Faith, belief, trust, humility, and confidence. These are the five keywords to success. We as a society today is experiencing lot of job opportunities and many new avenues has opened up. Today's youth has a lot of options. We all dream for a better life with successful careers and a good lifestyle, which is quite normal. After all, with personal growth comes overall growth of the society. But again, there is lot of competition in all spheres of life and there is a constant need of recognition among us.
Life is not a joyride. There are trials and tribulations, failures in professional and personal life, misfortunes, and so on. We are often so perplexed and overwhelmed by these incidents that we lose our inner peace and joy. We fail to accept our shortcomings and mistakes. The first thing we need to understand is that inner peace is a choice and a state of mind. It comes easily if we just open our minds. The most important step to achieve inner peace is through self acceptance. Here are some of the guidelines:
- Self acceptance. Accept yourself for who you are and take pride in it. We all are human beings and nobody is perfect. We all have flaws and our shortcomings. Even the most successful and virtuous person in your eye has some shortcomings. Consider your strengths and highlight them instead of only thinking about your failure. Look at the mirror and accept yourself and love yourself.
- Be confident. Have faith in yourself and trust your instincts.
- Be patient. Nothing comes easy. One has to wait for the right moment and be patient enough. Success will come for sure.
- Let go of the past and embrace the present. We all do not know what will happen in the future and there is nothing we can do to change the past. What has been done is done. You can do nothing about it. So instead of reliving your past and dwelling in past fear and painful events, try to enjoy the current moment and make full use of it.
- Do not judge and criticize people. Let go of negative thoughts. Be nice to people around you. Do not expect anything in return just do your job.
- Stay in tune with your spirituality. Keep in touch with your inner self. Meditation also helps a lot in this process. We become much more aware of out surroundings and look at life in a different way. We become compassionate and more responsive towards our environment. We can just sit down whenever we feel like and calm our minds and meditate, and welcome positive thoughts to our mind. It helps to free ourselves from stress and worries. You can also consult a meditation guru or a spiritual guide.
- Take responsibility for your own mistakes and take positive action. We all make mistakes and there is nothing wrong in it. Accept that and move on with your life.
- Develop a hobby. Start a new venture. Encourage your creative side.
- Go out and have fun. Visit places. Go to vacations.
- Be content. Take time for yourself and be content for whatever you have. Many people are more deprived than you are. We should thank God and our parents for whatever we have in our life.
- Be optimistic and happy.
Life is full of twists and turns. You never know what new turn your life is going to take. So instead of worrying and criticizing and living in fear, embrace it. Enjoy life to its fullest. We all are here for a purpose so just go on with it. Love your friends and family and people around you. The more love you share the more love you get in return. Nothing in life is permanent.....neither joy nor sorrow. So why worry? Do not listen to people who criticize you or put you down; That is their shortcoming. Ignore them. Open up to positive people and welcome them to your life. Help people whenever you can. There is nothing like it and most important follow your heart. Make mistakes. Again rise up and shine. Enjoy your life!
Tribes of Chhotanagpur:
Oraons, Mundas, Kharias and Santhals are the main tribes of Chhotanagpur plateau. Chhota Nagpur today consists of the modern day Jharkhand state, the northern districts of Odisha, the northern part of Chhatishgarh, the Purulia district of West Bengal. These tribes migrated in large numbers to the tea estates of north Bengal and Assam in search of employment and livelihood during the British rule. They are found in south India and Punjab as farm laborers. They also traveled across the Bay of Bengal to reach Andamans. Today, well populated colonies of these tribes are found in the island state. This author found them in the Himalayan nation Nepal as well. Wherever they migrated they carried along their culture and customs, languages and traditions.
Many of the customs have deviated from their original form but one thing that has remained with them is the typical “rice beer”. This beer is prepared from rice fermented in clay pots.This alcoholic drink is better known as “handi” or “handia”, because it is fermented in clay pots (handi).
The process of preparation:
Like other things in life the process of preparing handia has variations. Here, I give the basic recipe.
Materials required:
1. Rice -1 kg need not be the first class rice. Ordinary rice unusable for meals works well.
2. Fermenting agent - 8 to 10 balls or 2 cakes.
The fermenting balls or cakes are prepared with powdered rice mixed with certain herbs and roots. They are sold in the markets where the tribals flock. Ordinarily, this fermenting agent is known as “handi dawai” or “ranu”. “Ranu” literally means medicine.
First, the rice is boiled and spread on a wide circular drying bamboo tray. Then, “ranu” is crushed in to powder and spread upon the rice. Ranu is mixed well with the rice by turning it about ten times. Next, the rice is put into clay jars. The jars are tightly closed with pieces of rag and then they are placed in some dark but warm place. Warmth helps in fermentation of the rice. In summer the fermentation is complete in three and a half days or four. In winter, the fermentation may take even five or six days. So, in winter the clay pots are kept in the dark corners of kitchens.
