- {% assign posts = site.posts | where:"author","vedang" %}
- {% for post in posts %}
- {% include main-loop-card.html %}
- {% endfor %}
-
-
-
diff --git a/_posts/2019-08-23-before-and-after.md b/_posts/2019-08-23-before-and-after.md
deleted file mode 100644
index f34c94f..0000000
--- a/_posts/2019-08-23-before-and-after.md
+++ /dev/null
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----
-layout: post
-title: "Before and After"
-author: vedang
-categories: [ leo ]
-tags: [featured]
-image: assets/images/before-after.jpg
-excerpt: "My life can be divided into two parts, pre-LEO and post-LEO, and yeah, I bet those two selves are pretty different from each other."
----
-
-My life can be divided into two parts, pre-LEO and post-LEO, and yeah, I bet those two selves are pretty different from each other.
-
-The pre-LEO self can pretty much be described in one word - SHY. If that self had a patronus charm, that would be a Turtle, because I liked being inside my shell. I was that kid who used to sit in the classroom unnoticed, never answered any questions, never talked or did anything of note. Being anxious for each and every thing was my staple diet.
-
-It was only until that self reached LEO that he realised that those practices were pretty much toxic, and were self-destructive.
-
-In my first session, my heart was pounding when my turn came, because.... ANXIETY! In my head, I had all the ideas, but I never knew how to execute them and convert them to a speech! The first day,I may say, was a nightmare for me, because I pretty much blanked out.
-
-I had second thoughts about going to another session, but yeah, then this song 'Tubthumping' by Chumbawumba came to my mind, which says 'I get knocked out, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down'. The first session might have been a disaster, doesn't mean it'll be a disaster in the next one as well. After that, I never missed any session of LEO, and though I might not be the best version of myself, the difference between the guy currently and the guy who was a wallflower is massive!
-
-Though Anxiety still is a thing, I am learning to deal with it, thanks to all the members of LEO. So, yeah, that's how LEO kinda taught me that there is a bigger world outside the turtle shell in which I lived, and that you can fall a thousand times, but you improve only if you make the attempt to get up all the time.
diff --git a/_posts/2019-09-24-worth-it.md b/_posts/2019-09-24-worth-it.md
deleted file mode 100644
index 2f8fd2f..0000000
--- a/_posts/2019-09-24-worth-it.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,43 +0,0 @@
----
-layout: post
-title: "Trust me, honey, you're worth it."
-author: masoomi
-categories: [ positivity ]
-image: assets/images/bodiposi.png
-tags: [featured]
----
-
-I am perplexed.
-
-By people who say, *"I don't look good"* or *"I am too fat to be wearing that dress"* or *"Too skinny to date"* or *"My acne scars make me look pathetic"*.
-
-You've been told what looking *"good"* means right since you came fresh out of the womb. You try everything to hide from people because you fear judgement. You fear: *"Oh my God, my body doesn't make me socially acceptable. And maybe I should just admit that. I am not pretty/handsome enough" (cries while looking at Kylie Jenner)*. Drowning in the ocean of self-doubt, you look for people who'll save you by giving their hand of validation: *"You are perf -- but that shirt is yikes!". (Drowns completely)*
-
-STOP! CALM DOWN.
-
-Sit down and breathe...
-Because honey I have some news for you:
-**(Drum rolling)**
-
->YOU ARE WORTH IT!
-
-(Tag line's stolen from L'ORÉAL because why not?)
-
-But yes, you read it right, you are worth it.
-It's upsetting to see someone as fabulous, as smart and drop-dead gorgeous as you think this way because, damn, you fine as heck.
-
-Why would you let other people swoop their way in to tell you what you should do or what you look like? Don't let them naysayers cut your confidence to half its size and get you down. And you know who is the one who tops that chart? (Guess guess) Let me give you a hint, the person reading this. YOU. Stop hurting yourself mentally thinking that you are not enough. Stop believing that your body or your face doesn't fit the beauty standards that have been imposed on you by society.
-
-You are not what you think about yourself. Or maybe you are if you think that you look like Chris Evans today because then you ain't wrong, buddy.
-
-Stop with the self-loathing. Learn to love yourself in that body because that's your real home. It houses the lovely heart that you bear. Your scars and marks don't define you and having them is not a crime. Your bucked teeth radiate a beautiful smile. Your height isn't worth the scales and measurements.
