The Unabridged Version of a Rational Emotional Mind

All of us, in our lifetime, look at various forms of injustice around us and wonder, why? Right from our school days where we see our teachers treating their ‘favourite’ students preferentially to our workplaces where capable individuals lose opportunities because of XYZ reason; mostly which have nothing to do with their caliber. Many of us may choose to stay mum to instances of injustice around us. But a chosen few, with this unyielding fire in their hearts, chose to respond, act out, in ways they think will make things better. I like to believe that each one of us is passionate about something in our life. There are issues that make each of our hearts burn with an unyielding fire. You may be a feminist fighting for equality of the sexes, an environmental activist with an unyielding desire to make the world a safer place or a good old citizen, trying to voice your opinion and share the right information to as many people as you can. If you are one such person, you may want to he...

My mother is not a woman of many lessons, but the one lesson she has always repeated almost my entire life is this – “If someone is feeling uncomfortable because of any of your actions or words directed at them, Stop Right There!” It took me years to realize that she was trying to teach me the most valuable lesson there is to humanity – Kindness. In this lifetime, we interact with a multitude of people. Some of them are similar to us in many ways, but most of them are not. How then do we uphold our individuality even as we strive to be kind to the world around us? We start by changing the direction of our words and actions. Often, as the ‘woke’ generation tries to question the social disgust there is, we tend to vilify the people involved, instead of the issue itself. We need to understand that it is not the person but the problem that has to be eradicated. Sure, I am in no way trying to justify the heinous crimes committed by people all around us. But when we decide to raise our...