On the drive up Highway 1 along the Sonoma County coast, the road eventually begins to twist and turn and the landscape grows ever craggier, dotted with wind-battered homes. In the coastal hamlet of Jenner, about 80 miles north of San Francisco at the mouth of the Russian River, a quaint, shingled building with a sign that says Russian House #1 is perched along the road. Is it a restaurant? A community center? An experiment in spiritual development?

Yes is the answer.

Russian House #1 has no menu and no set prices for food. Its founders, Tatiana Ginzburg and Polina Krasikova, were inspired in part by their experience at Burning Man in 2014, where they witnessed an intricate barter economy in action. The restaurant also has no paid kitchen staff. Krasikova cooks most of the food and is chiefly responsible for the kitchen, though she relies on a revolving cast of volunteers. Some are neighbors. The owners do not use the word donation. Its not charity, Krasikova says. You pay according to your own sense of fairness. Some visitors pay with labor, staying to clean or chop vegetables.

In Russian Houses five-year history, Krasikova and Ginzburg have welcomed friends from all over the world, so the days flavors are liable to change depending on whos in the kitchen. Theyve hosted French, Italian, Chinese, Turkish, Indian, and Armenian friends. They cook whatever they want, she says.

Sonoma County may seem like an unlikely place to pass a sign reading Pirozhki to go, but Russian House is ten miles from Fort Ross, a rustic Russian outpost where fur traders settled in the nineteenth century. The compound is now a National Historic Landmark that draws visiting Russians and other tourists passing along this picturesque stretch of Californias coast.

The bright, windowed space inside Russian House has a grand quality, owing largely to the majestic view of the Russian River, where geese frolic. And though visitors are likely to get a good meal, Krasikova admits that eating is not the whole point here. The food, however good it is, is secondary to dialogue and communication. Thats what we want. People come for food and stay for something else.

That something else is hard to pin down: The place hosts philosophy and physics lectures and holotropic breathwork workshops, and a poster made by Ginzburg starkly lays out steps toward unleashing human potential. Its a sensibility that seems to combine 19th century Russian mysticism, a Soviet penchant for grandiose acts of bureaucratic classification, and a post-Soviet interest in New Age self-discovery. But the extra-culinary offerings can feel opaque, even to visitors well versed in West Coast wellness culture. One would have to really join the community to ascertain whether it delivers on its self-stated goal of global enlightenment.

That said, a spirit of playfulness is alive throughout the space, where complex wooden puzzles hang along the wall of a corner pantry designed to look like an old-fashioned Russian stove. Matrioshki Russian nesting dolls of various sizes and a miniature balalaika stand sentinel on a shelf above a poster featuring an 80s-style image of a matrix that says Meaning. Binders full of flyers for past events and one-day menus sit on a table near the entryway. The papers reflect the wit and humor that undergirds the Russian House project as well as a charmingly faltering grasp of English. Classical Piano Concert is Quite Possible reads one. An old menu for the Week of Consciousness Expansion lists food for the intellect (riddles and puzzles) as well as earth food (the actual buffet). Another from a past Labor Day lists prices for activities: the right to clean the floor in the kitchen costs $1; the right to bake one pirozhek costs $5; and doing a puzzle with Tatiana would run guests $10,000.

When guests arrive, they take a plate from the mismatched stacks below the table and serve themselves from a motley assortment of chafing dishes and ceramic bowls. A large insulated pot of steaming ukha Russian fish soup beckons as an obvious first course. The clear broth, flecked with dill, maintains its lightness in spite of large chunks of potato and cod.

Though Krasikova draws on traditional recipes, she spent her St. Petersburg childhood cooking and baking alongside her mother, who liked to experiment, and she calls the food she serves fusion. We get tired of cooking all the same all the time, she says, so we always experiment. She enjoys using seasonal vegetables and playing with ayurvedic spice combinations. Krasikova sometimes looks up classic Russian recipes from one of the vintage cookbooks she keeps on a bookshelf off the main room, but adds touches she thinks Californians will appreciate.