-You are not an OTP that needs validation.
-
-Here is something I read as a child and want to share with you:
-
-"You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."
-~_Roald Dahl, The Twits
-
-You are enough. You matter. Your existence is important, at least to me.
-
-And trust me, honey, you're worth it.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/_posts/2019-10-06-bhilai-city.md b/_posts/2019-10-06-bhilai-city.md
deleted file mode 100644
index 173b9dc..0000000
--- a/_posts/2019-10-06-bhilai-city.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
----
-layout: post
-title: "Bhilai to Bangalore: Steel to Silicon."
-author: vedang
-categories: [ travel ]
-image: assets/images/bhilai.jpg
-tags: [featured]
----
-
-BHILAI - ohh,what a wonderful city you are! So, for most of you,who definitely don't know what Bhilai is, it's one of the best cities in the world! For starters, Bhilai is a city which is located in the heart of a widely unknown state called Chhattisgarh (and no,I am not a Naxalite), and is home to one of the most major steel plants of SAIL. Apart from that,it also happens to be a place where I grew up, and I spent most of my life there.
-
-So,after my +2 (or PU,as some people like to call it), I took the plunge,and decided to move to this wonderful college called Sir MVIT to study Mechanical Engineering. Now, moving out was tough for me,because it was the first time I ever moved out, and that too to a different state altogether!
-
-Coming to the college, in my first year, they had a 21 days induction program, which was a lot, so I realized heck, let's just explore more of Bangalore!
-
-So,what I did was I booked a cab,and went to Majestic, because I knew that Majestic was the central hub of the metro network here,and it cost me some 200 bucks. There, I came to know about this 'majestic' thing called the BMTC, through which, I can travel for less than 10 times the money I wasted on that cab!
-
-Now,Bangalore here was just the polar opposite from where I come from. It was here that I experienced a traffic jam, which lasted for about half an hour! And boy does it get frustrating! Also, the thing that I actually liked was how clean the footpaths and the city actually are. I mean, I rarely found a speck of trash on the road, and most of the people are actually behaving like responsible citizens here.
-
-One more thing, that actually surprised me was how the Bangaloreans and Kannadigas are inclined towards their culture. They know how to speak and read Kannada,their language,which was actually very surprising, because we,the northerners are forgetting our own language! I know people who can speak Hindi, but cannot read or write in it! Most of us have become enslaved to the language which some foreign entity enforced on us before 1947(the irony being I am writing in that very language right now). Although we kicked them out, their language remained. We can learn a thing or two from our fellow Karnataka mates, because they sure as hell are respectful towards their culture.
-
-So,yeah, Bangalore has been a pretty wild experience for me, from the traffic jams to the n-number of times I have used the phrase 'Kannada Gothilla' , I hope I manage to learn their language some day, because as they say 'When in Rome,do as the Romans do'.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/_posts/2019-10-10-perfect-10.md b/_posts/2019-10-10-perfect-10.md
deleted file mode 100644
index fb74476..0000000
--- a/_posts/2019-10-10-perfect-10.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,44 +0,0 @@
----
-layout: post
-title: "The Perfect 10 - My Journey With Mental Health."
-author: vedang
-categories: [ awareness,journey,mental health ]
-image: assets/images/Vedang_main.jpeg
-excerpt: "10/10
-Happens to be today’s date,also my birthday,which officially makes me the perfect one!"
-tags: [featured]
----
-
-10/10
-Happens to be today’s date,also my birthday,which officially makes me the perfect one! Just kidding. Jokes apart, this day also happens to be the day of celebration of awareness of mental health. You see? What a coincidence! I happen to be the guy infamous for his mental health rantings on the group! I guess I was born for this,haha.
-
-Anyway,let me clear out a few myths regarding mental health before moving forward.
-
-First off,ill mental health is not just this
-
-
-
-Well,technically,this character has mental health issues,but its just one of several types of mental illnesses or disorders around.
-
-Secondly, according to the American Psychiatric Association, “Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act.” The APA uses both “disorder” and “illness” to describe it.
-
-Anyway,I guess there isn’t anyone more ‘perfect’ to write about this thing,get it? Because I was born for it! Let’s just stop with the lame jokes and get started.
