RAINDROPS FROM THE HEART OF THE MIND.........

So it rained today.

Delhi, in its true form, is usually either freezing or burning always. It's early April these days, and spring is showing up.

We saw the first rains of the season today. Caught in the bus while the beautiful water rained down the empty streets of Delhi, I felt the rush to run towards the exit and Breathe... just breathe in the gentle breeze and embrace the little tiny cool raindrops falling on my face.

What a shame to have been caught in that enclosure! Watching most of my colleagues roll up the glass windows, it occurred to me that they were missing out on what possibly could be the last rains of this season. The were in fact, definitely missing the moment. This beautiful moment, which would never come back. 

In any case, I knew that no matter what gives, I am absolutely attuned to every change the weather takes...

Sultry - Cranky

Cold - Drowsy

Fall - Peace, at last!

More thank anything else, Delhi is sure is sure to take up its imminent summer up a notch this time!

Google has constantly been topping the charts on Fortunes' best companies to work for. It's a given  -considering all the gourmet delicacies, massages, free gyms, pets and the freedom of the likes that are available for the employees. Not to forget the fat pay cheques and the pleasurably long parental leaves... Ahh... the perks. Don't you wish you were there!

Speaking about perks, I would like to delve upon 'Are perks really the secret behind a happy workplace'. I sincerely believe that a good workplace is simply created by having indispensable quality that holds value to your people, something that pulls them to the shore every time they look towards jumping into the ocean of opportunities.

It has become imminent for organisations today to take a deep look into it and at the same time understand that this quality has to hold a corporate essence, such that the entire entity revolves around it. There have been plenty of organisations in the country in the last few years intending to create that edge and identify that quality, which is why this feature is becoming even more valuable with time.

Coming back to our point of discussion - the perks. While most of your precious members wouldn't flock away for a free massage or a few extra leaves, it is however, still important to understand how many miles do you care to go extra for your employee, and how do you go about it.

You perk, and your organistion need a mutual alignment. An eCommerce company needs to have perks that speak for the company, moreover the industry. One of the good strategies would be to ensure frequent interaction amongst the people at the workplace. Organise get-togethers,  meetings and events simply with agenda to have an informal communication. Push in conversation starters with food, activities, seminars and such.

Make it personal. And make it an indispensable part of the organisational culture and it would never seem like an effort. This relationship-based perk would someday be the reason why someone would avoid crawling over to your competitor, which is giving away foreign trips and hefty bonuses as its perks.

For the past couple of days, I was busy looking for a download link to this movie. Unfortunately, I could not find one. Today, I decided to finally watch the low resolution version on YouTube. (I am talking as low as 360p!).

Deepa Mehta, Director, decided upon the movie at a time when a woman's sexuality in India was still  a taboo. It questioned the basic formation of rules laid down upon an Indian woman to define something as simple as a relationship.

The movie tells the story of a traditional Indian household, a joint family of five. Between Radha (Shabana Azmi) and Sita (Nandita Das), the daughter-in-law of the house, the former has a staunch devotee of a spiritual Guru as a husband who is also practicing celibacy while the latter's husband is involved in an extra marital affair with a Chinese girl. Narrating something as simple as that, the movie unfolds in an interesting pattern. Both the women, who have had arranged marriages according in traditional customs, are unable to receive their man's love. As the two confront their situation, they find solace in each other's arms and gradually come to terms with the increasing sexual affinity towards the other.

The story of the two women who have known nothing but tradition all their life have found pleasure in a homosexual relationship speaks tons about whether social media has anything to do with the increase in the number of people coming out of the closet. A woman denied of sex for almost thirteen years and the other, still exploring her sexual freedom outside her failed marriage, chance upon the sexual tension between them one fine day which ultimately takes shape of a strong and healthy relationship.

This hyper controversial movie was sparingly released in few parts of India and that too faced several challenges. The Thackeray party, Shiv Sena, as pathetic as ever, boycotted the showcase of one of the emerging mainstream Indian cinema. Not just Mumbai, even places like Delhi and Calcutta saw resentment from other religious-political leaders saying the movie "spoil [Indian] women" and younger generations by teaching "unhappy wives not to depend on their husbands" and informing the public about "acts of perversion." Though the metropolitan states were open to new ideologies, the religious and political opposition was such that it made it next to impossible for them to watch it.

The Food Security bill 2013 has brought in a vast amount of changes. It addresses the issue of hoarding of food grains against starvation of thousands of poor in the country.

The last food security bill, the food security bill 2011, was a huge disappointment. According to the article in The Times of India, 'The Big Letdown of the Food Security Bill' dated October 18, 2012, "The problem is that the bill does not mention how the government will identify people in each group. Since lawmakers have passed the task of identifying the poor to individual states without saying what methods to use, officials will likely continue to conduct poverty surveys in an erratic, unsystematic way. Critics say this would leave many people out of the public food system and to avoid this lawmakers should allow all citizens to buy cheap grains from public shops."

This year, the food security bill promises maternity benefits of Rs. 6,000 in installments to pregnant and lactating women as against that of Rs. 1000 in the Food Security bill of 2011. Child benefit remains the same with the mid-day meal scheme.

One of the major reasons for the failure of such plans is lack of focus of the agricultural sector. A huge majority exists in the farming sector which loses out on during the food price escalation period. In spite of producing abundant food grains, the poor in the country are not being fed adequately as most of it gets wasted in the absence of storage facilities. There can be no bigger shame for us.

