The Indian budget every year has always been an eagerly awaited event. For many decades, the best minds in economics, finance, tax, business and industry throng the media house to analyze the provisions shared by the Financial Minister.
Sometimes major events completely disconnected may be data points for the plans of the different powers around the world. The challenge is to discern what purpose they serve? More critically, what are we moving towards?
When the US Ambassador threatened India's "Strategic Autonomy" policy over India's friendship with Russia - much more than meets the eye was at stake. Let us unpack how the Ukraine war has fundamentally changed the US and the world. And why are we here anyway?
Bouquet #7: Eclectic Mind Food (Faking, Changing minds, Awe, Pet's Death, Evil vs Stupidity)
Week's Five - Why women feel like imposters, Changing minds is tough, Awe leads to happiness, Handling pet's death, Evil vs Stupidity #DrishtikoneNewsletter
“Love takes off the masks we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” ― James Baldwin
1. Faking it
The impostor phenomenon or syndrome has been around for long. In early 70s, an assistant professor at Oberlin College named Clance found that many women, even when successful, thought they were not good enough. So much so that even though they passed an exam, they would think they had failed. When she talked to her colleague, Suzanne Imes, she found that Imes had the same experience. They both then talked to over hundred and fifty “successful” women: students and faculty members at several universities; professionals in fields including law, nursing, and social work over five years. They wrote a paper - “The Impostor Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention.”
The paper was rejected initially, but it attained a cult status. Over the years they realized that the feeling of being an imposter is so overwhelming that the impostor begins to do everything possible to prevent being discovered in her self-perceived deficiencies.
Awe happens when you realize that the existence is far bigger than what your mind can fathom. That in itself is enough of a meditation.
Dacher Keltner writes in his book "Awe" based on two decades of research about the benefits of awe.
Far from being an undefinable caprice, awe, to Keltner, is a panacea, an evolutionary tool that holds the key to humanity’s capacity to flourish in groups. On an average day, a person might come to a place like Point Reyes without feeling anything more profound than a slight unburdening of the soul. But if you lean into that feeling even for just a moment, the benefits can be manifold. Proponents of this new science believe that experiencing awe may be an essential pathway to physical and mental well-being. By taking us out of ourselves and expanding our sense of time, it counteracts the self-focus and narcissism that is the root of so much modern disenchantment. To experience awe, to fully open ourselves up to it, helps us to live happier, healthier lives.
Once you become part of the larger whole, your sense of self-importance and narcissism.
In today's world, as people increasingly have pets at home, a time comes for many where they have to consider euthanasia. And that creates many threads of feelings. From feeling like a murderer, guilt and shame.
You can fight what is obvioously evil but how wll you fight stupidity?
Villains in comic books and action movies are known and can be fought against. But stupidity is a different problem. We are more tolerant of it and it's hard to defeat. When confronted with facts, a stupid person will not accept them and can become angry.
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The I.N.D.I.A alliance has clearly expressed its election plank - annihilation of Sanatan Dharma or Hinduism. In order to dismantle the Modi government. It is not an electoral battle anymore but a civilizational battle now.
Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven wrote about disruptive militant protests in 1966. Movements like Occupy, Woke protests were its offsprings. Even in India, anti-Modi government protests bear its imprint. An analysis.
'The Vaccine War' is a beautiful story of very complex times. Vivek Agnihotri has weaved together a masterpiece dealing with a subject very few would have touched. The pandemic and the triumph of India.
Chandrayaan-3 landing on South side of moon was not just the triumph of scientists at ISRO today but a tradition and history of science that looks at exploration as a spiritual path. It is a story of a battle against all odds and challenges!
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