Shruti Ponders

    As a sociology student, one of the most important concepts I learnt was about role conflicts, which people experience when they find themselves pulled in various directions as they try to respond to the many statuses they hold. Now if we carefully look at the definition of a veterinarian- it says: of, relating to, practicing , or being the science and art of prevention, cure, or alleviation of disease and injury in animals and especially domestic animals" Now, imagine a person who takes an oath of preventing and curing diseases in animals himself slaughtering another animal for his food! Isn’t it such a grave role conflict! Eating animals was never a part of India’s culture. Deep down, all of us know that it is wrong to eat animals. In the Bhagavad Geeta , it is said that killing an animal can only be justified if it is for self defense, and killing them merely for our sense gratification should not be encouraged, and especially for someone who has chosen a career ...

  Today is January 12, the day India celebrates the National Youth Day, in memory of the greatest youth icon ever born in India- Narendra Nath Datta, popularly known as Swami Vivekananda.  "Sisters and Brothers of America, It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us." This was the opening line of Swami Vivekananda’s Chicago speech and this one line has had such profound impact in my life. I learnt that we should embrace everyone around us joyfully as our own brothers and sisters even if they are strangers and there should be no room for jealousy, hatred and anger. We should never hesitate to express our gratitude towards anyone or anything that has helped us even in the subtlest of ways. I learnt from him that praising is such a divine quality. It doesn't belittle you to praise someone who deserves it, in fact the very quality of appreciating the goodness in others is a sign of your own values....

11:59:57, 2019- “3…2…1!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!” We welcomed 2020 wholeheartedly. It was supposed to be the year of magic, the year of revolution as desired by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and Chetan Bhagat, the year I was to gear up for the most dreaded chapter in a student’s life- my 12 th  boards, the year I was going to turn 18 and blossom into an adult! Everyone had pinned a lot of hopes on the new decade. Astrologers swamped news channels with their predictions on how good the year is going to be for businessmen, students and our economy. Youngsters partied hard that night. Elders too were excited to embrace the year of change. Little did we know that our excitement about that year was going to be short lived. Maybe just Wuhan had a cue. I still so vividly remember the chilly winter day of January when after attempting the most clueless pre-board, my friends and I were joking with each other about a possibility of that weird Wuhan disease becoming a nationwide pandemic so that our boards g...

      Since time immemorial, our elders have been saying that the Indian economy is ‘developing’ and now the Covid crisis has further worsened our economic conditions and we are losing hope on seeing it as 'developed' soon. Due to a sudden demand slack of non-essentials during early Covid times, which now seems to be some centuries before, there is less GST revenue. Foreign trade has also seen bad times, so again, there is less income from exports. With alcohol shops shut for a long time, further hope lost. So there was a massive fall in govt income and fueling the fire is that our high demand on petroleum crude forces us to import it. So basic mathematics, there is less income and more to spend. Clearly there’s a very high fiscal deficit. Government pumping money into the economy- is it really a viable solution to our economic problems? Milton Friedman, notable economist once said, “There’s no such thing as FREE LUNCH in economics.” It is very common of citizens, busines...

  IN THE STATURE OF BEING WORSHIPPED… If we go and flip through the pages of history, read the ancient Indian epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana, we get to see a glimpse of the tranquility and the auspiciousness of our rivers. We all have heard people saying “Ganga me snan karo to saare paap dhul jaaenge.” The river Ganga, often personified as a goddess is believed to relieve you of your sins and facilitate moksha or enlightenment with just one dip in her. Back when the Ganga was unpolluted, it was abundant in sulphur and natural germicides. This meant that taking a dip in the river would rid the people of many skin diseases and other common ailments and would increase their life span. Centuries ago, when people were illiterate, they could not understand the scientific relevance of cleansing themselves in the Ganges and hence religious connotations were attached to the river so as to make it a ritual to bathe in the Ganga. But gradually, in the course of time, people clutched on to ...