Happy (World Book & Copyright Day + English Language Day)

23^rd April is the death day of William Shakespeare and is considered to be his Birthday also as exactly the birthday was not recorded… But he was born in April… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

https://guides.nyu.edu/shakespeare-bday

https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/william-shakespeare/when-was-shakespeare-born/

The same day coincides with the birth & death days of other prominent authors also… Thus, it is decided by the UNESCO to celebrate World Book & Copyright Day on April 23^rd every year.

From Palm leaf & ink to the paper & pen, printing, e-books, it has taken several shapes as a medium of providing the intellectual content over the years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book

Normally, we are in an apprehension that the books are meant to be read or studied… Just read few lines about ‘reading’…. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading. But normally, we forget the important aspect of writing… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing

Ideally, both reading & writing should go hand in hand… As the reading improves our knowledge, writing improves our cognitive skills and enhances our creativity & innovative ideas… Writing a notes, journal/diary, an article, a book, poetry, prose or anything useful is the best habit to inculcate… It is a must for the researchers… It always forces you to continually improve your thought process. If we practice to be a critical reader, we can become a good writer… While reading, understand the concepts from the writer’s point of view… Just put yourself in the author’s shoes to identify the skills of writing…

In my view, reading is nothing but the process in which the writer in us critically follows the writer of the book to ignite new thoughts in our minds… the whole process adds value to us… As a writer, we should also follow the same… we should add value to the readers… In this reading & writing process, we should not make use of the others' ideas or texts… Using others’ ideas & texts without giving due credit to the author is called plagiarism… As the reading & writing are very important aspects of research, all the researchers should be careful to avoid plagiarism… To protect the text & ideas, copyrights act is enacted… Plagiarism is a punishable offence…  If we learn the art of critically reading the manuscripts & books, we will automatically get new ideas to contribute to the world… This is how we should nurture the creativity & innovation…

I have to bring one more perspective of looking at reading a book or manuscript, the moment we are reading a book, we will get confined to the thought process of that author if we are blindly following it… That’s why we should have an open & critical mind while reading so that we will have a sufficient scope for the new thoughts to bud… We should identify the thin line between getting into the author’s shoes & getting carried away by the author’s thought process… That line brings the scope for new thoughts… Let us explore those budding thoughts and make them blossom into a book or manuscript or a blog or a diary at least…

Most of the people still prefer to read the books in the physical form only… I want to discuss here about the advantages of e-books, audiobooks, though they have also got some pros & cons…

Advantages of e-books

Ø  Readers can customize the settings of the font, colour, background etc., to their comfort levels…

Ø  Very easy to share digitally

Ø  Can take a print anytime

Ø  Can save huge volumes in a smart device & carry & read anytime

Ø  No external lighting is required

Ø  Preservation is not a problem

Ø  Searching is very easy

Ø  Can highlight & take a note simultaneously

Ø  It is easy to use the dictionary or translator or any other useful digital application on the digital content…

Ø  It can be changed to other digital formats also as per convenience

Ø  The list goes on….

Ø  The audiobooks are very useful for those who have the problems in reading… They can get the knowledge by listening to the audiobooks.

Coming to English, English is the only language in the world in which most of the intellectual information is shared in terms of books, manuscripts, research papers, journals etc., Thus, we need to master this language a lot… Most of the Asian researchers face the problems in publishing due to the problems with their English language skills… Let us take the English Day (today) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_English_Language_Day )as the opportunity to focus on our reading & writing skills of English & continually improve on it…

Let us make a habit of reading & writing books in English… All the Best…

I just recall the quote from William Shakespeare, “All the world’s a stage and all men and women are merely players”, which I had used in my blog post Be an 'Actor' of 'Emotions'.

