#21 Dying Humanity "Detrimental IS"

Two days ago, photograph of a 3 year old toddler Aylan Kurdi laid on the seashore without soul in his body got viral and shocked the world. It was trending on Twitter, Facebook and the whole media. The big nations suddenly started discussions of great magnitude on the refugee crisis and seriousness of IS(Islamic state) caliphate. The photo is heartbreaking and the whole world seems to be united to solve the horrific problem. "Humanity died today" is the caption we can see everywhere on media and on the International forums. It is definitely a sad day. The world lost thousands of lives in last few years and losing everyday. But the humanity didn't died when that innocent toddler lost his life but humanity is dying everyday. Humanity died when IS beheaded hundreds of people. Humanity burnt with the Jordanian pilot who was brutally burnt alive in a cage by inhumane militants. Humanity killed when small girls and women forced to become the sex slaves of devil terrorists and when thousand died of hunger and thirst. Humanity killed everyday in Syria and Iraq since the starting of Syrian crisis in 2011. 

The refugee crisis is the outcome of destabilized Syria and Iraq which are almost destroyed by flagitious acts of Islamist militant group that has seized a chunk of land stretching from northern Syria to central Iraq. Most important reason of this crisis are the inefficient measures taken by egoistic and selfish UNSC (United nations security council) to tackle this problem. They are responsible for giving enough time to IS by not eradicating them, during this period IS becomes the most powerful militant organisation in the world. The veto power of the UN security council is totally unfair. It harms other country because it is always opted in the favor of themselves not for the world.

Syrians are moving in large numbers for European countries and Europe is also not prepared for this crisis but still they are supporting the unfortunate crowd. But one important event which hurts is, why the rich Arabian countries are not supporting them despite the people of Syria and Iraq belongs to same religion and region? They banned the entry of refugees into their nations. Humanity is dying in this way too. Why the powerful nations and UN took so much time to understand the crisis and not acted upon it? Why they were waiting for this shocking event to occur? Are the lives of miserable people of Syria and Iraq has no importance for the Intentional community? Thousands of children died in last 4 years in Syria and Iraq but was not recognized like Aylan . The international community should treat this as a window of opportunity to act and put serious efforts to stabilize the Middle east. People do not want to see again the innocent lives washed away....

--Prateek Dixit

#20 "Some thing which I'm feeling" It happens....

Life is a road and has many blind curves and one end. We walk, we run and sometimes we take a break. Every individual has its own belief system and life enable individuals to examine and revise their own belief systems. On the way, it is must for every person to have an aim in life. And everyone has different aims and goals at different phases and levels of life. And sometimes they change with the situation and according to our own convenience. But the ultimate aim of the life is to be happy.

We grow up seeing the love of parents and precious care they do. We all have some special friends who are part of our lives and one special person. We always seek love from everyone in every relationship and we love them all. Going through all this we also faced the time when the situation and life tests us. It hurt us. May be to make us stronger than what we were. When we are wrong and we give bad to our people, than we have no right to expect good in return. So I'm talking about when we are not wrong at our own side. Of course in this case when we don't get what we expected and what we deserve, hurts. We should not blame the people because "People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost". When we get hurt because of any reason it's not the evidence which show life is not good. In reality, life is beautiful and should be.

It is a well known quote that 'Happiness depends upon ourselves'. But this is something takes time to achieve in life. Commonly we have some expectations from others too. At least from those to whom we love and respect. And when we don't get happiness and our dreams shattered to get same what we give others, hurt us a lot. People do not change, situations change them and "We must applaud people for what they were, and we must respect them for what they are."

If we are true and right, whatever the present situation is, we must not lose faith in our beliefs and our good deeds. When we do not receive what we gave, don't lose hope because it help us to understand the wide variety of experiences. "Journey is to be undertaken alone and at our own pace". Wisdom is to accept what comes our way and this is the reality of life. Don't allow current sad situation to dominate our belief system, do not regret , do not change if you are right and do not stop walking on the road of life because we never did wrong. And after all no road is adventurous if it has no blind curves. But yes journey will end for sure......

- My Heart

#19 YOGA...."A nonreligious practice"

21st June, we all know this day as a longest day in the northern hemisphere, will now be celebrated as the International Yoga Day (IYD). Yes! India will lead 191 nations to mark the 1st 'International Yoga Day' on June 21, 2015. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), on 11th Dec, 2014 declared 21st June as the International Yoga Day. The resolution was proposed by Hon'ble PM Narendra Modi and More than 177 countries  have supported this move. There were several initiative taken to declare the IYD, but the historic visit of PM to USA made it possible. It had the "highest number of co-sponsors ever for any UNGA Resolution of such kind".

