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Waiting for a fairy-tale romance to complete you? Wait no more! Fall in love with yourself, and feel complete. Here are 7 tips for being single and happy.
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I turned a year older last week. And as is customary, I often end up doing lot of soul-searching on birthday eves or nights. I consider myself a late bloomer. Everything, every single thing, in my life took its own sweet time and turned up fashionably late.
My career, and what to make of my existence – the whole deal – did and undid itself till well past my 20s. Even today, I am not sure where it’s all going to lead me to. My love life can be safely called ‘put to rest’ for the lack of a better phrase. The way I was as a person, both inside and out, a decade ago, is definitely not the one writing this post.
I am serious. The spunk, the attitude, the fun that I am now – I am falling in love with myself every day. I am finding a little new of me every day. These challenges, this independence, this sense of responsibility and yet, letting go of all that to do whatever makes me happy, I am sure I didn’t have it then. This good wisdom kicked in much later. Just some years ago.
When I see almost all my friends posting pictures of their kids (because they have been married since forever!), at times I feel may be I have missed this bus, too. Although I feel I will make babies even if I don’t find the right person to get married to. Some time there, too.
However, this year it finally hit me. Being single, in my 30s, with a very fickle career choice, no special someone or even decent boyfriend material to go on a date with, no fat (read none at all) bank balance and a recently discovered dream to travel, how did I land up with all this nothingness? Choices I made all along weren’t wrong. They just never conformed to the parameters set by everyone. So, there.
…how did I land up with all this nothingness?
Now when I, in all earnestness, weighed this scenario, there were no rosy hopes. I got a little choked too when I reflected on the last decade. I think I uttered, ‘did I screw up badly?’. But I asked myself, so what if there are many boxes unchecked in the ‘as per society’ checklist, how and why should it stop me from checking the boxes off my bucket list? Why would I need someone to take care of me? Why can’t I love myself? Why can’t I see those things off the list myself? So what if I am single? So what if I have not gone around the holy fire, wearing an elaborate lehenga, invoked the Gods and made vows with a man? Can I not make those seven vows to myself? The agenda is to be happy right?
So, over a cup of steaming filter kaapi and matar poha, I sat down to write the vows that I will follow as much as I can and for as long as I can. Not that I read those aloud to myself, but it helped to have some self-made rules to live by, I never had any otherwise.
Here goes the list of the seven sacred vows for solitary bliss:
So, what are we waiting for? Vows done! Let’s get cracking on this new-found relationship!
Pic credit: SarahSeverson (Used under a CC license)
A dreamer. A coffee lover. Singer, in bathroom and everywhere. A newbie traveler. read more...
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Children should be taught to aspire to be successful, but success doesn't have to mean an IIT admission only!
Imagine studying for 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 whole years for the JEE exam only to find out that there’s only a very, very slim chance of getting into an IIT. It is a fact widely acknowledged that the IIT-JEE is one of the toughest exams not just in India but in the whole world. Apart from IITs, the NITs and IIITs of India also accept the JEE scores for admission. There are said to be a total of 23 IITs, 31 NITs and 25 IIITs across the country.
Now, let’s first get a few facts about the IITs right. First, according to the NIRF rankings of 2023, only 17 IITs rank in the top 50 engineering colleges of India and only a few (around 5) IITs are in the list of the world’s top 100 engineering colleges. Second, the dropout rate of IIT-qualifying students stands at least at 20%, with reasons being cited ranging from academic pressure and unmanageable workload to caste discrimination and high levels of competition within the IIT.
So, it’s quite clear that the journey of making it through IIT is as challenging as the journey of getting into an IIT. Third and most important of all, the acceptance rate or the odds of getting into an IIT are below 3% which is a lot lower than the acceptance rate of highly and very highly ranked US universities. Four, getting into an IIT of one’s choice doesn’t mean one will also get into a branch of one’s preference at that IIT.
Dr Nalini Parthasarathi, 79, based in Puducherry has dedicated 30 years of her life caring for people suffering from hemophilia.
It is amazing when a person turns personal adversity into a calling, and extends empathy to make a significant impact in the lives of other people. This has been the life’s journey of Dr Nalini Parthasarathi.
April 17 is World Hemophilia Day. Dr Nalini Parthasarathi, 79, based in Puducherry has dedicated 30 years of her life caring for people suffering from hemophilia. She was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2023.
Hemophilia is a condition where one or more clotting factor is absent leading to bleeding. Severe cases can be life-threatening.
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