Philosophical meaning of “LOVE”

Love is the most powerful emotion a human being can experience. The strange thing is, almost nobody knows what love is. Why is it so difficult to find love? That is easy to understand, if you know that the word “love” is not the same as one’s feeling of love.

“The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard,but must be felt with the heart” – Hellen Keller

What great Philosophers say about Love?

Aristotle : Of the classic ideas on love, for Aristotle , none of this love and friendship is attainable without first achieving self-love. The good person must be a self-lover, for he himself will profit from doing fine things, and he will benefit the others.

Sadhguru :
When you talk about love, it has to be unconditional. There is really no such thing as conditional love and unconditional love. It is just that there are conditions and there is love. The moment there is a condition, it just amounts to a transaction. Maybe a convenient transaction, maybe a good arrangement – maybe many people made excellent arrangements in life – but that will not fulfill you; that will not transport you to another dimension. It is just convenient.
When you say “love,” it need not necessarily be convenient; most of the time it is not. It takes life. Love is not a great thing to do, because it eats you up. If you have to be in love, you should not be. You as a person must be willing to fall, only then it can happen. If your personality is kept strong in the process, it is just a convenient situation, that’s all. We need to recognize what is a transaction and what is truly a love affair. A love affair need not be with any particular person; you could be having a great love affair, not with anybody in particular, but with life.

Simpne de Beauvoir : “The reciprocal recognition of two freedoms” Beauvoir’s thought on love is between authentic and inauthentic love. For her, loving inauthentically is an existential threat. When we believe that love will complete us, or when we lose ourselves in our beloved, we erase ourselves as independent beings. This is what de Beauvoir called loving in bad faith. In her society, men were encouraged much more than women to have interests and ambitions outside of their relationships, with the result that women were especially vulnerable to the dangers of inauthentic love.
Authentic love, on the other hand, involves partnerships in which both parties recognize each others’ independence, and pursue aims and interests outside of their relationship. Authentic love must be based on “reciprocal recognition of two freedoms”. This means that neither partner is subordinate to the other, nor takes all of their meaning from their love for that partner. Instead, each is an independent whole who freely chooses the other anew with every day without trying to possess them entirely.

Bell Hooks :
In All About Love: New Visions (2000) , she argues that our modern definition of love is too watered down by overuse of the word. Working from the idea that love is a verb, she then suggests ways to improve our modern concept of love and prevent what hinders it. She notes with a fervor that power discrepancies and the differences in how men and women are expected to approach love are a particular problem.

“The fear of being alone, or of being unloved, had caused women of all races to passively accept sexism and sexist oppression.” — Ain’t I a Woman? (1981)

Jean – Paul Sartre :
Sartre and Simone De Beauvoir had, quite possibly, the most famous open relationship of all time. Sartre first proposed the idea in a letter: “What we have is an essential love; but it is a good idea for us also to experience contingent love affairs.”
Sartre wrote extensively on love, especially in terms of the tension between freedom and objectivity, and seemed to struggle with the idea throughout his entire relationship. True love, Sartre felt, can come to fruition when both partners have a deep, mutual respect for the other’s freedom and resist the desire to “possess” each other as objects. For him, if all romantic relationships centered on the idea of ownership, there would be little room for introspection. Wrapped up in the pursuit of love is the idea that we are not only seeking a partner, but deeper insight into ourselves. Put more plainly: We’re looking for the “other half,” the “being” to our “nothingness.” Either way, Sartre got a whole lot of insight, especially for a guy with an oddly shaped head and a lazy eye.

“Love asks me no questions, and gives me endless support – William Shakespeare”

