Life and Realisations || KASHISH GUPTA

Life is just like a school and our mistakes are the teachers. Mistakes play a very important role in order to shape our lives. With time, each one of us gets exposed to numerous problems that require our perception in order to create solutions and the way we react to these problems paves the way for our achievements. Cursing problems and throwing the blame of problems over others never gonna work. How often you throw blame over others?

With time, we realise the different lessons that life teaches us. We compete hustle, perform, and if life allows, we finally succeed. In every aspect of life, we learn something new. These simple life lessons can help us improve further. Some basic life lessons and realisations can be as;

The Responsibility of our actions;

The very basic realisation in life is the credit of our responsibilities. Let me make it a little clear. We all take different actions and our results are based on it. If you are doing the job with dedication and hard work, then you gonna shine in your job. If not then nothing gonna happen. You won't be paid for shit. Then after rejection and failure, instead of blaming destiny and finding the shitty reasons, start taking responsibility for your actions. If you are taking credits for your victories then also accept the failures as well. 

Humble nature and Righteousness;

You can estimate the importance of humbleness and righteousness by the following quote of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam;

“Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character. When there is beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.” – A.P.J.

Each and every word in this quote has great significance. Your morals and ethics will decide how you will flourish in your life. 

Knowledge and Money;

 We all humans are just a collection of perspectives and different people have different perspectives. We all have different approaches and different patterns of observing and reacting to any situation or circumstance. Hence, some have a strong belief in power and money, and some accept knowledge over everything.

I personally believe knowledge is the main entity that is not just important, but a necessity. You can attain money with knowledge but can't attain knowledge with money. With time, everyone realizes the value of knowledge and the power of knowledge over money. 

Philanthropy and Donations;

After becoming rich and powerful, people usually recognise that wealth is just materialistic and is not that significant.

 Mind you, this non-significance doesn't mean you don't earn and don't work for money. It simply means work for satisfaction. If you have an excess of anything, you should be sharing it with the needy and the ones lacking it as well. This sharing gives you internal satisfaction, that worth more than a billion dollars. This can be concluded from the life of "Chuck Feeney", who has donated more than 8 billion US dollars. 

“I cannot think of a more personally rewarding and appropriate use of wealth than to give while one is living - to personally devote oneself to meaningful efforts to improve the human condition. More importantly, today's needs are so great and varied that intelligent philanthropic support and positive interventions can have greater value and impact today than if they are delayed when the needs are greater.”

-Chuck Feeney.

 Several other billionaires like Ratan Tata, Azim Premji, Warren Buffett, Bill gates, etc are donating enormous amounts of wealth and are setting great examples of philanthropy. Now, this might give you the idea, how satisfactory philanthropy is!

Family above everything;

Sometimes while running behind money and other materialistic items, we forget completely about family and other relationships. We regret it when we lose it. So, why don't we value our relations with family? The bond between parents and children is something that can never be compared or exchanged with money. Family is something that is with us when we have nothing and remain even when we have everything. Hence, family over everything.

Value of Time;

Valuing time is the key to success and we usually realize the value of time once it passes.

 'Time and Tide wait for nothing' - This famous proverb is so powerful, those who took this seriously understand life easily and effectively and those who don't keep on suffering.

You can be a millionaire, billionaire, or anything, you can purchase anything but the only thing you can't get back is the time. Utilize your time wisely and constructively so in the future you don't regret your past.

Corona and People.

 On one side, we are encountering thousands of cases of covid daily, hundreds of deaths daily, and a large probability of more and more cases but on the other hand, people still are not caring about it. People are considering it just as a small disease and literally don't care about the social guidelines, preventive measures, etc.

The irony is when some of the well-educated persons of the society are taking it in a funny sense. 

