Education versus Systemic Scarcity

I have not written a blog in a long while. So I started to compile a list of topics on which I would like to share my thoughts. This topic was not on there. I was watching a video today which mentioned the following quote:

"What if the cure to cancer is trapped inside the mind of someone who can't afford an education?"

-Anonymous

This quote will stay with me forever. Which is why I want to share my thoughts on this topic with the world.

Education is not limited to the the pages of a textbook. It is not limited to history or the language in which it is imparted. Why then is this limitless, transcendental resource limited by the the barricades of systematic scarcity? 

At some point in life all of us have heard of the rich and unhappy, and poor and happy debate. Yes, happiness is not directly proportional to material possessions. However, everyone needs to have fulfilled the first level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs(Physiological needs) to truly realize long term happiness. The other day, I was discussing this topic with my mother who left me with a thought,

"Do you think all those photos of candid moments of poor people smiling and laughing last outside the photos? For us, sadness is fleeting and momentary, happiness is usually more long term. The opposite's the case for them."  

That's true. A starving human can't think of ways to solve world hunger. You literally need food to tackle your life. If you haven't eaten for days,  how will you ever think of ways to help another? All of us find it really easy to blame the poor people. Of course. They are the ones who don't want to improve their lives-to send their kids to schools, to work harder. They want to die.

Yes, more often than not, these poor people have fixed mindsets, not growth ones. They work sloppily. They don't send their kids to schools even when education is free in government schools. They keep having kids even when they can't feed them. They want boys, not girls. 

They are stupid. They are stupid for getting exhausted working on Sundays, of wanting more earning members in their family, of being scared of being unable to protect their children of the sexual violence that is common in slums, more common than we realize. They are stupid for not being able to realize the smart ways they can fix their lives because they are so busy earning the penny that you use for making decisions by tossing it. Afterall, it's just money, right?

How then do you aid these poor people in realizing that they can take the reigns of their life? That they can be somewhat in control of their lives once they realize they can.

How do you heal generational habits that have become a culture? 

Education.

How do you keep people stuck in the loop of this culture because these people add more to the economy than they receive back?

Education. Or the lack of it. Education because the wrong type is damaging in ways that have created the most terrifying horrors caused by humans(the Holocaust) or lack of it, because ignorant, desperate people make obedient workers.

Can we truly blame people when the scarcity is systemic?

How do you change the system? 

A system only changes when the foundation on which it's built is constituted by educated people. 

Which is exactly why Education is the only way we can progress. But poverty isn't only caused by scarcity. It's caused by wars and marginalization too. 

I have only discussed one branch of our society's tree. There are plenty others. 

While reading this, in case you didn't notice, I have intentionally used the word poor as the sole describing adjective of people who lack financial resources. For those who aren't as privileged. They are humans. People. They deserve to exist as much as you do. As much as everyone. They are talented and capable. But most importantly individuals with a lot more to offer than being melancholic puppets in our movies.

It bugged me a lot to keep using it. But that was my aim. If it didn't trigger you to keep reading it then you have discovered one of the damaged roots of our society tree. If it feels bad to realize that you are a part of it, that's good, you know exactly what to work on. 

Our mindsets make up this system. It's cool to read about injustice. It's truly sad to realize that you simply read about it. Perhaps when we use the word poor we need to look in the mirror once.

Offer aid, not pity. Educate, not pity.

If you want our world to change, share this. Or don't. If you change just your mindset, my work's done.

NOTE: We need to achieve the SDGs by 2030. It's February 2025 as I write this. This is some of my contribution to Goal 1(No poverty) and Goal 4(Quality Education). Your smallest contribution matters. 

OPEN LETTER 1

 I knew a girl once, Nirbhaya,

She danced through life with rose coloured glasses,
A young soul- fearless- another name on your candles,
she wanted to be so much more.

I knew a girl once, Asifa,
who could’ve been another Malala or someone you couldn’t ignore,
You made the latter true but
was it worth by crushing an 8 year old’s soul?

I knew a girl once, Hetal,
her mother had gone to a temple.
Can prayers protect a daughter if you can’t trust a security guard to not break the locks?

