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The Untimely Demise of Creativity in the Youth

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The antidote to our pre assignment submission anxiety has been discovered in our increasing reliance on AI tools and real time chatbots. The contemporary scenario of everything being fast-paced continues to alienate people from critical creative skills, Artificial Intelligence compounds the menace at hand.

Gone are the days when young students would sit with their parents, and draft, and then redraft scripts for the speech for their morning assembly. Be it a declamation, or a debate, or an MUN, ready-made material is made available at everyone’s disposal. Research papers requiring several weeks worth of research can now be complied in a few hours altogether.  Extremism has been witnessed to the extent that birthday wishes, congratulatory messages – are all being composed, start to end, by AI tools. This lethargic approach is breeding a generation of individuals with stunted innovation, depreciating creativity and sluggish habits. The justification provided for this shift in the nature of retrieving information is the growing competition, and the need to save up time and expend it on ‘more important’ things. Conformists, in the name of academic students will be produced, destined and dedicated to lead a mundane life plagued by the race of placements and abnormally competitive exams. The pressure from these takes away any remnant will to indulge in anything remotely creative.

Heavy dependence on AI for not just academia, but absolutely anything is churning our individuals depleted of the critical ability to, bereft of perspective. Informative is directly consumed from what is vomited out by AI tools without the bare minimum efforts to relook things. People need to realize that Open AI tools are meant to make one’s work easier, not do one’s whole work.  AI bots lack the basic human intelligentsia to produce the kind of work us individuals can. Majority of the output is highly generic, and vastly derivative of the already existing information. No new thought, no new ideas, personal anecdotes comprise a part of the output generated.

One thing guaranteed is the fact that AI can never replace humans, or match the potential of human creativity. It will never kill creative roles, but has a disgustingly high propensity to severely damage the potential of creativity by making humans increasingly dependent. These tendencies also pose a grave threat to the genuine and honest appreciation of real art. With AI sites, capable of producing summaries of entire books, seminal research pieces, stellar pedagogical specimens, one fails to appreciate the artistic nuances and the rigorous research of a creative piece. There is a looming danger of a possible deterioration of the spirit of art appreciation.

Jane Austen didn’t write “Pride and Prejudice” in a hurry, Amrita Pritam didn’t draw inspiration from summaries of anthologies of Sheikh Farid, Shah Husain, Waris Shah, Hasham. Without the inner burning desire to create and introspect, Van Gogh’s melancholic “The Starry Night” would have never existed. Creativity is God’s gift to very few people, don’t let the abundance inside you deplete by giving into the lures of mundanity and convenience.

Image Credits: BYJUs

Rubani Sandhu

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The Big Question: Online Exams in this Economy?

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A look at the inherently privileged notions behind the avenues explored by Delhi University (DU) regarding end semester examinations and their feasibility.

DU has released forms to register for even semester examinations online, a move which shows that the total cancellation of exams during the pandemic is not on DU’s agenda yet. In the light of the pandemic and seeing how cancelling exams is not a viable possibility, multiple reports suggest that DU is looking at the option of online examinations to conduct end semester examination, an option Jawaharlal Nehru University had also explored last year during the university lockdown. While the idea does completely do away with the risks of catching the disease, there are some inherent privileges behind the very concept.

A Public University in India does not just cater to a certain section of society or certain parts of the country, DU has students from all over the country coming from every section of society.  Even though India is the second-highest in several internet users, only around 50% of the population has access to it, and less so in rural areas. Adding to that, the frequent internet shutdowns and the situation in Kashmir created by our government, the very idea that everyone will be able to access the internet to give their exams is privileged in itself.

The first-hand account of a Kashmiri DU student shows how online exams are inaccessible for students in the valley. They say “If there are online exams, it will be very difficult for the students who are in Kashmir right because there is only 2G internet speed here. Sometimes we can attend all the classes and the connection is good but sometimes even in downloading a single page, it takes a lot of time and effort. It is unpredictable. Even today during the Commerce exam there were a lot of problems, the connection was not proper and was getting disconnected again and again.”

There should be an emphasis on the fact that learning through online classes and e-resources may not be feasible given the limited or no access to computers and the internet, particularly in rural areas.

Aan Mary Suresh, a student of Jesus and Mary College said, “I wish DU understood that more than our country’s lack of technical expertise to conduct exams online, we as students are neither well equipped nor prepared to take these exams at one moment. I am sorry but Zoom classes are not helpful. Students are new to this form of learning and the experiment whether this would be successful should not be on us.”

