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[vinay-the-seeker]

Our choices and their consequences

"Choice" is a very loaded word, we use it in many contexts. In our lives, we need to make many choices, almost every moment offers us a choice, and even in instances where we feel there is no choice, we do make a choice, knowingly or unknowingly. Apart from genetics and a few other things we need to make some choices daily, and our choices have consequences. The choice can be as simple as how many spoons of sugar to have to as complicated as who to marry or which job offer to select among the multiple options. Based on the results (consequences) of our choice, we decide whether it was a good or a bad choice. That is, most of us grade our choices based on their consequences, as it is always easy to connect the dots backward.

However, I feel that there are some choices where you may experience unfavorable or bad consequences, but are still worthy to make, not because of the consequences we face but because of the stand we take and the impact it may have. Being right or being nice and saying no to various requests from our dear ones are two of the choices many of us hate to make. It is easy to say no to a stranger, but it is not easy to say no to friends and family or even to colleagues. We always struggle to value our own time and say yes to many things we don't want to do just not to hurt the feelings of our dear ones. We hesitate to reject requests that demand our time, attention, and resources, even for the right reasons. But, the ability to say no is very important for our well-being and personal growth. And if people really care for us, they should understand the reason behind our refusal, after all, what type of relationship it is if it cannot offer personal space to each other and the ability to say no. Similarly, it is not easy to decide which battle to pursue and where to yield, especially when we deal with our family members or when someone we know is being a bigot or racist and need a reality check. It is easy to question or stand up against racism or discrimination when someone we don't know is doing it. It is easy to advocate for change in someone else's life and target some big and powerful organizations or celebrities for their objectionable behavior. But we hesitate or ignore the same behavior when the person is someone close or known to us, for example, our parents, friends, or our partners. We try to downplay such incidents or find some reason to justify them as harmless acts. This makes us a hypocrite person, a person with double standards, but we are more comfortable being a hypocrite than being uncomfortable. Again, this is a choice we make. Being a hypocrite or bigot or racist is a choice and we do become these things not only by doing such acts but by ignoring or supporting them.

It is easy to have principles and propagate them, but it is hard to live by them. It is easy to have standards, but it is hard to apply those standards to ourselves and evaluate our own behavior. It is easy to advocate for change, but it is hard to be the change. It is easy to criticize others, but it is hard to be a self-critic. Some choices are hard, but are necessary, especially if you have some principles and believe in them. If you believe in gender equality, you need to stand up if you witness gender discrimination. If you are against racism, speak up against racist behavior. It might sound easy to stand up against wrong things, after all, who doesn't want to do this, but it is not always that simple, especially when one else is doing anything. People may hesitate to speak due to fear of losing a job, a relationship, or any other loss. If you chose to stand up, the chances are that you may find yourself standing alone. Being alone sucks, it is not easy to challenge institutionalized things like discrimination alone, and even standing against a powerful person or your own family and friends is not easy. There are consequences, loneliness is one of them, and that's a choice we need to make. Do we have our values just for display, or they are also for practice? Do our principles mean anything to us, or they are just topics of debate and discussion? If they do really mean something to us, then we should choose accordingly. Of course, consequences will follow, but then that's the choice we make.

Thank you for reading and please share your views on this topic.

Vinay can be reached at thevinay2022@gmail.com

From: https://selfrealization-vinay.blogspot.com/

[vinay-the-seeker]

My turbulent teenage years

Teenage years are not easy, even though they are one of the best and most interesting phases of our lives, the journey through these years can be rocky and bumpy. Those were turbulent times for me and the lack of access to information did not make it easy. People of my generation love to roast today's generation about internet addiction and social media dependence, but they fail to recognize that there is a huge positive side to this connectivity, it allows one to access useful information. I could not access the information that I needed as there were no resources available for me. Concepts like personal choice, passion, feminism, equality, justice, and privacy were neither part of my vocabulary nor did anyone around me cared about these things. Also, I grew up in a sexually suppressed society, even a benign kiss or a hug on the screen was taboo. The interaction with the opposite sex was neither encouraged nor easily possible. Even in my college days my interaction with girls was very awkward and I tried to avoid it as much as I can, not because I didn't want to interact, I just didn't know how to interact. I was confused from the inside, but acted confident from the outside. Turbulent from the inside, but calm from the outside. Angry but did not know why and on whom. With many questions but with no way to find any answers.

