Our Family

 

It sounds really amazing while talking about our families, doesn’t it? Hence, we do feel nostalgic as well as reflective in such cases. Well, still, we are not supposed to think only of the “domestic walls” that sometimes try to narrow and barricade the ecstasy.

Such thoughts lift our mood up time and again. We become full of energy, full of enthusiasm and full of spontaneous life force. It feels exciting to take a glance, it sounds mellifluous to walk down the memory lane to listen to the bygone melodious moments.

Wait! Don’t get too serious, please! Let us all keep in mind that ‘family’ is not synonymous to ‘memory’ all along the way. All of us are so excited about speaking of our families that sometimes we overlook the fact that the periphery of ‘family’ is extended far and wide.

Everything relies upon how we look at the world, how we treat people, how we love trees, animals, birds and each particle of this cosmos. Remember, we are not confined to the four walls; let’s spread our wings, because the world—both inside and outside—is waiting for you, waiting for me, yes, waiting for each and every member of the universal family.

You may like to read my other blogs:

https://somalimukherjee.blogspot.com/

https://mirandamemmi.blogspot.com/

https://somaliomnibus.blogspot.com/

https://childrenblogbysomali.blogspot.com/

Dreams

Who doesn’t dream? Who doesn’t desire to fructify the dreams? Who doesn’t dream to live all the dreams?

Most of us say that there is always a tussle between dreams and reality, don’t we? Now the question is: “How can we realise something or how can we turn something real, unless and until we dare to dream?” Therefore, what does this ‘something’ imply? Let us all give it a thought.

Surely, it is up to us altogether what we are going to do, but can we live without a single drop of water though there is plenty of food? Some of us, including me, are gourmets indeed. Well, that has nothing to do with living the life without water.

It is quite evident to every one of us that a meal, irrespective of its kind, is incomplete without a tumbler full of water. Thus, in spite of our daily chores, no matter how tough they are, no matter how rigorous they are, no matter how time-consuming they are, we all need to dream that keeps us alive, that keeps us moving, that keeps us fresh and energetic.

Most of us might say, “What’s the use? If it can never be fulfilled, why should I waste my time to dream?” The point is that we need not devote any time to dream. Why? It is so because it is always there in our within. In other words, it is our life force. We may deny it, but the fact is that we live because we dream and vice versa. We are not robots, right? And it is a dream that keeps us human.

Summer in India

 

The dazzling beams of the sun give everyone a sensation of the scorches, for sure. Yes, summer has come. It is the time to bathe in the heat of the sun as much as you want. After the light Indian winter, when the spring is over, the sun feels definitely merciful as well as malignant. At the onset of the Indian summer, it feels a bit lively, a bit regaling that it is no more the time to stay drowsy under the blanket. It feels as if a new era is in the offing. Well, I wish that it were like this forever—bright, jubilant, and full of life and cheers. So, so goes on in every heart. Wait! You have just experienced the tip of an iceberg and nothing other than that. The more time runs, the more days go by, the more it becomes intolerably blistering, the more you can witness that the Indian summer is not full of mirth alone. Everything is supposed to be like this, isn’t it? People wait and look up high in the sky for a drop of rain to drench their dry lips. Nevertheless, the alluring aroma and sweetness of the mangoes are indeed amazing. Yes, like everything else, there is an oasis, a shaft of hope lying underneath.

A Fair

 

A Fair

 

We all wonder how to meet our near and dear ones after a long time. In this regard, a fair can be one of the best solutions to us. A fair is a great attraction to all of us. It unites people from all places, from all cultures, from all religions, and from all languages and so on and so forth. The children wait for a ride on the merry-go-round in the fair for so long throughout the year. The little boys and girls enjoy purchasing a number of things like toys, dolls, etc. Although people of all ages like to visit and get harmonized on the fairground, it is the children who are the most excited to relish a visit to a fair. However, the children have to listen to their guardians’ advice all the time, especially when they are in a fair. Nothing is bereft of both good and ill effects. A fair, too, is never an exception to that. Hence, people should stay cautious not only to maintain decency, decorum and discipline but also for the safety and security of their little ones as well as of themselves. It is completely up to us what we are going to choose—the right track or the wrongful one. It is our discretion how we should make the most of happiness, no matter where we are. Nevertheless, a fair can be a paradise to all of us if we keep our within like that.

 

Sustainable Development, the only Reconciliation between Development and Environment

Since the primordial era, man’s irresistible impulse urged him to become civilized. He learnt to make fire by using the flint stones; he also came to know how to manage his own food, clothes and shelter. Moreover, he applied his sense to roll the wheels and tame both wild and domestic animals. These were possible by means of development that has made us what we are today.

