BMM ki nishaniyaa

Long hair, crazy outfits, uncanny, repugnant behaviour, and body art. BMM student? Certainly Yes! You need some more to describe him, a person who walks in with headphones and iPod on, and some piercings. How can we overlook the ‘look’ he carries for presentation? A complete ‘sabhya’ look is what they call it. Looking at this attire, they believe you aren’t serious of anything; your casual approach towards college assignments, presentations makes them think you just don’t bother.
But, is it so? Well, out of habit of ‘being a BMM student’ let me clear this fuss out. BMM trains and not tames the students, if I say this, it wouldn’t be wrong. It trains you to be a serious professional with a casual approach.
Media is serious business and a lot of hard work goes in to reaching the top. Working on projects can be tiresome, but when it’s BMM, how can you forget the fun factor. Breaking the monotony of books and libraries, it gives you an opportunity to explore yourself through projects and field work. Meeting and interacting with  people from the ‘industry’ becomes a part of daily life, which I guess is quiet a serious job which requires you to be proactive and outspoken. There is no scope for lackadaisical attitude or complacency. Though the job opportunities are high, at the same time the professionals have to face cutthroat competition. The students have to be mentally prepared for it; in fact they themselves have to be on their toes.
With the boom in the media industry and the boost in the pay packages of the Advertising professionals and the Journalists, people perception has changed and the Industry and the course is now regarded as quite fashionable. The recession in 2008 along with all the other sectors hit the media too as every sector is interlinked. Advertising budgets went down, retrenchment of advertising executives and journalists took place but the picture is quite rosy now. Again, the industry is flourishing , lot of jobs are available but the bottom line is you have to be competent enough to survive the competition and climb up the ladder , and all this starts in the college, if you are serious no one can stop you and if are not you will perish.

Somethings to Explore

The strength within helps us in making the right choice or decision and also in taking the right path. We are young and dynamic full of ideas and we come across a lot of things but we have to decide upon what is the right choice for us. I am not saying that something miraculous will happen and we will be shown the right path. It is up to us to make the choice, it is the positive energy which will help us in making the choice.We often use words like inspiration, motivation, spirituality in everyday conversations. How important are these words in a person’s life! Talking about the best in the business; someone like Shahrukh Khan or for that matter Sachin Tendulkar , could they have been what they are today without a source of inspiration or a motivation in their lives ? Each and every one of us should have a source of inspiration, something to draw strength from, a sense of spirituality. I would like to quote an example of one of my friends who once became very frustrated with his life. Successive failures in clearing his exams made room for negativity and nihilism, the monotony had set in deep, studying for long hours didn’t make a difference, he had no inspiration whatsoever and he had lost all hope.Later somehow, he started learning the violin, he prepared his schedule in such a manner that he could devote at least an hour of his day to violin, with time he got rid of his monotony and he fared well in his exams. This is a kind of spirituality, for me anything by doing which we get a peace of mind and positive vibes is spirituality, for some it can be playing an instrument or singing, for others it can be praying or reading a book or meditating. We need not keep on looking for an inspiration or a source of strength or a motivational force, it can be very much within us, we just have to explore it and identify it.There is a strength within us which helps us to destroy all the negativities and induce positive energy.I can even quote my own example, whenever I am sad, depressed and surrounded with negativities and filled with confusions, I pray, meditate and visualize Lord Shiva, in no time I get a feeling of confidence and a state of ultimate bliss, the feeling induces within me an energy which is so strong that it makes me feel that I can achieve anything in this world. The feeling is not superficial because everything seems possible and can be made possible when a person achieves a positive state of mind. I discovered my inspiration and the source of strength in Lord Shiva, for you it could be a supportive friend, a lover.It is up to us to find that source of inspiration. Let it work for you.

DON’T KILL ME

In this era when we are talking about ‘Women Empowerment’, women being at the forefront walking along with men contributing
in the progress of the country, many times even ahead of men, we still find many cases of female infanticide in the country. Still, there are parents who don’t want a girl child. Although, there has been a decline in the infanticide cases, but still it is quite evident. Female infanticide as we know is the intentional killing of baby girls due to the preference for male babies and from the low value associated with the birth of females. It is hard for us to believe this as we are from the Urban India, but there are female infanticide cases in the urban world as well. The advent of technology and misuse of pre-natal sex detection and also attitude of the unscrupulous
medical practitioners, who are facilitating the female foeticide
through induced abortions. There are strict laws and penal actions against violators, but the laws have not worked. Over 10 million female fetuses have been aborted in India in the past two decades. It is pertinent to note that the fall in the juvenile sex ratio is much higher in the economically developed States in India. There is steep fall in sex ratio in States like, Punjab, Haryana,
Gujarat and Maharashtra, along with the Union territories of Delhi and Chandigarh. In Punjab there are only 874 females per 1,000 males. The situation in Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra
is also similar - the females are 861, 921 and 922 respectively
per 1,000 males. Kerala is the only State where females are 1,058 per 1,000 males. India cannot afford to wait till the next census in 2011 to determine whether the growing practice of female foeticide and the girl child mortality rate had gone up. In India the reason behind rise of female foeticide is because of the strong son preference in society, the small family norm practices
like tradition of giving dowry, laws that govern property inheritance and the cultural perception about the familial name through the male line. The mortality of girl child is also high because
of parental discrimination against their daughters in terms of health care and nutrition. We may think what can we do in this regard, how can we change the parents perception. But, I would like to state over here that we are the future of India, we have the aid of media, and we are the future journalists, future ad-makers. We should use our resources and create awareness among the masses against this menace. In whatever way, we should contribute
to eradicate female infanticide from the country. An on-line survey
showed that 16% of the people
still feel that infanticide should be legalized in India which is appalling.
22% feel that society lacks knowledge about female infanticide.
When asked who is supposed to be blamed for it, 30% said it’s the families, 60% said it’s because of carelessness and 10% answered that it’s due to other reasons like molestation etc. 92% feel that the Government is not doing anything about it. When asked to give suggestions, people said that it is advisable to keep helplines. It also important to educate the masses and inculcate it at the school level.Distribution of leaflets can also spread awareness. It is pivotal on the part of the Government to keep a tab on the hospitals regularly
to avoid such situations.