Making walking a daily practice for all.

Each morning, I embark on a 20-minute walk, and the benefits I've experienced from this routine have exceeded my expectations. Just in the first 3 days of doing this daily practice, I felt stronger and lighter. It makes me have immense respect and regard for the magnificent human body. It doesn’t ask for much. Thanks to Mr. Darren Hardy for the book titled, ‘The Compound Effect’, I have realized that small daily habits not only create better results in your life but also create a long-lasting transformation in you.

Walking for 15 to 30 minutes is a habit that can be easily adopted in our daily lives. Walking in the morning is wise because the morning sun improves cognitive performance and focus. Sunlight exposure triggers the release of serotonin, known as the happiness hormone, enhances bone health, and potentially aids in the treatment of various skin conditions.

Spending time in nature can reduce stress and anxiety by lowering cortisol levels and enhancing mood. Regular walks outdoors can also improve cardiovascular health by lowering blood pressure. Additionally, being in nature enhances creativity, focus, and cognitive function and also boosts the immune system. Overall, it's linked to improved self-esteem and well-being.

To promote walking in nature for everyone, public health policies can prioritize creating accessible green spaces within urban areas, ensuring that parks and trails are well-maintained and easily reachable by public transportation or walking paths. Government initiatives can include implementing flexible work schedules or policies that allow for breaks during the day to spend time outdoors, promoting walking meetings, or providing incentives for employers to encourage outdoor breaks.

Labor policies could be adapted to include provisions for mandatory breaks or flexible working hours that accommodate outdoor activities. For instance, countries like Singapore have implemented green space initiatives such as the "Park Connector Network," which links parks and natural areas with walking and cycling paths, making it easier for residents to incorporate outdoor activities into their daily routines. Changes to the built environment can involve urban planning that prioritizes green spaces, pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, and mixed-use developments that integrate nature into the urban landscape.

Moreover, interventions to improve the public transport system would automatically increase walking as it would reduce the number of privately owned vehicles. Overall, collaboration between government agencies, urban planners, employers, and community stakeholders is essential to create environments that encourage and facilitate walking in nature for all individuals.

An Introduction to Feminism

Why are some people incapable of accepting gender equality at work but not inside the home? 

Why do some people see gender equality only as economic parity? 

Why don’t they see the need for positive discrimination for women? 

The answer is, they don’t know what they are doing. What we can do best is to accept it and forgive. However, we should not stop the resistance. 

I understand why feminists are angry. The reason is that basic things are not understood, accepted and appreciated. This is because people just follow what has been happening in every area of life without questioning. Einstein found gravity when he questioned the obvious. 

Somewhere there is a huge chasm between community and society. Community supports but society pressurizes. However, if the force of the bigger of the two is higher (which is the case mostly) then, the community cannot support its individuals. They are too small. 

This is why the feminists said, “Personal is political”. They said it because it is impossible to break though these historical chains without organizing ourselves and fighting for our rights as a group. We cannot focus on only changing the mindset of a few individuals. The change has to be massive for the mindset that has not changed for eons to bend.

Those who aren’t feminists often ask, “why do we need to fight and why are we aggressive”? My response is, that screams reflect the pain. Non- feminists, try to convince the feminists to ignore those aspects of gender discrimination which do not cause any physical harm. To this my response is, a title doesn’t cause any harm, what is in a name, idol worship doesn’t make sense; however, words create reality (Sankalp se Srishti) and that you can’t spit on a god’s idol. Things might not cause harm evidently and crudely, but why let unnecessary practices which harm subtly and which are based on gender based discrimination exist? It is better to follow the constitution rather than blindly follow traditions that are discriminatory and unnecessary. 

Non- feminists either don’t understand feminism or are unempathetic. Not being a feminist is not justifiable in modern day constitutional democracy. This I say to those who want to agree to disagree. They cannot afford to and should not be allowed to either. 

Also, it is necessary to mention that feminism extends to valuing feminine attributes that are in humanity as much as the masculine values. At present the world is quite lopsided. Feminism also means no gender based discrimination against men as well. Feminism is not at all anti-men. It is only about equality, justice and freedom. However, it sure does make non-feminists men and women uncomfortable. 

