Author Archives: Shashwat Mishra

How do you stay motivated when learning something new?

Curiosity is the inner drive that makes you want to explore, ask questions, and understand something new, and it is one of the most powerful engines of effective learning.

It motivates your lifelong learning by pushing you to continuously explore what you love, what you are good at, and what the world needs, transforming study into a deeply fulfilling and evolving journey rather than just a destination.

Once I was going to another city for some work. The route was quite tiring and long. On the way I came to know that it was a Buddhist spot. Out of curiosity I went there.

I got to see and know many new things that is an archaeological place with ancient stupas and rock paintings, which matches a Buddhist heritage site. That site was near the bank of hill that changes mood of the journey and it became interesting.

What’s a book that completely surprised you?

Recently I read a book named ‘Ikigai’ the Japanese secret to a long and happy life. In this book writer emphasize staying active, eating moderately, nurturing friendships, living in the moment, and finding purpose.

The thought of ‘Ikigai’ is all about longevity this reveals many secrets of Japanese life style which completely surprises me. The fact that Japanese people make an effort to stay active until the very end, are key element of their secret to long life.

If you want to stay busy even when there’s no need to work, there has to be an Ikigai on your horizon, a purpose that guide you throughout your life and pushes you to make things of beauty and utility for the community and yourself.

Who are some underrated people in history?

Lord Brahma, revered as creator of universe in Hindu cosmology and tradition, is indeed often seen as underrated compared to Vishnu and Shiva. As the creator deity in the Trimurti, he receives far less worship despite his cosmic role.

As king of Kishkindha, Sugreev commanded the vast Vanara army. He organized the search parties and ultimately provided the manpower for the war against Ravana. Hanuman was Sugreev’s trusted counselor, known for his wisdom and diplomacy. But Hanuman ji is celebrated more for his individual heroics contribution.

Despite his father Vali’s death, Prince Angad remained loyal and steadfast in supporting Sugreev, Rama, and the Vanara kingdom. He is remembered as a symbol of courage and duty. But he is underrated for his contribution i think.

What are the biggest benefits of minimalist living?

Prime Minister Modi’s seven-point call to action for the citizens of India lays bare the severity of the impact of the West Asia crisis. Yesterday he has urged citizens to adopt a minimalist living for a year.

A kind of nationally responsible lifestyle, emphasizing reduced fuel consumption, limited foreign travel, and increased support for “Made-in-India” products.

This call for voluntary austerity and mindful consumption aims to foster self-reliance and address economic pressures, alongside promoting sustainable, durable, and reusable products.

The phrase “Jahi Vidhi Rakhe Ram, Tahi Vidhi Rahiye” is a line from Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas. It means: “Accept the way Lord Ram (God) keeps you and remain content in that state.” This line emphasizes surrender, faith, and contentment in God’s will.

It teaches us to gracefully accept whatever situation or circumstances life places us in, trusting that it is all part of a divine plan. It encourages patience, humility, and resilience, reminding us to let go of resistance and align ourselves with the will of the Almighty.

What’s the most interesting local custom you’ve encountered?

Recently I read a book Kamasutra, where first time encountered with this detailed information about these arts have to learn both boys and girls before marriage. The 64 Arts, or Chausath Kalas, are traditional arts, skills, and techniques listed in ancient Indian literature.

It define a cultured, well-rounded individual. These 64 skills, which Lord Krishna and Balarama mastered in 64 days, cover areas from performing arts, culinary arts, and interior decoration to combat, science, and social sciences.

