I was using my blue tooth earphones and there was continually a disturbance in it, I tried to ignore it but it kept on increasing. I convinced myself to purchase another ones, a better brand this time because headphones in the 21st century have become vital for survival.
I unboxed the package, glanced at the instruction manual and connected it to my phone.
Buzz.
I pulled them away hurriedly and kicked my bedside table, on which my sister’s phone was kept. I absent mindedly connected these new headphones to her phone and they worked perfectly fine.
In life, the source of our problems is invisible to us but the by products caused by those problems are visible. Our problems are like termites growing gradually on our personality; it captures and starts sucking on one aspect at a time leaving us hollow. Our mind is a complex mechanism, it lets us feel pain only when the cause is known. Sometimes our mind starts creating new problems to start deploying the accumulated pain in us when the real cause is lost.
Problems are low density constructs erected in our mind palaces, each time we try to immerse a problem, it just comes back on the surface therefore it is rightly concluded that suppression leads to depression ; Depression isn’t just a state of profound sadness, it’s a pond of emptiness which keeps on sucking out the life in you one day at a time. Depression is like HIV;a disease which weakens our immune system in which even a seasonal cold can lead to death. Similarly,
DEPRESSION IS THE HIV OF OUR MIND.
In this disease, our brain starts malfunctioning on how to react to emotions which results in a state of constant confusion. Our emotional receptors are damaged which explains the frustration that a depressed person goes through when even in happiness he cannot really feel it because the damage is in the source and not the outlook.
How to deal with these problems then?
One question which bugs me is that even when we have two eyes to see then why cant we see ourselves? Why do we see the real image of only others and not ourselves?
How evidently we can locate other people’s problems but not ours ; Why are other people’s problems tangible and our’s intangible?
Why are we so well equipped with knowledge to help others but not ourselves?
Just like a lock needs a key,
We need someone to guide us to our solutions , the journey is taken by us but the direction is provided to us by the people who we reach out to.
The locks created in our minds are opened by the key provided by others.
Just like a lock isn’t equipped to open itself, the key isn’t equipped to close itself.
ALL HUMAN BEINGS ARE IN A PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP.
When a person helps another, not only does he lend his ears to someone but also moves one step forward in helping himself. Let compassion seep back in our lives.
And if you still choose to give in Think about the rest of the decades you felt worth living and how infinitesimal weakling you make them look against that one phase. Recollect everything that you dreamt in your high school and ask your little selves, if they are proud of their future beings or was it justice to them; having their dreams broken by you in an anon.Would they want to grow up witnessing all this? Know that some voids just can’t be filled up and every time one tries to let it go, how the void succumbs everything around it like a black hole; and this isn’t Interstellar. What you see right now is a palindrome of what ifs and buts and so much beyond that- a mini black hole of your own. But what you don’t see that it is still a midget of the Universe; a part of the whole and never the whole. True, baffling to escape, but you don’t know that the 5th dimension out there might want to help you escape; you don’t know you could find your Saturn wormhole and one day when you wake up and find yourself out of your black hole; what you’ll feel is way beyond this science. And all you had to do was reach out, if not of your form then maybe the other which tells you that you do matter. You know you won’t really remember your previous life; but they say you take something with you forward. If all you take is a scar on your neck or your wrist or an overdose with a mental defacement then better warn your junior self before. But if you decide to give it another try, the story you take is surely a bestseller.
Having a crush is the most normal thing to have but does this normal thing always have healthy outcomes?
Do we actually know what separates love from a crush?
“Love between us is speech and breath,
Loving you is a long river running.” A phrase by an anonymous poet which breathes love.
Love is like a drug, it intoxicates you if you let it and has a strong grip on you.
It makes you smile in the most mundane situations and shed tears even when there’s no reason attached to it.
Love saturates all your diluted emotions.
Love is neither a want nor a need, it’s something bigger, much bigger for us to understand.
Till what extent is CRUSH CULTURE healthy?
The huge crush you have on the boy next door(who you’ve never really even talked to) but still keep on dwelling on the what ifs, keep on going through the photos hidden in the gallery and living in a reality which stops being real after you open your eyes.
