Miffed's Scribblings

"Ye PUBG wala hai kya?" Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked a mother who raised concerns about her son being too involved in online games during the "Pariksha pe Charcha 2.0" event on Tuesday, 29th of January 2019. The ground reality is that online, multi-player games have taken over the millennials big time in India, sending the earlier individual mobile games like Candy Crush, Temple Run, Clash of Clans, etc. into oblivion. Youngsters in smaller towns and cities can now be seen playing two such battlefield Internet games- PlayersUnknown Battleground (PUBG) and Fortnite- as smartphone penetration increases in leap and bound (there are nearly 430 million smartphone users in India now). These "survival of the fittest" games where mobile users fight each other in real-time using virtual warfare techniques, have eclipsed single-player mobile games, say industry experts. According to a report by the Mobile Marketing Association(MMA) and Kantar IMRB in a...

She is at once amongst the most known and most mysterious of American cultural figures. Emily Dickinson was a constant summons to me to think about language and its preciousness. And not only its preciousness but its power. For many years one of the most fascinating mysteries of American literature has been the personal life of Emily Dickinson. The first time when I read Emily, I was astonished with the kind of lifestyle she had. The themes in her poetry were something beyond its reach to her readers back then. The major poets of her day wrote epics, long pieces that tell a story. While these poets looked outward writing about history and culture, Dickinson wrote lyrics, and poems about the inner life of thoughts and feelings. Her themes and messages were considered too dark and gloomy at first but as of today, she is one of the most read and researched poets in the world. I always wanted to write something about Dickinson. During my college days, I hardly gave a thought to it and ...

WHAT IS THE CITIZENSHIP BILL? The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, is an attempt to amend India’s citizenship law to ease the process of obtaining Indian citizenship. However, in its present form, the Bill would make undocumented migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians, eligible for citizenship. The Third Schedule of the Citizenship Act provides for conditions to obtain citizenship by naturalisation. Two relevant points in this regard are that it does not apply to illegal immigrants, and to obtain citizenship one has to have resided in India for 12 years consecutively. The proposed amendment would reduce this time to six years. The Bill presumes that all persons who belong to the mentioned religions and come from the specified countries are persecuted minorities. Considering that atheists too have come under attack in the list of countries, one could wonder why atheists are not included. The problem with...

“Joy always follows on the heels of pain. If a person escapes a mindset that current events represent an ongoing tragedy, they will encounter and comprehend all the beauty that surrounds them. We find bliss by living alertly and unequivocally accepting whatever is occurring in the present moment. If a person realizes that the present moment is all that matters, they will gain an inner stillness and appreciate the beauty and joy of each day.” ― Kilroy J. Oldster The only requirement for eternal bliss is the desire to attain it. Bliss is an essential part of what we know as spiritual enlightenment—bliss is the state of total peace, contentment, and joy that is experienced when we are one with the Universe, or our chosen Higher Power. It is a state of total transcendence where all the ebbing and flowing of life moves around the blissful individual, never impairing their divine state. We’ve come to know that enlightenment does not always mean feeling great, but bliss can coexist even with ...

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God can bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Corinthians 9:6-8 Christmas is popularly known as a season of celebration and rejoicing. It truly is however it gains more meaning when the season is added with more of giving and sharing. This season is all about giving and that should not just stop with your family and friends. It is important to spread the joy of the holiday season to others. The holidays are always a time of year when people from all walks of life take time to celebrate each other, their children, and better days to come.   The Christmas holiday is about people’s thoughts and hearts surrendering to the season of giving.   Sharing w...

Secularism as defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary is the belief that religion should not be involved with the ordinary social and political activities of a country. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it is the "indifference to, or rejection or exclusion of, religion and religious considerations." In the political context, secularism is the principle of separation of government institutions and states from religious institutions and religious dignitaries. That means the government should remain neutral on the matters of religion and should not enforce nor prohibit the free exercise of religion, leaving religious choice to the liberty of the people. In short, the state would not discriminate against people based on religion. Indian secularism was not only a result of historical circumstances as a British colony but also a necessity. India is a diverse country with people of almost all major religions of the world (needless to mention that four major religi...