Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the Lakme fashion week is prepared for the first digital edition walk.

The restrictions on the budget and travel have led to a reduction in sales, people are finding it difficult in going back to the normal routine.

In early October, the Head Designer of Prada, Miuccia Prada in her show said that in these polar times, everything is opposite. In Summer/Spring collection of the label, models walked around a sport themed set with screens on the walls live-streamed to know who watched from home. It implies that a viewer would be able to observe other viewers watching the show.

In this way, the Head designer of Prada blended the viewers, particularly who would have been sitting in the front in the show and linked the distance between the audience and performers.

In countries like India, which has a large number of Covid-19 patients, they cannot organise a live programme. The Lotus Makeup India Fashion Week and Indian Couture Week took place in a hybrid way of physical and digital format. The show was a pre-recorded film. Now, the Lakme Fashion Week 2020 shall be hosted between 21-25 October in the digital format including designer showcases, webinars and films.

In the upcoming summer/spring fashion shows, the format will be perfectly digital. The shows in Milan are conducted physically by practising social distancing. Italy claims the lowest number of Covid cases in Europe and assures attaining their former position in the fashion world.

Fashion shows are very frequently organised in Paris with a local audience. Chanel show had welcomed 500 masked guests. At the same time, Louis Vuitton had installed 360-degree cameras between the seats and provided a virtual presentation to the viewers in their smartphones. It was like we were present in the event, said Vogue.

The Shanghai Fashion Week which included 90 shows and presentations was organised in a physical event. The show was additionally live-streamed to reach a global viewership. This was the result of the pandemic and the restraints it brought forcing the brands to undertake the Hybrid form of showing.

The Lakme Fashion event will be virtually customisable for the viewers including the media, the buyers and the audience. They have been strategically planning their investments. ‘The Runaway’ shall showcase the fashion and designer films, the See Now, Buy Now innovation allows customers to purchase clothes immediately after the show ends.

The shooting of the Lakme Fashion Week had started weeks before. They plan to use these features and expand their reach. It is also decided that in case a physical event is planned, these innovations shall add to the offerings of the customers. This upcoming show will be a trial and the feedback from the audience shall be taken into consideration, said the co-sponsor.

The IMG Reliance, co-sponsor stated that 800 Covid test was conducted in the filming of the show in Mumbai at regular intervals. The event was following the Standard Operating Procedures given by the government including the necessary quarantine after the show.

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Danielle Bernstein, a fashion designer was accused by The Great Eros, an international brand for copying the signature nude print and putting it on her, WeWoreWhat items even the wallpaper.

WeWoreWhat produced line silhouettes of bodies on a white background. After it became popular, they launched it on other products including scarves and wallpapers. However, the design was similar to the tissue paper that, The Great Eros used to pack their products. Some people had pointed out the similarities between the two designs. 

On 15th October, a lawsuit was filed where The Great Eros had privately sent a cease-desist letter to WeWoreWhat on August 10. They blamed Bernstein of applying the same design on their products and ‘committing copyright infringement and engaging in unfair competition’.

Apparently, the Lawsuit was not filed by The Great Eros but against them by WeWoreWhat and their partner, Onia. They want the court to declare that it was not them who copied the design also, they did not violate copyright or any other rights under the Lanham Act or common law.

In the case, the Lanham (Trademark) Act is a primary federal statute of law in the United States. It prohibits trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and false advertising. Even the California Common Law prohibits false advertising and illegal business practices, as existing legislation that supports its claims.

WeWoreWhat claims that the design was created independently which was inspired by the silhouette drawings and Henri Matisse’s line drawings. 

In the investigation, it was found that WeWoreWhat had never bought or received any product from The Great Eros in the previously mentioned tissue paper. The lawsuit states that the silhouettes of the human form are not owned by anyone. 

Along with the similarities, the two designs are different too. In WeWoreWhat’s design, the silhouette includes the heads while The Great Eros does not have heads.On October 13, The Great Eros filed a complaint about ‘copyright infringement and claims for unfair competition under the Lanham Act and states law claims regarding unfair business practices”.

In the complaint filed by The Great Eros, it is mentioned the Danielle Bernstein had visited The Great Eros before they had produced the alleged product. On the day, when the complaint was drafted, The Great Eros registered the design in the copyright office.

