GS Mains

Q&A
Test Series 2021

Test-10
ESSAY MOCK TEST - 2

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 ESSAY TEST - 2
GS Mains Q&A Tset Series 2021
Roll No.___________________________

Time Allowed: 3 Hrs. Max. Marks: 250

Instructions to Candidate Remarks

• Both sections are compulsory.

• Attempt one essay from each section.

• Each essay carries 125 marks.

• Write each essay in about 1000-1200 words.

• After finishing the first essay, attempt the next

on a fresh Page.

• Any page left blank in the answer-book must

be crossed out clearly.

(Examiner will pay special attention to the

candidate's grasp of his/her material, its
relevance to the subject chosen, and to his/
her ability to think constructively and to
present his/her ideas concisely, logically and
effectively).

Name ___________________________________

Mobile No._______________________________

Date ____________________________________

Signature ________________________________

1. Invigilator Signature ___________________

2. Invigilator Signature ___________________

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2

SECTION - A
1. Child labour and poverty are inevitably bound together.
2. The current patterns of natural disasters clearly indicate inadequacies of
development models.
3. Social media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.
4. The education system in India needs a grand overhaul to suit the requirements
of the modern age.

SECTION - B
1. Conscience is an impractical guide to our life actions.
2. A leader is best when people barely know s/he exists.
3. Life without emotions is lifeless.
4. Birds born in cages think flying is a disease.

Remarks

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GS Mains Q&A Tset Series 2021

Hints: EssayT
Essay est - 2
Test
Section - A
1. Child labour and poverty are inevitably bound together.
“Cheap labour today, uneducated inefficient workforce tomorrow”
The saying goes well with the interconnection between the child labour and their economic
situation in future. Child labour and Poverty so intricately linked that it had become a daunting
task to separate both. Poverty is considered to be the most important causes of Child labour and
it takes away the very basic right of a Child of being educated. Due to the association with the
lower income groups, parents are forced to send their children to work. Just to maximize some
extra incomes for the families children are deprived of education and forced to bethe part of
labour class and society.
To dwell more into the nexus between Child labour and poverty, we need to understand, what
comprises the child labour? The International Labour Organization has defined child labour as
the work which is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children,
interferes with their schooling by, depriving them of the opportunity to attend school, obliging
them to leave school prematurely, requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with
excessively long and heavy work.In its most extreme forms, child labour involves children being
enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to
fend for themselves on the streets of large cities – often at a very early age.
By understanding the definition of child labour, we can say that it hampers the mental, physical,
social and moral development of a child. It takes away its chance to grow and to turn in a skillful
and better individual. The higher rate of school dropouts due to involvement of child in labour
deprive them their childhood and an opportunity to grow together and to learn. It leads to the
reduction in their learning capacities and creates an uneducated class of workers which is highly
unskilled and work at low wages for higher hours. The lack of skill further creates a subliminal
category of employment. This leads to a child-labour trap which results in a vicious cycle of child
labour and poverty.
Poverty leads to involvement of Children in labour force at an early stage to supplement the
household earnings. This causes them to compromise with their studies and results in the high
school dropout rates. The economic studies of Public work such as MGNREGA shows that the
involvement of adult labour in these programs resulted in the school dropouts because children,
especially girls got involved in the household chores and to look after their siblings and boys tend
to find out work outside their home. Children often got involved with the household small
business directly or to supplement the family chores.
The unskilled workforce developed out of this cycle has to get involved in the bad and hazardous
working conditions such as manual scavenging, mining and hazardous chemical factories. The
hazardous working conditions and environment make their health prone for multiple
communicable and non-communicable diseases such as respiratory diseases and increase the
metallurgic exposure. The lack of health security net along with their meager income levels
makes the situation more submissive to survive in a healthy manner.The burden of disease makes
their lives more pitiable and devoid of any comfort.