Preparation of Handia:
There are more than one ways of preparing the beer.
1. Pour about 2 litres of clean water into the rice beer pot. Shake the pot to and fro for 10 to 15 minutes. Pour out the beer into a bowl. The beverage is ready to be served. The first tumblers may be quite intoxicating. Two glasses of this beer can send the drinker flying into stratosphere. This way the fermented rice can be kept for later use for three more days.
2. Another way of preparing rice beer can be as follows. Pour four litres of jar in 2 kg of fermented rice. Shake the jar briskly for about 15 minutes. Take out the rice and press it between your palms, a handful at a time. The liquid collected in a bowl is the beer. In this process the fermented rice has to be disposed of after one use.
Social Use of Handia:
Among the tribals of Chhota Nagpur no social function can be held without handia. Be it a birth of a child or wedding in the family, handia is an essential commodity to be served to the guests. Even in the “gami” (Shradh) after a death in a family, the ceremonies are not said to be complete without handia. It also serves as an alternative of wages if you have to transplant paddy or harvest your crop from your fields. You need not pay any money to the workers. People will turn up to help you in repairing your house or mending your fence just for a handia party in the evening.
Medicinal Value of Handia:
Handia is good for curing ailments of the digestive system. In years of my medical practice among the tribals, I have rarely found a person suffering from stomach ulcer or gastritis. It is an effective remedy for diarrhea and dysentery.
Conclusion:I don’t wish to go to more details. I am afraid, if you go to a tribal family and get hooked to drinking handia, I will be blamed for your inebriated condition. Incidentally, I must add that more and more non-tribals have been seen drinking handia. So much so that this form of beer has become the favorite of wild elephants, but that can be the topic for another article.
Greed or Selfishness is a disease from which the modern age suffers. It is in fact the basis of the capitalistic system, which is based on acquisitiveness. According to this system, if a person works for selfish ends he will works the most and that will benefit the whole country and the whole world. That is their fundamental principle. And while working for himself he may push one man to this side and another to that and jump over the third; otherwise his work may lose tempo. That is the principle of capitalism. The world was a different world and there were social levels according to which the people used to live. They were content to live on their level and did not any have strong desire to rise higher. But now the doors have opened. That is good. But at times, this progress requires cutting each other's throat whether on an individual level or a national level. What was the second thing asked? What has decreased?
That in the matter of sexual desire and anger present-day society is more advanced than ancient society was. That is my thought. Do you agree?
I think you have not thought about this from this point of view and can not say anything. But we can say that proportionately there are more educated , thinking people today. In olden times there were only a handful of such people. For instance, I read somewhere that Erasmus, who was considered one of the wisest men in Europe had fifty books in his library. In those days books were written by hand. He was well known for his wisdom. Today we read thousands of books, but most of them are useless. Instead of improving our knowledge they only add a dead weight to our minds. It is true that today there were more people who think, and think in a scientific manner. They want the good of the world. Without doubt every country has more such people now; but if you ask me if the world had become better or worse in comparison with the past it is a difficult question. What measure can we apply? For if good things have now increased, bad things have also become more powerful. Both have increased.
If you too agree that there were more selfish and greedy people, what remedy have you thought of, especially for our country?
But I do not agree that selfishness or greed has increased. I only say it is there. I do not know whether it has increased or decreased. For both good and bad things have increased in the world. To seek out a solution of this problem is to decide what the basic organization of the society should be. The least it should include is education, basic education, not merely pious advice, so that the young people may develop. It is this way that such things can be removed.
Conclusion:
Mahatma Gandhi said "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed". I would agree with his. Modern society is filled by greed and selfishness. Greed and selfishness are very dominant features in the modern society that leave many negative effects on the people and the world at large. We have to remove this selfishness or greed from our society for our progress as well as development of our country.
Phobia- you are not alone
It sounds weird but a fact that one out seven people all over the world suffer from some or the other kind of phobias. So if you are one of them who has something to fear about, you can rest easy, nothing much to worry. A phobia is nothing but an anxiety disorder or at most an irrational fear by which a person does live under a situation of fear from a particular incident, a creature, a particular place, a building or whatever that haunts him constantly. The person suffering from a phobia has certain signs as he may experience shortness of breath, nausea, constriction of chest when he feels tightness in his chest, shivering, his eyes become wide due to fear, jaw drops, all symptoms that of a heart patient etc but the case may differ from person to person. Some persons become unable to move due to excess of fear or simply forget doing what they were doing when the triggers begin to take them in their grip.