I knew a girl once,
who wanted to make a name of her own, you attached a caste to her and came to her like hounds.
You tried to make her a 'Dalit' (as if it's wrong to be born one) and nothing more.

These are the strongest women I know.
They go beyond goddesses in my eyes, I don’t think that has become the case for you yet,

Otherwise how did YOU
Use your rotten hands to touch them and get away with it?
You, who aren’t a human, but could’ve had some humanity but no,
I know wild animals who have greater humans in them but no you don’t.

A 31 year old doctor [let’s remove all those tags]
A human being who was doing her job, that’s who you took away from this world.

There is no redemption for you here, neither in hell.
Because even the devil has more humanity than a coward who snatches away someone’s ‘dignity’.

Dignity is the wrong word though. You can’t take away something you have never seen in your own mirror.


-Saanvi Singh

Imagine being a Female

 Imagine feeling unsafe walking to your home. Feeling so unbearably uncomfortable in your own skin. Feeling like scratching yourself from how disgusting it feels to be stared at.

Imagine feeling so scared, so so scared of walking alone, travelling alone, of entering adolescence. 

Having to prove all your achievements again and again. Of being filmed, and mocked as if the person besides you wasn't applauded for repeating your idea. Hilarious. 

Being the subject of 'DARK HUMOUR' in the name of 'just a joke'. Of struggling to build a table of your own because each time you do, 'they' try to steal your hammers and nails. 

Of having to purchase basic sanitation necessities in hushes and whispers( Might I add we have a sanitary napkin brand that goes by that name)- wrapped in newspapers with headlines covering news on another rape. While the person beside you just asked for a condom and was given the same with a wink and good luck.

Of maintaining the same routine in unbearable pain because jobs don't work the way your body does.  Of realizing that the world that you use was not made for you because the statistics that make phones and cars and public provisions were based on surveys of outdated information and lacks inputs from 50% of the population.

Of seeing fellow females propagate misogynism. It is understandable that they do because that's all they've grown up seeing. But is it justified? 

Of seeing there not be enough positions for all females so they start to drag each other down to end up there. 

Of being called a 'b*tch' if you divorce your partner and an s word (I'd rather not increase it's popularity by using it) if the partner divorces you.

Sure this sounds like another person cribbing about inequality. We have solved the 'issue' right? Why talk about it. 

Have we solved the issue?

Stats by worldpopulationreview.com

The same website quotes, 'It is estimated that approximately 35% of women worldwide have experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime. However, in most countries with data available on rape (including the U.S.), fewer than 40% of those women seek help—and fewer than 10% seek assistance from law enforcement. As a result, most rapists escape punishment. In the U.S., for instance, it is estimated that only 9% of rapists are prosecuted, and only 3% spend time in prison. 97% of rapists walk free.'

To say males and other genders are survivors too is not excuse. They suffer, but does that mean women don't? Why not talk about the issue as a whole instead of fighting each other?

Women can be perpetrators. Women can be rapists. Women can be criminals.

That doesn't mean there are other women who haven't been sufferers and survivors.

It's an unparalleled feeling, being a female. I wouldn't change it for the world. I'd rather change the world. 

Note-Images in this blog aren't owned by me, all the rights go to their respective owners.

Balloons that fly away

 There are leaves that fall,

I crush them with my feet,

They are dust now.

There are leaves that blow away,

I whistled them off,

They are nowhere to be found.

There are fruits that fall off

-from the weight of the seed,

Did I pluck them, did I not?

There are fruits that fell off

-from how big they were supposed to be,

was I the fruit, am I its fall?

The stars died 

watching the waves dance all alone.

The earth forced the roots to pull to it.

The heir has it all-

the throne it wanted all along-

peace and gratitude-

Medicines but no will to cure-

the mellowest apple is the most rotten of the lot.

The wind still screeches as the candles are blown each year 'round,

the one who wants to wear the crown, bears the crown.

-S.S.

Note-Images in this blog aren't owned by me, all the rights go to their respective owners.

