Challenges are inevitable, to Quit or not is choice !

Fight till you succeed, because life is worth fighting, even with all its difficulties.

Ever wondered that, there is nothing left in life to live for, and doing suicide might only be the solution.

A healthy adult male can release between 40 million and 1.2 billion sperm cells in a single ejaculation. Say even if we take the minimum count for sperms released, 1 out of 4,000,000 is lucky enough to reach the egg time, in time to produce a healthy baby.

While still in the womb, some babies have problems with how their organs and body parts form, how they work, or how their bodies turn food into energy. These health problems are called Birth Defects. There are more than 4,000 different kinds of birth defects, ranging from minor ones that need no treatment to serious ones that cause disabilities or require medical or surgical treatment. Every 4 ½ minutes, a baby is born with a birth defect in the United States. That means nearly 120,000 babies are affected by birth defects solely in United States each year let alone the whole world.

 

There are chances that even if a healthy baby is born,  he might turn into an orphan in his infancy. According to UNICEF, of the nearly 140 million children classified as orphans, 15.1 million have lost both parents. Remember the time, when you used to cry because you were hurt or  were hungry or even when you didn’t get your favorite toy in your infancy and one of your parents would be there to console and take care of you, these 15.1 million could not even enjoy the basic care that one enjoys in their infancy.  

Remember the time when you first stepped into your school, a new environment, a new lifestyle, lots to learn, lots to do. But according to SOS-USA, there are 168 million child laborers, accounting for almost 11% of children (ILO), who lost the essence of their childhood as a kid, and had to bear the cost of their household on their own.

Of the 131.4 million births every year, no one keeps the count of the number of deaf, blind, dumb, physically challenged or mentally challenged born every year. Not that these people cannot do anything in life.

• John Nash suffering from Acute Paranoid Schizophrenia fought against it and earned the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994.  

• Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with ALS at age 21:  he was given 2 more years to live. He had been paralyzed from head to toe for over thirty years and used a voice synthesizer to be able to communicate, and a wheelchair that he operated through slight movements of the head and eyes. None of this prevented him from developing his activity as an exemplary researcher and professor.

• Nick Vujicic was born in 1982 with no limbs. He is currently giving motivational talks around the world, has written several books, is a regular on talk shows and TV programs and is the founder of Life without Limbs - an organization for people with physical disabilities.

 

• Andrea Boccelli was born with congenital glaucoma that left him partially blind. However, at age 12 he suffered a blow during a football game that left him completely blind. He is a Tenor, musician, writer and musical producer of Italian origin and has sold more than 75 million records has received numerous awards of international prestige and even has a beach named after him on the Adriatic.

There are numerous other examples who turned famous defying their current physical or mental challenges, not to mention the millions of unsung heroes who fight every single day to live a respectful life and work hard to earn their living instead of begging, in spite of all the challenges they face.

We can’t imagine a day without proper food and clean water right? Because these are the basic needs to survive. But, there are 820 million chronically hungry people in the world. 1/3rd of the world's hungry live in India. 836 million Indians survive on less than Rs. 20 ($0.29) a day. Over 20 crore Indians will sleep hungry tonight. Over 7000 people die of hunger every day in India. But people  that survive, still fight for their food the very next day, instead of an easy death by suicide.

 

Let me tell you what motivates them to fight. The glowing warmth of sun that they won’t ever receive once they die; the greenery that they won’t ever see once they die; the curses that they won't be able to give the government for ruining their lives, once they die; the close ones that they won’t be able to hug or kiss when they are down, once they die; the soothing feel of koolfi in summer that they won’t witness, once they die; the drenched clothes that they won’t have due to an unexpected rain, once they die; the burp that they won’t take when they would have a bad stomach, once they die; the shiver that won't happen, when they feel cold, once they die.

Life is beautiful my friend, petty problems like failing in exams, breakups, not getting your dream job or college or school, or any other reasons are not worth enough to end your life. Suicide might seem an easy solution to you, but it isn’t, you life might end in an instant, but people connected with you will suffer their whole life. Always consider yourself blessed for the life you have, people strive to get a life like yours. So, fight till you succeed, because life is worth fighting, even with all its difficulties.

Life lessons learnt from Python

Python has been an essential part of my life since my Grade 11. It has helped me with personal projects, coding competitions and what not. So, I thought of giving a tribute to python by mentioning the life lessons that can be learned from python. The following are some of them.