The online process of paper setting, submission of answers, and evaluation are susceptible to tampering and pilferage. An extremely weak university server, one which cannot even bear the internet traffic of filling exam registration forms just exemplifies that online examinations are not practicable at all.

The Delhi University Teachers’ Association, in its feedback to the University Grants Commission, said, “As per the MHRD/DU circulars, teachers have engaged with students through e-resources, this process is far from being adequate due to the lack of preparedness and institutional help provided to students and teachers. Students have reported facing issues of connectivity and access to sufficient bandwidth to be able to attend the online sessions. Given our student demography, it is important to recognise that a large section of students come from outside Delhi and that an equally significant number comes from underprivileged backgrounds and the environment at their homes is unlikely to be conducive for learning.”

It further added that the University and colleges have so far not been able to collect data on how many students have accessibility to the e-resources and lectures shared by teachers. Given the diverse population of students to whom the University of Delhi caters to and the student strength, the means and modes of assessment and examination adopted in the context of the lockdown should ensure that the solutions offered do not further marginalise the already marginalised sections of students or create a situation where large sections of students lose out due to the circumstances they face.

If Delhi University proceeds with online examinations; it won’t only make a mockery of higher education, but also set a dangerous precedent of survival of the fittest- an extremely prejudiced notion that just takes privileged people in its purview. Online Exams cannot happen in this economy, period.

Feature Image Credits: Prabhanu Kumar Das for DU Beat

 

Prabhanu Kumar Das

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Paridhi Puri

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Internet, Sex Crimes and How Technology Failed Women: The Nth Room

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The Nth Room, one of South Korea’s biggest sexual abuse scandal, has been exposed to have had sexually exploited over 76 women- 12 of whom were minors- and is trailblazing the need to protect women in this decade of untraceable technology.

In March 2020, one of South Korea’s biggest digital sex scandals got exposed when Cho Ju-Bin (will further be addressed as Cho in the article) – who went by the alias of ‘Baksa’- got arrested for being the suspected founder of the Nth Room.

 What is the Nth Room?

The Nth Room is a mass digital sex scandal happening in South Korea- arguably one of the largest and most extensive one that the country has ever experienced- using the chat messenger Telegram. Telegram is famous for being untraceable, owing to its extensive security and encoding measure. It is with the help of this app that the 25-year-old Cho Ju-Bin- who is currently being investigated- enabled the business of selling sexual videos to an online community. 

With the help of a tier-ranking, Cho created a number of chat rooms: 1st Room, 2nd Room, 3rd Room… Nth Room, owing to the fact that the exact number of rooms created for the circulation of this terrifying crime is unknown. Users would pay a high amount of money to gain entry to these chat rooms, and the amount of money paid determined the number of the room one could gain access to. 

It is reported that the room with the lowest tier ranking had an entry fee of $80 USD while the users that paid $1,200 USD would get access to the rooms with the highest tier ranking. The lowest-ranked rooms had the ‘least’ abusive videos, and the users who paid the most got access to the room with the ‘most’ abusive videos. Over 260,000 men are said to have joined the Nth Room community, with its clientele including the country’s famous entertainers and artists, athletes, CEOS, etc.

76 female victims have been identified in the scandal, with the primary target being teenagers. 12 of them were minors and the youngest victim has been reported to be around 9 years old.

Trigger Warning: Mentions of extremely disturbing sexual assault

To obtain the videos, Cho worked with “operators”, who would find girls and women for him, steal their personal information and then use it to threaten and blackmail the victims into doing what the operators asked them to do, while other victims were women from low-income backgrounds lured in with offers of money. 

The offers began with requesting for videos of the victims undressing and masturbating, which were then distributed to the “lower tier” rooms. These videos would then be used to blackmail the women into doing increasingly worse requests, which would then be distributed into the “higher-tier” rooms. These included carving the word “slave” on their bodies, putting sharp objects in their genitalia, etc. Some operators even paid other men to rape the victims. It has also been revealed that a client plotted the murder of a girl as revenge against her father but was arrested before the attempt was carried out.

The exposing of the Nth Room scandal has led to the investigation of other similar sexual abuse rings online. A 16-year-old student from South Korea who used to work for Cho is said to have been arrested for running a series of similar chat rooms called the Pacific Expedition, and had distributed sexual content of children and teenagers and had from 8,000 to 20,000 clients.