All this data in your mind related to him, his physique, his eyes
Pretty much the idea of him accumulated in your head because at the end of the day all the little figments you’ve gathered about your crush, are the parts of his personality or, your mind?
You go on and install all of it in a VR headset.
These headsets allow you to go on dates with him, with him being exactly how you imagined him to be.
Your want to be with him is being met daily but after a while it starts to get monotonous, simply you’re bored of him and now you just want to get rid of him so you take out his chip from the VR headset.
The next crush you develop, you gather information of him and upload it again in your favourite machine to start “dating” again.
10-15 boys down the line and you realise that everything that is happening is exactly how you presumed it to be, but where’s the fun in that? The sweetest thing about life is it’s unpredictable nature which you’ve disrupted to fulfil your wants.
This innovation is doing its work and quenching your thirst of wants but
Is it fulfilling your needs?
At the age of 50
Your bed side drawer has energy bars, rubber and vibrating devices but no photo frames above it.
You have a glass of wine in one hand, a surrogate child in another with your eyes glued to the headset on 100th fling because you wanted it.
This VR headset never lets you get rejected, it never leaves you paralysed on the bathroom floor, you don’t need to open the tap to mask your own cries.
We all seek love in one way or another but many a times we don’t get reciprocated, ever wondered why?
Let me put it this way
Have you ever gone out for ice cream but with cavities in your teeth?
Do you stop having ice cream or go to the dentist and get them filled?
Is it the ice creams fault or yours?
Is love causing pain or your own hollowness?
Avoiding rejections is the only benefit this machine offers you, but at what cost?
Being rejected by someone only redirects you to your lover.
I feel sorry. I really do. I am sorry if you were called out for helping one of your own. I am sorry if they fed on you for doing what you desired. I am sorry if being a feminist was ever a reason of your abuse. I know you’re still finding strength, still out there wanting and waiting to be heard. You want them to know that these weren’t just some ordinary gazes, you want them to feel what it really feels like when you’re touched and how you feel like throwing up when you were flashed at. You see them outraging on your extremism and questioning your heed on matriarchy, but you still want them to know what led you there. You want to clear your name from the feminists-turned-feminazis and all you want is to be heard. But still you’re made to shut up with the cliché oratorical statement of ‘what women want’. You remember as a toddler you were influxed with lessons of gratitude, kindness, fraternity AND respect. You thought you were deserved to be treated as an equal individual whose consent mattered, whose say mattered. Little did you know your crop tee and favourite denim shorts could take it away from you in a jiffy. You envy your brother when he isn’t made to change his sandos every time you go out, you don’t like it when your mom constantly pulls up your shirt when your cleavage shows even when you want it to. You don’t like it when your boyfriend is disgusted by your period and not his materializing best friend. Every time when a part of you vanished from the plain sight, it just became a billboard of a statistical data with a bit of march and protest on the side, still thankful at least you could make it there. Every time you spoke of equity all they heard was equality. When you stood up for your sister, you could hear them screaming on “men facing atrocities” which they never even had thought of before. And when you spoke their language of numbers and graphs, dropped with a bomb of ignorance and irrelevance, I knew you’d had it. You took all what was left in you and somehow carried yourself. You couldn’t talk to your mom she was too busy getting herself tired in the kitchen, standing all day waiting for your father to look beyond his unconsciously serving privileges. You felt doomed. Alone with your thoughts. You could feel your heart throbbing out of your gut. Your fears catharting as that sweat on your hairline, the walls closing upon you, sudden claustrophobia taking over. That time, that millisecond, you finally snapped and unwittingly wanting to slit your predator’s throat. They waited for this time to dawn upon you, for this moment when they finally sucked in your last ounce of blood . Your biggest fear emerged nascent; they stuck up a new name on their big list of hypocrites again, quiet a hypocricy.I am so sorry all you could find was a knife and your pumping vein to find peace. I am so sorry they still want to hear men in feminism.