For the last 7-8 months, I hadn't stepped out of my home, except for the shopping for my essentials. On the occasion of Diwali, I decided to make a visit to my village. On reaching there, the very first view I encountered was the crowding of people and that too without any mask and any social distancing. I was so shocked that on one side, this disease is responsible for such a disastrous act while on the other, people are not even caring about it. From children to adults and old-aged persons as well, everyone was just enjoying things like normal. When I asked them about the coronavirus and the pandemic, they were like, "It's just a publicity shit". They replied, "Media is just creating a hype about the virus. This virus isn't that dangerous". Some groups were like, "Government opened everything, there is no lockdown, means everything is fine now". 

I was shocked when some of the so-called literate people were standing in their support. One more thing, these so-called literates were considered as some of the educated people of society. Hell!

Here I realized, getting degrees doesn't make you literate. Coming to the main point, All these statements show how much unaware people still are. Even after 9-10 months of suffering, people still don't care about their lives but are taking the whole thing in a humourous and a granted way. I can't figure out the reasons behind this kind of mentality. Maybe they are unaware or are misled. Some don't want to accept the whole situation and some may be waiting for the live experiences i.e sufferings of any nearby, etc

I know, this problem is not with few people or with a certain number of people but it's a major issue. I had encountered only a few, there may be thousands of people who are doing the same and as a result, the cases of covid are rising and rising. As a fall is seen, there again occurs a surge in cases. Even then, people are not cooperating. 

The real matter of discussion is, Is human life so worthless that we're putting it in danger without any major cause?

 People at least need to understand the fact that till there is no free availability of the covid vaccine, we need to take preventive measures, we need to maintain social guidelines, we need to avoid gatherings, etc.

At last, it's a request to all, covid is not over yet. We need to maintain covid guidelines if we want to save lives. No lockdown doesn't ensure covid is over and you are free to roam anywhere without masks. Our life is in our own hands but here lives of multiple can be saved if we all will co-operate. For the safety of your own self as well as others,, ensure all covid guidelines and take necessary measures and precautions to prevent it from spreading.

Dreams vs Reality.

We all work to attain stability in our life. We want to earn well, live well, and spend well. We all wanted a great lifestyle and a full package of fortune. From childhood, we dreamt of having a multi-millionaire or a billionaire lifestyle. We dream of becoming a personality, we got inspired from. Some wish to be a businessman like Mukesh Ambani and some chose to be an entrepreneur like Elon Musk, some dreamt of becoming brilliant minds like Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and some wanted to be a great politician like Narendra Modi. These days most of the youth are inspired by movie stars and everyone dream of touching success like Shahrukh Khan but not all end up becoming a star like him. Everyone dreams of Perfection, but even after dreaming, only a few used to reach those heights and most just end up remaining at the same place i.e without fulfillment of their dreams. Can you guess, why?

Well, dreaming of something is a choice. You can dream of anything. The size and the uniqueness of your dreams don't matter but the thing that matters is the reality i.e the efforts and the hard work you put in order to turn your dreams into reality. You are generally criticized by the others for your big dreams by passing on statements like these are too big to achieve, it's not in your hands to make your dreams come true, dream after looking your pockets, etc. but we usually ignore these statements and for us, these statements don't make any sense. Now, let's flip the coin. No doubt, you dreamt of something but what, when that dream doesn't get fulfilled?

What if you're unable to fulfill the dream of becoming a superstar celebrity and instead you became a teacher or some government employee. Does this mean you give up your dream and stop dreaming anymore? 

Now the basic thing we need to understand is the reality. Reality is something that you need to face either you wanted or not. You just can't escape from the reality. So, the thing is you need to dream without ignoring reality. You have to work on your dreams but considering the reality of life as well.

If you have a family to feed and you have a dream of becoming an actor, then you need to realize that feeding the family is the priority and then is the turn for your passion and dreams. You have to accept this reality and need to act likewise. You had to make a regular source of income first and then you have to work for your dream. You can work simultaneously as well but giving your full time to your dream, that isn't even paying you off without caring for the family and ignoring the reality is nothing but absurdity. 