Happy Earth Day

On 22^nd April, every year, Earth Day is celebrated throughout the world to reunite all of our thoughts and efforts to save the Mother Earth… Let us first understand some basics about Earth & Earth Day… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day

The theme of this year is to “Restore Our Earth” https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2021/

It is our prime responsibility to understand all the following terms and its importance…

Environment – Environmental protection

Ecology – Ecological balance

Biodiversity

Green House Effect- Green House Gases – Global Warming – Climate Change

Energy sources- Fossil Fuels- Energy Conservation

Environmental Pollution- Carbon Footprint

Sustainability- Environment vs Development/Economy- Sustainable Development

Agriculture – Soil properties

Ground water, Forests

 

I have made an attempt in my previous blogs to introduce some concepts briefly… Actually, integrating all the above concepts will give us the holistic picture of the Environment Management to save the Mother Earth…

https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2020/06/save-environment-biodiversity-from.html

https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2019/06/happy-world-environment-day.html

https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2016/09/ptotect-ozone-layer-to-get-protected.html

https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2015/08/inclusive-growth-of-agriculture-and.html

https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2015/06/environment-sustainability.html

 

 

As per UN, the COVID-19 pandemic situation has also got an influence on the eco-system. https://www.un.org/en/observances/earth-day

https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2020/06/everything-is-in-your-hands.html

 

We have also seen earlier how the Health, Environment, Safety and Happiness are inter-related and interdependent. https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2021/01/wishing-happy-safe-healthy-eco-friendly.html

If we see from the technical perspective-

Earth has the gravitational force which is pulling us towards the centre of the earth, thus facilitating to hold the things on the surface of the Earth… We all know the importance of Earth in the Electrical & Electronics fields… With its zero potential, how it is protecting us… Earth also behaves a natural magnet and provides the North & South poles for the magnetism. The list goes on….

Spiritually, Earth is considered as the Mother-God & is worshipped. We would have heard “Down to Earth” while describing the personality trait of a person… Lack of Ego is the important aspect of Learning and Growth… Moreover, Earth is the symbol of Patience, Endurance, Strength, Vastness/Broadness, Inclusive Nature, Embeddedness, Supporting Nature… These are some of the psychological factors we can learn from the Earth…

Considering all these aspects into account, let us try to follow some of the following responsibilities-

Ø      To conserve the natural resources & go for the alternative/renewable resources

Ø      To reduce the carbon footprint and GHG emissions

Ø      To prevent deforestation

Ø      To promote agriculture- to reduce the use of chemicals as fertilizers- To reduce the soil/ground water pollution

Ø      To understand the interdependence of Environment, Health, Safety & Happiness and follow the holistic strategies to ensure the overall growth.

Ø      To take up Sustainability initiatives to take care of the future generations.

Ø      To optimize the energy consumption

Ø      To protect the biodiversity & ensure ecological balance

Ø      To ensure proper earthing of all the electrical appliances

Ø      To be a ‘Down to Earth’ person always

From our Birth to Death on the Earth, let our journey be so environment-friendly that we and the earth mutually protect each other always…

Happy World Health Day

First of all, let us understand what Health is… as per World Health Organization (WHO), “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/constitution.

Every year, on 7^th April, World Health Day is celebrated to promote good Health in the world… This year the theme is “Building a Fairer, Healthier World for Everyone”. As we have seen in this pandemic, some countries, some regions got badly affected compared to some countries in the world… As per the principles of WHO, “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition”. It is the high time that all the people in the entire world should unite and cooperate each other to fight against this deadly virus… ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः। (Sarve Bhavanthu Sukhinaha) is the Sanskrit verse for the universal prayer for a happy life to all… Sarve Janah Sukhinobhavanthu… Let all people live happily… लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु || - Happy World - A Prospective Perspective

 

We have already seen the holistic view of interdependency of Health, Safety, Environment with Happiness…https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2021/01/wishing-happy-safe-healthy-eco-friendly.html. Maintaining good health is in our hands only… Maintaining good health is in our hands only.