Hello , It’s Annirudh Pasari, writing from the year 2020 though it still feels like 1920 after reading about the incidents in United States. George Floyd , a 46 year old man was murdered by the Minneapolis Officers. I am sure all of you are familiar with this , thanks to social media. Here is the series of events that lead to one of the most widespread protests our generation has seen – On May 25, Floyd visited Cup Foods grocery store in Minneapolis to buy a pack of cigarettes. A store employee believed the bill he used to be counterfeit and reported it to the police. The store owner, Mike Abumayyaleh, told NBC that he was not at work the day of the incident but that his employees told him that Floyd initially came into the store with a man and a woman. The man tried to use what an employee suspected was a fake bill, which the employee caught and gave back to the man. Abumayyaleh said Floyd returned to the store about 10 minutes later and tried to use a suspicious $20 bill to make a purchase. The employee didn’t realize it first, according to Abumayyaleh, but when they did, they followed protocol and called police. Floyd was near the store, sitting in a car with two other people, when the police arrived. The officers involved were responding to a report of a forgery in progress, according to a police department account. Once at the store, they found a man fitting the suspect’s description, Floyd, sitting in a car. The police department said a physical altercation between the officers and Floyd unfolded after Floyd got out of the car. One of the offices , Chauvin , dragged Floyd out of the car , and in the process, he fell on the ground. That’s when people started filming the incident. Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck while Floyd screamed “Please, please, please, I can’t breathe “. The reason this triggered the entire world is because Floyd was a black man. And for the first time the police brutality was caught on a video which immediately went viral on all platforms. George Floyd wasn’t the first man to face this , there are thousands of black people who have lost someone they loved to racial discrimination in the society and system . No matter how much you grow or how much you accomplish , you have to face this at one point or the other , I for one am a Hip Hop fan , so seeing the black artists getting murdered and arrested , it’s very upsetting. The New York police detained a few rappers so that they couldn’t perform at The Coachella Music Festival. Racism didn’t rise , it just made its debut on the film . No one is born a racist, a child doesn’t know the difference between the white and the black people , he is fed this , through the orthodox and non progressive society, it is shoved down the throats of young kids , through various forms . The television advertisements , the cinema and a lot of political leaders have pursued this propaganda. Martin Luther King said ” Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere “. We have witnessed racism everywhere, from schools to workplaces. And this is not only prevalent in the United States but everywhere on this earth. The slavery is abolished , but the essence is still alive. ” Riots are the voice of unheard” , the protests in USA, are an example of how the level of tolerance has been surpassed by the governmentsnd federal authorities. It’s time to speak up. All of us can contribute to the cause , we can end racism. Education is the key , teach people about the trauma the black community has faced , preach them ethics and morals , after all morals maketh man. It’s high time we understand that all lives are priceless, irrespective of the skin colour, caste , origin, gender , religion . If there is someone , who can bring a change , it’s our generation , hence we must learn to respect. I am disappointed and traumatized by the sufferings but as an author, I managed to find hope. It’s never too late to bring a change. Thank you
It was the deafening silence of the blues that murdered their hues. Or was it the altruistic virtues of the ocean that turned them into a desert?
It’s been a bunch of decades, the planet moving into the Common Era. A lot has changed, drastically yet in a cynical manner. The earth has embarked a change that has turned her into a faux globe. The deep blues of the earth have now vanished into the dark and the only thing known now is the crafty nature of the Homo sapiens.
We now do not appreciate the colours of the creatures absorbed in the sea, nor do we preserve the priced jewel born out of the laps of the oceans. Isn’t this the metamorphosis of the earth? Indeed the humans have preserved the sanctity of this planet in the most satirical way.
It all started when the ocean was no longer the synagogue of the world rather it was turned into a dumping ground of waste. When the species were treated with polymers heavier than their home. When the artificial world took over the beauty of the blues and turned the once ‘immortal’ ocean into the ‘mortal’ bin.
That was the commencement horn that never stopped. Each day, sometimes men would dump their cans into the water or a child will throw away his polybag like any other aeroplane into the horizon.
Little did they know that that was the last time their eyes witnessed the silent breeze of the ocean. Never in their wildest dreams, had they imagined the blue beach with orange salmons to turn into a grey marshland with polymers.
But it did happen.
The nightmare bequeathed their imagination and turned once blue planet into a fairyland of grey. Those pseudo plastic polymers won over mankind’s beauty.
True, we are now moving forward with time embracing the sky-rise buildings and technologies. Yes, the smile of our children and the playgrounds are still there. Yes, we do play HIDE and SEEK with the trees and our children but what has been erased is the figment of our lives, the blues
Nor the blues, nor the hues could survive the fear of mortality and now we dread into the past cherishing the seas once filled with ecstasy.