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This vicious cycle of poverty makes them prone to get involved in crimes and drugs. There have
been several studies that show that where there is a high disparity in economic welfare, there
is a high level of violence. A relation between elasticity of education with crime shows that a 10%
increase in per capita expenditure on education in India leads to a decline between 9.2-11.2%
of overall property crime rates. This puts another burden on the society and the trap the poor
children further into more poverty and inequality.
Another aspect of this poverty ridden child labour cycle could be seen in terms of lower capacity
of skilled labour which is a burden on economy in itself. According to Economic Survey 2018-
19, India’s Demographic Dividend will peak around 2041, when the share of working-age,i.e. 20-
59 years, population is expected to hit 59%. But the poverty and higher dropout rates are two
of the main obstacles to harness this demographic potential of India. The unskilled workforce can
never be more than a burden on the economy. This demographic dividend needs to be converted
in a skilled workforce to lead India on a path of development.
To break this cycle of child labour and poverty the society as well as government initiatives are
required at the ground level. A rigorous and through study of the reasons behind the child labour
and poverty eradication are required. Studies have shown that just a single method of poverty

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reduction can’t be adopted to get rid of this menace. A holistic approach is required to retain the
school enrolment and poverty reduction.
The public work programs such as MGNREGA to support the family income, credit financing
such as microcredit programs may increase household income, business training interventions,
health security benefits could help in poverty reduction which can lead to reduced child labour
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participation just for the economic reasons. It has been seen that the social work programs or
the microcredit programs increase the involvement of family members in the earning and the
burden of the family comes to the children. As a result they tend to drop out of the school and
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get involved in the home chores.

The conditional cash transfer programs provide income transfer could be one of the good options
which require recipient households to comply with schooling e.g. enrollment of their children
and health e.g. vaccination, health clinic visits etc. requirements. The Cash transfer programs
may have offsetting effects on child participation in work. Increases in income available to the
household will tend to lower child participation in work.
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The skill India program could be one of the daunting initiatives of the government to skill the
unskilled poor to get the job opportunities and to reduce the burden of the poverty. Women can
also play a significant role in this as they mostly do not pass on the burden to their children and
try to make them out of the cycle of poverty. This whole process also requires the change in the
attitude and thinking of the poor also. So they just not see their children mere a source of earning
rather take them as a human being who share natural rights to grow and flourish as a living
creature.
The poverty and child labour are intricately connected that to get out of the labyrinth of this dual
phenomenon, a change is required at social, political, economic and mental level. A single
approach for all cannot be applicable here instead an overall participation from all of the stages
and platforms of the society and state is needed.
2. The current patterns of natural disasters clearly indicate inadequacies
of development models.
In the past few decades, the global order has changed rapidly. Given the rapid changes,
understanding of the relationships between economic activity, social wellbeing and environmental
degradation is critical to create a sustainable future. This includes understanding of how the
ecosystem gets modified and how the resources are extracted, the production and consumption
procedure and how the waste disposal affects the health and resilience of natural capital and
how the ecosystem services are provided.
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By the current studies an inter-connection is observed in between the natural disasters and
development models. To look at this aspect we have to first see into what are the development
models? Second, we need to understand the types and causes of natural disaster. As development
is a very complex process and it has several dimensions which are related and interdependent
and are different from each other. As India is a developing country, it needs to have a development
model which should be inclusive, environment friendly, sustainable, technology driven and solution
based and some other different aspects needs to be taken care of such as high population,
poverty, pollution, overuse of resources and climate change etc.
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 should also be an integrated part
of the developmental plans to combate the natural disaster risk reduction. The Understanding
disaster risk, Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk, Investing in disaster
reduction for resilience and Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and to “Build
Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction should also be included the
developmental plan.
Natural calamities comes in the form of floods, earthquakes, landslides, cyclones, drought and
cloud burst etc. The extent of such calamities know no bounds as they passes through homes

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and destroy livelihood.While taking the natural disaster into consideration, we need to
understand that the survival of human, the production of goods and services requires the
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dependence of human on natural resources which includes the energy and materials such as
metals, minerals, water, food and fibre etc. all of which come from the environment. The impacts
of resource extraction, production, transport, use and waste generation are central to how
economic activity affects environmental condition and trends. All these activities cause the
change in the basic features of the environment and climate which results in the higher
occurence of natural calamities. Natural disaster are not the result of just a single factor
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rather its a cumulative of multiple phenomenons.

