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Srishti-2022   >>  Short Story - English   >>  The Vibe

The Vibe

School was fun. 

 

Especially the start of a new year. Students rushing in to find their favourite spot across their best buddies, the smell of new books and a sense of excitement in the air. Being a 10-year-old starting the new school term, these were our primary mission. 

 

The only problem is that school wasn’t the same for me. Right from my birth, I’ve been burdened with this amusing power which is rather a constant distraction for me. I’ve personally named this unique power of mine as “The Vibe”. 

 

The Vibe is an unusual power which allows me to identify a person’s death just by looking at them. For example, when I see a bright green coloured pattern around a person, it means they have got plenty of years before their death & they’ve got nothing to worry about. If the colour turns Amber, it’s usually that the person might die of natural causes in a couple of days or even months. Things start to get horrific when I could feel a red coloured vibe around a person. Once I witnessed a red vibe around my teacher before he left for home from school. The next day we came to know that he was stabbed to death by a stranger for money at a nearby gas station. Personally, the red vibe creeps the hell out of me. 

 

Whenever I tried to warn anyone, as a 10-year-old with a fancy backpack, all I usually get is a chuckle or a “mind your own business” attitude. Life was figuratively colourful yet the red vibe always scared me.

 

As usual, I reached my school early that day. I went inside my empty classroom, sat near a corner, just by the window, waiting to examine each of my classmate’s fate. Almost every time, I get to see only green vibes around my classmates since we are basically kids. On a very rare occasion, I get the Amber vibe. But that day changed my life.

 

As my friend Erica entered the classroom, she instantly noticed my horror expression and enquired what was wrong with me. I shrugged her off since it was difficult for me to tell her that she is going to face a violent death very soon. The day only got worse as my classmates came in one after the other; all I could feel was a reddish vibe around each of them. As the last student entered and the classes were set to begin, all I could see was a red vibe throughout the classroom. I was starting to sweat profusely, knowing the fact that each one of my classmates and friends were going to face a violent death that day.

 

With my heart trembling in fear, as I raise my hand to wipe off my sweat, I noticed a clear red coloured pattern illuminating through my very own arms. The window reflection of myself made me realise that I was surrounded by a dark red coloured vibe like the rest of my classmates.

 

Is this it? But how? I was confused and scared at the same time.

 

It was then John, my classmate entered the room. For a particularly bright student, he came very late that day with a heavy rucksack and to my goodness, he was the only person to be surrounded by the greenish vibe I have ever seen. 

 

I was relieved; relieved by the fact that atleast John was going to survive that day. But the feeling didn’t last long. 

 

I, along with my fellow classmates let out a gasp in terror as John took out his heavy submachine gun from his rucksack and started firing mercilessly at each one of us.

 

School WAS fun. But definitely NOT in the United States of America. 

 

Srishti-2022   >>  Poem - English   >>  Am I Alive?

Am I Alive?

He opened his eyes with snowflakes scattered eyelashes,

Every tiny movement sending a striking pain.

He looks around, with bits and pieces of memory flashes,

All he could find is his down jacket filled with blood stain.

He suddenly remembers his mission to strive,

But, for a second, he wonders, Am I alive?

 

Sitting in front of the blue screen, the computer flickers

He loses his patience, yet forced to act nice.

Favorable promotions, handsome salary, he notices those boot-lickers,

Yet, with all due respect, he was asked to let go of his ego. Twice.

Going back home, on a lazy drive,

He stops and ponders; Am I alive?

 

Gathering his stuff and a trekking pole, he stumbles upon the thick snow,

With the sun gradually rising, his body starts to feel warm.

Thanks to the sunlight, he can now see the three snow-filled mountains in a row,

He slowly remembers hiking the impossible summit with a swarm.

O, thy nature, you are indeed beautiful yet cruel,

And looking at the summit far, far away he exclaimed; Is this a dream? Am I alive?

 

Quitting wasn’t easy, yet so was doing the unlikable,

Thinking about his comfort zone, he packed his bags for the trek.