1. Geet vidya: art of singing.
2.Vadya vidya: art of playing on musical instruments.
3. Nritya vidya: art of dancing.
4. Natya vidya: art of theatricals.
5.Alekhya vidya: art of painting.
6.Viseshakacchedya vidya: art of painting the face and body with color
7.Tandula-kusuma-bali-vikara: art of preparing offerings from rice and flowers.
8. Pushpastarana: art of making a covering of flowers for a bed.
9. Dasana-vasananga-raga: art of applying preparations for cleansing the teeth, cloths and painting the body.
10. Mani-bhumika-karma: art of making the groundwork of jewels.
11. Aayya-racana: art of covering the bed.
12. Udaka-vadya: art of playing on music in water.
13. Udaka-ghata: art of splashing with water.
14. Citra-yoga: art of practically applying an admixture of colors.
15. Malya-grathana-vikalpa: art of designing a preparation of wreaths.
16. Sekharapida-yojana: art of practically setting the coronet on the head.
17. Nepathya-yoga: art of practically dressing in the tiring room.
18. Karnapatra-bhanga: art of decorating the tragus of the ear.
19. Sugandha-yukti: art of practical application of aromatics.
20. Bhushana-yojana: art of applying or setting ornaments.
21. Aindra-jala: art of juggling.
22. Kaucumara: a kind of art.
23. Hasta-laghava: art of sleight of hand.
24. Citra-sakapupa-bhakshya-vikara-kriya: art of preparing varieties of delicious food.
25. Panaka-rasa-ragasava-yojana: art of practically preparing palatable drinks and tinging draughts with red color.
26. Suci-vaya-karma: art of needleworks and weaving.
27. Sutra-krida: art of playing with thread.
28. Vina-damuraka-vadya: art of playing on lute and small drum.
29. Prahelika: art of making and solving riddles.
30. Durvacaka-yoga: art of practicing language difficult to be answered by others.
31. Pustaka-vacana: art of reciting books.
32. Natikakhyayika-darsana: art of enacting short plays and anecdotes.
33. Kavya-samasya-purana: art of solving enigmatic verses.
34. Pattika-vetra-bana-vikalpa: art of designing preparation of shield, cane and arrows.
35. Tarku-karma: art of spinning by spindle.
36. Takshana: art of carpentry.
37. Vastu-vidya: art of engineering.
38. Raupya-ratna-pariksha: art of testing silver and jewels.
39. Dhatu-vada: art of metallurgy.
40. Mani-raga jnana: art of tinging jewels.
41. Akara jnana: art of mineralogy.
42. Vrikshayur-veda-yoga: art of practicing medicine or medical treatment, by herbs.
43. Mesha-kukkuta-lavaka-yuddha-vidhi: art of knowing the mode of fighting of lambs, cocks and birds.
44. Suka-sarika-pralapana: art of maintaining or knowing conversation between male and female cockatoos.
45. Utsadana: art of healing or cleaning a person with perfumes.
46. Kesa-marjana-kausala: art of combing hair.
47. Akshara-mushtika-kathana: art of talking with fingers.
48. Dharana-matrika: art of the use of amulets.
49. Desa-bhasha-jnana: art of knowing provincial dialects.
50. Nirmiti-jnana: art of knowing prediction by heavenly voice.
51. Yantra-matrika: art of mechanics.
52. Mlecchita-kutarka-vikalpa: art of fabricating barbarous or foreign sophistry.
53. Samvacya: art of conversation.
54. Manasi kavya-kriya: art of composing verse
55. Kriya-vikalpa: art of designing a literary work or a medical remedy.
56. Chalitaka-yoga: art of practicing as a builder of shrines called after him.
57. Abhidhana-kosha-cchando-jnana: art of the use of lexicography and meters.
58. Vastra-gopana: art of concealment of cloths.
59. Dyuta-visesha: art of knowing specific gambling.
60. Akarsha-krida: art of playing with dice or magnet.
61. Balaka-kridanaka: art of using children’s toys.
62. Vainayiki vidya: art of enforcing discipline.
63. Vaijayiki vidya: art of gaining victory.
64. Vaitaliki vidya: art of awakening master with music at dawn.

If you had to describe your ideal life, what would it look like?

We have all felt our sense of time vanish when we lose ourselves in an activity we enjoy. We spend an afternoon with a book and forget about the world going by until we notice the sunset and realise we haven’t eaten dinner. We go surfing and don’t realise how many hours we have spent in the water until the next day when our muscles ache.

