Sushant singh rajput and bollywood

14 June, 2020. I write and underline this date in red.

It’s been a week and a day since we lost the great actor to suicide. While we flood social media with tributes to him and awareness about mental health, Sushant is probably flailing around and looking down at us through the smoky clouds. 

In this post, I’m not going to dove on about mental health, nor I am going lay flowers for him. This post isn’t a rant; this is serious and needs to be more talked about.

On the morning of 14th, the whole nation was left in a state of shock. It was the third death in Bollywood in the past two months, all of which were sudden and unexpected.

Since his death, a lot has been unraveled about the Bollywood, its dark side and the nepotism in the industry.

This is post is not to blame anyone, nor to praise anyone. It is about what we as an audience can do, with a slight concoction about the aforementioned topics.

  1. We need to be a vigilant and responsible audience, we need to watch and like the content, rather than the actors.

We have pedestalizedthe film workers so much that we forgot that they, too, like us are just at a job. A job which is as ordinary as ours, just that everyone and anyone under the sky can have access to it, acknowledge it or reject it.

  • We choose and make someone’s career, we need to watch their work and assess it and not just absorb anything that they show us.
  • While we blame the hierarchical paradigm of Bollywood and lash out the ones who are where they are because of blood, we must not start targeting everyone. Those at fault must be gripped but those who have done nothing wrong, shall not be targeted.
  • Bollywood is the nation’s industry just like BHEL or BSNL. Everyone shall have the opportunity to work in it, and this should not be regulated by the already established workers.

A government regulated systemic processes shall be incorporated that check the industry and recruit the workers.

Bollywood does not belong to star kids; it belongs to us, our nation and its common people.

Raise your voice before it’s too late and we are robbed of our own industry.

Reach out to me @ekanika_shah on instagram.

An Introduction

I don’t know politics but I know the names
Of those in power, and can repeat them like
Days of week, or names of months, beginning with Nehru. I am Indian, very brown, born in Malabar,
I speak three languages, write in
Two, dream in one.
Don’t write in English, they said, English is
Not your mother-tongue. Why not leave
Me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins,
Every one of you? Why not let me speak in
Any language I like? The language I speak,
Becomes mine, its distortions, its queernesses
All mine, mine alone.
It is half English, Half Indian, funny perhaps, but it is honest,
It is as human as I am human, don’t
You see? It voices my joys, my longings, my
Hopes, and it is useful to me as cawing
Is to crows or roaring to the lions, it
Is human speech, the speech of the mind that is

The poem “An Introduction” by Kamala Das talks of the desires, the disappointment and the struggles that generally a traditional Indian woman had to face in her time. She says that she doesn’t know politics but can rant the names of all the politicians in the country. She introduces herself as Indian, detailing her skin tone, her place of stay and the language that she prefers to write. She talks of the people that criticize her for using English as a medium to express her thoughts. She says that she knows that her English isn’t perfect but English is able to express her thoughts better than any other language can for it gives voice to her aspirations, her troubles, joys. English is as useful to her as cawing is to crows or roaring is to lions.

Here and not there, a mind that sees and hears and
Is aware. Not the deaf, blind speech
Of trees in storm or of monsoon clouds or of rain or the
Incoherent mutterings of the blazing
Funeral pyre. I was child, and later they
Told me I grew, for I became tall, my limbs
Swelled and one or two places sprouted hair.
When I asked for love, not knowing what else to ask
For, he drew a youth of sixteen into the
Bedroom and closed the door, He did not beat me
But my sad woman-body felt so beaten.
The weight of my breasts and womb crushed me.
I shrank Pitifully.

She then moves to talk about puberty and the changes that took place in her physically and later emotionally. She talks of the disappointment she faced in love when she asked for love and was violated. She talks of the pregnancy that followed it when the weight of her breasts and womb crushed her.

