We live in interesting times. While in Delhi, the heart of India, situations were heating up about nationalism and freedom of speech, not too far away from here, mob was going out on a mindless rampage, destroying public and private property, jeopardizing livelihoods, and indulging in opportunistic looting all in the name of demanding what they consider their right. Whatever nationalism is, it isn't this.
Nobody can deny that laying down your life for your nation is the highest form of sacrifice. No one can doubt the nationalism of our soldiers who are out there on the borders facing bullets, difficult terrain, and adverse climate every day. But that is not the only way to show your love for the nation. Taking pride in our country and ensuring that we work towards building a country that is prosperous, safe, just, beautiful, and happy are other ways to express that love.
It pains me to see how easily some of us can set fire to something that took years to build and how easy it is for us to reduce a part of our country to rubble at the slightest excuse. We don't need outsiders to come and destroy us, we may just as well implode.
When we cheat, murder, rape our fellow country people and those who are guests on this soil, we are doing our country a great disservice. But we have to stop pretending that writing such articles, discussing such issues on public debates, or drilling moral education into the brains of our children is going to help. The situation is like cancer right now and some really bold steps are required. People who have destroyed public and private property and have indulged in arson, murder, and rape under the guise of demanding their rights should be found, arrested, and punished. Some examples need to be set.
Living in a democracy is a privilege and we often don't realize how and when we start taking the privilege for granted. But often this comes down to our education and awareness of how life is in other parts of the world. Travel is a great teacher. Only when you step out of your home can you understand how good or bad things are in other parts of the world and what we can learn from other societies and their successes and failures, and how lucky or unlucky we are as compared to people living in other parts of the world.
We should encourage our young ones to travel, and travel extensively. And if it is not possible to travel to a place, at least read about it. We should encourage our children to form their own opinions about things. This is the only way to ensure that when a mob comes knocking, your child can make an informed decision whether to go on a rampage, destroying someone's years of hardwork or to take a stand against the popular opinion.
Whew! I just had to get this out of my system. On the upside, Holi is just around the corner, so here are 5 best places in North India to celebrate Holi (The Festival of Colors).
Whew! I just had to get this out of my system. On the upside, Holi is just around the corner, so here are 5 best places in North India to celebrate Holi (The Festival of Colors).
Travel
As we mentioned last month, we spent most of winter this year waiting for winter. And now when things have really started heating up, we thought we would share some "cool" posts with you to help you deal with the weather. So here you go:
This month, we also welcome to the TravellingCamera family our newest guest writer Anushka Bishen. Come join us as we explore Odisha with her. Check out the following links:
Odisha Diaries (Part-3)
Odisha Diaries (Part-3)
Transcending the geographical and political boundaries, we continue our our California Diaries. Click here to read about the Main places to explore around San Francisco Downtown.
From the World of Literature
If you like reading literature, you should definitely check out the new kid on the block - a wonderful new literary e-journal, published by TravellingCamera's editorial partner Literature Studio. They recently unveiled their second issue:
Gadget Reviews
This month we reviewed two cool gadgets - Logitech UE BOOM Bluetooth speakers and Huawei Honor 5x.
Our review that aired on NDTV this month was specifically about the camera of Honor 5x. You can check out the photos we clicked using this phone in the following post:
Tips and Tricks
Here are some how-tos and tricks to help you naviagate the complex world of photography software and websites and to use them to spice up your photographs:
Trivia
Recently, we stumbled upon an interesting fact. Ever wonder how old is 3D photography? Given how sophisticated 3D outputs can look, you will be excused if you think that it is fairly recent. You can check out the truth here:
That is all for now, folks. We hope you enjoyed rewinding February with us. In the meanwhile, do stay tuned to our regular posts and we will be back soon with our next editorial.
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