For example, when she realized guests didnt love plain kasha (or buckwheat groats, a staple grain dish in Russian cuisine), she added capers and seaweed. Instead of typical blini with buckwheat flour, she uses almond milk to make a lighter, crepe-like version. The resulting pancakes have an injera-like sponginess, and are delicious served lukewarm with a dollop of cold sour cream and a spoonful of raspberry jam. A tart cabbage-and-carrot sauerkraut (made by a neighbor) cut both the blandness of a medley of stewed vegetables and the richness of a braised dish of pork medallions and greens that Krasikova conceded was not very Russian.

Taken together, however, the meal felt Russian: heavy as a woolen blanket, warm, comforting, and filling. It was served with Ivan tea (made from fermented fireweed), an erstwhile export of the Russian empire, in delicate cups from St. Petersburgs Imperial Porcelain Factory. Krasikova refilled the cups as soon as they were emptied.

In a moment when Russian political intrigue dominates the news, it can feel quite radical and nourishing to spend a few sunny hours soaking in a spirit of Russian joy. That rare experience is whats on offer at Russian House #1, even if it isnt exactly for sale.

See the original post:
Pay-What-You-Can Russian House #1 in Jenner Is One of Californias Most Eccentric Restaurants - Eater SF

A Silicon Valley-based friend, who heads a tech giants in-house academy for its engineers, has been trying to inculcate the habit of reading among his students. Last week, he mailed me, asking for suggestions, especially since apps like Blinkist and 12min now offer the gist of important non-fiction books in text and audio form that you can gulp down with a cup of coffee, and be/appear more knowledgeable.

Fact is, we were already short on time, and now, we also have Netflix and Amazon Prime, so it really helps when someone tells you that the 816-page Capital In The Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty can be summed up in one line: The rich have been getting richer at a rate faster than world GDP, and thats not fair."

But some books need to be read in full. They cannot be summarized. So, here are five (actually six) that I loved reading this year (not all of them are 2019 publications).

Enlightenment Now: In his most ambitious work till date, Harvard professor Steven Pinker tackles every big issue that humanity facesthe environment, wealth inequality, sustenance, peace, terrorism, democracy, equal rights, happinesswith clean data, multi-disciplinary expertise and powerful logic. He has been criticized as being too optimistic, but he sees some existential threats" as figments of cultural and historical pessimism", and the genuine ones not as apocalypses in waiting, but as problems to be solved" through three weapons: reason, science and humanism.

War Or Peace: Prof. Deepak Lal is a formidable scholar. War Or Peace is a magisterial steeped-in-history analysis of current geopolitics, with the US resigning from its globo-cop" role, China pushing for global hegemony, wannabe imperial powers like Russia and Iran flexing their muscles, and India, another aspirant, caught in the middle. Lal even considers the possibility of a Third World War, and ends with his views on how India can cope with the new global disorder. This is a profound examination of the threats that the democratic world faces, and how they can be countered.

Savarkar: We badly needed an un-biased biography of Vinayak Damodar Savarkarneither a hagiography nor a leftist hatchet joband journalist Vaibhav Purandares deeply researched and tightly written book is just that. Sourcing a wealth of new material, including previously untranslated Marathi documents, Purandare shines clear light on many controversies: the mercy petitions, Savarkars call to Indians to join the British Army during World War II, his decision to have the Hindu Mahasabha join Muslim League-led provincial governments, his views on the cow. Here is the charismatic visionary with all his quirks and wartsshort-tempered, stubborn, miserly when paying his eternally loyal staffers and, though acquitted by the court of any complicity in Mahatma Gandhis assassination, perhaps bearing some moral responsibility for it.