Trade and climate change has been one of the subjects of in-depth discussion at the regional and
international level for the past few years regarding natural calmities. Natural disasters have
been one of the constant elements of our ever-changing world and have been documented since
time immemorial. Within the last decades, the interrelationship between disaster and development
has been widely seen and studied. They are interwoven in such a way that that one revolves
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round the other. To harness the development potential, we have neglected the factor of natural
calamities and disasters.
Consumerism is also one of the leading causes of environmental damage and threat to sustainable
development. The waste disposal policies and technologies lacunae is one of the leading causes
of chocking of river mouths and canals which is further causing the blocking of waterways to
give sufficient reasons of occurence of flood. The higher extraction of mineral resources and
natural resource exploitation at higher rates is hampering the environmental balance and causing
landslides, climate change and forest fires. The recent example of forest fires in Australia could
be taken as one of the example due to the climate change at higher pace.
The higher number of population growth could also be considered as one of the reasons as the
increasing population pressure causes more people to live in vulnerable and marginal areas than
any time before such as living in flood-plains, near active volcanoes, on steep mountain slopes,
river fans and flood-prone delta areas, etc. These factors have compounded in bringing enlarged
effects of any disaster causing higher number of deaths and greater loss of property than in the
past. All these ultimately reduce the pace or negate the development activities of a country.
The economic aspect of environment pollution also exist which shows that how the resource base
which is needed to develop infrastructure to deliver key economic development outcomes such
as access to transport, electricity, water and food along with the pollution intensive resources,
that are used during the access of disposable income causes the degradation and brings a change
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enough to bring the natural disasters. This economic driven natural disaster further leads to the
cycle of poverty and deprivation.
A clear trade off could be seen in between the economic development and the environmental
quality.The environmental impact of economic growth could be seen in the form of increased
consumption of non-renewable resources, higher levels of pollution, global warming and the
potential loss of environmental habitats. This nexus could be best depicted with the example of
China who did well on the economic front by significantly reducingand enabling it to join the
ranks of upper-middle income countries. But the economic growth was possible by compromising
on the environmental corner.
The over-exploitative nature of the natural resources such as loss and overuse of fossil fuels
which causes the humongous rate of gaseous pollution and leading to climate change is also one
of the lacunae of the development process in terms of technology. The replacement of this could
be seen in the form of solar energy potential and other sources of clean energy harness. The loss
of marine and terrestrial biodiversity which also contribute in a balance of environment and
reduce the occurrence of natural disaster could be attributed to a lack of developmental models.

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The lack of correlation between the natural disaster and development models has caused the
havoc in Assam and Kerala floods. The Kedarnath flood is also one of the examples of a
connection between over-exploitation and economic developmental process. To find out the ways
a radical shift is required in the policy formulation, a makeshift towards the renewable source
of energy, Social cost pricing such as carbon tax, technological developments such as electronic
mobility, use of air purifiers for example used in China, the smart cities projects, the e-waste
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management, plastic management, use of clean energy resources, environment friendly
development models etc. could be included in the developmental models of India or elsewhere
to reduce the burden of natural disasters.
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The policy and development creation and generation both are equally important to put the check
on natural disasters. Our hunger and need for development should be so much balanced that it
both must not effect each other in any adverse way. So to bring a sustainable change in the
developmental process, it has to be gelled well with the nature.
3. Social media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.
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Twenty first century is growing with Good Mornings in social media and Goodnight through
social media. Social Media has created a significant impact on people irrespective of gender and
age difference. It has so intricatly intervowen with the life of the people that it has become
difficult to even think life of younger generations. Social media uses the internet as a medium of
generation and spread of information amond its users.
Multiple plateforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Pinterest and
Reddit have been the buzz words of the society these days. Social media is considered as one of
the fastest mode of information dispersal these days. It impacts a large group of audience and
help in framing their perspective towards the day to day incidents such as politics, economics,
social network generation, change in the perception of society towards something.
Social Media is said to outdriven the technology and has become about the society and psychology.
To support this argument we need to gaze on certain aspects of socail media which can lead us
to this conclusion. As an example we can see the social software such as wikis, blogs, social
networks which have communication capabilities that are targeted at a large section and enable
social interactions and eventually stirr the thought process of the society and people at large.
Technology is changing the way that we live our lives. With the advances in technology we are
enabled to complete more tasks in less time, and often times, with less effort and more productivity.
But this technology has reduced the outreach of people in terms of time and space that it has
changed the perception of people in many important issues. For example the alleged involvement
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of Russia in the US Presidential election is done via the internet and social media. The political
interference which were possible just with muscular power or with some time could be done by
technological advancement, but now the impact of social media on such a sensitive part of
democratic system really makes us to think that social media has outpaced the technology.
Social media facilitates a virtual form of interaction. The term virtual is used to describe things
that are not real, but which take on the important qualities of the real. When playing a computer
war game, for example, we can experience excitement, frustration and tension, but we can never
be injured. In fact, the creators of virtual war games argue that the virtual experience is better
than the real one, because the dangers connected to the real experience are removed. In the same
way, interactions via social media make visitors feel connected without the difficulties and
complexities of face-to-face interactions. Compared to interactions with computers, interactions
with human counterparts require more emotional involvement, cognitive effort, and brain
activation. When we are not in the mood to exercise these resources, we too often choose the
easier, virtual option.
A sort of new empowerment is also seen in the average person for civic action. Essentially, social
media is democracy in action as it allows for anyone to now have a voice and influence the