As a teenager, I was also very confused about things happening around me. I did not understand why we struggled for money even after my parents really worked hard and did not have any conventional bad habits like drinking or gambling. I struggled to understand why females were treated differently than males. Why I and my brothers were expected to do good in school, but there was no such expectation from any of my sisters. It is not that these things started happening around me when I entered my teenage. They were happening around me since I was born, but I started getting affected by them only during my teenage. As a male, I was conditioned to think and behave in a certain way, even in the poor neighborhood, I had many privileges just because of my gender. Females were looked at and treated in a certain way, almost like some object. There were strict boundaries for them that they were not supposed to cross, and if they cross, there were serious consequences. Even their own families did not spare them if they dare to cross those boundaries.

Education for me was only a key to coming out of poverty, nothing more than that. I was desperate to get out of poverty and education was the only option available to me. I did not go to school and college because I loved it or enjoyed it, but because I have to as it was my ticket to the outside world. The world that I saw around me but didn't belong to. I desperately wanted to be rich, rich enough so that I don't have to think about how to get things that I need. During my high school and college days, I started reading books outside my study books. Reading was not my hobby of choice, but it just happened that it was the only option available once my other friends went their own ways pursuing different options that economically underprivileged neighborhoods offer. It was sad to part our ways, but it was also unavoidable. As I had not much to do, I started reading newspapers beyond sports and film portions, and from there I got introduced to politics, religion, and other subjects. I wanted to know more and this is how I started borrowing books from libraries around me. This is when my life changed.

My family thinks that I am a feminist or have liberal social values because I came to America, but this is not true. I was like this even when I was living in Pune but I did not talk about it much. I also never used to stay much at home and at home, I never used to talk much. For example, my daughter is named Sara, which is not a name considered for a girl in Hindu families, not because I visited America or knew anything about America, but because I wanted her to understand that people may judge you just based on your name and she should not the one doing this. It was this simple, I was not looking for anything else. I learned this from the book I read about Dr. Shriram Lagoo, a famous Marathi, and Hindi movie/stage actor. I read so many books that I don't even remember their names or authors. I just remember what I read not who wrote it or where I read it. I just read whatever came into my hand, even at the cost of my academic performance. The education system in which I studied never encouraged any outside reading, rather it was considered a waste of time. I am sure my academic performance would have been much better if I did not listen to Hindi movie songs or read as much as I did. I might have become an engineer, a doctor, or even a government officer that my parents desperately wanted me to become, but definitely would not have learned about feminism, casteism, gender discrimination, communalism, socialism, communism, capitalism, hate politics, secularism, and many other things. I do not regret wasting my time in reading at all, it provided some answers to the questions that I had but did not who to ask. Books saved me from being a narrow-minded, patriarchal, casteist, communal male, they made me a better person than what I was. All the books I read and the Hindi film music made my teenage years less bumpy and turbulent than they could have been. It also saved me from various addictions that was common in my neighborhood. I was so addicted to reading books, watching movies, and buying audio cassettes that I had no money left for cigarettes, alcohol, or gutkha (a chewing tobacco product that was a craze during my college days).  

I hope at least some of the readers will relate to my teenage years. These years are years of internal and external changes. Along with our body and hormone levels, our understanding of our surroundings also evolves. It is good to find some channel or mechanism to cope with this change. I found that channel in movies, music, and books. Some may find it in performing arts or sports. Some may find it in writing or cooking. Find that channel that will make your ride less bumpy and turbulent. It will be still shaky, but not as much to knock you off the road or throw you off the cliff. You will be fine, just find the channel that works for you. These are our formative years, if my experience helps you to find some solace and guidance, I am happy.

Thank you for reading and please share your views on this topic.

Vinay can be reached at thevinay2022@gmail.com

From: https://selfrealization-vinay.blogspot.com/2022/09/my-turbulent-teenage-years.html

[vinay-the-seeker]

Let's remove taboos associated with Menstruation.