China is also investigating their own version of these chat rooms reported to have had up to 8.6 million users, with the victims being as young as 4 years old. 

As technology experiences a global boom, the crimes against women shift from a primitive to a digital verse, but the crimes remain as real and horrifying as ever. The excruciating details of the Nth Room scandal are major stressors to exactly why cybersecurity and cyber laws to protect victims of sexual abuse are important, and how people- especially women to an extremely large context- need to be protected when these crimes start spilling onto the cyber verse.

How you can help: Sign the petition to make 80% of the investigation team for the Nth Room women

More information about the Nth Room can be found here.

Featured Image Credits: Hackernoon

Shreya Juyal
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OK Boomers: Teaching Parents Technology

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We have had our share of struggle while teaching our parents about “millennials’ technology”. Sometimes, these lessons turn into fights. It’s time to relate and reflect.

” I just taught you! How can you forget the WhatsApp icon? It is right there!”

“No, that is not the power button, that controls the volume!”

“No! The phone will not explode”

“That is not how you hold a phone, it is not a baby”

The advent of smartphones has affected family relations. Remember the fight you had with your parents when you were trying to teach them “boomers’ rocket science”- WhatsApp. It is a peculiar affair- parents can manage an entire household, execute work assignments without hassle, grow babies but cannot use mobiles to communicate and laptops to mail. “This one time dad saw someone go live, he wanted to learn that I taught him the entire thing and he went live accidentally for an entire hour and got hundreds of comments. He then made me come and teach him how to reply to all of them.”,says Rhea D. a first year student.

Lesson one: teaching them how to hold the phone. This, in itself, is a tug of war. Trying to move their fingers that just won’t adjust. Positioning the palm, trying to motion the wrists into acute angles, failing miserably and realising thereby that teaching isn’t that easy a profession.

How long did it take to make them understand that passwords and OTPs (One Time Password)  are not supposed to be announced publicly like vendors’ prices at a flea market? Have you succeeded yet? If yes, then you should add it to your CV because that is a milestone achievement. It is hard to make them realise that “password123” or your name is simply not a strong password.

And how can we not mention the jargon disjunction! They can’t be Zuckerbergs in a day or a fortnight, you are not that great as a teacher. Do not try to teach them how routers work, do not teach them what “www” means, do not teach them about motherboards. Meditate for five minutes before the teaching voyage to avoid fights. Let them make their own words and try not to laugh sheepishly. Imagine you are in first grade, and you just realised that ‘ice-spice’ is actually ‘I-spy’ and your friends are laughing at you. Yes, they would feel the same. Aniket Singh Chauhan, another first year student says,”Whenever my parents ask me for help, a random thought comes to my mind that it is my duty to do help because even they helped me when I knew nothing. It is a tiny bit frustrating but I just love it when my parents go a bit tech-savvy.” Be calm and if that doesn’t work, remember that they changed your diapers, in a nutshell- be grateful.

Feature Image Credits: Eventbrite

Priyanshi Banerjee

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Please Mind the Gap: Rural Perspective on Inequality

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The Human Development report released earlier this month indicates that India climbed one spot to 129 among 189 countries in the 2019 human development index (HDI). The report by UNDP also highlights that new forms of inequalities will manifest in future through climate change and technological transformation which have the potential to deepen existing social and economic scenario of the country. 

 

Despite India being one of the ‘emerging economies’ of the world, and its impressive economic performance after the introduction of economic reforms in the 1990s, progress in social reforms has been slow and uneven. Large inequities between different sections of the society continue to exist and have even widened across states, between rural and urban areas and within communities. Inequities in the diverse society of India may have persisted due to three primary reasons-

  1. Historical inequities that have their roots in the policies and practices in British Colonial India, which continue to be pursued even after independence.
  2. Socio-economic inequities manifest in caste, class and gender differentials. 
  3. Inequities in the availability and affordability of the resources and facilities. 