-
-Depression is something everyone,including me,misunderstood at some point in time. We are always like ‘kuch nahi yaar,sab theek ho jayega’ or ‘chill kar bhai’. Well, I have a way to thank these people. It involves the palm of my hand, and a certain swinging movement. I mean,come on! If it was that easy to chill, we wouldn’t have been in that positon in the first place!
-
-Coming to myself, I suffered from clinical depression and anxiety, so I definitely know what I am talking about. It all bogs down to years of bullying I faced since I was a little kid. I used to be a fat kid. My family didn’t seem to mind that because ‘khaate peete ghar ka bachcha hai’, but it affected me a lot! That’s when cricket came to my life!
-
-I happened to know a cricket academy, that runs in Kalyan College in Bhilai, where my grandad was the founder and the first principle. So I joined that, because heck! Every kid in India at one time or the other aspired to be a cricketer! They used to make us run laps after laps after laps, and I became a fast bowler! And, I lost 20 kgs, so no more Mr. Fat Guy anymore! But yeah, tragedy seems to be my best friend. I broke my arm while bowling in the nets one day, and my arm never truly healed after that, so I left cricket. And also, it happened to be the 9th grade, which means a typical Indian kid has to do just one thing, STUDY,STUDY and STUDY!
-
-Now, studies were not that big a problem back then (well,now its the polar opposite). I did pretty well in my 10th boards, which meant I had to choose science by default. There, my performance dipped, I didn’t score as much as I used to all these years, and because I was in ‘science’ stream, by default, it meant JEE was bound to happen, hence the coaching classes came to play! Now,in the 11th standard, I did not that great, or that bad, and then, in the 12th standard, the accident happened.
-
-THE ACCIDENT – It changed my life. Basically, I was riding my scooter, going to the coaching class, at a modest speed, minding my own business, and a calf, a holy calf, went all berserk and was running around the road. As soon as it was about to hit me, I applied the brakes, and it being a scooter, slipped, and I was down. Now, at that moment, I did not know what a broken bone feels like. And then I saw the X-ray, and my mind blew! My left foot, it was in pieces, 6 to be precise.
-I wish I could show that image to you guys, but the X-ray is pretty graphic.
-
-Anyway, it was surgically repaired, a bed rest happened, which lasted for about one and a half months, which meant one and a half months of school time and coaching, GONE! With my foot gone now, I was very uncertain about this other thing I started to love -RUNNING. I never ran competitively, but I ran pretty well. And it all came to a halt, adding up more to the already present depression and anxiety.
-
-Now, depression can not be cured just by sheer magical words of these YouTube Gurus. I did ignore my depression for a long time, and it came to haunt me afterwards. Mental illness has always been considered a taboo, and I used to think the same! It got to a point where I started cutting ties with everyone around me, be it my family,or my closest of friends. It got to a point where I used to stay in a single room for days, not meeting a single outsider, not even shaving my beard. Looking back, I guess it was a terrible time.
-
-It got to a point where I got violent with people and yelled at them. That’s the point when Leo saved my life. One alumni, Swati, the best blogger out there, our President, the great one, Masoomi Saxena and my buddy Ritesh helped me a lot at this point. When going to a therapist was considered a taboo, they were the ones who actually encouraged me to go to one. Even after I started going, I had second thoughts, and even thought of stopping it altogether. That’s when Ritesh said ‘Don’t stop something after you started it,it's a bad idea to do that’. That’s when I started going back to the therapist, and I never looked back. I’m not at my best, but I am improving! Which is better! I manage to get up on time, take a bath everyday, brush my teeth twice daily, take a stroll around the ‘lush green’ campus,and eat my meals everyday. These may seem like mundane everyday tasks to you guys, but depression really hits you hard. There was a time,when even doing these things was no more than climbing the Everest!
-
-So, concluding this rant plus life experience plus mental health awareness thingie, I would like to say that IT’S TOTALLY NORMAL TO NOT FEEL GOOD. And, IT’S TOTALLY FINE TO SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP, THEY WILL NOT USE TECHNIQUES LIKE SHOCK THERAPY AND STUFF GLAMOURIZED BY FILMS! If you really are feeling down, reach out to someone close to you, someone you trust. Letting your feelings out is a good way to let go of this devil called Depression. If you don’t have anyone to talk to and you feel real bad, feel free to DM me on Instagram. It's totally confidential, just vent it out. Thank you guys. If you read it this far, have a great day ahead!
-