Insight from the Ride

Whimsy. Paranoid. Insensitive. Dumb. Incapable etc. these are some terms we often use for 'people'. But what are 'we'?  We often overlook the autocrat within us. That might sound strange, so let's get to the basics - Who is an autocrat?  The Cambridge Dictionary defines autocrat as 'a  ruler  with  unlimited   power , or someone who  demands  that  people   completely   obey  them'. We constantly judge people, including ourselves from the lens of the society. 'We' in this entire piece of writing largely refers to 'us' as the society, whereas 'WE' is used in the layman sense. External validation is important for human beings. But the question is -What is deemed Valid? Not being too much? For must of us, that 'Valid' means being able to achieve SUCCESS. Because of this extra importance to validity, we are unprepared to encounter failures, inasmuch as WE tend to lose out self-esteem and tread towards path of depression etc. Also...

  Capital Punishment for Rape Might sound a cliché topic “Why this again?”  . “Until someone screams in our ears, we conveniently choose to ignore [‘them’] [1] ”- Till the time any of our near and near ones or we ourselves face a heinous act (god forbid), we barely care about what’s happening in our society. And the maximum we do is to write a post on social media and blame the ‘system’ or spare some time thinking about what we can do as a civil society. Numerous articles and blogs- matter of only a few days, again the same continues. We think that whatever steps we take (if any) will be futile and there will be ‘no gains’; rather, we think why ‘waste’ our time and focus on our own lives/ careers instead, notwithstanding whatsoever we read or write. Approximately every 16 minutes, one woman is raped in India- only official statistics!!! [2] In his book , “When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics ” Milan Yadav [3] critically examines the impact of money and ...

Gender refers to   the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed . This includes norms, behaviors and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as relationships with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from so ciety to society and can change over time."  We live in a patriarchal society where gender is a barrier to all - girls, eunuchs, and even boys . Girls are expected to be sensitive and emotional.  [Personal experience -I am a person who is kind of more comfortable in t-shirt- lower and doesn't like much ifs and buts in appearance. I am bold and confident  to express myself. So many of my male classmates consider consider it being 'too open' as a cultured girl] Everyone has definitely heard about the famous series, Harry Potter by JK Rowling. JK Rowling has revealed she did not use her full name when publishing the first Harry Potter book because she was “paranoid” following a “difficult” marriag...

  Preface:  ‘Vasudev Kutumbkam’ As the Indian saying goes, the world is one family. This may be hard to believe for some, provided the vicious crime rates across the world. But then, there are many things underlying the same, which are not being given a considerable thought. This essay, unlike others, aims to provide a reasonable, rather prudential and practical basis for the same because we, humans have been gifted with ability to reason everything . This is a reproach from the conventional style of essay writing and aims to provide a sensible direction to the same.                                                     The World is One Family Origins: It is a generally established fact that human beings had their origin in Africa, then they dispersed and settled across the world. All of us have the same life processes, ability to express ourselv...