Evolving Education

Ayush Ranglani, Manipal Institute of Technology

It is praiseworthy that society today, setting aside its many flaws, gives education much importance. Almost every parent today, anywhere from a daily-wage labourer to a lavish entrepreneur desires the best education for their children. However, the current education scenario is far from flawless. As such, if we wish to evolve education in the near future, we must consult the ones subject to this process; the students. Being a student myself, following is an account of the areas of today’s education system that need critical improvement from our vantage point.

The biggest flaw in today’s system is the fact that its commercialisation has made education too examination-focused. So much so that the very motive of education, its essence has been forgotten. Learners no longer learn to enhance their knowledge, but to secure the best grade. Grading by itself is an essential mechanism, in that it provides quantitative feedback on learners’ performance. But the way this feedback is perceived and processed by the ones affected makes a world of difference. Indeed, it has. Let us rewind the history of grading for a minute. The concept of grading initially existed in institutions besides education. It had been used as a tool in the industry to (a) assess workers’ performance and (b) ascertain fair remuneration in accordance. Later when grading was bridged over to education, there was a major tweak in its purpose. While part (a) of the purpose was bridged over intact, part (b) was simply omitted because students are just not remunerated for their academic efforts. Here, it was meant to provide a tangible measure of the students’ academic performance. And what were the students to do with this feedback? If the feedback was bad, then students were to take their learning more seriously. If the feedback was good, they were already doing good. There weren’t meant to be any repercussions of grading. Either way, it was intended for the students’ own benefit, in that they could have greater awareness of their level of skill and knowledge.

It’s established that in case of education, grading was to be merely a means to gauge how well students were learning. In other words, the grades were meant to be indicative of the learning. Not the other way around, as is the case today where the process of learning has grown to become rather ‘fluttered’ by the hype of grading. Sadly in this age, students are raised to look out for academic recognition. They are subjects to a system that doesn’t value knowledge or skill as much as grades. And the unavoidable impact is that learners’ identities have come to be intertwined with the grades they get. Students don’t care much if they don’t learn something of real value, instead they care about the number that is produced at the end of the examination. This in turn has created a sense of destructive competition where learners derive their sense of self-worth from their grades. With such hierarchical divide amongst students, even the learner at the top of the pyramid might not accomplish much on the knowledge front, and wasn’t that the whole point anyway? Grades that were invented as an accomplice to the process of education have indeed consumed it altogether.

So when I think about the future of education, rather than cosmetic technical tweaks/enhancements in the process which would add incremental value, I would suggest a major overhaul of the very fundamental principles of the whole process moving forward. The way to bring about such a change would entail certain changes in our current approach.

One. The classroom paradigm that currently exists works fine, because it instills in students a certain sense of sincerity which is pivotal. However, enhancements need to be made to our methods of classroom teaching. The manner in which the knowledge is imparted stems from the teacher’s ability to communicate with students. I’d like to lay emphasis on the word ‘students’ here. The situation is different when the teacher is interacting with one of their peers.

Two research scholars can easily have complex discussions with each other with minimal expression and even less ambiguity, because they’re simply at the same wavelength with regard to the subject. However, when that scholar is having similar discussions with students, who are on a lower wavelength, the ability of the teacher to communicate really takes the front seat. Since the students are not scholars like their teachers with regard to a subject, it is imperative that the teacher possess the necessary expressional skills to translate the subject matter into a form legible to the students. Given the current level of difficulty of the subject matter taught at most educational institutions, I’d go on to say that skills of communication might weigh even heavier than expertise in the actual subject matter (Not to diminish the importance of the expertise, but to critically emphasise the importance of successful communication). I personally feel that the subject matter mostly taught to students in college today is not too difficult to grasp at all. As such, who we need as our teachers today are people who have sufficient knowledge (not necessarily excessive) of the subject matter to be taught, but more importantly can communicate flawlessly with us rather than teachers who are overqualified in their respective discipline but lack the skill to communicate it to us and make us understand well from the ground up.

Two. Einstein pointed out that the best way to learn is the practice of being able to teach what you learnt to a person with the same level of knowledge as one you started out with. Teaching is an art of composition by itself. While the subject matter is centrally established and untampered, it’s the composition of that subject matter into forms interpretable to students where the skill of the teacher lies. Thus, we need to make our education more composition based. The examinations that we have today are based on rather standard and objective questions, and the answers to such questions are just as predictable as the questions. These are then subject to grading in a rather binary fashion of ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. There is no creativity involved in answering such questions. What this is doing is telling the students that the best approach for education is memorisation of accepted standard answers. This isn’t helping anything besides our memory. In fact, another grave outcome of this is that it encourages those students who are in the practice of memorising without understanding the subject matter, and incentivises other students who might be engaged in the right learning practices to pursue this corrupt path of memorisation. This practice is corrupt in that it is exploiting a loophole in the education system of today but since it produces a good number at the end, it has become very popular.

In place of traditional pen-paper examinations, which frankly test students’ dexterity and memory rather than knowledge and understanding, we need to base our grading system more on composition. Questions need to be more open-ended, and answers to them, more like expressive pieces of composition, so that students get a true and free opportunity to present what they’ve actually taken away from their learning. This takes us back to Einstein’s saying. Thus, the questioning process needs to be made more qualitative and not quantitative.

It is important to note and even appreciate that essay based questions are indeed practiced in some areas today, but this needs to be made a far more popular approach. Colleges abroad lay special emphasis on essay-based questions as part of their admission processes, because that is a way to bring out the true capability of the aspiring students without the inhibition of specific and objective question-asking. Our curriculum needs to adopt similar practices as well.

What I recommend is to divide our curriculum into two broad and well-defined exhaustive distinctions vis-a-vis objective and subjective curricula. For the purpose of illustration, let us consider college education. The current system of objective/standard question-asking exams needs to be set aside as one part of the curriculum; the ‘objective’ part. Let us assign a down-scaled percentage to this, say 40% of the overall grade. The remaining 60% is what will comprise the subjective curriculum. Some of the ideas I personally have for the subjective curriculum are as follows:

i) The assignments which we have in colleges as part of the “continuous learning” practice can be made essay-based, where students are given prompts and besides their knowledge of the subject, their ability to apply it to practical scenarios will be tested, which is the whole point of acquiring knowledge anyway. These assignments would require investigative and research-hungry efforts, and the ability to communicate them to others either verbally or on paper, which obviously would enhance education more than memorisation ever could.

ii) Students must also be given a verbal platform to demonstrate their learnings to others. For good reason, out in the real world, we have job ‘interviews’ rather than job ‘examinations’. Here, memorisation is completely taken out of the equation. Going by Einstein’s saying, if the student is, at some stage, able to successfully teach the teacher what’s been taught, it would ascertain true learning. We need to incorporate in the curriculum of every course, peer-focused review seminars and teacher-based seminars, and the peer-based seminars must include evaluation based not only on delivery, but also the quality of questions asked and the answers given.

iii) Coming to the other observation pointed out previously. In place of the popular employability criteria for teachers (which demand minimum requisite duration of study and research and over-the-top mastery in the respective discipline), greater significance should be given to certain ‘teaching’ certifications. Teaching certifications should become an industry-wide standard and the field of teaching must deem the same as a more important qualification for an aspiring teacher, since without the ability to communicate their wisdom to their students effectively, there’s no point. This would increase the value and importance of teaching skills in the education industry.

This would definitely be a start to a journey to an education system in the future which is superior in terms of how enriching the learning is. It is often said that the best way is to “go back to the basics”. That’s just what I’ve tried to demonstrate. Going back to the true purpose of education before it was contaminated by the commercialisation. This account doesn’t necessarily represent the futuristic technical enhancements in the practice, but is more to do with the rudimentary rethink that needs to be kept in mind all the while the natural technical inevitably enhancements take place.