Then … I wore a shirt and my
Brother’s trousers, cut my hair short and ignored
My womanliness. Dress in sarees, be girl
Be wife, they said. Be embroiderer, be cook,
Be a quarreller with servants. Fit in. Oh,
Belong, cried the categorizers. Don’t sit
On walls or peep in through our lace-draped windows.
Be Amy, or be Kamala. Or, better
Still, be Madhavikutty. It is time to
Choose a name, a role. Don’t play pretending games.
Don’t play at schizophrenia or be a
Nympho. Don’t cry embarrassingly loud when
Jilted in love …

She then proceeds to tell the consequences of her physical violation at the age of 16. She started to crossdress by wearing a shirt and her brother’s trousers. She cut her hair short and ignored her womanliness which was a rebellion against her own sex. People then started to advise her to be a woman, dress in women clothing such as sarees, cook and be a wife. She was asked to quarrel with servants and fit in with the rest of the world. She was asked to fit in with the rest of the society and not bawl when left disappointment.

I met a man, loved him. Call
Him not by any name, he is every man
Who wants. a woman, just as I am every
Woman who seeks love. In him . . . the hungry haste
Of rivers, in me . . . the oceans’ tireless
Waiting. Who are you, I ask each and everyone,
The answer is, it is I. Anywhere and,
Everywhere, I see the one who calls himself I
In this world, he is tightly packed like the
Sword in its sheath. It is I who drink lonely
Drinks at twelve, midnight, in hotels of strange towns,
It is I who laugh, it is I who make love
And then, feel shame, it is I who lie dying
With a rattle in my throat. I am sinner,
I am saint. I am the beloved and the
Betrayed. I have no joys that are not yours, no
Aches which are not yours. I too call myself I.

She then proceeds to talk of a man she met and fell in love with. She then talks of how her lover was every man who sought a woman, “the hungry haste of rivers” just like she was every woman who seeks love. She talks of how her lover was impatient in love and she had all the patient in the world such as the “the oceans’ tireless waiting” She talks of the un-deluded freedom that a free woman or any soul for the matter could cherish, the various experiences that life has to offer.

Importance of cleanliness

Cleanliness is very necessary for all of us. It is a habit of keeping ourselves physically and mentally clean including our house, pet animals, surroundings, environment, schools, etc. We should keep ourselves neat and clean it all the time. It helps in making a good impression in the society as it reflects a clean character. We should maintain the cleaniness of the environment and natural resources water, food, land, etc. together with our body cleanliness in order to make the possibility of such as life existence forever on the earth. Wholesome neatness will lead to cheers of greatness. Cleanliness makes us healthy in every aspect like mental, physical, social, and intellectual. Generally, we all notice in our homes that our grandmothers and moms are very strict about the cleanliness before worship.

We should always take care of and observe our personal and surrounding cleanliness to make our future bright and healthy. We should not make our surroundings dirty as it results in the outbreak of several diseases. We should not keep our hands dirty when we do to eat something. We should never eat junk foods or stale foods and also avoid ready-made cool drinks. For our spiritual life, we have to keep our soul clean from all vices. To have a clean soul we need godliness within us. In the same way, to keep our body free from any dirt, we need cleanliness. Moreover, cleanliness not only improves but our personality also increases our image in society.

” Be stealthy to be healthy than wealthy ”

Reducing your carbon footprint

Carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent. Greenhouse gases, including the carbon-containing gases carbon dioxide and methane, can be emitted through the burning of fossil fuels, land clearance and the production and consumption of food, manufactured goods, materials, wood, roads, buildings, transportation and other services. Here are some ways to reduce your carbon footprint:

Photo by Ella Olsson on Pexels.com
  1. The choice of diet is a major influence on a person’s carbon footprint. Animal sources of protein like red meat, rice (typically produced in high methane-emitting paddies), foods transported long-distance or via fuel-inefficient transport (e.g., highly perishable produce flown long-distance) and heavily processed and packaged foods are among the major contributors to a high carbon diet. Scientists at the University of Chicago have estimated that the average American diet – which derives 28% of its calories from animal foods – is responsible for approximately one and a half more tonnes of greenhouse gasses.
  2. Another option for reducing the carbon footprint of humans is to use less air conditioning and heating in the home. By adding insulation to the walls and attic of one’s home, and installing weather stripping, or caulking around doors and windows one can lower their heating costs more than 25 percent. Similarly, one can very inexpensively upgrade the “insulation” (clothing) worn by residents of the home. For example, it’s estimated that wearing a base layer of long underwear with top and bottom, made from a lightweight, super-insulating fabric like microfleece, can conserve as much body heat as a full set of clothing, allowing a person to remain warm with the thermostat lowered by over 5 °C. These measures all help because they reduce the amount of energy needed to heat and cool the house.
  3. There are many simple changes that can be made to the everyday lifestyle of a person that would reduce their GHG footprint. Reducing energy consumption within a household can include lowering one’s dependence on air conditioning and heating, using CFL light bulbs, choosing ENERGY STAR appliances, recycling, using cold water to wash clothes, and avoiding a dryer. Another adjustment would be to use a motor vehicle that is fuel-efficient as well as reducing reliance on motor vehicles. Motor vehicles produce many GHGs, thus an adjustment to one’s usage will greatly affect a GHG footprint.

“Proxima B – Planet supporting life?”

Humans have been developing technologies and doing research in the field of space since the last 5-6 decades. We have been successful in launching various space missions which include launching satellites, landing on moon in late 60’s, satellite and rover to Mars and many others. With  the help of these missions and discoveries made by them, we are able to understand space and various other phenomena in it with a close view. The Hubble telescope, launched in 1990 has helped us to view space very closely and helped us to know about the existence of other planets at distance as well as centauries. Since these observations do facinate humans and the desire to explore it more, we are developing new technologies which would help us to reach out to these planets. The closest planet which we are in the run to land on is Mars. As per the plans of Spacex, they are planning a manual spaceflight to Mars by 2024. 

But there have been other observations also, and we have achieved results which do show the presence of planets like earth. We are still finding the question of existence of life on other planet and thus brings up the curiosity of humans to find them and reach them out. We have been able to find out many planets which have possibilities of life on them, but we do not have the desired technology to reach these due to the distance barrier as they are situated at various light years. But still there does exist a chance to reach one of them named “Proxima-B”.

  1.  This planet is supposed to be the same size as Earth and lie at a distance of 4.24 light years . It was found in the nearest Alpha centauri. 
  2. Proxima B revolves around a star named Proxima Centauri and is supposed to be at a distance suitable for supporting life on it. It lies at a distance of 75 lakhs kilometre and has an expected time to complete its orbit around it’s stars is 11.2 Earth days. But Due to the smaller size of its star, Proxima B lies in the habitable zone as per the experts.
  3.  It is supposed to have water reserves if it has an atmosphere around it. As per the computer model and analysis, it does give the possibility of atmosphere and water. 
  4. Some scientists also believe that as this lies close to its star, it could be tidally locked, like the moon. This means that one side if this planet remain s towards the star and the other remains in dark . This suggests the possibility of keeping the area hot which faces the star, while others remain cold. This suggests the life to be supported at the border area. But it’s just a belief and scientists do have a conflicting thought on this. 

But the main question which comes to mind is “Can we reach there with the same technology we use for other planets and how long will it take”. It’s believed that with the current technology it would take thousands of years to reach Proxima -B thus making it a difficult task with the current technology. But scientists are working on unmanned vehicles which can be light weight and thus able to reach it. Breakthrough starshot technique is being tested for the same and it’s believed we can reach Proxima -B through this. It is believed it would just take 15-20 year to reach this planet as they would be travelling at very high speed. These would be working on lightsail instead of rockets to work and go beyond the distance. Once they are made, they would be left in the earth orbit and laser light would be travelling to them which would power them and would thus move towards the destination. At an expected speed of 1/20th speed of light. 