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discourse within their society the way they see fit. This has provided every individual a sense of
outreach and understanding of the crucial and important matters. People nowadays have become
more aware about their surroundings.
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The social media has also helped in people to create senstivity about matters trivial as a citizen
and a part of society. for example during the lockdown phase everyone was connected through
social media and helped each other by spreading the messages for the people in need. The issues
such as gender sensitization, women empowerment, #me too movement, social outrage against
sexual assault cases, the survival stories of acid victim servivours came into picture with the help
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of social media. It has become a platform to change the perception and mindset of people.
The created echo chamber and fake news also impacts the society and psychology of the people
which later on leads to the intolerance in the society. What many forget though, is that the
domains where these individuals voice their opinion are mediums that rely on the traffic and
active sharing of content for it to be seen by others. This means that it is up to a vast amount
of people in the public sphere to be sharing this content to disseminate these messages. It is not
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simply one person forcing everyone to pay attention to their views—it is through simple voluntary
action from all of the viewers of a viral video to make it viral in the first place.
How is our use of social media impacting our well-being? How is it changing our relationships
with friends and family? And what is the relationship between social media use and mental
health? We can explore psychological aspect of social media through certain questions for
example why we like, post and comment on various platforms. We do this because we want to
maintain relationships. When we favorite and like each other’s posts, we add value to the
relationship, and reinforce that closeness. We also create a reciprocity effect. We feel obliged to
give back to people who have given to us, even in a small way. We want to even up the scales.
Sometimes social media and life moves so fast that we want things to slow down. This is where
nostalgia comes in, and this longing for the past can be an amazing strategy for modern social
media marketing. Nostalgia is universal across all cultures and it gives us a sense of social
connectedness, feelings of being loved and protected.
Psychology plays an important role in social media’s success and it is influencing how business
owners are using the various social media channels to market their products and services. People
react to content that touches them on an emotional and/or personal level. If you make sure to
offer content that is arranged in a format that is easy to follow, presented clearly and logically
and has emotional elements, people will pay attention and will want to continue engaging. Using
content that is relevant and has a personal feel to it is a very intelligent choice when it comes
to your online marketing campaign.
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In little more than a decade, the impact of social media has gone from being an entertaining extra
to a fully integrated part of nearly every aspect of daily life for many. It had impact every aspect
of life and bound us emotionally and socially with each other in a more intricate manner.
4. The education system in India needs a grand overhaul to suit the
requirements of the modern age.
Modern age is characterized by overwhelming materialism such as desire for unlimited growth
and development, aspirations of unbound freedom and a life driven by fast changing technology.
The old thought processes and methods often prove inadequate for addressing the emerging
challenges of modern times. Education has been at the heart of progress of human civilisation
and nations. It has always helped in finding ways to solve the emerging problems and improve
life. The existing education system has not kept pace with the emerging challenges. This is
absolutely true for mass educational institutions, but even the specialised and acclaimed institutions
for tertiary education have lagged behind in this respect.
The education system is not just about the syllabus, classrooms, methods of examination and
evaluation and state-of- the- art laboratories but also about the approach towards education and