The Coddling Of The American Mind, and Woke: Im clubbing these two books together because both deal with the current wave of identity politics and social justice" sweeping a section of the worlds educated population, especially the young. Fed by theories of post-modernism and intersectionality, wokeness" sees the world only in terms of victims and aggressors, believes that feelings are more true than facts, often sees speech or content expressing opposite views as violence, supports actual violence to respond to such speech, and revels in cancel culture", where un-wokes are ostracized (the definition of un-woke" is broad: for example, if you are homosexual and dont feel you are a victim, you are a fake gay").

In Coddling, Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff offer a sobering account of how fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised play where the child has to take responsibility for the outcomes, the omnipresence of social media and a college system where dogmatic left-liberals, who have a stranglehold on the humanities and social sciences, indoctrinate rather than encourage openness to ideas, have created a fragile and angry generation with strong cognitive distortions. While Coddling deals only with the US, its insights and lessons are equally valid for India.

Woke, by Titania McGrath, the parody Twitter alter ego of British commentator (and fake gay") Andrew Doyle, is satire at its most biting. Samples: Socialism has been an unqualified success wherever it has been implemented. In Venezuela, a 2.4-kg chicken is currently worth a whopping 14,600,000 bolivars. So much for socialism making people poorer." My friend Tabitha has recently given birth to a baby boy After birth, one of the very first things this organism did was cry to be fed. Thats the kind of male entitlement were dealing with. Straight out of the womb, and its all me, me, me." Woke is the funniest book Ive read in a long time.

The Wandering Earth: I was also lucky this year to discover the Chinese science-fiction writer Cixin Liu. Earth comprises ten longish stories. Rock-solid science, dazzling imagination, sublime philosophical queries, and one hilarious end-of-the-world comedy. Sci-fi seems to be yet another field where China is ahead of us.

Sandipan Deb is former editor of Financial Express and founder-editor of Open and Swarajya magazines

Read more:
Opinion | A collection of year-end reads to give you food for thought - Livemint

The strains of the Indian freedom struggles picked up dramatically when Gandhi made the call 'Quit India'. Till then, it seems to me, Gandhi was soft peddling/ negotiating/ speaking, but his patience was being misused. So he decided that now, there will be more than local satyagrahas and dialogues, and that he will generate what in fact could become conflict. Hence the 'Salt March' and the 'Civil Disobedience method, where picking up a state owned product like salt as a form of breaking the law changed the course of the freedom movement.

Of course many people have written about Gandhi's skills and intuition in knowing what would be the mesmerizing project or process. Picking up salt from the beaches, easily accessible over miles of coast, and in some sense privatizing a state owned essential commodity was nothing short of genius. But there was more to the Quit India Movement.

It was a peaceful resistance to the state and galvanized another section or slice of the Indian population- these were the students. Quit India resonated with them in ways beyond the various satyagrahas and other efforts. Students all over India, used the slogan 'Quit India' and marched and held meetings and gave the movement an extraordinary strength and voice. Simultaneously they, the students got politicized. The two words- Quit and India had the tang in them which touched the spirit of the young.

So while the act of civil disobedience spread, simultaneously India's students rose to the call Quit India in a way similar to what we see in India today. For students to rise as a political force there has to be a morally compelling call which can be adopted across difference. In India we are blessed, at the same time stressed by enormous diversity- language, religion, practice, everything varies to multiple amounts/ numbers.

Quit India resonated with the students, -strong, full of power like the voices today resonating, Azaadi. The word, the sound of the word as it is voiced, is so powerful .It has become the strum of the student uprisings in India today as was Quit India in the 1940s.

However what we are missing,- and that absence or empty box must be filled - not only because it would be a form of appreciation and reward for the persistence, brilliance, commitment, understanding of India and its Constitution by the students. It is also for the bigger or more formal reason that it represents the heart of India.

Much has been written and with great detail and with expertise on exactly how the CAA and the NRC contravene the principle and the spirit of the Constitution. So I will not go into that. But what needs to be thought out deeply by others, for example "the eminent persons and academicians" that have been recording their anxiety and disapproval of this initiative by the Modi- Shah combine, is how to channelize this extraordinary wide- awake knowledgeable community,- students from across India, into regenerating the 'India of our dreams'.