Yoga is an ancient art of development for the body, mind, and spirit will lead us to a sense of peace and well-being, and also a feeling of being at one with their environment. The yoga makes the body strong and flexible, it also improves the functioning of our organs like the respiratory, circulatory, digestive, and hormonal systems. Yoga brings about emotional stability and clarity of mind. This is simple definition. It's origin dates back to ancient Vedic sculptures. Various methods and practices were mentioned in so many ancient literature of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism. And the way Namaz is performed by Muslims has also contains some steps similar to Yoga. In 19th century, Yoga moved to west and in Europe and became the global practice to keep body and mind fit.  The whole world practices yoga as a form of exercise and not an religious ritual.

On one hand people around the globe, across the continent, creed, caste and religion, perform yoga, on the other hand we Indians who gave precious yoga to the world, entangled it  in the web of religion. With the govt. decision to mark the IYD, some minority groups are starting to oppose it. Government had asked schools to devise programs to celebrate the day which is not acceptable to some minorities group. Yoga includes Surya Namaskar which is against the Muslim faith. Amid opposition govt. decided not to include Surya Namaskar despite Yoga has nothing to do with the religion. Additionally, the Prime Minister will lead 35,000 people participating in events on the Rajpath on June 21 in a bid to enter Guinness book of world records. Opposition party Indian National Congress made fun of the mega event, which, in my opinion, is very immature response. Central government clarified that participation in the International Yoga Day events will be voluntary,which is welcoming decision. Despite of this, some political leaders and parties putting all their efforts to politicize the event and and giving it a communal color.

The fact is 47 of 177 nations supported Yoga resolution were Muslim-majority countries including Algeria, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Indonesia. This fact itself is an answer to those who are leaving no stone unturned to spreading religious hatred. But the truth is if they think about it without any touch of politics, they will understand without any effort. Opposing Yoga, which is performed by various nations and people belonging to various religion, is illogical. The world is suffering from various diseases, hatred and terrorism. And Yoga is key to unite the whole world, to spread awareness of healthy lifestyle and to be fit. Everyone should perform yoga and accept it because it is not religious ritual but a form of meditation and exercise.

#18 "War leads to.....?

War leads to ........? Destruction? Poverty? Extinction? But if I say war leads to development, then I think you would disagree with me until you read the my article.


“All war is murder, robbery, trickery, and no nation ever escaped losses of men, prosperity and virility. War knows no victor” - David Starr Jordan

‘War’ - Hardly anyone would disagree that the word itself gives off a gross negative feeling, for it reminds us of brutality of humanity, massive casualties,destruction and the gruesome consequences that follow. If we try to think about what would have started humans to take lives of other human beings, the credit would go the instinct of survival; that is to say that if a human perceives other human as a threat to him, be it for food, shelter, land, offspring, mate, etc., the survival mode would program him to fight off the other. But in modern world where there is no more scarcity of means of survival, why can’t we live in peace? Till around 18th century too, the reasons to fight were simpler and were mainly to establish supremacy over the other. The ideological and political differences made them use of forceful intervention in others life. But in 21st century, the reasons for war have diversified even more- ranging from strategic reasons to national security, increasing economical capabilities and to become super power. The more the country will be strategically strong, more they will be dominating and will have a better say in the global affairs. The aim to be supreme among all is still the same. But as the saying goes, every coin has two sides; that is every negative thing also has something positive coming out of it. How the events of war changed the world, how it made human life more conformable and safe... How war and military events lead the world from path of total destruction towards development...

Artificial satellites play a very important role to shape the today's world. Weather satellites help scientists study weather patterns and forecast the weather. Navigation satellites enable operators of aircraft, ships, and land vehicles anywhere on Earth to determine their locations. Satellites enable smooth Internet access, better television and radio signals and what not. There are hardly any fields which are not getting help from advanced space technologies. But all these are the result of a competition that was started between USA and USSR to reach space during cold war which is popularly termed as Space race. When Nazi Germany built ballistic missiles to attack allied forces in World war 2, USA and USSR both acquired this pioneer technology and started building deadly weapons. This space race benefited mankind with the first artificial satellite in the orbit of the Earth and the science which was used to kill people during war was later used in Apollo program which sent a man on the Moon. The GPS service which we use today was originally created for the United States Air Force for helping in navigation.