The term ‘development’ covers many areas, like the economic, the social improvement and so on.

On the one hand, the economic development refers to the notion of increasing possibilities of employments. On the other hand, the social development includes urbanization.

The advancement of science and its miraculous inventions assist society and economy to become more and more developed day by day. But here a question peeps from everyone’s mind. That is to say, don’t these so-called developments hinder the environmental conservation?

When we are inclined to heavy industrialization and urbanization, we usually make deforestation. Without visualizing the actual consequences to be faced in near future, we get involved to destroy ourselves indirectly. Rainfall is uncertain and deficient everywhere. Soil-erosion, drought and flood have become very recurrent incidents. In the past, the trees used to hold the ground tightly, which has disappeared at present. As a result of the erosion, the depth of the rivers is getting more and more decreased. Time to time drazing is required to restore its profundity. Resulting in, they overflow, sometimes washing away the entire territory. Water-logging is a very common happening in Kolkata and its outskirts and the prolonged deposited water is the breeding ground of the mosquitoes.

Because of knocking down of trees, when it starts raining, it pours incessantly and when it is summer, the sunbeams are extremely scorching. As an effect of this, the entire cycle of seasons gets disturbed.

During the year of 1985, the man made development by way of deforestation, especially in the Himalayan watershed areas, aggravated the danger of flooding; it averaged 1,471 square kilometer per year. India also lost fifty per cent of her mangrove area between 1963 and 1977. Despite thirty years of flood-control programs that had already cost an estimated $10 billion, floods in 1980 alone claimed nearly two thousand lives, killed thousands of cattle and affected 55 million people on 11.3 million hectares (28 million acres) of land. As of the mid-1990s, sixty per cent of the land where crops could be grown had been damaged by the grazing of the nation's 406 million head of livestock, deforestation, and misuse of agricultural chemicals and increase of salinity.

Due to deforestation, natural weather and climate also get affected from their usual stands. Therefore, required rainfall does not arrive at its actual time and sometimes, it gets delayed to come because of which cultivation also gets hampered.

The trees maintain a perfect balance between Oxygen and Carbon-dioxide. While the former is essential for all and sundry to breathe in, the latter aids the greenery to prepare their foods with Chlorophyll. Due to development, the felling of trees causes a large imbalance in the air. So, the normal ratio of the two gases is getting agitated.

Due to cutting down of trees in an indiscriminate manner, due to polluting the environment at large, we have created a great imbalance in our ecosystem. Consequently, many species are becoming extinct year after year. Take for example; Hangul and Snow Leopard in Jammu and Kashmir, Vulture in Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat, Swiftlet in Andaman and Nicobar islands, Nilgiri Tahr in Tamil Nadu and Sanghai Deer in Manipur are all endangered classes of animals and birds, which the Government of India is trying to recover and rescue. Wildlife Institute of India, Bombay Natural History Society, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History are some of the research organizations undertaking research on conservation of wildlife. Recently, global warming is a very dreadful phenomenon, as a result of which, the polar ice getting melted raises the sea level and many coastal areas are imminent to get submerged.

In the name of development, natural resources are getting exploited overtly. Take for instance; water is a limited resource, which is being contaminated each and every day. At present, the residents of the multi-storied buildings, due to high population, have to be supplied with fresh water. So, the ground water level is getting decreased each day. Moreover, hybrid vegetables are produced to meet our needs, because there is over population density. This hybridism not only invites various kinds of diseases to modern mankind but also reduces the productivity of lands, making them become barren. Environmental conservation is thus getting affected more and more.

Apart from that, the domestic and industrial waste water causes pollution to this limited resource. Washing dirty clothes, cleansing cattle, scrubbing utensils etc. are absolutely anti-environmental activities. These can be found in the domestic scenario. The filthy drainage water also gets mingled with the rivers. An impeccable instance of this case would be the Ganga. When the carcasses and the corpses float on the river, the germs get mixed with the water, creating environmental degradation.

Due to uncontrolled dumping of chemical and industrial waste, fertilizers and pesticides, seventy per cent of the surface water in India is polluted. The nation has 1,260 cubic km of renewable water resources, of which 92 per cent is used for farming. Safe drinking water is available to 95 per cent of urban and 79 per cent of rural dwellers.    

However, a start was made in terms of River Action Plan to clean up the polluted rivers in the country. Ganga Action Plan, the first phase of this plan, began in 25-class I towns in the three states, namely, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Unfortunately, even after ten years, it remains incomplete.

