Author: kriticulture

I write blogs for the new age India

Growing level of competition good for youth

A horse never runs so fast as when he has other horses to catch up and outpace.-Ovid

Competition!competition!competition!No matter,if you go to a school,or an higher institution, or you are a job aspirant (government or private),or you own a shop, you work at any sector;a certain level of competition will hang on your head to gear you up at every point of your life. And if you try and escape from the monster, in one way or the other, it comes back to you, to remind your purpose of existence over this earth.But the real question of the hour is, does competition pumps up a person? Or does it make them feel more distressed? We all are surrounded by innmuberable questions, that makes the most intrinsic parts of our lives, but eventually fail to answer them. Who scored the best? Who is this year’s CBSE topper? Who all got the promotion? Why did you not achieve that rank? And etc etc etc. finally making, either the person think upon it, do to better, or sadly making them disheartened over their loss.Living in a society as this, who wants nothing but success, it has now become common phenomenon to see people competing against each other, sometimes winning, and sometimes failing. The extent to which their winning and losing matter, does nothing, stretches the line of demarcation about how good or evil the competition becomes for them. The term, healthy competition, which is getting more and more popularity today, may seem convincing, but it actually does not matter, unless the person understands its literal sense. So, consequently, the question is still the same, directly or indirectly, how good is competition for the youth? Whether you are a youngster, or a child, competition begins right from the day you step out of the womb of your mother. But, for an adult or youngster, it becomes much more difficult to get up and walk along the path that they have choose for themselves. If you are a school pass out, first thing you have to do is try and get the best carrier path for yourself, and the tussle doesn’t end there, to get the right job becomes another duty. But, if you are fighting for a competitive exam, dedication and struggle is all, that you have to do, but if you fail, the responsibility comes upon you, and to kill your motive, “words of the world” are enough. And if you are seeking for a job, you have to be perfect of all. Leading to more and more compitiveness among the youth.Talking about the goodness of competition in youths’ lives, it is totally dependent upon the perception of oneself, so as to be a burden of oneself, or just get pressurised over what hasn’t been well, yet. The term, healthy competition, which has been called upon many a times to motivate people, has worked out for those who really know what it is conveying, but the people who have less dedication towards what they want, and are confused as to what to do, ones they fail, are more likely to be disappointed with their own expectations. Putting all your heart and soul into something and still not getting out the results, and seeing everyone else moving ahead, is like a jerk to the soul. But, still working over it is the indication, that you are progressing in life, cutting through all the rough routes you have been into.

Competition actually pumps any person up to work more and more over something, but giving up on it does not have to be the only option, because once you stop, starting from the scratch remains the only option, eventually seeing others moved far off.

Tourism : can this be the next big thing for India

Who doesn’t love to travel?

Every body seek to grab every single chance to wander around the world. Some love to travel to hills, while others are pleased to be at the sea side, other proportion of people want to travel to desert areas,and the remaining like to scratch out every corner of the world. An increase in the trend of more and more wanderlust among the people, is the reason for an increase in the trend of tourism industry. No matter where you want to travel, which part of the world you have to discover, just a click on the e-travel site and choose your favourite destination.

In case of the country, such as, India, which is counted as a developing one, it is a fresh opportunity to become the top countries to offer a great traveling experience to those coming to the country in order to observe its beauty. Post pandemic, will be a great opportunity for the government to promote tourism in the country and it will surely create a massive opportunity for the economy to bloom and grow positively. As many of the scholars have claimed that, India’s economy may fall to negative, but, tourism industry is an idom used to drown, that can help the country with incredible increase in the number of tourists.

About 10.89 million foreign tourists visited India in 2019. But, according to the UN World Tourism Organization, 50 million Indians will travel overseas in 2019, which is a big reason to worry regarding the tourism industry in the country. There is a huge gap between people coming and going out of the country which needs to be filled, in order to see India as a huge tourist destination.

It is one of the reasons why tourism can be next big thing for India! We have been privileged to be a part of such a beautiful country as this, where every kind of physiographic divisions could be found, be it Jammu and Kashmir, pure heaven on the earth; or the widespread desert of Rajasthan; backwaters of Kerala;beaches of Mumbai and Goa;historic sites of Central India; beauty of northeast India; and all that enormous beauty that is untouched by most of the travellers.