Now let us see the ‘health’ through the holistic spectrum…

Our body is an organization functioning through several complex sub-systems (processes) in perfect coordination & cooperation similar to various functional departments in a business organization. The health of the organization is defined as the integration of the performance of each & every component of the sub-system. If it is matching with the desired performance then we can call the organization is healthy… Managing the health of this organization depends on how much clearly, we understand the various systems and their interdependencies, their roles and importance…

We all know every process (system) or sub-process (subsystem) has inputs and outputs… The efficiency of that system is defined as the output divided by the input… The quality of the output is directly dependent on the quality of the input…

The inputs (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste) to the body are taken through the 5 sensory organs (eyes, ears, skin, nose, and mouth). These inputs are fed to both the psychological & physiological processes, thus greatly influence the performance & outcomes… Using proper controls in the input may enhance the performance of the process and yield good results… Thus, being mindful of whatever is fed to the body is very important in ensuring the overall health of the systems.

What we sow is what we reap… If we feed healthy food to the body, systems will be healthy, we will be healthy… So let us feed a well-balanced, nutritious diet to our body which consists of proteins, minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, fibres, anti-oxidants etc… We should understand the importance of each & every component in these and ensure the proper mix of these in desired proportions…  

Healthy Diet  is the key for Holistic Health… 

Ideally, we should go for the natural (raw) food (without chemicals & pesticides)… we should reduce carbohydrates… we should reduce fat, sugar, salt intake… All these suggestions we often listen… We should be mindful of designing our meal (input)… Both quality & quantity are to be monitored and optimized to ensure optimal performance of the systems… We will take one example… We are often advised to increase the vegetable curries or green vegetables or cereals, pulses ( proteins) percentage in the meal & reduce the rice/ roti (carbohydrates) percentage… Suppose 100gm vegetable curry/daal consumes 1gm of salt & 5gm of oil… If we double the quantity of curry or daal in our meal & obviously major part of our meal is with good things only, so we think it is a good diet… but we forget to consider that the intake of salt & oil also has also been doubled to maintain the same taste… Thus, again it does not help to ensure holistic health… Being mindful of this, for good health, we should either compromise on taste or to go for healthy alternatives… Always take the advice from the qualified nutritionist… The imbalance in the diet may lead to imbalance in the systems & may adversely affect the health…Let us plan our meal to ensure a sustainable health in future…

Thus, the quantity& quality of the inputs to the body are to be so controlled that those enhance the efficiency & effectiveness of all the sub-systems & the systems of the body to ensure the sustainable holistic health of this complex but yet beautiful organization.

 

Please click on my previous posts on Health…

Whose Wealth is Our Health?

“Test” for the “Best“

‘Dynamic’ or ‘Diabetic’?

Know the Numbers and Optimize the Blood Pressure...

Integrating Yoga, Meditation & Music...

Is “Yoga” only to cure “Roga”?

Happy World Mental Health Day

Add Colours to Life – Happy Holi

We all know that Holi is the festival of colours. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi

We all know VIBGYOR is the acronym for the colours… The primary colours are Red, Green & Blue and the combination of all the colours is White (Reflection)… Lack of colours is Black (Absorption)…

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/White

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_mixing

Now let us see how the colours are tied with the emotions & psychology… Colours have an influence on the emotions of the people and the emotions are also represented by the colours… Let us now just understand the Color Psychology here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_psychology.

If we bring the analogy between colours and emotions,

There may be good emotions (represented by some colours) and bad emotions (represented by some colours)… The mix of these emotions and our response to it determines our Personality & Behaviour. However, proper blending of these emotions (colours) is required to achieve the level of Self Actualization (White colour is the combination of all the colours)…  White is considered to be a reflection of Purity (Soul)… After the birth (Plain emotion=Pure soul=White), we start adding different emotions and perceptions (different colours) to life… but in the process we forget to realize that it is in our hands to properly mix these (emotions=colours) to achieve the enlightenment (self actualization= White)…. The conscious attempt to properly mix these mindfully will enhance our Emotional Intelligence as well as the Spiritual Intelligence…

Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint you can at it… Danny Kaye

Be a painter; Add colours to Life to make it more Vibrant & Beautiful… ResearchSubbu

Happy Holi

Happy 'Happiness Day'

Yesterday, it was World Sleep Day & today,  it is International Day of Happiness. The Sleep & Happiness compliment each other… When we have a sound sleep, we feel very happy… When we are happy, we get a sound sleep… That’s how both are mutually dependent on each other…

World Sleep Day is celebrated every year on the Friday before the northern hemisphere vernal equinox… This year it was on 19^th March… The theme was “Regular Sleep for a Healthy Future”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Sleep_Day

https://worldsleepday.org/

 

A deep sleep recharges both our mind and body giving sufficient rest… It is said that we should not use the mobile while it is in charging… In the same way we should not make the mind & body work during the sleep as it is the recharging time… If we eat late, the liver will be still functioning to digest… if we eat heavy supper then it works more… Similarly, if we give a food for thought before the sleep, then it continues… So, before the sleep, ideally we should avoid all these & try to sleep peacefully… It is a conscious & mindful attempt to free from all to enjoy a pleasant sleep… It is as good as yoga nidra… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_nidra

Lack of full sleep is like a debt… It gets accumulated, if we don’t repay it… If we don’t pay interest in having a sound sleep, we will be forced to pay huge interests accumulated on sleep debt… Still if we don’t take action, we will land in trouble… Both the health & wealth will be under danger… https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2015/05/whose-wealth-is-our-health.html

As there is a mutual relation between Health & Happiness and are interdependent on each other, we should pursue both…

International Day of Happiness is celebrated every year on 20^th March… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_of_Happiness

Happiness is defined in so many ways… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness

Earlier in my blog I said Happiness is the main goal of life…

https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2015/04/happiness-main-goal-of-life.html

So how far it is correct to measure the progress or success or development in monetary/economic/academic terms… This is the question we should all think of… Ideally, it should be on the basis of Happiness… Right? But can we measure Happiness?

There is only one country in the world which measures Happiness of its citizens and says it is the basis for the development… That country is Bhutan… It measures Gross National Happiness (GNH) in stead of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_National_Happiness

After understanding the importance of Happiness, let us now focus on how to achieve it…

Happiness is neither created destroyed… But can be shared with others… Happiness has to be embraced...https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2020/12/happy-world-prospective-perspective.html

We should spread Happiness around us always… Happiness can be short term or long term… Achieving the Sustainable Happiness should be our goal… Please go through the steps I mentioned in my earlier blog… https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2015/08/driving-towards-your-goal.html

The key factors of Happiness are- Contentment, Gratitude, Humanity & Humility, Positivity, Discipline & Determination, Patience & Perseverance, Kindness & Love, Generosity … etc…

Let us try to mindfully attempt to enhance these good qualities for the pursuit of Happiness in life…

Someone may have the doubt that some of the factors said above contribute to success…how they are connected to Happiness…

Many people think, Success gives Happiness… but Happiness is beyond success… It includes the journey also… Happiness is a state of mind & a way of life… But success is materialistic in nature… It depends on achieving the sub-goals of life… That’s why being Happy is the biggest goal of life one can have…

Sustainable Happiness can only be achieved when we are on the right path with the holistic understanding… Otherwise we will fall a prey to the petty small things which give short term happiness…

Let us enjoy a Happy, Healthy & Prosperous Life…

 

Three ways you can celebrate the International Day of Happiness https://www.dayofhappiness.net/ :

Happier

Do something for your own happiness - make time to do something you really enjoy, get moving outside, learn something new or write down three things you’re grateful for.

Kinder

Do something for someone else - donate to a food bank or charity, text or call someone to tell them what you appreciate about them, volunteer in your local community.

Together

Share the International Day Of Happiness with others and help more people get involved in the day and thinking about ways to promote happiness and mental health.