I wrote a post about worshiping while menstruating sometime back, in that post I tried to address the stigma associated with menstruation and participation in religious functions. This post gets maximum views during Hindu festival seasons when there are lot of occasions where women might face this dilemma. Many people have expressed different views and concerns in the comments section of that post. Some even asked for advise about what to do if they face the dilemma where their culture and tradition contradicts their logic. So when I read this article I decided to write one more post related with this topic of menstruation and various misconceptions associated with it. Actually taboos associated with menstruation are not only problem of any one religion or any one culture but this exists all over world, in all regions and religions. Many developed societies have broken this barriers to large extend but still this issue is a tabooed subject in many societies all over the world. Why there is so much secrecy around this subject that people hesitate to discuss it in open? Why there is so much ignorance and lack of information about this very important biological phenomena which is directly related with our procreation? It is a simple biological process which is part of our natural life cycle, we know about it since ages. Lot of progress has been done in area of sanitation and hygiene which can remove all concerns and doubts associated with this process. Then even after all this why some societies or cultures continue to treat it as some disease or some problem?

Actually the root cause for all this stigma and discomfort associated with menstruation are some age old beliefs, customs or traditions. One can clearly see that even in societies where proper sanitation and hygiene methods are available women are not treated properly during their periods. Somehow it is still believed that they are impure or not normal during 'those days'. Women are also guilty of not trying enough to remove stigma associated with this essential and unavoidable biological process. Many times they fell prey to all this stereotyping and cultural pressures and surrender to those things without offering any protest. Very few who dare to go against the norm then face the severe criticism and are made to feel guilty about their behavior. Menstruation is not something they choose or do one their own so that they can be blamed in any way for it, it is a biological phenomena. So why are they discriminated because of one very essential natural process on which they don't have any control?

It is good to see that things are improving, the rate of improvement is definitely slow but for sure things are changing. Many females are questioning this unfair treatment, many of them are willing to challenge this stigma and confront discriminatory practices. So all this is bound to bring that desired change, after all how long unfair discrimination will last if entire gender affected by it rebels against it? The more protests come out against such discrimination the more these things will be discussed. These discussions will slowly spread more information and more awareness about issues related with menstruation and stigma associated with it. Surprisingly people don't want to discuss or talk about such a important issue withing their own family, actually we need to give proper information to our kids about all these things, specially about things related with their body and sexuality. This is essential part of their learning which will make them a better human beings. This subject definitely doesn't need any stigma or taboo associated with it, females have suffered some sort of discrimination or other problems because of these things. We need to remove any stigma or taboo or hesitation associated with subject of menstruation and related issues from all societies and cultures. This is too important subject for half of world's population, we can't brush it aside or push under carpet as if it doesn't exist. I am glad to see that now females are taking lead themselves to remove stigma associated with many such issues. I am sure they will create space for their issues in discussion forums at all levels. I request rest of us to join them in this quest.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright : Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:

1. A Girl Gets Her Period And Is Banished To The Shed

[vinay-the-seeker]

One more mass shooting and few more deaths, will this ever stop?

Another mass shooting happened in USA, this time at Oregon Community College killing nine innocent people and injuring few. I know this is not a new news or first mass shooting incident pf this decade to get shocked beyond limits. I also know that no one will get shocked to read about this incidents, rather many might read the number of victims and try to compare it with number of victims last incident to see which one was worst. So this is what we have become now, these incidents have become so regular that we as a society we are getting immune to severity and seriousness of this heinous crime. I found similar sentiment in President Obama's message about this incident. He sounded upset, frustrated and angry at the same time. He rightly pointed out that our response after all such tragic incidents is becoming very routine, so routine that we all know who will say what. This is such a sad state of affairs for everyone. Guns and gun laws are very controversial and sensitive issue for public and political debate in US for long time. There are people who are for absolute no control over bearing arms (pro gun lobby) and there are people who want to ban guns completely (anti gun lobby). Both sides many times behave like fanatics with little or no real concern towards such tragic incidents except releasing some lip service to condemn such acts. I guess it should be clear to everyone that just condemning or expressing grief or offering prayers and condolence to victims and their families is not enough. We are doing these things for long and we know that these things are not going to stop these murders. When any terrorist act happens do you think just condemnation of that incident or offering prayers and condolences to affected families is enough? Or we want some concrete actions to make sure that such incidents don't happen in future?

