Update about my new blog

Hello everyone....
First of all thank you for reading the Every day me blog. It feels really good when you all take out time and read my views on different topics. Who knew I would gain readers from all over the world, stretching as far from Indonesia to USA. And of course Hola to my readers from Spain, who makes 
second most readers of my blog after my own country people!
with such a warm response, I would request you all to also catch on my article on another blog, where I share it with one of my closest friend. here's the link
http://thatmakesallsense.blogspot.in/
And no, i'm not going to stop writing Everyday me blog!
Thanks for your consistent support
Finally
Three cheers for my readers!

Do you like to dislike?

We all have our taste, opinion, preference and views over each and everything thing present in the world. Some let their choices known to the world pretty boldly, while other just nod along with crowd and don’t let their likes known. We all have likes and dislikes, but when it gets contradicted with someone else’s opinion, two things happen... either we let go off the scenario by saying “to each his own” or we fight with other persons to convince them about our choices.

So why am I imposing these “opinion” over you.. ?

Well, earlier this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that his company is trying to introduce a new button in FB which would help the user to let them express empathy. He discarded the idea about launching the much demanded “dislike “button along with the “like” button. Now, how this new button will work, I don’t know. But I would surely like to imagine the consequences of the infamous “dislike” button.

As I said earlier, every person has got their own taste. So if we want to get something reviewed by our friend in Facebook, we have to solely depend upon the comment section to read its review or count the number of “likes” it get. If we compare it with Youtube, it has got a dislike feature. There are times when we definitely want constructive criticism from people to let us know whether our work is good or bad. Now imagine there is an artist who publishes his work in Facebook. He definitely got some like, but he is unaware of people who didn’t like his work. He is a busy man so doesn’t get time to read all the comment posted in it. Thus he is not able to receive feedback properly. Now if he post the same thing in Youtube , with just a glance he would come to know how many views he got, how many people liked it and of course how many disliked it.

You all have to understand here that it is just a minuscule aspect that I’m talking about. But it is true that receiving honest review is hard without the “dislike” button. Let’s talk about the other side of the coin. What if the “Dislike” feature is actually introduced in it? I don’t know how much havoc it will create, but some things which I think that would definitely happen are....

“like” if you are Indian and “dislike” for Pakistani or vice versa

“like” if you are Hindu and “dislike” for Muslim or vice versa

 “like” if you are straight and “dislike” for LGBT or vice versa

“like” for Clinton and “dislike” for Trump or vice versa

Let me get myself clear first.. I don’t dislike any of the eight community/people mentioned above. I’m just using it as an example to explain about what could be the possible outcome of the dislike button. I’m sure all of you must have come across such post which spread hatred amongst a particular group of religion/race/creed/nationality or even paint a person in wrong light.

At the time when cyber bullying is at its peak, introduction of the “dislike” button will give more fuel to hate. Social media is filled with those people and thankfully they don’t have access to this mischievous button yet !!!

In the end, I want to conclude that, it is for good that we don’t have “dislike” button in most social media. I can’t imagine how bad I will feel if someone dislike my post and expresses it openly over social media via the count of the number of dislikes I have got. Having said that, I always welcome criticism and feedback from all my readers around the world!

So, while Prime minister of India, Narendra Modi ,gets interrogated by the Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook,

 Do you still “like” to “dislike”??     

Why social media is bringing the old days back:

Today’s generation finds themselves lucky because they have access to one of the most powerful tool , i.e. the internet! With the advancement of the technology, we can access internet on almost every platform and it is always available on our finger tip. Sounds like a quite progressive society right? Well , I disagree.

Remember the early eras?? Those dark olden days, where the judgement was given by the group of kangaroo courts or a group of mobs. People were falsely accused of crimes but still they were executed without any proof. The practise of witch hunting?? Does it ring any bell in your mind?

You must have watched movies in which mob armed with torches and forks, surrounds a criminal and then banish him from the village or execute him. Can you believe those days are back? But this time, virtually.

  Facebook created history few days back, when a billion users logged in on one day. This shows how people are more present on the social media these days. But it have given rise to new set of so called activist who have spread their web on the internet. These are called the slacktivist!

Admit it, we all have come across some online petition “Which would save the world” or something as ridiculous on various social media. And I guess you all know who are responsible for them. But forget about slacktivists, even the regular man is influenced to teach lesson to a wrong doer in social media.

image source

But this online passing of judgement has actually turned into cyber bullying, often psychologically disturbing the person targeted.

