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Is Delhi Government Doing Enough to Feed the Needy?

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Amid global lockdown due to coronavirus, India is grappling with certain additional issues such as feeding the poor and an upcoming water crisis.

On 25th March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation for the second time concerning the novel coronavirus. He mentioned that to win the battle against this foreign virus, India would go into an unprecedented 21-day lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 starting from 25th March till 15th April.

As a result of the lockdown, many citizens grew apprehensive about arranging food for such a long period without receiving wages. The workers depending on daily wages and those who work in the private sector continue to struggle without livelihoods. To tackle this issue, India announced that $22.6 billion will be set aside to ensure that no citizen goes to sleep with an empty stomach.

Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister, Delhi also announced that the Government has tied up with many NGOs, religious institutions, and private companies to implement the free meal scheme that includes providing meals to 2 lakh people. The free food distribution system will be scaled up to feed around 4 lakh people in the national capital. Around 234 night shelters in the city are catering to those who need meals. Lunch and dinner are also being served at 325 government schools.

Seher, a student of Hansraj College opined: “The government may be doing its best, but I’m doubtful whether the food will be easily accessible to everyone. The people living in remote areas may not be able to travel back and forth to obtain food on a daily basis.”

As the country witnesses a spike in the number of cases, thousands of migrant workers working in Delhi NCR wish to return to their villages despite the lockdown. A large number of people huddled close together while disregarding precautionary measures such as social distancing. Many daily wage workers claimed that before being affected by the coronavirus, starvation and mere survival is their biggest concern. Delhi Health Minister also provided reassurance to the citizens that the Government was making arrangements to feed the needy and leaving the city was needless.

Many NGOs have come forth to help the needy. Delhi Government is aiming to double the supply of ration, but it may not be enough to help everyone because night shelters opened by the government and the rations may not be accessible to many citizens. In addition to this, travelling amid the lockdown is not feasible.

 

Feature image credits- DNA India

Suhani Malhotra

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Campus Central

Self-care during Times of Pandemic

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With an increasing number of people getting isolated because of social distancing or quarantine, the ‘free-time’ that we have can be overwhelming and mentally isolating at times. 

Between the constant news alerts, memes and numerous WhatsApp forwards, it’s normal to feel overwhelmed, anxious and tense because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. With too much time in your hand, it gets all the more important to take care of oneself.

 

Routine for the win

There is too much uncertainty right now. While you cannot control the situation around, you can take charge of your daily actions and form a routine. Getting enough sleep and proper nutrition, video calling loved ones, prayer, and breathwork makes one feel better. Opt for indoor exercises, solo dance and singing sessions. 

 

Get Creative

The best way to divert one’s mind from negative thoughts is to spend creative quality time with oneself. Read, research, draw, paint, sing, dance, cook – anything that you like, now is the time to start it again. Pick up a new hobby – you could learn a new instrument, a different language or try gardening maybe. 

self-care illustration aishwaryaa

Image Credits: Abbey Lossing

 

Political Science student at SGTB Khalsa College, Suhani says, “I’ve begun painting. I’m trying to focus on learning new things. I go through online courses and tutorials. It keeps me productive and distracted from all the other things.” 

You could also start a journal. It doesn’t have to be all Tumblr-ish fancy – begin with writing the best and worst things about your day, something you are grateful for or a new skill that you learnt. Make a list of things you’ve always wanted to do, it’ll be a reminder when boredom or anxiety starts kicking in.

 

Connect and reconnect, virtually though

While you are at a ‘social distance’ from your loved ones, you should still be connected to your college friends, old school friends, cousins and family. Set up video calls or write them an email. Form a Netflix party or binge read books together – trust me, there is no better time than this to reconnect with them. In the hectic college days, we often miss out on family time. Amidst the lockdown, now that everyone is probably working from home, talk to your parents and grandparents. Go through old pictures and revisit those memories. 

Prachi, a second-year student at Indraprastha College for Women says, “I’ve been helping my mother with cooking all the meals and it actually helps me spend a lot of time. We talk and our bonding has improved so much. Learning new recipes is almost a therapy now.”