Koyna Nath, Manipal Institute of Technology

As soon as the lockdown for COVID-19 was announced, we as students were happy as we were getting a break from classes and studies but sad because we aren’t allowed to go out. No vacations, not meeting our friends, following strict rules, etc. Every day we keep complaining how people can live inside the house doing nothing at all and what can even be done inside anyways. But this lockdown made us realize how women who are just housewives feel when their children are away from them and their husbands are off to work.

My mom is a housewife. I’ve always seen her being busy with household chores and when she’s free she used to spend time with me and my sister. When my sister left for college, all she had was me as dad goes to office and return direct in the evening. I was always busy with school and college and she was as well, taking care of me and monitoring me. When I started studying in college, I used to ask her sometimes when dad used to be on tours, about hoe she used to pass time even if the wifi was down. All she could answer was about how she tried to go to sleep all alone early or just stare at a blank wall because she had no one to spend time with. I still cry when I think about this.

When I came back to my home, I keep complaining how sad it is to just stay in for so many days, how suffocating it is, etc. But then, I looked at my mom and I thought, “How does this woman even without complaining stay alone the whole day without even stepping out of the house? Isn’t it suffocating for her?’ .I wanted to ask her this but every time I went to talk to her, she starts gossiping with me about her favourite recent facebook post, her interests, what she wants me to do and every sort of gossips. We laugh a lot and this was the best laugh I’ve ever had after years.

When dad returns home I see the whole house light up. I could see how much he misses us and how happy he was when I came back from airport even though we were told to keep distance from each other. I do not know about what I started loving, how intense my love towards passion is, what is happening around the world and how I feel for the situation. This much I can say that I have finally realized what my world is. My mom, my dad, my sister- my whole family is the world to me. And this pandemic lockdown got me closer to them and made me realize things that maybe I wouldn’t have ever realized anytime soon.

The world around us is surely changing- getting pollution free. But I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that our own family is the word to us because without them, we won’t be anyone. And each and every one of us has developed a different sort of deep love towards every member of our family.

Vivek Singh, Manipal Institute of Technology

As we move to the fifth month since the outbreak of novel coronavirus, or sars-coV-2, as it is known in the scientific community, not even a single living soul on this planet can deny that their lives have not been touched, in some way by it. And I mean all the 8.7million species that share this earth have been affected by this 500nm long virus, for better or for worse is debatable, but as the most sentient being on this planet and also one of the few species for which this virus has proved to be deadly, humans have had the most riveting and eye opening experience among all the inhabitants of this blue orb. For a species in space age, at the peak of our time here on Earth, this virus has really showed us that all of our knowledge and wisdom does not always guarantee survival and that there is still a lot of things out there that our beyond our comprehension, yet.

But I am not writing this to talk about what effect this pandemic had on our species as a whole. I am here to discuss how, as an individual, this pandemic has drastically changed the way I would think about…. well…. everything, I guess. If I say it has been life changing experience for me, it would be a very huge understatement. But of all the beliefs and notions that it has changed in me, it would be the naïve and fetal ones that I had about our economy and its workings that clearly stand out.

So, before I tell you all about my new beliefs, allow me to take you through the events and my thought process that made me see the big picture in the light of this pandemic. I think I speak about all the countries when I say that this pandemic has not been too kind on our respective economies and the world economy in general. That is evident as most of the businesses rely on some kind of movement, around and about their center of commerce, this could be delivering their produced goods or services or procuring raw materials to produce the goods and services in the first place, this pandemic has surely put a halt to vital processes that support our businesses. Consequently billions of people around the world got laid off their jobs and millions of companies succumbed to saving and recycling their resources as they prepare for a global recession that will evidently follow this pandemic. In some parts of the world, countries are already dealing with both the pandemic and a recession with no hope of relief anywhere near the horizon.

So, are there any economical outlets that are still performing unbothered as if unaffected by this pandemic? The answer, and you should not be surprised here, is yes. As most of the affected countries imposed lockdowns and some of them took even stricter measures like imposing a nationwide curfew, to minimize our movements, we were imposed to stay at our homes and only go out to purchase things that are of absolute necessity to us. I repeat, only those things that are very very basic regarding living a normal human life, were allowed to be purchased, and most of us stock piled these things in case the storm gets worse. These included, food, obviously first and foremost, followed by bathing products, diapers and other maintenances for newborns, and necessary medical supplies. Everything else was put on a hold. Naturally these essential objects did not see any major loss or halt in their distribution and hence in their profitability. Even as people lost their employment they were still forced to buy these essentials as their wallets grew thinner. So it is evident that this part of the economy functioned in a very regular manner in order to ensure that everyone gets their most essential needs met in this time of crisis. But then why did the economy still came tumbling down, why did not the economy of essential become the load bearer to stop this huge snowball of recession that the pandemic made.

The answer to all these questions and the ones you asked in your questionnaire, what things do I noticed during this pandemic? What things I would like to see continue? etc, etc can be boiled down to this simple train of thought that leaves you shaken to you core. The reason why the recession came in spite of our basics needs still being fulfilled is that this demand of basic amenities forms a very very minute part of our huge economy that employs, feeds, caters to every human soul out there. The reason our economies failed is simple, most of our economy thrives on the basis of selling us a product that we never had a need for. And so when we were forced to succumb to our very basic needs these companies and conglomerates that make us chase after a new car, a new house, new jewelry, the economy that sells us a faster and better lifestyle, had nothing to sell us in the time of need and demand.

Hence, there lies your answer as to what things I would like to continue, what aspects of this forced life I would like to see integrated in my future. I want everyone to realize what this pandemic has shown me, that 22 yrs of false advertising, combined with desperation of having better income, better lifestyle, faster cars ,bigger houses, better jobs, better social life, better online presence, better mobile phones, than my colleagues and fellow human beings had put me in a wild goose chase that I spent most of my life, trying to stay on top of, when it was never really needed. All the money and time I wasted over absurd things like “is iphone x better or should I buy iphone x pro” was really stupid and doltish.

But the sad fact still remains , as soon as this pandemic is over and everything is back to normal, all of us would go back to being lured by these companies in buying products that we do not actually need. We would again let the absurd and dispensable lifestyle define us as we work hard behind our computers, in our cubicles just so we can buy the latest playstation , or the most expensive pair of shoes when our current ones work just as fine.

Again I am not telling that the current lifestyle, under pandemic, is a completely acceptable one, but this pandemic sure has drawn a clear, thick line between things that seem to help us live but actually do not, and things that we actually need to live. But it has never been about just living, has it? Ever since we made fire and then weapons and tools for hunting and gathering and then agriculture, we have buried the problem of survival in very deep corners of our mind, as we sit in our warm living rooms now while machines do all the hard work for us. But every now and then, especially in times like these, we are thrown back into the game of survival, where how many social platforms you are present on has absolutely no value. We have to realize that this will not be the last time in our lives that we are forced towards a simpler lifestyle as we continue living on a dying planet.

So, what I am trying to get at is that we need to make the basic, essential part of our economy stronger, it should be stronger if as a species we have any sanity left, we need to find our livelihoods in these sectors that support life, these sectors of food, clothing, medicine, that will still hold no matter what crisis comes, instead of becoming a part of this highly sophisticated and at the same time unnecessary pursuit of comfort and fame and social acceptance. This pandemic has shown that a simple, restrictive, controlled lifestyle is not as uncomfortable as we would think it would be and our urges to buy unnecessary things in life are just that, urges. But hey, its free shipping, so go ahead I guess!

