My laptop has gone for a toss,So has my blog gone for a pause.
The screen went blank in a flick,
So did she confess “I am sick”.
I pleaded “Oh Google, My google,
Thou art all wise.Help me find a fix,
To heal my dear little sys.I clicked all links,
So did I try all tricks.
Stayed awake all night,
Alas! I lost the fight.Teary eyed she had to leave me,
To find the healer with the right key.
Thou wilt be missed,
Waiting for your arrival all whilst.
Note to all my readers: My laptop is out of reach for a while. My little sys (laptop) needed a vacay. So I will not be active much in WordPress for few days. I will still be reading through all your posts and try publishing new posts, expect a delay though. 🙂 I know I can blog through other devices, but I am comfortable blogging with my dear laptop by my side giving me all the ideas.
He smashes the door and falls down. A few pieces of glass from the door broke and pierced his abdomen, he starts bleeding. He pulls out the glass piece from his abdomen and crawls aside in utter pain. A few of the customers run out of the shop, the staff runs helter-skelter not knowing what to do? The security officer and a few of the staff rush towards the door and look for solutions to close the doorway temporarily. The office maid rushes to clean the floor. Amazed and shocked you stand there frozen. Nobody was attending to the man who was still bleeding. The manager comes out looking at the chaos and gets hold of the wounded man and helps him to be seated by the side chair. Still, no one manages to call the ambulance. It would have been almost a 15 minutes chaos. I wonder, why nobody cared to call the ambulance on the first instance when you saw the man bleeding heavily.
The first action in this scene as soon as the old man got hit by the glass piece was to call the ambulance or attend to the man and carefully try to get him to the nearest hospital. The man succumbed to his injuries. This is no made-up story, but similar incidents are happening around the world. What do you think went wrong here? Well, what I understand is there was no timely action taken by anyone who was there right at the moment. A quick reaction was the need of the hour and the man could have been saved.
Why did this happen? There are lots of similar incidents happening across the world where people lose lives due to a lack of quick reaction. It’s not just the duty of the medical staff or the security person to be aware of handling such emergency situations. Each and every person should be well aware. If it’s been taught from childhood it becomes a behavior automatically to face any situation without panic. I know a few schools which take the initiative to teach the students such skills as part of their extracurricular activities. Starting with personal skills such as behavior and decision making to additional skills such as martial arts and any form of art or sports. These can be introduced to children during the very beginning of their schooling. In this generation when even a newborn baby is not safe and parents are busy with their work, the responsibility is on the school to teach the kids how to get themselves well equipped to live a better life. That does not mean parents should not be concerned. It is upon the parents to help their children to understand the need for such skills and let them free to choose the field that they can easily relate to. Children these days are so engrossed with games and using technology just for binge-watching and entertainment, they need to be taught how to positively utilize their resources. A few of the topics or skills that need to be taught to the children are listed below:
Self Care & Hygiene – This should be a priority and well taught at home and at school by teachers which should become the basis of healthy living.
Household– Making children understand the need to help parents/elderly in household duties including cooking/cleaning/getting grocery and basic repair work. Children should not be scared of learning the electric work or fire, rather they should be taught properly what and why they are being told to stay away from it now. Teach them measures to prevent an electric accident at home or outside. They should not panic when an accident happens which may even worsen the situation.
First Aid & Basic medical help – Practical education on first aid and basic medical help is a must for children these days, so they do not get tensed in case of any emergency and can handle a situation till a doctor arrives or taken to the hospital. Such education can be imparted on the basis of the respective age groups.
Emergency/Accidents- Facing an accident or an emergency situation like a fire breakout or a theft without panic should become a behavior. When an accident occurs our mind should be auto-tuned to calm ourselves and think about the possible solutions without much delay. Martial arts and education on fire and safety measures prove very helpful in such situations. A lot of such similar education on all forms of accidents/ emergency situations such as fire/water/electricity or gas leakage etc can prevent a lot of accidents occurring around the world. Such education can be imparted on the basis of the respective age groups.
Swimming– Swimming classes should be made mandatory at school for children. Fear of water can be erased if taught in childhood itself. We never know when a situation will arise where you have to either help yourselves or help others as incidents of drowning have occurred many times and this can be completely avoided if one is taught swimming at an early stage.
Culture, Tradition, and Social laws – Learning and understanding one’s own culture and respecting other cultures should be mandatory from childhood. A lot of chaos or inequality on race and color occur as children do not understand the reason for the existence of different cultures or races in a single world. No matter what culture one belongs to, at the end of the day we all breathe the same air. Children should be made aware of the basic laws and how to be a responsible citizen for the betterment of society.