Phobias – Hundreds of different phobias
There are different phobias as medical science has already listed over 500 types of phobias so far and still counting, and as I said that one out of seven people is suffering from one or the other phobia. Sufferers from these phobias try their best to avoid the triggers at the symptom stage but once they fell under its grip, they break out in cold sweat and other symptoms. There are well over 500 types of documented phobias known so far but some of them are more dreaded compared to most others. While some phobias generally considered fairly common, like fear of closed or confined spaces known as claustrophobia, one of the most common of phobias, acrophobia the reason of fear of heights and the one that cause of fear of spiders known as, the arachnophobia. There are hundreds such paranoiac psychotic disorder caused by delusions of persecution merely with or without any apparent logic, reason, and some of these are extremely irrational. I have tried to wade through some of the weirdest phobias and found these top-ten for you, her they are-
1- Phobophobia- As the name suggests, Phobophobia is the root-cause of all phobias or you can even call it the grandmother of all the other phobias. The people suffering from any other phobia generally suffer because they experience a panic or anxiety makes them a victim of Phobophobia. Any fear or attacks of fears due to phobias lead them to start fearing the very symptoms brought to them hence surfacing in form of Phobophobia that is basically the fear of developing a fear for Phobias.
2- Euphobia- I thought this had to be the number one phobia right at the top of the list of weird phobias. Everyone likes to listen to good news but people suffering from Euphobia do not like to listen to good news. They feel irritated instead of being elated any good news. They feel panicky and go right into the negative mood as soon as they hear something good and have a feeling of chaotic atmosphere all around them. Most probably, the people suffering from this phobia become the victim once they expect good news but it does not materialize in most cases.
3- Cathisophobia- A rare phobic disorder that sends the sufferer in panic at the mere thought of sitting down. In the case of someone suffering from Cathisophobia, mostly the fear of sitting on sharp objects, hemorrhoids and physical abuse are the basic reasons considered for its occurrence. The strangest part is that some of the people suffering form Cathiophobia have the feeling of anxiety in the presence of people they feel shy or it comes to them when celebrities or superiors are around.
4- Dextrophobia- If you find it amusing, you have right to feel so because Dextrophobia is an obsessive rather compulsive personality related phobia limited to fear of all objects being on the left side of his body. He then wants to maintain all things on the right side of his body in order to keep his necessary items nearby himself especially on the right side of his body. Moreover, if he does not find all his desired things on his right side the situation may turn chaotic for him. It can bring chest pain, tightness in chest, a full-blown panic attack or the patient begins to cry like small kids unable to organize himself properly.
5- Geumophobia- It is related to taste of a person and the one who is suffering with Geumatophobia also known as Geumophobia feels hyperventilating at the mere sight of the food that makes life hard to live. There is no way one can survive if he develops hate for the food as soon as he looks at it. Actually, Geumophobia is a fear that is not real but an exaggerated hate for taste that can suddenly bring an attack of panic on the mere thought of having to try something out of the usual menu. The person suffering from Geumophobia can go panicky if he is offered to taste new foods or flavors consisting sweet, sour or bitter. Person suffering from Geumophobia could have developed it in their childhood due to forceful tactics adopted by parents for certain food that suffers did not like.
6- Omphalophobia- It is hard to believe but Omphalophobia is a condition in which the sufferer panics a great deal and fids himself distressed at the mere sight of the navel also known as bellybutton or tummy button. People suffering from Omphalophobia keep a distance from beaches and swimming pools where they can see bellybutton or fear that someone else can touch their own navel. Some people suffering from this phobia go to extent of covering their navel with plaster during their bathing time.
7- Zemmiphobia- It is not a common phobia but fear of the great mole rat (Chhachhundar) which is probably considered very dangerous because it can fight with snakes successfully although this is not as dangerous as considered but some people fear from it. As the name suggests the Chhachhundar rat has no hair and great source of fear for some.
8- Geniophobia- This phobia is all about chins. People with abnormal shapes of chins or jaws do not want to mix up with others. People suffering with Geniophobia avoid people they think would consider them ugly. Most people suffering from Geniophobia turn introvert if their case reaches to an extreme point.
9- Clinophobia-The Clinophobia is a simple fear of going to bed and sleeping with bringing worries of having nightmares or even bed-wetting. In some cases, the Clinophobia can develop into insomnia that certainly affects a person’s health not because of the phobia but on medical grounds.
10- Epistemophobia- You will be surprised that Epistemophobia is the fear from knowledge itself. Persons suffering from Epistemophobia do not want gain new knowledge but they would want to stay away from it rather. They do not want to read books, newspaper or watch informative channels on television. Most people suffering from Epistemophobia believe they would be better off if they learned as fewer as possible because knowledge can bring problems for them.
Conclusion
People suffering from phobias are hard to bring back to normalcy due to their long-lived beliefs about their fears they gathered over the period or even from their childhood. Most phobic only experience symptoms of their unpleasant state of inner disorders and the irony is that most of such disorders have no common diagnosis but on case-to-case basis.
