How to remain physically active during the pandemic

I don't think anyone imagined that 2020 would turn out to be the way it has been so far. None of us expected that a pandemic would grip us so hard that the entire world, even after 1 year since its discovery, is still trying to figure out how to deal with it and there is no definite timeline about when we can go back to our pre-pandemic lives. One of the many challenges we face is how to remain physically active when many regions place restrictions on public movements, gyms are closed, the outdoor options are heavily limited, we are shopping mostly online, and many of us are working from home. Regular physical activity is supposed to be an integral part of our lives and it is also important to remain healthy, more so in the age where we can spend endless hours in front of a screen without exhausting our options. We don't need an excuse not to move, we have many, rather, we need an incentive to get away from screens, and the pandemic made things more difficult for us.

Like many, I also faced the same challenge, more so when winter arrived as I don't enjoy the cold weather and refrain from going out in the bitter cold. So, the challenge is how to remain active with all these obstacles. One solution I found worked for me very well is to set hourly or bi-hourly targets rather than daily targets. There are a couple of advantages to this approach. First, the hourly targets are not that huge, a target of 15,000 steps per day looks like a tough target and requires planning the entire day carefully, and if we are at 7k steps by 7 PM we may give up and not try to score the remaining 8k steps as it looks too much to achieve in a short time. However, 1000 steps per hour is a comparatively small number, even if we score 500 in that hour it's not that difficult to make up the remaining 500 in the next hour. Also, planning an hour looks easy compared to planning the entire day. Second, as these targets are relatively small we can choose to perform them while watching some show or talking with someone on the phone. This allows us to multitask, we do not have to set up a separate time to exercise, and we can talk to someone while we walk or watch our favorite show or movie while doing some cardio. Finally, achieving our target every hour keeps us well on track to achieve that bigger number at the end of the day or even exceeding it rather than losing our motivation and giving up as we lag behind the task because we planned an exercise slot which we miss every now and then due to some excuse. 

I understand that this approach may not work for all, and some of us need to find our own method to remain physically active. The point is we all need to be mindful of the changes unique to us and adapt accordingly. Also, our home design, immediate surroundings, type of work, familial situations, and even the weather might present their own challenges and we need to maneuver around them. For example, I live on the ground floor, and to achieve my target of climbing 10 floors per day I need to climb to the first floor of our apartment complex. I am sure that in the beginning, upstairs neighbors must have been wondering why they heard footsteps every now and then without anyone showing up. We need to invent new ways to adapt, innovate new ways to remain active indoors, and make use of technology to achieve our tastes more efficiently. No doubt this pandemic has presented unique challenges for us, but we are more than capable of dealing with these challenges. We know the challenges, some are personal and some are social. We all need to invent and adapt. Be creative and be supportive of the people around you. Remember, our individual challenges are unique and so will be our solutions.

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A tale of two bar exams

This year has been a crazy year for me not only because of Covid-19 but also because of the bar exams which I have to give. I gave two bar exams in a single month (October). First was the Connecticut State Bar exam, the first-ever online CT Bar exam, and the second one was the Patent Bar exam, the one which applicants have to pass to practice before the USPTO (the United States Patent and Trademark Office). Both exams are considered extremely complicated and tough. Normally they recommend 500-600 hours of study for the state bar exams and 150-200 hours of study for the Patent Bar, that too with very expensive bar prep courses. The point is they are not easy, and the applicant's professional career depends on passing those exams. 

The Patent Bar exam is a multiple-choice exam with 100 questions and the applicant needs to get 70 of them right to pass the exam. The exam is given at designated exam centers. The applicant has to book an appointment in advance within the USPTO's provided deadline (90 days from the day the application is accepted). Due to the pandemic, the USPTO was kind enough to make the deadline flexible as many exam centers were closed, and it was not known when they would open. When the centers finally opened, applicants were required to wear masks for the entire duration of the exam (6 hrs, two sessions of 3 hr each). The only issue some applicants face is the speed of a computer and the quality of MPEP (it's an open book exam, MPEP is the book on which the exam is based). When we are giving a high-pressure exam where time is critical, a delay of even a few seconds adds to the pressure. At some exam centers, the resolution of the pdf file of MPEP is not that great. Apart from this the exam is well designed and tests your ability to remember things from MPEP and search MPEP for required information quickly and accurately.