When you performing your favourite things, your body and consciousness united as a single entity. You completely immersed in the experience, not thinking about or distracted by anything else. Your ego dissolves, and you totally become the part of what you doing.

Put you your hand on a hot stove for a minute it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That is Einstein’s theory of relativity. Tasks which makes us enjoy doing something so much that we forget about worries we have.

As long as I live, there must be a certain flow in everything i do. Manage more time for the things I really want to do which help to reduce dipression of my life. Time to time i challenge myself to push my limits, break the records which I made earlier. My ideal life should be something like this.

वीरान पड़े इस पथ पर रही 
अब अंधियारे की दस्तक है 

जिनको जाना था लौट गए सब 
अब तन्हाई की आहट है 

विरह निशा में चलते जाओ 
ठौर कहाँ इस बीहड़ में 

आस की प्यास बुझे कैसे अब 
वेदना के इस मधुर रस से 

चाँद भी कहीं रूठा बैठा है 
श्रृंगार अधूरा है रातों का 

निःशब्द सितारे मौन खड़े हैं 
आकाश में गहरी उलझन है

अनकहे अहसासों की हलचल से 
मन के आँगन में सिहरन है 

यादों की गागर ले डूबे अब 
आँखों के सागर की बेचैनी

What’s a mystery from your own life that you’ve never solved?

Someone make a political party contests the first election and becomes Chief Minister of a state without any political background. Another has inherited politician, yet has been struggling for years.

There’s a saying ‘only that success is worthwhile that is earned through hard work’. But can success be ensured only through hard work?

Can it be said that if one strives hard enough, success will surely follow? What can be said about the poor who, despite struggling all their lives, remain poor, even more.

Often the situation is such that no matter what one does, success is still not achieved. But we only talk about the struggles of those who succeed. It’s them who we talk about and stories are written.

Like an author who writes 50 books, he worked very hard in his lifetime. But hardly any of his books became famous. After his death, people forgot him.

Another author wrote just one book and became so famous that generations of people remembered him and his book. Perhaps the author himself never expected something like this to happen.

I still haven’t understood this mystery. Perhaps some things are beyond our control. What’s in our control is simply trying and keep trying, with patience and dedication.

Do you vote in political elections?

In any democratic nation, the right to vote is not just a privilege but a fundamental cornerstone of the governance system. But this time nine million voters about 12% of West Bengal’s 76 million electorate, who have been removed from the 2026 rolls as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

Of these nine million, more than six million names were struck off as absentee or deceased voters, while the fate of another 2.7 million remains undecided and will be determined by tribunals.

India’s Election Commission says the revision is meant to weed out duplicate or outdated entries and add genuine voters.

Gyanesh Kumar, the chief election commissioner, has said the revision exercise’s aim is to ensure a “pure electoral roll” with no eligible voters excluded and no ineligible persons included.

The tensions have been fuelled by remarks from political leaders, including from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who have suggested in campaign speeches that the clean-up is aimed at identifying so-called “illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators”.

A term the TMC ruling government in the state says is being used to refer to Muslims. However, many Hindu voters have also been left out from the list.

In India the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a global biodiversity hotspot, with the Andaman group belonging to the Indo-Burma hotspot and the Nicobar group part of the Sundaland hotspot.

Despite making up only 0.25% of India’s land area, they host over 10% of the country’s faunal species, including more than 1,000 endemic species found nowhere else on Earth.

It have tropical rainforests which Cover approximately 86% of the land area, featuring giant evergreen and moist deciduous forests.

Mangrove Forests are highly productive nurseries for marine life cover about 12% of the islands’ area.

It have huge marine biodiversity which is surrounding waters are a “rainforest in the sea,” teeming with over 1,200 fish species and rare sea turtles like the leatherback.

While significant portions are protected as Tribal Reserves, National Parks, or Wildlife Sanctuaries, the hotspot faces modern pressures.

But government declare large-scale infrastructure project, such as the proposed Great Nicobar mega-project, risks the loss of millions of trees and critical habitats.