Yes, we had an India in our dreams. 'We' meaning the before midnight's children. People like myself engaged with India as adults in the early 50's. So I came to Delhi to work for an organisation which was building cooperatives and then joined the University and there were hundreds of people like myself.

What did we experience?

We experienced, to use a new term that has come into fashion now i.e. a Resurgent India. Across the country there was solidarity in affirming not only our freedom but drawing on our civilizational and economic experience. Gathering the resources that we possessed into a wide range of domains- culture, economic progress, political and social institutions and so on. However on reflection, we have to recognize that we do not have that icon- that North Star that would capture the Quit India Movement and translate it into affirming our freedom. Gandhi. A person or an institution that can engage and respond to the current articulation of the masses/students is needed.

This is a gap which has to be filled now, soon, if we are to give due respect to these brilliant, courageous, informed student communities of India. How to capture the space they have made in what looked like a rock which could not be cracked, and enter through that space into a wholesome democratic and enlightened India as designed and articulated by the Fathers and Mothers of the Constitution and the immediate descendants of that era.

This question requires immediate attention and needs some form of construction if we wish to respect and encourage the students. Otherwise the students protest, courage, fearlessness, and brilliant articulation of what is wrong and what needs to be corrected, can be swept away by a brutal government and by those sections of the society which have not had the experience of enlightenment.

So this enlightenment that came to us as a result of the attempt by the current central government to infiltrate/ corrupt our beautiful democracy needs to be a serious consideration. The 600 intellectuals who signed the letter, the other several hundreds who have come together in various ways to express support - civilians need to find the political platform on which the brilliant students efforts can be mounted.

This is the urgent need of the day. We have no Gandhi now nor do we have a Jayaprakash Narayan, nor can we suddenly bring out an individual as a pole.

It is not enough that many governments now will not be BJP. We can see the tumbling down. It is not enough to think that if the Congress party still appears here and there, when the citizens wish to reject BJP and its allies, it can lead this nation. We have to think of citizens forums, the movements coming together into some form of political formation and then bringing in leadership which is not yet there, but which could be brought out.

A challenging task but what the students have done cannot be allowed to go unrewarded.

Devaki Jain is a reputed development economist

Original post:
Quit India Got Students on the Streets as CAA Has Now - The Citizen

The question I ask myself as we witness the assertion of the ideology of Hindutva and its resultant fear among minorities is this: Is it possible to have yet another reading of my religion or the experience of religiosity and take part in a collective movement for creating a society filled with love, empathy and pluralism? This is both a sociopolitical and an ethico-existential question. At a time when the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019 has caused fear and existential insecurity among the minorities, there is a danger of the movement against the discriminatory nature of the CAA degenerating into violent communal politics. Therefore, it is important to introspect and redefine ones politics, culture and religiosity for a collective struggle.

Yes, there is a Left-Ambedkarite version of secularism, and many of us university-educated/metropolitan intellectuals and civil society activists are reasonably free from the burden of the conditioned mind that religious orthodoxy causes. Yet, a careful look at Indias culture and society would indicate that religion is all-pervasive: it can be seen in beliefs, rituals as well as in the dangerous stereotypes we nurture about others. Hence, the mere act of debunking religion will not help. We need to rescue religion from zealots and rediscover the spirit of religiosity as, to use Rabindranath Tagores language, our surplus. It is in this context that as someone born in a Hindu family, I would like to critique Hindutva or, for that matter, any deterministic/one dimensional doctrine of religion. This critique emanates not from scientism or soulless secularism, but from deep religiosity, the urge to transcend limiting identities.

