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We all consume content. Everyday.

It might be through watching videos on YouTube while sitting on your couch, reading your timeline on Twitter during your daily commute, scrolling through your Facebook Feed during the lunch breaks in office or reading on your Kindle before you sleep.

But what do you consume?

Or rather, do you consume something of value?

A very good friend of mine once told me –

You and your thoughts are the sum average of the things you read…. of the things you consume. Because it showcases how you use your time. How you value it.

 

And it couldn’t have been more true.

Do you spend multiple hours a day sifting through cat videos for a good laugh? Do you read about the latest gossip in Tinseltown and who has married whom or which celebrity got a new tattoo on what part of his body? Do you scroll through all the twerking videos on Instagram and imagine yourself to be the next Musically superstar?

Well, maybe you do. Maybe you don’t. I don’t judge you for that. But I have always believed that our brain trains our thoughts based on what we feed it.Continue reading

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“Internships are like girlfriends.
Everyone wants one, but not everyone has one.”

In this age where competitiveness is not just cut-throat but rather murderous, internships play a major role in adding sauce to a student’s profile. While projects and seminars might play the foundation role in adding value to a “zero-experience” profile, internships and part-time experience are the cherry toppings.

Further to that, recently many universities have added compulsory credit points for internships which has pushed the students to a “must-do” relationship with internships. Students look for the industry experience and credit points that come along with the internships and companies look for some cheap (mostly free) labour, even if for a few weeks. And that’s the beginning of the whole process of Unpaid Internships.

As someone from the industry and someone who has employed 20-30 interns over the past 5 years in my firm (all interns were paid for their work), I have seen this rapidly increasing trend of Unpaid Internships by other companies in the community. No matter what the experience of the intern be, I believe that time is of value for every person.

Some companies teach the intern more than they actually expect him to contribute to their working, but how many actually do that? And of such companies, it’s impossible to say that the interns contribute nothing. Every single employer takes in an intern for their own benefit, one way or the other. There’s no charity service.

That’s where the whole evil deadlock of unpaid internship begins. Most students have educational loans. The expenses of going to a new city and staying over for the internship, plus the travel expenses adds to the burden.Continue reading

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Journalism has been a very responsible job role. The great power of information dissemination and the greater responsibility of sticking to the ethics of sharing the right info, without bias.

 

The ability to tell the story associated with every news, rather than making a boring factual statement, has always been the factor judging the skills of a journalist. The hunger for quality, more than the plea for quantity – that’s how journalism has survived all these years.

 

But no more.

 

In an era where self-publishing has grown by leaps and bounds thanks to the rise of the digital network, sharing opinions and publishing stories has become accessible to the larger audience.

 

As news/content websites struggle and fight to catch the maximum eyeballs, sadly, the focus moves on from quality to one of quantity. And thus, Data Driven Journalism, where the stories are just factual reporting of what has happened and an aggregation of the timeline of activities, starts to enjoy all the limelight.Continue reading

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The Traffic Signal Short Story

Red. Red. An occasional green. Again red.

I was staring at the Traffic Signal I agree. But it wasn’t because I didn’t want to see her. Heaven knows I did! I was just scared that if I watched her for too long I might not take my eyes off.

She came. Travelling a 100 kms, she came. I had an intuition she would. Somewhere deep inside I knew. And she did! Just to meet me.

The Traffic Signal was red. The cars lined up near us. We stood on the footpath, barely meters away from all these confusion. Cars honking, people shouting… It was a complete mess.

But not my day.

She stood right beside me. Looking me square in the eye. And I was again staring at the signal. Red. I knew she was looking. She was even waving her hands as if to snap me out of a dream. Only that she had no idea, she “was” the dream.

That’s exactly what was piercing me inside. I had so wanted to see her. The thing that I so badly wanted to happen for the past 2-3 days was finally happening and I stood there like a fool. Staring at the signal.

Still red.Continue reading

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With the advent of Social Media, the public has moved from being menial content consumers to holding a strong role as content creators. Bloggers are making an impact in the world, Tweeps decide the very fate of a marketing campaign and Facebook “Superstars” play a major role in spreading news like wildfire. And not to mention YouTube Directors who rival their Bollywood counterparts.

The concept of Citizen Journalism has existed for quite sometime. But, with Social Media gaining momentum and technology easing out newer platforms to help content creators, Citizen Journalism too, has see tremendous growth.

It’s not just the specific individuals, who take it upon them to don the role of a “Citizen Journalist”, who are making waves on the web. Common day bloggers, through their share of voice, are making themselves heard – be it on niche topics or on day-to-day matters of concern. And in due course, what has to be accepted is that, power is returning to the Common Man.Continue reading