Guns are deadly weapons, they have capacity to kill multiple people in short amount of time (mass murders) if they land in wrong hands. We all know about these things, as a society or country we can take few steps to stop or at least minimize these incidents. Every country including US has strict laws for get driving licence. Yes, driving can be a basic right and government is no one to stop anyone from buying a car and driving it on road. But you can not buy car and drive it just like that, there is written test and then road test, registration, insurance requirement etc. concerned authorities who grant driving licence want to make sure that everyone who acquires driving licence is capable enough to understand the responsibilities which come along with the driving right. So I don't understand why people are against introducing some tough rules and background checks before buying deadly weapon like assault gun? After all these are dangerous weapons, no one is saying that you can't have them, just go through some screenings before you buy them. Did you complain when they check or strip search you randomly before getting into aeroplane? Did you complain when any liquid including drinking water was banned from taking into planes? Do you complain when they do your background check before hiring for any job? Do you complain about background checks or even medical fitness tests which are part of selection process for some type of jobs?  Why not?? because we all know that even though some of these things might cause some inconvenience to us personally they are necessary to keep everyone safe. Some of these measures are required to make sure that right people are at right places. Some precautions are necessary to make sure that wrong people don't misuse the rights and privileges offered to them by state. Airport security or background checks before job hiring are not there to ban you or stop you from traveling by plane or hinder your job application process but these things are there to make sure that some lunatic or criminal don't enter the plane or administration and cause some irreparable harm or some devastating tragedy. Isn't is very easy to understand? If I am a law abiding citizen who want to own a gun legally and responsibly then I don't think any investigation or background check can stop me from doing this, why I should be worried about these things? After all these things if at all they get implemented are for public safety, not for banning everyone from buying guns. I don't know why these points fail to make sense to people from both sides who are stakeholders in taking these decisions. I really fail to understand this.

As Mr. Obama said, if as a country US doesn't take any steps to control this, then it means we as a society chose to allow such incidents to happen, then we must take responsibility for these murders. If we can do something to control such crimes and chose not to do anything, then directly or indirectly we are responsible for such acts. Arming everyone is not a viable or practical option to stop the violence in society. Maybe this was an option when there was no law and order with very poorly equipped and efficient police force. Guns are not toys, they are deadly weapons, wrong people armed with them can kill innocent people and not everyone is comfortable in handling them. Surprisingly many of these so called pro life people are very vocal about issues like abortion but totally mum about gun control and mass killings because of deadly assault weapons. This is when this is not at all about banning guns altogether but just to introduce more safety measures so that only right people can buy them. Any constitution or law needs to be updated or tuned as per changing time, every era needs some adjustment in some of the laws. If any society fails to take these steps then people suffer, imagine if tradition of sati would not have been banned in India, imagine if amendments to ban slavery got stuck in similar deadlock. Sounds really scary, right? But we are facing similar situation related with some issues today, but refuse to act. I hope better sense among our society and politicians prevails and they take right decision. Otherwise we will be discussing same issues, mourning for same tragedies and remain a mute spectator to sufferings of our fellow citizens, and we can't blame anyone for this because this is our choice, this is what we chose when we elect people who draft laws for us. Please think over this and then make decision.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright : Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

[vinay-the-seeker]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4aq0w5GhOE)

[vinay-the-seeker]

Is teenage parenthood very different than child marriage?

This question came up in my mind during one of my discussions with my daughter, we were discussing about merits and demerits of high school kids dating each other. Teenage dating specially in high schools is a part of modern day culture in many developed countries, even in developing countries like India it is becoming very common (at least in cities). In countries like US normally dating starts during high school or middle school and in countries like India it normally starts during college (after high school) where boys and girls start claiming that they have a boyfriend or a girlfriend. The main reason for this time difference is that in India high schools still have very restricted environment with requirement of uniforms, lot of rules and regulations about appearance and many of them are not even a co ed schools where as in US there is relatively unrestricted and free environment in schools (which I think is good). Teenage is a very important phase of any individual's life, many physical and psychological changes takes place in us. We get transformed physically and well as mentally a lot during these years. This can be called as our transition phase of our transformation from child into adult. Many of us get aware of our own sexuality, this is also the time when we start getting attracted towards other person sexually. So I guess dating (in most cases between boy and girl) is a result of all these changes. In many western countries it is a socially accepted phenomena. Most TV shows or movies propagate this culture, and because of heavy marketing and sophisticated propaganda dating has become like a necessary activity during high school days for most kids. There is tremendous peer pressure on kids to fit into this culture, many of them desperately seek for a partner to call him/her their boyfriend or girlfriend. There are relationships which are formed and destroyed, this eventually leads to things like breakups and frustrations associated with it. Kids have to deal with all these things along with pressure their studies, homework, college preparations, expectations of their parents, etc. Some of them manage these things very well, some just can't and suffer from depression, anxiety, panic and many other problems. This has also created a very serious problem of teenage pregnancies. This issue of underage (less than 18 years) girls becoming pregnant and eventually teen age moms and dads is a very important issue. This is important for future of those new born infants as well as their underage parents. School kids becoming parents has to be a serious matter for any society. How can a kid can bear a complete responsibility of another kid? Many people might say that teenage pregnancy or parenthood is a totally separate issue but according to me it is very closely related with this underage dating culture.