This is the simple thing you need to know, Work for your dreams consistently but without ignoring reality.

Middle-Class Person and dreams;

For a middle-class man, a dream is just like a chapter that a student always found difficult and never even tried to learn. In reality, the chapter isn't that difficult. The only thing is to sort out the way to learn the chapter maybe by practicing more or by spending more time than usual. In the same way, a middle-class man can also work on his dreams without disturbing his other schedule. If you have dedication and seriousness for your dream then no obstacle can act as a barrier in your path.

Bucket of Money;

Everyone knows that the basic obstacle in the path of dreams is the deficiency or the lack of money. Not all have the dream that requires a zero buck investment. Some dreamt of becoming a professional photographer. He may have a spirit to hustle for his dream as well but what about the capital required to purchase the necessary equipment and the instruments. Now keeping this whole thing in mind, one can either consider this situation as a curse and give up his dream and then will be living in regret his whole life, which literally represents failure, or one can choose to search for some job, etc for the source of income and then by saving or by any sort of investments can purchase his photographic instruments and hence can work on his dreams/passion. The second case represents the real example of side-hustle and it's quite important to understand the whole concept of side hustle because, without side hustle, it becomes difficult to fulfill your dreams. The choice is yours how you want to act, by giving up your dreams or by hustling hard in a smart way, living your life without any regret.

Reality and Realisations;

The whole point of writing this blog is to produce a wave of optimism in you, without ignoring the reality. You need to understand that majority of times, you are stuck in such situations, where you either ignore the reality and facts of your life or you ignore your dream life and your passion. You really don't need to ignore any of the two, you can work at the same time, for both the things. You only need to sort out the way how you can work on both. You yourself can sort this problem because no one else would come to help you over. So, start taking actions by holding your responsibilities and working for your dreams but without ignoring the reality.

The way we are manipulated || Online manipulation

 These days the internet is full of clever and fake people, who use to act smartly and cleverly, resulting in changing your mentality and completely change your way of perception. They manipulate you by showing and describing incomplete information and by misleading you, by describing and representing anything the way you want to see and hence you literally believe them without even cross-checking the whole information and the database. You believe them because you found them actually intellectual with a sense of knowledge, that may or may not true and as a result, they create a curtain of delusion over your mind and hence fools you out. They all know how to act in a subtle way resulting in manipulating their whole audience.

This technique may be used for selling products by the marketing person or some salesman or by a leader as well. By this technique, companies are earning profits and the fake brands are surviving and creating capital. They use the same technique consistently, misleading you more, and finally make you think completely different. They change your ideas and your opinion regarding something in such a way that you have no clue why this happened and their agenda works out. Your whole knowledge, way of perception, and opinion ultimately get changed or you can say you get manipulated and literally you have no idea about it. This whole process of manipulation is a simple Marketing strategy people use these days to create their monopoly, maybe in terms of wealth, fame, or some political propaganda.

Emotional  Fools!

You just can't deny the fact, how emotional human beings are (considering the majority) and it's not that difficult to sell emotions online these days. Though it may sound a little rude but this is the fact and it can't be changed so, you better try to understand my whole perspective or keep on becoming a fool again and again. A number of clever people wordplay with our sentiments and finally end up making their profits and on the other hand, we get nothing but a tag of being manipulated successfully. Some leaders make false promises every year, brands show us their fake entity, influencers influence the youth with their fake lifestyle, etc. All this stuff may have no effect on the number of people but what about those who act accordingly after watching and listening to all this fake content. A child's mentality is so fragile and serving such shit would never help him prosper in life. Instead, it will create a sense of fake and a mocked character that will never lead him towards the step of success.

"Serve us the emotional content and see how easily we get manipulated by it". No offense, but don't you think this is the reality of people these days?

This is the reason, the number of scams occurs on a routine basis where people donate blindly and get fooled by others. People flow with the emotions and act like they lost their senses and desperately want to act in such a ridiculous way, ending up being fooled online and hence completely manipulated?