The environmental effects of intensive urbanization are evident in all the major cities, although Calcutta—once a symbol of urban quality—has been freed of cholera and most of the city now has water purification and sewer services. Analogous improvements have been made in other leading cities under the Central Scheme for Environmental Improvement in Slum Areas, launched in 1972, which provided funds for sewers, community baths and latrines, road paving, and other services. However, as of the mid-1990s, only 21 of India's 3,245 cities had effective sewage treatment.

Just like water, air is another component that we always need to survive. Over-use of fossil fuels contaminates it, Chloro-Fluro-Carbon (CFC) that is emitted while manufacturing and repairing refrigerators make it unfit to be inhaled. Moreover, the atomic explosions used in wars upset the environmental balance and conservation to the utmost.

Air pollution is most severe in urban centers; but even in rural areas, the burning of wood, charcoal, and dung for fuel, coupled with dust from wind erosion during the dry season, poses a significant problem. Industrial air pollution threatens some of India's architectural treasures, including the Taj Mahal in Agra, part of the exterior of which has been dulled and pitted by airborne acids. It is a perfect instance of Stone Cancer. Moreover, in what was probably the worst industrial disaster of all time, a noxious gas named Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, killed more than 1,500 people and injured thousands of others in December, 1985. In 1992, India had the world's sixth-highest level of industrial carbon dioxide emissions, which totaled 769 million metric tons, a per capita level of 0.88 metric tons.

In order to solve the enormous problem of air-pollution, what we need to do immediately is to utilize the complementary resources like the solar energy, the wind energy and tidal energy.

Besides air-pollution, land-pollution and sound-pollution are some prevalent occurrences now-a-days. Due to the former, the fertile fields are becoming arid and turning to pure waste lands. It definitely affects the environmental conservation.

The violated usage of microphones over the allowed range, the fireworks and so on destroy the balance of nature. These cause pollution, congestion, tension, noise and accidents frequently. Deafness is our daily companion now-a-days. Evidently, the most harmed persons are the destitute.    

In the modern age, people are developed, life styles are refined, but, who cares for the poorest of the poor? Are they really considered to be a part of our society? In the Stockholm Conference in 1972, Indira Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, said that poverty is the greatest pollutant. If we are incompetent to propagate the developments to the lower and marginalized strata at the same time, the entire development process becomes incomplete and futile. It seems that we better return to the era of nature.

Every year, people observe 5th June as World Environment Day, when they deliver series after series of lecture, when lots of seminars are held to arouse public awareness regarding environmental conservation, but simultaneously, also some of us, speakers and listeners, keep on doing disgraceful acts, which affect our nature. Each and every nook and corner of the earth will feel better and more beautiful, only if we take up the task of undoing our misdeeds collectively again from the very beginning with conscious minds and environment-friendly attitude.

However, some steps have been taken by the Government of India for the protection of environment and bio-diversity. Amongst those, the important measures include the enactment of the Wild Life (Protection) Act (1972), Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules (2010), National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-system, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and so on. Some of the significant Indian Acts related to the environmental conservation are Fisheries Act (1897), Indian Forests Act (1927), Mining and Mineral Development Regulation Act (1957), Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (1960), Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act (1974), Forest Conservation Act (1980), Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act (1981), Environment Protection Act (1986), Biological Diversity Act (2002) and Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act (2006).

The National Committee on Environmental Planning and Coordination was established in 1972 to investigate and propose solutions to environmental problems resulting from continued population growth and consequent economic development; in 1980, the Department of the Environment was created. The sixth development plan (1979–84), which for the first time included a section on environmental planning and coordination, gave the planning commission veto power over development projects that might damage the environment; this policy was sustained in the seventh development plan (1985–90). The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute has field center areas throughout the country.

The Wildlife Act of 1972 prohibits killing of and commerce in threatened animals. In 1985 there were 20 national parks and more than 200 wildlife sanctuaries. As of 2001, 4.4 per cent of India's total land area was protected. In addition to 75 species of mammals, 73 types of birds are endangered, as are 785 plant species. Endangered species in India include the lion-tailed macaque, five species of langur, the Indus dolphin, wolf, Asiatic wild dog, Malabar large-spotted civet, clouded leopard, Asiatic lion, Indian tiger, leopard, cheetah, Asian elephant, dugong, wild Asian ass, great Indian rhinoceros, Sumatran rhinoceros, pygmy hog, swamp deer, Himalayan musk deer, Asiatic buffalo, gaur, wild yak, white-winged wood duck, four species of pheasant, the crimson tragopan, Siberian white crane, great Indian bustard, river terrapin, marsh and estuarine crocodiles, gavial, and Indian python. Although wardens are authorized to shoot poachers on game reserves, poaching continues, with the Indian rhinoceros (whose horn is renowned for its supposed aphrodisiac qualities), especially valuable.