Stainless steel with which we are very familiar, is used for utensils in our kitchens; is a building material for buildings, bridges; finds its role in built of vehicles, air crafts; even medical instruments are built from steel due to its multiple qualities. The evolution of stainless steel dates back to the time of World War I, when military wanted a better metal to be used in guns, as other metals that were available that time, were not durable enough and were distorted after little use. Harry Brearley invented stainless steel for military purpose, which later became a useful metal to be employed in many ways.

Friend moving to U.S.? No problem, get in touch through Skype on weekends. Moving to a new city? Get information about people, food, exotic places just by ‘facebooking’ any person residing in that city. Need any information? Just ‘Google it’ and obtain answer in just few seconds. Sounds so simple! But it has all become possible with computer networking and the Internet; and the phrases themselves show that how Internet has become an integral part of our world. The Internet has evolved in stages but it’s foundation was laid when US army used it as a tool of war. Initially the network connected only four computers and was used by scientists and experts to share military and secret data. The aim of developing such a system was to establish a communication system which could be an alternative to telephone system and could be used in case of hostile attack. This network was called ARPAnet was created by Advanced Research Projects Agency (a branch of US military).

In war, if the surprise element is on your side; the situation becomes better for you. And thus, if there is some means by which you can protect the sensitive information and still can communicate information to the soldiers in spite of the enemy eavesdropping on you, nothing can’t be better. This technique is termed as Cryptography. In earliest form, the military sent information in letters in such a way that only their soldiers understood and not the enemy. Cryptography plays an extensive role in today's commutation system to protect our data on Internet like passwords, bank and credit card information, etc.

Microwave which can cook food for us has an interesting history of evolution for civilian purpose. The RADAR transmitter used by the USA army during 1940s used to release so much heat in the form of microwaves. Scientists realized that this heat is enough to cook food. And within next 2 years first microwave oven developed.

Well, cargo pants are quite a hit among the public but it also has past related to military purpose. British soldiers began sporting cargo pants in the 1930s. Because it could be used to carry many instruments and other important things in battlefield. Other military too adopted it later on.

The life expectancy has increased now a days because of tremendous development in the field of health care and medicine. Penicillin is the best example of it. It was developed earlier but its usefulness was not considered until the beginning of the Second World War. After the war, the antibiotics became a common part of medicine; which earlier used to cure wounded soldiers, to prevent and curb the infections, which until then was a common cause for the death of soldiers. The technique to store blood and preserved for later use, called Blood banking was rapidly developed during the World War I. Military related events can clearly be seen as triggers to the development of these medical inventions.

During World War I, Fritz Haber and Karl Bosch invented a large scale process to cause the direct combination of Hydrogen and Nitrogen gases to chemically synthesize ammonia, thus providing a replacement of sodium nitrate in the manufacture of explosives. The ammonia was later used for making of fertilizers.

Science has proved itself to be an evil genius during the time of war; but there is no denying that eventually the scientific inventions have proved to be a boon to the humanity. In addition to the above mentioned inventions, jeep, duct tape, drones, air traffic control, parachutes, Aviator sunglasses, ambulance services, safety razors, packed food and super glue are few more examples that were invented as a result of the advancement of military capabilities. All these discoveries are useful for non military purposes as well and are making lives of humans easy and comforting. It is very interesting that although unintentionally, but war and battles benefits people in the long run. The world has changed a lot. The warfare techniques, strategies changed but the counties are continuously preparing for future wars and are continually working for the up-gradations in military. Directly there is no relation between war and development but indirectly the wars, the fear of destruction and preparation of war act as a striving force that force man to keep inventing things. In this way, "war and it’s preparation leads to betterment and development of modern world."

- By Prateek and Rusheel

#17 Teasing...Sometimes cross limits

Friends, the species on the Earth, on whom we rely blindly. They are our family, our caretakers and our partners in mischief too. There are many jokes, and teasing that go on between friends and do constitute a crucial part of our relation with them. Not only with friends, but with colleagues, classmates, relatives and in all our social interactions, teasing, playing pranks and funnily joking around is a definitive part. Mostly it is harmless and stress relieving. But it also happens that joke for one person means insult of another. We also see in today’s T.V. shows also, without insulting someone, no joke can be formed. Can’t there be fun without looking down upon some other individual? And it is also not uncommon to see someone taunting against some other person and packing it in wrapper of joke.

It is not too rare to come across a situation, where others do not understand our individuality and make a comment on us, that has power to scar us to our soul...! Certainly, we all would have faced such situation at one time or other. And that moment sometimes takes us by surprise, sometimes hurts us, sometimes makes us angry. Range of emotions come to us at that point. What should be our stand when we face such an incident..? To ignore and continue relationship or take a stand for ourselves..!