The design was of prominent importance to The Great Eros who defined the design as their ‘brand identity’ and ‘source identifier’. People had been associating WeWoreWhat’s products with The Great Eros.

The Great Eros has been incurring substantial losses due to ‘diversion of trade, loss of profits and a diminishment in the value of goods and reputation.’ The WeWoreWhat shall be held accountable for the damage because in associating with the brand of ‘low fashion appeal and low quality’. They are also seeking to remove all the products withdrawn from the market.

Although the suit filed by Danielle Bernstein was dismissed, The Great Eros shall continue to fight and protect their rights to the full extent said the lawyer, Jeff Gluck. He also made a list of similarities which included the colour, scale of the drawing, weight of the line stroke, rotation of each drawing, identical length and the width of every body part.

The Great Eros acknowledged the complaint on their Instagram stories on 16th October.

It is important to be noted that it is not the first time Danielle Bernstein has accused of her products, although a suit was never filed against earlier. In her 2018 jewellery collection in collaboration with Lulu DK, the designs were similar to those of Foundrae, Retrouvai and Bondeye.

Earlier this year, she was again blamed for copying a mask design from By Second Wind. however, she claimed that she had been producing the masks much before By Second Wind. She said that it was not an original concept and she had never claimed it as her own.

A Poshmark seller had claimed that she had gotten a similar copy of the Silhouette WeWoreWhat design before they were even released in the market.

The post Danielle Bernstein sues the lingerie brand for accusing her of copying designs appeared first on Maverick Times.

Suhana khan an Indian model and a daughter of Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan is making headlines as she slammed ‘colourism’ in her latest post and raised her voice to emphasize on the ongoing problem of the society, she quoted it’s in need to fix the issue for the boy/girl who is being treated as inferior for absolutely no reason. Further, she highlighted that people hating on their own country’s people just means that they are painfully insecure. 

Even though our constitution of India has declared the country, no discrimination should occur based on colour, but this is that country who forces the girl/boy to deal with harmful traumatic racial discrimination. Just after the incident of George Floyd, in several countries public expressed outrage and in India people are obsessed with fair skin but some section of the society with smartphones and access to the internet they furiously started talking about racism and other forms of discrimination prevalent in society, but still some section of the society considers black tone is a curse. Indian racism towards Black people is almost worse than white people’s racism. 

However, this is not the fault of any one person or a specific group rather Indians are racist by nature and the type of racism in India is hilariously selective as we have been taught and witnessed this in our society since the tender age about beautiful and fair directly or indirectly. But in this case, also, they choose who to treat with disdain and who not to though. It has become a stereotype for our society that white people are more successful, wealthy, and attractive, and they think black people are druggists and criminals. Even so, Indians watch Hollywood movies and feel immensely thrilled by the performances of blacks. To emphasize more one moment I remember is their excitement at the action scenes with Tyrese Gibson or Ludacris in Fast and Furious 8. Not only this when Barack Obama visited India on January 26, 2015, the world saw India at her best and provided the best hospitality to the president of the US – a black man. However, when they see the same blacks in their country, they are contemptuous. Even though Krishna and many other Hindu gods are described as dark, or even black, that is not enough reason to cleanse them of racism.

However just after the George Floyd black lives matter movement across the world, Unilever and its Indian subsidiary Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) was criticized extensively for promoting colourism and making girls with darker shades feel insecure and inadequate, Besides this, it’s observed for endorsement of Fair and lovely always top Bollywood actors and actresses advertises it to promote and gives a message that “fair skin is a means to finding love or a glamorous job”.

But the main concern arises that changing a name is not enough to change perceptions about skin colour that have been held and perpetuated over centuries.

The post Every colour is beautiful; it’s time to end colourism appeared first on Maverick Times.

If not antique then vintage it is and trendsetters will know what I am talking about. Vintage style just like any other style was the popular rage in some years from now and signalled loud colours which were unique in style. They were items that were adopted because of their uniqueness though now the actual definition has taken up a back seat. If you are a fashion-savvy then this come- back is your go-to.