Fortunately child marriage is illegal in most parts of the world today, it used to be a very common thing not very long ago. But today many countries have strong law against child marriage and it has reduced significantly. In this case kids were forced to enter into relationship without even knowing about what that relationship actually means. In this case everything was done under family's guidance as kids used to be very young as there was no age limit to get marry. This was a socially accepted phenomena in many societies (India was one of them) but we all know that it was a terrible practice. Many people misused this system and many marriages can be termed as clear case of child abuse. But this ridiculous practice stopped because it created many social problems like issue of child widows. These young girls used to become widows before even knowing that they were married and then they were forced to live very restricted life for no fault of theirs. Many old men used to marry girls much younger than them by misusing this system, this all resulted in social uproar against this system and slowly it was abolished socially and legally.

Friendship is very beautiful thing and essential part of our lives. Many of our serious and long lasting friendships are formed during school and college days. But it seems someone felt that for high school kids just friendship is not enough they also need to have more serious relationship and teenage dating was invented. There is lot of attraction about opposite sex at that age so this invention obviously found many takers became an instant hit. There are merits and demerits associated with this phenomena, specially when there is possibility of sexual encounter associated in these type of relationships. As kids many times they don't understand the consequence of their acts, sexual intercourse is a physical act but it can have many physical and emotional consequences. Apart from its biological consequences it can also have emotional and social consequences. Emotional and social consequences might differ from person to person but biological consequences are same for all. Biology doesn't care whether you are a teenager or adult, whether it is a consensual sex or a rape, any careless or unprotected sexual act can result in pregnancy which can result in reluctant parenthood and being a parent is a huge personal and social responsibility. According to me teenage pregnancy is a byproduct of this uncontrolled dating culture which starts too early in kids lives, so early that many of them don't even know what relationship means and what are the consequences of some of their actions. Proper sex education and spreading awareness about these issues is the only way to handle this problem of teenage parenthood. There needs to be a sense among today's youth about what is proper and what is improper sexual behavior. School years are very important part of anyone's life, this is the time to learn new things, get ready to face new challenges of future and form long lasting friendships, school is not a place to look for a life partner or indulge in sexual acts.

Culture of child marriage was abolished because many people started misusing it, this rampant misuse made some people to protest against it and slowly that protest created a big social movement which abolished that practice from many societies. I always feel sorry for kids who are busy in thinking about their partner's likes and dislikes or how to get over breakups or whether someone is sexually attracted towards them or not. They all do these things at the age when they should be enjoying their school life without thinking about such complicated things. We all get ample time in out lives starting from our college days to worry about these things but school days are not the time to worry about these things. School life has its own style of romance but depression, breakups and anxiety was not supposed to be part of that romance (and it wasn't at least during my school days). I know that teenage parenthood and child marriage are totally different subjects but somehow I see some parallels in both of them, may be I am wrong that is why I would like to know what others feel about this issue.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright : Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

[vinay-the-seeker]

Why I don't participate in campaigns like selfiewithdaughter?

I read the news that selfiewithdaughter is trending on twitter since India's PM Mr. Modi asked people to share selfies with their daughters along with tag line 'beti bachao, beti padhao' (which means save daughters, educate daughters). I understand that his intention is to spread awareness about decreasing male to female ratio in Indian society. Save daughters is specially directed towards female foeticide, where females abort their pregnancy once gender discover the gender of fetus. But I see a problem in all this, many people who are concerned with dropping male to female ratio or female foeticide issue try to project females or girls as something special, something precious which needs extra protection or attention or care. They all forget that this is the same attitude which resulted in gender discrimination and perception that females are weaker sex. Such campaigns no matter how well intended normally fail to produce any desired results. They do create some media coverage, the issue gets discussed in some debates but hardly anything changes on ground. There are anti-dowry laws in India, there is a law that gives daughters a equal share in ancestral property but we all know that still dowry is a very common practice and very few people bother to give girls their legal share in ancestral property. They all consider their daughters very special, treat them very nicely, they all love them but they are not considered as EQUALS. Always or in most cases if they have son he is considered as heir of property or leader of family, there is always different set of rules for sons compared to daughters. I agree that situation is changing slowly but not with the speed it should. It is also true that situation of women in many western countries is comparatively much better than countries like India.