Time - A Silent God

Anurag Joy, Manipal Institute of Technology

Time, an inceptional phenomena followed throughout human mankind. We have become so accustomed, it is perceived that we worship time as a religion/belief. Time itself, another catastrophe created by us, is taken as a relative measure in everything we do. Be it work, sleep, leisure, etc, we are compelled to bow down before time and adjust ourselves to it's mercy. Inadvertently, we regard time as a deity but in reality, do we realise the significance of time as a whole? Or do we keep blindly believing the knowledge our ancestors have passed down upon us?

A lot of questions, theories, assumptions and yet here we are still at the same bracket heading nowhere.

The concept of deja vu is common to all. Deja vu- The event of a sense of familiarity with a specific environment, location which gives the idea that you have lived this part already before, gets everyone doubting and looking for answers.

The parallel universe theory, although far-fetched, gives some explanation as to how it occurs. But it hasn't been proven yet. This gives rise to another idea, the idea of time travel, which again hasn't developed at this age but possible nonetheless.

But it could also be personified in another way. Consider the timeline to be a straight line with the left being the past and the right being the future. Where we are right now, is the present somewhere along the centre of the line.

Now our conception of time is we move from the left to right, from the past to the future. But what if that's again another misconception?

What if the timeline was considered to be a circle, where we at some point or the other, converge back to the start and the future is in reality nothing but the past. And somewhere along the diameter, we find ourselves at the same place or environment giving a sense of deja vu, because we have unknowingly already either lived the moment or would be experiencing it in the near future.

Knowingly or unknowingly, we all have been following 'A Silent God' from the beginning, again another measure of time itself. Atheists, a sensitive topic, bring out theories as to why they do not believe in God. But even these are obligated to follow the fourth dimension of what we call time.

And so as there are many beliefs, time is a common enemy we face and worship at the same time throughout our lives.

No human is capable of changing the timeline as even a tiny change in the script would signal drastic consequences in the future.

Lastly, We are nothing but tiny individual fragments across the face of earth, getting differentiated and eventually wiped out by time, all we have is an unavoidable dimension controlling our lives from our first breath to the last...

Quarantined yet not

Sonia Sali, Manipal Centre for Humanities

The world suddenly came to a dreadful standstill! The cars stopped moving on the roads, the swarms of people were gone, the excited, giggling children were suddenly gone, packed up at homes and bundled up in blankets, washing them up with sanitizers and putting out all their desires to even lay a foot outside the door. What just happened? Where are all the noisy, nosey people gone? Well I do miss the endless chatter of people in my ears and the smoky, black clouds. The air all around feels tense; the streets are deserted and deadly looking. I wonder where all the people have gone off to, why all the nosey swarms of people suddenly took to their homes, no longer interested in any of what's up in the society. I don't hear the little children playing all day, the vehicles screeching, the buzz of people and the endless business of the day; it feels like living in a ghost town. Why it feels dreadful, it's all filled in my heart and filled to the brim and overflowing out and all over me! Amidst the tension, the pain, the death of humanity in numbers so vast and innumerable as if suddenly humans became mosquitoes in the hands of the Gods because they got too noisy, irksome and outsmarted the patience of the heavens, the Gods decided to slap, kill and bury all at once so the disturbance is reduced. I don't know! I hear of people dying, the newspapers filled with deaths in every page, paragraph, line and every word, threatening the readers- "You can be next. Beware" True it's painful, disturbing and heart rending but if God's diary had the virus in 2020 then the virus would definitely wisp around in great majesty and power for it was sent from a greater power!

So yesterday I had no other choice so I looked out the window hoping to catch a glimpse of somebody on the streets but none, nobody, not even the dogs were out so I looked on and hey this tree outside my window looked friendly, it wavered its branches as if to say hello and swayed to the music of the wind as if excited at my very presence. So yeah hello, it’s been eleven years since this tree stood outside my window and never had I taken a chance to even look at it and admire.

The lockdown did lock us up at home but it also did awaken us to the outside world, to the little things of nature that we have always missed out amidst our busy lifestyle. The sun is no longer an object that goes hardly noticed but a glaring ball of sun that is outside our windows every morning and you and me have been given all the time in the world to look at it with all patience and feel the early morning warmth, the stars in the sky are no longer distant and objects that are never even noticed before bedtime. Well, now the quarantine has invited all of us to look out into the sky, embrace the night and gaze deeply into the starry sky and dream.

Remember the days when you quite often complained that your work has piled up double the height than yesterday and you no longer have time to sit down and talk or even just spend dinnertime with your family at the table. Well you are in luck and your stars have favoured you and you have been given time like the waters in the ocean to sing, dance, cook, talk and play with your kids and family. Whoever said the lockdown was boring?

This is just the universe’s way of bringing you back, rejuvenating yourself and filling yourself with energy and vigour. Though you are locked down and bound to be staying inside the four walls of your house remember before you even think of exploring the world outside, you have a huge world to be explored right within your homes and within the walls of your

mind. Look around, talk, laugh, come together as a family and though you are quarantined make some memories.

I am sure you have a kitchen- get up, make a dish before anyone comes in……..Hurry!.........Make the best use of the lockdown

Haven’t you budged yet?

Panic in the walls of my heart

Sonia Sali, Manipal Centre for Humanities

I don't know but it feels deadly with each passing day and my heart breaks, crumbling down hundreds and hundreds of towers within me!! Amidst this endless confusion, chaos and countless number of deaths and the epidemic spreading far and wide in the country and beyond I somehow feel chaos and dolor in the grounds of my mind, fear somehow sinking deep through every single crack on the grounds of my mind and heart. I hear reports of people dying, new cases of people affected by a strange sickness that's been eating up the globe, swallowing every life and breath on its way. Good old days are far behind, the soar, gross sickness making way to tears, panic and fear I wonder how long we will live these days, bear the pain of loss and the death of humankind both far away and close by. I feel a lump in my throat and a heaviness in my heart, the air all around is sick, painful and full of panic it is very evident by the very looks of hurrying swarms of people refusing even to look up, greet or smile for the very fear of transfer of germs, catching a cold, sneezing endlessly, falling sick, ending up in neat white hospital beds and finally being termed as " one more case of Covid-19".

I feel the fear in the ambience around me and somehow I hear of only people being broken, families breaking apart, sickness conquering countries and lands and nothing at all about a new-born born in the neighbourhood, an uncle come from abroad or the success of an industry. Nothing. Just about this disease reaching people all over the globe and slowly eating up lives and peace all at one go!

Biswadeep Sarkar, Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology

It would take a million life-times for humans to come to any coherent conclusion about what the world around us is about. Despite being the superior race we aren’t hardwired to comprehend whatever there is to see – it’s a culmination of everything that every living being witnesses, and understands about nature. It is beyond any single creature to completely fathom the secrets of the stars, the pastel hues of the twilight sky, the mating call of the robin and the patterns of autumn leaves. We’ve been given the freedom to explore every nook and cranny within the limits of our capabilities, but eventually everything seems fruitless, when the bigger picture is considered. We are in a dynamic state of existence, and nothing is steady. Whatever we see, whatever we feel, touch and observe, changes in the blink of an eye. And that change is what we ultimately accept, about everything around us.

From the cradle to grave, we are constantly a part of both tangibility and abstraction. The events we perceive are often different from what they actually is, and it entirely depends on our ability to analyze things. The world around us is an open forum - perceptions vary on the basis of observations. One might find solace in a waterfall, complete with a rainbow at the plunge pool and a fresh gale of water drops hitting the face. This might be perceived in an entirely opposite manner by someone who is terrified of water and heights and considers waterfalls one of the deadliest of nature’s creations. The bottom line remains that our surroundings have different meanings, and cannot be fathomed into one, single idea.