 

The higher the level of human development, the greater the access to technology. The digital revolution has moved fast and had an enormous impact, but it is far from universal. In 2017 almost 2 billion people still did not use a mobile phone. And of the 5 billion mobile subscribers in the world, nearly 2 billion—most of them in low- and middle-income countries—do not have access to the internet. In 2017 the number of fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants was only 13.3 globally and 9.7 in developing countries, and the number of mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants was 103.6 in developed countries compared with only 53.6 in developing countries. Inequalities are much greater for advanced technologies, such as access to a computer, internet or broadband. (HDR 2019) 

 

The convergence in basic technologies, such as mobile phones, has empowered traditionally marginalized and excluded people. But digital gaps can also become barriers not only in accessing services or enabling economic transactions but also in being part of a “learning society.” 

 

The empowerment of traditionally marginalised and excluded people is a good example of how affordable and simple technology has interspersed with the rural population of India. 

Visiting one of the villages in Goa, I met Chandravati. A rural woman living in a kutcha house in Wadaval village. She lost her husband at a young age, and life has not been easy for her. She does not belong to the so-called upper caste and the deeply rooted caste system of the village deprived her of education and other basic necessities.

 Chandravati says (translated in English), “Being a woman is not easy. I take care of my house and family and work in the farms of the local landlord. There are so many restrictions and traditions of the village, but we never questioned them. What will people say if I do so?” She falls in the below poverty line category and runs her house in whatever government aid she gets along with her meagre income.  She adds, “I got a mobile phone recently and my daughter taught me how to use it. It has made life easier as I can call relatives now and don’t have to depend on the landlords to do so. Moreover, I can call the ambulance immediately in case of emergency now and don’t have to depend on others.” 

IMG_20191221_111956

 

Chandravati using her phone

It is not only Chandravati but many marginalised and poor people in India who have benefitted through the technology. However, a great digital divide persists in the same village in the type and amount of technology being used based on caste, income and education levels. With the world moving towards advanced technological changes, with artificial intelligence shaping the world, the persisting digital divide would deepen. The new forms of inequality highlighted in the Human Development report 2019 mentions that the groups with lower human development have systematically less access to a wide range of technologies. In such a scenario, human development has to be targeted at a faster pace in India and their foundation has to start from rural India. A bottom-up approach would help in catching up the digital divide which is expected to deepen if right policies and interventions are not taken systematically. 

 

Feature Image Credits: Sriya Rane and PSBT

 

Sriya Rane 

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How real is virtual reality?

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With new developments in technology, there are lot of speculations and hype surrounding immersive reality and artificial intelligence considering these were the highly sophisticated tech that we used to see in sci-fi movies and now are becoming quite real.

Virtual reality uses all of our senses to create a perception of real world. It engages all our senses in a computer generated simulation which feels quite real. The amount of money that people are investing on this upcoming technology confirms that virtual reality would define the way we perceive our future world. In gaming and entertainment world, virtual reality gives the user a more immersive experience of being part of the simulation. It can provide even an inanimate object life and a world of its own.

Even Facebook is developing Facebook Reality Labs which utilizes virtual reality to create lifelike avatars that will help the users to establish social connections with other people. They give the argument that VR would help people to establish meaningful connections with people living far away from each other.

For someone who wants to recreate a particular nostalgic childhood moment, hang out with friends that are in different parts of world, take virtual tours of cities that you plan to visit and virtually construct buildings, monuments or houses virtual reality would help you to do all this and more.

Technology is fascinating and it has not only captured our imagination but also given us an escape. You can be present in one place physically but mentally you might be immersed in your phone and your own virtual world. This escapist tendencies are highlighted by VR which gives you an immersive alternative world to escape the real life situations and become the part of virtual reality. While it can be argued that escapism is provided by other media as well such as movies, TV, books, etc. we need to keep in mind that none of them involves engaging all of our senses as VR does.

While living a virtual life might be exciting, it needs to be acknowledged that our body is not made for long hours of extensive use of this technology. Our body cannot withstand long hours of VR and experiences cybersickness which can last for hours after continual use of VR.

Virtual reality will also impact the behaviour of humans which will be in contrast to what they portray in reality. Virtual reality will not be bound by societal constraints and limitations, it will have its own environment where people can behave in harmful ways. This can already be seen in social media where people behave in certain way which is quite opposite to their character in real life. This has led to cases of cybercrime which are quite shocking.  Such legitimate concerns can also be applied to virtual reality where the human use of it will determine its impact.

Even though the virtual reality tries to bridge the distance between people and brings them close in a simulated environment there is also a nagging question of what about the real world.? The real concern is what would be the psychological impacts of VR on the humans: would they disassociate from their reality completely or will it help them to overcome their anxiety, depression, etc.
All these questions will be answered when the virtual reality pervades every household and becomes intrinsic part of our lives the way internet did.