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its ultimate purpose. Modern times are both- continuity from the past and evolution and adaptation
to new challenges, aspirations, values and vision. So the modern times are characterising a threat
to existing culture, tradition and identity on one hand and opening ways and possibilities for a
more cosmopolitan life with new expectations and aspirations, values apart from emergence of
challenges never seen before. So the education system should be in consonance with these
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changing situations and challenges.
The existing education system is based on rote learning and predominantly theoretical mastery,
here exams are passed by mugging up the material where knowledge is neither assimilated nor
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converted into wisdom. The examination and evaluation systems are also tuned in favour of this
process of learning creating a hierarchy based on marks. Exams and marks are indispensable
evils of the education system, but these cannot be a substitute for curiosity, imagination and
innovation. Students also need to have a strong practical exposure and real life understanding
opportunities in both natural and social sciences. This would increase their worth not only as
careerists but also as a citizen and human beings.
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Should education system be limited to getting a job or career or it should lead to entrepreneurship,
leadership and esteemed citizenry as well? The purpose of education is acquiring knowledge and
skill for job and career, but it has a more important emancipatory role to make us more human,
ethical and sensitive to social and national issues and become a self propelled and selfless leaders
in whatever arena one chosen. The latter is missing in our education system. We need to set the
purpose of education right.
Although there is a grand consensus on modernisation, improvement and expansion of educational
infrastructure, there are differences on the approach and purpose of education. There is also a
general consensus on tailoring syllabus of technological education to reap the advantages of
emerging technologies like bio-technology, genetic engineering, digital technology, artificial
intelligence space sciences etc, but when it comes to approach, purpose and freedom, there are
differences.
India needs a countrywide network of primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions
with quality infrastructure, teachers and modern syllabus that prepares the younger generation
for modern technology and values. Also there should be a place for health and sex education,
vocationalisation and entrepreneurship with a working interface with industries and institutions
of governance.
The quality of education should be measured by a system of examinations, but it should not left
imprisoned in the system of marks based evaluation. It must have a system to develop every
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individual to his or her potential. Education has to be an equaliser. There should be more and
more publicly funded schools and universities of high class to provide equal opportunity to the
largest population.
The education system should be a system of making characters, capabilities and kindling
and igniting and free minds for the purpose of change and progress and making life better than
what we inherited. It needs to be overhauled sooner than latter to remain relevant in modern
times.

Section - B
1. Conscience is an impractical guide to our life actions.
Success or failure in our life, be it personal, professional or social, are the results of the practical
or impractical actions initiated by us depending upon our decisions. The quality of our life and
destiny are directly connected with our decisions. Nobody’s life is ever all balanced. It’s a conscious
decision to choose your priorities every day. But the most difficult and hardest thing in life is to
take a decisive decision because it involves many tangible and intangible things which many

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times are beyond our control.
A big question is what guides our life and how we take decisions? What should be the guiding
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principle of our life? Is there any role of conscience in guiding our life? Should we always rely
on our conscience? To understand the answer of these question first of all we need to understand
the conscience, which is an innate, underived, unanalyzable, inexplicable, and universal power
of moral discrimination, a special magisterial feature, which has absolute and unquestioned
authority over the individual. It must be understood that conscience is not a feeling. With the use
of reason, a person arrives at moral decisions that are not superficial choices which wax and
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wane as do feelings.
The moral conscience is a person’s judgment about a given action’s ordering to man’s ultimate
end based on the person’s knowledge of the action, its end, and circumstances. Each person
draws from various sources for this knowledge, such as common sense, basic science, history,
law, experience, and religion. The moral conscience is considered the proximate norm of conduct
because it is the immediate source of information guiding human actions. It directs human
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actions so that a person can transcend his animal instincts and human inclinations.
Conscience is nothing more and nothing less than a man’s whole personality when he/she
engages in moral action or makes a judgment. Conscience is the self-making moral judgments,
or the self-realizing itself in and adjusting itself to human relations. As such it includes all the
fundamental capacities or activities or faculties of the mind.
It contains a cognitive element, for it estimates the rightness or wrongness of actions in accordance
with some standard or ideal intellectually conceived and formulated. But it also contains an
element of feeling, for all moral judgments and adjustments are accompanied by emotions of
greater or less intensity. Conscience inhibits us from doing many things which impulse suggests
and it urges us on to duty.
But individual’s conscience is not only about his own knowledge or experiences of life. Sometimes
conscience is also voice of the community speaking in the individual, which can translate into
both good or bad, practical or impractical. Acceptance of Nazi Germany, considering slavery as
right, internalizing corruption as part of culture etc. are few cases and situations where our
conscience can be an impractical guide to our life because of voice of community or majority. At
the same time the voice of community is also about good guiding principles.
However, we must also recognize that ignorance and errors are not always free from guilt, for
example, when we did not earnestly seek what we needed in order to form our conscience
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correctly. Since we have the obligation to obey our conscience, we also have the great responsibility
to see that it is formed in a way that reflects the true moral good. The abortion debate asks
whether it can be morally right to terminate a pregnancy before normal childbirth. Some people
think that abortion is always wrong. Some think that abortion is right when the mother’s life is
at risk. Others think that there is a range of circumstances in which abortion is morally acceptable.
There are some rules to follow in obeying one’s conscience. First, always follow a certain conscience.
Second, an incorrect conscience must be changed if possible. Third, do not act with a doubtful
conscience. We must always obey the certain judgments of our conscience, realizing that our
conscience can be incorrect, that it can make a mistake about what is truly the good or the right
thing to do. This can be due to ignorance in which, through no fault of our own, we did not
have all we needed to make a correct judgment.
Our conscience helps us to judge the moral qualities of our own actions. It guides us to do good
and avoid evil. Making moral choices takes into consideration the object of the choice, our
intention in making the choice, and the circumstances in which the choice is made. It is never
right to make an evil choice in the hope of gaining something good.