So why I think that such campaigns are not useful or why I don't participate in such campaigns specially when I claim to be a feminist and someone who believes in gender equality? Actually I am against any special treatment offered to women or men just because of their gender, this is against the basic concept of equality. My daughter is just one of my kids, she is not any special than my son. She is like any other member of my family with EQUAL rights, no more and no less. She gets all privileges and rights which my son gets or I get in my family. She is allowed to party if my son is allowed to do it, she is allowed to hang out with her friends (male or female doesn't matter) if my son is allowed to do it, she is allowed to watch the movies or TV programs which are suitable to her age (based on ratings), she is allowed to use words which I am allowed to use while speaking in home or in public, she is expected to do chores like everyone else, she or my son are not treated any different based on their gender. We don't offer any concession or privilege to her just because she is a girl, same is true for my son, he doesn't get anything extra just because he is a boy. She is not assigned any chores just because this is what girls are supposed to do, it is her choice if she wants to learn cooking or not, she has to decide whether she wants to learn driving or not and same is true for my son. Equality doesn't come with any special privileges, rather equality means that there should not be any special privileges for anyone. If we want to teach our daughters meaning of equality first and basic thing we need to do is to treat them as equals. If we don't practice equality in reality just talking about it will not make any difference. Equality means giving equal respect, freedom, opportunity and responsibility.

Whether it is positive or negative both type of discrimination is bad, daughters are no special, they are equal and responsible members of any family. They deserve equal status not some special treatment, rather this special treatment offered to them for centuries is the very reason that they are discriminated. Many societies worship female gods, they treat them as special, show extra protectiveness or concern and what is the result of all this?? women are not treated as equals, they are considered as weak or less capable which we all know that is not true. So time has come not to give any special treatment but to give them opportunities and freedom which they deserve. Any society or country is not doing any favor by giving women equal rights, rather societies should be ashamed that still they have to demand equal rights for them. This type of campaigns might create some media buzz but we need change in mentality of people, let parents take oath that they will give equal share to their daughters in their property, they will let her choose her career and life partner, they will not restrict her from doing something just because of her gender, daughters will have all the freedom which any other male member of her age from their family enjoys. Parents can post selfie with their daughters, it is very easy thing to do but I hope they go many steps further and treat her as they treat themselves, as a equal human being not something superior or inferior. Gender inequality is very big problem all across the world, it even bigger in countries like India. Even though I don't participate in any such movement I will be happy if this initiative helps to create awareness about gender equality. I hope this doesn't send the wrong message that daughters are any special because they are not, they are equals so please treat them as equals.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[vinay-the-seeker]

Yes, We all are guilty

[vinay-the-seeker]

How we humans different than other animals?

We humans are one of the many animal species which inhibit this planet. Like other animals or living things on this planet our species (humans) also went through many evolutionary changes, faced many challenges and difficulties to survive on this planet. We did a great job in not becoming an extinct species in spite of having limited physical powers compared to many other animal species who inhabit our planet. Many species physically much more powerful than ours, very dominant when they existed on this planet (like dinosaurs) are now extinct, we only see their skeletons or models in museum, so what makes us so special that we survived so long on this planet and now considered as most powerful species of this planet, we literally rule over this planet.

I am not going to go too much in detail about genetic differences or similarities between humans and other animals, there is vast amount of information available on the internet and in many scientific journals about this topic, I have listed few links in reference section which specifically discuss about this topic.To the best of our knowledge we humans are only source of documented history of this planet and universe. Our civilization started like other animals, we used to live in herds and used to behave like most of other animals, and still have many of those characteristics, we also eat to survive, reproduce and do many things like other animals. We have physical needs like any other animal and also show physical changes like disease, old age and death like other animals but...and this 'BUT' is very important, our mental needs or our mental capabilities are totally different than all other animals on this planet. We have more developed brain compared to other animals and this fact has given us tremendous advantage  over other animals and is the reason of our ability to dominate this planet.