At a glance, when we look around, we see lots of things, ranging from human beings, to trees, to buildings and animals. Our circumference of inspection is only limited to our own point of view. A possibility of millions of similar circles is there, of every individual with observing power. Each of them culminates to form the bigger picture, which we refer to as our ‘world’. Our own point of view can be considered constant, however transient it is in the longer course of time. But when put together, they become the entirety of existence, a clash of ideas and opinions, and hence strengthening the concept of a dynamic world view. Fragments of images of what the world can be have been passed down for generations, helping us to form a concrete profile of the society we live in, in addition to our own observations. Books and various other sources of information can provide us with a necessary insight to what things are like which are not in our immediate sight of view.

The theory of dynamicity and transience, thus established, one would argue that however powerless we are, we are doing a terrible job at maintaining the balance of the nature. Indiscriminate exploitation of resources has led to an alarming declination of the quality of our lifestyle. The world was created as a safe haven for all living beings, providing us with the bare necessities and scopes for more. We, as irresponsible children of our benevolent Mother, have taken things for granted and started down the path of destruction. Every rose has its thorn, like they say.

Taking into account the prominent balance of the universe, with every leaf getting crushed underneath, a new dandelion blooms. The consequences of our actions are nothing but Nature trying to heal herself, which again, falls into the scene of dynamicity. A cosmic barter system in terms of natural occurrences forms the basis of life on this planet. The world around is beautiful – it has its darkest sides, and equally brightest ones. It adapts to changes, and resists them too. A collective cognizance of every event, every tangible aspect and every feeling constructs the world around us, making us its guardians, as well as the destructors, with the choice lying in our own hands.

A Chance to Rewrite the Stars

Joanna Rodrigues, Manipal Academy of Higher Education - Dubai

It was not until quarantine did we realise how it felt to be restrained. Menial tasks which we performed have now become subject to government approval. While in the beginning all of this may have caused havoc, with the passage of time I’ve began to come to terms with it. And there are so many things that have to come to my notice now, that were once absorbed by my ignorance.

Do not get me wrong, during the initial period everything seemed exceedingly overwhelming and confusing. Just like for everyone else around the world, staying at home while our world was falling apart did not exactly make me feel good. But the next few days made me realise that we were in this together. Social media played a vital role, especially for us students. Through this platform we were able to express ourselves even if it were through the language of memes, prove our solidarity with people all around the globe, and this equipped me with a sense of relief.

I admit I am privileged to stay within the comfort of my home along with my family during this crisis. And it wouldn’t come as a surprise if I said we’ve never bonded more. Instead of baking cookies every Christmas season, that has become our weekly treat now. Our monthly visits to movie theatres have turned into movie nights every weekend. And I could not be gladder. While we do indulge in fun activities, we choose to spend most of our time talking, something our busy lives didn’t let us comply with. Speaking does wonders in such a crisis, aids with anxiety, stress and fear and I don’t hesitate to do it with my family or friends.

As we know staying at home will definitely help in flattening the curve, its effects also reverberate throughout our biodiversity. Countries have never seen clearer skies in decades, citizens not breathed fresher air and our wildlife is thriving, finally able to see better days. Before the pandemic, climate change was our utmost concern and in spite of hearing nature’s desperate calls we chose not to pay heed. And our ignorance aided in increasing the damage. Now that we’ve witnessed it all I hope this crisis will leave a positive impact making us realise that we are in fact a part of nature and need to coexist in order to survive. We might be at the apex of the food chain but we must realise that we are just a mere constituent of it. And not let our greed win over basic humanity. With today’s technological advancements it is obviously not necessary for us to implement lockdowns in order to curb climate change. There are tons of sustainable options which if we adopt, we can make just as much of a difference. And wouldn’t it just make us human if we allowed every living being a fair chance at life?

The lockdown has also given me ample time to find out how poorly biomedical research is funded and encouraged. Is there a way we could have predicted such an unprecedented outbreak? It is might be difficult to answer that. But if there was extensive research conducted we could have been in a better place.

Our fight is still on and will not cease. While I wake up each day with a worry for those suffering, I cannot forget our warriors who are fighting this battle head on for us. Their service to us at such a crucial time is the epitome of humanity. Essential workers whose work is claimed to be underrated are now at the forefront, jeopardising their own lives. A sense of respect should be credited towards all professions irrespective of their titles. We also owe it to the nurses, doctors and government officials who are working relentlessly to keep us safe.

Although victory at this point in time is uncertain but just like mankind has made it through various battles we will as well get through it, always stopping to help one another. Let us not forget the positive outcomes of this pandemic and continue to live a better version of us for ourselves but most importantly for the ones around us

Aakansha Agarwal, MAHE Dubai

Do we really know the world around us? Well, every person will have a different perception on this. Some will say world is out there full of opportunities, it is the media which projects what is happening in the world and so on. According to me however, the world is what you make out of it. So, I can either write about the world, its economics, everything going wrong in in it, or I can write about what the world is around me. We all know about the crisis the world is going through at the moment due to which life has come to a standstill, world has come to a temporary halt. So, rather than writing about every negative fact what we already know, I would rather write about what my world has been in this lockdown and how it is helping me evolve!

This lockdown has given us all the time to reflect upon ourselves. This pause in our busy life was all what was required to miss that we already had. My lockdown is nothing different from any other young adult who is now learning adulting. And by adulting I mean doing those small household chores on their own which sounds small but trust me they aren’t. Amidst this Covid-19 fear where we all are scared and petrified, we all needed this time out. I think only the reason for the pause is inappropriate but not the cause.

I have been in this lockdown for almost a month now in Dubai all alone.! Yes, many of you would be wondering isn’t it great to be all alone, not to worry about anyone else or get irritated. It is maybe but being away from your family in a crisis like this not knowing when you can meet them next, is unsettling. I will not say I am stuck at home because I am not, I am comfortable in my house while there is an enough amount of population who are dealing without food or shelter. Thus, this time in my house has taught me a lot of things which I think I can share (though they are personal). I learnt how to cook because this lockdown will not allow my cook to come and make some warm nice meals for me. Initially I managed with junk food and noodles, with a tacit realization that this can’t go on! But until when right! But being alone also gave me a lot of perspective as I always thought I am a people’s person. I thought I always needed people (my friends or family) around me to keep me uplifted and happy. I always resented the thought of being alone at any point of time but here it is. This curfew made me be all on my own and made me realize that I am self-sufficient, that I am the liveliness of the room. Slowly yet steadily, I started enjoying my own company. Not to sound too dramatic but all the voices in my head which were jumbled before when I used to juggle my life between college, office, friends and a family which lived really far, they all started to become clearer. I have now learned to enjoy or rather value this time where I think I am exploring myself. I still Netflix and chill but at the same time I am in love with the free time I get when I read my favorite mystery novel and I get engrossed in it while sipping hot tea in. my balcony. I remember last when I was so committed to my books was when I was a teenager. When it was a busy life, I used to try to find time for exercise but now I have all the time in the world. All these things which were lost somewhere inside of me because of the race I have been competing since life happened, have suddenly now surfaced and are giving me my personality back if I can call that. I can say I am praying and hoping for the world, but this is what my world has been around me. There are doctors, cleaning staff, police officers doing their job out there, but we can stay indoors to help them and to help ourselves.

Love – An unbelievable experience

Pradyumna Mogre, Manipal Institute of Technology

Life is beautiful with family and friends. Family makes you forget all the bad memories and friends make you forget yourself and the worst of the nightmares. Friends are awesome and make us forget all our sorrows and always give us hand in hand in our toughest times. Friends are just a therapy for one, if one is losing balance in their lives as well as make us understand what we are going through is natural and we need to be positive throughout the life and handle it well with guts.