Challenging, as it was an impossible journey, yet few claimed it as doable,

He needed this vacation as he was an emotional wreck.

With a heart full of excitement, he checks-in live,

Reaching for his trekking pole, taking the first step onto the snow, he murmured, I feel alive!

 

With the sun now completely up, he could see his plight so clear,

Having slipped from a mountain is never a pleasant sight.

With severe pain, he clutched on to his son’s photo which he held dear,

Tears trembling, he whispers to his son, “you should have seen this view filled with first light”.

Before he could notice his friends running towards him to help,

He lets go of his will, while collapsing he shuts his eyes and exclaims, “I AM ALIVE”!

Srishti-2022   >>  Article - English   >>  The Right to Privacy - Is there really an Option?

The Right to Privacy - Is there really an Option?

Have you ever come across the term called “Privacy Policy” when browsing through a random website on the internet? If so, have we ever, taken effort, to atleast glance through that carefully vetted document? The answer is simply No, atleast for the majority of us. Now, how is this 3-page document going to affect us? Well, the Privacy Policy document is the website’s way of explaining to visitors that their personal data, which they voluntarily enter, can be used so as to benefit their business or their customers in general. The document is a legal evidence which we unknowingly acknowledge to allow the respective business to make use of our data. 

 

Ever since the dawn of the internet, most of the tech giants have built a lean business model that not only uses the customer’s data but also aggregates & analyzes it to benefit their business. Amazon is a prime example of how the company turn customer’s interest into targeted ads on broad daylight. It has been more than 30 years since the creation of the World Wide Web (www) but the right to privacy is something that’s still being debated among ourselves. While some people claim that it is completely illegal to collect any private information from the customers, there are a group of individuals who goes against saying that the data collected could be put to our own good use. 

 

How do we reap the benefit of a particular website without agreeing to their privacy policy? Is that even an option in today’s world? Let’s look into the facts.

 

Transparency & Privacy

 

The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal which was used to mitigate the US Presidential election is not new to the mass public. A private firm collected information from millions of users; their interest, their personal data so as to utilize the same in manoeuvring the US election and is still one of the most widespread scandals in history. What might come as a shocker is how the Indian political parties used Facebook as a platform to deliver targeted ads during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Now ads itself is not, per se, illegal, however, the nature of which the content was delivered to the voters is something to be looked upon.

 

Nayantara Ranganathan, a lawyer who is also the founder of New Delhi-based “Internet Democracy Project” said in an interview that the political parties that competed in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections spent more than 10 crore rupees in targeted ads via Facebook & other social media platforms. What’s alarming is that the way these ads were delivered. For instance, voters between the age 18 to 21, received personal messages stating that their vote for a particular party can aid in providing low-cost internet when the respective leader comes to power. The idea behind this message is that teenagers tend to spend more time on the internet when compared to the rest of us. These messages were carefully crafted by professionals so as to sound appealing as well as not to look like spam. Another example is when Indian IT professionals received personal messages with promises to restructure tax slabs so as to benefit the maximum employees. 

 

How do these political campaigns know you? How do they know whether you are 18 or 30 years old? And most importantly how do they know your personal mobile number? While there are many organisations involved, the obvious culprit is tech giants such as Facebook. While you first sign-up Facebook, your automatically providing them with the liberty to use your data to accelerate their business. The problem is that companies like Facebook look at Privacy and Transparency as two different entities. Facebook should provide manual control for each user over their own respective data. However, the said model is next to impossible since Facebook is a free-to-use software and their primary source of revenue is via targeted ads. 

 

Government Regulated Privacy Attacks

 

The bitter truth is that government-aided public surveillance is legal upto certain extent. The parliament clearly states that the Indian government is empowered by the law to intercept, decrypt any information stored, received or transmitted via an individual. In other words, the government can spy on any person at a given time legally under certain restrictions. The problem is that we, as a citizen of the country do not have the luxury to know even if the said law is being misused. The irony is that Article 14, 19 and 21 of our constitution directly states that privacy is a fundamental right of all citizens of the country. Now, how do we protect our personal information from government-aided searches?

