Emotions in life are beyond Colours

"What? You'll wear a black dress at her Mehendi ceremony? Wear a joyful colour"

"How can you wear a blue shirt at the mourning?"

Well, It Happens Only in India!

“Love for everyone, hatred for none.” Well, this is what India is famous for. India is a country which houses special people of special characteristics. India is India. No other place like it. And likewise, there are many things that make me say proudly “It Happens only in India”.

#1

Chanakya: A man with WISDOM or a CHAUVINIST

I recently read Chanakya Neeti and was amused by some of his statements and thoughts. Chanakya, born with broken teeth and crooked feet was destined to advise rulers and not become a ruler himself. He helped Chandragupta in building and expanding his empire. He wrote many inspirational books and one such book is Chanakya Neeti where he has shared his personal opinions about life, spirituality, women, marriage and much more. But some of his views were in contradiction with his earlier opinions and conveyed a negative message too. Some may find his teachings inspirational while other may not agree with his views.

He started the book with talking about spirituality and dharma. In his message, he conveys that one should follow his Dharma without thinking about the consequences or the fruit we get from it. Also, Dharma should be above everything else in life. He says that a person should remain loyal towards his Dharma till he dies. The meaning was clear that Chanakya wanted us to realize what we truly want in life, we should be loyal to everything and everyone who are in our life. As the saying goes that “The man who knows others is intelligent but the man who knows himself is wise”. Chanakya then talks about Self-Actualization. One should be aware of one’s actions and the impact or the consequences it will have on others.

He further goes on by talking about a state and the king. He says that a matter should always remain between two people, one the king and the other with the concerned minister. If a third person gets to know about the matter the whole assembly will know about it. Here Chanakya is trying to say that one should never reveal a secret to the person who has nothing to do with the matter, just for the fun purpose. Also, Chanakya says that when you let other know about your weakness they take advantage of that to use it against you. So always keep control of your emotions and feelings.

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These were really inspiring and the truths of life which we usually don’t realize but we face it every day. So take control of your life before it takes control over you.  But now we come to the negative part, where I feel that Chanakya was a chauvinist. He talks about women in one of his chapters and he says by giving the example of Sita, that she was abducted by Ravana because of her beauty. What he tries to convey is that s girl is molested because she is beautiful, which is totally not acceptable. He further goes on and says that a woman looks at one person, loves another and marries some other person. This totally made him a chauvinist.



Some of his views were contradicting each other as well. At first, he says that a man should marry a woman who always stays loyal to him regardless of her class and in another he goes on by saying that a man should always marry a woman of the same class. Which one should we believe? Well, in my opinion, NONE.

Chanakya Neeti may be inspiring but some of the views are just not acceptable.


Written by Chayanika Singh
Unique name right? Well, I am a big time foodie and a travel junkie but I also love to write about serious issues and problems all over the world. Sometimes my write-ups will be of great joy and sometimes they’ll make you think about issues.

Education: More of A Belief system?

Society, over the years, has developed its own organisational structure. Even individuals have their basic routine setup, which they don't like  disturbed. All in all, it seems easier for mankind to follow when there is an organisational chart laid out as to how to perform it. It's this impending belief that has probably made us develop this flowchart with exams and interviews, so as to go on with life. After certain years of school, one is supposed to go to college, or get a job if situations persist. Keep in mind, the situation is probably the financial constraints of his/her family.

College admission is another procedure that has upped the cash flow in the education field. The number of tutorial start-ups all over India, like Kota, has made it their prime objective to make the students mark the right circle irrespective of what's written next to it. The techniques used even include eliminating the options rather than getting to the answer the methodical fashion.

The JEE Mains & JEE Advance system has just made this an extravagant business for anxious parents who want their child to crack a coconut and enter IIT. Two exams are all that differentiate between the innumerable students giving it every year. The system has been framed in such a way that this could be a deciding factor in what they pursue even later in life. This is not the end of this system where loopholes were, it seems pretty ordered.

Loophole - 1
The normalisation systems which have converted the Board exam marks to use it along with the entrance marks have also been under huge fire. Stricter boards are given a lesser weightage in comparison to boards where 100% is given at will.

Loophole - 2 
The reservation system, though helps people of lower castes get to higher echelons of education, has not been able to weed out the people who use this to their advantage in spite of their well off background. Let's be serious, reservation can't be given just on grounds that the student's great great grandfather was oppressed and of lower caste.

After all these normalisations and filterings, a select few can only get through. As a result of the increasing pressure on students to live up to different expectations, the failure to attain a seat is taken hard. There have been many cases where students who were not able to live up to the pressure have taken the easier way out. Parents have pressurised students to take courses, not letting the student follow their natural course. The organisational style that man created for his life has come back to bite him. There is an involuntary oppression of ideas at a young age and the students tend to follow orders like cattle. Some succeed some break.

Before this tedious educational flowchart was established, all lines of work were right out there for the individual to delve and choose. Now there are more closed doors than open and of course, there is a price for each door, a materialistic pang to this mix which has already proved potent for many young minds all over.

Opportunities are galore. But the path paved towards them is way more crooked than it should be. A series of multiple choice questions, should not possibly deny a student much further involvement in a field he/she might be actually interested in. A series of aptitude, personality & technical tests can be a particularly good alternative. Learning a few thousand answers by rote will be "Like leading a horse to the water...". But as the saying goes "You can only lead a horse, but you can't make it drink it".

Let's look at education, more as just as a man-made path, rather than a belief system that people cling onto!

Written by Adishesh Premkumar

An ardent believer in lethargy. An astute follower of all the good things in life.