Love is just the best feeling in the world to have ever experienced. Its not that we had fallen in love. Some start loving from strangers while some start it friendship and rarely from enmity. It somehow begins like another friendship. Just we are casual friends we are not compatible with each other ; we fight a lot. These are some of the lies which we tell it to all around us and usually we had already fallen for each other, at a very early stage. The self-denial always makes us feel that what we have to be but we aren’t that till the moment we realize the importance of that person in our lives.

Love is that feeling, which blooms like a rose, filled around with so many thorns. The thorns being the distancing means between two people. The thorns always make some of the relationship better and better at some stage while it is a test which makes every couple, their bonds become stronger and stronger day by day.

Love never degrades is a myth. At some point of time in one’s life that awesome feeling dies off. Love doesn’t die, it fades with time. If people were perfect with each other, they would have lived a blissful life. Marital bliss is not in having a perfect partner, where you try doing things pleasing to that particular person. The life is blissful, when we pair a perfection with an imperfection. Like pure silicon or Germanium is just semi-conducting. If we just add some defects and alter it’s composition, we get better current. In life, this current is nothing but Perceptions.

Differences are always high when there are imperfections. These are just individualistic perceptions. Actually both of them are marching towards same goal but their ways are different. Life is to be filled with different colors. If you love one thing and your partner does the same there is no variety. It is monotony. At the end of the day, post marriage this monotony fades away and becomes adjustment between the two individuals.

Differences are good but not extremely as they can lead to disturbances in both partner’s space and lives. It’s good you dope an intrinsic semi-conductor. If you dope it extremely, the originality fades away. Logically, please don’t lose yourself in search and making the things look perfect for your partner. Life becomes different as a result of such transformation and you lose your individualistic character or “traits”.

Love is colorful, it is love that accommodates these perceptions and has got a respect to an extent. The extent is till the individual doesn’t cross the line. We hear memes like, Bulaati hai, jaane ka nahi. In that fashion, it is like there will be arguments, but you should not cross the limits, even if your partner does it. You need to be calming or mind soothing that person so that the individual doesn’t face that kind of hardship to cross his limits.

Love teaches an individual everything and every quality that one needs to lead one’s life. Love is like a coin with two sides. There are positives as well as negatives. Negatives like anger, possessiveness, stress, loss of self-esteem. Positives like responsibility, trust, caring, togetherness, truthfulness and many more.

As we say, as you sow, so you reap. Truthfulness is the basis for everything to stand stable for many things for many years. Time and tide saves none . If your truthful to your partner from friendship or be it an arch rivalry, you seem to be keeping up the trust and faith that they instilled in you as a partner forever. Else please don’t curse that individual for all the sorrows. One mistake and you’re gone. In love and relationship nothing counts except being truthful to each other.

Love has lost it’s meaning these days. Love starts with a crush feeling and it goes on the roller-coaster ride of truth and lie. As we know, being truthful even if the things won’t work out, you save that link for future and could move on happily.

Love has become a commodity these days. People are so high that they sell and even trade-off their parents for that person. Individuals had forgot the shear blood which once they had in their mom’s womb and were taken care by their fathers, who cared them to an extent that there was no scratch on them through any means. Life is meaningless, if you forget your roots of love. Without roots, no tree or not even a small plant grows and people are forgetting, for the sake that to get one you need to sacrifice one.

Love is all about loving an individual by his smart traits combined with some small fights with a feeling of anger as well as cooling that person’s anger with pleasant surprises and gifts, not to please but to show that what matters more is their smile not at the cost of forgetting the roots.

Lastly, When I saw her in the premises, it was like oasis in the desert. I loved that moment. I still had not forgot those innocent eyes, which took away my heart in seconds. I still remember that heart, which still keeps me till the day as brother and I came away from the sight, after 18 months.

Life gave me second chance, but I don’t want to take that chance at my door. Fear is not what people say it’s all about not messing with my wounded heart once again, only to get backstabbed with those feelings and words, which have a broader meaning in one’s life.

It’s that, you had parted ways long back, but that agony is ever-lasting. The pain, it’s the worst one. It’s just that I’m a living dead, craving for nothing. I’m unable to move on. The reason being, the way you scolded and the way you made me bold. I cannot imagine anyone else in that place.

As they say “Love never dies

Tanvi Kirtani & Sheikh Yawar, Manipal Institute of Technology

Almost identical to the snap of Thanos’ gauntlet-clad fingers, the world has suddenly come to a pause. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unforeseen changes in our everyday lives at home, at the workplace or out on the streets. The current situation also brings greater things to worry and be anxious about. It makes us feel like we’re fighting a war, preparing for a battle; The world vs the virus. As the number of cases globally has exceeded the 2.5 million mark, representatives of various countries voice that “there is no end in sight”. But, just like every dark cloud, this cloud also comes with its own silver lining.

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted almost every aspect of our lives including our carbon footprint. In the past few weeks, we have learnt what it means to co-exist; that this planet does not only belong to us but also the various other beings we share it with. Is this the Earth resetting itself? A greater question to ask is whether it’s we who are helping to find the cure for the virus or is it the virus helping us find the cure to the damage we’ve caused the planet?

India has some of the most polluted cities in the world but due to the lockdown imposed on the 25th of March, many people claim to have seen the Himalayan ranges from a far for the first time in years. Similarly, the lockdown and decreased boat activity in Italy has resulted in clarity of the canal waters in Venice. This unprecedented yet pleasant change in the environmental conditions proves that global air and water quality can be improved dramatically. However, environmentalists are quick to warn us that these pleasant “side effects” might be temporary due to decrease in air, water and road activity. I think we can all agree that in the environment aspect, the Earth has been the calmest it’s been in a while. If Earthlings can continue living in a world where we keep damaging environmental activity minimal, the current change can be our head start. In simpler terms: We have to continue living this way, to continue living at all.

As of 17 April 2020, COVID-19 has affected 2,158,594 people worldwide and has taken 145,533 lives according to reports from WHO. The pandemic has truly shown that the world has no boundaries and the virus itself does not discriminate against race, ethnicity, age or religion. The world is one and we are all human beings.

It is also commendable that people all around the globe have responded well to the guidelines given by the authorities and have wholeheartedly accepted this role of being and acting like a global citizen. The world has seen epidemics, pandemics and viruses before, but it has never been as interconnected as it is now. The flow of information has never been as easy as now. Countries have never been as accountable to each other as they are currently. The citizens of South Korea are setting an example as the country is able to contain the virus and have brought it down to its knees. We are definitely going to win this battle against COVID-19 if all of us act in debt to each other and act as people of the world rather than people of a singular country but the question is are you going to be part of it and act as a global citizen or not?

School closure and work from home has been a global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with children and parents being able to spend all of their time together. Besides pushing people to adopt a different way of living and working, the spread of the virus has made health officials all around the globe anxious about the mental health of billions of housebound children. But this also means that children get to spend more time with their parents and vice-versa. Families can bring structure to their children’s life through creativity and maintaining a routine. The current pandemic has resulted in loss of predictability, loss of routine and loss of exposure to space. As hustle and bustle of daily life has come to a halt, families can use this time to really connect with each other, get to know their children, share some stories with them and emphasize on the notion that the best way we can overcome these gruelling times is being a family. The lockdown really provides an opportunity for families to re-bond and build a healthy relationship with each other.

But, of course; just like a coin, every story has two sides. Not everybody is privileged enough to spend this time with their family and loved ones. Thousands of people around the world are left stranded and away from home due to the travel restrictions imposed by various countries. Being a victim to this distance is not easy but it makes you realise the importance of spending time with the people you love, that indeed distance does make the heart grow stronger. So, to everyone that has the luxury of being around your family in a crisis situation like this one: Talk to them, play board games with them, ask them how they’ve been, help them remember easier times and to everyone affected by the travel restrictions: Don’t worry, Spring will come once again and wash away the thunder and storming. Until then, just keep holding on.