How to act?

The social media industry is very vast. Millions of people are there, who want to earn and grow more, and more so, in order to attain the same, they keep on selling and presenting the content that attracts the audience, no matter, whether the content is constructive or destructive. They literally don't care whether a person is taking it in a positive way or the content is creating a wave of hate and rage among people. 

So, we need to act smartly and we need to differentiate between the right and the wrong. Our mind works accordingly the way we serve it and hence we need to serve our mind with the best and the positive stuff, so, avoid consuming the bad stuff available over social media. 

Refer to books and journals instead of believing the content of some so-called intellectuals, who don't have a verified degree, let's ignore the degree, they don't have a complete knowledge even. So, how they are guiding you? Referring books can give you a clear image regarding anything. 

Don't believe everything you watch online. In the same way, don't follow blindly anyone. The main thing that needed to be highlighted here is the lack of data and the insufficiency of everything you consume online. You don't know about everything served to you online is whether factual and verified or just a piece of crap. You need to understand this thing and then take actions only after verifying the facts.

Hope this would help you a little and you will act smartly from now on.

Hatred among people! || Face of our society.

 Every time a new outrage breaks out, the only thing that comes to my mind is the number of lives that gonna pay for this outrage. We all are very much aware of the consequences of any protest, outrage, or even any sort of peaceful rallies. This all starts with a peaceful March and then gets converted to violence and overall resulting in the loss of lives of a number of people.

I always question myself why people use to do this?

Why we all can't live with peace and harmony?

Why violence always becomes the solution?

Why don't we all understand that everything can be sort out by just a discussion and a simple talk, so what's the need for violence?

Those who are responsible for this violence usually are left without being guilty and those who had no connection with this whole situation majorly end up giving their lives. A number of incidents can be found over the internet explaining how innocents lose their lives while the culprits keep on enjoying. 

People these days are loaded with so much hate and anger that they only need a reason to express their anger. It seems like they are just waiting for a spark to burn the fire. It is the reason, why there are so many mob lynchings, crowd violence, etc just because of some fake WhatsApp message forwards. I don't want to mention the whole incident here. You can google it out. But the only problem I want to highlight here is the anger and rage within the people. 

Some are fighting over religions, some are fighting over caste systems, some are suffering injustice for their color, sex, etc. These all problems show us the real face of our society, a society where these so-called characteristics like caste, religion, color, sex, etc matter more than humanity, the life of people, and the prosperity of the nation. 

Everyone knows color, sex, etc is not in the hand of anyone. God blesses a man with the same so why such kind of hypocrisy? On one side you fight to protect the religion and God while on the other side you questions and do injustice with God's creativity. Don't you think these are just fake propaganda and ill beliefs just to disturb the peace among us? A so-called community of few people is trying to create a line of separation between us and we are letting them do the same. Didn't this show, how unaware we are that we don't understand what's right for us and what's wrong?

Solution:

The only solution to this problem is "Our Recognition". We need to recognize what's right and what's wrong. We need to question whether the thing, we are supporting really deserves our support or not. We need to change our ideology if we believe these human established systems are above humanity. We need to question ourselves, what we need more humanity or rage, and anger. The day we will start working for peace and humanity, the concept of hatred and anger would vanish away itself. 

Seriousness of Oral health in India.

 We are well aware of the fact, how irresponsible we are whenever it comes to our health especially oral health. We know the importance of our oral structures like teeth, gums, tongue, etc but still, we don't care about these and keep on ignoring the things. Before proceeding, just ask yourself about your last visit to a dentist. I'm sure more than 90% of you hadn't visited any dentist for years for your healthy checkup though it is advised to visit your dentist at least once every six months.