Pride month is a time for protest and celebration, one when the LGBT+ community unite under the rainbow banner or their chosen Pride flag. Each year in June, the queer community comes together to march through city centres honouring the diversity of our people – often, by waving or dressing themselves in flags.
Though Pride 2020 is largely taking place indoors, you can still be loud and proud by displaying your chosen flag at home or on social media. Some of these flags may not be familiar to everyone, so here’s a quick guide to the most common flags you’ll see at pride parade.
1) LGBTQ+ – This is the most familiar flag among people. However, the design has changed slightly from the original designed by Gilbert Baker in 1977. According to Baker, pink is for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sun, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for serenity and purple for the spirit.
2) Bisexual – The bisexual Pride flag was designed by Michael Page in 1998 in order to give bisexual people a wider sense of community and visibility. He said that the message of the flag was the idea that the purple blends into both the blue and pink in the same way that bisexual people often blend unnoticed into both gay and straight communities.
3) Trans Pride – Monica Helms came up with the trans flag in 1999, after she met Michael Page, and he told her “the trans community needs a flag too.” The idea for the design came to her quickly, with the blue for trans men, the pink for trans women and the white stripe in the centre representing the non-binary community.
4) Lesbian – The flag celebrates the L in the LGBT community with the beautiful hues of pink, though many lesbians opt for other symbols including the interlocking venus symbol, or the rainbow flag. You might see this flag adapted somewhat, either mixed with other flags or with a bright red kiss in the corner to represent lipstick lesbians.
5) Intersex – Explaining the meaning of the flag, the circle is unbroken and un-ornamented, symbolising wholeness and completeness, and our potentialities. People are still fighting for bodily autonomy and genital integrity, and this symbolises the right to be who and how they want to be.
6) Non-Binary – The yellow stripe is for gender separate from the gender binary, white for those with multiple genders, the purple stripe is for those who are a mix of male and female, and black is for people without a gender at all.
7) Polysexual – The pink stripe is said to represent attraction to women, the blue attraction to men and the green as attraction to people of other genders.
8) Twink Pride – Although there is no concrete definition of the flag, many see the pink as a celebration of the effeminate nature of many twinks, alongside the central interlocking symbol a well-known sign of male sexuality.
9) Asexual – The black stripe stands for asexuality, the grey stripe for grey-asexuality or demisexuality, the white for allies and the purple for the asexual community as a whole.
10) Genderfluid – The five stripes of the genderfluid Pride flag each have their own meanings, with the pink and blue for femininity and masculinity, the purple stripe for both masculinity and femininity. The black stripe in the flag represents a lack of gender, and white is there for all genders.
“Oh honey, let’s not use big words seen on the net, just sleep.”they said.
Oh okay
Maybe I was making it up, just for some attention. But why do I feel the need of this attention? Others go through bad days as well, then why can’t I deal with them just like they do?
Having fever as low as 99F can make your parents waltz around you every five minutes just to check up on you, but when you open up about how you’re feeling
They just say depression doesn’t exist and tell you to abandon this feeling.
Just Abandon this feeling, so easy isn’t it? But how do you let go of this negativity when it’s the only emotion you feel?
When you don’t feel so good, you go to your bed and do absolutely nothing.
Refuse to do anything except plunging in the puddle again, this irks your parents who think you’re lazy because for them depression doesn’t exist.
But if you have common cold, they’ll be the ones to tell you not to exert yourself and get some sleep to get better physically but when it comes to mental health, whys there an air of doubt?
You fall one day and get your knee to bleed, everyone around you asks how you are feeling because that’s a bruise which is visible, there’s a proof of its existence but nobody acknowledges the excruciating pain you bear inside, because there’s no thermometer or scanning machine which gives you the evidence of your illness, for them it’s just another attempt for seeking attention.
Attention
Why do we really need it?
Earlier we all used to live in big joint families with many siblings, cousins, family members who used to be there even if we didn’t want them to. When we are with people we automatically create memories without even putting any real effort ; the purity of relationships lie in its simplicity.
Also, there was no technology to divide their attention and all the relations were non virtual.