We must have seen that vintage fashion is flooding in the market and much like puffed sleeves and bootcut jeans sunglasses are taking up a major comeback. The loud colours, unique pattern gives your face a sharp look. Wear with any piece of clothing you have on your wardrobe and you will still look badass!

Let us take you through various vintage sunglass collection that is a hot sale right now

• Flat Tops

There is always someone out there who always go for oversized hoodies and these enormously oversized frames are a beloved this season.

• Lil’ Square frames

Want to go classy and classic with your look but still unable to gets hands-on into accessories? Then these Lil’ Square frames is exactly what you need inside your glamour hall. These 90’s vintage frame could be worn with anything that you feel comfortable in.

• Cat- Eyed

Remembering gone days when we would go mad-crazy over the cat-eye liner. Much like cat-liners, these frames can never fall out of any fashion trend. It is one such style that never goes out of fashion.

• Chunky frames

These frames were a shout-out during the ’60s and we must all be familiar with the Monroe style with thick frames which was hoot then a are now too!

The post Vintage Sunglasses Frames Are A Blast From The Past appeared first on Maverick Times.

While purchasing a brand we as customers always keep in our mind, the quality and longevity of a product that we purchase. Brands are increasing antlike and there are hardly few that successfully comes to our mind when it comes to clothing brands, and one of such brand is Zara. It is a name which everybody knows and nobody knows how it became a popular tag.

Who is Amancio Ortega?

Amancio Ortega is a billionaire and the owner of Zorba which we popularly call Zara. He hails from Spain and is considered a retail magnate. He is a man who believes in working hard to achieve dreams. Today half of the high street brands are owned by him. Inditex the flagship brand of Zara records acceptable profits and has made Zara one of the worlds largest fashion retailer. It has been noted that he would do the 10 km journey from his town centre house to Inditex headquarters and sometime he would sit down with the Zara woman design team in order to kick around ideas for the coming week. He is a man passionate about the kind of work he is doing. His vision was to keep this brand low priced product and everybody felt the move was exceptionally genius. Ortega decided to change the design, manufacturing and distribution process to reduce the time between the initiated and completion of his production process.

Origin

The name Zara was initially called Zorba and it is a clothing store which was started by Amancio Ortega who is the holder of this popular brand today. It all started in the year 1963 when Ortega established a company named Inditex which later became Zorba to Zara in Spain. Inditex initially was incorporated as a holding company and was set up to lay the foundation for a distribution system capable of reacting to shifting markets.

 This store started its marketing in the year 1975 and the investment that they have put up was quite minimal. The store was successfully set up in A Coruna, Galicia, in Spain which slowly started keeping their feet straight towards the road to success and it was slowly expanding it to the rest of the country and later in Portugal. Zara believes in ‘instant fashion’ which led to lumpsum investment in information technology and utilizing groups. Today the brand could be seen almost in most of the country including Portugal, United States (New York), France (Paris), Mexico, Greece, Belgium, Sweden, Malta, Cyprus, Norway, India and Israel. Today there is a total of 2259 Zara store in 96 countries. It is one of the largest fast-fashion retail fashion brands which started as a small store in Spain.

Ortega is the sixth richest man in the world according to Forbes magazine and according to the experts it has been estimated that the bank balance of Zara overtook that of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Success of Zara

People live and breathe for fashion and trends are something that people want to willingly follow, in order to keep themselves up-to-date. Ortega knew about this and he started working to reduce the lead time while indulging into ‘fast-fashion’. He noticed that shops were taking time to come up with their customers demand and by the time a product arrived in the market, fashion-conscious shoppers wanted something different. He, therefore did what his customers wanted and started working with designs to fulfil their cravings. The brand keeps a close watch on how fashion is changing and creates new designs and puts them into the store within week or two. He created a model which isn’t easy for any other brands to copy.

Three strategies that Zara follows

• Lead time

This helps in come up with new designs in short span of time in comparison with other fashion brands within a week or two so that the customers needs are quickly satisfied. Be it summer, autumn, winter or spring, the brand quickly catches up with new trends.

• Reduce quantities

Zara intentionally creates artificial scarcity to get customers attention to their latest collection. They believe in the lesser the availability, the more desirable an object become. Also, if a design fails to get customers then it isn’t a heavy task for the brand to dispose of the rest, since there is no high volume to be disposed off.