With each passing day our planet is regaining its strength and everything within it is getting renewed to its default setting. The virus has acted as a cure for our planet and has provided our planet a new life. People are adopting situational changes that they once believed weren’t feasible; the world is definitely going to change after this. Furthermore we are provided with an opportunity to introspect and reshape our thinking. Leaders all around the world have to grab this opportunity with both hands and re-model their strategies in order to continue our existence on this planet. I pray that this pandemic comes to an end soon but I also yearn that its teachings persist within our society.

Anish Unnikrishnan, Manipal Institute of Technology

A social animal's dis-comfort in being trapped inside the four walls of their house is quite evident from the insane activities they are doing presently, endangering many lives. Talking of this pandemic that has hit mankind very brutally, the entire world appears to be engrossed in one or the other kind of dilemma. On one hand, people are seen shredding tears over a myriad of deaths, and on the other the ones who are safe yet, are also wailing with no option left to feed their loved ones amid this period of unemployment. One can also differentiate this third category which doesn't have these worldly head-aches and are just engaged with themselves during this lockdown.

The world is currently experiencing a roller coaster ride, with fear in every toss and turn. The fear and anticipation of what will happen next, how to survive further and a lot more queries with no answer at the moment. Surprisingly, it isn't only the poor that is seen devastated this time as every sector related to human existence is facing a severe crunch right now. Needless to say, the ones that didn't have a roof over their heads are in a state of existential crisis. At the same time, the ones sheltered are uncertain of their future proceedings if this outspread isn't curbed soon.

Whereas, measuring the brighter sides to compensate for the harms caused, there are quite a few reasons to look forward to. The drastic decline in the pollution levels, which was a merely a dream until sometime ago, has somewhat come to reality now. Now every family sits down to dine together and cherishes those rare moments of joy which otherwise was very unlikely to happen. And for everyone out there, lack of time would no more be a potential reason for not having

completed any task, assuming this to be a positive point. You could probably be peacefully reading a book somewhere, or binge watching your favorite show on Netflix/our mythological Ramayana, or making a cup of dalgona coffee, or enjoying being a part of various challenges on social media platforms, etcetra. If doing any of activities keeps you locked inside your houses, there is probably no much harm in any of these.

This is yet another phase where humanity is being tested, and over time we have been able to overcome all the hurdles we encountered. A huge salute to all the medical practitioners and the essential service providers who are battling on the frontline to change the present scenario. It could also be considered as nature's retaliation to all the harms that humans have made it to suffer over time. At-least now, let us try to understand the severity of the situation and not make the resources scarce for the future generations.

If you too are cribbing about your online classes or something unusual happening, hang on we are all definitely together during this pandemic and the best valuable contribution each one of us can make by accepting all of these weird transformations is to just Stay Home until normalcy is regained!

Alexander The Great, and his modern-day parallel

Priyadarshini Rajendran, Manipal Institute of Technology

Alexander “The Great” traversed one half of the entire globe, from Greece to India; fighting, marauding, and conquering new lands that the Grecians had only imagined in tales and travelers’ accounts. A great conquest beyond doubt, his exploits on the battlefield are well known even to this date- the way he fought local kings despite being vastly outnumbered earned him many plaudits. Modern-day cities are named after him. A smart strategist and general commander of the Macedonian phalanx, he was never one to shy away from battle, and fought in the main ranks to ensure the unity of the diverse armies he collected along his conquestorial trail.

Interestingly, one another conquest went the opposite way, originating at the other extreme of the globe, traveling so far and wide while conquering so many countries and bringing them to heel like willful children, in a modern day and age where freedoms are protected and countrymen are proud as can be. This leader has written a tale for the ages, made sure that everyone talks naught else but their conquest and the weak tremble before their might as much as the strong do.

Alexander’s father Philip, was a stout influence on the boy, and Alexander learnt much from his way of battle- within him grew the need to best his lord father when his turn to wear the mantle came. Competition was in his blood, roaring hot and stoked further by his mother’s ambitions and the legacy he wished to leave behind. He conquered lands inhabited by men of every skin color, and sought to learn their cultures and apply them to his own marching assemblage, much to the chagrin of his countrymen. His intelligence and perceptiveness were a boon in comparison to his impulsive nature, vicious tempers and his delusions of grandeur. The Romans saw him as a role model, and everyone wanted to be associated with this great son of the land. His ability to conquer and spearhead so many battles made him a supremely talented leader, and no other could hold all the lands he’d ridden upon after he was dead.

The other conquest too, was influenced by another similar in so many aspects, but has gone above and beyond the impact the previous one made (much like Alexander and Philip). This conquistador sought to make men drop down like flies though, and showed no mercy to anyone they came across. Their own country has sought to unclaim this child they have birthed, and wish not to have anyone associate this commander with their soil. Although a fair warning would have helped so many across the globe, this general sneaks in without proclaiming their intentions. This is no spear thrust to the chest and a quick death. They seek to slowly disarm their opponent, prey on their weaknesses, and leave them struggling to even breathe. The smoking remains on the battlefields of this commander are stacked high with innocents and sullied both.

Alexander’s empire covered some 5.2 million square km and he left behind a lasting legacy, creating trade channels and a cultural bridge between the East and the West. The conquered cities and swathes of land were held by Macedonian generals even 200-300 years after Alexander had perished. “Hellenization”, or the Greek influence on the Asiatic subcontinent, was seen in murals, statues, religions and even in governance. When Alexander finally stopped his conquest it was not due to his weakness- his men and comrades had mutinied and could not, or would not, face other large armies. Years of campaigning had bled them dry and they wished to return home, see their families, live out the rest of their lives in peace- it had been too long they were warring and Alexander’s charisma had seen them through so much, already. Alexander bowed down to their wishes and started back, but his return was not as successful. He died at the young age of 32, caught by a local disease or anguished by the death of a beloved friend or more sinisterly, poisoned. When asked on his deathbed whom he wished to name successor, he succinctly breathed “tôi kratistôi"—"to the strongest" and departed for the great beyond.

This other commander fells left and right, and multiplies the number of men dead overnight, like sleight of hand. Their battle phalanxes need no rest and no home beckons them except the sweet release found in a man’s chest. How will this general die? A swift thrust to the upper arm, with an injection of vaccine that is still a work in progress. And who will be bequeathed the victories and the lands that Corona has conquered? Another disease that might be even more ruthless, if we don’t learn from the blunders and the victories alike.

Dhruvajit Ghosh, Manipal Institute of Technology

The leaves rustled as the wind swept through the empty garden and brought everything back to a standstill. It had been like this for the past few weeks—no soul on the lawns except the occasional rodents who were mesmerized with their newfound freedom. The harsh cacophony of silence had now superseded the garden which was once filled with the sonorous screaming of the kids, rhythmic movement of people walking and the dulcet of older people praying. A dark shadow had engulfed humanity and had ostracized it to be secluded at home.

This period of confinement had stripped people of their freedom to move but made me think about how diminutive we as humans, were against the ever-gracious mother nature. I could have never expected how drastically things had changed in the past few weeks due to COVID-19 pestilence. It has been nothing less than a plot right out of the movie which has shackled all the nations and made them grapple. Yet, all is not lost, and I believe every dark cloud has a silver lining. Our affinity to help and mollify each other in this crisis and rise above with all odds with an indomitable spirit is something history has witnessed and gratified time and again.