“No matter what culture one belongs to, at the end of the day we all breathe the same air”
Martial arts– Learning any one martial art is vital equally for boys and girls so they know how to defend themselves at any situation. More than that, almost all martial arts help the practitioners build confidence and act responsibly towards other beings as respect is one of the major traits for any martial artist.
Yoga and Meditation – Yoga & meditation are simple tools which can prove to be a great way to change the thought process of the next generation. Ideally, they wouldn’t have to face any kind of mental stress once they are taught to do yoga or meditation from childhood as they get equipped to have better control over their mind.
Sports and Arts – If introduced at school, children can identify their favorite form of art and they can practically try and understand what they are good at. Learning at least any one form of art/martial art/sports has always proven to be beneficial in positive behavioral changes among children.
Sex education and Prevention of Drugs & other addictions– Such education can prevent the majority of child abuse/rape/kidnapping cases arising every day around the world. Teaching children about the negative impact of drugs and all kinds of addictions registers in their minds to take the necessary steps when faced with such illegal activities. There are cases where kids are not even aware of what they are going through. With such education, these cases can be reduced.
Communication– Communicate openly rather than hiding. I understand there are children who find it difficult to talk to strangers or mingle with a group. But children must be taught the need to talk to their family, be open to their parents, siblings, or closest friends. They should never hesitate to share no matter what circumstance they go through. A family must never shut their children when they approach you with concerns frequently in their childhood. It ends up in the mind of the child that the family is not approachable if you shut them up for even once. Such situations end up in grave consequences in the future.
Finance and Taxes – Children are taught math but they do not realize why they are being taught this. They should inculcate the habit of saving from childhood and understand the need for saving and investing for the future. Filing of taxes should be a part of the basic education so that they do not have to look out for tax consultant services to file their own taxes.
Be a helping hand/Being selfless– Children need to understand the feelings/emotions of oneself and others and need to relate. They should be able to empathize and help those in needy with the resources available rather than just sympathizing. These can be done through buddy systems and organizing campaigns helping out old age homes or pet shelter.
Protect and promote the environment – Children should understand how and what affects the environment negatively. They should be made aware of how one can help in promoting the environment. Planting trees in the school ground and their neighborhood, teaching the benefits of starting kitchen garden at home, proper waste disposal, classes on reuse & recycle of old materials, etc could be some of the initiatives.
Reading newspapers and books – Reading can be inculcated from home or children can be made to read the newspaper at school and made to do presentations, so that they do not just read it but also try to understand the content. Reading books help in building a better vocabulary.
Internet & Applications – Computer education is already a part of the curriculum. But the merits and demerits, use and misuse of applications, websites, computer cameras, how their information gets hacked and how it can be prevented, etc should also be a part of education so that children are well aware while using the internet or an application.
Respecting Others – Parents need to teach their children how to respect elders and how to behave properly irrespective of age or any relation. Children should be able to understand how a stranger can be your friend and at the same time how to maintain their personal space.
Food/Nutrition and Health– Proper diet should be a vital subject since children these days do not understand the aftereffects of the junk food that they keep snacking on. They should be able to identify themselves what is good and what is bad for their health. As they grow up, their health and diet should be their responsibility. Doing a regular workout can be done at school or at home with parents together. If it’s a fun activity they tend to remember to do it daily.
Each of these can be taught to the children at their respective ages when they are ready to learn and can register well in their minds. All these can be taught through some fun and team-oriented activities, games, camps, or can be a part of their curriculum. Once a student completes his/her education he/she would be clear of his/her field of interest for the future so that they can work on it and contribute to the society while working within their area of interest. These skills can develop children to become independent, resilient, and be a better human being.
There are times when you feel that it’s too late- considering your age, life, circumstances, responsibilities or even health. But what matters is Do You Really Want To Do It? Everything else is just an excuse. Just Go For It!
Up and down our life goes around,And gets swayed so far with no bounds,Laughter and tears go hand in hand,So do our emotions do their rounds.Tough times do come up,But let’s face it,That’s what makes you upright,To ace it.You get beaten down,That’s not your thing to fight,If that’s what you think deep down,You are wrong Mr. Not so right.Just start with it,Do it, play it, write it, sing it,Just fight for it,As somebody said...”It's never too late for it”
A pandemic steps in and the entire humanity goes in for a complete lock down. Including social, mental, physical, financial and all sorts. And all of a sudden the entire world concentrates on one single point of concern, “The Pandemic”.
I simply fail to understand why is it that we human beings do not consider our health as the major point of concern. From the beginning of mankind till now, all that we used our brain was for how to find more and more comfort or should I say, “how can we get our routine stuff done even without having to blink?”. That’s a major concern. We are blessed with a magnificent brain for us to rather understand and explore the mysteries hidden. People did live even before all of these comforts. Comfort to a basic level is good enough so that we do not find our body restricting our thought process. We are blessed with an aligned body to do our daily stuff in the best possible ways. We don’t need inventions to ease our physical body. We need inventions to aid our environment for a better thought process.