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2. A leader is best when people barely know s/he exists.
A leader is one who knows the path, shows the path and leads the path. A leader “does” and
“inspires” others to do. A leader inspires and evokes love and respect for his cause, purpose and
selfless commitment rather than fear and force. More than a leader’s power, wealth and visibility,
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his character, cause and commitment drive and inspire the followers. It is proven amply in
history that a leader who is loved and respected for his/her cause, commitment and character
is simply followed by people with love, faith and belief. Such a leader does not require to drive
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people by fear or force.

The Leadership is often mistaken or confused with a person with a remarkable physical presence
and who enjoys a place of primacy with visible superiority, power and authority over others.
Nobody sits before him; speaks before him; disagrees or questions him rather everybody fears
him and follows willingly or unwillingly under compulsion for whatsoever reason. . But this is
“dominance” and not “leadership.” Such a leadership, if at all we call it leadership lasts till
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power and authority

A leader is one who leads by example and not by speech. There is no gap between a leaders’s
practice and preachings. A leader does not display double standard or hypocrisy. Therefore
people follow him in the right earnest. Mahatma Gandhi is the greatest example in this regard.
The appeal of a leader comes from his knowledge, truth, honesty and integrity. If a leader is
believed for his principles and commitments, selfless services for maximum benefit for maximum
people, his cause and ideas are promoted and supported by the followers in his absence as well;
and in fact a leader does not remain to be present physically everywhere; he remains in the
hearts and minds of the people. Nelson Mandela, Aung San Su Chi and Martin Luther King are
outstanding examples in this regard.
A leader is judged more by outcomes than utterances. She/he is known by decisions and choices
that solved problems and changed lives. Varghese Kurian silently led a cooperative movement
that made India the largest milk producer on one hand changed lives of millions of rural folk.
Communication and convincing capacity of a leader matters. A leader knows when to speak and
when not to speak. But these choices should not always be based on political expediency but on
the need of the hour and for the sake of justice. Manipulation and cunning may be needed at
times in communication, but these should be used scrupulously in the larger interest of nation
and people and not just for dividing people for winning elections.
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The modern management principles also suggest that the team members driven by great values
and engagement with the cause and motto of the companies or political parties are more steadfast,
firm and efficient in their commitment for delivery. The system works because people own it and
take the responsibility of successes and failures, learn, grow and perform. Leadership vanishes
but performance and delivery improve. The highly hierarchical system, with scarce sense of
engagement, ownership and motivation are driven only by fear and greed; this is not even the
second best leadership model. It is bad. Countries landed in soup due to such leadership (Hitler
and Stalin) and companies and firms became bankrupt. Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur
Shastri that a leader can silently and graciously lead people for great causes.
We are reminded about a concept of leadership given by Nelson Mandela, viz, “leadership from
behind”, which means that a leader should lead from the front and time of credit comes a leader
should allow this to go it to the team members standing behind them. This is a true quality of
a leader who can show path to many and lead them to the path of unity and development. The
compassion and warmth not the rhetoric of a leader plays a great role to drive people and society
towards growth and evolution.