The kind of Hindutva we see today is against some of the finest aspects of my religiosity that I learned as a Hindu. While the discourse of Hindutva with its hypermasculine nationalism is essentially monolithic and centralising, I have learned about the beauty of the elasticity of human consciousness and merger of multiple faiths and paths from the likes of Ramakrishna Paramahansa. While the doctrine of militant Hindutva is recklessly engaged in an act of othering and stigmatising Muslims, I have learned about love, empathy and listening from M.K. Gandhis remarkably nuanced engagement with Hinduism. Likewise, while Hindutva intensifies aggression, Miras bhajans teach me that love and religiosity are not separate. The character of Anandamayee that Tagore created in his classic novel Gora makes me see the enchanting power of maternity, the current that absorbs everything. And hence, I begin to see the hollowness in the assertion of brute masculinity seen in instances of mob lynching by zealots, which ruthlessly denies the possibility of an evolutionary journey towards what Sri Aurobindo regarded as the divine consciousness.

Yajnavalkyas conversation with Maitreyi in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad helps me conceive the depths of spirituality, the quest for the Eternal, and also helps me see the ugliness in a doctrine that reduces religion into mere identity politics, or a weapon for intensifying the narcissistic ego of the Hindu nation. Engagement with the Bhagavad Gita acquires a different meaning. I see the ethos of niskam karma (or the spirit of work as an offering without selfish interests) in Gandhis politico-spiritual pilgrimage to Noakhali in 1946, not in the calculative Machiavellian urge to build a temple at Ayodhya at the demolished site of the Babri Masjid. Moreover, there is a culture of conversation and argumentation in the broad tradition of Hinduism. While Nachiketa dared to converse with Yama, the proponents of Lokayata did argue with the followers of Vedanta. In a way, it is possible to be a Hindu with the spirit of pluralism and dialogue in our consciousness. Paradoxically, it is possible to be a Hindu, yet be a non-Hindu. This is why the ideology of Hindutva is not in conformity with religiosity as peoples inner quest for moving towards a world of love and togetherness.

We are passing through difficult times. First, as the CAA and the National Register of Citizens together indicate, the minority community has further been stigmatised. And in a society with a long history of the tension-ridden relationship between the two communities, the ghettoisation of space and mind has further erected a huge wall of separation. Hence, the danger is that the anger against the CAA might take a communal turn, and it is not impossible for the nationalist media to project it as a conflict between patriotic Hindus and problematic Muslims. From Seelampur in Delhi to Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh, these Muslim sites might be immediately projected as war zones. And in a vicious cycle of humiliation and provocation, the minorities could feel more and more lonely.

Majoritarian Hindutva is not merely against Muslims; it is no less hostile to those Hindus who think and live differently while some would be castigated as leftists, pseudo secularists and urban Naxals, the rest would be regarded as effeminate idealists or Gandhian fools. Therefore, in such a situation, it is important to try to evolve a culture of communion between the two communities, and fight together for a better world. However, the discourse of communalism or a politics based on exclusivist religious identity (and even though majority communalism is immensely destructive, minority communalism is no answer to it) is essentially against this spirit of communion. Likewise, a soulless secularism which fails to deal with the religious/spiritual quest doesnt succeed much in touching peoples hearts for inspiring them to create a new moral politics for collective redemption.

In troubled and directionless times, Gandhi could tap the therapeutic power of religiosity and move towards this communion. He could be a Hindu; yet, dialogic, experimental and elastic. In a way, as Nathuram Godse might have thought, he was also a non-Hindu. Likewise, I would imagine that a Muslim with true religiosity is equally eager to resist the attempt by the orthodox clergy or the fundamentalist elements to hijack the religious sphere. He/she ought to be inherently against the Talibanisation of consciousness. Because true religiosity is the art of using the form in order to be formless. Imagine a world where Kabir and Rumi, Gandhi and Maulana Azad, and Tagore and Nizamuddin Auliya work with us, become our educators, and inspire us to heal the world through the power of love and understanding. Even though in the age of dystopia it may appear to be impossible, it is a challenging task we ought to strive for. This is precisely the most important sadhana, or the meaning of being a Hindu a seeker who seeks to break the iron cage of Hindutva or, for that matter, any other fundamentalist doctrine.

