When we touch anything in history, it most likely gets touched with England. While American advertising is something that is old and vibrant, it too did have it its somewhat roots from the Great Britain. During the 1600(s) when America was still a colony of England, American advertising sow its seed. In late 1700(s) around the time of its Independence, America as a nation wasn’t producing much inside the country and hence, was heavily dependent on the imported products. During this time, Benjamin Franklin began producing his newspaper and printed variety of advertisements. He also added a new aesthetic called illustrations in the advertisements which were missing in the American advertisements before. Looking at his work and his dedication towards the world of advertising, he was also kind of termed ‘Father of American Advertising’ for the later part of 1700(s).

Later, in the mid to late 1800(s), American manufacturing had begun to produce a variety of goods and hence, the advertisements started signifying that the goods were in fact produced in their home itself and not just imported. Around the same time, James Gardon Herald, publisher of the New York Herald newspaper, stated that it was high time that the ads should now be treated as news and therefore should not appear repeatedly. He mentioned no use of illustrations. Putting more restrictions, he made a rule that no ad could appear more than once and if it all it had to done, they would have to be re-written. The idea behind such policing was to make the whole process very democratic so that every advertisement and everyone had a new more equal footing. The restrictions while being just to the ideals had a negative impact to the creative aspect of the advertisement as many advertisers tried their ads in different ways but nothing could have been done to make theirs stand out from the rest. The only thing they could manage to do was printing the same ad over and over again so that it becomes virtually interesting and draws eyes to it. Though in the late 1800(s), poster culture saw an emergence. Public places were plastered with various kinds of advertisements and they began to have some illustrations in them.

In the decade of the 1860(s), emerged the modern advertising agency as they created a role for themselves by offering to physically take the ads from the businesses to newspapers, as there were rules that had to be changed every day. Secondly, helping them to write the ads as well as assisting them to place in appropriate order. There are primarily two types of assisting involved- placing ads which comes under the media department and then in creating ads that come under creative department, which is also available in the contemporary advertising world as well. Examples of the earliest agencies that still exist today are : J. Walter Thompson popularly known as JWT worldwide founded in 1860 in NYC. Second is N.W Ayer which was acquired by Publicis group in 2004.

When we hear the word advertising what strikes first to the mind? An advertisement promoting a brand. Well, advertising is just not that rather it has more layers to it. In its purest sense, as quoted by the Art Historian, James Laver, Advertising is any device that arrests the attention of the passer by and induces in them an idea of mutually advantageous exchange. He focuses on the antiquity and breadth of advertising. If we look at India, specifically rural India, we see men/women selling spices on the footpaths or in weekly markets and there they have their products displayed openly for the passer by(s) to have a look, hence arresting their attention leading to a mutually advantageous exchange that is money for spices. The most basic ingredients that seem most prominent are: attention, mutuality and exchange. To quote an ancient instance of advertising, we would have to go back to the Ancient Roman Civilisation. Recent excavation from the ruins of Italy, Herculaneum, where cities were buried, archaeologists found a painting of series of bottle over the wall signifying that they have wine inside.

Giving an interesting take to the world of advertising, Radium Williams, a social theorist says advertising is the ‘official art’ of a capitalist society. And unlike Laver’s point of view, it is linked to a specific social context, focuses on modernity and is a sponsored art. For instance, in the Soviet Society, huge posters of Stalin could be viewed, here the art was sponsored by the state termed socialist art. Whereas, after the Soviet Union collapsed, the same places would have posters of coca cola and similar companies on the hoardings, replacing socialism by capitalism.

John E Kennedy, an advertising copywriter defined advertising as salesmanship in print. Prior to the advent of print, advertising was solely based on salesmanship, for example, a person trying to buy a glove in the 20^th century would go to a shop where the salesperson would educate the buyer on different kinds of material for the gloves etc, therefore a conversation between the consumer and the salesman leading to an exchange of information that has the potential to result in a sale. He explains that the advertising adopts this phenomenon of salesmanship which was present for the longest time and pours it into a new medium that was print like newspapers and delivers the message that could have been conveyed through interpersonal communication that is face to face communication.