• Styles

Zara believes in producing more style and focuses less in increasing the volume for the same style. It only allows its designs to stay on the shop floor for three to four weeks. It is a practice which indirectly forces the customers to visit the store more frequently.

Ortega is the man who will not look at you from the top but will stand beside you to your ideas placed.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has hammered the globe in a way that it is becoming difficult for people to come out of their quarantine trauma. The expecting mothers are getting even more conscious about their everyday habits. At a time where most of the countries have been declared a shut-down, it is becoming more and more laborious for expecting mothers to find their proper diet chart from the market.

There have been multiple questions on whether to erase a few food items from their diet chart and whether the absence of it might affect them and their child. Here are a few tips and habits that every expecting mother must follow.

• A healthy diet is the go-to

When we say healthy, it means a varied range of vegetables, fruits, nuts and water in your diet. One must make sure that their food has adequate nutrition counting from micro-nutrients such as- iron, folate, calcium and vitamin D. It is suggested that one must be in close-knit with a doctor or dietician who can guide you across the dos and the don’ts since very women are different in their own unique ways.

• Supplements are welcome

It is important and mandatory now for all expecting mothers to include supplements in their daily diet routine, supplements such as folic acid, vitamins and iron are a must. Women suffering from constant nausea and vomiting needs to take an additional supplement.

• Caffeine is not a solution

If you are a caffeine addict then it is high-time you brush this habit under your carpet. It is believed that expecting mothers are not supposed to consume more than 300mg caffeine a day. You can instead turn their cravings to fruit juices and mineral water. Soft and carbonated drinks are unsafe because of their high level of caffeine. One must only consume freshly made beverages.

• Eating junk is a big NO

There will be a time when you would secretly want to indulge yourself into falling prey for cheat-meals but mind you, it might trigger uneasiness in the body and you wouldn’t want to risk your immunity during a pandemic. The meals that one consumes must be freshly home-cooked, allergies are common issues that one might be facing, therefore, informing their doctor about any kind of food allergies are recommended.

• Immunity boosting drinks

Yoghurt, buttermilk and whole milk are considered calcium-rich since milk is in scarcity due to the lockdown expecting mothers can switch themselves to eggs, dal, nuts and cereals for protein intake. Fruits and vegetables are a rich source of fibre, vitamins and minerals. In order to strengthen one’s bones.

The post Health Advice For Pregnant Women During A Pandemic appeared first on Maverick Times.

Over a period of time, Indians have forgotten the importance of Hindustani literature. The west has a strong impact on Indians hampering the Hindustani literature. Students are taught about western literati which aren’t wrong but it is essential to teach about our legendary literati to students. It is important to preserve Indian literature as it speaks the truth about its time and it doesn’t have any manipulation. Literature needs to be taught to generations to make them understand what a particular era was, which is not always very clear through history. Mujeeb Khan is one such person who is working towards the preservation of Hindustani Literature and maintaining its heritage.

He is a theatre activist and writer who has been trying to preserve Hindustani Literature for more than 40 years. He has been performing from the age of 11 and is working ever since then. In a conversation with Mr Mujeeb Khan, he said, “I was 11 when I directed my first play. During school days I won many competitions as a writer and director. At the age of 18, I directed a play with artists double my age. It was appreciated by everyone in the audience.” He has performed at small and big platforms and has always been passionate about theatre. He was corrected by veteran writer and film actor Kader Khan who is also a teacher and stage guru of Mr Mujeeb Khan’s early stage. Shafi Inamdar, Shekhar Purohit and Shaikh Ahmed have also contributed in moulding, Mr Khan.

Mujeeb Khan a post-graduate from Mumbai University, has received acclaim in the form of awards for writing and directing during his school and college days that motivated him to carry on in this field. Currently, Mr Mujeeb Khan and his troupe are on a mission—one that they hope will bring one of India’s most prolific writers into the 21st Century. Mr Khan Directed more than 500 one Act Plays and more than 10 full length plays.

