Gandhi’s quote “If we have the ‘khadi spirit’ in us, we would surround ourselves with simplicity in every walk of life. The ‘khadi spirit’ means infinite patience. For those who know anything about the production of khadi know how patiently the spinners and the weavers have to toil at their trade, and even so, must we have patience while we are spinning the thread of Swaraj”.

Textile artist Shelly Jyoti established ‘The Khadi March: Just Five Meters’ a show created to enhance the lives of rural weavers through persuading people to fulfill their duties by purchasing only five meters in a year. Ideal for Indian weather conditions, it keeps the wearer cool in summers and warm in winters. Khadi which was the symbol of the Indian National Movement is not handmade now but it has been mechanized using new modern charkhas. Khadi in this modern era has evolved in fashion, luxury, enterprise, and every day. The fashion industry happens to be one of the most waste and pollution generating industries. Advisor for khadi promotion 2016, designer Ritu Beri says “Khadi is green, zero waste, with zero carbon footprint, and these charkhas save electricity. The move to switch to solar charkhas makes the khadi industry a shining example of an employment-generating, eco-friendly industry.” Shani Himanshu who had created a unique combination of Khadi and denim blames the consumers and makers for not prioritizing the beauty of the fabric by charging less due to which it is considered a poor man’s fabric. Instead, he suggests that it should be priced more as every millimeter of the fabric is handspun. Khadi not only is used to make traditional kurtas but also lehengas, bags, jeans, etc the main reason why all eyes in the fashion industry are on khadi fabric.

 Now with change and adapting progress, we have to be mindful of other platforms and tactics along with press releases to make our message efficient. An article written by Barry Schwartz, says that SEO ranking in Google will not increase after a press release is posted which is a major drawback in terms of the significance of press release. He mentioned Matt Cutts of Google who said that links from press releases won’t have a positive impact on the rankings. Also, is it possible to measure whether the press release was efficient?  To some extent, we can measure by calculating how many times our press release was reposted. Readers of today like to read the information that is easy to digest and process but since press releases are written in a complex format it is unlikely for our message to reach our target audience. Journalists get bombarded with press releases every day, even they tend to lose interest while reading the long templates, omitting out irrelevant information and write a story. In an era where everyone is on social media users receive their news from these social media platforms itself. I think instead of bothering the journalists to write up stories on press release we should rather use that time in building relationships with them.

I am an aspiring public relations professional. According to my knowledge, press release is considered as an important subject in a PR professional’s life as our daily routine includes drafting press releases. Or is that what I thought so?  In the world of emerging technologies and emerging of different platforms where video content and short crisp content works, somewhere the value of press release is disappearing. The benefits of being a student at SCoRe are that I get to attend sessions that are conducted by PR professionals with several years of experience. One of my masterclasses was held by Rashmi Naik who works at IndiaSpend in the External communications and outreach department. She is a communication and public policy professional with over 15 years of experience. In her session she spoke about the decline in the importance of press release. She asked why write a press release? Who even has the time to read it? Press releases are not as relevant as they used to be. Press releases have become less preferred compared to other digital tactics that are measurable, scalable, and cheaper. There was a time when PR professionals would prepare and plan their strategy and simultaneously get started on publishing press releases as this was considered as the most efficient way to deliver our messages to our target audience.

Let’s start by defining public relations. What is public relations? Public relations according to me is an art that helps build positive attributes of a company into a narrative that supports the company’s goals. Sir Albert Einstein, one of the most creative minds in human history, has defined creativity as: ‘Creativity is intelligence having fun’. By these two definitions, we understand that creativity goes hand-in-hand with public relations. Creativity is the key element in public relations that has the power to change a perspective. Without creativity, public relations is a dead end. Creativity in public relations includes brainstorming techniques, innovations in public relations and techniques for stimulating ideas. Creative achievement involves being unique, testing known limits, attempting challenging jobs, making honest mistakes and reciprocating to a challenge which basically will help PR practitioners become the master at his/her profession. According to The Holmes Report’s Creativity in PR study, which surveys PR executives all over the world, 68% of PR consultancies say that their clients are now more likely to approach the PR team for “big creative ideas” than in the past. There was also a significant increase in consultancies who have an employee formally known as creative director, from 37% to 56% source: https://crenshawcomm.com/power-pr-creativity/. 

To work in public relations one must be excellent at storytelling, understanding the standpoints of the audience, how to counsel the media and the clients at a point of crisis, how to communicate efficiently and initially, all of this leads to the base that is creativity. campaigns reveal how each brand portrays its message in their unique manner and to what extent they can use their creativity. This shows how creativity can be distinguished in different types from being strategically created, to content creation, to responding to the crisis creatively, to responding to business and brand requirements creativity. Creativity in public relations helps us to break the ice and be extraordinary. So, if we are in public relations, I am 100% sure that the creative gene is definitely in us.