Alcohol the mother of all evil
We often hear about alcohol fueled violence from each and every part of country and whenever the news of young people getting drunk and then attacking other people in a gathering of marriage that too without any provocation at most times our television channels start feeding us with doses about the evil of drinking.
We all know that alcohol related violence is nothing new in our country but it has always been here from ages or since the devil in the bottle was invented. People who find solace from drinking alcohol can be influenced by the hidden demons in it at the same time. People try to act innocent once they commit serious crimes under the influence of alcohol.
Alcohol is bad
Now the question arises – can one blame a person under the influence of alcohol for his crimes or violent behavior? But how can they survive the blame because it was their decision to drink knowing fully well the after effects of it. The alcohol can seriously affect various glands in the human body mainly liver, known as the largest gland of the human body and the worst that can happen to a human due to over drinking is lack of appetite or the jaundice. And to add to it that harm to human body is not limited to these two problems only.
Wait – Alcohol is bad but …
Alcohol is undoubtedly bad but human system can tolerate it up to some extent. We need to differentiate between the types of alcohols mainly the ethanol and methanol. We should know that ethanol comes under drinkable category of alcohols that is basically the form of alcohol sold or used for drinking purpose. To be exact ethanol is used for preservation of wine to keep them safe from deteriorating otherwise the alcoholic drinks would soon turn into vinegar. The use of ethanol could be from 4-10% in low alcoholic drinks like beer, which are not that harmful for human consumption.
The other form of alcohol, the methanol is mainly obtained by distilling various woods and other similar products is considered dangerous for human consumption and it can cause repairable damage if consumed in large quantity. It can send a drinker in state of coma or can make him blind as we often read or hear in news about illicit liquor cases in our country killing hundreds and blinding many in such cases. In our country, such instances take place mostly in villages especially at marriage and festivals occasions when the opportunist try to multiply their income without keeping innocent lives in their minds.
You will be surprised to read that alcohol has certain properties, which can help reviving in human lives as well. If a person is suffering from intense cold can be treated with small quantity of brandy or even whiskey. Both of these two brands contain almost equal quantity of alcohol.
The violence caused by alcohol
Assaults caused by alcohol are generally referred as random acts of sudden surge of blood especially in high society of our country, a method to reduce the intensity of the crime that takes place in the parties thrown by bigwigs. However, the recent spate of increasing incidents has once again opened up the serious discussion the role of alcohol and other drugs in our society. Alcohol has become part of lifestyle of high society in our country and there is no ignoring its significant impact that is part of the western world.
We can see the increasing trend in our so-called high society in last couple of decades, ever since our country achieved higher growth rates and people saw their opportunities to earn better income. Emergence of neo-rich in the society wanted to show the world that they had acquired big money and wanted to display it. Throwing parties at the drop of a hat was only a way to display their wealth and alcohol and drugs were essential parts of such parties.
Peer pressure and heavy drinking habits played a massive role in made these people forgetting their limits of activities and ways to behave within prescribed ethical limits of Indian society. Although, drinking has always been part of Indian society but the recent upsurge in incidents of men and women prone to act of violence under the influence of drugs or alcohol has sounded an alarm. Whenever the matter is discussed and considered for those who engage in drinking habit in the society they consider that the violence is only a side effect that is associated with drinking habit but the law of our country does not accept it.
The matter of drinking and resulting violence is considered a mitigating and at the same time, a factor generally raised to dilute the intensity of the crime by the defense on the ground that the person was not in self-control at the time the crime took place. And in most such cases, the defendants have successfully escaped the heavier punishment. There is immediate need to change the law to punish people those who show tendency to commit crime when drunk, after all, it is the man or woman who is responsible for drinking in the first place knowing fully well the after effects of the devil in the bottle.
What is the solution then?
We can always look at the criminal and legislation side of the problem but we shall not find an appropriate solution unless we see at the root of the problem. Unless people will learn to accept the responsibility of their own action and that of their friends as, in most such violent cases were carried out by a group while they all were over drunk. Everyone in that group was encouraging everyone else without caring to stop others or telling to cool down their over reacting friends. No one ever wanted to caution anyone in such cases but they all were enjoying the sufferings of other party.
We do not expect changes overnight or you cannot deploy police officers at every building, club, bar, hotel and cinema halls. Even the stricter punishment can only help stop such incidents up to a certain extent but self-awareness is the only solution. We should go right from the school education level to teach our children about after effects of excessive drinking habits. Ultimately it is our education system that needs to come into the wider frame of the picture and teach our future adults to behave properly.
I hope you are not one of them about whom Henny Youngman said - “When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.” We must know that only fools engage in useless acts of violence and our society has plenty of such idiots. I know we cannot get rid of such fools overnight but we must make sure that they don’t get away easily unpunished.
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