Advertising of this salesmanship began in 1800(s) where the salesmanship of interpersonal communication saw a shift by coming in the print form. Until 1920(s) photographs were not used in advertising. With the arrival of the radio after the 1920(s), we witnessed a shift from the print to radio and then later to television in the 1940(s) as the new advertising mediums. We can conclude that advertising is heavily dependent on the medium through which it will be presented. Starting the shift from the interpersonal , face to face salesmanship to print, then to radio and television and now to internet, advertising has walked a long way.

You’re walking on the streets of Jaipur, looking at the heritage, art and craft, suddenly your eyes fall on a man using clay and ceramic materials to make a vessel. This process, of using clay and ceramic materials to form vessels and other products of desired shapes is known as pottery and the artist is called a potter. The materials are fired at high temperatures in order to make them hard and durable. There are primarily three sectors where clay based pottery can be divided into- stoneware, earthenware and porcelain. Prior to shaping, clay is prepared, where the air is removed so that it has even moisture and the process is called de-airing which can be achieved by machines or by wedging which is manual. There are various methods for shaping like the potter’s wheel which is very common including hand shaping, jiggering and jolleying, injection moulding, granulate pressing, roller-head machine, pressure casting, 3D printing, slipcasting, RAM pressing etc. The pottery is also glazed and decorated with different techniques like painting, carving, burnishing, glazing etc.

India pottery, a timeless living craft, dates back to the Neolithic era and saw advancements during Indus civilisation, signalling its significance in our history and traditions. For a really long time, this was the staple business of many traditional pottery households. In present day India, the industry altogether has provided employment to a great section of society residing in urban as well as rural areas. It has contributed to the overall GDP of the country. India is an exporter of pottery too and exports the products to international markets like USA, Honk Kong, Japan, Mexico, Germany. Having said this, the industry is now facing issues in keeping up with the fast pacing world and technology. Potters still use conventional methods of pottery, while this perhaps is the beauty of the industry, but it also creates a blockage in catering to the market demands. Its emphasis, importance and vision to make this industry flourish and prosper can be seen by looking at the curriculum of interior designing and sculpture painting which has included pottery for teaching.

Uttar Pradesh is credited for making this industry conquer new heights by having 600 units. Many terms modern India pottery as “Terracotta Handicrafts” whose main seller is Orrisa. The manufacturing cost of such handicrafts are often low posing an advantage to those potters whose soul income is from pottery. In fact, the raw materials required like kachi mitti for earthen pots, clay etc are easily available and accessible.

Government’s attention towards eco-friendly products has also created an advantage to the pottery industry as most materials used are eco-friendly and plastic free. In fact, in an article published in The Indian Express, they highlighted “Khadi Village Industries Commission (KVIC) launched bamboo water bottles, and usage of bio-degradable cutlery. The ministry of railways has also re-introduced usage of kulhars instead of plastic cups”.

Market players of the industry:

• Palam Potteries: Manufacturer of pottery products.
• HiItkari Potteries
• Pelican Pottery
• Jaipur Glass Industries
• Heritage Pottery

Dr Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad

On this date of 20 November 2020, the 551 birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev ji is being celebrated across the world particularly in India and Pakistan with full enthusiasm, devotion and joviality. Here I have mentioned India and Pakistan as He was born in 1469 at Talwandi, a village in the Sheikhupura district, 65 kilometres away from Lahore which comes under Pakistan. Guru Nanak Gurpurab, also known as Guru Nanak Jayanti and Guru Nanak ji’s Prakash Utsav, is a prominent festival for people who follow Sikhism and is celebrated on Kartik Purnima day. The people of all faiths particularly Sikhs visit on this auspicious occasion to the Golden Temple and offer prayers at the temple and also devotees lit candles in the temple premises.