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3. Life without emotions is lifeless.
It is impossible to imagine life without emotion. We treasure our feelings—the joy at a ball game,
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the pleasure of the touch of a loved one, or the fun with friends on a night out. Even negative
emotions are important, such as the sadness when a loved one dies, the anger when violated,
the fear that overcomes us in a scary or unknown situation, or the guilt or shame toward others
when our sins are made public.
Emotions color life experiences and give those experiences meaning and flavor. Emotions prepare
us for behavior. When triggered, emotions orchestrate systems such as perception, attention,
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inference, learning, memory, goal choice, motivational priorities, physiological reactions, motor
behaviors, and behavioral decision making. It is often hard to know what emotions are being
felt. That in turn can cause many challenges and difficulties in life. Emotions are everything. We
are wired to properly experience and process them. There is over forty miles of nerves running
through the body and the brain. We should know all there is to know about feelings and
emotions.
GS

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main,”
wrote the poet John Donne. The modern world is wonderful in many ways – but it’s also
powerfully and tragically geared to causing a high background level of anxiety and widespread
low-level depression. Some people seek isolation, but few choose to be lonely. Loneliness not only
makes us unhappy, but it is bad for us. It can lead to a lack of confidence and mental health
problems like depression, stress and anxiety. Various studies have consistently shown that one
in 10 of us is lonely, but a report by the Mental Health Foundation suggests loneliness among
young people is increasing.
At the same time, social changes such as the rise of the solo dweller and the surge in social
networks, combined with an ageing population, are changing the way people interact with each
other. The rise of the solo dweller is also thought to have had an impact. Take the case of
England - the proportion of adults living alone almost doubled between 1973 and 2011, from 9%
to 16%. Social networking websites have also come under fire for reducing face-to-face contact
and making people more isolated.
It’s hard to watch someone who is suffering. We may feel their pain or absorb their sorrow; we
may worry that we won’t know what to do or say. Those uncomfortable moments might make
us turn away from their distress—to preserve our own well-being or to carry on with our lives.
We can do it but depends which emotion is on driving seat of life?
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So, is modern life making us lonely? Are we becoming machine? Are we becoming “emotionless”?
But if modern society is making us lonelier, what can be done to counter it? How do we get better
at it? How do we become masters of managing our own emotional wiring?
Being a mental skill, emotion regulation can be strengthened the same way we strengthen our
other mental skills. Through training and practice. Emotion regulation is the ability to monitor,
evaluate, and modify our emotional reactions. It is not anger management. It is not fear
deconditioning. It is not positive thinking. It is not mindfulness meditation. It is all of that
together and more. It is the ability that makes it possible to choose how you want to feel in the
moment, based on the circumstances and your objectives.
Emotion regulation is the mental skill that underlies emotional intelligence. Emotion regulation
means that you are scared when you need to be scared, and you are fearless when you need to
be fearless. It also means that in both cases, you will most likely do what will better serve your
objective and lead to the best possible outcome. Emotion regulation can lead to more confident
decisions, more effective actions, and a calmer state of mind. All in all, emotion regulation can
play an important role to having a fulfilling and balanced life.

RE
Positive emotions are widely valued and frequently pursued. The human striving toward
experiencing positive emotions is reflected in society in a multitude of ways, from ancient Greek
texts and romantic poetry to advertisements and modern song lyrics. We can safely claim here
that positive emotions do more than just feel good; they may benefit both the individual and the
people around them. A large empirical literature shows that people who are happier achieve
better life outcomes, including financial success, supportive relationships, mental health, effective
O
coping, and even physical health and longevity.
Emotions are lifelines of human body without it life would become mechanical and without any
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charm and connectivity with others. It is crucial to have life with sentiments and to understand
the emotions of others. Emotions make us to stand with the thick and thins of the people, which
eventually leads to the strong bond between individuals and enhance the relationships. So, it
would not be any wrong to say this that life without emotions is lifeless.
4. Birds born in cages think flying is a disease.
It means living within the cage like a trapped bird that doesn’t let you have a wider perspective
GS