It seems that some of these technologies and work experiment could help us reach out to the nearest of planets which could support life but there are some of problems with these, which are:

  1. These would be really expensive experiments. 
  2. We still do not know how to stop these vehicles once they reach out there. Which surely means we would have less time analyze the planet and soon it will pass it 
  3. Surety of life isn’t confirmed. 

“So these experiments bring out the hope of life and our possibilities to reach them out. Scientists and their teams are working on research work and ideas which could make this dream a reality and could help us to reach out other life forms of dynasties if possible and thus opening new life possibilities , adventures, risk but with learning being the better probability”. 

The Beauty of Simplicity

Simple living is what makes us happy and makes us stress free. Unwanted wastage of money is often a picture of an unsatisfied life. When you are simplified in your life, it makes your life filled with meaning, a life that is lived on your own terms. Living a simple life gives you time and space to pursue your interests and to create the life you truly desire. In an individual life, happiness belongs on what are the thoughts you have been thinking. Between the bulging email inbox, the pressure to be “always on” at or for work, and generally stressful effect of long hours and time pressure, especially on activities such as, driving for work, it is perhaps no wonder that work and being at work can all sometimes become too much.

Switching off on holiday that, of course, is what holidays are supposed to be for. But, properly getting away from work while on holiday can nowadays be a challenge as work are usually done on smart phones or by using remote messaging. To that end employers should focus on their well being on a holiday rather indulging them at work.

Simplicity also provides many benefits:

  1. Your finances improve- Keeping your life simple, building a budget and sticking to it faithfully will help you to improve your finances. Sell the stuff you don’t need any more and only purchase item you love or need.
  2. You naturally avoid overacting- Living a simple lifestyle allows you to see the reality of the situation more easily. Your mind is less stressed because it has less to worry about.
  3. You strengthen your health- By focusing on what’s most important, your stress levels will be lower and your health will benefit. Stress can affect your mood, blood pressure, and mental health.
  4. Simplicity and freedom go hand in hand- “the more things you own, the more responsibilities you have, and the less freedom you enjoy”.
  5. You learn more about yourself- when you’re not distracting yourself with your electrical gadgets, and stressed about your life problems than you have the time and mental space to learn more about yourself.
  6. Your life is less cluttered- fewer possessions and commitments results in less clutter. This means you’ll spend less time cleaning and organizing.
  7. You can be true to yourself and your values- modern society is focused on many things that don’t lead to happiness and fulfilment.

“A simple life is its own reward.”- By: George Santayana

However, it is also important to be looking at whether time and work pressures and demands are an underlying issue within your organization that needs to be addressed generally. Hence, it is also necessary to stop chasing the next best thing. This will make your life stable and uncomplicated.

“Make it Simple, But significant.”- By: Don Draper

WOMEN AND GENDER EQUALITY: An Outlook

The road towards gender equality has been slow-moving, but people and organisation around the world are committed to meet the objective. We can see that the social and economic policies that are made nowadays by the government have much thought in them. They aim to put women on equal footing with men in all fields. Creating a world which is equal in gender is assumed to be the most challenging effort of the country. It is fundamental for achieving equal human rights, peace, security, sustainable development and productivity.

Every year March 8 is marked as International Women’s Day. It represents women power; it celebrates womanhood and reminds us if the wonders they have given to this world. Do we need it? Yes, for many years. Many women shine in the world despite their stereotypical society. Parenting plays a vital role in women empowerment. Receiving opportunities and the understanding of making use of them make women successful in a gender unequal world. We live in urban development, and many women are privileged here. However, when we go deeper into rural areas, where the majority of the population resides, we see how deprived they genuinely are. We must also look at urban poor people; opportunities are quite narrow for them because the boys either get it or grab it before them.

Women in rural areas talk about National Rural Employment Guarantee schemes. It makes more sense to them than women’s day. Women whose occupation is farming want their farm and produce saved and fundamental rights protected. Their perspective doesn’t go beyond that. This happens because many of them aren’t aware of any scheme at all, as many women are not allowed to socialise freely, move away from home or a particular territory. They must understand the power of the common objective of gender equality as they will ultimately be at the ‘benefit’ receiving end of it. They must fight for women’s right, which is a human right.