Talking about self-care, do you change your toothbrush every three or four months? If not, then pal you need to start taking your oral health seriously. A person usually visits the dentist only when he suffers. The pain associated with a toothache or any other oral disease is usually unbearable and only then the person realizes oral health and the importance of the visit to the dentist. So, stop waiting for the occurrence of serious problems and start taking oral health seriously.  

Oral problems in Developing and Developed countries:

The problem of oral health is mainly associated with the developing and underdeveloped regions. In developed countries, people usually care about their oral structures equally like any other body organ like heart, brain, etc. Now the reason behind this may be the lack of awareness/seriousness in the underdeveloped and developing countries or the lack of proper instruments and facilities. Truly speaking both the problems are equally responsible for bad oral health. People don't understand how important it is to preserve oral tissues and maintain a healthy oral environment. This happens because of the lack of awareness and knowledge related to oral health. 

Being associated with dental sciences, I realized how irresponsible the people are with respect to their their oral health. Most people visit dental hospitals only when their pain is out of their control or their oral disease has already reached its critical stage. Sometimes people come to the dentist when their oral tissues get more than 60 to 80% damaged. This thing shocks me and makes me think, every time I encounter such condition that how careless these people are, how neglecting and ignoring these people are, who are just not caring about the part that is associated with the main senses like taste, speech, etc, helps in the process of digestion, maintain aesthetics and many more. Everyone wanted a good looking face and an attractive smile, Is it possible to achieve this without achieving good oral health? 

Oral health - A taboo in India

We just can't deny the fact that we give less preference to oral health as compared to our general health and this becomes a traditional custom continuing from our ancestors. Our elders used to visit the dentist only in case of severe deterioration of teeth or some tooth removal just if there is extreme pain and the pain becomes really unbearable and this same psychology is getting passed on from generation to generation. People don't give a shit about their dental health in our country. A kind of belief is established in the Indian subconscious that oral health isn't worthy enough to care for and maybe this is the reason why more than 70% of school children are suffering from dental caries and more than 90% of the adult population is affected by periodontal disease.

The reasons behind bad oral health:

~Excessive tobacco usage

India is the world's 2^nd largest producer of tobacco with an estimated annual production of around 800 million kgs. No doubt, if production is at such a large scale so its consumption would be on a large scale as well. There are approximately 120 million smokers in India. and India is home to 12% of the world's smokers. Such a huge amount of smokers and tobacco consumers in India. More than 10 million die each year due to tobacco in India. 

Now describing a little, tobacco is the cause of numerous oral diseases like Smoker’s Melanosis, Nicotinic Stomatitis, Gingival Recession, and even oral cancer.

Now consumption of tobacco at such a large scale and also ignoring dental health. How can this work, mate?

~Sugary food consumption

Our food and our lifestyle also affect our oral health. Tooth caries and tooth decay may result because of consuming excess sugary foods and carbonated beverages.

~Wrong brushing habits

Brushing twice a day is suggested for good oral health. Ask yourself about your regular brushing habits and routinely brushing schedule and you will get your answer whether you care for your teeth or not.

~Lack of Awareness and less development in the field of dentistry

In comparison to developed countries like the USA, France, Italy, etc, our country isn't that developed in terms of dental equipment and oral health care centers. Also, people are not very much aware of oral health. A number of people still don't know even if there exists such a branch of medicine. And maybe this would be the reason behind such neglection of oral health as well. 

What to do now?

We know the concept of oral health is not that old in our country. We are ignoring oral health for decades. Now, it's quite difficult to improve the oral health conditions of the whole country immediately. It requires time, our joint efforts i.e efforts from the dental personnel as well as from the people (patients). 

Oral health should be introduced as a basic subject so that even children come to know what exactly oral health and oral problems are. Adding more, most cases of dental caries are founded in children. So, they are needed to be more educated about their oral health.

Dental Camps should be organized at different places, especially in the backward and remote areas  so that even the people living there also gets the proper oral health facilities.

The establishment of more Oral health care centers is also needed.

Stay healthy and visit your dentist regularly.