#InternationalDayOfHappiness

Happy Women’s Day... Women EmPOWERment...

Today, i.e. on 8^th March, every year, is celebrated as International Women’s Day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women's_Day

In India, we celebrate National Women’s Day on 13^th Feb to commemorate the birthday of Sarojini Naidu https://www.indiatoday.in/information/story/national-women-s-day-2021-remembering-sarojini-naidu-on-her-142nd-birth-anniversary-1768881-2021-02-13

Some people say every day is a women’s day… https://www.indiatvnews.com/lifestyle/books-culture-international-women-s-day-2021-theme-history-significance-all-you-need-to-know-689459

If we see Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Lover’s Day, Independence Day etc., ideally all these days are to be all the days in the year. But we celebrate them on a particular day commemorating someone or to focus on a particular theme… Some critics say they remember those on that particular day & forget on the remaining days… That’s why even I wrote in my blog also that let everyday be a safety Day, Environment Day etc.

Actually, if we see, all these people and emotions are really important to us on a continuous basis on the time scale. All these are a part of our life. Everything is important for us every day.  https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2020/12/happy-world-prospective-perspective.html

We can perceive the celebrations on these special days as the sources which reinforce or intensify the emotions, inspiration in us to recharge our mind to focus on these. They are like the reminders for enhancing the emotion towards them to create the new benchmarks every year for achieving the continual improvement in the concern, efforts made, emotions etc towards them… This is how all the special days are tied with a theme to focus on…

This year the theme of the International Women’s Day is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”. In her statement for International Women's Day (8 March), UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said: "We need women’s representation that reflects all women and girls in all their diversity and abilities, and across all cultural, social, economic and political situations. This is the only way we will get real societal change that incorporates women in decision-making as equals and benefits us all." https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/international-womens-day?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxrKS6eCg7wIV2w0rCh3PbQXvEAAYASAAEgJPyvD_BwE

Thus, #ChooseToChallenge. It indicates that a “challenged world is an alert world, and from challenge comes change”.

https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/life-style/international-womens-day-2021-date-history-and-importance-of-the-day-7210013/

Let us now introspect ourselves about Women in India…

India is the country of Gods & Goddesses… Each God & Goddess is associated with some emotion or important aspect in life. Even they are connected to the nature and animals also https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2020/06/save-environment-biodiversity-from.html…

Thus, it forms the basis to understand how well the Diversity is treated in India. Diversity is respected as the God in India.

Goddess Durga is worshipped as the form of Aadi Parashakti (The Supreme & Prime Source of Power).

Other forms of Shakti are also worshipped as the symbolic representations of important aspects of life-

Parvathi- Growth & Prosperity

Annapurna, Dhaanya Lakshmi- Food

Dhana Lakshmi- Wealth, Money

Saraswathi- Education

 

Even in real life also, if we closely observe,

Woman is the backbone of the family for the growth & prosperity… Women are playing an important role in Monitoring & Improving the Children Education… Working women have become a helping hand for enhancing wealth…. Etc. The list goes on to infinity with their multi-talents and multi-tasking abilities.

Women are special and unique with their diversified qualities

Patience

Perseverance

Motherhood

Kindness

Emotional/Social/Spiritual Intelligence

Determination

Hard work

Love

Forgiveness

Beauty

Leadership

Creativity/Innovation

Adaptation to new cultures

 

Let us now discuss one best example to understand the greatness. Just think, in India, there is a system of entering the in laws house & staying there with the husband after marriage leaving the parent’s house. After so many years of staying with the parents, suddenly with the marriage, there is a paradigm shift. She has to get accustomed to the new environment & culture. On one side, she must be feeling home sick, on the other side she has to adapt to the new culture & new role… There are so many emotional, social pressures in her mind. Still, she manages and gets integrated into the new culture & role and becomes the key in the overall growth of the family. It is almost similar to the people joining an organization from the college. But for them formal induction/orientation training is given. But in the previous case, the women could handle everything without formal training. That is the inherent Emotional/Social skill of the women… With all the other qualities of women, they are best suitable for the leadership roles…

Thus, we should not talk only about ‘great women’ as all women are great… Being a woman itself is great…

If we see the other side of the coin, being a woman has become a curse for them… It is quite unfortunate that so many atrocities, domestic violence, gender inequality /discrimination etc. have forced us to debate on Women Empowerment & Leadership of Women even in India, the country in which Goddess Maa Durga (being the source of power) empowers all including men.