We have been talking about Women’s Day. Many females exist in a socially disadvantaged atmosphere. They need this day as a symbol of women empowerment. In firms and politics, until the female’s performance is measured with the same yardstick, which is used to measure men, there will be inequality. Even though there is consciousness awakening is such platforms, there is still a long way to go. When women become successful again, they have much pressure on them. They must keep setting examples for other women; they are subject to societal expectations, and they sometimes have to carry themselves like men. They have so many qualities that they possess, and men don’t. They must keep moving forward.

The less than encouraging thing to notice is that in reality, many women don’t want to be treated as equal. They do not want to take up work which men usually do. When asked for a job with six days work till late hours, majority of women won’t say yes because it is late hours and they must go home to take on the burden of taking care of the family. They feel indebted to the family as they try to balance work and family life, and when they are unable to strike it, they feel guilty. It is because society has brought up women is a stereotypical manner that they are mentally conditioned to think this way. Some are lucky to have a family which backs them up while others have to prioritise and live by their code of life.

A heavily debatable opinion is that women have to be better than men to reach the same status, i.e. gender equality. There is much responsibility for this common objective on all of us. Cities must provide an encouraging environment for women to walk freely at night and do the things they want to, and we must not judge them. They must encourage themselves, and we must give them liberty and atmosphere to fly as they wish.

Society makes a perfect image of women- She has to be good looking, must cook well, must be well cultured. The day it accepts women the way they are, that day will bring about a significant change. A father is seen as the commanding figure while the mother is the nurture at home. That is how we are made. There are things that women must do too for themselves to be ‘gender-equal’. Today women must lead with qualities of both and stay unaffected from things that society labels them with. A sad fact of life is that in India, boys are social security of parents, girls are not yet. Thinking must change. It all starts with how we are raised, and we must raise our boys and girls equally. Once we do that, we will see a significant change till then, gender equality will stay a dream.

Showing off is the new normal

Being pretentious is the new trend that is all set on the fire, here, there, everywhere, the person is prejudiced on the basis of the jewels they own, kind of clothes they put on and they way they carry themselves on grounds of personality. People are just filling up every form of personality development classes, all they want to grab is a perfect personality trait and flawlessly showcase their talents off and on. The new trend on the social media, 5 ways to do this, 10 ways to do that, all just goes in vain when someone else cannot have the huge bundle of clothes and accessories that are unanimously flaunted in a single video. Knowing or unknowing the matter how hard the people will crave to get a little bit of everything that are being showed to them.

Peeps are seen at personality development classes, who were earlier hidden somewhere behind the sheets; they want to talk fluently, they want to walk in a poised manner, make the most of their bodies. Whether men or women every body could be seen at at the gym, dripping their sweat off, to look lean and lusty. Unaware of the fact that, though this could turn them into a lean figure outwardly, but a messed up body type inwardly. Pushing up themselves more to buy each and every stuff that looks hot and tempting to them, and is #ontrending. Since, “showing off” has become the new normal, it is now a days normal to see an eleven years to sixty years old person to wear kind of same outfits, eleven years old – shirt and shorts, sixty years old – shirts and shorts or sometimes pajamas on.

But, probably the real problem lies with the people going mad after every trend, every style, every single styling tip that goes abruptly stripped down on various social media platforms. Tendency is to grasp attention and approbation from every individual, making them feel inferior. The race to be at the top – as we see in various contests on television – made people blind to eye, not physically, but from within, and they pull on their socks to become the best. Ultimately it could not be their own fault, the trend settlers or the trend makers would not and never know how much they go crazy to follow up every fashion. And forget about their pockets and as a result becomes the prey of every fashion that goes on fire.

How to manage personal finances

Finding out “why”


This is the first step in planning your budget. The reasons could be you want to minimize your spending habits or you have a debt repayment plan and to be debt-free or want to save for any of your long term goals. This step is very necessary because without deciding the purpose of your financial budgeting you can’t plan a proper budget.