I have realized with this lockdown enforced upon us, how prosaic our thoughts and ideas had become. It made me ponder upon how I had ceased to do what I yearned to do in my college due to the hustle and bustle of life. Since childhood, I had an inclination and fondness for reading and writing. While I occasionally wrote bits and pieces in college, my reading and dwelling in their fantasy world had abruptly come to an end and lead to me becoming mundane with pedestrian thoughts. During this lockdown, I relinquished my languidness and voraciously started exploring the wizarding world of Hogwarts, followed by the biography of Steve Jobs and his passion-filled journey of life. From this, I leapt upon the philosophical teaching of Paul Coelho in Alchemist. I remember that week had enervated me, but I had found true happiness in reclaiming the real treasure of life in those books. My mind had finally woken from its deep slumber and now running in an unrestrained manner. This positivity had changed my body mentally and physically. Now I had become more cognizant to the ways of life at home. I had given up all the unproductive and lackadaisical habits and would relentlessly try to be more sanguine in doing my work.

Moreover, writing had become my favourite quotidian work. I started maintaining a diary to write about abstract ideas and thoughts that would strike me arbitrarily during the course of the day and helped me elevate my mental well-being. Although the lockdown had made me a better human being, yet the anguish of unfortunate people writhed my heart. The lockdown had been supremely unfair to the daily wagers community, labourers, construction workers, migrant workers who toiled every day for their nourishment and daily well-being. These integral pillars of society who silently upheld the daily lives of every Indian had been affected the most. Sadly, there was nothing I could have done.

The only way I would like to remember this period of my life would be in which humanity, through harmony and togetherness stood against an invisible enemy, suffered innumerable rampant damages yet showed no signs of antagonism. Instead, brim with composure and the sacrifice and hardship of health care workers, police force and social workers defeated it and brought it down to its knees and dawned upon us a new and rejuvenated world. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

CORONAVIRUS – A BLESSING IN DISGUISE?

Rachita Jain & K.S.Abhiram Kashyap, Manipal Institute of Technology

Ever faced an HR interview? Well, I have.

Just before the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, I was facing a series of evaluations to land a summer internship in a reputable company. After successfully clearing the group discussion and technical rounds, it was now time for the HR interview, an interview which was supposed to be the easiest of all. Quite happy with the turn of events in my favour, I was confident enough to clear this round also and bag the internship.

I entered the room to a friendly-looking man who asked me to take a seat. And then the series of daunting questions began.

1. Describe yourself in a word

2. What are your strengths and weaknesses? How do you justify them?

3. Why do you think we should give you this internship?

4. Why did you pick this company? Is it because of the value its brand name will provide you to the CV?

Each question tougher than the previous one and my calmness wavering after each consequent question, the interview ended and I walked out of the room as fast as my jittery legs would allow me. My interview went terribly bad and the results only confirmed my worst suspicions.

Soon after this incident, summer vacations were declared, giving me enough time to think deeply about the interview. Why did my interview go bad? Where did it go amiss? How should I improve so that this doesn’t happen again?

After sleepless nights and intense introspection, I realised that I couldn’t answer the questions, not because I didn’t know how to answer, but because I didn’t know the answers itself!

I didn’t know myself- it was the most shameful discovery of all.

Between completing notes and writing assignments to reaching classes on time, I absolutely disregarded my zeal to find my own passion, the essence of my being. Striving for excellence in everything, I forgot to question myself whether this really mattered. Caught up in the mundane routine of the university life, I rarely had the time, even for my hobbies.

So engrossed in the monotony of everyday tasks, I ceased to see the bigger picture, the picture of my future. It is said that “Art is a line around your thoughts” but how was I supposed to create a masterpiece when all my thoughts were haywire? How was I supposed to achieve my dream of becoming renowned if I didn’t know which hues of colours would blend in to create a uniquely endearing mess that could draw people?

Though coronavirus brought doom to this planet, it’s rampant nature gave me a blessing- the blessing of time. And since the professors were taking online classes and the country was in a state of lockdown, I was free to do whatever I wanted from the comfort of my home this time. With no proverbial Damocles’ sword hanging over my neck, I was now liberated to choose the shades of my future. For the first time in years, life felt uncertain yet unshackled.

But the quest to find the right colours wasn’t all romantic. I was lost, didn’t know where to start, had no direction; so I started indulging and investing myself in various activities, all at once. From cooking, to coding, to writing, to reading non-fiction, I was leaving no stone unturned to find my niche and aiding me were the MOOCs (Massively Online Open Courses). While I liked some of these activities, others I didn’t enjoy as much, but I learned a lot during this process- and not just the technical details, but also the metaphorical ones. The biggest lesson I learnt was to find happiness in the smallest of places. The joy of seeing the smile after giving my grandmother a glass of lemonade at noon on a hot summer day is far more gratifying than acing a difficult test that I studied for the entire night before. Trying different things at once was exceedingly enlightening. I had even overcome my greatest fear, the fear of failure. I gained confidence after crossing milestones outside my comfort zone.

Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is to remain an artist once they grow up.” As children, we used to let our imaginations run free- while some of us wanted to become doctors, others wanted to astronauts, dancers, teachers or even political leaders. But as we grew up, the expectations of society weighed so heavily on us that it restrained, almost shackled the artist within us. We became afraid to fail because we were too soft-hearted and would do anything to escape from our parents’ disappointment. Once we grasp the fact that we are responsible for our decisions, we pass this phase and start taking life into our hands. This is my phase of taking life in my hands, and this novel epidemic brought me time to explore my options before tracing a path for myself.

While it is considered to be one of the most unfortunate incidents that has ever plagued Earth, it gave me time to rekindle the fire of creativity that our education systems have tried to kill within us. I remain optimistic that countless others along with me have taken this time out to get a hang of themselves and be better persons.

The new Religion

Aditya Shankar Jha, Manipal Institute of Technology

From the length of your pant, to the product we buy on Flipkart and Amazon. From the street number we live in to the 2 wheeler vehicle we bought last year, we are all surrounded by DATA . You might have heard the phrase -“Data is the new currency” or even “Data is the new oil”, but these are the old school things. Data is the new Religion.

Data says that the universe consists of data flows, and the value of any phenomenon or entity is determined by its contribution to data processing. Data was born from the explosion two scientific waves. In the 150 years since Charles Darwin published on the origin of species, the lfe sciences have come to see organisms as biochemical algorithms. Data puts the two together, pointing out that exactly the same mathematics applies to both biochemical and electronic algorithms. Data therefore collapse the barrier between animals and machines.

Data is mainly divided between two subparts: computer science and biology. Of the two , biology is more important. It was the biological embracement of data that brought the two together under common umbrella. You may not agree that the organisms are algorithms and that the cows, apple, cheese and human beings are just different methods for processing data. Economists increasingly interpret the economy ,too, as a data processing system. We(laypeople) believe that the economy consists of peasants growing wheat ,workers manufacturing clothes and customers buying cars and underpants. Yet experts see the economy as a mechanism forgathering data about desires and abilities, and turning this data into decisions.

According to this free market capitalism and state controlled communism aren’t competing ideology, ethical thinking or political institution/thinking. At bottom , they are competing data processing system. CAPITALISM uses data by directly connecting all the producers and consumers to one another and allowing them to exchange information freely to make decisions.

On a much grander scale , if investors predicts increased demand for bread, they will buy shares of biotech firms that engineer more prolific wheat strains. The inflow of capital will enable the firms to speed up their research, thereby providing more wheat faster, and controlling shortage of bread. Data processing considerations also explain why capitalists favour lower taxes. Heavy taxations means that a large part of all capital accumulates in one place-the state- and consequently more and more decisions have to be made by a single processor, namely the government. In extreme cases , when the taxes are exceeding high, almost all the capital ends in government’s hand, and so the government also calls the shots. It dictates the price of bread, the locations of bakeries, and the research and development budget. In a free market, if one processor makes a wrong decision, mistakes can be catastrophic.