Of course, both progress and transition are necessary to create a better future, but at the same time, it is also not desired and expected that they will cause harms to the environmental conservation.

Therefore, sustainable development is required all over the world. The expression ‘sustainable development’ means the economic development that is conducted without depletion of natural resources.

It sounds quite shameful to utter that the initial generations of men inherited a clean earth, but, nowadays, every person gives a defiled one to his progeny.  

Political theory – the mold of international relations

Political theory – the mold of international relations

Political theory plays an integral role in shaping the study and practice of politics and international relations. It is about different ways with the help of which the nature and character of international politics can be interpreted, understood and assessed.

International relations are sometimes referred to as international studies, but the two states of affairs are not perfectly synonymous. This is actually the amend of relationships bordered by countries, including the role of states, inter-governmental institutions (IGOs), international non-governmental institutions (INGOs), non-governmental institutions (NGOs) and multinational corporations (MNCs).

It covers the areas of both academic and public policy. It is sometimes positive and sometimes normative, seeking to scrutinize and to devise the foreign policy of meticulous states. Every now and then, it is measured as a branch of political science. However, an important segment of academia prefers to look upon it as an interdisciplinary domain of revise. The features of international relations have been studies for years after years, since the period of Thucydides. However, it became a secluded and definable discipline on the onset of the twentieth century.

International relations, separately from the study of political science, draw upon a number of diversified meadows like technology, engineering, economics, history, international law, philosophy, geography, social work, sociology, anthropology, criminology, psychology, gender studies, and cultural studies. Apart from that, it engrosses a varied range of issues like globalization, state sovereignty, international security, ecological sustainability, nuclear proliferation, nationalism, economic growth, global fund, terrorism, organized crime, human security, foreign interventionism, and human rights. However, the diverse issues are merely limited to the mentioned items.

If the history of international relations is delved deeper, the origin can be traced back to thousands of years. For example, Barry Buzan and Richard Little trust that the interaction of old Sumerian municipality-states, commenced in 3,500 BC. It was the first fully fledged international system.

Its history is founded upon the sovereign states. The history can often be found back to the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. It was a milestone in the development of the contemporary state system. Before that, the medieval system of political power in Europe was based on a vague hierarchy and religious order. However, Westphalia still represented layered systems of sovereignty. This happened especially within the Holy Roman Empire. The Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 is a notion that reflects an emerging parameter that sovereigns had no internal equals within a definite area and there were no external superiors as well that could stand as the ultimate power within the sovereign borders of the region. This was effective more than the Peace of Westphalia.

The theory of international relations has a widespread custom of drawing on the work of the social sciences of the other kinds. In the expression “International Relations”, “I” and “R” are capitalized for distinguishing the academic discipline of International Relations from the phenomena of the same. Whatever it is, manifold works can be cited from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War (sixth century BC), Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War (fifth century BC), Chanakya’s Arthashastra (fourth century BC) and so on and so forth. Apart from these, Hobbes’ Leviathan and Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince provide more elaboration.

Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679) was a contemporary of Grotius and, like the latter, he answered the concerns found and faced during his time and at his place. On the one hand, Grotius used to think that a state without any political authority would still be governed by natural law. On the other hand, Hobbes held that there is no natural law in which such moral value or fundamental human commonality is engraved. This sounds that both of the thinkers were in stark contrast.

Similarly, the works of Kant and Rousseau are drawn upon by liberalism. The former’s work is pretty often quoted as the first elaboration of democratic peace theory. Moreover, Francisco de Vitoria, Hugo Grotius and John Locke gave the initial accounts of global entitlement and this was meant for ensuring rights on the basis of usual humanity. In the modern era, Marxism has been groundwork of international relations.

The theories of international relations can be divided into two categories, namely, “positivist” and “post-positivist”. The former aims at repeating the ways of the natural sciences in the method of analyzing the influence of material forces, while the latter concentrates upon constitutive questions, for instance, the meaning and implication of ‘power’, what creates it and how it is implanted. The post-positivism is also known as Reflectivity Theory.

Whatever the theory be, ‘sustainable growth’ matters most. However, the quoted term raises a number of criticisms at different stages and dissimilar phases. John Baden writes, “In economy like in ecology, the interdependence rule applies….Several suggestions to save our environment and to promotes model of ‘sustainable growth’ risk indeed leading to reversal effects.”

Some critics say that the term is indeed too vague. For example, both Jean-Marc Jancovici and the philosopher Luc Ferry articulate the same inspection. Of course, the term is more charming than meaningful.