EFFECT OF COVID-19 ON RURAL INDIA


COVID-19 took the entire world by tremors. Countries are put under lockdown, economic activities are abandoned, measures are taken as if it’s a war of worlds. People were completely alien to such a health hazard. Every industry faced its consequences. Seventy percent of the Indian population lives in Rural backgrounds, lockdown had a severe impact on this 70% population. People in Rural Areas have completely thrived for Amenities and services and this caused a major disruption in the common working of Agricultural as well as Non-Agricultural livelihoods.
• IMPACT ON PEOPLE DEPENDENT ON AGRICULTURE
India is a Nation with a big chunk of its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) belonging to the Agricultural Sector. Rural areas especially are mostly dependent on Agricultural or related activities.
A complete lockdown was announced by Central Government on 25 March which is the end of the Rabi crop season. The season when farmers expect to get gains for their hard toil of one complete cropping season. The timings of lockdown disallowed many to sell their crops at profitable prices, lack of cold storage facilities and transportation resulted in crop failure impacting many. The other major sources of income for people based in the Agriculture sector are dairy and horticulture they were hit the hardest.
Dairy-based livelihoods:-
People who were employed in Dairy product-based services we’re majorly affected by lack of transportation and a big dip in product demand. Dairy products except Ghee do not last long, the need immediate dispersal of products to consumers but lockdown made large voids in the transportation chains resulting in losses to Dairies.
Horticulture-based livelihood:-
India is the second-largest fruit producer in the world, Horticulture output in total is about 313.9 million metric tons. Not every fruit and vegetable grow everywhere, these are extremely area-specific. The closure of the wholesale markets resulted in differences between demand and supply chain. The horticulture sector is majorly dependent on intermediaries, the closing of their shutters lead to a devastating outcome.
Fisheries & Poultries
The same reasons cited above affected fisheries and poultries too. A narrative due to rumored speculation of virus transfer from these products too caused a dent on this sector.
Agricultural based livelihood certainly got disturbed by Lockdown but the points that most of these were placed under essential services, and favoring government policies proved out to be a breather.
• IMPACT ON PEOPLE DEPENDENT ON NON-AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES
Non- Agricultural Sector got more severely affected. I need not remind you that most of the Indian population resides in Rural surroundings and majorly contributes to Nations Growth. The non-Agricultural sector comprises about 47% of the Indian Economy. The big portion of Indian workforce hails from Rural backgrounds .We need not look at all of it as number but as real-life individuals and groups who face massive losses. Non-Agricultural Sector majorly comprises of two types.

I. Manufacturing Sector:- This sector faced impacts of closure of international borders as all the imports-exports got affected, closure of domestic markets deepened this wound, all employees were made to rest at home. A high number of individuals we’re terminated from their jobs and it all impacted regular rural and urban households.
II. Services Sector:- All Services except essential, emergency and healthcare services were put to close. This too impacted a humongous number of households. Gyms, Schools, Restaurants, Hotels, Entertainment parks, Theatres, Transportation all these are yet to get the green signal from authorities. Like every other sector, this sector too will take lots of effort to recover.
Logically speaking it is impossible to talk about India excluding rural India. Indian economy took a deep dig, GDP slipped to straight 9% and it will take time and great efforts to recover, and we as Indians are ready to get it back on track.
Among other negatives of this pandemic, one positive for India that shone brightly is self-sufficiency and each capability of each unit to function by itself. Rural India hence sets an example to the world of Indian potential.
By:- Shubham Yadav

BEST ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN OF ALL TIME

Nike: Just Do It – Nike not a very successful brand, was way behind Reebok before the 1980s. It was then, that they thought of coming up with this campaign. The advertising campaign was mainly print and television. The campaign was a huge hit amongst the people, since it was successful in decoding the core problem of runners. Nike earlier had a image of being bought only by marathon readers, it  was this slogan which changed  it’s image forever. All we need in life, is a extra push and motivation to cross the hurdles, and this slogan of Nike though short and sweet, seems to overcome them and make way an direct entry in our lives forever. The words  of the slogan is exactly what we need to keep reminding of ourselves, in every stepping stone. The advertising campaign made Nike jumps the ladders up in a very short span of time, so much so that it landed up selling shows worth $ 9.2 billion in the year 1998.

Absolut Vodka: THE ABSOLUT BOTTLE- This seems to be the longest running   advertising campaign ever, uninterrupted for 25 years .The ad campaign was in the form of  print media .This campaign about an bottle though shapeless, went on to become one of the most popular vodka bottles in the world. From holding, merely a 2.5 % share to almost 50 % of the total vodka bottle share , it has definitely come a long way. The campaign showed us that if we are determined and focused, we can turn the table as they created 1500 different advertisements of one bottle.