Learning to use technology in a socially healthy way is crucial in times like these. React to stories, share memes and write good things about each other – a little online kindness certainly goes a long way.

 

News and Alerts

There are a whole lot of rumors, fake news and solutions about the virus that keep circulating. Because it’s crucial to stay informed, refer to news from official sources only. However stop when you feel it is getting too much. Take a break. It can get upsetting to see the updates, videos and images repeatedly. 

 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the following are common signs of distress –

  • Feeling of numbness, fear or anxiety
  • Changes in energy levels and appetite
  • Difficulty in sleeping due to upsetting thoughts
  • Nervousness

Look out for these and talk to your closed ones about it. It gets important to let it out. However, remember friends and family are not therapists. Seek professional help if the need arises. William James had said, “The greatest weapon against stress is your ability to choose one thought over another.”

While the pandemic is expected to persist, you must stay composed and spending quality time with yourself can help the most. Preserve your mental health while avoiding physical proximity.

 

Feature Image Credits: Hannah Jacobs for Yahoo Beauty

Aishwaryaa Kunwar

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Arts & Culture

Manipulation of Historical Facts in the Political Realm

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Looking at recent election campaigns, and the political climate of the country in general, several things come to light, one of them being the twisting of historical facts.

In his novel 1984, Orwell says, “Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” 

Speaking at the Banaras Hindu University, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “Putting together our history, embellishing it and rewriting it is the responsibility of the country, its people and historians.”

Of course, efforts to do this have been underway for a few years now-during its first tenure, the culture ministry under the BJP Government set up a fourteen-member committee to present a report that will help the government rewrite certain aspects of Indian History, to prove that Hindu scriptures are not myths and that today’s Hindus descend directly from India’s first inhabitants from thousands of years ago. 

India, unfortunately, is no stranger to such practices. Read Indian school textbooks, and you’ll see omissions of history from the dark days of Indira Gandhi’s tenure as Prime Minister. In textbooks from Rajasthan, you’ll see a watered-down version of Ambedkar’s fight against the oppressive caste system, where instead of representing him accurately as a vehement opponent of the caste system ingrained into the then prevalent structure of Hinduism, he is portrayed as a “Hindu Social Reformer” akin to the likes of Dayanand Saraswati and K B Hedgewar, the founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Nehru said that Mahmud Ghazni was a lover of art (the same Mahmud Ghazni who destroyed idols and temples in India). Gandhi is praised and hailed as a reformer and father of the nation but nowhere do we mention his obsession with the caste system

This cherry-picking of facts is incredibly problematic. It is the job of historians to present facts as they are, good or bad. However, politics is a different game altogether, and when contentions in History come into the political realm, things get ugly. Integrity is a crucial part of historical method, except no compulsion is there on politicians to be morally prudent.

When politicians are allowed to twist facts in order to pursue a particular narrative, they not only change what people think happened in the past. The key to the future lies in revisiting history, thus, history becomes an incredibly powerful tool to influence people’s emotions and actions. 

Coming back to the status quo, that is exactly what the current government is doing. Historian Romila Thapar says “if the Hindus are to have primacy as citizens in a Hindu Rashtra (kingdom), their foundational religion cannot be an imported one.” It aims to revisit history in a manner where it establishes the current Hindu majority as indigenous. That, of course, comes at a cost, which here are the core values that make India what it is. That is precisely why it’s best to ensure that History is left outside of the political realm. It is far too dangerous a tool to be left in the hands of people like politicians, who’re guided by principles that primarily benefit themselves.
Image Credits: India TV

Khush Vardhan Dembla

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Features

The Journey of Corona from Wildlife to Humans

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The increase in the spread of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 is giving a major threat to the entire world. Being declared as a pandemic it has already killed around 11,888 people across the globe. But, from where did this deadly virus emerge out suddenly? What was its origin? What led to its development as a pandemic?

When the entire world was celebrating New Year’s Eve the health officials at China confirmed the spread of pneumonia resembling mysterious disease. The first case appeared in December 2019 and very soon it got transmitted, grasping the entire county in its deadly claws. In December 2019, 27 of the first 41 people hospitalised (66%) passed through a market located in the heart of Wuhan city in Hubei province. But, What’s so special about Wuhan?