Whereas now in the 21st century mostly all of us live in nuclear families and feel the need of having people around us and not just be surrounded by four mundane walls.
Due to technology there are numerous applications which let humans interact with each other more, but are virtual relationships as thick as natural ones?
Now even our natural relations are losing its essence because we all would prefer texting to save time rather than sitting down and talking to our loved ones.
What’s the need of saving time? Are we using the extra time on our hands on something productive or just wiling it away by overthinking about our past/future?
prevention is better than cure,
So how can we try to prevent these mental illnesses to grow inside us or our loved ones?
It is ironical how if we get to know that a friend/family member is terminal, we push ourselves to make them feel better about themselves, do little acts of love for them to just smile, it’s the same friend who we ignored and took for granted.
Do we really need our loved ones to be terminal to really love them?
Why can’t we push ourselves a little each day to make some time for our friends, appreciate them and do little acts of love just to let them know that we do care about them.
Why do we wait for a tragedy to happen to open our reservoir of love for them, why can’t it happen when they’re hale and hearty? Why does one start to complete his wishes the day he gets to know he has limited time left.
why can’t we work on our dreams and try to fulfil them from day1 and not 1day from death?
The Crusades or the Holy wars, remain one of the most infamous wars of its time- the eleventh and twelfth century. These were the religious wars fought between the Muslims and Christians, more ornately between the western roman empire, the Christendom or byzantine empire and the Seljuk Turks from 1096 to 1271. The main areas of contention slipped and shifted from one kingdom to another and from one war to another. We all wonder why wars begin in the first place, we questions our ancestors’ belligerent decisions which bring into light the factors and consequences of these endless wars and lastly, at some point in our lives we have all thought about and drawn parallels of those times versus our times. Well, of course the differences conquer but the continuous digging into depths have help us find similarities between those times and our times. Choosing a historical event such as crusades to read and learn about tends to broaden our horizons while having discussions on various religious topics and debating on issues including the same agendas. Since the crusades were the first ever religious wars fought, I believe its a must for everyone to significantly know about the foundation of these wars. Clearly it is no enigma when questions such as why, how, where etc are posed regarding these wars but undoubtedly certain ancient occurrences still remain a conundrum.
THE MAIN BONE OF CONTENTION.
Jerusalem, the Holy land which was the primary goal of the crusades to achieve throughout the changing times of the wars proved to be the main bone of contention. During the first three crusades, Jerusalem belonged to the crusaders initially and later won by the Seljuk Turks, the rivals of the Christians. Factually, Jerusalem is considered a revered city which gave rise to three Abrahamic religions- Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Little did anyone know it would land so close to the hearts of the kings and their people to conquer a ‘kingdom’ per se they had considered so Holy that they would wage a bloody war for retaining their crown. The crusaders and the respective knights started off for their journeys in huge numbers, fought numerous wars on their way to the pristine Holy land and eventually due to their lack of preparedness and knowledge they ended up plundering the towns and villages on their way, raping women and killing thousands of innocents. Is this how important a religious land could become to the holy men? Forming alliances, contacting the pope from another pole, arranging heavy artillery and maintaining the infantry and cavalry, all for what? The hardest part to decide and conclude is which side was on the defensive first and which one was affected the most.
The ‘trivial’ wars sprinkled during their journey towards Jerusalem caused an orgy of bloodshed, loot, political drama and an enormous loss of motive and energy. Yes during our ancestral time periods people engaged in warfare but who ever wondered that for religion to prevail they will keep all essentials at stake? Had religion overtaken humanity? Were the religious men so stern on their diabolical decisions and uncanny negotiations that they had forgotten about the lives of their fellow partners and noblemen, their common villagers and townspeople were as important to look after as much as their political reputation?
Moreover, another doubt arises after attending to the afresh condition and status of Jerusalem. Had the wars not been waged to such a magnitude, maybe we would not even have had a case which revolved anywhere around Jerusalem and its so called dealt divinity? Perhaps, joining such dots is imprecise but at the end of the day, the problem begins and ends at religion- showcasing it as the epitome of supremacy. Probably the roots of this Holy land beginning from crusades or maybe before that play a huge role in the city’s pristine qualities, no matter how incongruous it may sound.