    According to various literatures and beliefs, the birth and initial years of Guru Nanak ji’s life were marked with many amazing incidents that validated that He was born with divine power. As a young man, while herding the family cattle, used to spend long hours in meditation and religious discussions with Muslim and Hindu holy men who lived in the forests surrounding the village. Many spiritual incidents were attached in his life. Once Guru Nanak ji went to the river Bain for his bath and after plunging into the river, He did not surface and it was reported that he must have drowned. The villagers searched everywhere, but there was no trace of him. He was in Holy Communion with Almighty God (Lord). The Lord God revealed himself to Guru Nanak ji and enlightened him. In praise of the Lord, Guru Nanak ji uttered; “There is but One God, His name is Truth, He is the Creator, He fears none, he is without hate, He never dies, He is beyond the cycle of birth and death, He is self-illuminated, He is realized by the kindness of the True Guru. He was True in the beginning, He was True when the ages commenced and has ever been True, He is also True now” (Japji). Another incident may be presented here. When Guru Nanak Dev ji was 12 years old his father gave him twenty rupees and told him to do business, with the objective to teach him business. Guru Nanak ji purchased food with all the money and distributed it among saints, and the poor. When his father asked him what happened to business? He replied he had done a “True business”. It is pertinent to mention that at the place where Guru Nanak ji had fed the poor, a Gurdwara was constructed and named Sacha Sauda.

Guru ji’s sayings and messages are still relevant in present days. I am quoting two which have greatly influenced me, “Even Kings and emperors with heaps of wealth and vast dominion cannot compare with an ant filled with the love of God”. And another one is “Dwell in peace in the home of your own being, and the Messenger of Death will not be able to touch you.”

    As mentioned already He was born near Lahore of present Pakistan and  later on settled down at Kartarpur (now in Pakistan) which was founded by him in 1522 and spent the rest of his life there (1522-1539).  Although Guru Nanak ji was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the Ten Sikh Gurus but all the other Gurus had done excellent work for human beings. In this context, the Golden Temple is a glaring example. The Golden Temple of Amritsar (Sri Harmandir Sahib) is not only a central religious place of the Sikhs, but also a symbol of brotherhood and equality. Everybody irrespective of caste, creed, religion or race can visit the place.

 Regarding the Temple it may be mentioned that, as advised by Sri Guru Amar Dass Ji (3^rd Sikh Guru), Sri Guru Ram Dass Ji (4^th Sikh Guru) started the digging of Amrit Sarovar (Holy Tank) of Sri Harmandir Sahib in 1577 A.D., which was later on brick-lined by Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji (5^th Sikh Guru) on 15 December, 1588 and he also started the construction of Sri Harmandir Sahib. Sri Guru Granth Sahib (scripture of the Sikhs) was first installed at Sri Harmandir Sahib on 16 August 1604 A.D.

   I had the opportunity to visit Golden Temple (Sri Harmandir Sahib) in August 2017 and observed everywhere selfless service – whether serving of food, water, cleaning of utensils, making of roti etc. were concerned. It is heartening to mention by quoting Hindustan Times, 19^th May 2016, epaper, that “The Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) in Amritsar has been ranked number 3 in the country on the travellers’ choice landmarks list of a leading travel planning and booking site TripAdvisor. Surrounded by a holy ‘sarovar’, its construction was completed in 1604 and presently runs one of the largest free kitchens in the world, which serves an average of 1, 00,000 people daily”. Before conclusion, I wish to highlight the Three Pillars of Sikhism which were formalised by Guru Nanak Dev Ji:

a)      Naam Japo means meditation and reciting and chanting of God’s Name—Waheguru.

b)      Kirat Karo means honestly earn, with hard work, by one’s physical and mental effort.

c)       Vaṇḍ Chakkō means share the food, wealth etc. with everyone, irrespective of caste, creed, and sex.”

