Valentine’s Day: Celebrating Love Beyond Romance

 Valentine’s Day is often associated with romantic gestures—wishing partners, planning heartfelt proposals, and exchanging roses, chocolates, or thoughtful gifts. While these traditions are wonderful, we often overlook a crucial part of our lives: our family. This Valentine’s Day, let’s expand the celebration to include the people who have stood by us through every joy and hardship—our parents, siblings, and extended family members.

Family is the foundation of our emotional well-being. No matter how many disagreements or generational gaps exist, our parents are often the ones who take our side when the whole world doubts us. They are the silent supporters, the unwavering pillars of strength that nurture us in ways we may not always acknowledge. Valentine's Day is not just about romantic love; it’s a day to honor all forms of love, and what better way to do that than by appreciating our family?

Including family in the celebration does not mean grand gestures; small, meaningful acts can make a significant impact. A simple heartfelt message or a handwritten note expressing gratitude can bring a smile to your parents’ faces. Sharing a meal together, giving them some gifts, or even watching a favorite family movie can strengthen the bond. These moments of togetherness reinforce the love that holds a family together.

For those who live away from their families, a phone call or a video chat can bridge the distance, even with food apps, you can plan a treat for them as well. Expressing love and appreciation doesn’t require physical presence; it just requires effort and sincerity. Take a moment to let your parents, siblings, or even grandparents know how much they mean to you. If words aren’t your thing, small gestures like sending a heartfelt card or a meaningful gift can convey your emotions just as well.

Valentine’s Day is a reminder that love is vast and unconditional. While expressing love to a partner is special, celebrating those who have been with us through thick and thin is just as important. Our families deserve recognition and affection, not just on special occasions but throughout the year. This Valentine’s Day, let’s take a step beyond tradition and embrace love in its purest, most enduring form—family love.

So, while you plan surprises for your significant other, don’t forget to send a warm message to your parents or share a heartfelt moment with your siblings. Love is boundless, and when we include family in our celebrations, we make the day even more meaningful and complete.

You can share your way of celebrating valentine's day

Journey to the Mysterious Island: My First Step into the World of Science Fiction

 

Back in 2006, during one of my explorations of the untouched corners of my college library, I stumbled upon a Gujarati-translated version of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Mysterious Island. It wasn’t a planned discovery, nor was I actively looking for something to read. It was sheer curiosity that led me to pick up this particular book, tucked away amidst rows of lesser-borrowed titles. Little did I know that this moment of curiosity would open the door to a lifelong fascination with science fiction.

The story itself was gripping. Verne’s imaginative premise of a group of castaways finding themselves on a remote island filled with secrets kept me hooked. But what truly stood out for me was Verne’s masterful character-building. Each character—from the resourceful Cyrus Smith to the loyal and spirited Neb—felt incredibly real. They weren’t mere names on a page; they were individuals with distinct personalities, strengths, and flaws. Verne’s ability to craft such multidimensional characters left an indelible mark on me as a reader. It was the human element amidst the grand adventure that truly elevated the story.

In the five years that followed, my fascination with Verne’s works only grew. I ventured into Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in Eighty Days, and From the Earth to the Moon. Each of these stories showcased Verne’s unparalleled ability to weave science, technology, and adventure into tales that captured both the imagination and intellect. His vision of the future and his optimism about human ingenuity were inspiring, and they laid the foundation for my growing interest in speculative fiction.

As my reading horizons expanded, I found myself exploring the works of other science fiction masters. Isaac Asimov became a prominent figure on my bookshelf. While Verne had introduced me to the wonders of speculative adventure, Asimov challenged me with thought-provoking narratives about robotics, artificial intelligence, and the future of humanity. His Foundation series, with its intricate exploration of politics and sociology, remains a favorite of mine. Similarly, his Robot series delved into ethical dilemmas surrounding technology—questions that remain as relevant today as they were when he first penned them.