But, the pandemic has given a jerk to the tourism industry, which has been a great source of income to the country, due to shut down offices of travel companies, tourist destinations, along with, hotel, restaurant chains, along with the suspension of, both, national, as well as international flights, ultimately bearing the loss hit by the pandemic.

The Indian tourism industry is projected to book a revenue loss of Rs. 1.25 trillion, in calendar 2020,which means a 40% decline in revenue over calendar 2019.

But, as it has been righteously said that, the population of any country is its wealth, we as the wealth of our country must only visit the tourist attractions in our own country (post pandemic) in order to give a hike to its economy. This would complete the twin objective

  • One is, to give a boost to the economic conditions of the country.
  • Second is, it will give us a chance to explore the unseen beauty of our own country and people will not underestimate the power of the country.

Boycott of fairness creams is a step ahead

Recently, the death of George Floyd has caused a mass stream of revolutionary change against racism, an issue that has been suppressed for years and now has suddenly taken over the streets of almost every country and every social media platform. All kinds of people, black, white, hypocrites, old, and especially the youth is engaged in the process to find out a way to get rid of every kind of racist activity that has been going on since years.If the past records were to be seen, the fault actually lies in our upbringings and educational norms, that have resulted in the acts like, racism. From the day a child is born into this world, is the day, his/her, colour has been judged by the family members, unapologetically, till the day he dies and cremated over. Until, what the person has to go through, is the racist comments and teasers, that unfortunately kills the person from within, even if, unknowingly. Here, there, every where, from school to the work place, judged on the basis of colour.People getting along the streets, outrage over the social media, all the tireless efforts that have been put to provide justice to the victim of racism, George Floyd, is a clear message to the people promoting racism, and racist activities, hypocrites;it is not an era of early 90s, instead, as an human being, as a national of any country, all are up against the evil that have been proliferating since past many a years. The take on this incident has, even, awakend a large amount of celebrities and actors, who were earlier engrossed in the promotions of fairness products and creams, namely, Yami Gautam, Kiara Advani, Katrina Kaif,Deepika Padukone and a series of the young age actors. But, so says the grapevine –

Better late than never

The decision over removing the word “fair” from the product “fair and lovely”,by the company Unilever, past two days ago, is a huge step ahead in promoting, every lives matter, very strongly. It is definitely a step ahead towards the conformation of the idea on banishing racism, as well as racist activities. It is also likely to affect the fairness endorsing products in the near future, abiding the norms of black lives matter, along with a jerk to those who were earlier engaged in promotion of fairness products and now are proudly supporting the revolution against racism.

Now is the time to prove the reason why we are living altogether on the same planet, the need to awake the humanity and purpose of human evolution.

Merchant of Venice – a tragedy or a comedy

One of the Shakespeare’s most powerful, strange, uncomfortable plays. A play about a piece of paper with a promise, a dangerous promise, and yet its a comedy. Sometimes showcasing the relation between Jews and Christians, sometimes, comedy and tragedy, and sometimes between those who are at center and the margins. Yet, it is a play that engages with toxic materials, with the major themes of self interest, the divine quality of mercy, hatred as a cyclical phenomenon.

Though, the play begins with a comic, but not entirely lighthearted way with a group of friends – male friends. But as the play proceeds, through act two, the story turns to unfold, and it is out of the history of hatred and suspicion that the play withstands in a new way. And turns into a tragic event. In act three is a famous moment, where the speech of Shylock (one of the tragic figures of the play) is a declaration of shared humanity. This speech makes the extremely strong claim of the opposite, that we share the same being. But it is also worth remembering that the speech ends with a declaration of determination to revenge.

This is a play that says if you treat me this way, I will want to get my revenge. And I have learned that also from you, because when you are treated badly you want revenge.

This play stages rage on the part of the persecuted minority. The determination on the part of Shylock to kill his enemy.

Going all the way through the act four, we,as an audience,experience that it might turn out to be one of the tragic plays, as is clear from the trial scene, ending up with Antonio’s death. But, lastly ends up with a happily -ever- after mood. In act five, everyone marrying their loved ones, changing of lives.

Genre –

There are two ways that people tend to think about comedy, a more romantic idea and a more satiric idea. And the romance is what throws the emphasis on the reconciliation.