The following websites have been consulted while writing the article:

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20070830205721/http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist/gurus/nanak1
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Nanak
3. http://www.sikhs.org/guru1.htm
4. https://www.hindustantimes.com/more-lifestyle/guru-nanak-jayanti-2019-history-significance-and-traditions
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_pillars_of_Sikhism

While the world awaits Gurupurab tomorrow, farmers from Punjab are protesting against the reformed farm bill 2020. Farmers have taken the protest to roads and are rallying from Punjab/Haryana to Delhi in order to make the union government listen to them. The three laws-The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, The Farmers’ Produce Trade And Commerce (Production And Facilitation) Bill and The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services-that have faced criticism from both the farmers and the opposition were passed in monsoon session of parliament in 2020. In fact, following this Harsimrat Kaur Badal, an MP of the Shiromani Akali Dal resigned from the BJP cabinet stating that the bills were against the farmers and would vanish the agriculture sector in Punjab. Opposition parties like Congress, TMC, DMK and BSP also opposed the bill stating that it was against the interests of marginal farmers. Gaurav Gogoi from Congress said that the government has been acquiring the lands of the farmers to help their capitalist friends and has termed it a ‘three-pronged’ attack on the farmers of this nation.

The government has said that these reforms will help the small farmers and accelerate the growth of the sector as private investors would be welcomed who would further build infrastructure and form supply chains for the farm produce. The government ensures that the laws will cut the prices of transportation and will be given better prices.

On the other hand, under the bill associated to commodities the protestors and opposition argue that big companies would be allowed to stock commodities which gives them an opportunity to make an upper hand on farmers making less prices for the cultivators. Then the bill relating to contract farming, the opposition says the sponsors might not be interested in dealing with farmers that are marginal and also that farmers will eventually be at a weaker position in negotiating what they need. And in the case of dispute, the advantage would like to exporters, huge companies, sponsors etc as the law provide a legal framework that requires farmers to be under a written contract with the big companies and also to produce for them. While the most important bill that is the agri market bill, protestors argue that without collecting ‘mandi fees’ the states will not be able to collect the revenue and there is a huge question mark about what will happen to the commission agents. The same bill seeks to remove various commodities from the essential commodities list like edible oils, onions, potatoes, cereals and pulses. All in all, what frightens the farmers the most is that this will end minimum support prices regime while the middlemen will also be adversely affected and mandis will lose their relevance and the farmers will also might not be able to bargain with the companies.

Now to make this a little more clear we need to understand that the bill is ultimately for the farmers of India and if they only are not satisfied then the bill deviates from its value.

With the advancement of the technologies people are also becoming advanced. They are adapting new technologies, trends and innovations and utilizing it to their best. Most of the people are now fully depended on phones and laptops. Especially in this covid-19 pandemic when people are stuck at their homes, they are spending more time on their phones or laptops as now we can find anything digitally like entertainment, informational and variety of content, songs, pictures, videos, etc. Now we can even buy almost everything from our homes only through ‘Digital Marketing’.

Digital marketing refers to the marketing where products and services are promoted or sold online with the help of internet through digital technologies like phones, laptops, computers, tablets or any other digital device. It was first used in 1990’s when the Archie search engine was developed. It can be also called as Internet marketing. Most of the marketers replaced their traditional marketing to digital marketing because they are more interested to do their business digitally as they know that most of the people use digital content daily. 

Advantages of Digital Marketing:

In today’s world Digital Marketing is the best and the most advantageous method of marketing than any other method.

• Global Reach: Digital marketing helps us to reach to the larger number of customers. You can easily promote and sell our products or services to our target audience from all over the country or even outside of the country.
• Time Saving: It’s a best time saver as we can reach to larger number of audiences with no or lesser time as compared to traditional marketing method.
•  Cost- effective:  when we promote our products digitally, it saves transportation, travelling and many other expenses. It’s affordable or less expensive option as compared to other option.
• Quick Responses: You can immediately track the responses you get on your product or services. You have the flexibility to measure your performance through your responses and taking actions for improving your campaigns in real time.
• Interaction: You can easily interact with your audience and solve their problems related to the products or services they purchased from you and can exactly know their choices.
• Multimedia: You can engage audience by adding different types of content like photos, videos and audios to your marketing material.
• Expansion: By expanding your brand recognition your sales will be boosted and that will help you to reach global markets.
• Variety: Customers can access large variety of products and services according to their preference as compared to the traditional marketing method. 