We have unique ability of thinking and imagination. This ability of imagination adds unique dimension to our thinking. Many animals can only think about the things which they see right in front of their eyes, they cannot imaging about the things which don't exist, they don't worry about their death, lions don't worry why  they can't fly..but we humans do..that's the difference. Most animals feed their babies until they are capable of getting food on their own but we humans worry about our kids future, we even worry about our grand kids future, because we can imagine what can happen to them if they don't have home to live, food to eat and this ability to imagine is the reason of most of our progress and also many of our problems. This ability of imagination has helped us to overcome so many of our physical limitations, it helped us to design airplanes to fly, ships to sail on ocean, even space shuttles to visit other planets, there is no limit for our imagination. This same imagination forces us to blow problems out of proportion, we can imagine space attack by aliens, our ever growing desires are also result of this imagination, so if I have to choose one thing which differentiates up from other animals it will be our ability to 'imagine'. Animals just have needs, but we humans have both need and greed..our every relationship has element of some selfishness in it, no matter what relationship it is and with whom it is.

I don't think there is any special purpose of human life, there is no any special reason for our existence on this planet, it's just a random event and a biological phenomena, we came into existence and evolved in similar way like many other species did. We are not different than any other animal on this planet as far as our origin and evolution is concerned. We all fight in this world for survival, many times we behave in selfish manure like other animals, we try to protect our possessions, mark our territories, attack our fellow humans and we call all these things as our 'animal instinct' and we all have this. What differentiates our feelings or behavior compared to other animals is again our more developed brain, we have formed certain rules and regulations to live life, we have some dos and don't s, we have developed concepts of morality, justice and many other things, with the help of these things we train our mind. This training helps us to behave in civilized manure, show compassion towards our fellow beings, forces us to overcome our selfish feelings and do what we call good work and many other things which other animals don't do naturally. Whenever we overcome this animal instinct and do anything we call it selfless act, unconditional love because we are not thinking only about our self or not expecting anything in return.

According to me our thinking differentiates us from all other species on this earth, it controls our behavior (good or bad), it gives us strength or makes us weak, makes us kind or cruel...most of these qualities are present in most of animals but they can not overcome their intrinsic nature or animal instinct totally but we can. Lion cannot stop hunting on its own and become vegetarian or deer can not suddenly start eating meat and hunting but humans can change their habits if they want. We can domesticate many animals by giving them proper training and teaching them controlled behavior but the problem is they can not pass on that information as a culture to their next generation because of limited ability of their brain, but we humans can do that or rather did that and that's how we built this civilized society which we see around us, so once again our developed brain made all the difference. Yes, we are animals but 'special animals' on this planet, we have learned to control animal in us and that's how we discovered humanity. 

We humans can go beyond our self and do many acts but if we look into the core of it we do everything to make our self happy, whether it's mother's love towards her child or charity or any other act, people do it because they want to feel happy, satisfied after doing it. Human brain carves for happiness and our most of the acts are centered around generating that feeling directly or indirectly.

I feel lucky to be a human, I love my planet and my species. I truly believe that we humans have capability to make this planet a wonderful place where all species can live in harmony, we can do this by using our intelligence, at the same time we have power to destroy everything because our greed and selfishness so the choice is always ours. With great power comes great responsibility. 

Thanks for reading and please share your views.

References:

1. http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/faq/compgen.shtml

2. http://www.actionbioscience.org/genomic/hhmi.html

3. http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Education/Factsheet_GeneticVariation.htm

4.http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?25335-Percentage-of-genetic-similarity-between-humans-and-animals

5. http://realtruth.org/articles/090806-002-science.html

6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)  

[vinay-the-seeker]

Nostalgia....my golden childhood....

This post was triggered by my recent discussion with my friend Vishnu, we were talking about our childhood days and various games we used to play as kids back home in India, he in his home town Parabhani and I in suburban area of Pune. I feel our generation is unique which has seen huge shift in lifestyle, we did not get shocked after seeing television set or refrigerator or radio, we knew about them but all these were rare possessions, very expensive...they were prestige symbol like BMW or Mercedes. We did not have any game consoles or video games and whatever games came were very primitive compared to games we get today but we had plethora of games which I don't know who invented, from where they came, their names used to be different depending on geographical locations but one this was common they all were extremely entertaining and made our child hood special...Yes, lack of land line phones, cell phones, cable TV, video games, amusement or theme parks...and many things without which today's kids cant imagine their life made our childhood extremely special...difficult to believe but I am sure many people from my generation will agree to this. 