My perspective of looking at “Women Empowerment” is “Women are empowering Men”… So the minds of men should be empowered to think & respect the women, their freedom of thoughts, emotions etc…

Safety First?

First of all, I am very happy & delighted to write my 50^th blog on Safety on the 50^th National Safety Day. It is a nice coincidence.

National Safety Day is celebrated every year in India on 4^th March (National Safety Council was formed on 4^th March 1966) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Safety_Council_(India)

Road Safety Week/Month & National Safety Day/Week are celebrated to spread the awareness among the people & workers about the various aspects of Safety.

Please go through my previous posts on Safety -

https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2015/06/improving-safety-at-work.html

https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2016/03/pro-active-approach-in-safety-at.html

https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2017/03/building-safety-culture.html

https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2018/04/firing-fire-from-god-to-ghost.html

https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2018/05/improvement-in-workplace-safety.html

https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2020/03/prevention-is-better-than-cure-can-it.html

This year, the theme of the National Road Safety Month (18^th Jan to 17^th Feb) was “Sadak Suraksha- Jeevan Raksha” https://www.mygov.in/campaigns/national-road-safety/ . Whereas, the theme of the National Safety Day is “Learn from the Disasters, Prepare for the Safer Future”

We might have heard “Safety First” several times… But unfortunately, Safety is the first thing compromised while driving or working… Let us now find out why it is so…

Let us take this example… The moment we get into the car, the first thing we are asked or we are supposed to do is wearing the safety belt. But in spite of keeping the alarms in the car indicating to wear the safety belt, penalties imposed on the road for not wearing the safety belt, still we don’t wear the safety belt. This is the first compromise we do on safety. If we critically observe the reasons- Are we doing it due to lack of awareness? Definitely no. Are we not concerned about our life? No. Then why?

Some common reasons & myths in the minds of people about safety are-

Safety PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) is not comfortable to wear, not stylish (you might have observed many people saying these when they are asked to wear helmets), costly, so many other reasons…  Some people use karma Siddhant here saying jo hoga so hoga means whatever is destined to happen, it will happen… But unfortunately, they are not able to realize the importance of Safety.

But this pandemic situation has made all of us to understand how we are responsible for our own safety and the safety of others. https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2020/06/everything-is-in-your-hands.html

Thus, the Safety is not only an individual responsibility, it is the social responsibility of all. Unless we feel the responsibility, we won’t fulfill it. Culture has an effect on people's behaviour. Integration of people's behaviour is culture. Individual’s Safety Behaviour only collectively builds the Safety Behaviour of a society or organization and finally the Nation’s Safety Behaviour. So the change in individual’s safety behaviour is critical in building a safety culture. So, let us all be the catalsysts for such a change.

We say life is a journey… Safe driving only ensures this journey to be happy and leads to Happy Life.

Thus, Safety is the way of Happy Life… Happy Journey…

Let us analyze & learn from the previous near miss incidents, accidents and disasters to ensure the safety in our lives… Never think Past is Past… Learn from the past…

 https://researchsubbu.blogspot.com/2021/02/past-is-past.html

 

Past is Past ??

We have heard this “Past is Past. Forget it/Leave it… Live in the Present/Move ahead” several times from our friends, elders, well-wishers, psychologists etc. This makes an apprehension that the past/history is not important and only the present is important because we are told only present is in our hands, neither the past nor the future. But the psychologists, during the process of counselling, use the history of the clients to understand & assess their behaviour pattern to help the clients to come out of the problem. We can also find the importance & use of history in several areas of our life. 