There are many other advantages of Digital marketing which also states its importance in today’s world.

Challenges:

• Marketers face many problems in adapting new and advances technologies as they get used to the traditional marketing.
• There is a lack of knowledge as many marketers or business man does not use any social media or digital channels for their business.
• Marketers face many problems in generating relevant traffic (visitors) to the website.
• Markets face problems in creating an attractive and awesome website and content.
• They also face challenges in promoting their campaigns through any digital or social media channels.

There are many other challenges that marketers face in digital marketing.   

Forms of Digital Marketing:

1. Social Media Marketing (SMM): Social media is one of the main reasons which instigate people to use their phones or laptops. About 170 million of people use their social media account regularly. So, marketers taking this as an advantage to grow their businesses online by promoting their products or services on social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp etc.

• Digital Advertising: It can be called as online advertising through digital channels like phones, laptops, desktop etc.

• Content Marketing: it involves creating, publishing and distribution of content to the target audience.

• Search Engine Optimization: Optimization means improving your website so that customers can easily your products or services online by one search only. It helps in attracting potential customers too.

• Email Marketing: It’s the act of sending a commercial message to the customers about new products, discounts and other details of marketing campaign through email.

• Marketing Automation: Marketing activities done through any particular software.

• Search Engine Marketing: Practice of marketing using paid advertisements.

So, as we discussed earlier Digital Marketing is one of the important industries which is rapidly growing day by day especially in this pandemic where many people are avoiding to step out from their homes. They are now preferring to shop digitally only. So, it provides lots of opportunities to the marketers and business man for growing their business digitally. But it also contains many problems and challenged. So, those who are interested in digital marketing, have to learn to cope up with these challenges by developing their knowledge and abilities in relevant areas.

Driving your car with the radio on, jamming and listening to the programmes, making your journey smoother? Well, radio wasn’t always for the entertainment. With the advent of radio came serial programmes which were replaced by serious reportage or playing music resonating to that time. or as a must in households. Before 1920, radio was used to contact ships or were based on morse codes. In world war I, the significance of the radio grew and it became more useful as armies started using radios as a way of communication amongst themselves to send out messages. Post 1920(s) civilians started purchasing radios for private use especially in European countries and USA. During the World War II radio was used as news outlet and was often used by politicians or governments to reach out to public. Today, with the fast-paced developing technology, radio has so much more to offer while just not being restricted t homes but also as a staple in the cars. Radio has music, talk shows, storytelling etc. One such example in India is storytelling by Neelesh Misra                                                                                                                         

BADLAAV

Neelesh Misra also known as the storywallahhas never failed in bringing excellent storytelling on radio. He has made audiobooks fashionable again. One such story is ‘Badlaav’ where the story not only made audiences experience the challenges faced by women in workplace but also commented on the social hypocrisy and different reactions of different personalities in the same situation. The audio starts with Neelesh’s gripping voice and is beautifully supported by the background music of the birds chirping. As the story progresses, Neelesh plays every character of the story and never disappoints the audience with his oration and skills of transition to a new character. The music changes according to the situation like birds chirping in the morning, the voice of the crowd while they walk on the street. The story is set up in a typical middle-class environment where there is an old uncle who lost his daughter, a young neighbour called Piya and her mother. The story emphasis on the specificity like ‘3 doorbells’, ‘9pm ritual to come in the balcony’ etc. the language used is proportional to the character’s age. For instance, Piya had certain dialogues in English and the uncle spoke a mixture of Hindi and Urdu dialect. The story has a philosophical angle to it and Neelesh rightly sends the audience on a guilt trip in lives like ‘jo maan nan ahi chahte, vo dekhte tak nahi’ and ‘jinke mann shor karte hain. Unki xubaan shaant rehti hai’. At last, the story also brings the societal hypocrisy which can be seen in the police station’s scene where the officer asks the uncle to warn the daughter to be in her limits since she is a girl, totally disregarding the fact that the accused had 20 cases filed against them already and also, Piya was portrayed as a modern young girl but due to eve teasing switched to Indian outfit perfectly showing our shallow mindsets as a society. This rightly portrays the corrupted minds of our developing society.