Few days ago, a student of Delhi university snapped a pic of a guy in a traffic signal and posted it on Facebook, stating that she was molested, abused and intimated by this guy. She even filed a police complaint against the guy. Guess what happened? The girl’s post went viral and she was lauded everywhere in the Indian social media. She even got cash reward from the chief minister of Delhi. Meanwhile, the guy was arrested, he was declared “national pervert” by one of the leading news channel in India, and was made poster boy of chauvinist Indian male.

Let’s forward to next day, the guy got out from the jail and told his version of the story which implied that the girl was at fault. Even an eye witness said the similar story. And thus the attention shifted back to the girl. As fast as she was raised to  pedestal, it took no time for the netizen to throw her from her throne. She was ridiculed, made fun of, and it was concluded by the netizen that she did all this drama to shoot into limelight. The great Indian media also somehow found a “fact” that she has some political aspiration!!! The guy was treated with sympathy and was even apologised by one of the most famous Indian actress on twitter.

Did you find one thing missing in the above story? The judgement by the law!!! The court judgement is still not out and police too has not confirmed who is at fault. But the great Indian netizen and even the media had already passed the judgement!!  And this is what needs to be stopped. According to me the girl did the right thing by snapping the pic of the guy and filing a complaint in the police, if she felt that she was abused. But her step to post the pic in the social media was a very bad, immature and horrible idea. She should have waited for the court verdict. And even if the guy is at fault, I still feel sorry for him. He went through a lot of cyber bullying and was even declared a “national pervert” by a news channel. Of course coming from a middle class family, he doesn’t have the resource to sue such a huge media channel.

The moral of the story?? The netizen have turned into group of lawmakers who pass judgement based on emotions and allegations. They don’t care about the victim’s psychological condition and give their verdict without caring about the law. And if this doesn’t seem similar to you like the old age practise of witch hunting or execution, then I’m sorry to hurt your feeling :-/

We all have got right to share our views, opinion on social media. But we also need to be cautious that we don’t overstep our right by indulging in bullying, harassing someone or worst, passing judgement on some cases!

Now, if you want an online petition to be signed by me, it should be of barring these buffoons who misuse the power of social media...

Finally,

Three cheers for Social media!!

Fighting with inner demon!!

My last post ended with a semicolon,, so this is the final part which I was supposed to talk about. In my last post I talked about project semicolon and the ordeals through which people with problem such as depression has to go through.

I have titled my post as “Fighting with the inner demon”. The demon which I am talking about is not some mythical creature. It is in fact something which exists in our brain. It is something which pushes us towards the darker side of our soul. The demon could be anything: it could be stress, a problem, a memory, an incident… it could be anything. But the most difficult part comes when we can’t understand what this demon is or we can’t recognize this demon of ours.

But it isn’t that difficult. When you are completely honest with yourself and introspect yourself thoroughly you are definitely going to find this demon, which is actually the root cause of your entire problem.

                                                               image source

Many times, finding the demon is easy. It is there only, inside us. But when the matter comes about accepting it, many of us get the cold feet. It is a true fact. We don’t want to believe that this demon is eating us up. We then live in a complete state of denial. But you know what does being in denial leads to?? The growth of your demon!! So acceptance plays a huge role in fighting that demon away.

Next step is coming out of the closet. Now this phrase is usually used with discussing or rather revealing someone’s sexual orientation. But here I’m using this phrase collectively for all people who had been hiding something from the world because of the stigma attached to it. We all know that telling the world that we have some mental stress or ailment is usually frowned upon and hushed down in many societies. But I want to request you, please come out of your closet. There is nothing to be ashamed of. But, choose wisely about the people to whom you want to pour your heart out. My suggestion is to confide to your immediate family member. If you think that is not safe, then tell it your closest friend. If none of this is suitable for you, then go and search for the support group in your city. If you come from a remote corner of the world, then find some online support group. If even that is not possible, then maintain a journal and write all these feelings down. I bet you… if you follow one of the above options, you would feel some weight has been lifted from your heart!!

My last step is fighting and killing that demon!

There are many ways in which you can shut out that demon forever in your life.  One of them would be making peace with your inner self. If something wrong happened in past, correct it. If your life is not the way it was meant to be, then make it your way or deal with it!!