Image credits:  J. M. Eddins Jr/US Air Force

Antriksha Pathania
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Beyond the Obvious of Delhi University Colleges

Masters of Science Grace the Indian Annual Symposium – ‘Science and Society’

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The Indian Annual Symposium, saw an amalgamation of academicians, the Government, and industry leaders to illustrate the possibilities of scientific advancement.

On Thursday, 4th February 2019 at Vigyan Bhawan, the Indian Annual Symposium – ‘Science and Society’- was organised by the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute (LMSAI) Harvard University, in collaboration with NITI Aayog and Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. The opening ceremony was graced by Mr. Tarun Khanna, Director of LMSAI. Mr. Khanna talked about bridging the gap between scientists and the society.

Following the ceremony, the first session was titled ‘Setting the Context for Science and Society’ and it was moderated by Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog. The first speaker of this session, Dr. V.K. Saraswat, Member (S&T), NITI Aayog and Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru University spoke of science as an important tool for the sustainable society. He further said that science, technology, and society are a three-way road which must go together as they have the power to transform civilisation. He ended his note by urging social scientists and society leaders to take lead for converting problem areas to workable strategies and decisions, especially in the fields of agriculture and healthcare.

The next speaker of the session was Ms. Kiran Mazumdar, Chairperson and Managing Director, Biocon, who talked about the areas and the ways in which India needs to improve in science and technology. She said that science should be celebrated and well-connected with the society.

Dr. K. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, took the session forward by highlighting the biggest challenge faced the nation, which is the lack in inclusiveness of the three pillars of the country – government, industry, and civil society. He stated that science and technology, which is the fourth pillar of the nation, can help overcome this challenge. For that, he added, the country needs to embark upon large scale educational programmes so that the “language of science” is accessible to all. Countering Ms. Mazumdar’s example of Bangalore as a success model, Dr. Raghavan called the success essentially “an accident.” Thus, according to him, there’s a need to be little more active if we were to replicate the same success in multiple places.

Mr. Amitabh Kant ended the session by voicing the need of massive investments in science and technology for the development of India.

The second session of the Symposium was to highlight the ‘Technological Advancements in Agriculture,’ moderated by Mr. Manoj Kumar, Senior Advisor and Head – Innovation, Tata Trusts.

Dr. Shannon Olsson, Associate Professor, Naturalist-Inspired Chemical Ecology, National Centre for Biological Sciences, talked about the challenges faced by agriculture in India. She highlighted the need for India to have a better handle of its diversity and to focus on adapting sustainable technology. According to her, the ecological regions in the country need to be identified and awareness must be increased among the people.

Mr. Amitabh Mohanty then elaborated how we need to have “competency development” as well as “capacity development.” In his speech, he focused on the challenge# faced by the farmers – such as land, input quality, weather, nutrition security, and how it’s pertinent to have a look at farming needs and using technology to fulfill it.

Dr. Suresh Subramani, Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of California, San Diego said that extensive export of crude and food by India has precipitated a national crisis in food security. He introduced to the audience CRISPR-cas technology and explained how it can be beneficial for the farmers. According to him, India has immense potential to leverage this technology. He also made everyone of its challenges since it’s a new technology.

At the end of the session, Dr. Olsson strongly condemned the need for any more new policy. She added that the country already has a lot many of them and it’s time that people work on the existing policies.

Dr. Venkatesh Murthy, Professor and Chair of Molecular and Cellualar Biology, Harvard University, moderated the third session of the event titled ‘Why study Life Sciences?’ He initiated the discussion by highlighting how Life Sciences is intrinsic to the daily life of the people.

The first speaker of this session, Mr. Sanjeev Galande, Professor and Chair of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research said that Life Sciences provides us with a platform to find the common thread of life. In his well elaborated presentation, he explained various technologies like single cell biology, and next generation sequencer, among others.  

Dr. Yamuna Krishnan, Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, began her address with a powerful statement – “We are all born basic scientists.” She demanded innovations in labs and universities to have supportive mechanisms to bring them out and make them reach people.  

The session continued with Mr. J. Satyanarayana, Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India, addressing important concerns regarding designing a system for health care which utilises data securely and creates a system that is “secure by design, private by design” in his National Digital Health Mission report.