Nipah Virus is a zoonotic virus. Cause? Transmission: It is a virus that is transmitted through direct contact with infected animals like bats or pigs. This virus is highly contagious. It can affect people who come in direct contact with the contaminated bodies.Symptoms: Nipah virus begins with fever and headache followed by vomiting, inflammation of the brain and  drowsiness. Nipah virus first emerged in Malaysia in 1998 resulting in 105 deaths. It’s name originated from Sungai Nipah, a village in the Malaysian Peninsula where pig farmers became ill with encephalitis. Recently in 2018, there was a Nipah Virus outbreak in Kerala. The outbreak emerged in Kozikode and Malappuram districts resulting in 17 deaths. The outbreak was started by a 23-year old man after he had consumed a partially infected bat eaten fruit and was later, tested positive for Nipah virus. “Not Today” GOT fans can relate, this is what Arya Stark tells the God of Death and Kerala definitely applied it well during the epidemic. A movie named Virus was made in 2019. It was co-produced and directed by Aashiq Abu. This movie has highlighted how Kerala dealt with the haunting virus, how the government with the doctors worked as a team along with the difficulties they had to face and how they controlled and eliminated the virus. It has also given a tribute to all the people who helped fight this virus. Again recently, on June 4^th, 2019, a 23-year-old student in Ernakulam district was tested positive for this highly contagious virus . But by calling for high alerts the situation was brought under control. Unfortunately, there are no vaccinations or any drugs available against this visur. In this case, taking precautions is the only way to escape the dangerous consequences of Nipah virus. Avoiding fruits contaminated with urine or saliva from infected fruit bats also, avoiding fruits with bite marks of bats and pigs.

Shiva had given up biking after He and his former lover Natasha Francis (played by Nithya Menon) met with a terrible accident in which Natasha died. The same girl who’s pictures and possessions Kunju had found in the locked room. After hearing everything Aju told her, Kunju decides to move back with Das in the same apartment but in a different room, takes up MBA and gradually meets Natasha’s parents who feel Shiva aka Das is the one to blame for their daughter’s death and assume that he must be living happily with someone else. Kunju finally confesses that she is not Natasha’s friend but is DAS’s wife. She finally arranges for them to meet Das. After clearing everything out and meeting with Natasha’s parents Das after years attains peace of mind and feels ready to let go of his past. Thereupon, Kunju and Das live happily ever after. Aju while preparing for his big race decides to call Sarah to tell her about his big race but is left heartbroken to find that she is moving to Australia on the same day of his match. But he takes her out a day before she leaves to show her a wall that he had painted of her face. Biding goodbye he returns to prepare for his race. Das, Kunju, Kuttan, and his whole biker gang gather around to support him. Much less to say, Aju succeeds in the match but a part of him is not happy as he still feels for Sarah. Das, Kunju and Kuttan accompany Arjun and rush him to meet Sarah at her house. He convinces her to not move to Australia and spend the rest of her life with him. Sarah’s mom also seems convinced after meeting Aju’s kin and kith. The movie ends with Kuttan marrying Michelle (played by Paris Laxmi), a foreign Bharatnatyam dancer residing in the same building as kuttan’s. In the last scene Kunju, Das, Arjun, and Sarah break into Kuttan and Michelle’s room with all of them posing for a photograph.

One day, after a big fight Das barges out of the house and Kunju feeling a little suspicious inspects a room in their house which has always been locked. She is shocked to the core to find the room filled with photographs, shoes, knickknacks, clothes and other possessions of a girl. Kunju decides to leave Das and returns to her home in Kerala as she feels there is no place for her in his heart. Meanwhile, Aju fells in love with Sarah (played by Parvathy), a radio jockey and goes all the way to surprise her at her studio but he is shocked to find that she is paraplegic. However, nothing stops him from loving her. Sarah notices Aju following her everywhere and asks him to stop but eventually, they end up being good friends. So she invites him to her birthday party where he meets Sarah’s mom. Her mom doesn’t seem to like him as she feels Aju does not have a proper job and family and asks him not to bother Sarah anymore as she only wants the best for her daughter. He also comes to know that Sarah is planning to shift to Australia. He leaves in despair and stops going out with her and ignores her calls as per her mom’s requests. Kunju and Das are in the midst of a divorce. At that time, Aju after his ban gets an opportunity from the biker gang he works for to race in the coming bike race. Here he learns that Das was the leader of this bike gang a few years ago who was popularly called ‘shiva.’

What happens next?