Scientist while searching for its origin got intrigued by the Hunan food market in Wuhan it wasn’t conclusive proof, but the Chinese government immediately ordered to shut down the entire market. An epidemic like this wasn’t something new to the Chinese government a similar outbreak known as SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome got introduced in the Chinese Mainland in 2002. Evidence pointed out of its birth in another wet market located in southern China, just like Hunan.

Majority of the fatal viruses which affect humans arise from animals. For instance, some of the viruses that cause Influenza come from pigs, Ebola most likely from bats and HIV from Chimpanzees. Continuing with this trend scientists demonstrate some proofs which point Coronavirus of being originated from either Bats or Pangolins. The exceptional ability of viruses to move between species was responsible for letting Corona reach humans. But, even for that, an encounter between all the intermediate and the final specie is a must and that’s exactly where the Hunan market comes in.

“It was not a surprise at all, and I think it was not a surprise to many scientists. The cages are stacked one over another. Animals at the bottom are often soaked with all kinds of liquid. Animal excrement, blood, pus or whatever the liquid they are receiving from the living animals above,” said Peter Li, Associate Professor, the University of Houston-Downtown in an interview with Vox. However, Pengalins or Bats being the final culprit has not been confirmed yet and is still being researched on. A wet market is a market where live animals are slaughtered and are sold for human consumption. Often, the lack of proper hygiene standards at a site where animals are killed and sold simultaneously leads to the origin of such horror causing diseases. But what makes only the Chinese wet markets as the most dangerous in the world?

Wet markets in China, unlike all the others, sell a wide variety of wild animals. Ranging from mice and snakes to peacocks and ostriches they sell everything. And why do they sell it? The answer lies back in the 1970s. China during that time was facing a serious food crisis. The communist regime ruling the country was unable to feed its people, millions died the famine became almost impossible to cope with. Owing to the severity of the condition the government uplifted the ban on private farming, while the rich companies producing pork and meet dominated the trade some of the poor farmers switched to raising wild animals for sustenance.

“At the very beginning, it was mostly peasant household, backyard operations of Turtles, for example. That’s how wildlife farming started to lay the ground. The government needed to encourage people to make living through whatever productive activities they can find them in,” informed Li, further in the interview. Then, in 1988 the Chinese government did one of the biggest errors of all time. It passed the wildlife protection act under which it called all the wild species as the resources of the state and provided protection to the individuals or units engaged in the development or the utilisation of wildlife in accordance with the law and with that, a new industry was born.

With the implementation of this devastating law, not only the number of wild animals but also the variety of species available for consumption increased. A bear farm which started with three started breeding and domesticating thousands of bears. With all this the possibility of selling an infection causing diseased animals increased along. After the 2003 outbreak, the government banned the trade in wildlife but only after a few months it legalized 54 animal species to sell and consume. Though the wildlife trade contributes very tiny in China’s gigantic GDP it’s the industry’s enormous lobbying capability which makes it unable for the government to declare it as illegal. Soon, after the 2019 tragedy, the country has again temporarily shut all similar markets and is facing pressure from the other countries to make the ban permanent.

 

Feature Image Credits: Bangkok Post 

Kriti Gupta 

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Campus Central

10 Things you can do till the 31st

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As the world gets engulfed into a pandemic with mass-hysteria and banging thaalis at the drop of a hat, what can one do till 31st?

Cramped up between internals and 9 AM lectures, we were dying for the mid-semester breaks, but no one, absolutely no one knew what was in store for us. On 12th March, the University of Delhi (DU) Registrar declared the postponement of classes, exams, internals till 31st March, 2020. Stuck within the four walls of your house, how can you make the maximum out of social distancing and quarantine? 

 

  • Bond With Your Family 

Agreed, not everyone has a healthy relationship with their parents and quarantine can take an emotional toll on them, let’s get together and cry over our collective trauma. For the rest of us, we cry our hearts out on ghar ka khana and mom’s remembrance, try to relive the pre-college days, try to re-bond and repair the broken threads of your family. As Karan Johan says, ‘it’s all about loving your parents.’