At the age of 18, he wrote a play ‘Laachare Mai’ which was witnessed by a great writer of the era ‘Ismat Chugtai’, where she was a judge and asked Mr Khan his age. She could not believe that it is a work of an 18 years old boy and asked him to meet her regularly for moulding him for his new plays. Mr Mujeeb Khan is a great craftsman, he directs plays in his style which is very unique and he always experiments on stage. At the age of 23, he participated in an all India Drama Competition in Nagpur where his play, “Ishwar Allah Tero Naam” won all the trophies. Many times he has been awarded the best writer and director award in various competitions.

In his early stage life, he directed a play “Spartacus” which was adapted from the novel Spartacus of Howard Fast. It was the first play in then Bombay to gain review and recognition in the Times of India. Another play, “Kabira Khada Bazaar Mein” was based on the life story of Kabir Das. The Times of India’s Evening Newspaper reported saying, “Khan’s Kabira Depicts Equality.” 30-35 shows of each play were done in almost every renowned theatres like NCPA, Prithvi, Pathkar Hall, Birla Matoshree Sabhagraha, etc. Khan received a lot of recognition and appreciation for them.

He shifted to the television industry for a bit. “Then I took a break from theatre and moved towards the television industry as a writer and director. I directed my own show Filmy Duniya, Sitaro Ki Duniya” Khan said. While working in the industry he realised that his creativity was being disturbed and changed, hence he decided to continue doing theatre for the rest of his life. He was a body language expert in a programme on UTV Star’s ‘Batein Ankahi’, as he had the freedom to speak his mind out.

Khan always visioned to function a theatre group alone and hence he left ACT in 2001 and started Ideal Drama and Entertainment Academy (IDEA) in 2002.

In August 2005, Khan started a drama series called ‘Aadab Main Premchand Hoon’ on the occasion of Munshi Premchand’s Birth Anniversary. The plays of Premchand hit the stage to an almost empty theatre. But Khan maintained his faith in the cause, he dramatised and has completed staging 313 out of 315 stories in more than 600 weeks. Mujeeb Khan said, “We maintain the beauty and the subtle nuances of language peculiar to the writer, focusing on correct diction, be it in Urdu or Hindi. We have made it our mission to enact stories of this writer and not let this precious literature get lost in oblivion.”

Khan every year conducts a 10-day drama festival, from 31st July to 9th August as 31st July is Munshi Premchand’s Birth Anniversary. In 2016, he directed and presented 136 plays in just 10 days. Khan said, “You can’t read 136 stories in 10 days but we will show you 136 plays in 10 days.” His name has been registered in the ‘Limca Book of Records’ for staging almost all the plays of a single writer. However, this year as a result of the pandemic, he conducted a one day ‘Online Prem Utsav’ to maintain the legacy.

Mr Khan not only performs Munshi Ji’s plays but also of many other literati like Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore under the series “Namaskar Main Rabindranath Tagore Hoon” and Sadat Hasan Manto under the series “Manto Ka Deewanapan”, Swami Vivekanand, Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Azad, Mirza Ghalib, Harivanshrai Bachchan, Bhagat Singh and many more. He also stages a play known as ‘Rashmirathi’ written by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar which is based on Mahabharata.

Mr Mujeeb Khan actively supports “Journalistic Theatre” and dutifully as a service to mankind performs street plays based on various ongoing social issues like Corruption, HIV Aids, Malnutrition (Kuposhan), Importance of School, Education for all, Women Empowerment, Save Water, Ragging in Colleges, Drugs etc. at various locations ranging from the schools and colleges of Mumbai to the slums of Dharavi, to the suburban railway stations like CST, Wadala, Andheri etc. to the streets of remote locations like Bhiwandi and Kalyan on the outskirts of Mumbai City and this is not limited to the city of Mumbai but they have performed these plays at various venues, numerous times across the country. He has done street plays for the Mumbai & Pune Traffic Police, the Municipal Co-operation, ONGC, the Anti Corruption Bureau, FedX and Various other NGOs.

To encourage and promote Hindustani literature in the young minds, he has been organizing Interschool Drama Competition, “The Aaliyah Jabeen Khan Trophy” since 25 years and Inter-collegiate Drama a Competition, “The P. L. Deshpande Trophy” since 14 years.