Coke:Share A Coke-In one of the most memorable and ground-taking campaigns ,this campaign holds a very special place there. In order to please the masses, Coca-Cola came up printing the names on each of the bottles. The ad campaign was in the form of  print media. This campaign started in Australia in the year 2011, where they chose top 150 most common name and printed them on all the bottles and the cans. This strategy worked wonders for them, as each time anyone bought the can out  of the vending machine, it turned to be a fun-filled move. Later on , they even came up with the idea of getting customized names printed on them, and it went on to become a breaking story in the advertising and marketing industry. This campaign even turned eyeballs of the counter parties, as they tried to intervene by releasing their ads soon after.

Volkswagen:Think Small- This is often referred to as “The Gold Standard”. It’s slogan went on to change the Americans perspective of only going for bigger, longer cars. It’ s slogan changed people’s perspective, over a group of people ,and won  hearts of the people by it’s honesty.

LESSON LEARNT We should always present our brands, being one of the customers. The slogan should be short, simple and catchy. No matter what our problem, we can always make our  product appealing and attractive through the campaign. We should always strive to be different and unique .In order for us to dominate, we should make our own  path and identity. We should  never try to create an artificial picture, honesty is very much appreciated by the customers

Internet & teens: The growing problem

How many hours do you stay connected with your favorite device, maybe the phone or your PC from which you are currently reading this post? A rough average can be not less than three hours up to nine hours or even more than that if you’re a social enthusiast or a gamer, these limits can go beyond that. Don’t you feel something is wrong? Also though time passes by, these little things go unnoticed, and we enjoy our life chatting and sharing photos, videos with them. But not everyone is capable of doing so, or their life is on the verge of destruction due to technology. Cyberbullying and harassing are prevalent, and also this pandemic has made every one of us spend more time on our devices. The transactions we do can be unsafe, and recently we see bans taken up the Government of India to highlight the nation’s potential security threat to steal user’s data and use them for their benefit.

A user accessing images on the tablet.

According to the new research done on around 2800 teens aged 8 to 11 from 17 different high schools in Australia, keeping two points in consideration about the internet and emotions, are they interconnected? Although web access is easily reachable to them, their parents do need to need to monitor their activities. But this isn’t easy for them; also, any wrong intention by an attacker can persuade the mind of the small children quickly through audios and visuals. The effect is minor though keeping them engaged in good education is also a must.

You may remember the case of Cambridge Analytica, where ads were shown to American users from 50 million user datasets of Facebook without any user permission. Eventually, GDPR for EU citizens made their online presence safer, and now users can know what data they are giving to them. You may notice now that most of the websites ask the consent for cookies of the site you are visiting when you go through them.

Some of the regular social messaging apps we use regularly.

A group of students from the University of Indonesia, after three months of effort, finally came up with a device known as Nettox, which can measure the levels of oxygen in your body along with the variation of heart rate factor or the HRV. The device will notify if the levels substantially dropdown beyond the regular rate due to prolonged usage on the devices. They are on the way to patent their creation.

If one is self-reliant, we don’t even require such devices. One should develop good habits, spend quality time with family and relatives or roam inside the room instead of being stuck to the display. The virtual age is growing and spanning everywhere if the uses are proper; it’ll help more in the future. There is so much news around the world, some are positive by using the technology appropriately, or else it can be dangerous too by getting addicted to it. One can inhibit the actual values of self-love and explore the hidden talents within you; you can polish them and outshine for a decisive lead in society.

The world of code can save your life or turn into a holocaust.

YOU

I saw you in the school corridor,

My heart crushed for you,

Longing to speak to you,

My dream become my ambition, because of you,

Addicted to you, admiring the way you’re,

Wanna live with you, till my last breath

Souls got attached but still society breach,

I’m still alive that you would became “mine“

– Dharshini N

You, The person reading this let us spare some time to recall all the hidden 96 Ram and Jannu in your school days , cheers to those beautiful memories in your life. Learing how fast your heart beats for the first time when you see that person. To those days making friends with that person. Friendly helps to the person and more. To all those small little things gave you heartfelt happiness and believe me that is true kind of real happiness in your life . The best part in quarantine is remembering those persons in your life . Share your thoughts to your partner. Yet that would be the beautiful wonders ,you’re blessed if you have those school corridors memories .