 

  • Binge! Binge! Binge! 

On a normal college-day schedule, we’ll spend the night away binge-watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine, complaining the next day whilst missing the 9 AM lecture and bragging about our body’s ability to function in three-hours’ sleep. Now, all you got to do 24*7 is to binge your heart’s content out, and with absolutely no one asking you to go out. Aditi Gutgutia, a student of Lady Shri Ram College spends her time binge-watching on CID, reliving her childhood, you see. 

 

  • Reconnect With Your School Friends 

People change, old bonds break and there is no shame in trying to reconnect with them (unless they are toxic, then stay 3000 light-years away). They are probably just one call away and equally bored switching from one app to another. My personal favourite would be playing online games with them, online quizzes, drawing oranges, carrots, and bananas. 

 

  • Read & Write! 

That Agatha Christie that you bought from a book store in Kolkata is waiting to be touched, felt, explored, devoured. Open your bookshelf and finally finish that book you have been postponing since you started college. Great reads produce great writers, don’t forget to write, other than being a great coping mechanism and an outlet to channelise your deepest thought, writing is relaxing. As Prabhanu Kumar Das has been productively utilising the uncalled for breaks diving into his literature. “I have been reading my usual college readings, trying to expand on my understanding of marxism, reading Lenin, some Bukowski, I have been writing articles and poetry.”

 

  • Journaling

We wouldn’t have ‘The Diary Of A Young Girl’ unless Anne Frank journaled through the holocaust. Record. Write. Vlog. We are narrating the tales of COVID-19 and quarantine ruining our attendance and non-existent social life. Shakir Subhan or the ‘Mallu Traveller’ continued to vlog as he was admitted into an isolation ward at a government hospital in Kannur. Several patients have been regularly tweeting or maintaining blogs, tracking their symptoms and giving regular updates.

 

  • Do-It-Yourself! 

Those aesthetic notebook covers, t-shirts, gifts, phone covers, that you saw on a YouTuber’s video, do it, girl! All of us are going to come out as chefs and bakers with the over the top Maggi experiments and mud cakes. With time by our side, unleash your hidden creative genius and explore. Experiment and be the Rancho you always wanted to be, like Akshat Arora says, “I am so bored out of my wits that I uninstalled my Windows, downloaded Linux and then downloaded Windows again. My laptop hates me now.”

 

  • Meditate

Quarantine can take a toll on one’s mental health, increasing anxiety and making it extremely stressful for some. Center for Disease Control and Prevention enlists a set of guidelines on how to manage and cope with building anxiety and stress. Meditation can if not cure but reduce and help one calm their senses. Amidst raging fear, hysteria, and deaths, it is essential to look after one’s mental health too.

 

  • Chill Minus The Guilt

An idle mind is a devil’s workshop, or is it? Productivity guilt teaches you that it is pertinent to keep on working, be productive, produce any physical or tangible change. The pandemic hysteria can be too drastic on one, it is alright to sit idle, stare at the wall and contemplate one’s existence. Take a break. Year-long we are overwhelmed with assignments, internships, society, for once, as we are asked to stay put, in silence, do that, minus the guilt. 

 

  • Clean & Organise

Our life is a mess doesn’t mean our rooms have to be, too. Clear that wardrobe, fold that bedsheet, clear your study table, organise your bookshelf. My friends and I have uncovered childhood mark sheets and assignments from the bottom of our school bags. Help organise and rearrange the house, help your family out, stay hygienic, clean and sanitize!

 

  • Look Out For Others

Elderly and the immunodeficient are vulnerable to COVID-19. Keep your parents and grandparents under check, look after yourself, self-care is essential. In times of such dystopia, it is all the more important to stay strong and fight this together. 

Students of Mumbai University were met with an unforeseen postponement of their examinations, Nandini Sukhija, a student of the same, says, “I study a bit because my remaining four exams got postponed. Since all my family members are working from home, we usually find time to play cards or Ludo. I plan to spend a self-care day, using face masks and hair care products. I might as well start with a new tv series.”