When the play begins, fulfilling the audience’s expectations of what a comedy might look like, we have young men bantering with each other, teasing Antonio about the fact that he is sad. We also have the introduction of marriage plot, we learn that Bassanio wants to woo Portia. Also, Portia wants to find an acceptable husband. The play also goes towards a romantic play, a myths, fairy tales, romance stories that audiences might be familiar with, like involving the casket test. Audience might have reacted with some surprise when we hear this tragic news that Antonio has defaulted, that his life is in danger.

Thus, this is a play that leaves the audiences awestruck with its continuously changing moods, starting rightly from a comic pace, to going through some tragic moments, and finally ending up with a rom-com arena. Which is why most of the playwrights often misconceptualise it and try to mould it in a way which suits their audiences the most.

Is media oversueing its freedom?

No matter how much people love to read the newspapers early mornings, with lukewarm tea, there’s always a keenness among the personages to get updated information, at every point of time. And they look up towards the digital media to get all the world’s knowledge. Apart from the media platforms that have come today, that, somewhere, are more unbiased and neutral, people still appeal towards the news channels that are being telecasted on the television due to less popularity of those on social media platforms and that can only be accessed through internet and digital media.

In such an era, as this, news channels have become the best medium to convey the news of every minute, even seconds. They are always try to find interesting ways to give the best to the audiences through debates, showcasing interesting news, and speaking up equivocally. Today most of them have all the world’s freedom to speak up and provide every pros and cons of any happening around the world, and they actually does. But, unfortunately, they have surpassed all the limits of freedom and autarky, and those end up showing the news and the information that is in favour of their sponsors and government whom so ever they have sold themselves to. Always wondering the reason behind such doings? Found out, it is actually for the sake of popularity, as well as to “be the good guy of the room” whether we believe it or not, in some way or the other, they show us, at last, what they really want us to believe and perceive.

Either they telecast such news that is all hot and debated amongst political parties, or nothing at all. The use of language in their headlines, is also something that is to be worried on, beyond imagination, too pathetic and so to say, low quality to handle. And it is because of such stuff, people come under believing in those news that are even not that tension worthy, leaving behind the happenings that are to be focused on. Again, if we talk about how they have created a mess among the people, who are no one, but believes what is being shown to them, sometimes they come up with such facts and datas that are nowhere in the history, nobody has ever mentioned that.

For instance, the recent incident of Chinese troops’ standoff on the Indian borders, is telecasted on and off the television again and again, claiming that the Chinese Army has been terrified by the revert back of the Indian Army. And they are proudly claiming and rejoicing that all the way in their news, which is a really worth appreciating. But, the picture behind the scenes isn’t made clear to the public yet; it is the Chinese cyber attacks that is also a big and a disaster for Indian IT sectors, that is unluckily not been promoted to show up on the television screens of millions of Indians, leaving them untouched from the reality.

Although,media did, does, and is doing such an appreciable work all the time, every single minute, faster it is than the print media and has given all the freedom to provide information, quality information to its viewers. But, certainly, their quality, the news that they display over the television screens have got limited with time and space;certainly due to enormous pressure of their sponsors. Which is why, “news channels must start wearing sponser jackets, like Nascar drivers, then we know who owns them.

Why Netflix and chill, when we can Ramayana and chill

It was 24th of the March, 2020, a disastrous year for all of us; when our honourable Prime Minister declared a complete lockdown for three devastating weeks, and eighteen year old heart of mine just sank off wondering, searching, lost as to how will I be able to make the time fly to sink back into beer and skittles.

But then! remembering that all I need to do is just not to attend any family meeting about abundance of topics, just stick with the most amazing invention of human civilization, mobile phone, and Netflix and chill with a large number of web series in a row which were unseen earlier. Watching every series, one after the another in a row and chilling more than what I planned for, from Money Heist, Resurrection, Lelia, little things to every single show, talking and sticking to every social media platform, after all the fatigue, finally got to be in the middle of people who were gonna just bully me and talk about all the time I waste when I can actually sit back sincerely and watch television. The shows that are being retelecasted after such a long were forced on me, as if they were hanging me on a new job.

