MiddlePen

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels Is 'love' a synonym for 'like' ?! I am amused at the heart shaped presumably ‘like’ icon of Twitter and Instagram. There is no other option available but to click the heart icon if you’ve liked a post. Facebook and YouTube, on the other hand, offer a range of icons to choose from. Their ‘like’ icon is the muted thumbs up symbol and a separate heart shaped icon for ‘love’ (to convey elevated likeness) besides a choice of other icons for separate emotions. ‘Love’ becoming a synonym for ‘like’ must have happened while generation Z was transitioning from FB to Insta. As a consequence, everyone is ‘hearting’ their likeness and turning the world into a confused mushy muddle. ‘Love you’ and ‘love you too’ are now too often used in conversation. In online social-media communication, the lovey-dovey emojis are disproportionately popular. Heart-escaping-the-lips and another one with love-hearts-pasted-all-over-the-face are the fa...

On an average, how many hours do you work a day? Once, Jack Ma, the Chinese e-commerce tycoon, faced an angry backlash  for his ‘996’ prescription. Translated, it means, the employee starts the commute at 8 a.m. to reach office at 9 a.m. and then leave office at 9 p.m. (for six days in a row). Excellent hard-core work recipe for start-ups and strivers to make it big through huge sacrifices. Rules of office work don’t apply to them and they don’t have HR folks breathing down their necks Gauging the sentiment from the backlash, it is clear that employees,  all over the world are less willing to work long hours. They want to enjoy their leisure time for a balanced meaningful   existence .  Later responding to criticism, Jack Ma rectified that his 996 prescription also included time for study, reflection and self-improvement . Pixabay Facts A work week in USA is maximum 40 hours since 1940 . Europeans work an equal or lesser number of wor...

Give Me Some Sunshine, Give Me Some Rain Give Me Another Chance I Wanna Grow Up Once Again Saari Umrr Hum Mar Mar Ke Ji Liye Ik Pal Toh Abb Hamein Jine Do, Jine Do Na Na Na Na Na Na...... Remember these catchy lyrics from the blockbuster movie, “Three Idiots” pleading for sunshine?! It was metaphoric. With us playing hide and seek with sunshine, it’s time now to literally plead for it. Exposure of skin to sunlight produces vitamin D. Called the “Sunshine Vitamin”, vitamin D helps in better transportation and absorption of calcium in bones preventing osteoporosis (weakened and brittle bones that cause fractures). Low levels of vitamin D also cause fatigue and muscle weakness. Despite India being a  tropical country with plentiful sunshine, Vitamin D deficiency has become a national public health emergency as per experts. That’s unfortunate! Sunlight is the best source of vitamin D. Congested dwellings in dense metropolitan cities and atmospheric pollut...

boys-286179_960_720 Before age 30, Michael   Phelps , had won 28 Olympic medals in swimming. He’s been declared the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time.  In a recent interview, he disclosed that he's struggling with depression. It was unbelievable! Michael Phelps could achieve world-wide stardom at a young age what millions in the world would die to achieve striving their entire lives and maybe still not get lucky. Phelps recently achieved yet another milestone by making his mental health issues public. Many more public figures have come forward candidly talking about their depression battles. Which means, the mental health problem is all pervasive and needs attention. Happily, there are solutions other than medication.  Try a cocktail of behavioral strategies to combat depression. ( listed in the article below ) Facts Depression can strike anyone at any time. It causes a sharp dip in energy and erodes the will to l...

The day is all of 24 hours. And the information to be captured, assimilated  and retained is huge!   As the day breaks and our eyes fall on our cell phone, its a deluge of information. Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, advertisements, news channels, entertainment channels, ineffectual reports, data sheets, power point presentations, unimportant mails, etc. etc. compete  for our seconds. There is so much to sift and process. Our poor little brain goes into a nervous tizzy. Remember the school teacher’s common  refrain to a student in the class, “ Come back! You are physically present but mentally absent ”. Now, the refrain may well apply to all age groups. In our continuous effort to make sense out of all that is thrown at us, we assimilate some and get brain foggy about other vital happenings around us. Information overload is not only polluting our working environments but also encroaching into our personal lives. Its time to use mindfulness ...