This is extreme situation in which all the data is processed and all the decisions are made by a single central processor and is called COMMUNISM. In a communist economy people allegedly work according to their abilities, and receive according to their needs. In order words, government takes 100% of your profits, and ,decides what you need and supply those needs. Though no country ever realised this scheme in its extreme form, the soviet union came as close as they cloud.

FINALLY, capitalism didn’t defeat communism because capitalism was more ethical, because individual liberties are sacred or because God was angry with communists. Rather , capitalism won the cold war because ‘distributed data processing works better than centralised data processing’ , at least in period of accelerating technological changes. The central committee of the Communist Party could not deal with rapidly changing the world in late 20^th century. When all data is accumulated in one secret bunker, and all important decisions are taken by a group of elderly orthodox leader , you can produce nuclear bombs , you won’t get any Apple, Amazon or a Wikipedia.

Why should we worry?

Companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon , Apple, Facebook want to go much deeper than gadgets, wearables and shopping. The market of DNA testing is currently growing in leaps and bound. One of its leader is ‘23andMe’ a private company founded by Anne Wojcicki, former wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The name ’23andMe’ refers to 23 pairs of chromosomes that contain our genome, the message being that my chromosomes have a very special relationship with me. Anyone who can understand what the chromosomes are saying can tell you the things about yourself you never even suspected.

If you want to know what pay $99(which in Indian currency is around 99 * 76.10 = 7533 rupees as of now when I am writing this) and they will send you a small package with tube. You spit into the tube, seal it and send it back to their concerned address. There the DNA in your saliva is read, and you receive a result online. You get a list of potential health hazard you face and your genetic predisposition for more than 90 traits and conditions ranging from blindness to baldness. Since it is all based on statistics, the size of the company database is key to making accurate predictions. Hence the first company to build a giant genetic database will provide customer with best prediction and corner the market. US biotech companies are increasingly worried that strict privacy laws in the USA combined with Chinese disregard for individual privacy may hand China the genetics market on the plate. As India as always will remain a consumer by importing 70% technologies and goods from these two giants.

A recent study commissioned by Google’s nemesis- FACEBOOK- has indicated that already today the Facebook algorithm is a better judge of human personality than people’s friends, parents and even girlfriends. The study was conducted on 86,200 volunteers who have a Facebook account and who completed a hundred item personality questions. The Facebook algorithm predicted the volunteers answers based on monitoring their Facebook like button. The more likes the more better the predictions.

The prediction were compared with those of work colleagues , friends, family and girlfriend/boyfriend.

Amazingly the algorithm need only 10 likes in order to outperform the prediction of the work colleagues. It needed 70 likes to outperform friends and 150 likes to outperform family and 300 likes to outperform husbands/wives. In other words, if you happen to have clicked 300 likes, the Facebook algorithm can predict your opinions and desires, better than your husband or wife.

“People might abandon their own psychological judgements and rely on computer when making important life decision, such as choosing activities, career paths, or even romantic partners. It is possible that such data driven decision will improve people’s life and vice-versa”

On a more sinister note , the same study implies that in next Indian elections, Facebook , WhatsApp, Tik-Tok could know not only the political opinions of over 1 billions of Indians, but also who among them are critical to swing votes, and how these votes might swung. Facebook could tell you that in Uttarr Pradesh the race is between BJP and Congress is particularly close, Facebook could identify the 12,34,567 voters who still haven’t made up their mind , and Facebook could determine what each candidate needs to say in order to tip the balance. This was what happened in Brexit. How does Facebook obtain this priceless political data???? We provide it for free.

In 20^th century our personal data is probably the most humans still have to offer, and we are giving it to the tech giants in exchange for email services and funny cats videos. Today we are moving towards digital books than printed volumes. Devices such as Amazon Kindle are able to collect data on their users while reading the book. For example, our kindle can monitor which part of the book we read fast, and which slow, on which page we took a break and on which page we abandoned the book. If kindle is upgraded to face recognition and biometric sensors, it can tell what made us laugh and what made us sad. Soon , books will read us while we are reading them. And while we quickly forget most of what we read, Amazon will never forget a thing. It will enable Amazon to recommend us a suitable book , and also to know exactly who we are and how to turn us on or off.

Wrapping up

We cannot really predict the future. All the scenario mentioned above should be understood as possibilities rather than prophecies. When we think about future, our horizons are usually constrained by present day ideologies and social system. Democracy encourages us to believe in a democratic future; capitalism does not allow us to imagine a non-capitalist alternative; and humanism makes it difficult for us to envisage a post human destiny. At most, we sometimes recycle past events and think about them as alternative futures.

Rishi Agarwal, Manipal Institute of Technology

The world around us is changing every instance now. It is very different to the world that we are used to living in. Not just the basic mannerisms of the people are changing but each day new challenges are coming up for which we were never prepared. The conventional tool cannot fight them and out of box thinking, is the need of the hour.

The eight-hour day says that twenty-four hours of the day should be spent as follow:

“eight hours of rest, eight hours of recreation and eight hours of work”.

Although the lockdown has not compromised the first two, for most of the people, the eight hours stipulated for work needs a thoughtful redistribution in this lockdown.

Many people have considered this as a break from the fast-paced city life. Things have slowed down on the outside and hasten up inside. However, the focus has shifted to a more positive paradigm. They are is focusing more on themselves, and spending much more time with the family, that was long over-due.

A family that would hardly meet for a dinner together is now not only meeting for all the three meals but also spending most of the time playing, singing and watching movies together. The daily chores have been divided among each other and each one has to do their job. This has also made us appreciate the work done by domestic helpers and homemakers who had been taken for granted until now.

It is said, “domestic work is something that is not realized until someone has not done it.”

It is not an easy task yet every day these domestic helpers carry it out effortlessly. The world will see them from a different view now.

The lockdown has also made us realize that our individual problems are not the biggest. We fight and get upset over things that seem so petty now. There people who have been infected and are suffering, there are people who are stuck in various places, people suffering from disease other than Covid-19 are not getting the required treatment. People are not able to attend the funeral of close ones. Daily wageworkers have the survival of their family at stake. So many people are going through mental-health related issues. These are just to name a few. As someone said, “I can only describe life in just three words: It goes on.”

However, amidst such negativity, there are also examples of positivity and hope. The google trends in its recent article shared that the phrase “How can I help?” is being searched manifold. Humans are standing for each other. People are looking out for ways to contribute to the society. People are carrying out food donation drives in places where the government cannot reach. Many have joined hands with NGOs with their contributions to help those who are in need.

In this situation of a world crisis and a world pandemic, people are strengthening themselves. They are looking for inner peace. Those who are used to getting anxious are working on staying calm. Those who are used to getting angry, are trying to be patient. People are also focusing on themselves. The paint box which had layers of dust, is being used again. The guitar that had become a showpiece, is being struck again. People who would only order food from restaurants are trying new recipes that they watched on YouTube the other night. People are reminiscing the days of travel by watching travel video of the tours they had made. In all of these, health and fitness is not behind. People are working out and also keeping a check on the amount and the quality of food they are consuming.

All in all, it is a good change which nobody would have taken out time for and in this process, Mother Earth is healing. Pollution levels have come down. Water has become clearer. Few species of the animals have come back. Although, people are eagerly waiting to step out of their houses, and restore the usual life, this period will leave a huge impact on their lifestyle. People will focus on healthier habit, proper sanitation, quality food and on spending quality time with loved ones and with themselves. Things are never perfect, but from time to time, we need to change ourselves, we need to upgrade ourselves, all for the better.