Continuously watching the serial for two, three, and even four days, I couldn’t help but watch it with all of the world’s courosity, it actually made me indulge in itself. The dialogues, the characters, the picturization, every “damn” thing, so to say seemed so realistic to me that it grabbed my whole attention to it. And I can’t actually find another suitable way, just to Ramayana and chill. Obviously, it is one of the holiest books ever written in Indian history, besides that, the actual picturization just revived every thing that was long and lost somewhere in the past. Be it Shri Ram or the Ravaana, each and every character had to say something, had to convey something that is really worth praising, watching for.

Ending up with all its episodes, it really felt that, sometimes the best way to live today is by learning from yesterday. That made me realise, and I think all of us must have realised till now, one thing,

Old never gets old, and new always remains new.

It is always our generation that is stuck and bored using every modern day technology and comfort, while those who have always been living with their customs stick with them, can never,but cherish every day of their healthy lives.

Courage to accept and dedication are two keys to success

The greatest glory of life lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

What if I fall? Waht if I could not succeed? What will be everyone’s perception? These are some questions which the part and parcel of everybody’s lives. Personages are worried thinking about the failures and it’s consequences there on. No, its not completely their own fault. It is the kind of mindset that everyone has acquired in this “cut throat“ competitive world. Success is a must. Be it a kid of class first or a CEO of an MNC, nobody wants to face the shame of failure and want to succeed in a go. The question however is, does, everyone succeed? What happens to those who have to go through the misery of defeat?

Looking back to the history, since human civilized on the earth, the Homo Sapien is constantly striving hard to keep inventing and find new dimensions on the planet starting from invention of wheel to a space ship. All this could have been a reality because these great scientists maintained the spirit of never say die. Most of the scientists, be it Newton or Einstein, have failed miserably in their attempts hundreds of times, even because the laughing stock of the town, but, what they adhered was the ability and spirit to learn from their mistakes, and crown humanity with world’s most revolutionary inventions.

The world revers the Father of India, Mahatma Gandhi who is known for his methods of satyagraha and non-violence. A lean man, wearing a dhoti with his efforts drove away the British from India. Isn’t it awkward that a saint like Gandhi, made mistakes too? Incidents from the Indian freedom struggle are an example of it. When Mahatma urged the folks to agitate peacefully and non-violentely, the incidences of violence were very common from different parts of the country. Gandhi understood his mistake and immediately called off his strike. He accepted where he fall short and came back with improvements with even more vigour. If a saint like him has the will and heart to accept his ahorr falls, then everyone can!

A lantern among such examples is Helen Keller. Being a blind, she have had immense sufferings all through her life. But, zhe challenged even the toughest of obstacles of her lives, learnt from them and has forever left her name, in the minds of mankind. In most of her beautiful words she had said –

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

The man behind the “theory of Black holes“, Stephen Hawking has set an example for the world as to how all physical barriers are too small to stop the willingness and dedication to achieve something. Human is the most cunning of all animals, excellent at making excuses for the mistakes. Instead of making the excuse, if one look at the other side of the coin, mankind has the ability to make the best out of those mistakes.”Experience is the best teacher in world ” is a popular saying, which most of us are aware to exist but only a few are aware enough to apply.

If the stories mentioned above are too great to apply then the motivation is not far from anybody. Seeing an ant crawling on the floor, most of the people try to block it’s path midway. But, does that make it stop then and there? She moves back, chooses a different path and heads towards her destination again. If an ant, who is nothing compared to an human size keeps with herself the courage to redefine hert path then why are humans lagging behind in the practice.

The biggest jolt is the number of increasing suicides because of failures in one or the other things. The peer pressure to perform good, excel in the field, not able to maintain a healthy and happy relationship, not able to earn a good amount of money and respect are few reasons cited behind the steps taken such as suicides. But the actual culprit is the narrow vision of the people which restrict s them from seeing the larger gains of failures. Nobody is willing to accept the mistakes in a world where they think, they are perfect and can never commit mistakes. This blindfold of pride and never changing attitude is the actual reason behind such cases. People somehow lack the desire to explore and pertain ignorance towards garnishing themselves.