Mr. Rahul Matthan, Lawyer, Head of Technical Division, raised ethical and legal questions regarding privacy and security. This was followed by a panel discussion and a short Q/A session.

The next session was led by Mr. Tarun Khanna, and focused on ‘Method and Tools to Enhance STEM Education in India.’ Mr. Dmitry Popov, Technology Development fellow in the Wyss Institute at Harvard, gave a detailed account of Soft Robotic Toolkit which can be used by high school and university students alike to explore the world of robotics.

The concluding session included Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, talking about an effective system of government and industry working together to achieve development in the society with the help  of science and technology.

Image Credits: Surbhit Rastogi for DU Beat

Maumil Mehraj

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Shreya Agrawal

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Antriksha Pathania

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The Indian Amalgam

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With the recent development in the country, it is easy to lose sight of what India, even as an ‘imaginary’ country, had to offer to the rest of the world in its past, be it collective or not. However, in order to move further ahead, we need to think about our past, present, and future collectively and take pride in all the potential that India has and can harness.

India, the  seventh largest in area and the wettest inhabited place in the world, is a country to behold! With a diverse terrain and history reaching back 8 millennia, she is home to the world’s largest number of religious communities and to more than 300 languages!

She is unique in the fact that she has had a glorious past in technology and knowledge and yet never invaded any other country in the several years of history. Civilisations throughout history have tried spreading their influence and dominance over other others through invasion, conquest, and colonisation but India is different. She has been able to spread her influence in a unique way through something genuine, that people themselves felt attracted to. The greatest example of that is the spread of spirituality through Buddhism, from India, to the whole of East without any military conquest.

She never needed to venture out for resources, be it exotic spices, unique Wootz steel, or knowledge. In the past India has always been self-reliant and the modern India has not lost this feature of hers, India had requested NASA for GPS assistance, but was denied. It was then that India built one for herself. Now, the  space programs have revolutionized space science and can contribute to helping the world understand the universe in the best way possible.

India has proven the potential to contribute to the world of space sciences by being the only country which has been able to launch a spacecraft into the Martian orbit on the maiden attempt. India’s Mars Mission, which discovered water on Mars, was monetarily cheaper than the movie ‘Gravity’. The Dalai Lama says “Everything in my head is from India. I am a son of India.” India’s soft power –  like that of no other country – is not just considered its manipulative potential, but is rather debated to be a reality, which can be justified through its past, and which gives a boost to all other ‘potentials’ of India in the future for contributing generously to the world.

India’s culture is put together after years of evaluation and each component of it can contribute to the world is various ways, if taken up by individuals all around the world. Ancient India has a lot of practices which can make the world a better place.

Vegetarianism, which originated in India and is the most prevalent there, is an integral part of India’s soft power. It is believed by some that it can end world hunger since the more people eat meat, the fewer people can be fed. To produce one pound of beef protein, over 10 pounds of plant protein is needed. If these grains were fed to humans instead of animals, more food would be available for the 925 million people in chronic hunger worldwide!

Another contribution of India to the world can be the betterment of health through Yoga and Ayurveda. Surya Namaskar, itself, is known to have over fifty spiritual and health benefits, and has taken the world by storm. Super brain yoga, a simple exercise, is said to be the “energy fuel” by science today that can keep our brain fit and functional. Along with that, Ayurvedic medicines have all been to be based on the belief that health and wellness depend on a delicate balance between the “mind, body, and spirit.”

Even the ancient Indian languages have a life of their own. Sanskrit is the mother of all languages. It has some valid reasons. A general one is that no word in Sanskrit word has two meanings. One, very unique and special quality of Sanskrit is that the pronunciations of the words are chosen with great precision, The Sanskrit pronunciations are such that their sound makes the water in us vibrate in a certain manner which causes changes in us. That is why some words are ‘auspicious.’ Their sound itself can cause positive changes in us, like, ‘Aum’, which is said to be the vibration in all atoms and from the studies of NASA.

India is also a country which has proved her worthy of blending modern development with the colors of culture to create a refined amalgam. She can contribute to the world the most effectively by leading the world into a global environment of progress – in technology and spirituality, both. She has a lot confided in herself, unappreciated and unrecognized by the ‘outsiders’, and India needs to get in touch with her glorious past, become aware of her present potentials and move with vision into the future, to be able to offer the unique amalgam to the world.