The movie released last year with great pomp and show among the school and college going kids. I was never never looking forward to watching this flick and I did not watch it, until yesterday. I have a strong reason for that: I am sick for the past 5 days and am not allowed out of my room. Alas, I had watched all the movies available with me but this. So I sat down for it.

Honestly, I found the the manner of unfolding of the story very uninteresting. It is very cliche. This style: friends gathered together and discussing the the protagonists of the story, has been seen in familiar movies of the 90's like Chalte Chalte and even in the Imran Khan's debut movie, Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane na, which for some reason I found tolerable. Karan Johan anyway has been known for heightening the levels of cliche.

The story was again a mirror image of Kuch Kuch Hota hai with gender changes. 

Now, since I had missed the movie and everyone else had already watched and repented, I thought there was no issue of lack of info on my part. But in some time, I witnessed a sudden change in fashion and the student behaviour. Girls wouldn't give their red lip paints a miss even for a day and guys would really leap for attention and popularity like never before.

The speech which Sudo delivers at the end to the school principle, Yogi, is co-incidentally similar to what I want to say to Karan Johar for directing such movies. He too is single and probably has a dream of living his characters in real life. This movie which has made brands like Prada and Armani sound like Globus and Pantaloons has reduced fashion to be just for a class of society. . What about a common man's daughter/son who cannot manage to get attention from the opposite sex? What if he/she are not perfect at dance but master the art of painting or origami or magic? It reflects that the student of the year trophy is deserved by someone who is  extraordinarily popular, a fashionista at the least and must have minimum of two people of the opposite genders fighting for them. Not a bit of my life there! So I did not find it anywhere close to reality.

Jane Tu... Ya Jaane na was still partially inclined towards reality. But SOTY was plain OMG and totally in your face.

Today's youth is ready for the coming of age cinema like Shaitaan and A separation. In what world anyway, have schools ever been like that? At least I would love to see one. Or not.

So K.J., it is a humble request of mine: Stop playing on the school kids. Spare them Please!

Many a times, orators have commented casually upon important issues resulting in a 'foot in the mouth' situation. A day later we receive statements from them saying, “the media misrepresented their comment” or “twisted their words”.

How often have they accused the media of misinterpreting their quotes? Allow me to quote some of them:

In relation to the death of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan that happened in October, 2008, she said things like "All by herself till 3 am at night in a city where people believe...you know...you should not be so adventurous.''

The Times of India on October 3, 2008, reported, “A woman working till late in the night needs a male escort to return home. Else she might just get shot. The sentiment may not please too many Delhiites but that's the implication of what their chief minister thinks.”

Similarly, The Indian Express reported on October 2, 2008, “Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Thursday came under attack from politicos and women activists for her comments on the murder of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan that 'one should not be adventurous.'”.

Later, on facing resentment from the people, she blamed the media for “blowing it out of proportion”.

In yet another interview, Ratan Tata spoke against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Few days later, DNA India on December 20, 2012, “Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata has dubbed as "completely untrue" critical comments against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attributed to him in an interview and apologised for "any embarrassment" that the "misrepresentation" may have caused to him or the government.”

India Today reported on this incident, “In his letter dated December 10, he referred to his press statement issued on December 8 and said he had clarified that "I have neither 'lashed into the Prime Minister', 'rapped India' nor 'warned government of inaction'."

She made the following comments regarding women having an equal share of fault in sexual offences committed against them, “Women, influenced by western culture, send wrong signals through their dress and behavior and men often take the cue from those signals. Women display their bodies and indulge in various obscene activities. Women are unaware of the kind of message [their actions] generate.” She was quoted in an article published in The Hindu.

The Times of India reported on Sunday, 6 January, 2013, the statement delivered by the RSS Chief, "A husband and wife are involved in a contract under which the husband has said that you should take care of my house and I will take care of all your needs. I will keep you safe. So, the husband follows the contract terms. Till the time, the wife follows the contract, the husband stays with her, if the wife violates the contract, he can disown her," Bhagwat told a rally here yesterday.”

RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav then cleared up for him saying that Bhagwat has been misquoted and added that he was referring to western marriages being based on a contractual system.

Bhagwat's remark was immediately slammed by the Congress, the CPIM and certain women's bodies for making sexist comments on women and marriage.

All the above quotes have been blatantly said, without the media making any interpretations at all. So my take on the issue is that, No, the media is not misinterpreting their words because they are what they are. Anyone reading/listening to that would draw the same conclusion as to what the media has drawn.

A lot could be done had their words been confusing or had any scope of making changes in it. Sadly, the words spoken have been ghastly loud and clear for any sane person to process as to what intention it really carries. Most of the above have been said during press meets and thus the media carries enough evidence of what has been already said to publish and broadcast it to the world.

Everytime the media gets blamed for blowing things out of proportion, it loses a part of faith the people have entrusted it with. Thus accusing the media of producing their irresponsible speeches must be strongly dealt with.

Media may be blowing many celebrity rumors out of proportion, but situations like these, where someone talks of orthodox mentality which can prove harmful to the society, need to be condemned. Words coming from people who represent a state or a nation have the power to shape the psyche of the people of the country. Thus, they must be immensely careful of what they speak in public. In many a cases, a huge public outcry has been seen. In order to avoid such cases, instead of blaming the media, the orators need to watch their steps, at least when addressing the media.

So the question arises, what do we do when encounter such comments/statements from our politicians, industrialists and other persons of importance?