Some demons are just scars which can’t be corrected or dealt with. For that the solution is to simply avoid them. Avoid the scenario in which you get low or depressed. Keep yourself busy.. Channelize your negative energy into something constructive. Workouts, meditate, paint, draw, sing, dance, write, or watch a movie!! Do whatever you like!!  These steps are surely going to kill that filthy demon away or send it back to faraway lands!!

So this is my way of fighting with the inner demon… if you have any more suggestion…then please do let me know!!

Project semicolon: why your story is not yet over

Recently I came across a pic in a social networking site, and it really moved me!!

The pic was of person’s wrist having a semicolon tattoo. That really intrigued me. I followed the hashtag and found out that it was about a certain project semicolon. The Google bug bit me and soon I was reading about this wonderful project which was started by Amy Bleuel. Project semicolon is a help group which motivates people who are struggling from depression, suicidal thoughts, self harming habits, anxiety and other mental illness. A little history about the project from its website.

“

 This began in the spring of 2013, when Project Semicolon Founder, Amy Bleuel wanted to honor her father whom she lost to suicide. Through the semicolon symbol many related to the struggle of depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide and their will to continue on. The title, “Project Semicolon,” also represented a goal – to believe that this is not the end but a new beginning. “

image source

Now for all of you who is wondering why the symbol “;” , i.e of a semicolon. Well, when a writer doesn’t want to end a sentence, they use a semicolon. Similarly, here the hope is to reassure the victim that their story is not yet over. And that’s such a great hope they are giving out.

Many of us can’t even understand the pain a depression patient goes through. The saddest part is that they don’t come out to people about their suffering because we all know that mental illness has some stigma attached to it. Also the patients are afraid to confront with themselves and admit that they are suffering from it.  A survey says about 5% of total world population suffer from some sort of depression related illness.  That accounts for the people who admit to it, but there are many other who are living their lives in a dark shadow.

These are the people who need reassurance and help from us. You may never know, but someone in your family can be suffering from it! A simple request to all of you… if you fail to realize their pain, then please at least don’t make them a subject of mockery!  

I really appreciate what this project is doing. I would request you all to go their website once and understand the concept in much better way. You can read about the website here

.

Those who suffer from such problem and are reading this article … I wanna give you a BIG virtual hug!!!

But wait,,, this article is NOT YET OVER!

I will continue this part soon where I will talk about addressing the inner demons;

Finally

Three cheers for project semicolon!!

7 types of irritating passengers you will meet while travelling in Indian railway

The summer vacation ended in India recently and I am sure most of you would have taken a vacation to either meet your relatives or simply to explore new destinations.

Being one of the largest railway networks in the world, the Indian railway carries more than 23 million passengers every day. With so many people travelling from the train, we are bound to meet every type of passenger during the journey. While every person has some bad traits, these traits get highlighted during the train journey. Here is my list of the types of irritating persons you will find in Indian Railways.

1. Gossiping Aunts.

These are the army of middle aged ladies who gather around two opposite seats and cramp up together to gossip about each and every person living on this planet. And you know what is the worst part, subconsciously you get involved in their conversation and thus you get know some amazing facts such as someone’s daughter eloping and someone’s son being sent to prison!!

While the ladies are not the only persons who are the chatterbox, it’s the gentlemen as well!!!

This brings me to my next point.

2. Political Uncles.

These are the breed of men who survive on newspaper. If you listen to their conversation properly, you will get to know that the government is responsible for everything bad happening in our country. They would blame government for each and every step they take and act as if they have all solutions to the world’s gravest political issues. They pretend to be the greatest diplomats, having the answer to problems such as world hunger or even alien invasion!!  But gets tongue tied when you tell them to elaborate their ideas…..

3. Wailing babies.

We got men and we got women… then who is missing? Babies! Now, I don’t want to sound rude, but babies have tough time travelling in the train. They feel claustrophobic and really uneasy thus they cry a lot. Now having full sympathies with them, I would like to highlight the plight of fellow travellers . Nothing gets on nerves as bad as wailing babies. Worst case scenario: a baby wailing during night!!! Last May I was travelling with my aunt and my darling god daughter on a train from Ahmadabad to Mumbai. She was only four months old and she was really uncomfortable during the journey. She was very fussy and the only thing which soothed her? The lullaby “hush little baby”. I and my aunt sang almost half of the journey, making the fellow passengers learning the lines of the lullaby by heart!!!!