Avijit Pathak is Professor of Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

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A Hindu critique of Hindutva - The Hindu

CLEVELAND During the much-hyped 2019 season, the Cleveland Browns finished short of the end goal of competing for an AFC North Division championship and breaking the National Football Leagues longest-running playoff drought.

Although the Browns did not achieve those goals, running back Nick Chubb is confident he and his teammates will handle the disappointment in a positive way in preparation for the 2020 season.

Just motivation, Chubb said. Just knowing how it feels to not be as successful and to lose certain games. To carry that on to the offseason training and just never forget how we feel now and not ever wanting to feel this again.

We know what we did this year -- things that worked and things that did not work -- so just learn from that and next year, come in with a different mindset, fix all of the small things and get ready to try again at it.

Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb (24) rushes during the second half of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)

AP

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Chubb said the Browns have been learning small things, situational football during the weeks leading up to games and need to have a greater understanding that every play matters, and that success on game day starts with building good habits in practice and meetings.

It is the NFL, Chubb said. It is tough because everyone is a really good team, and it is a week-in and week-out thing. For us to be consistent and be who we are every game because the first game we played (the Ravens), it was completely different.

We made the plays we needed to make and we did a great job on defense. This game, things just did not go our way from that aspect, so it is just being the same team every week, week in and week out for 16 weeks and see where you are at the end of the season.

Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb (24) rushes for a 92-yard touchdown against the Atlanta Falcons in the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)

AP

RELATED |A consummate pro. Cleveland Browns appreciate Nick Chubbs business-like approach

The Browns officially were eliminated from postseason contention with their 31-15 loss to the AFC North Division champion Baltimore Ravens at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland last Sunday, a game that allowed Baltimore to clinch home-field advantage for as long as they remain in the playoffs.

The Browns (6-9) last qualified for postseason play during the 2002 season.

In addition to missing the playoffs for the 17th straight time, the Browns will finish the 2019 season with a sub .500 record for the 12th consecutive year. The best the Browns can do record-wise is 7-9 if they beat the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati Sunday, which would be a half-game worse than the 7-8-1 mark they posted in 2018.

The Browns last finished above .500 when they had a 10-6 record in 2007, and key members of this team are determined to bring the franchise back to prominence in the postseason.

They deserve it, Chubb said of the fans waiting 17 years for a return to the AFC playoffs. Theyve been sticking in for a long time. Feel like the team deserves it, too, organization because weve all been going through it together, working for it and things like that, but well get it fixed.

RELATED |Shy away from competition? No chance for Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield

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RELATED |Seven wins not good enough. Baker Mayfield finds rebuilding Cleveland Browns to be very big process

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Motivation. Nick Chubb: 2019 season will drive Cleveland Browns efforts in preparation for 2020 - WKYC.com

It is a rather singular story of how someone finds the motivation to follow sustainable practices, from within. Shantha Mohan runs a stationery shop in West K.K. Nagar since 24 June 2010, and the hallmark of the business is that it had avoided giving plastic bags to customers, from day one.

Those were days when there was little external impetus to avoid the use of single-use plastic bags. In contrast, today a ban on use of single-use plastic items is in place in Tamil Nadu.

Shantha, a resident of Balaji Nagar in Alwarthirunagar, would insist that customers bring their own bags, and she was well aware of the consequences of what would appear to some customers as intransigence.

Regardless of the amount of products someone has purchased, I do not compromise on my principle. At the time when I established this business, I had decided I would stick to my stand even it it would cause some customers to stop patronising the shop, says Shantha Mohan.

Shantha takes a keen interest in civic issues that concern Balaji Nagar where she moved in June 2018. Even before she became the treasurer of Balaji Nagar Residents Welfare Association in June 2019, she had been waging civic battles in the neighbourhood.