of what you can experience in life. There are many people who settle for what they already have,
with the things that they feel safe with. They do not let themselves explore other fields full of
new experiences. The environment may induce, inspire or compel to think and behave in a
particular way and consider it right even if it is not because we have born to see and believe in
a particular way. And if anybody chooses to be different it seems an aberration or disease as seen
in the “country of blinds” or the “ugly duckling” or “ward no six”, all great literary pieces.
To see the potential of our limitations we have to go deeper in the context of surrondings and
our courage to challenge them. There are umpteen examples how our thought processes, choices,
attitudes and perceptions are limited by environment around us and does it affect our individual
and social lives. A society where failure is taken as stigma, people are afraid to experiment and
try. A society where a few people in power subjugate people by using brute power and
creating fear people are afraid to speak out and express which ultimately not only throttles truth
but democracy as well.
It could also be seen in the form of overly patriarchal societies where women are stereotyped and
their domain of choices is limited in the name of acceptable social norms, mores and conventions.
Prolonged exposure to such a system seeps into our veins and nerves, nay our minds and hearts
that this is right and that is wrong. And if anybody chooses to differ, it is deemed as disease
or a criminal act. This is a great disservice to the cause of liberty, equality, justice, change and
progress. It kills the immense possibilities of individuals and society to make things better
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Our family, our society and its priorities, perceptions and value system, behavioural traits and
belief patterns of successful people around us, especially the role models determine our aspirations
and choices. They mould our attitude and approaches. Our modes and methods of action also
depend on what is workable and what is not in given time and space. The difference could be
understood by a comparison of “khappanchayats’ verdicts on marriages based on individual choices
rather than social conventions with Dil wale Dulhania le jayenge, a popular Hindi films’s dialogue
“ ja beti jee le apni Zindagi” (go my daughter live your life). It makes a great difference in which
environment we live. Our possibilities begin and end within the limits set by existing standards
howsoever fair or unjust. We start believing that what is set as standard for us is our limit.
Freedom of mind is vital to transcend the societal, cultural and environmental barriers. One of
the most well-known individuals worldwide, Nelson Mandela, believed in the freedom of one’s
mind above everything else. Given appropriate freedom of choice and a conducive environment,
a child can be Eisenstein, Mozart, Leonardo da Vinci , Sachin Tendulkar, Steve Jobs or anything
and not just a doctor or engineer or chartered accounted thrust on him or her as the best choice
by family and society- Padhoge likhoge hoge nawab; kheloge kudoge hogekharab” (if you study
and write you will be a king; if you will indulge in sports and play, a proxy for all other activities,

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you will be spoiled). This delimits the immense and diverse potential given to children by god.
By defining success as a one way road, all other possibilities are crushed.
Those children who want to explore things that are valued currently by society are treated as
OR
good and others as bad. So if you are good go for natural science, mediocre go for social sciences
and a duffer go for humanities. The school drop outs like Bill Gates and Wanderers like Steve
Job and here the Prime Minster of India all seem to mock at the “golden rules” made by highly
obsessed societies with given formats of life and success.
No threat is bigger for change and progress than stopping experimentation, out -of- the box
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thinking, self criticism, questioning, discussing, differing, dissenting and liberty for imagination
and creativity. Thinking differently and wanting more, better and beautiful are not diseases, but
these are the paths of progress. Families, schools, universities, firms and companies should not
throttle the spirit of enquiry and experimentations. Those who are afraid to break the conventions
can never help to make life and society. The envelop needs to be pushed forward. The comfort
zones need to be crossed. Inconvenient questions need to be asked. Voices need to be raised.
These are not diseases but panacea of diseases.
GS

Moreover, the process of breaking the status quo, bringing attitudinal changes, expanding the
vista, speaking out, resorting to self criticism, mustering courage to speak out and act in odd
circumstance may seem an aberration and disease, but actually these are the paths of change and
progress. From sati to widow remarriage, India’s freedom struggle to anti-racist movement in the
US we see how the spirit of defiance and courage to act changed and improved situations. But
caged birds cannot think beyond; they cannot fly; and they do not want to allow others to fly.
But the change makers or real heroes of life dwarf their constrains and cross the hurdles. They
have the courage to see more and see and do things differently come what may. They are
inspired souls and not diseases ones.
In the world full of caged birds flying is always seen as a disease, and governance and
administration also try to stop flying in the name of disorder and anarchy. But there are societies,
especially the post renaissance western societies where human liberty and freedom of choice are
being allowed and accommodated by social and government institution and so research, innovation
and progress in these societies are prospering more than other places.
Nevertheless flying must have a genuine purpose and this should not be allowed to wild
proportions amounting to indiscipline and anarchy without being convinced “Sirf Hungama
Khada Karna mera maqsad nahi, ye tasveer badalni chahiye (I do not intend to creat trouble...
let there be change for better)” should be the reason behind our “flying”. The “causes” and
“purpose” of our “flying “say, “don’t love me for fun, but love me for a reason.”
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