Spontaneous thoughts(2)

 Souls are not whitewashed-faces maybe, smiles perhaps, but the spirit- No. Humans are intricately woven beings much like wild bushes. Tangled, confused- trying to find a purpose in life. Among those bushes you will most definitely find thorns. Claimed to be the wisest species on the planet, it's a hilarious thought- how often we bleed on others just because we can't bring ourselves off the pedestal of self-hurt. We cut our own branches. We break apart our own roots, demean our home. We try to mirror others-make foreign steps our own. We want to forget our heritage and so we do but does it bring any exuberance? Bushes trying to be trees, envying pastures and their clean means. It's a simple idea isn't it- stop acknowledging our faults, paint our faces white and live another's life? 

The consequences of which are right here- steaming soil, wasted water, lost languages, ignorant individuals, malevolent mortals...But what could save wilderness going haywire? Nothing can uplift the eyes which lack hope...but what if one branch sprouts a bud?- A flower is born among a lost herd. It's a miracle! It doesn't look like the bushes matter anymore. One against a thousand stems. No one wants to dig up the bushes' grave anymore. What could compete that adorned by a colorful horoscope?

None of us has a consciousness painted in white. All of us have a trajectory painted with sparks of black and specks of white. All of us make errors in life. Yet, all of us have a bud- a flower ready to bloom, ready to fight. We are not a monochromatic painting, we have a gradient life. There is no point in loathing ourselves, no point of brooding over past mistakes. We need to acknowledge we're 'human'. It doesn't always have to be a live or lie. We can't forget our family, our planet and run behind worthless, materialistic supplies. We just need to water the plant of hope within ourselves and before asking others for a torch, be the light.

Note-Images used in this blog are not owned by me, all the rights go to their respective owners.

The Aftermath of the Haul Culture

 

Despondence can be drawn from a multitude of things around us including expectations of how humanity was supposed to uphold the sanity of our planet getting thrashed. Generation after generation meditations of how moral values are vacillating with time have circulated, yet, one of them wasn’t supposed to change, ‘Valuing our possessions’.

Fashion is an industry that has thrived on our fickle nature of acknowledging the exquisite beauty of things for short periods of times, ‘only’, for decades. With small worlds in our hands having crafted our modern perspective of things more than ever our ideas of beauty have also adopted some of our ideals.

            Capitalism has many conventional objectionable points trailing it, yet, one mosaic among them has been frequently tried to be ghosted, ‘the mindless consumption it bestows upon us’. Figuratively, this is not a problem faced by the wealthy only. Middle class as well as lower middle class people have also been leeched into a void of purchasing behaviours to appease their social status. This has been stretched to a tower where people are willing to either throw away their resources on petty clothes and accessories or buy cheap but fake copies of the items just for societal validation.

            Accessibility to platforms originally made to foster creativity and social interaction including, ‘YouTube’, ‘Instagram’, ‘Facebook’, ‘Pinterest’, et cetera have yet to police us from shattering micro-trends. As per multiple surveys and observations the width of the average trend-cycle has been stunted to a mere three months from the former two to three decades. Stigmatization associated with repeating outfits online even when we do the same in offline is uncontrollable. Glamorization of the portrayed lives of celebrities and idols who actually wear sponsored fashion is also a cherry atop the cake for a bird already strenuous to shoot.

            This vicious cycle of purchasing and throwing away is environmentally degrading as well as unethical because it promotes workers operating in factories to work under inhumane conditions while we enjoy a fame that only lasts for thirty seconds to a minute on social media platforms.

This needs to change if we want ourselves to not be responsible for our own extinction and that of others. To end the endless talks about child labour and poor working conditions we need, ‘Sustainable Fashion’.

                Sustainable fashion if taken to its constituent terms means a form of fashion that can sustain. It is significant to not only sustain the lives of our clothes but also the bodies that wear them. There are always two sides of a coin. The first side of this fashion is that it barricades us from the aftermath of the potential hazards associated with hauls and fast fashion.

New brands have started to rise across the globe. These are values with strong values of environmental sensitivity engraved into them.  It was believed that there’s no more scope of entrepreneurial growth in anything but renewable fuels, electric automobiles, technology and data science (and associated fields). Amongst them a new child was born. Brands including ‘Thread Up’, ‘Patagonia’, et cetera as well as locally thriving thrift stores and second hand shops have seen massive growth with awareness about them being circulated in most institutions. Practices conventionally associated primarily with Asian and African households of wearing clothes belonging to siblings or borrowing them from friends should also be de-stigmatised if we wish to see a bright future.