No one is unaware of the great success story of Indian mars explorer mission – Mangalyaan, but the success story would be incomplete without the mention of the failure of its predecessor Mangalyaan -1. If the scientists never possessed the courage to gulp the failure and work harder on Mangalyaan -2, India could never have created the history and added feathers to its crown. The success stories of IAS officers are too fascinating to admire and learn. One of the most prominent lines all of these stories is the vigorous enthusiasm to learn from mistakes. The most horrible nightmares for an aspirant is the failure in the examination in first attempt. But, the stories of the officers demonstrate, how they cleared the examination in 2nd, 3rd attempt, or even last attempt. These lessons taught the world that persistence, patience and will work together to achieve goals as big as this. For a person unwilling to learn from experience even the last attempt is equivalent to the first.

People get depressed or disappointed in lives on tasting a sour chocolate from the box but they forget that as they keep on tasting, someday they will find the sweet one.

None is perfect in this world and it is obvious for everyone to make mistakes. But, it is the handling of the mistakes that differentiates an ordinary person from an extraordinary person

He who has courage will sail through.

Showing off is the new normal

Being pretentious is the new trend that is all set on the fire, here, there, everywhere, the person is prejudiced on the basis of the jewels they own, kind of clothes they put on and they way they carry themselves on grounds of personality. People are just filling up every form of personality development classes, all they want to grab is a perfect personality trait and flawlessly showcase their talents off and on. The new trend on the social media, 5 ways to do this, 10 ways to do that, all just goes in vain when someone else cannot have the huge bundle of clothes and accessories that are unanimously flaunted in a single video. Knowing or unknowing the matter how hard the people will crave to get a little bit of everything that are being showed to them.

Peeps are seen at personality development classes, who were earlier hidden somewhere behind the sheets; they want to talk fluently, they want to walk in a poised manner, make the most of their bodies. Whether men or women every body could be seen at at the gym, dripping their sweat off, to look lean and lusty. Unaware of the fact that, though this could turn them into a lean figure outwardly, but a messed up body type inwardly. Pushing up themselves more to buy each and every stuff that looks hot and tempting to them, and is #ontrending. Since, “showing off” has become the new normal, it is now a days normal to see an eleven years to sixty years old person to wear kind of same outfits, eleven years old – shirt and shorts, sixty years old – shirts and shorts or sometimes pajamas on.

But, probably the real problem lies with the people going mad after every trend, every style, every single styling tip that goes abruptly stripped down on various social media platforms. Tendency is to grasp attention and approbation from every individual, making them feel inferior. The race to be at the top – as we see in various contests on television – made people blind to eye, not physically, but from within, and they pull on their socks to become the best. Ultimately it could not be their own fault, the trend settlers or the trend makers would not and never know how much they go crazy to follow up every fashion. And forget about their pockets and as a result becomes the prey of every fashion that goes on fire.

Home- still a dream of many

Modernization, the want to step ahead of time, and fight between the human race, has become one of the reasons why people try and judge each other for what kind of house they live in.

Whenever a person go to someone’s home, the first thing they tend to judge, is there home well furnished? Is the arrangement of their house proper? And etc. etc. But forget that, income and prices are the two factors that do not go hand in hand. Also, the country which we reside in, is one of the developing nations in the world, where “A perfect home” is still a dream of millions. Thus, how can we expect that when a person can’t even afford to live peacefully under a roof, how can the other render to make everything look pretty.

Urban and rural differences –

In India, most of the population hail from village areas and move towards cities in search of better opportunities, such as, jobs in secondary and tertiary sectors, better resources, and better standard of living. Instead, they fail to survive most of the times and hang in between the air with less access to resources and low standard of living, since affording such standard of living remains out of their approaches.

According to the report of World Bank’s collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources, rural population in India was reported at 65.97%

While people hailing from rural areas face tough times with city lifestyle. People residing in cities too confront with problems of proper houses to live in, also they are detained from basic resources that are searched by village people in the limelight of cities. They often end up living in congestion, without proper sanitation facilities, water and electricity, and lag behind in most of the basic values that are necessary to live a prosperous life. Also population remains a constant reminder that the land is unavailable to fit such a large amount of people who seek to live in the middle of the cities instead of country sides. The pressure upon the land has become a huge chunk of tension for the policymakers, which is why most people remain neglected from a proper facility of house and housing.