You may be locked up by the doors for various reasons but still there is a ray of hope .Unlock your heart cherish the beauty of your life in childhood days. Replenish yourselves within you. You make a change . Get ready folks to run after a long journey after this pandemic. You need to so strong , harder to survive. Yet this could me the best part when you recall those quarantine times. Happy weekend:)

Let’s Stop Worrying

Live in “day-tight compartments”

 Thomas Carlyle said, “Our main business is not to see dimly at a distance but to do what lies clearly at hand.”

The main cause of worrying is that we thought a lot about our decision made in past and the result of that decision in future. From the above quote, Thomas Carlyle tried to say that we have to try to live in present rather than thinking about the past and uncertain future.

Christ’s prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Remember that prayer asks only for today’s bread. It doesn’t complain about the stale bread of yesterday that we had to eat; and it doesn’t say: “Oh God, it has been pretty dry out in the wheat belt lately we may have another drought and then how will I get bread to eat next autumn. Or suppose I lost my job, then how could I get bread ?”

Accomplish one job at the time

“Every day is a new life for a wise man.”

From this line, a person can live only one day at a time. If you are trying to live past, present and future all a time. Then you can fail to live anyone of them. As we know we can’t sail on two boats at a time, if we try then we can sink into the river.

I want you to think of your life as an hourglass. You know there are thousands of grains of sand in the top of the hourglass. And they all pass slowly and evenly through the narrow neck in the middle. Nothing you or I could do would make more than one grain of sand pass through this narrow neck without impairing the hourglass. You and I and everyone else are like this hourglass. When we start in the morning, there are hundreds of tasks which we feel we must accomplish that day, but if we don’t take them one at a time and let them pass through the day slowly and evenly, as do the grains of sand passing through the narrow neck of the hourglass, then we are bound to break our own physical or mental structure.

Analyse the problem of worrying and thinking of what the worst can happen?

Rudyard Kipling said: “I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew) their names are what and why and when and how and where and who.”

First of all, I analysed the situation fearlessly and honestly and figured out what was the worst that could happen as a result of this failure. After figuring out what was the worst that could happen, I reconcile myself to accepting it, if necessary.  From that time on, I calmly devoted my time and energy to trying to improve upon the worst which I had already accepted mentally. And try to reduce the loss. Here one example of how a student can overcome the fear and worry which is eating them from inside.

For eg,  First of all, a student can analyse the problem that what they want like they apply for an entrance exam, they either selected or not selected. And they can think of the worst that could happen i.e, they are not selected. This will help to release their mental pressure and lead to improving the worst cases. And help them to concentrate on the studies rather than thinking of the result.

Dr Alexis Carrel said: “Businessmen who don’t know how to fight against worst die young.”

“The Great Indian Army”

The Indian Army is one of the best in the world, having freed the enemy’s sixes if the opportunity arises. Among the 10 major armies of the world, India’s Army is in second place while China’s Army is in first place.
There are 14 lakh soldiers in the army of India. Indian Army has 3 parts – Air Force, Navy and Air Force. Indian soldiers are known for their heroism and bravery. The Indian Army was established on 1 April 1895.
It currently employs 1237117 active jawans and 960000 reserve jawans. The Commander in Chief of the Indian armies is the President. The current Indian Defense Minister is “Nirmala Sitharaman”.
The first objective of the Indian Army is to protect the country and its borders. But nowadays some other tasks have also been given to Indian forces, such as internal security, peace keeping in Jammu and Kashmir and North Eastern state etc.
Its main goal is to immediately respond to any attack on the country. Our country’s military is so large that it can do many types of tasks.
Training of Indian soldiers is done by the Indian Military Academy Dehradun, Officers Training Academy, Chennai. Apart from this, the Indian Army is also trained in branches of Army War College – Madhya Pradesh, Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir.
Indian soldiers who have displayed bravery during the war are awarded with awards such as Paramvir Chakra, Mahavir Chakra, Veer Chakra, Kirti Chakra, Shaurya Chakra, Ashok Chakra. These types of awards include cash in addition to a citation and a medal.
Most of the weapons used by the Indian Army are indigenously manufactured with indigenous technology. DRDO (Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) makes weapons for the Indian Army. The institute makes radars, weapons, Arjun tanks for the Indian Army.
Indian Army intercontinental ballistic missile, anti tank missile, cruise missiles, guns, rocket, mortar, chetak, helicopter, ak-47 assault rifle, insas rifle, sniper rifle, snake anti tank guided missile, prithvi missile, prahar missile, valor missile A wide range of weapons such as, BrahMos missile, Nirbhay missile, Agni-5, Agni 6 missile exist.
The expenditure of the Indian Army in 2019-20 is 4,31,011 crore (US $ 60.9 Billion).