Beyond Asimov, I’ve been drawn to authors like Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, and Ursula K. Le Guin. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama offered an awe-inspiring vision of the cosmos, while Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? challenged my perception of reality and humanity. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed introduced me to deeply introspective tales that explored societal structures and the human condition with unparalleled depth.

Today, science fiction is more than just a genre for me; it’s a lens through which I view the world. It’s not just about futuristic gadgets or alien worlds; it’s a mirror reflecting the complexities of our society, our fears, and our aspirations. And it all began in that untouched corner of the college library in 2006, when a moment of curiosity led me to Journey to the Mysterious Island.

Over the years, my journey through science fiction has also inspired me to dream of the stars. The idea of deep space exploration, of venturing into the unknown and uncovering the mysteries of the cosmos, has become a source of endless fascination. Science fiction has fueled this passion, constantly reminding me of humanity’s boundless potential to innovate, explore, and dream beyond the confines of our planet.

Every reader has that one book—the one that changes their perspective and opens new doors. For me, Jules Verne was that catalyst. His stories planted the seeds of curiosity and wonder that continue to grow, nourished by the works of other brilliant writers. Science fiction remains a testament to the boundless potential of imagination and the enduring power of storytelling.

Story of a friend and inspiring person: Yoga teacher

Sometimes you meet some unusual people at unusual places and they mostly turn out to be very cool ones. In my life I have got very few people whom I can actually call as friends as I found them like needle in the haystack. This post is about a friend, a teacher and a person with many inspiring thoughts. In the era of stereotyping, it's often the case when a person can not be understood well because of the pre built images. When we hear the word Yoga teacher, image of a calm, silent and a person with always mature behaviour comes into mind. So when I first communicated with my yoga teacher first time, even I started to talk with such thoughts, after couple of conversations, that stereotype image has been broken (happily). The teacher is indeed very vibrant person, she has wide range of thoughts, can dance freely on any music, have great sense of bhakti and a critical thinker as well, has modern Indian outlook towards life and yet very grounded and yeah sometimes act like a teenager as well. So why the post? In recent times we have seen that voices are raised to see women beyond their physical appearances, to respect them for what they do and to be a person with whom they feel safe and can talk freely. The Yoga Teacher has inspired me on many such things. 

First thing I have learnt is to not to do stereotyping, understand the person, their outlooks and their thoughts, that's how you can see their different shades, sense of humour, discussions on wide range of topics can only happen in free, non judgemental environment only, so instead of labelling someone with typical identity, just give them the space to express themselves. 

Second thing I have learnt is something which is need of an hour as well, it's about not to see the length of clothes but to see how the person carries it, vulgarity can be seen in full clothes and in the eyes of those who have no shame so rather than judging someone based on their choice of clothes, let's understand them as individuals and keep focused on own's business. 

Third and important point, it's useless to try to understand the mood swings of a female, so just be calm, don't argue much and let them command the dialogue in such situation, that will help many, trust me. 

All my readers, females do share how much difficulty you still find in expressing yourselves, and males, what's your level of understanding that women are much more than just a point of physical attraction? What stops you to enjoy their great sense of humour and their experiences rather than just staring at their physical appearance?

25 years of Kargil war: Have we changed?

As we commemorate the 25th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas, it's essential to celebrate the valor of our soldiers, but equally important to confront the uncomfortable questions that have been swept under the carpet. What was our intelligence apparatus doing back then? How did such a large-scale enemy movement go unnoticed? These are questions that remain unanswered, and no one has been held accountable. Now that it's part of history, the focus should be on whether we've improved in terms of weapons, strategy, and leadership.

1. Weapons

While the current political leadership has pushed hard for indigenous defense manufacturing under "Make in India," challenges persist. There seems to be a lack of coordination between the armed forces and manufacturing agencies. In drone technology, we lag behind even smaller nations. We still don’t have an indigenous engine for fighter jets, affecting the delivery schedule of the Tejas Mk 1A due to dependency on GE engines. The declining strength of the Air Force remains a pressing concern.