Feature Image Credits: Anukriti Mudgil for DU Beat

Anandi Sen

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Hansraj College Shuts Down Hostel due to Coronavirus

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In a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19, hostels in various University of Delhi (DU) colleges have issued strict guidelines, where Hansraj College has asked the students to vacate the hostel.

 

Colleges across DU, in addition to suspending classes, have also asked students to follow strict guidelines in order to prevent the spread of Novel Coronavirus. In certain cases, the colleges have even asked students to vacate the hostel campuses.

 

The hostel administrations of Lady Shri Ram College, Sri Venktateswara College, Indrapastha College for Women (IPCW), and Hansraj College have asked students to leave the hostel premises. On 16th March 2020, the Hostel administrations of Hansraj College and IPCW released a notice asking hostellers to vacate the premises within 48 hours as a measure to prevent the spread of Novel Coronavirus. The students were asked to not be in the hostel from 18th March to 31st March, as a precautionary measure. The students of IPCW were asked to go to their local guardians and were also asked to not step out of the college for any other reason.

 

However, this sudden order has caused problems for various students who suddenly have to make arrangements to go back home or find an alternate residence in Delhi. Speaking to DU Beat, Vinay Pratap Singh, a third-year student at Hansraj College said “It’s very difficult for 3rd year students as we are having upcoming Masters entrance examination and it’s difficult to get all those readings to home, and some students can’t even afford to go.”

“Yes it will affect our studies, most of us will try to stay in Delhi maybe at friends’ houses but in this case people will suffer economic burden, which isn’t fair, but we can’t do anything because of this pandemic.”

 

“Many students belong to remote parts of the country and it isn’t as easy for them to make travel arrangements quickly. The hostel administration in this situation could’ve chosen to take measures to quarantine the hostel or take other safety measures, but right now we have no choice but to comply.”

 

However, experts have said that asking students to vacate might not be the wisest of moves. “I don’t think they should be sent even if a coronavirus case is detected,” said T Sundararaman, global coordinator, People’s Health Movement, in conversation with Careers360. “While there is aggregation in the campus, there is aggregation in the community too. It is not only during the travel that they put others or themselves at risk, but the community is also there. It can be catastrophic.”

 

Forcing students to vacate hostels in the middle of a pandemic means making them travel. “They should not be travelling in a crowded bus or train. They should not be in a group,” said another public health expert on the condition of anonymity. But making students leave campus will compel them to do just that – take buses, planes or trains home. “Younger people are at lesser risk,” she continued, “But they could very well be the carriers of the virus and that is why they should not mingle in a crowd.”

 

Other hostels in DU have not gone for such drastic measures yet, they have stuck to advising students to not roam around needlessly and take necessary health precautions. Kirori Mal College has asked hostellers to stay inside the premises and has banned the entry of anyone from outside, including hostellers who had gone outside temporarily. Daulat Ram College has too issued a precautionary notice requesting students to avoid going out.

 

Across the country, institutions such as Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have also asked students to vacate hostels. What remains to be seen is whether authorities from remaining DU Hostels will follow suit.

 

Feature Image Credits: Aakarsh Gupta for DU Beat

Khush Vardhan Dembla

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DUB News

DU Student Allegedly Accused of Sexual Assault

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Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault

A woman, who has asked not to be named in the report, recently posted several stories on Instagram, alleging that Vaibhav, a student from Delhi University sexually assaulted and forced himself on her.

One of the stories posted by her describes the incident. It states that she met Vaibhav on 13th march, with whom she had connected with on Instagram. After meeting him, she had to go to a party to which she invited him, the party ended at 2 A.M. At that point, Vaibhav had suggested that he would book an Oyo but out of courtesy and considering safety, she invited him to spend the night at her flat.