Our neighbourhood has seven streets and Sixth Street was lacking a name board for the past 15 years. We realised the seriousness of the issue only when there was an undue delay in the arrival of an ambulance when one of our neighbours had to be rushed to the hospital. The ambulance driver had difficulty in locating our street as there was no name board. I took up this issue for nearly six months with the Greater Chennai Corporation, and finally succeeded in getting a name board installed in March 2019, says Shantha.

She made arrangements with the Corporation to have the neighbourhood fumigated every Thursday. Further, Shantha ensured that all the rusted and fragile electricity poles in the neighbourhood were replaced with new ones.

Impressed with my work, the residents welfare association offered me the post of a secretary. But I turned it down, as I expected the work to be challenging and instead accepted the offer of a treasurers post, says 55-year-old Shantha.

However, in addition to financial management, she earmarks time for attending to cleanliness-related issues in the neighbourhood.

For the past three months, she has been roping in children in the neighbourhood to create awareness about responsible means of waste disposal and the necessity of waste segregation.

Our Association is striving to achieve 100 per cent compliance in terms of waste segregation. There is still a lot of work to be done, which includes creating more awareness about the issue so that those who dont practise source-segregation start doing so. Our Association run an awareness campaign with the support of children. Earlier, our colony had three bins and they would be packed with garbage and overflowing, most of the time. Therefore, the Association sought the intervention of the Greater Chennai Corporation and got the bins removed and started a door-to-door collection system in August 2018. Now, the challenge is about handing over segregated waste to conservancy workers. Therefore, I accompany the conservancy workers. Because when they insist on segregation at an errant house, they are treated with scorn. Hence, I make it a point to accompany the workers to each house that they go to for waste collection hoping that my presence will persuade the residents to abide by the practice. Further, I supervise the workers when they sweep the streets, says Shantha.

It may be noted that Shantha turned her back on a corporate career when she resigned as a human resource professional from a garment manufacturer company in 2011 after 17 years of experience.

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An internal motivation - The Hindu

Videos and quotes often inspire people in mysterious ways. They show us how others struggle to survive and make it worth living, thus giving us the motivation to strive for bigger and better in life. A few days ago, a video was shared by IFS officer ParveenKaswan on Twitter, showing a bizarre natural phenomenon. A shoal of fish was seen swimming upstream against the flowing water.

Kaswan shared the video with the caption, Need #motivation, just watch this video. Believe me, you have seen nothing like this. Hillstream fish migrating upstream. This video shot by KaleshSadasivam from the Western Ghats is incredible, showing how they are resisting the force of water & slowly moving upstream.

In the video of hill stream, tiny fishes can be seen putting in efforts to migrate upstream. The fishes valiantly labour against the force of water as they slowly move.

The video has since then gained 28.9K views, making a number of people to watch the aww-spiring effort. People posted motivational comments on the clip. While one user wrote, Wow, nature is amazing, unbeatable, irresistible. It will prove that nature is above everything, others couldnt resist but call the video amazing.

Heres what people had to say:

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Watch: This Video of Fish Swimming Upstream is All the Motivation You Need - News18

Titans defensive lineman Jurrell Casey was miserable at the end of last season.

Casey suffered a knee injury in the teams December 22 win against the Redskins, and he wasnt able to play in the season finale vs. the Colts. The Titans lost that contest, and their season ended as a result.

I probably cried the first couple of nights, Casey told Titans Online back in February. I know it wasnt too bad of a crazy injury, but just to know that I wasnt able to help my team the following week, couldnt participate in one of the biggest games of my career with my teammates, it hurt. It hurt me bad.

A year later, Casey is set to play in another win-and-in scenario contest. If the Titans win on Sunday in Houston, theyll advance to the postseason. Casey has 56 tackles and four sacks on the season. He recorded the 50th sack of his career against the Saints.

The ending of the 2018 serves as more motivation for Casey heading in to Sunday.