Mr Mujeeb Khan said that once he had gone to a school to perform the plays of Munshi Premchand and one of the students saw a picture of Munshiji and asked him, “Sir, who is this uncle?” to which Mr Khan replied that we call someone an uncle if we don’t know them and it’s a shame to know that our future generation knows who Shakespear is but is unaware of Munshi Premchand. We need to teach our children about these Indian gurus to keep our literature alive.

The post Persevering, adapting and re-creating the Indian literature theatrically instead theoretically. appeared first on Maverick Times.

With digital transaction being the centre of attention and new normal while excluding the not-so-privilege section of societies, Ogilvy a New- York based British advertisement agency who’s new chant is to believe in the cash-inclusive society introduces ‘Blink’.

The man behind this fintech Henry Medina says “Blink goes from an offline need to an online solution. We may be talking about the missing link between traditional banking culture and the digital one”.

The start-up has been started in Bolivia by Ogilvy to deliver cash to areas without any ATMs closer to them. It is a cash delivery service via cab which will be providing cash to customers claiming for one. It is a country with 40 ATMs with a population of 100,000 citizens and this new start-up is making cash available on the go to the far and distant. Blink has been awarded a fundraising contract and was consciously appreciated for its effort in making cash available for all.

How does Blink operate?

Just like any other service-providing applications Blink users are asked to enter the amount they want to withdraw. The amount is taken out from the customers registered bank account in return for a service fee. Any nearby taxi driver picks-up the amount and then delivers it to the respected customer and once the delivery has been notified as to successful, the driver receives a code allowing them to withdraw their due amount plus commission from an ATM.

It has been noticed that Bolivia is growing in terms of their respective ATMs, the concept of mobile ATMs have encouraged people staying in the vicinity to open up a bank account. The start-up has plans to power-up cash access.

This new fintech innovation comes with pros ad cons while the innovator shows a slight sign of concern for the delivery’s safety. There have been many cases in the past where Uber cab drivers were victims of assault, the reason- cash.

Covid-19 has hit the globe like a thunderbolt and people are switching to the cashless economy while losing trust in the cash-inclusive economy because of the new normal surrounding it. Apart from hurting most industries, the pandemic has sped up the transaction towards a cashless digital economy. With cash continuing to be the number one source of payment it won’t be an easy way procedure to eradicate it.

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Assam, apart from being popularly called as the “tea capital of India” is also well known for its traditional Mekhela Chadar also pronounced as Mekhela Sador by the locals. The garment though it looks like a saree, it never can be saree. If you wear it once you can never deny wearing it the next time.

They are two pieces of cloth worn by women during multiple occasions, which comes in infinite colours. The two-piece saree is mostly draped on the top and on the bottom where the bottom being called as the “Mekhela” which is cylindrical in shape and is systematically folded into pleats to the right around the waist and is tucked in. The Sador is the eye candy and is tucked into the Mekehla’s upper portion at one end and the other end is draped around like a palla. The one big question that comes to people about Mekhela- sador is the material that it is made up of and where the production is being generated. You can get it mainly from cotton, Muga, Pat Silk and the golden silk material which is only found in Assam and nowhere else.

Sualkuchi is a small town in the state of Assam which is popularly called as the “Manchester of the East”. It is situated on the northern banks of the Brahmaputra river and is a hub for the centuries-old heritage of weaving. Many women in this district design Mekhela sador by using tradition methods. The bright, gold Muga silk is exclusive to Assam is very costly. It is not just a simple piece of cloth worn by the Assamese women but luxury and it has been highly appreciated by the fashion designers globally. The Muga silk which is exclusive to Assam was given the Geographical Indication status in 2007 and the GI logo in 2014.

Types of Mekhela Sador

• Muga Mekhela Sador: Amongst all the other types of silk available in Assam, Muga silk is expensive. The silk is domestically reared in the outdoors and the name ‘Muga’ is said to be derived from the Assamese word Muga for the golden and yellow colour of the fabric. You will be surprised to find out that the Muga’s golden colour enhances even more after you give it a wash. This clothing can be worn both in the summers and in the winters.

• Eri mekhela Sador: The ‘Eri’ has been evolved from the Sanskrit word Era which is a plant and is the food for the Eri worm. These Eri worms are found feeding on these plants. The Eri silk is less expensive in comparison with Muga silk.