The story goes on to say “at around 3 A.M, Vaibhav started touching me a bit sexually and I pulled away to make it clear that I am not interested. Guess he could not take a no and started forcing himself on me, I pulled away, said no a billion times, asked him to stop, begged, told him that he was making me uncomfortable and that I was scared while he pinned my hands against the bed and kept assaulting my body. When I kept saying please stop, he replied with “HOW? HOW DOES ONE EVEN STOP?” While I kept shivering under him and telling him that I am scared, he replied with ” WHAT ARE YOU SCARED OF? BACCHI THODI HAI? HAVE NOT YOU HAD A BOYFRIEND?” my body felt numb and weak and I was constantly shaking.” She also posted screenshots of the conversations with Vaibhav after the incident, both of which have been attached below.

image 2 image 1

On reaching out to Vaibhav, he completely denied the allegations stating that while they had gotten “intimate” at the flat when she had stated that she was uncomfortable, he “stopped getting physical with her and promised we won’t be.” He further goes on to point out how he had tried several times to leave at the party from her friend’s place and had even booked a cab to go back home and later an Oyo, both times he says that she had asked him to stay and told him there was no problem with staying. He repeatedly points to him being uncomfortable and how he tried several times to leave as a sign of his innocence. He also alleges that there were four other people in the flat and she was under the influence of alcohol. He states that he has been fired from his job on the 15th after the allegations reached his employers and how he has been bombarded with messages targeting him, his friends, and his family.

When we reached out to the victim, she stated that she tried to file an FIR yesterday but didn’t do so as she didn’t want the news to reach her family. When asked about how Vaibhav had said that he had tried to leave, she told us that even though he had booked an ola, he had no intentions of leaving because even before they had met, he had informed her that he won’t be going back home because he had fought with his parents and would book an Oyo room. She says that this was preplanned as she had said that she wanted to just find a place to sleep at her friend’s party around 2 A.M but Vaibhav had said that he was “uncomfortable using someone else’s bathroom.” She points out that out of common courtesy, she had told him not to book an Oyo room and spend the night at her flat since it was already 2:30 A.M. She also alleges that when they woke up, and she had to leave around 8 A.M, Vaibhav tried to force himself on her again but she managed to call a friend and pretend that they were talking about packing and leaving.
Prabhanu Kumar Das

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Feature Image Credits: SafeCity

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Admission Season

DU to Digitalise the Entire Admission Process, Portal to be Released Soon

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With a thought of advancement on the previous admission methodology, Delhi University (DU) plans to make the entire admission process for the academic session 2020-2021 online. The pre-admission processes and the portal are likely to start from first week of April.

Earlier for the academic batch 2019-2020 only the form filling, course selection, fee submission, and the availability of the University admission form were online. But, after the declaration of the cut-offs the students had to go to their chosen colleges for document submission, stand in long queues and fill several forms to get admitted. However, this time DU plans to omit all the unnecessary trouble by making the entire process tech friendly and online.

An Admission Committee headed by Rajiv Gupta, Chairman, Dean Student’s Welfare (DSW), and 15 other members has been created. Besides this, this time a separate ‘Dean of Admissions’ headed by Shobha Bagai has also been set up by the University.

Regarding the process, a DU official said to The Indian Express that, “The process will provide relief to both students and teachers students come from various parts of the country and abroad, parents and students face a lot of issues during admissions. Thus, making admissions online, the students will be able to take admissions without running from pillar to post,”  The idea regarding the same was proposed in a recent meeting of the admissions committee.

The official further told that after the declaration of the cut-offs students will be required to select a college, submit scanned copies of their documents pay an online fees, after which they will be provided with a month to visit the college for getting their documents verified. Although the same official also informed that the the proposal will be submitted and presented in the Academic Council meeting for further suggestions and only after that its implementation can be confirmed.

Feature Image Credits : Saubhagya Saxena for DU Beat

Kriti Gupta

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Arts & Culture

The Difference a Kufi Cap Makes: A Social Experiment

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I have often heard the phrase, “It’s not easy to be a Muslim in India”. Therefore, I set out on a social experiment with just one objective on my mind, to feel the emotions of a Muslim on the streets. The streets of Delhi were my arena and the mindset of the people was my opponent. Even though I did have a preconceived notion about the subject, I was surprised by the result..

The experiment lasted two days in which I travelled via the Delhi Metro and buses in Noida. During these trips, I travelled through areas which were Muslim and Hindu majority respectively. Apart from this I just had a simple Kufi on my head and this skull cap made all the difference.