1. Syntax: Be simple in life, no one wants a cocky complex person in their life. If you are simple, people will befriend you no matter what. At the end of the day, it is the stuff that you contribute for the betterment of the world matters. Being a complex person won’t help in that.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
2. List vs Tuple: There will be things in life that you can’t change (immutable). So, instead of repenting over it or regretting on it late, focus on things you can change (mutable) and life would be great.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
3. Dynamic: At times life throws you with challenges you have never faced before. So instead of lamenting over it. Try to be dynamic, try to get out of your shell and accept the things that come into your life.                                                                                                                               
4. Open Source: In a world where everyone has a strict “I am the best version of myself”, try to be that person who is ready to accept honest criticisms, because in the long run that this will make you a better individual.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
5. Modularity: When life throws you with some big problems you can’t solve, try to break it down in small solvable chunks, easy for you to finish and decide what the next step would be.                                                                
6. Interpreter: It doesn’t matter even if you take time to understand a problem 4-5 times more than others. It’s the way you solve the problem that matters, people will never discourage your slow interpretation, and rather they will always appreciate your problem solving skills.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
7. Experience: Never doubt your popularity or demand in the market by the time you approach the market. Even if you are late in the market, still you may be at demand because of the stuffs that you carry.                                                                                                                                                     
8. Interactive Shell: Before you apply something in your life, always think of the outcomes that will happen after that.                                                                                                                                                                  
9. List: Instead of being a baby and being instructed how much of stuffs you need to handle in performing a task, be strong and take as much of stuffs you are capable of taking. That will make that difference between you and others.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Thanks to ‘Guido van Rossum’ for Python. We are happy that you brought it to us.

TV and A 90's Indian Kid

Phase I:  DD channels

TV has been a part of probably everyone's life. Me being the son of a Cable Operator, TV was an essential part of life. Today there a probably more than a 100 cartoon channels at the disposal of the Kids, but back when I was a kid as of I remember there was this one channel I remember and that is DD National, I used to wait the whole week for Sunday, because after the whole week of boring news and sports, Sunday was finally the day for 'Shaktimaan' and 'Junior G'. 

I even remember some verses of the this famous Indian Superhero's intro as of today. I remember me and all my cousins all sitting together on a hot summer afternoon, under the comfort of the table fan and singing the intro together as the show started. 

Phase II: Color Channels 

However, there was this sudden burst of color channels and then 'Shaktimaan' slowly faded out of our lives. Now since, there were so many cartoon channels to watch one need not to wait for that one Sunday afternoon to watch that one superhero show.

As I grew older, my cousin sisters use to gather at my house on a Sunday afternoon but this time it was not for Shaktimaan or Junior G but for the Sunday Matinee Show, where there was this Bengali Channel ETV Bangla (now Colors Bangla) that used to show Bengali Movies and usually the protagonist would be "Ranjit Mallick". 

I must say, at some point of time I doubted that 'Ranjit Mallick' was stronger than 'Shaktimaan', because his punches would make the bad guys fly high in skies and thereafter, when they used to fall, they used to break through walls. Sometimes, I was like why did 'Shaktimaan' did all the Yagya for, he isn't even stronger than 'Ranjit Mallick'.

On the other days , I used to watch cartoons like 'Tom and Jerry', 'Ed Edd and Eddy', 'Blue', 'Dragon Tales', 'Johnny Bravo', 'Dexter's Laboratory' and the endless list goes on and on and on. The funny thing is I used to watch so much of cartoons, my Tuition Sir, nicknamed me 'Cartoon Network'. 

Phase III: Internet

By the time I reached Grade 6, Internet was a common thing in the market, and all other cable operators were providing broadband services along with cable, so my father decided to do the same. 

The perks of providing Broadband is you get Internet for free - facebook, youtube, movies and what not for free. I know right it sounds amazing right, let me tell you what's not so amazing about it. In-spite of watching a 50 cartoons my Grades never went low, but this time it did. I came down to grades which I never imagined of falling into. I am not blaming Internet for it, nor am I blaming my father for this new business, I am blaming myself, I was foolish and I brought my own downfall. Anyways, my parents supported me at this time and I was able to recover from this situation and soon my Grades started improving. 

By this day I watch very less of TV and spend more time on internet like most other people. I sometimes do wonder that  the one idiot box, which consumed my most of the time , is no more a part of my life anymore, except for the time of exams when even the most boring of the Daily TV Soaps that your mother watches, seems the most interesting stuff in the world.