The root issue lies in bureaucratic red tape and the forces' occasional preference for average imports from the West. The solution? Greater involvement of private players who operate with a performance-driven mindset and can speed up production timelines. Additionally, we need to promote a robust R&D culture right from the school level to create a generation of technical experts.

2. Strategy

The appointment of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) to streamline theater command operations is a commendable step. We hope to see this transformation become a reality soon.

Beyond structural changes, employing covert tactics, such as anonymous strikes and leveraging ethnic unrest in enemy territories, seems effective. However, one concern remains—how the forces handle Over Ground Workers (OGWs) in sensitive regions. Officers like Major Gogoi and Col Acharya, who took bold steps to create deterrence, should be lauded rather than punished. A strong, decisive approach is necessary to neutralize threats before they escalate.

3. Leadership Approach

The current leadership deserves credit for authorizing surgical and airstrikes. However, after 2019, major terror attacks have not been met with similar decisive responses. There seems to be a shift toward a "Gandhian" approach across political leadership, making India reactive rather than proactive.

Given our knowledge of Pakistani military-backed terror launchpads, why do we wait for infiltration instead of preemptively striking? With advanced weapons like Apache helicopters, BrahMos missiles, and Rafale jets, what holds us back? Every soldier lost fighting terrorists is a tragic loss for the nation. It's time to abandon traditional, defensive measures and adopt an aggressive stance.

We must remember that India is a land of warriors. From Shri Ram's journey to Lanka to vanquish Ravan, Shri Krishna's justice after enduring a hundred insults, and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's dream of Hindavi Swaraj to Raj Raja Chola's maritime expansion, our history is filled with examples of righteous warfare. Our ancestors fought for Dharma, and so should we when the need arises. False narratives of passive non-violence must be set aside.

A Tribute to Our Brave Soldiers

I bow in reverence to the brave soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice, ensuring our territory remained intact. To the families who continue to wait for their loved ones who never returned, the nation remains forever indebted. If a war is ever fought again, may it be on enemy soil, not ours.

Jai Hind!

Space colonies, the earlier the better

   It's a part of common household talk to discuss about rains at any time of the year, summers breaking records each year of high temperatures, many cyclones, less crop productivity per square metre of land, unbreathable air in almost all major cities. I don't think that there's any need to put statistics to show that our environment is out of balance and no matter what we do now, we have crossed the point of no return. 

   The false dreams of EVs and other such means are more of marketing gimmicks than that of real impact on environment. Let's accept this thay the chain reaction started by human race in 19th century, won't be stopped no matter what efforts we put. So let's accept the fact that Earth won't be a sustainable habitable planet in near future, which presents the existential threat to humanity and all other species. While efforts to slow down the negative impacts on environment are in progress, it's time to work aggressively on increasing footprint of humanity to other parts of the Solar system and later outside of it. 

   Yes, it sounds like a part of science fiction novel but from submarine to smartphones, many things have been imagined before they have been invented. 

    To create a new colony is something which being thought as far from our capabilities currently. We first need to identify the planets/moons, then to send the resources we need powerful, economical and high capacity spacecrafts, before large colonies rhose rocks need to be made habitable. Apart from scientific challenges big problems will come from the fronts of social and political ideologies, that will be highly challenging. Psychological impact will be a big thing as well. 

    The problems are many but human race has to find the solutions soon, we need an alternate to the Earth as we have exploited this beautiful planet beyond limits. We now have two options, either we focus on space frontier or to be wiped out from existence. 

    The universe is so vast and we have not just reached to the next planet, I wish someday humans will be able to explore the galaxies, to see what universe has kept hidden from us, apart from us who are there in this galaxy and beyond. 

   I hope someday we can visit various galaxies and grand parents start the storked with the famous line of Star Wars movies, 'in the galaxy far far away' in real life. 