Some great facts about the Indian Army–
For fighting in the jungles, India’s army is considered superior to the world’s armies. To know the specialty of Indian Army, the armies of countries like Britain, Russia, America come to India and take training and information.
For the protection of the President of India, a contingent of the Army of India stays in Rashtrapati Bhavan, which protects the President for 24 hours.
In 1982, the Indian Army built the “Bailey Bridge” (which is the highest bridge in the world) between the Dras and Suru river in Ladakh.
The Indian Army has a contingent of cavalry. At present, only 3 countries have cavalry. India is one of them.
The Indian Army exercises exercises on the Siachen Glacier (the highest battleground in the world). This battleground is 5000 meters above sea level. The Indian Army conducts war exercises here under extremely adverse conditions.
The Indian Army has 53 cantonments and 9 army bases across the country.
India’s army is the second largest army in the world.
Indian Military Engineering Services is India’s largest arms manufacturer.
The Assam Rifle is the oldest paramilitary force of the Indian Army. It was founded in 1835.
According to the peace operation of the United Nations, India’s forces are sent to war in another country of the world.

THE TORTURING OF ANIMALS CONTINUES

The recent incidents in India relating to animal torturing, shows the extent to which mankind have fallen , and how we’re misusing our ability to think for our own good, have led to the exploitation of the case.

A very recent example of this is murder of the pregnant elephant in the Silent valley Forest in Kerala. This incident became so popular on all the social media handles, that the ministers had to intervene. A pregnant elephant had probably become victim of an act of human cruelty, where on the 27th of may,2020 a pineapple filled with explosives exploded in it’s mouth. This incident gained light only because of a forest officer, Mohan Krishnan who posted the video on his facebook page, and it went viral. He even wrote about how the elephant was standing in the river, with her head dipped inside , anxiously waiting fir death to come and relief it off it’s pain forever. The post-mortem reports have shown that the elephant had travelled in pain for several after getting wounded, and the wounded area have totally become septic. The controversy have later turned to the fact that it  was an intentional move to defame the state, after it received appreciation for preventing the spread of the Pandemic. Few of the leaders are debating over the point that the death occurred in Malappuram, when instead it took place at Mannarkkad in Palakkad. The matter had received a lot of national attention, as even our Union Minister for forest and Environment ,Parkash Javadekar directed to stern actions against the culprit.

The social outrage of the previous incidents , might seem to have put an end to such brutal incidents,but we ‘re wrong to even think about it. On the 3rd of July,2020  yet again the jaws of cow got blown ,as it ate dough made consisting of wrapped explosives .The incident happened in the Datauli  village of Ayodhya. Two men of middle age, Satyanam Triveni and Bhola Ram Dayal have been arrested on charges of killing the cow. The cow was probably searching for food, when it consumed the dough containing the explosives. later, a vet was assigned to look after the stray cow. The DSP Ayodhya  ,Virendra Vikram who is looking after the case, said it has  been investigated that the accused was used to hunt wild boar, by making them eat explosives wrapped dough.

This incident in Himachal Pradesh  is similar to what happened in Ayodhya. The  locals of the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh  have demanded strict inquiry into the action, involving the death of a pregnant cow. The cow had supposedly consumed wheat flour ,which had “allu bomb” inside. The owner of the car have charged  his neighbour, to doing the act. This case  was registered under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

Small farmers all over the country have sought to illegal means, in absence of proper ,permissible measures to ward off wild board away from their crops. The statistics available have shown how because of human interference, deforestation, climatic changes, the number of wild board have fallen drastically to 48034 in 2011.In a country like India , where rich people are buying houses close to forest to explore them, everything else is considered more important than our wildlife and habitat conservation.