Sylvie Brunel, a French geographer and specialist of the third world, raises the question of the person who benefits from ‘sustainable growth’. Apart from that, she opines that the central ideas of this phenomenon are concealed form protectionism through urbanized nations hindering the growth of other countries.

The aim is not that one nation should trample the other, but it is of universal growth in order to make a world state. Everybody should come forward to take steps and, what is more, to activate the plans rather than mere strategy. If the plans of ‘sustainable growth’ are to be activated in case of the political theory playing an indispensable part in shaping the study and practice of politics and international relations, the foremost step for every nation will be to work hand in hand. One nation is interdependent on the other. It is like a chain rather than a pyramid. If one nation is neglected, the entire bond will collapse. Therefore, it will be intelligent and wise to work together for betterment of the globe.

Multifamily Real Estate Investing: It’s Grey in Hue

Multifamily Real Estate Investing: It’s Grey in Hue

 

Somali Mukherjee

 

 

Investing in real estate is one of the best known phenomena now-a-days. It encapsulates the ownership of a great deal of rental properties. On the one hand, properties having only one residential rental unit is generally termed as single-family properties. On the other hand, high-rise complexes having manifold rental units are identified as multifamily properties.

Therefore, when an investor spends an amount in real estate properties for the sake of the residence of many families, from which he can earn a huge profit, the notion of multifamily real estate investing receives its birth.

The merits of the idea of multifamily real estate investment are, namely, enhancement in the flow of cash, less risk in the case of tenants, less number of loans, fewer numbers of insurance policies, stable valuation, less contestation etc.

First and foremost, the most evident advantage of this idea is enhancement in the flow of cash. If you are experienced in real estate investment, it will definitely work as a source of great inspiration to you.

Second, this concept refers to less jeopardy in the case of tenants. The risk refers to that of vacancy. When you are housing manifold different tenants, the risk of complete vacancy will be meagre in comparison with housing single families. That is to say, with multifamily real estate investing system, you will have some source of income almost always. 

Third, you may find it a headache to manage manifold loans. However, in the process of managing multifamily real estate investment system, you will have to deal with one loan only, though there may be a number of units.

Fourth, it includes simple and single insurance policy. Yes, it is true that you will have to opt for an expensive insurance policy; still there will be only one. In other words, you will not have to deal with a great many insurance policies.

Fifth, the multifamily real estate investment system usually does not lose stable valuation. That is to say, it does not incorporate the fluctuating valuation of property with the passage of time. Actually, in this investment, capitalisation rate matters most. It refers to the fact that the prices in these cases are marked almost exclusively in accordance with the potential of the purchaser.

Sixth, the acts of purchasing as well as renting single-family homes are getting higher and higher. Hence, it will definitely be easy for the investors to earn money.

Now let us focus on the demerits of multifamily real estate investment. The disadvantages are, namely, great expenses, time management, want of experience, complication, availability, rules and regulations etc.

First, be careful about whether you are a novice or a veteran in this matter. If you are experienced, then you are flawlessly welcome to proceed, but if and when you are a newcomer to this investment, you have to be very watchful about the high expenses of this system.

Second, in this case, you will have to handle a great number of different tenants. Therefore, you will have to arrange for different schedules. Hence, you will have to manage more time.

Third, want or lack of experience is certainly a great demerit in multifamily real estate investment policy. In other words, until and unless you become a veteran, you will have to step very cautiously.

Fourth, multifamily real estate investment systems are complicated by nature and in character, because strange happenings may be rampant in this. Suppose that you have handed over one of the units to a noisy tenant. Consequently, that particular tenant may cause serious and lots of mayhem. As a result of this, the other tenants will feel vexed.

Fifth, because of a number of causes, multifamily real estate investment may pose you a tough time in searching the actual property. This is indeed one of the cons in the system.

Sixth, the landlords have to handle a number of rules and regulations in case of renting the multiplexes. Therefore, you need to be a bit vigilant regarding the rules and regulations of the country.

Thus, multifamily real estate investing changes the lives of the investors up to a certain level. That is to say, they are having the advantage of earning a regular income for the respective period mentioned in the rules and regulations contained in the agreement. Again, the income of the investor is stable. Thus, some of the investors become highly rich. However, because of some unruly and ill-mannered tenants, who do not pay the rent in time following the agreement, this system creates headache in the lives of the investors, resulting in some of the novices fall victims to such system.

Therefore, we may point out that just as there are merits, there will be demerits in the system as well as in the changing lives of the investors as well. Life is neither black nor white; it is rather grey in hue. Thus, we may conclude in the words of William Blake, “Without contraries is no progression”.