It was a terrible feeling, Casey said on Thursday. Not only was I injured, but knowing I had no way to help the team, it was a struggle. It is something I had to deal with the entire offseason. But I have an opportunity now and I thank the Lord everything is good to go. To get an opportunity, and to have a chance to help my team try and get into the playoffs, its all you can ask for.

Original post:
Thursday's Quick Hits: Jurrell Casey's Year-Long Motivation, Preparing for Houston's Starters, and the Titans Injury Report - Titansonline.com

DALLAS The most important factor in the Cotton Bowl wont be a scheme or a play call, according to Penn State coach James Franklin. It will be about motivation.

Mentality in bowl games is critical, Franklin said. You see it every single year. This is the biggest game in Memphis football history, in my opinion. I think our guys have prepared well, but we better be ready for a dogfight.

The 10th-ranked Nittany Lions (10-2) are favored by a touchdown against No. 17 Memphis (12-1) in the Cotton Bowl today at noon at AT&T Stadium (TV-ESPN).

Two of Penn States previous three losses, a 31-26 decision at Minnesota in November and a 27-24 defeat to Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl last season, came against teams that played with a greater sense of urgency from the start.

The Golden Gophers built a 24-10 lead and the Wildcats rolled up a 27-7 advantage before the Lions made late, futile comebacks in each game.

Memphis plays with a lot of emotion and confidence. The Tigers have won 12 games for the first time and are playing in their first New Years Six bowl game. Their only loss came at Temple, 30-27.

This is a very good football team, Franklin said. This is a well-coached football team. This is an extremely prideful team. We better be ready to play.

Memphis watched head coach Mike Norvell and two assistant coaches leave earlier this month for Florida State. Its regular right tackle and tight end arent playing today.

But Penn State special teams coordinator Joe Lorig doesnt expect a dropoff. He coached at Memphis from 2016-18 and knows the roster well.

Ive been talking about the grit and grind that Memphis has, the way wed always play up in big games when I was there, Lorig said. Wed play with a chip on our shoulder. These guys will play their very best football against the very best opponents.

The Tigers feature an explosive offense, which ranks eighth in the country in scoring (40.5) and 10th in total offense (480.7).

Quarterback Brady White has completed 64% of his passes for 3.560 yards and 33 touchdowns with nine interceptions. Kenneth Gainwell, the American Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year, has rushed for 1,425 yards and 12 touchdowns. Wide receiver Damonte Coxie has 68 receptions for 1,144 yards and nine scores.

They just find ways to manufacture yards and points, Franklin said. Theyre very good at the skill positions. The quarterback has a really good feel and understanding of how to run the offense and how to take what the defense is giving. Their running backs and receivers are as good as we have seen this year.

Penn State poses a stiff test, ranking fifth in the country in rushing defense (97.7) and seventh in scoring defense (14.1).

The Penn State defense is the best weve seen, said Ryan Silverfield, who was named head coach after Norvell left. Their front seven is phenomenal. Their back-end guys play well. Theyve got first-rounders up front. They have an All-American linebacker (Micah Parsons).

Its going to be a challenge. I think our offense is one thats accepted a lot of those challenges.

Defensively, Memphis blitzes frequently and allows a lot of big plays. The Tigers have been vulnerable against the run, allowing 171.6 yards a game.

Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford is expected to return after missing the last game and a half with an unspecified leg injury.

Theyre going to come out swinging, said Journey Brown, Penn States leading rusher. Were going to bring our own juice. If they dont match ours, its going to be a lopsided game and vice versa if we dont bring a lot of juice for ourselves.

Its all about mentality, said Penn State center Michal Menet, the former Exeter standout.

The team that wants it more and that comes out most ready to play from the first snap is the team that probably has had the most focus and best preparation, Menet said. Thats ultimately whats going to set that team up to win.

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For Penn State and Memphis, Cotton Bowl is all about motivation - Reading Eagle

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