AC Nielsen had recently conducted a survey in India. In response to a question on what are the best aspects of living in India, the top answer was the culture of this country. 45% of the respondents gave this as their answer that included factors like India’s diversity, its long tradition and so on.

It, therefore, seems like it won’t be long before India realises its potential throughout  history, which had later been twisted to make the Indians lose their pride in their culture.

 

 Feature Image Credits: India.com

Khyati Sanger
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The Flagships to Look Forward in 2018

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Almost all the major smartphone companies are primed to come up with the new releases throughout this year. Not unlike 2017, the bezel-less screen and powerful cameras will continue to be in vogué and the latest released Snapdragon 845 will also be sought after.

Here is a list of the ones you should look forward to:

1. Samsung geared up with foldable screen:

It is no news that keeping secrets is not Samsung’s USP. If the major rumours in the tech world and hints dropped from the Company are to be believed, the next flagship, Samsung Galaxy X can come with a foldable OLED screen. The CEO has, as tom’s guide suggests, already sanctioned the new project. Moreover, the official Samsung website last November even came up with a support page for a similar model. This phone might actually land in the market in the first quarter of 2018, as Axon M from ZTE already features this technology and the Korean will not want to be too late to the party. Also coming this year would be Galaxy S9 with the tried and tested curved Infinity display and dual rear cameras.

2. One Plus getting better of the best:

The One Plus is what every start up dreams to be. The Pete Lau- Carl Pei company has already established itself in the big league with some ground breaking smartphones with the best value for money over the last four years and there is no reason to not expect something similar from One Plus 6 – unless it decides to skip a number again this time. Having already mastered bezel minimisation and dual camera with 5t and 5, this brand of powerful phones may actually feature Face Recognition System with on screen fingerprint sensor and even stronger battery and QHD screen this time.

3. New iPhones X plus and X2 in times of falling trust:

The digital market research firm TrendForce has indicated that Apple would be coming up with iPhone X plus and X2 by September this year. Also mooted to make an appearance is the SE series, after the two year hiatus. The company majorly will be focussing on enhancing the size this time, with the all the three iPhones plnned to have a screen size exceeding six inches. However, the company will be making it a point to resolve the trust of their customers by cutting down on most notorious updates and also by making them more transparent over the issues of performance and battery life starting with iOS 11.2.5.

 

Feature Image Credits: Appleinsider

Nikhil Kumar
[email protected]

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DUB Speak

Why to Avoid Texting Family and Friends

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Smartphones and increasingly convenient apps have made it very easy to connect with long-distance family and friends. However, texting or calling them regularly can worsen things.

Mobile phones have now become as routine a gadget like any other. A product that was once deemed as luxury good has become a basic necessity over the years. The good and bad about this gadget is often debated upon. The one good thing which everyone might agree upon is that it helps us connect with family and friends anytime. However, recent studies suggest it might not be the case.

An article published on the Business Insider consisted reports of a study conducted by CHARGit which showed that out of 2000 participants, 65% claimed to feel anxious when they are low on battery, and 42% felt vulnerable if the battery is zero.

Consistently talking to friends and family makes us more dependent on contacting them and this transfers our coping skills from the self to someone else. We have access to friends and family 24/7 which means that we can share our highs and lows whenever we want to. Being able to talk to our loved ones makes us feel accompanied and helps us to lighten the burden by sharing it. The problem comes in when we look for their support in order to fight our battles. All they can do over the phone reassure us which makes us feel better. And because we are in desperation, we find solace in their words, but we miss out on two things here. One, we still have a situation to sort, and two we lose the will to handle things on our own. The loss of the latter trait is deadly in the long run.

Everything, when done in excess, is harmful. The tendency to share our problems and the need to talk to the people we love in order to feel better soon becomes a habit. And as a result, we are in more need to talk to the people we love, and ultimately we have a greater urge to use the cell phone. Talking to our friends and family after a certain point becomes our only coping skill. It’s no surprise the aforementioned study showed so many participants feeling vulnerable and low.

However, by no means does this mean that we shouldn’t text or talk to our loved ones. After all, it is very necessary to talk when we are away from home. It’s no less than a boon to be able to share our problems and to have the support of our loved ones in times of need. But we are here to live life our own way, and we need to fight our battles and cope up with our struggles all on our own.

 

Feature Image Credits: Association Adviser

Karan Singhania
[email protected]

 

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