THE SYNERGY OF HOLINESS.
The most startling and triggering factor of the crusades was the desire and determination of thousands of knights and soldiers who agreed upon the decisions of their superiors to fight the wars knowing the further outcomes and threats involved. Was their agreement simply based on loyalty like every other regular combat? or were there deeper reasons to their obedience? If loyalty were the driving force, then the main contention lies upon the authority towards whom loyalty is shown- either it was the king or prince or the respective Almighty. Considering the crusades as a compendium of wars with complex and perplexed decision making among leaders, in no way would the persuasion of involving the combatants to crowd the battlefields would have been a smooth sail.
As these were the RELIGIOUS wars, evidently religion, if not the only force, was the main driving force towards gaining the trust of their fellow members to fight for ‘their rights and their lands’ by converting them into holy men and completely brainwashing their heads by not putting forth the political motive out front instead brushing their mental processes with ‘religious benefits’ such as giving them the word of honour of entering the heaven and uniting with ‘their God’. Were religious techniques always an easy way out? Additionally, did the Pope try to use religious fervour as an incentive or a mere bribe? There emerges a thin line of difference between the two in a case as distorted as such.
I am sure that making use of the call of the almighty and the actions taken in those unearthly realms such as hell and heaven is effective to many even now. In retrospect, I believe tons of people must have found this option- washing away the sins and reaching heaven by performing certain tasks, as a very attractive and comprehensive reason to take sides of those orating such propaganda. Again, this was a part of each religion that took part in the crusades back then. To give the benefit of the doubt to those unsettled and perturbed leaders and warriors of the then era that mapping out territorial disputes and planning were complex, what were or are our intentions as laypersons to agree to such preposterous and disdainful incentives or bribes? Ever wondered?
Interestingly, who guarantees that you are going to find yourself in heaven or ‘the promised land’ after brutally killing a human belonging to another religion or belief? Who has such exclusive, extravagant and extraordinary powers to guarantee anything after your soul drifts apart? Who holds the responsibility for your actions except you? To reiterate, if religion overtakes practicality even now, after evolving so much in each sphere, it will lead to nothing but self-abomination holistically in the most old fashioned and treacherous way possible.
DISPERSAL OF INTERESTS.
Although deep down, squabbles for regaining Jerusalem were considered as the bread and butter for the crusaders and their opposition parties, there was an opportunist move after the third crusade towards the Byzantine empire. Why? Maybe because of lack of willpower to fight against the Muslims who took over Jerusalem or lack of financial resources to wage a full fledged war again or simply because the west was now more profit oriented towards the Christendom. This time Pope Innocent III called for the fourth crusade. Now with an amazing turn of events the pope knew that a simple religious bribe would not have been enough, so he gave the additional benefits to those who could provide with funds for the requirements of the war to join as warriors and nobles.
The fourth crusade did not have a skilful beginning and the end was all the more confusing. This war was within the drifted poles of the then existing roman empire, however, who could have imagined that an actual intent of captivating Jerusalem from the hands of the Turks would have led the city of Constantinople being sacked? Such tender actions by the feudal states of western roman empire and the Byzantine empire escalated matters amongst themselves which was highly unnecessary yet meticulously anticipated given their history.
What made these quarrels so incumbent in retrospect? At the end of a bright sunny day, the attention diverted towards Jerusalem again and the treaty of Jaffa was signed with the turks, then why were the nobles’ agitations drawn towards Constantinople and Venetian trade practices? During such crucial ‘religious times’, how was it possible for noblemen to suddenly care about monetary and trade practices? There is no definite historic answer to this but one can create multiple theories such as- the financial strain of spending precious resources on heavy artillary, the mental strain of fighting in the name of religion yet gaining absolutely zilch or the political and military strain of acquiring the recruiting knights to fight on their leaders’ behalf. These maybe some plausible theories but alas, the rest remains history.
NEGOTIATIONS AND THE AFTERMATH.