So the question today's kids will ask without all these 'essential' tools of self entertainment and time pass how did we as kids entertained ourselves and passed our time? The beauty is we never got any spare time in had where we have to think about how to pass or kill the time, we never complained to our parents that we are feeling bored and don't know what to do..rather it was lack of time..we never had enough time in hand to finish our last Gilli-Danda (or Vitti-Dandu in Marathi, many consider this game as origin or cricket) game, or our last cricket innings, or our game of marbles and many things. Parents literally used to drag us to home from play ground to send us to school or feed us our dinner or lunch...so busy was our childhood...unbelievable..right and that too without all these fancy things...:)

What can I say about those games which we used to play, I don't think I can do justice in describing the amount of fun, excitement and entertainment they brought in our lives. In my neighborhood very few families can afford to but real toys to their kids...and if at all they buy the moment other kids see it, it used to become public property...but toys were never bought they were created even girls were not obsessed with Barbies or any other commercial dolls they used to make their own from household items and many of those dolls used to get married (in UP they call marriage of Guddi and Gudda) in mini marriage ceremony...we used to pluck fruits from trees to eat them, steal them if required (mangoes, tamarind, Awala, Jamun, Peru and many)...our creativity used to be at its peak during all those adventures. Many of our games like Kabaddi, Gilli-Danda (required just two sticks, one big and one small), Lagori (needs just a soft ball and pile of stones), Langadi (where you try to catch a bunch of players while hopping on one leg), game of marbles (only requirement is bunch of marbles which were dam cheap), Bhawara (spinning top)...list is huge..they all required minimum or no (as in case of Langadi) tools to play them. Then there used to be cricket..obsession of India...we never used to watch cricket as much we used to play (now a days the equation is reversed)....boy those tense gully cricket matches, intense fight to win 25 paise (Indian quarter, less than a penny in US currency) match, that tension, drama, excitement, those fights over run out decisions (every run out decision used to be controversial)...tremendous sense of achievement after winning the match or frustration after loosing it...all those incidents are part of our memory lane..I am sure everyone from my generation have many stories like this..

As I said our generation is unique, we saw technology taking huge leap. Technology revolution also happened during our parents or grand parents generation when TV, radio or telephone was discovered, man  landed on moon but those discoveries didn't become part of normal household because of so many reasons, mainly because those things were very expensive and were not marketed so aggressively. People lived their life as if these inventions didn't exist or thught they were luxury items only made for rich and elite. Sugary soft drinks were there in market during our childhood also but we used to get them only on very special occasions they were not substitute for drinking water. Chocolates, toffees, lolly pops all were there and we used to eat them whenever we get the chance (I am sure people remember Eclairs) but they never became reason for health problem for us. 

My generation saw technology slowly entering our lives and then taking control of our lives all together, refrigerator came and it substituted earthen pot which was used to cool water during summer days (I am sure people will agree with me that water from that pot used to taste much better), water heaters substituted old water heating systems, CD or MP3 payers substituted tape recorders, DVD's removed VCR and video tapes, computers, cell phones, video games, internet...so many things entered in our life and substituted one thing or the other and one can debate if it was for better or worse...our generation embraced many of these things with open heart. We all used many of them for the first time, our generation was first to play video games,  first to use cell phones, satellite TV or cable TV was launched in front of us, and many more things, most of them have enriched our lives, made them better, more comfortable I am not complaining about them but at the same time they kicked out many things from our life...some time when I look back I miss some of them. I know my kids will never understand why I miss them...what was so special in those games, what was fun in stealing fruits from neighbors trees (wasn't it illegal!!), they look so primitive in front of today's video games in high definition, those games make your hands dirty, there is safety hazard in some of them, we never used any precautions while playing cricket or Gilli-Danda...but they all are special....I will play them with my kids to show them how much fun one can get put of it. I am not dwelling unnecessarily in the past, I know these games will soon be part of history and  one can only found them in some history books (if at all they care to document them), but as they will stay with me forever...they are part of me.

Thanks for reading and please share your views.

References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilli-danda

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagori

3. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/now-officially-a-sport-langdi-takes-giant-leap/562024/

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)