4. Mr. /Ms. Theater

They carry with them their latest tab/laptop/mobile/phablet (did I miss something?). But they intentionally leave behind their head phones, because their sole intention is to entertain the whole compartment. They put on the latest Bollywood movie they have (which they got by illegally downloading from internet or from a friend who illegally downloads them) and enjoys it shamelessly. While you try a lot to distract yourself from the corny lines said by one of the Khans of Bollywood, you still get involved in the movie, glancing on the screen from time to time. Then Mr./Ms.  Theater suddenly gets tired and all sleepy and without any warning, turn off their gizmos and goes to sleep, leaving you wondering about the climax of the movie!!!

Oh and wait until they wake up and put on some Honey Singh’s rap.

5. The chit chat initiators.

They are people who get easily bored and long distance journey is sort of nightmare for them. Though they do not qualify as gossip mongers, but they are still interested in knowing all the mundane details of their fellow passengers. I don’t know want to sound rude, a friendly banter in a long journey is ok I guess, but introverts like me don’t like it at all!!  And yeah! Wait until they bore you to death by the story of their own miserable life!!

6. The litterers.

These are the people who are solely responsible for keeping our trains so dirty. Almost everyone have come across a compartment which is littered by peanuts shells, wafer’s packets etc. they are lazy morons who don’t even think before throwing the garbage inside the compartment. According to me, this people should be arrested immediately and sent to do community service which involves picking up garbage from the trains. These are the idiots who are responsible to make our country dirty and thus we are striving so hard to make our country clean or “swacch”…..

7. The newspaper stealer.

They sit beside you or opposite to you. And then, you commit the biggest mistake of your life. You start reading a newspaper. Even though they own one paper , they are still interested to read yours as if it has map of hidden treasure island. So while you are reading, they move their head in such an angle in order to read articles, which may even put a gymnast to shame. When you get irritated by all those movements and you decide to put down your own newspaper, they go back to reading the one they own or worst, ask you give the paper to them as you are not reading “at the moment”!!!

So this was my list of irritating passengers found on Indian railways….

Have you encountered any such passengers or am I missing someone?

Do let me know !! 

All gifs sourced from here

Equality is here…but where is the dignity?

The supreme court of the united states(SCOTUS) gave a landmark ruling and legalized same sex marriage in all the 50 states of the united states of America. The 5-4 ruling by the judges lifted the ban of marriage from the 14 states. It is truly a huge step taken by the country thus making it the most populous country to legalize same sex marriage and the 21^st country in the world to do so.

So when I logged in to various social media…everyone were celebrating it by painting their logo /dp with rainbow, which is considered to be flag of LGBT community. Today when I was going through my  Instagram page , 9gag , a popular social media website posted a pic celebrating the equality of love.(9 gag had also changed their icon from black and white to rainbow coloured

which was pretty cool). The comment that pic got were really harsh. Religious fanatics were really condemning this decision, stupid homophobes bashing the decision and ignorant people making ridiculous comment. I am not against people expressing their views, but some comments were really harsh. Plus there are many platforms were you can get your views expressed, but I am really against stupid ranting on social media. 

But these things made me to ponder over the fact that does equality also brings dignity?

Won’t there be any hate crimes against the LGBT people? Won’t there be any bullying and discrimination. Maybe this law is the step which may also change the perspective of people…but that seems like a long road.

This judgement has some contrast with the Ireland public referendum. The people of that country voted to legalize the same sex union. So this shows the progression of the mindset of people in that country.

All this words coming from a guy whose country has the draconian law of Article 377 which bans all sort of same gender activity! But there is some hope in the transgender community. The supreme court of India recognized transgender as the “third gender” and has passed a law to save them from discrimination in jobs, education and other civil rights. Things are looking up for them as recently Dr. Manabi Bandopadhyay became first transgender person to become a principal of a women’s college in West Bengal. A first of a kind in the country. The mentality of people here is still in the olden ages and acceptance maybe yet to come in this country.

One thing is for sure though,, that we should grant all people the rights they want and allow them to live as they like. There are far more serious issues to be tackled in the world but unfortunately we are yet to resolve problem as simple as love!!!

Finally

Three cheers for equality and love!