Deplorable glances, suspicious eyes and a ray of hope, these words define a majority of my experiment. The moment this idea came up on my mind, I was time and again warned about the dangers of doing the same, “What if someone harms you, these are sensitive times. What if people get to know that you are not a Muslim, won’t people be aggravated at you?” Even though these concerns stormed through my head time and again but still I knew that I had to investigate this through.

I started my journey from Jasola Vihar, Shaheen Bagh metro station on the Magenta line. The area is a Muslim majority one and thus didn’t give me any ‘special’ attention. Moving forward I got down at Okhla NSIC and exited the station. As I walked towards the GrubHub café, some glances from here and there started. But nothing too intimidating. I again entered the station and here things were different for me. Travelling via the Delhi metro, one becomes pretty used to the frisking done by the security personnel. But as I walked through the security gate the security took a good view of my Kufi and then did a thorough frisking of me. Checking each and every pocket of mine. To be honest it did feel a bit uncomfortable but I was mentally ready for this.

As I boarded the metro for Botanical Garden Metro station, a girl of around 10 years was siting besides an empty seat and so I, considering myself lucky to find an empty seat in the metro sat there. But my move made the father of the child a bit uneasy and he commanded his child to stand with him. This gentleman also did not let his child get the comfort of sitting just because a man with a kufi was sitting adjacently.

As I got down on Botanical Garden, I boarded a bus to Greater Noida. The same suite followed. Another man preferred to stand rather than sitting beside me. The whole trip was, to my surprise, filled with a lesser number of glances and nudges.

The second day was what I really wanted it to be, perfectly normal. It seemed that people were not at all uncomfortable with my kufi and even the metro security personnel weren’t giving me any preferential treatment.

The whole experiment taught me that even though some people may have preconceived reservations about other minorities, the larger part of the nation looks upon everyone as fellow citizens rather than Hindus, Muslims, Christians, etc. Thereby I can say that even though the darkness of prejudice exists there also exists a ray of hope which fills up our hearts and our nation with not only tolerance but also secularism.

Feature Image Credits: Vistapointe

 

Aniket Singh Chauhan

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Arts & Culture

Monotony in Millennials: Hobbies are the Cure

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Millennials have started to believe that they do not have enough time for any leisure activity, and they that they need to succumb into the monotony of life. This piece aims to break that myth.

As children, the majority of our time was spent playing some sport, painting, and simply discovering our hobbies. This practice, however, saw a major transition as we grew up, even our diversions changed. Contrary to popular belief, hobbies are supposed to be activities that we make time for, despite our busy schedules and indefinite piles of tasks.

According to many surveys, most people prefer staying at home and watching television rather than stepping outside to discover themselves. Moreover, there is a difference between a past-time and a hobby. In the most generic sense, a hobby is mostly recreational.

Millennials fail to realize the importance of hobbies and continue living their vanilla lives. Every industry is characterized by its dynamic environment, and to soar higher in such conditions, everyone should indulge in creative thinking to stand out.

Hobbies are formed after several rounds of introspection, they are extremely important for self-actualization, and true happiness. Those people who make their passion their professions, have it comparatively easier than those who are still on the path of self-discovery.

Researchers have also discovered, that some time away from work, to indulge in some leisure activity has been linked with increased performances at work and creative activities, leading to higher confidence levels.

With extremely high-stress levels and constant pressure, millennials need an outlet for the same, which seems impossible due to their pre-occupation with technology, and the inability to make time for themselves.

Ishita, a student of Lady Shri Ram College said, “I used to paint every week as a child, but the last time I picked up a paintbrush was over five months ago just to post a story on Instagram.”

The idea that Instagram, Twitter, and other products of modern technology are replacements of hobbies is bizarre. Our fixation on social media is proving to be way more harmful than it was first predicted. Even if someone is actively pursuing their hobbies, they feel the need to post stories on their social media while they paint, bake, or read, which is strange because this trend has recently surfaced, and millennials tend to focus more on posting stories rather than enjoying their hobbies.

Feature image credits- Vaibhav Tekchandani for DU Beat

Suhani Malhotra

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