            The other side of the coin is many current brands are not diverse. Brands heavily associated with sustainability are seen to not include representative workers for certain communities (i.e. are racist or homophobic) as well as a not borrowing sizes of a standard (i.e. conventionally skinny or fat) excluding a humongous sect of people. They do not aim at the right population and are often beyond the pockets of majority people. They do not market themselves too well and are hence viewed with doubtful eyes by most. We need to strive for some changes in our communities as well if we wish to adopt sustainable fashion. Children as well as adults are criticised for practicing the behaviour of wearing second hand clothes are bullied and are often pronounced poor. The materials from which ‘Sustainable’ clothes are made still have a negative impact on nature as they too are made using huge volumes of water. We have to draw some changes onto this immediately and invest in uplifting into making our planet more environmentally prosperous.          

                                                

Sustainability is not just a practice it’s a mindset that is innate and the very foundation of our civilization. We have lost its essence among the waves of time but now is the time to integrate it again in ourselves. We have to cultivate a spirit of active sensitivity and empathy for the mother who birthed millions but got the love of only a few and we need to do it now.

“The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”

-Chinese Proverb

Note-Images in this blog aren't owned by me, all the rights go to their respective owners.

Spontaneous thoughts(1)

 One night, give up all your futile attempts at trying to perfect the unfeasible and go out. Sit under the canvas of the stars and just lie down, count all the things you are grateful about. Close your eyes, let the air blow away all the calamities of your mind, let your senses be at their best in sheer nothingness, and the consciousness introspect on every philosophy it has ever thought about. It's lovely, isn't it?

 

To feel everything, to be anything. Look at the stars and let them make you wonder, the obvious, the absolute, the nothing, the everything, the infinite and the beyond. Maybe, you may just find it's all and none all the time but what's between is you, nothing and everything. Isn't it wonderful to wonder why is it all as it is, to grasp the unknowingness you posses and understand that's it! That's the start of nowhere which painted the road to somewhere. Perhaps, it isn't just a mere thought that there is nothing and everything and in between is the reality. 

But then what's beyond those extremes? I don't think I know yet but there has to be or is this notion just a complex projection of what is all that's left of us now, a madness which craves to know because it might just be scared of the cacophony which it brought upon it's own be the start of  a fire which may kill them or become the a possession which leads to the ultimate...

Note-A few images in this blog aren't owned by me, all the rights go to their respective owners.

'GIFTED': How you may be Ignoring the Hard-Work of people

 Let's be brusque, so are you one of those people who considers that everyone who is good at something is 'GIFTED'? If not that's great but if yes...this blog is for you 👀.

Who is Gifted? Any person who many people consider was provided the magical ability to be good at something by some supernatural entity is called Gifted. It's not actually that is it ?

I am not an atheist but it's about time we understand that it's not okay to connect everything we may not be able to comprehend properly or want the excuse to not be asked to be like with a belief of majority.

This concept is rather connected with psychology. To be brief, there are two mindsets one is called Fixed mindset and other is the Growth Mindset. Fixed Mindset means to consider that every ability which a person can hold in their personality comes naturally and someone can not improve ever. Growth mindset is quite the vice versa. To tackle the thought that people are Gifted we need to adopt Growth Mindset and trust me you can do that. 

Just try :)

I just wanted to write this short blog to make people who have the fixed mindset aware that-"I don't want to be rude but please understand by considering someone Gifted you are indirectly implying that the second person doesn't  have to put in any effort to be where they are and to be good enough for themselves. Perhaps you don't mean it but the term 'Blessed or Gifted' comes of to a thing which a person was served in a silver platter with. To be first in the race, the winner must have put in effort it's obvious and they don't deserve to have their struggle ignored. A mother nurtures a child for nine months before he/she/they is born. What you can do to show you admire such a person is understand that they deserve the ability or quality💛 "

                                    It's sweet to appreciate not to underestimate.

Note-No image in this blog is owned by me, all the rights go to their respective owners  and this is not written by a professional, just by a person writing from experience :)