The dwindling state of the Holy land during these wars might as well amount to either the egoistic crusaders who could not bare to see Jerusalem in the hands of the Seljuks or the rigidity of the religious rulers of either belief to maintain stakes on the land they ‘meant to have’. Assuming these can be some rightful reasons behind such dreadful political battles over centuries, I would like to throw some light upon the differences in the characteristics of the emperors and popes who had the highest command over their nobles. Some handled situations through reasonable negotiations while others ended it with brutal acts of defiance and heinous crimes. The state of affairs could have been much more improved if genuine impetus was given to logistical suggestions on handling such issues this sensitive to the natives.
However, did situations reach at ease after such blithering ludicrous events further? To recapitulate, was this all worth the satisfaction and gratification?
Being the world’s second-largest population does not just mean more people to look after it also means data being produced in superficial quantities, India is home to 1.3 billion people and every individual has with themselves precious data to contribute to the ‘databases’ which interests not only the government agencies but also the private sector. In an epoch where the government functions so efficiently that data leaks are a regular story for us, as citizens to develop an understanding of data privacy laws is a must.
What classifies as your data?
In a layman’s language data is nothing more than any quantitative or qualitative inputs about a said thing or a person that may be used to study varied aspects of the thing or the person’s behaviour. Well, anything from your name and age to your bank account details is data. As defined under the IT Rules(2012) Sensitive Personal Information includes-
Passwords;
Financial information such as bank account or credit card or debit card or other payment instrument details;
Physical, physiological and mental health condition;
Sexual orientation;
Medical records and history;
Biometric information.
How is your data collected?
Your consent is the key distinction between various forms of data collection, in cases such as setting up a social media account or signing up on Amazon you wilfully share information about yourself which is then used to personalise, enable user experience, another valid example would be of aadhar cards which even store your biometrics along with personal details (I will come to the topic of Aadhar later in detail). The situation where your data is taken without consent could be best illustrated with the example of ‘The Modi’ app it was an app which was developed to allow citizens to voice their grievances directly to the prime minister but, the app was a manoeuvre to steal your data or perhaps to even establish surveillance by permitting the app to access your contacts, location services, camera, microphone, etc.
Why is it important for your data to be protected?
Since the emergence of data companies which help companies in understanding the market in a wholesome manner (by providing insights about consumer preference and taste) the menace of data theft has become alarming. By interpreting something as trivial as the posts you like on Facebook these companies can precisely conclude your political preferences or as mentioned above in the case of ‘The Modi’ app it may be used to keep surveillance over the citizens or if it ends in the wrong hands it could leave you vulnerable to hackers, frauds, and blackmailers. Nonetheless, all of these cynically violate your privacy.
Data Protection Laws in India
The old dictum of the Indian state of affairs of ‘maximum guarantees, minimum enforcement’ holds in the sphere of data protection and privacy laws. Right to privacy is intrinsically protected by the constitution of India (though not fundamentally but envisaged under articles 19(1)(a) and 21) the former was laid under the landmark judgement of Justice K.S Puttuswamy V/S Union of India though there is no codified law in this regards as of the time of writing this article but it is surely expected to be formed shortly. Currently, the concept of data protection is protected by the IT Act (2000) and IT Rules (2012), few basic points regarding the latter are-
Under the provisions of the IT Act (2000) the body corporate dealing with storage and collection of the data is required to ensure the data is safe, not being shared without their consent, used only for the authorised purposes, stored for a stipulated period and in a proper manner and there is no wrongful loss to the people in question and for the same take reasonable security measures; failure to live up to these commitments shall render the body corporates open to punitive damages.
Exceptions to Data Protection Laws
Like any right or freedom, the right to privacy is also not absolute it is also subject to certain restrictions by the government, as per the section 69 of the IT Act (2000) the exceptions to the right to privacy include-
the sovereignty or integrity of India;
defence of India;
security of the State;
friendly relations with foreign States or
public order or
for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above or
Well, the situation becomes even grimmer when the existing government is keen on making aadhar a more comprehensive medium of identification let it be aadhar allowed as an alternative to PAN card or be aadhar used for KYC (Know Your Customer) by banks and apps. As for the way forward, we the citizens should be more aware before sharing any information; the government which is hellbent on promoting the very aadhar cards they opposed UPA in 2012 should focus a little more jettisoning their selfish motive and at least ensure data it is collecting is safe (perhaps taking a minute percentage of funds from aadhar advertisement to aadhar data protection fund can prove to be useful).
Connotation 