Priorities setting


After deciding your whys you need to set your priorities according to your priorities. It is about finding out what’s important to you then controlling the habits of spending and saving to achieve the “why”.
These include your long term and short term goals and syncing them in the order of your priorities. Like you are going to marry soon so you want to buy a house in the future or if there is a couple who wants to plan their children’s higher education expenses, so priorities should be decided at this level.

Track your spending habits


This is the most important step while planning a budget. Spending habits as if you are spending on the unnecessary things in your life. Check your monthly expenses yearly expenses and try to figure out which is unnecessary for you and cut out them.

Choosing the method

with the 50/30/20 rule, 50 % of your take-home pay goes towards your needs. 30% should go towards your wants or discretionary income. Remaining 20% of your take-home pay should go to your savings. for example, if your income is 50000 then 25000 should go towards your need like housing utility, insurance, groceries. 15000 should go towards your wants and the remaining 10000 should go towards your savings.

There are various methods of budgeting like zero-sum budget, anti budget, money flow, etc. Find out which one is best for your according to your spending and priorities.

live with your Budget


There is no use of the method you have decided if you don’t implement it in your life. create a spreadsheet use pen and paper for creating the spreadsheet or you can use many digital tools that are available online for the same like Mint, Clarity money, Tiller money, You need a budget, Digit, Qapital, etc.

Updating the Budget regularly


Review, Revise, Improve
There is no rule for improving your budget. It is up to you your personal satisfaction with your spending habit.
You pick up a budget applied and then not satisfied with the can savings then you can revise your budget again make it do some improvements accordingly again apply and see the result.
Here are a few helpful things to keep in mind while updating the budget-
Slash expenses- If in your budget you are finding yourself overspending then see where you can cut those expenses.

Create seasonal budgeting-

Besides the main budget, a seasonal budget for holiday and summer season should also be maintained.

Link existing habits with new ones-

If you have added some more new spending habits then link that with your existing ones.

Set dates to review and tweak-

You should always review your budget whether you are happy with it or not.

Get help if you need–

MMI offers free budget counseling to anyone struggling with the management of the budget.

“SMILE”:A POWERFUL WEAPON

Did you smile today?? – No, then smile a little before reading this article. A smile on a face is the most powerful gesture to a human being.

Smile is a beautiful, positive facial expression which provides happiness to the person observing and the one itself. Smile is a powerful weapon which connects to other people. ‘Scientific studies have confirmed that a genuine smile is generally considered attractive to others around us’. Smiles help you make great first impression in all aspects of your life.

“A smile cost nothing, but gives much. It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.”– Dale Carnegie

How Smile acts as a Weapon? Let us understand-

  • To defeat bad mood- in your bad and frustrating mood, showing a smile to the world can actually give your brain a happy boost.
  • To conquer your enemy- a smile with confidence marks a strong effect on the enemy side. Jealous people are conquered by a smile which make them think that you a strong.
  • Smiling is contagious- Smile also has the power to elevate others mood and make things positive.It passes on the feeling of happiness from one to another.
  • Smiling makes a person attractive- We are naturally drawn to people who smile. There is a real physical attraction factor linked to the act of smiling.Use the attraction power of smile to draw people in.
  • Lowers stress- smiling relieves stress.It activates neuropeptides which are known to fight off stress. 
  • Keeps away from depression- a smile on the face keeps us away from depressed thoughts in mind.
  • Promotes positive thinking- Smiling can help you develop stronger paths in your brain for positive thinking.The more you smile, the more you get positive thoughts.

Smiles may strengthen the body on a cellular level. When you smile you reduce the rigidness of your cells and this relaxation can help reduce the risk of stress-induced cell mutations.

Think of how you feel when someone passing by gives a gesture of smiling, now imagine the same feeling of acceptance that you can give to someone…..

Now, you choose how to live your life-with smile or without. “Stay Happy Stay Healthy”

Keep Smiling….!!!!