When you hear the words silent film what pops in the mind? Definitely not any sound. A silent film is a film that does not have any pre-recorded sound and has no audible dialogues. Earlier silent films were accompanied by live sounds such as that of a piano, instrument organ or orchestra etc. It may also consist of a short narration to set up a scene. The silent fil era that was the mid 1980(s) to the late 1920(s) many musicians like a theatre organist or a pianist could also be seen to add the theatrical effect. Earlier films used a device called magic lens that had a glass lens, an adamant light source and a shutter. The legends who laid the foundation of silent films were Muybridge, Marey and Le Prince which further paved the way to the cinema we see today. The myth that silent films also came across was that the films were primitive and were not watched by many individuals.

PUSHPAAK

Pushpaak is a 1987 Indian silent, comedy film starring Kamal Hassan and Amala in leading role. The movie revolves around the story of an unemployed youth, Kamal Hassan, a man who searches for a job in a destroy and hopeless manner. After a chance encounter with a millionaire who is on a self-destructive bender. Hassan kidnaps the man and replaces him at Pushpaak, a five-star hotel that the latter is booked into. The movie then introduces Tinnu Anand, an ice-pick wielding contract killer hired by the old man’s wife. The killer mistakes Kamal Hassan to be the drunk businessman and what follows is a series of humorous events. The movie has a humanitarian appeal which laments upon the human attachment to the to the materialistic world. In the end, the protagonist ends up in his previous life searching for employment and meaning.

What makes this movie an evergreen classic is the fact that despite being a silent movie, it was way ahead of its time. The nonverbal modes of communication such as symbolism, gestures, body language are visible throughout the movie. For instance, the hotel’s name, Pushpaak is symbolic of their chariot owned by the god of wealth, Kuber. Gestures have been used throughout the movie for one-to-one communication, like the silent balcony conversation between the couple. The background score keeps the viewers engrossed, creating an aura of the character on screen. The comic timing of the actors was well depicted with their facial expressions. Last but not the least, the movie leaves a moral message that materialistic love has no end, this is specifically portrayed in the scene where the people leave the beggar’s corpse for his money and Kamal Hassan realises that a poor man couldn’t take the money, he was so boastful about it with him. Even the riches of the businessman couldn’t buy him love or loyalty from his wife. The movie leaves an impact on the mind from the viewers and that is what it makes evergreen classic.

Weddings are considered as one of the most auspicious and important moment of life.  It’s a very common ceremony as almost every day there is wedding happenings. But corona has largely affected these wedding ceremonies. Almost every wedding requires gatherings of large amount of people and this near to impossible in this pandemic as it increases the risk of getting affected by covid-19. Event managers, caterers, wedding photographers, labours, other people related to these wedding ceremonies and their customers are facing problems in this pandemic.

But considering these problems government have issued certain guidelines for the marriages to curb the spread of diseases during ceremonies. Guidelines, rules and regulation related to marriages differ from state to state. Marriages and other functions are allowed in all areas except the containment zones but with limited capacity of people.

Some guidelines issued in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and other states of India are:

Number of guests for a wedding should be only 50% of a wedding hall capacity. But the maximum number of people allowed in a wedding are only 100.

• Guests have to mandatorily maintain social distancing.
• Event organisers have to arrange face masks, sanitizers and thermal scanners at the venue.
• Everyone have to mandatorily wear their masks
• Use of sanitizers or handwash is must.
• Rs 25000 fine will be charged for wedding containing more than 100 people.  

If anyone violates these rules, regulations or guidelines then F.I.R will be registered against that party. But according to some wedding photographers only few people are taking properly following these guidelines issued by the government but the rest are taking this pandemic casually. There are many cases in India where many people are getting infected by corona as they were gathered in marriage together.

