DO SOLDIERS HAVE IT IN THEIR BLOOD?

"Soldiers are equally patriotic. Patriotism isn't the prerogative of any army."

 -Raghu Raman  

 A smart soldier wearing an olive green uniform, pointed a finger and asked, "Do you have it in you?"

Well, the journey starts from there, right after encountering that question. Thousands of soldiers are being tested to see if they have the insanity and insaneness to go above and beyond for their country. If they're willing to give up every drop of blood to defend the motherland? Are they prepared to confront their foes despite the fact that their bodies are shutting down? Is it in their blood? Is it true that they have it in them? 

We all know that training to be an army man is painstakingly rigorous, but do you really believe that soldiers are razed day and night in order to be trained for battle and to stand up in the face of the enemy? I believe there's more to it. An army man's life comes with a box full of life lessons, teaching them values, ethos, and how to become a life warrior that no other organization could ever teach them.

The army teaches you not to sweat the small stuff as the first lesson. Life is far bigger than that. You will face far more difficult impediments later in life. And if you start sweating the minor stuff, you'll end up devoting a significant portion of your day's energy to something inconsequential. 

That is what drives warriors to put up with anything they face while serving in the force. From witnessing their country painted in the colour of a bride's gown to being sliced. However, there was no sorrow because they didn't let Himalaya bow down in their presence. They'll die with their heads held high, always and forever. 

The second lesson, which the army teaches you, is that when you are moving out of your offices or homes, from that moment onwards, you are expecting combat. One of the first quotes that are written as soldiers leave their regiments is, "Aaj muqabla hoga," which means, today there will be a war. Even if every day has been peaceful, today could be that one day when you have to come into combat. Our Indian soldiers, on the other hand, are always war-ready, because there are many seasons to be alive, but the way of giving life does not come every day. 

The army teaches you the third lesson: you can shoot the enemy without ever having to run. It's their pride, not their obligation, to protect the country. They use their blood to draw a line on the ground so that no enemy may come this way; they will break their hands if they begin to rise; and they will protect their homeland at all hours of the day and night. 

Our warriors are never sure whether or not they will be able to return home. If they are about to die, however, they tie the shroud over their heads with relief, knowing that they have safeguarded their bride (motherland) from the enemy's clutches. Their deaths spread red seeds of patriotism in the hearts of all Indians, and they were never forgotten. 

Seeing the land covered in the blood of their brothers who gave their lives to save the country, fighting alongside the enemies even when their bodies betrayed them, giving their heads to keep the country's flag flying high, and asking the country's men to keep decorating new coffins because the war will never end and they must never stop fighting. 

Do they have it in them? Yes, they do, they have it all!

A WAKE-UP CALL FOR STUDENTS TO THINK CREATIVE

Dharya Rana

When you think of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields, creativity may not be the first thing that appears to mind. However, creativity isn’t just needed to write a novel or to be an artist. Creative thinking is also essential for training the brain to know how to meet real-world problems fearlessly. 

There is nothing more thrilling than creating an excitement, a buzz, for learning in students, but there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day to teach creative and critical thinking, as testing is sucking the very life out of students.      

School success and career success lie in two different dimensions; you need skill and creativity to live a contented life. One can be successful at a few things and fail at others at the same time. Anyone can earn good grades, but in life, innovation distinguishes a leader from a follower. 

So tell me how your mind generates groundbreaking ideas while practising retention of theoretical stuff over a hundred times per day? Or maybe it doesn't, as it never thinks out of the box. 

By the IV volume of Genetic Studies of Genius, Lewis Terman concluded, at any rate, we have seen that intellect and achievement are far from “perfectly correlated.” It doesn’t matter how smart you are in your studies or how many questions you answer in your class; what matters is how you can reform and add value to our country. Steve Jobs once said, “The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that do.” They choose the road not taken and have risk-seeking behavior, which has made all the difference.

When you have nothing to lose, at the age of 18 or 20, you become blind for safety and security in your career. Who doesn’t desire that? But it comes with high-risk aversion, which means people tend to prefer outcomes with low uncertainty to those outcomes with high risk; if a student excels every class since he was a kid, his reality starts to alter. He can’t stand to fail or take risks. Many students have transcendent intellect, but the ultimate predicament is their attitude of staying risk-free. This approach creates a society where everybody wants a safe job, but nobody yearns to create. 

Creative people don’t fit the mould; they are not like most people, so they wind up on society a bit, and a lot of the time, they are not “money-making machines.” They engage with different new things that encompass their surroundings and make the most out of them. And the fact is, creativity is not a talent. Every child is creative, but a child himself has to effectuate how to expand his mind. A bright student may have an excellent memory to retain answers that others don't, but he can't outrun an average student who creates things and adds a meaningful impact on the world.

 

India is a victim of brainless competition without innovation. Education is supposed to make capable individuals, not memory devices. A child who scores 99% is put on a pedestal, while a child who loves to draw cartoons and make comics is considered a society’s failure.