It was an altogether different story for the state bar exam. Normally, the state bar exams are conducted in person, and they are conducted over two days. However, this year due to the pandemic the state bar examination committees of various states including the Connecticut Bar Examining Committee decided to conduct a remote bar exam, the first remote bar exam in the history of the bar exam. By any standards, it was not an easy endeavor to take. In some states, thousands of applicants take the bar exam, and conducting a proctored exam using artificial intelligence proctoring was not an easy task. Plus there were other concerns like the security of question papers, internet connectivity, AI's bias in proctoring, computer availability with proper specifications to give the exam, and many more. There were multiple townhouse-type meetings conducted by the CT Bar Examining Committee members to listen to student grievances and to their credit they tried to answer each and every concern raised by the students. First, they eliminated the requirement of an internet connection during the exam, this was a big relief for applicants like me. My apartment does not have uninterrupted wireless connectivity and I am sure there are many who have the same problem as me. I was worried that if my internet connection gets interrupted I might be disqualified from the exam for no fault of mine. It was a big relief for me to know that an internet connection was not required during the exam. Applicants could download the exam up to 3 days before the exam and have time to submit their exam up to 3 days after the exam. They also waived the computer registration fee which is collected even during the in-person exam and also offered to pay for the hotel room accommodation for applicants who did not have a private space to take the exam. According to me, this was a great gesture by the Examining Committee as this was a genuine problem for many applicants as many live in apartments or houses where there is no secluded spot where they can take a lengthy exam without any interruption. The exam happened without many issues, it was a tremendous effort on many levels. Definitely, it was not easy for applicants as well as the examining committees to go through this process, but all of us did. I applaud the efforts of all candidates who passed and also those who didn't, they all put in their best efforts, some it worked, and for some, it will work next time, but we all were witnesses to a historical event.

This experience was unique. The preparation process even with the help of prep courses was very rigorous and demanding. It required a lot of commitment and discipline from my side. I could not have done this without the support of my family, friends, my law firm, and my mentors. They all played a crucial role in motivating me and encouraging me to take up this challenge. Of course, our age, stage of life, familial, and situations create their own challenges, these challenges are different for different people, and that's why our struggles, as well as our achievements, are unique. I am glad to be done with these exams and I hope anyone reading this will derive some inspiration that will help them to go through this rigorous and challenging process. 

Thanks for reading and please share your opinion about this topic. 

Commingling is India's strength

For the last few years, there has been an ongoing debate about India becoming an intolerant country, especially because of certain reported incidents against minorities and the growing popularity of the Hindutva ideology which propagates a homogeneous identity for all Indians. This perception may or may not be true, but they made me dig deeper into the question, was India a tolerant country in the first place? India has a history of casteism, and communal riots, and was the ideal place to implement the famous strategy used by British rulers called "divide and rule." How does tolerance fit into all these, what is the reason for the perception that India is a tolerant country? The reason is India's diversity, the presence of almost each and every religion or sect, and much more. Most of India's provinces have different languages, food habits, dress, festivals, literature, and cultural attributes, and some of them have their own movie industry that can even compete with Bollywood. Of course, there are many commonalities, Hinduism is a majority religion, and skin color and visual appearances are similar except for the northeast region which gets ignored in each and every aspect. All these aspects make India a very interesting case to analyze. Many places in the world are diverse, the US or Europe does have a diverse population where different people from different parts of the world coexist. However, there is one major difference between India and other places. India is neither like a melting pot where people from different places come together and begin to mix and form one homogeneous identity, nor it is a place where individuality or privacy is valued to give separate space to each and every identity so that they can thrive without being threatened by the majority.

Indian society either intentionally or unintentionally allowed the comingling of different religions and cultures, that is why I said that there are many differences as well as similarities. Different states of India despite being different borrowed food habits from each other, and their languages have common origins, even the most popular organized religions like Judaism, Christianity, or Islam the way they are practiced in India is different compared to the rest of the world. This comingling did not threaten the existence of any religion, they all exist and occupy their own space in Indian society so far. Britishers took advantage of this diversity by using the tactic of "divide and rule," either by creating the perception that the majority is threatened by the minorities or the minorities are under attack by the majority. The strategy worked and even after independence is used by different political parties at different times to reap political dividends. 

India survived all such attacks so far, especially because of the uniqueness of India where diversity was considered as its strength, not a weakness. However, in today's world that mostly thrives on a unique identity this obscure, not-so-uniform, multireligious, and multicultural identity is projected as something weak or nonindigenous, and not unique. This perception is solidified by the rise of Hindutva ideology where being Indian means something homogeneous, definite, and deeply rooted in traditions of Hinduism. This narrative fits with most of the neighboring countries of India which are mostly homogeneous societies with a single religion dominating, social, political, cultural, and legal space. India was unique among all these countries specifically because of the reason that there was no easy way to define its identity. It was not a Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, or any other religious or non-religious identity that defined India, it was at the same time all of these and none of these. I never understood this uniqueness until I left India and I don't think many Indians understand the value of this even today, that is why most of them agree with the propaganda that such a hybrid identity needs to be transformed into something definite and uniform. That's why I now feel that tolerance was not India's uniqueness but commingling was, this is because comingling is a step further than tolerance. Tolerance is when we tolerate our differences and decide to coexist despite those differences. Whereas commingling is where we not only tolerate the differences and coexist but despite our differences exchange and borrow each other's practices and incorporate them into each other's traditions and culture as our own, and still maintain our identity without being threatened by the presence of another. 

This is not to say that tolerance is any better than commingling, or vice versa. I am aware that my impressions could be completely wrong and someone can offer a better explanation than what I offered above, I tried to articulate what my current understanding is about this issue.

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