Dharavi, Asia’s biggest slum is full of such people who either migrate to cities in search for resources, or the people who are unable to afford a lifestyle that is basic necessity and right of every human being. It is a place with 2.1 sq. Km. and a population as estimated in 2016, 900,000 – 1,000,000 people.

Problem of resources –

While most of us are happy with the lives and are living peacefully in our own homes. There are still millions of people who do not even have access to basic resources such as –

  • Sanitation facilities
  • Housing
  • Water supply
  • Electricity
  • Food resources
  • Proper job facilities

We can find people sleeping on the pavements of the roads, they could be seen eating on the roadside food joints, and earn only on per day basis, which are not sufficient to provide them with a proper place to live in.

According to NSSO, landlessness in India is a major problem and the total population works out to be 200 million that is counted to be landless.

Thus, a major proportion of the country’s population still have a dream to have their own place to live in. Also, slums remain an inevitable problem in India that cannot be replaced due to their presence from a very long past. It is likely to achieve a figure where most of the Indians could have their own “home sweet home“.

Indian farmers – backbone of economy

Comprising 61.5% of the total population in the country, the Farmers today are, but the least creditable chunk of our economy. Despite providing us with a substantial amount of produce, they are being neglected on many grounds; be it machinery, techniques, money, or knowledge, they have to bear the burden of being backward and incompatible. Although farming is such a primitive and productive jobs to opt for, most of the people face similar kind of problems regarding farming and activities related to it. But the disaster of farmers committing suicides has become a great phenomenon recently; what could be a decisive reason? Why its been so drastic in recent times?

Farmers and the legacy-

Agriculture or so to say, farming has been opted by a large number of people since it was introduced or, invented. The history of agriculture in India dates back to Indus Valley Civilization and even before that. It became one of the substantial activities that could sustain a huge amount of people. The upsurge in the activity as this resulted in the discovery of new techniques, machienaries, and even the crops which gave a boost to their own consumption, as well as the trade and commercial regulatories.

The colonialization, in the 18th century, was the period that saw a dramatic increase in the number of farmers in the country, under the force of the East India Company, that turned out a large amount of people engaged in other sectors to too seek for the agricultural work. Leaving almost 65% of India contributing to farming, the country came up with its own revolutionary ideas and schemes, such as the Green Revolution, which turned out to be a fancy for the country. But the irony is, still the farmers have stuck with the old and bygone techniques of agriculture that doesn’t provide any kind of fruitfulness to them. And contribute only a less figure to the economy.

Agriculture and differences –

With the Green Revolution adding more to the production of crops in the 19th century, there were still many differences in India itself, in terms of production and output.

While it states such as, Punjab, UP, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala saw an upsurge in the agricultural pattern. With the farmers and the government officials focusing on farm productivity and knowledge transfer, India’s total food grain production soared. Such rapid growth in farm productivity anabled India to become self-sufficient by 1970s. It also empowered the smallholder farmers to seek further means to increase food staples produced per hectare. On the other hand, areas with shortage of water and nutritious soil were left behind and it took many years to bring them up to the mark of other states with high production.

Due to such huge diversity between the states producing crops,India accounts only, on average, for about 16% of GDP and 10% of export earnings.

Problems and initiatives –

low agricultural growth is a concern for policymakers as some two-thirds of India’s people depend on rural employment for a living. Current agricultural practices are neither economically nor environmentally sustainable and India’s yield for many agricultural commodities is low. Poorly maintained irrigation system and almost universal lack of good extension services are among factors responsible. Farmers’ access to markets is hampered by poor roads, rudimentary market infrastructure and excessive regulation.
– World Bank

  • Climate change
  • Marketing
  • Infrastructure
  • Farmers suicides
  • Productivity

The above listed points are some of the good reasons why the agricultural sector faces huge loss and is unfortunately unable to develop as per the will.

The government has done a great deed in the past for the improved condition of farmers and farming, andis alsos currently practicing so. It has launched many a such schemes to benefit the farmer and improvise their method of farming.

As per a saying in hindi –

Jai Javan Jai Kisan, ye dono h desh ki shaan

If the “Shaan” if the country is always under immense pressure and is supplied with voulantry salary, the sustainability of millions of people in the country would be largely affected, and it would not be able to enlarge its economy and only would be counted in the developing one.