Many of us choose to ignore the comment and continue our companionship thereby avoiding any conflict, but the right thing to do would be to take a stand. Each of us has an individuality, which many of us value most; and those who do not, should. And taking a step for protecting our dignity must be our first priority. There are moments in our life when somebody tries to hurt our individuality, whether intentionally or unintentionally. And often, the ones who hurt us are our close ones, so much so that they refuse to acknowledge our independent existence, an individual personality, and moreover our sentiments. At some times, they are the one of the best people in our life, but at other times, they do hurt us.

In my view, the first thing to do to deal with such situation is to not lose our head and restrict ourselves’ from yelling and shouting. Because, if we do this, it might look to others as our weak point, a way to tease us, and that would in-turn enrage us more; and yelling and shouting may even cost us the relationship. It is better to talk through the situation, and keeping a firm point that the comment had hurt us, and that such talk should be avoided in future. The best guardian one can get is oneself. And if we don’t have friends that can respect us, then we should not refrain from cutting out on gatherings with them. There is no companionship at the cost of one’s dignity.

Nobody deserves to get hurt, not even from his close ones and not even jokingly. Many a times joke for one is equivalent to a sword for another. And we should also keep in mind that any of our joke or prank does not hurt anyone else. After all, dignity of each individual is important. Thus if we don’t tolerate some kind of behavior with ourselves, then same should not be done to others. As the saying goes, “Treat others as you want to be treated by them.”


-Rusheel Shukla

#16 Saying No....Isn't Difficult

Hey, can you do this work for me? Yes! You reply….Let’s hang out buddy? Sure let’s go! You reply.

If you are a type of person who is afraid of saying NO, then this article is for you. Why denying somebody’s request with a simple NO is so difficult for someone? People think that if they will let down someone’s request, they will commit the biggest mistake. But facts state that most of the time the former person doesn't even care that we fulfill their request or not. As an example, if one of our friend/acquaintance is asking us to come with him/her and if we don’t want to go, the probability is high that he/she has invited other people too. So even if we do not accept their invitation, they won’t be alone and won’t mind our absence, exactly opposite to what we think. By not turning them down, we actually do nothing good to ourselves. We’re giving away our time (which not many people value), and if we turn out to not liking the company at the place, then God help us.

Why our inability of saying ‘NO’ harms us? If we actually jump to everyone’s request, chances are that we will not be able to find time for ourselves, and priorities of others’ life makes way in our to-do list. And that is not good at all. If we’re a frequent ‘YES’ person, let me rather call us a “Yes Man”, then needless to say that people start taking us for granted. No one likes that.

What if we want to spend some time alone doing something we love, but have to change our plan due to someone else’s request to do a work for them; we’ll surely do that, but may be half-heartedly and will feel guilty for the same at later point. Not to mention that somewhere deep down we’ll spoil our mood as well, as our plan was ruined.

Does saying ‘NO’ to anyone makes us a bad person? No, it doesn't. If we are a person who’s always ready to agree upon anyone’s request, at first it might estrange some of our friends, but if they really understand, they’ll come back to terms with us. And slowly, we’ll learn that it’s not so difficult to say ‘NO’ and that too without hurting others or feeling guilty for ourselves. Also, once we've control in our hands, our life’s priorities will have a top place in our list, giving us a good feeling. And that doesn't sound bad, right? Saying ‘NO’ applies to a casual dinner date to office life. In every sphere of life, being able to turn down some requests helps a lot in the long run. Saying “Yes” creates anxiety, stress and depression in extreme cases. Agreeing too often also can lead to overwork and exhaustion. Despite your best efforts, some people will continue to ask even after you've told ‘NO’. This kind of behavior is inappropriate and you shouldn't feel bad. Providing a reasonable explanation of why you're saying ‘NO’ always helps the other person in understanding your decision.

I don’t mean to say that every time, one should ignore others’ request. My point is that we need to prioritize what, when and for whom we can spend our time, making sure that we’re getting the full value of each moment. For example, if any of our friends is in genuine need, then of course one should take care of that first. Again the keyword is ‘priority’. It’s a well-known quote I remember that ‘Give Back to Others by Giving to Yourself First’, so we must give time to ourselves first. To be a “Yes Man” sometimes conveys that we lack our opinion. We must deny the requests made by others, if request will waste your precious time. Learn to say no to requests that don’t meet your needs, and once you do that you’ll find how easy it is. You’ll get more time for yourself, your work and things that are most important to you.

Remember, if you don’t do what you need to do first, you will end up on making a mockery of your priorities…..!!!!


- Rusheel Shukla and Prateek Dixit