Now you decide what you want and wish to gift to future generations: either the NASA’s shown facts or this beautiful earth in the following video:

Source: National Geographic Channel