   This is my last post of 2023, will come back with some new perspective in 2024, till then whenever you look at the sky, just imagine that there's a lot to explore and we need to go to those places one day. 

The non independent colony

 After reading the title one may think about some distant African land or some small island that is even hard to find on the map, but no this is about a place that preaches to everyone else about inclusivity, giving rights to natives, and many good things but how they came into existence is something not known to many, call it their smart narrative building or something else but this dark truth kept under the wraps for the common people across the globe. As per many estimations before Europeans reached the shores of the American continent, there were 55-75 million natives living there so Columbus found America was nothing more than to establish the narrative that Europe was superior, and natives were not humans. This number came down to just approx. 5 million by the year 1900. So what caused this? Why the natives being hunted like that? There are many reasons:

1. Conflict of religions, as the worship methods were different and that was a time when European religion found its way to new places and its so-called leaders decided to enforce the new rules with force, resulting in civilizational conflicts.

2. Greed for grabbing resources from others is why many parts of the world have been colonized. They wanted to loot others to become rich themselves, causing deaths and slavery for many innocents.

3. Feeling superior to others, racism and non-acceptance of others is also one of the reasons for colonization. Europe has thought of others as inferiors and savages even though most civilizations were far ahead of them regarding knowledge and wisdom. Just a small example is personal hygiene, while brushing the teeth, and having a bath were not known to Europe, people in India had such systems in place.

There are many other reasons yet they just call it a hunger to find new lands, which is again a doubtful narrative as those places already have civilizations so those parts were known to humans. So what did they do after finding an already civilized land? When they felt that in the direct conflicts, they had started very inhuman means to wipe out those people. Natives have been given blankets infected with some deadly viruses which caused mass deaths, Colonizers used to burn the villages of natives at night, they caused so many deaths that the world has observed a small ice age due to a reduction in CO2 emissions and reduced farming. Such atrocities are not being discussed in the open now, no one speaks about the rights of American native tribes on global forums or in articles in their media. So next time anyone from the West starts preaching about how one should care for native people, ask them what they are doing for the rights of natives of the American continent as their land is still occupied and there's no visible sign of their freedom.

Indian history: Time to learn who we are

Who are we? Descendants of Gandhi who just know non-violence and never think about attacking enemies? or descendants of the like of King Bappa Rawal who defeated Qasim and expanded his kingdom to Persia? We have seen many taking pride being labelled as followers of Mughals and other such invaders, in reality they are the ones whose ancestors have faced much of cruelty which led for their change in faith so instead of celebrating they should be someone who should be fighting them. So why this has happened, for a simple reason that we have been told that no Indian king was successful against invaders and we have just accepted the defeats, while the history is different. Samrat Kalbhoj who is also known as Bappa Rawal has not just defeated Bin Qasim who is highly celebrated by a section of people in the subcontinent. Time for us to learn that Gandhian values are as useless as pager in current times. The offensive of Bappa Rawal not just defended country for one time but for coming centuries. Instead of waiting for enemy to attack and then just to react won't help us for long, we have missed opportunities in 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999 as well, everytime after the war we have shown desperation to extend the friendship, what it has given to us, well answer we all know, more blood and more deaths of our soldiers and citizens. Just imagine if we have followed footsteps of Bappa Rawal and pushed the enemy to the point of extinction, how developed and peaceful our nation would have been! Also to note that Rawalpindi was named after him, so ask Pakistani friends that their famous Pindi is named after a warrior King who kicked out those invaders whom they consider their heroes. Root cause of such apologetic approach lies in our educational system which is filled with Gandhian and Nehruvian narratives and smartly ignoring the real history of India, forget government, time for us to take matters in our hands, let's take pledge that first we will read and learn our history and will spread it to atleast 10 young students. Just imagine the impact it will create in our society, our new generation instead of feeling sad will feel proud of such a glorious history which will lead to strong and proud next generation. Time for us to bring the change instead of waiting for someone else to do this, I have started doing it and I am sure you all will do this too.