But some people are also finding new and innovative ways or precautions for marrying in this pandemic. In a marriage guests maintained social distancing and to prevent any personal contact with bride and groom, transparent plastic curtains were hanged in front of their sofa.  New trends according to the weddings in this pandemic are also introduced in the market. Digital wedding is one of the new trends as people are inviting their guests at the online meeting apps and some are even marrying through zoom or any other meeting apps. In some wedding guests, bride and groom are seen wearing matching masks with their dresses. Changes in makeup, hairstyles and accessories are also the new trends. Many more fashion trends are introduced in market which makes wedding more interesting even in this pandemic.

Event management industry have to face a major due to this pandemic in India. The Events and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) have recently conducted a survey of with 170 companies that are affected by the pandemic. The survey result shows that many problems like loss of business orders, lack of funds, lack of labours, unavailability of advanced technologies and other resources, loss of revenue etc are currently faced by the companies. Organisers also have the pressure of arranging for digital weddings which can’t be possible without funds. Webinar, online meetings and live chats are going on between the organisers to solve these issues. Labours and small wage workers have lost their jobs, people are avoiding the outside food and maintaining social distancing which has largely affected Caterers or catering services as they are getting less order for serving food in marriages. Not only organisers and caterers but wedding photographers, DJs and many other people related to the event management are also struggling in this phase.

Some of the organisers have already resolved these issues and trying to give their best for making the marriages perfect as they can, even in this pandemic.

As we discussed earlier, marriages are one of the most important and auspicious ceremonies of all. They are celebrated like festivals in India. And Indians can’t stop celebrating their festivals. So, even corona couldn’t stop weddings in India.    

I’m here because like every other 14 year old I thought becoming a doctor only takes considerable amount of studying and good amount of heart to serve others. Well, it turns out to be totally opposite. Number of hours spent in mugging up how deoxygenated and oxygenated blood are separated, I realised perhaps ‘heart’ isn’t really for me. So I asked my brain what else I can manage to do, so it brought back certain memories of me fighting ( Indians don’t debate, we fight- for proof, kindly switch on republic TV) on political issues, ill-informed policies, general miss guided physical and mental health, education and not to forget my all time favourite Modi ji.

I have always been an all rounder ( that’s what my relatives and I believe mutually for the first time), always been in top 5 of the batch till I changed my school in 9^th standard ( I was earlier in Xavier’s School and changed to Jesus And Mary- this was a dream school for my parents and thank god at least I completed one). After 9^th, my academic graph is not less than a roller coaster or perhaps just like India’s employment rate.  I remember changing school and this whole swapping affecting grades but it turns out I found myself in the process. I became outspoken and put my views without any hesitation of criticism. Once, there came an interschool event and we had to prepare a debate for it. I was one of the few students who actually prepared one. I, at that time, didn’t know being a new student and participating in interschool activity was a big deal until I got applauded for not only the effort but also the substance of the debate. I remember my class teacher telling my father ‘ I’m proud to have her in class’. Coming this from a teacher who is known for her strictness was a huge compliment for me. I felt like a warrior that day. Soon I realised life can teach you well in a day because when I went for the final round the teacher had already selected her favourite student and didn’t even let me audition. I literally walked away from there feeling how congress must have felt like in 2014 but I don’t know what I had eaten that day I wasn’t ready to give up just yet. I walked back and asked her to at least listen to me and even then if she still feels I’m not worth it then have to accept it. I guess I didn’t make a comeback like congress and was selected by the majority (she made her favourite student and me present in front of a class. Teacher chose the other student and the class chose me). That day I realised two things :- 1. Never give up 2. Majority wins

To conclude, I want to make a change. Not a change our politicians promise but actual change that I want to see in society. I want my views to be neutral and unbiased. I wish to change how people think about politics and elections. I want to inspire youth. It’s cliché but I really do want to make my parents proud.