THE WORLD OF SANITIZER

At this time of Pandemic, Sanitizers are something which have more importance than our  own valuables. We’ve  come to a situation , where the whole world is fighting against the pandemic, but there exists no cure of it. With each passing day, as conditions are worsening, we’ve to personally take café of ourselves, and practise in social distancing. This situation has given birth to use of sanitizers, and wash our hands properly to protect ourselves from the virus. Sanitizers have already started going out of stock, and with the cases surging, there is very less probability of the sanitizers available in near future.

There are several things we need to keep in mind before selecting the sanitizer. First of all, we need to pick sanitizers which would have  60-95% alcohol content, so that it has the capability to kill the germs. The non-alcohol sanitizers have disinfectants like chloride, which may not be useful in killing the coronavirus germs. The product should have a value for money, and should suite our ski type.

Some Of The Best Sanitizers To Our Rescue

Dettol Instant Hand Sanitizer(Rs.164 For  50 ml)- The first company that would come to our minds is Dettol. This sanitizer comes with a non-sticky  formula, capable of killing 99.9 % germs .It even comes with a good fragrance, making it carve  more. This even leaves our hands soft, as it contains moisture and is suitable for all skin types.

Purell Advanced Instant Hand Sanitizer(Rs.50 for 30 ml)-this one is  most widely  used in clinics and hospitals , as it is FDA approved. It not only comes with capability of killing  99.99% germ, but is twice more effective than the other sanitizers. It  comes with 70% alcohol content in it. The best part about this is that it contains 4 types of moisturizers, preventing our hands from drying up.

Lifebuoy Total 10(Rs.60 for 50 ml) – this alcohol content sanitizer, not only prevents skin problem, but reduces the redness in skin it effectively kills germs and bacteria in  10 seconds, giving us protection for the next 10 hours. Since it’s  cost-effective, it can be widely used by people of all income groups, and easily portable.

Himalaya Pure Hands(Rs. 300 for 500 ml)- This sanitizer is made up of natural ingredients ,  having a divine fragrance. It’s available in flavours like litchi, green apple, strawberry, etc. The best part about such sanitizer is the presence of active ingredients like neem, coriander and lime which helps in moisturizing the palms.

Sterillium Hand Sanitizer(Rs.320 fro 500 ml)- It is widely used in the Healthcare sector, because of it’s anti-microbial activity. This blue hand sanitizer have been the personal favourite of millions of people since ages, as it a classic rub-in disinfectant for surgical hand and hygienic purposes.

What  To Do In Case the Sanitizer’s are out of Stock?

It’s very easy to make our sanitizer at home. For that ,we need aloe vera gel and alcohol in the ration of 1:2, and  five drops of any essential oil  like lavender or lemon. We need to keep our hands clean first, take a clean container and mix everything till it becomes thick. The mix should be kept  in a dark area, with out kind of disturbance. This sanitizer often turn out to be runny, so we  need to be very careful with the proportion of the ingredients.This is likely better, than using nothing. But, it can never be compared to the sanitizers available commercially.

Festivals of india

India is named for its culture, tradition, and heritage behind the festivals. They are meant to rejoice special moments and emotions in our lives with our loved ones. Festivals were started to pass the legends, knowledge, and traditions onto the next generation. Festivals connect us with our family and add a structure to our culture and tradition. There are many types of cultural festivals such as national festivals, religious festivals, and seasonal festivals. They give us happiness and strengthen our relationships. National festivals connect us with feelings of patriotism. These festivals connect every citizen through emotions. Independence Day, Republic Day, and Gandhi jayanthi were the national festivals of India. Celebrating festivals without any difference and parciality among the religions is only on national festivals. The government of India has declared a national holiday on the national festivals of the day.

Religious festivals are important for families. Because from the religious festivals are help us to reach the ethics and principles to us and our next generations. In India, we celebrate various religious festivals like Diwali, Christmas, Ramzan, Mahavir Jayanthi, etc. but, a reflection of these festivals share love, understanding, and tolerance. On that day we thank God for the specials things or events given by them. Seasonal festivals are celebrated for welcoming the seasons and show their gratitude towards nature. Holi is an important Spring festival for Hindus, a national holiday in India. Holi is celebrated at the end of the Winter. As a result, all the festivals are related and results in harmony, peace, and happiness.

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