But if we just think about it, why do such pandemics even crop up?Unhealthy living! If at all it does crop up, why is that we humans tend to hide from it rather than being able to fight it. What if the entire human system was so healthy enough that they could just easily cope up with any such pandemic? I understand each human body is different and it is not easy as it is said. But for a fact, as far as what I have heard and read, those with immunity are rarely affected by such pandemic. And is it that this immunity thing is something which every human has to inject himself through some medicines or pills. It all ends up to one thought, we need to start prioritizing our body and mind. Once we are fit physically and mentally, we can make the world a better place to live in. It’s not when some emergency situation as such comes up that we start thinking of all precautions regarding food & health. Overall fitness has to become our habit.
I recently happened to read numerous cases of death due to heart attack in news, including my distant relatives and friends. And the age range 25 to 50 yrs. It becomes even more shocking when you see there are children who end up giving up their life for the same. Even before the pandemic, it was a point of discussion, because heart attack was then related to our busy lifestyle, no proper diet/food, stress and all the mess. But I assumed during lock down people would be more careful. Maybe the heart attack rates have decreased comparatively but still, it has not come down to zero. I recently went through an interesting article, cited below a part from it.
In this era of exponential growth of the “metabolic syndrome” and obesity, lifestyle modifications could be a cost-effective way to improve health and quality of life. Lifestyle modifications can assume especially great importance in individuals with serious mental illness. Many of these individuals are at a high risk of chronic diseases associated with sedentary behavior and medication side effects, including diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and cardiovascular disease. [1]. An essential component of lifestyle modification is exercise. The importance of exercise is not adequately understood or appreciated by patients and mental health professionals alike. Evidence has suggested that exercise may be an often-neglected intervention in mental health care. [2]
A proper diet is yet another important factor but its not something that needs to be mentioned separately. Without a healthy body, you can never even dream to have a healthy mind. What about the differently abled? As a matter of fact, they have a set of workout regimes specifically designed for them. You can find such people always motivated and happy. Lifestyle, career, busy schedule everything else is just an excuse. You cannot make an excuse when a heart attack or a pandemic comes knocking on your door. Each and every human life is important. It is up to us to look after our body and mind. Everything starts with a healthy and fit body. A healthy body and a strong mind are always intertwined. Once physical fitness is looked into, everything else falls into place. Well, you could ask anyone around you? Ask yourself?
Just try to change your life now. If each and everyone turns him/her self to make this a habit, I wonder if any pandemic would ever crop up again. Though I am not a scientist to give you any kind of proven statements, these are my thoughts since I had gone through a lot of such heart attack & death news circulating just like any other daily incident. Do try to make a lifestyle shift now for a better future!
Source:
[1]Richardson CR, Faulkner G, and McDevitt J. et al. Integrating physical activity into mental health services for persons with serious mental illness. Psychiatr Serv. 2005 56:324–331.
I thought of sharing a poem I wrote considering these disturbing incidents happening around us even at this unprecedented time!
Child abuse includes all types of child maltreatment, including neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, exploitation and emotional abuse.
She scowls in anger,
So do they pity her.
She howls out loud,
In pain she vowed.
Hiding from her folks,
Escaped to street holes.
She wept all night,
Dreamt of the darkest plight.Uncle Joe comes home,
And caressed her alone.
Took her to the wash,
With no one to watch.
Every time did she plead,
So was she hushed.No she ain’t wounded,
But torn, broken and hounded.
Did anyone pay heed?
No one believed indeed.
She was awake as the Sun,
She was in the slums.
Messed up were her clothes & hair,
So was her life in despair.To venge she sought,
The pain she fought.
She walked back to dare,
The sinner to bare.
It was her 13th Birthday,
So was everyone in cheer and play.
She pointed at him, "Yes, You!!!"
Startled folks turned to see Who?
He tried to stride away in stealth,
But tackled by the gather in strength.
He was confronted,
So was he guilty and disgusted.Red faced & silent he wept,
Whilst his family left aghast.
He was imprisoned with effect,
So was justice served perfect.
As for her, she had to learn,
Not to hide & burn.
But to move ahead,
And brave the dread.
yes.. 👍🙂
I’m sorry to hear that- hopefully you’ll be back to blogging again soon.
😄😄 I am glad you liked it. Thank You. Just waiting for my laptop to be back! 🙂
Hope little sys gets well soon 🙂 Though the poem was sad, I really enjoyed and was smiling throughout. And,…
yes.. 👍🙂