{"id":243,"date":"2020-03-31T14:28:45","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T14:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/?p=243"},"modified":"2020-03-31T14:28:45","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T14:28:45","slug":"no-man-is-an-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/2020\/03\/31\/no-man-is-an-island\/","title":{"rendered":"NO MAN IS AN ISLAND"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u201cProblems call forth our courage and wisdom,\nindeed they create our courage and wisdom\u201d\u2014are the meaningful words quoted by\nthe famous American Psychiatrist and author of the bestseller, <em>The Road Less\nTravelled<\/em>, <br>\nM. Scott Peck. There have been countless occasions for many of us, wherein we\nlose track of a sense of time burdened by inner tempests like the pursuit of\nlove, relationships, contemplation of failure, financial and professional\nburdens or even, the meanings of life. Do we really desire this, or even\ndeserve this? We will see, after a short hiatus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An island is a land-mass, surrounded by water on\nall its sides. Islands in modern day world have redefined their traditional\nmeaning in that; we now have artificial islands springing up for commercial and\nrecreational purposes as well. There are islands like the Seychelles and the\nMauritius, whose thoughts transport you into a new dimension of fun, pleasure\nand adventure while there are dreaded ones as well in the Persian Gulf, for\ninstance, which are used as prisons, where people literally spend a life of\nbondage till death (Remember Azkaban in the <em>Harry Potter<\/em>? Yes, in\nsimilar terms.) You even have the riverine island systems as in the Sundarbans\nin India and some in the Amazon basin in Brazil. Nevertheless, islands are what\nthey are because of the water that surrounds them. Water again can take two\nforms\u2014 the life-giving eternally gushing liquid or can also transform itself\ninto the Nature\u2019s most potent weapon, in the form of tsunamis, typhoons etc.\nNature interweaves this beautiful definition embedded in its roots to Mankind\nin a similar fashion, reminding them that what makes a man are the problems and\nemotions that surround him and what he makes of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, what exactly can a man do? What are his\nissues, his goals, his desires, his objectives, obstacles, his journey and his\ndestination? Can he meet them all alone? The most important and utmost solution\nis humanity and the virtues and qualities that define it. In Indian culture we\nhave this deeply vested concept of \u201cMata-Pita-Guru-Deva (Mother, Father,\nTeacher and God)\u201d, this is the starting point. A person imbibes learning from\nhis parents and teachers as a child.&nbsp;\nThen he contemplates and invokes God which can also be his inner sense\nleading to wisdom. They build up his desires, aims, will and goals. These are\nall steps leading to the self-actualisation of an individual. The skills and\nknowledge that he imbibes and equips helps build the structure of his journey\nof life. In this complex but interesting journey he is influenced by two\nimportant concepts: Influences and Temptations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Temptations are mostly vices which try to make\nhim stray off his path or delay his journey, while the influences can be a\nvision guiding him on his path. A human is subject to various influences in his\njourney of life. They include his friends, rivals, competitors, acquaintances,\nhis beloved and relations. Each of these characters plays a key role in\ninfluencing him on his journey, but the relationship is symbiotic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A person may have to forsake his career for his\nloved ones or change his professional tastes. He may be influenced by his\nfriends to various vices. He may develop envy in others owing to his aptitude\nor sometimes have to deal with a tough and demanding boss. It all depends on\nwhat he makes of it, just like someone said : \u201cLife is what you make of it\u201d. If\nyou are thrown a stone, the onus is on you to make a wall or a bridge out of\nit.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The real beauty and charm of life is living it,\nexperiencing the good as well as the bad, the trials as well as the triumphs.\nThe common thread that runs through life is humanity.&nbsp; It could be anything from gifting a chocolate\nto your friend\u2019s child, spending a day with the inmates of an old-age home,\nhugging your spouse and sharing a thank you for what he\/she has done for you on\nthe day, thanking your friend for a lift to the bus-stop, social service and\nphilanthropy etc. An important precept of existence is \u201clive and let live\u201d,\nmutual coexistence on a foundation of tolerance. Human being has been blessed\nby nature to be the most intelligent and pragmatic of the living beings. The\nhuman is not perfect. He has to account for barriers, shortcomings and hurdles\nlike criticism, envy, rivalry, jealousy and even hatred. LIFE redefines itself\nas an acronym slated as \u201cLive Influenced with Friendship and Envy\u201d. This is\nuniversal but appears magnified when the life accounts of celebrities are\nconsidered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can consider the case of Sachin Tendulkar,\narguably one of the greatest cricketers of all times. Despite his prodigious\ntalent, he had to wait for six World Cups to see his dream of an Indian World\nCup victory realized. He made his debut in 1992 and India won its second World\nCup in 2011. Despite his genius his career was marred by injuries and the unwanted\nside-effects of being a cricketing sensation. His wife Anjali, a doctor and\nbrother Ajit had to forgo their careers for him. But if he is asked about his\njourney, he would not have asked for a better one.&nbsp; Social workers like Baba Amte and Mother Teresa\nare renowned for their service to the poorest of the poor, the suffering and\nthe afflicted. They are renowned for their single minded determination and\nclarity of purpose on realising their goal of service to the human race. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Life is a give-and-take policy of pleasures,\npressures, sacrifices, losses, victories and accolades. The famous poet John\nDonne (1572-1631) had penned the following lines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No man is an island,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Entire of itself,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every man is a piece of the continent,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A part of the main. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If a clod be washed away by the sea,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Europe is the less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These lines indicate that no human being is an\nautonomous entity by itself. Each human being is inextricably connected to\nother human beings in some way. Just as dirt and sand clods are part of the\nEuropean continent, so too is each man part of the entire human race; the\nremoval of a clod diminishes the continent, and the removal of a human life\ndiminishes mankind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Man is a repository of knowledge, skills and\nemotions. The various natural disasters that wreak havoc on humanity and nature\ndiminish it. For e.g. the devastating Chennai floods of 2015-16 were\nresponsible for huge damage and diminished nature. \n\nMan occasionally turns into an island. This state is due to the ebbs and\nflow of fortune that he encounters. He can however transform his problems into\nsolutions by building bridges with his fellow human beings. He can build\nkinship with fellow humans through love, peace, humanity and hard work. In\ntoday\u2019s hyper-connected world, technology has helped man to communicate and\nkeep in touch with his fellow human beings. This has strengthened the bonds of\nkinship and cooperation among human beings.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cProblems call forth our courage and wisdom, indeed they create our courage and wisdom\u201d\u2014are the meaningful words quoted by the famous American Psychiatrist and author of the bestseller, The Road Less Travelled, M. Scott Peck. There have been countless occasions for many of us, wherein we lose track of a sense of time burdened by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}