With this contradictory thoughts in mind, let us now try to analyze the pros and cons of history.

Before doing that, let us list out the applications of history from different perspectives-

Doctors use the patient medical history to understand holistically how the patient is responding, side effects, allergies etc.  to decide the course of action or prescription of medicine etc.

Engineers use the history of the equipment, historical parameters, maintenance records to asses the condition of the equipment for predictive/preventive or breakdown maintenance of the equipment. The historical trends of different parameters of the equipment help the engineers to operate the machines at the optimum level with higher efficiency and to ensure continual improvement in the performance.

Managers in businesses use the history of purchase of different products to understand the customer buying patterns & use them in strategic product planning, design & promotion etc. Financial records or repayment history are helpful in fund raising/investment decisions. History & past records are always helpful in assisting the effective decision-making process. Even the past history and background of the Human Resources is verified in the recruitment or promotion processes. So, history/past records find a great place in every aspect of Management theory and practice.

Investigation- Criminal records/Crime history are very keen in identifying the criminals by police and collecting the evidence. Tracking the call history has also become a clue for investigating several cases. 

Strategic alliance or war between two kingdoms or countries- We can understand the basic social psychology or mass psychology and the culture of the people of any region of the world if we understand their history properly. This helps in making the strategies of external affairs effectively. We can understand the changes in the behavior also if the present is compared with the history.

In academia- Though the history is one of the key elements of several competitive or recruitment examinations at graduate or post graduate level, its importance in the school or college education is not yet felt. It should ideally to be well integrated to all the professional courses as well.

Entertainment- TV/Cinema industry has achieved great success by focusing on the historical stories/autobiographies etc. in the recent past. In fact, they have created history by telling the History.

Sports- Several records and benchmarks in the Sports history become the new goals to be achieved for the future Sportsmen. Even the strategies of play, especially in Cricket are made based on the pitch history, player history and track record etc.

In the traditional marriage system of India, the past history of the family is also considered in finding out the perfect life partner for a bride/bridegroom.

In Research- Unless we know the history of what has been done so far on a particular field or topic of research, we can’t identify the gap or frame our research objectives & other steps of research. To track what has already been done in the history is nothing but the Literature Review in Research terms.

Disaster Management- Historical records of previous incidences and how those were handled will be the guiding force for the current/future action plan for handling similar type of disasters or emergencies.

We can explore more & more applications of history like this…

If we see the other side of the coin, history or past bad instances eat away the mind and continuous thinking about them pull the mind into a vicious cycle which may lead to deterioration of the psychological health. In such cases only, the psychologists use the mental history of the client to correct the history in this mind. Here, we can perceive the history as the collection of memories both in the conscious and subconscious mind (mostly subconscious).

So the history or past has its role in the following-

·       In the medical field

·       In Psychological counselling

·       In career counselling

·       In Engineering- Operation & Maintenance of Equipment

·       In law & order- identifying the suspects

·       In Management- In Strategic planning, Decision making, Branding & Promoting, Recruitment, Financial Management etc.

·       Alliance or War strategies

·       Emergency Handling or Disaster Management

·       Crucial in academia

·       Sports Strategies

·       Source of Entertainment

 

Past things recorded in the mind or in some physical form or written have become the history for us at present (“History is the Study of the Past” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History ). Similarly, things we record in the mind or in some physical or soft form or written will become the history for the future.

So proper record keeping either in the finance or research or work or anything can only create History… History is always a good source of information… Analyze and take a Decision…

If you want to create history in life, go for proper record keeping & use it effectively.

Learn from the Mistakes of the Past. Correct them in the Present. Enjoy the Success in the Future.

Just brooding over the past will yield no results unless & until it is backed up with proper analysis and use it for a positive change.

Use the history/autobiographies for deriving inspiration and intrinsic motivation.

"Be the Change You Want to See in the World"... Mahatma Gandhi