 

The government should elect regulatory bodies for each business verticals in the nation. For example, the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is United States legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information. In other words, the information gathered by government and private funded hospitals from the patients are safeguarded under the HIPAA legislation of 1996. These regulatory bodies ensure that the information we share with the providers (doctors, hospitals) are in-fact safeguarded and is never used against us without our approval. The issue here is that only certain business verticals such as Healthcare, Defence, Insurance & Aviation are constantly looked after by the government-regulated legislations. Areas such as retail, banking and travel are still vulnerable to risks of a privacy breach and misuse of public information. 

 

How to report a Privacy Breach?

 

Be it an organisation or an individual using a personal computer, it lies on our shoulders to report the possible security breach that could affect our information. The government of Canada enforced strict laws to govern the use of public data by private companies. The PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) form is readily available on the Government of Canada’s website for its citizens and organisations to report a potential security breach that is capable of disrupting one’s business as well as their personal lives. Even though the Government of India doesn’t have such readily accessible report mechanism, the government-aided and private organisations are forced to mandate regular audits throughout the infrastructure to identify a potential data breach. 

 

Best Practices to ensure Data Privacy

 

  1. Make sure to at least glance through the Privacy Policy document while visiting a new website; Just to understand how your data might be used.

  2. Have a backup email address which can be used to sign up on websites which send you targeted ads and unnecessary newsletters. 

  3. Make sure to retain bank-issued gift cards. It can be used to sign up for a free 30-day trial in most of the modern applications thereby protecting your actual credit card details.

  4. Use tools such as Evernote to take notes and save sensitive information since the company doesn’t sell your data for ads.

  5. Make sure the website you visit adheres to the Right to Privacy Act enacted by the respective governments.

 

Conclusion

 

A privacy breach is not a new topic in this fast-growing digital world. However, the mass population’s understanding of this subject is very limited. The “Right to Privacy” is something to be taught in schools since pre-school teenagers are some of the easy targets susceptible to data breach. Similar to the “Internet Democracy Project” there are many organisations that closely examine the potential data thefts and publish them for the general public’s reference. The government should enforce statutory groups in different areas of the business to ensure that a common man’s data is not being misused without his knowledge. 

 

In the end, it all comes down to the question; Is Right to Privacy really an option provided for a country’s citizens? Or Is it still a myth used by some governments to bring in more revenue? Coming from a common man’s perspective, we can never be sure.

Srishti-2022   >>  Article - English   >>  How does a Film Industry Recognize Women?

How does a Film Industry Recognize Women?

How does a Film Industry Recognize Women?

 

The Film industry, around the world, is one of the most distinctive areas which requires a systematic collaboration between different entities and businesses. The filming of Baahubali took nearly four years to complete which means the project has provided jobs to more than 10,000 people through different areas of interest. The Visual Effects department, The Makeup Team, The Stunt Coordinators, The Food department, each of them have their part to play for the successful completion of any movie, whether it turns out to be a blockbuster or not.

 

However, the people working behind the screens are often overlooked. Apart from the ones who share the spotlight, many others and their talents are frequently ignored. Along with it, the role and importance of women in the Film Industry have been on debate for over the years. Of course, several movies portray women as strong and equal to men, but we often ignore the things that happen behind the screen. How well their contributions are recognized offscreen? How well are they compensated and treated behind the screen? Even though the facts on the internet suggests that women earn equally as men in the film industry, we cannot conclude just by analyzing their pay scale.

 

The Influence of Women in the Film Industry

 

Apart from acting, there are plenty of women contributors to the recent Film Industry. For example, Mary E. Vogt, a notable Costume Designer from New York has extensively worked on movies such as “Enthiran (2010)” and the upcoming movie titled “2.0”. The importance of an experienced costume designer can be observed through these movies which had portrayed every scene and especially the songs more beautifull than we can ever imagine. Suhasini, an actor, director, and writer, spent her fair share of her career in crafting commendable dialogues for many blockbuster movies. Archana Borhade, the brilliant cinematographer behind movies such as “My Name is Khan” and Robin Wright, who acted as well as directed several episodes of Netflix’s “House of Cards.” It’s safer to say that in recent years more women are working and striving towards the Film Industry as their long-term career.