A Plea to the Indian Public to Detach From Your Identities for the Sake of the Nation.

After observing some festivals in Pune, I wonder if I am staying in a nation or among nations. 
On the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti (April 14, 2024) since 12 am there were bursting of crackers and music was played all day in a high volume. The roads were congested due to the gathering of many people all day long. 
This made me wonder if India is truly liberated. Ambedkar was a phenomenal and inspirational person because of his commitment to self-development, education, equality, the Constitution and him being a plausible leader in the society. I wondered about why were Bollywood songs played in order to celebrate the Chairman of the Constituent assembly and a mass leader who had nothing to do with showbiz. I also recollected how silent October 2 is  every year. On Gandhi Jayanti, no loudspeakers or bursting of crackers are experienced. 
I wondered why were there no popular meetings of locals to discuss local issues relating to governance, rules and regulations, or even the constitution, education, equality, etc. What was happening had nothing to do with the person who was celebrated. 
Similarly, on Ram Navami (April 17, 2024), I could hear devotional songs, recitation of mantras and kirtans. Are these celebrations a reflection of the people who were celebrated or the people who celebrated them? It is time that we put more thought into our celebrations. Celebrations in India need not always be consisting of loud music and dancing on the roads, especially given the sheer number of days that we celebrate. We need to reimagine celebrations so that they reflect the values and the principles of the person or the day that is being celebrated and also not cause public nuisance. For example, on Rabindra Jayanti (May 8, 2024), there was no loud music in Pune but I know of a talk that was held. The talk was meant to inspire the audience into imbibing the approach of Tagore in their daily lives. Another example is how Lokmanya Gangadhar Tilak used Ganesh Utsav and Shivaji Jayanti to organize people politically. 
Gandhi Jayanti is not celebrated with much enthusiasm (compared to Ambedkar Jayanti) because Mahatma Gandhi was not associated with any caste or religion. By the way, celebration of the inauguration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya had nothing to do with patriotism or nationalism. However, I have witnessed that event being celebrated by playing the national anthem. 
Are we really free? Are we really independent? Who is controlling us? Is it so that the masses cannot relate to Gandhi and Tagore because they did not come from Maharashtra? Then why could the relate to Ram?
 It is because, people identify with Ambedkar for his caste and with Ram for his religion. However, both of them had taught to rise above both these identities. 
Indian citizens need to first know what it means to be a citizen. To be free comes from the freedom to think. Freedom to think comes from critical and creative thinking. We are blinded by our caste and religious identities and enough cannot be said by the propaganda of political parties which feeds into identity based politics. 
We must not let any religion or caste monopolize any colour. Orange need not be associated with Hindusim and Blue with the Dalits or green with the Muslims. Similarly, major leaders like Gokhale, Agarkar, Tilak, Dadabhai Naoroji, etc. also need to be celebrated but these celebrations need to be inspired by their lives and teachings. 
I do not appreciate the fact that caste and religion have tremendous unifying power in India. As long a this is the case, as long as we stay divided, we are not free citizen of a nation. These might be strong words but the mind is more important than anything. Wealth, heaven and love are actually states of mind. Everything begins with a thought, for example the conception of a separate country called 'Pakistan'. 
The words non-discrimination and secularism are the basis of unity. I do not understand how India has forgotten about her most ancient quality in which she and the world used to take pride in- 'unity in diversity'.  
It was the westerners who divided and ruled. We became slaves because they wanted to rule. They rule even now as they had planted the seeds of sectarianism long ago. They created to system and left but we are stuck in the system. The root of the word 'Nation' comes from 'natio' which means race. So, in modern times and in a modern democratic republic, we need not belong to the same race to be members of a nation, but the calling to live as a modern and strong nation and maintain it is a calling to actually forget about our race/caste/creed/religion. 
It is important to understand that to be a strong nation, we need not be jingoistic, divisive, uptight rigid. To be soft is a stronger quality. Only this quality gave us the resilience to continue inspite of umpteen number of invasions. At-least within the nation, softness, fraternity, unity, harmony and respect is needed and the lack of these should not be tolerated. This is where we need to demonstrate our strength. Jai Hind.