Anjali Menon’s Bangalore Days is a classic Malayalam movie produced by Anwar Rasheed Productions. The story involves around three cousins Divya Prakash aka Kunju, Krishnan P.P. aka Kuttan and Arjun aka Aju played by Nazriya Nazim, Nivin Pauly, and Dulquer Salman respectively. The movie showcases the affection and bond between these cousins who have unique characteristics. It is an evergreen romantic comedy-drama movie which people of every age will enjoy and cherish watching. The movie has an amazing cast with the most loved youth actors in the Malayalam industry. Coming to the characters, Kunju a very ambitious graduate aspiring to do MBA from IIM eventually gets married to a workaholic Shivadas aka Das played by Fahadh Fassil. She later moves to Bangalore as her husband Das is settled there. Kuttan, a software engineer working in Bangalore is a typical village boy proud of the culture and heritage of his state. Aju is a bike racer who had been banned due to a foul accident. his parents got divorced when he was a child and since he has been living his life on his terms. He fishes to Bangalore in search of a job and works as a bike mechanic in a biker gang. Eventually, all three of them settle in their dream city Bangalore where the real story begins. Kunju a fun-loving person and Das on the other side an introverted workaholic continues to ignore her. Her only solace is the time she gets to spend with her cousins. In the meantime, Kuttan once while taking a flight to Kochi meets an air -hostess Meenakshi (played by Isha Talwar) and fells in love with her. They date for a while but he is left heartbroken after she ditches him and gets back with her ex-boyfriend. Kunju feels emotionally down and left out as her relationship with Das starts hitting the rocks.

Living in Mumbai for the past 21 years I have been exposed to various cultures. Mumbai is a city where people from different state migrate to. A city that represents all the 29 states. A city where no one is discriminated against for their culture as Gujarati or Tamilian or a Mallu, we all usually call ourselves as Mumbaikars. But have we ever thought about the students from various states that migrate for educational purposes trying to chase their dreams in this congested city? I recently have come across 15 such students who now are my family. In the 2020 batch of SCoRe, a school dedicated to creating PR rock stars. My class includes three students from Indore, one from Patna, one from Jharkhand, one from Jhansi, two from Assam, one from Nagpur, five from Calcutta and one from Chennai. My class is a perfect blend of diverse cultures and every professor that walks into our class, walks out with this unique unforgettable thought that “this class represents so many cultures and states.” Different cultures come with different perspectives which I believe is a bonus for the PR field. My friends surprisingly hate the food in Mumbai and hate the climate here as well.  I agree with them when it comes to climate because recently, we have been witnessing November rains. But food? Which variety of food isn’t available here? Name a cuisine you crave and Mumbai’s got it! The Indore girls are disturbed regarding the cleanliness situation in Mumbai coming from the cleanest state in India. Sometimes I get where they are coming from, leaving your hometown and family is one of the toughest decisions of our lives. No matter how good a city is, you’ll never accept it. I’ve never experienced that because Mumbai has always been my city. My friends have made me realise how lucky I am to never have had to experience the feelings of farewell.

Lilly asseverates that failure is common in the journey to achieve one’s goals but one should learn to mold their failures in such a way that it inspires them to continue and strive hard. In the third section ‘Make heads turn’, there 12 chapters that teach the readers to leave a mark wherever they go and stand out in a crowd. Through this chapter Lilly teaches them to leave an unforgettable presence by effective interaction, to learn from others and ask questions rather than pretending to know everything’ to smile and more importantly to be confident and be ‘yourself.’ She teaches them to embrace and be proud of themselves and be honest without having anything to hide or nothing to prove to anyone because it is indeed a great feeling to be self-accepted. One of my favorites saying from this section is “Being the dumbest person on your team doesn’t make you a stupid person; it means you’re smart enough to select people to work with that you can learn from.” In the fourth and last section “Be a Unicorn” the readers are thought about the power of values, to positively impact people and the need to express gratitude. A Bawse knows the importance of being kind, humble and grateful after all it is the only language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see. She teaches them to appreciate things, to avoid talking negatively about people, to spend time thinking and grow their minds. Lastly, she reminds them to be humble even after accomplishing being a Bawse because there is always a higher power that can through you off the ladder. This concludes all the sections of the book and the reader officially becomes a Bawse if he follows all the lessons thought by Lilly. apart from the chapters the book also includes exclusive photographs of Lilly after every chapter and also her Autograph, how great is that for her Fans! This is by far my favorite book with valuable lessons taught comically by the multifaceted entertainer Lilly Singh. Worth A Steal!

P.S : I threw a surprise party for my sister’s eighteenth birthday. And Lilly Singh is someone who she looks up to. Everyday she watches videos of her. I gave her 18 different gifts including clothes, shoes, accessories, cosmetics and what not. But How to be a bawse turned out to be her favorite one. The joy she had on her face is still vivid in my head. I felt so proud. I knew I made her 18^th unforgettable. Thank you Lilly Singh for writing this incredible book and helped me in making my little sister the happiest.