 

However, from a director’s point of view, everything seems different. Earlier, around 30 years before, its very rare to see female directors in Hollywood. Even if there were any, they hardly received any spotlight for the movie’s success. The best example is Jane Campion, who directed “The Piano,” received the Palme d’Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993. In fact, she was the only female filmmaker to have won such a prestigious award till date. Of course, over the years this trend is changing, and we can see the directors are awarded based on their talent rather than discriminating based on gender. The Cannes panel of judges which used to have only male members now consists of an equal number of women to consider an impartial decision.

 

All things being said, we have to understand that Change, happens slowly and its evident that it is taking place. However, during the recent Cannes Film Festival held in 2018, around 82 well recognized and talented women directors walked the Red Carpet as a silent protest to bring in more diversity in Filmmaking Industry. Such incidents make us wonder, are we really witnessing the much-needed diversity? Or Are we still kept in the dark from the actual events happening behind the screen?

 

Nepotism - Does it favor women more in the Film Industry?

 

If we are brutally honest, Nepotism is the only practice that does not discriminate based on gender. More specifically, Nepotism in Indian Film Industry is no news. We’ve seen both men and women, generation after generation, rocking the Indian Film industry, just because of their surnames their elders left them with. The reason I’ve mentioned the influence of Nepotism is mainly because there are talented and aspiring actors, directors out there who had succeeded in breaking the clutches of Nepotism. They proved that an influential surname is not necessary to shine in the Film Industry rather Passion and Hard Work would do.

 

Many notable female celebrities worked up their way to the top in the Movie Industry. Mithila Palkar is one of the most recent examples of commendable personalities who is now shining in Bollywood. She started her career through several short films, advertisements and gradually worked up her way through which she recently grabbed a prominent role in the movie “Karwaan.” There are more such celebrities, but the point being that there are several aspiring young models and filmmakers, both men and women, who are working very hard to outshine the significant herd in the Film Industry.

 

The Latest Fad of Objectifying Women in Movies

 

One of the most widely debated topics is how the filmmakers often objectify women in their movies by portraying them in the most degrading way as possible. While the young aspiring models are often roped into this practice without even them realizing it, several experienced actors don’t seem to have any problem with this. Now, the main reason is how the audience tends to perceive these movies. We don’t require those scenes, however, if depicted in a film we never oppose it publicly. This is just because the majority of the audience are not mature enough to withstand new changes in the film industry. Movies such as “Trapped” & “Newton” are not well recognized in Bollywood because the audience is not ready to accept new scripts. While several websites rate a movie’s performance through numbers and stars, the actual success is determined by how much money the film has made so far. Let’s be honest; we cannot blame the filmmakers for objectifying women since from their perspective a movie is an investment, and it should in-turn provide them with substantial returns. If they are investing so much money in such degrading scenes, then that could only mean that there is just more demand for that, which in turn lies directly on the audience’s shoulders.

 

Conclusion

 

For several years we have asked different versions of a very familiar question to ourselves.

When will Indian Film Industry improve their standards? The harsh reality is that, we, as an audience or at least the majority of them are simply not ready to accept new changes. We fight for equality in every field but fail to realize that it has to start with ourselves first. At the same time, change happens gradually, and the talented will always find a way to succeed. Leonardo DiCaprio began his film career in 1979, and even though he has given a lot of successful movies, he could only grab the Oscar in the year 2016. It’s not because he was less skilled but because of the numerous competition.

Similarly, in the current generation, there are plenty of opportunities for women in the Film Industry and along with it comes a great competition. The future is to hope that the said competition should be focussed between the talented, rather than the genders. An equal amount of responsibilities lie on the audience’s shoulders as well, and it’s high time we encouraged the most talented.

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