Albert Einstein is known for greatness as he said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”   

Living according to societal norms is disgraceful; for them, career has always been money-driven, but with the profusion of opportunities available now, one need not correspond to society’s old-fashioned standards. Be exceptional, and if you like creating comics, don’t hesitate to showcase your talent, don’t let those characters die in your sketchbook.

Instead, go out there and show what you got because we must lose our fear of being wrong to live a creative life.

The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before, so be YOU and create what you want to create. 

Thanks for reading, 

~Dharya

 

 

 

 

                                                                      

WHY ARE INDIAN STUDENTS SO INDIAN?

Dharya Rana                                                                                                                                          

 More than half of us don't know what we want to become because everything happens so fast in our education system. We don't have time to stop, take a break and think about what we want. We have such an immense population, and if only kids were allowed to hone their skills in what they are good at, we would have gifted humanity tons of greatness.

 If you are a high school student, then ask yourself why you want to do what you want to do in your life. I am asking you to question yourself because 99% of the students are just running in a rat race. They don't know their reason behind becoming an engineer, a doctor, a CA, a lawyer, or anything else our society puts on a pedestal. Why would anyone do anything without any reason? Well, I have an answer for that. It can be for two reasons.

First, because everybody is performing similarly,  so the students think that our world offers only a few options to choose as a career. Other than that, anything disparate we do will not compute in prosperous career life.

Second, because of the conventional wisdom of the society.

Only a few students can whole-heartedly give their reason behind doing what they want to do in their life. Otherwise, the answer comes from either the societal pressure or if they haven't discovered what makes them sparkling.

I am 17 years old, and all my bosom buddies either want to crack JEE/NEET or wish to become a CA or else want to get into a sophisticated college. What's wrong with that? Nothing is terrible, but the only thing missing is how you are different from the other 12 million teenagers in India? What makes you unique from the rest of the students out there? How is your  decision different from the other people, or are you just influenced? If you have no answer for it, then it's okay. We all are struggling to get to know ourselves better. 

So the whole blame game is not projected towards our education system alone. An influential role is played by our society too. The education system provides a student with four streams. According to that, he/she is supposed to decide for his/her career. Throughout my whole school life, which still didn't knock "THE END," I've been taught to score good marks if I want any ultra-modern job in the future or to live a blessed life. Why always a "job"? Aren't we competent enough to do something of our own? The subject of pursuing your passion in an Indian family is the most undervalued thing. A 9-5 job is all that a student looks for because that's the most accessible and straightforward road. Choosing their passion as a profession can be like playing with fire.

And on the other hand,  some students don't know their passion. As they grow up in a society where only a handful of career options are dispersed widely in front of them. The Universe has hidden gems inside us, and it sits back to look at us, hunting for them. But our schools don't push us to discover our talents or something that energies us. 

Your passion is nothing but something that fuels you, which gives a huge smile on your face every time you do it. If your school books give you that joy, then be the next Elon Musk but if not, then listen to your heart. Your heart wants what it wants. Dream big. Why do what everyone else is doing? 

 Teachers subconsciously program the mind of a student. Students have a fear of taking uncertainties and end up working under someone for their whole life. A student who does any extracurricular will continuously be ostracized by the teachers over the other students who score 99.99 in every exam. Where are we supposed to cram and barf out everything? There are students out there who want to be creative, but dismally no one understands them. The system has indeed put the youth in the dark. 

The societal pressure, lack of awareness, fear of being unemployed, and fear of failure has made us mediocre, narrowed our thinking. 

Every country has developed only after reforming its education system. But in India, the "education" system installed by the brits, only to produce clerks, is still in use. Someone has correctly said, "book knowledge only doesn't matter, skills matter" getting into a good college doesn't mean that you get a decent placement. It is the skills that a student possesses that help them to get a decent package. We youth in the 21st-century study the content of the 16th and 17th century by 19th century's adults.

I guess it would be fair enough to take half of the blame on ourselves too. We teenagers are just so engrossed by the memes and Instagram reels that honing our skills is not that important as scrolling 50 different memes pages in a day. 

Knowledge is power, but the key to it is practice. If you are good at something, take some time off your books and start investing your time in your talent. We certainly know about our debased Indian education system, but right now, we can't do anything until NEP breaks all the norms. However, we'll see about that too. 

It's high time that we should discern that we can achieve anything. The world is not waiting for you to crack IIT or play with accountants or balance sheets. There is so much you can do with your life. Life is way too short to run in a rat race. Do something distinctive and set an example for everybody. Well, finding your true passion is also a colossal task in itself. So start with the question: what energies you? Is it singing/animating etc., or is it studying the rot content of the 17th century? The choice is yours!

This is our grim reality,

Amidst our broken dreams, we are told to seek stability.  

In our chaotic minds filled with wonder we our told to make place for theorems and formulas. 

We dream and dream 

not to succeed in our passion.

But to have the chance to pursue it.  

Don't be mediocre just because the system is; rise above it and find a rainbow. But if amid the process it appears you can't, then be the rainbow.  

                                                                      Thanks for reading,

~Dharya