• Pat Mekhela Sador: Unlike the Muga mekhela sador which is golden/yellow in colour, the Pat mekhela sador is generally white in colour, ranging from brilliant white to off white.

The Mekhela sador are being produced in numbers in Sualkuchi town by local weavers, the produced are shipped and distributed to various other parts in India.  The popularity and demand for Mekhela sador is growing not just in Assam but it is slowly catching the eyes of the global market with the latest showcase being in the Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) Summer Resort 2013 by fashion designer, Vaishali Shadangule. The popular once’s that is widely fancied are the Muga and Pat silk and the cotton one are mostly worn by Assamese women while doing their daily household chores.

One need not worry about the maintenance of the clothing since it is a low maintenance attire without any hassle. The Muga Mekhela sador is considered an antique in every Assamese household and it survives generations. This beautiful piece of handwoven clothing can be worn by women of all ages for various occasions. Mekhela sador is not just any other garment but it is an emotion for the indigenous community of Assam.

The post The Assamese Mekhela Sador: A Booming Industry appeared first on Maverick Times.

With the economy sitting at a standstill and revenue streams drying up, companies are looking for ways to reduce costs. Moreover, some are cutting salaries and benefits to help make ends meet.

As we are facing this pandemic without knowing its end, at the same time people are trying hard to make ends meets and that means working for extra hours with less salary. 

Coronavirus and lockdown have taken a toll on businesses, with as many as 27 out of the top 100 companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) unlikely to sustain current wage bill. 

Companies such as Reliance Industries, Air India, Zomato, OYO Rooms, Indian Express, Apollo Tyres, IndiGo, GoAir and so on, have implemented a salary cut.

Media houses such as Indian Express cut salaries from 10% to 30%, The Quint made employees go on leave without pay, and NDTV Group implemented a salary cut of 10-40% based on income slabs. Other media houses that are in the line for cutting the salary of their employees are Hindustan Times, Times of India, Economic Times, JaiHind TV, Times Now and more.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged the business community and higher-income groups to not cut salaries or resort to layoffs during this testing time. But PM’s appeal was ignored by big media and corporate houses.

More than 15% of employees are facing a salary cut up to 25%. According to Economic Times data analysis, 17.9% of the respondents who are likely to lose their jobs have a work experience of 10-14 years. 19.6% of the respondents who got a 16-25% salary cut have a work experience of 10-14 years.

Deepak Verma* who works as a delivery boy for Swiggy, said, “For every delivery we delivery boys do, we make anywhere from Rs.70-90. Before the salary reductions, I received a message simply stating that from the next week onwards, we will be getting flat Rs. 36/- only on all deliveries, we make. It is a big difference for us. Many of us are wrecked since we have rent and bills to pay, EMI etc.

Nearly four in five people who have had a pay cut in their household say it has affected their mental wellbeing. 6 out of 10 full and part-time employees surveyed at the end of April said that a member of their household, which could be themselves or someone else, had endured a salary reduction. Of those who have seen a fall in their household income, 40% have had increased anxiety and 39% had experienced increased stress, according to a research consultancy firm Barnett Waddingham.

Sana Shaikh*, an employee working at a consultant agency FarmToFork Solutions, a Mumbai based IT Company said “After paying the salary of March Month, my colleague and I were called in and were described verbally that they have to let us go since the company isn’t making the same profit as before,” told MaverickTimes.

Sana conveyed to MaverickTimes that she was distress with this news. 

She said, “How will I be able to find a new job in this pandemic? I did not know what to do. After a week or so I got in contact with my boss and pleaded to give me my job back so that I won’t have a complete financial crisis.” Further adding, “I was able to convince him and got me my job back but he said that he couldn’t pay the full salary and will have a pay cut of 50%. At first, I was a little hesitant but I accepted the offer.”  

She said that since her colleague was laid off she has been working overtime. “Working from home is very tiring having to sit in one place for continuous hours. I am working overtime because my partner, my colleague isn’t there to share the work anymore. I am doing the work of two employees at once with 50% pay.”

Another one of many, Geeta Singh* who works at Wipro when asked how she is coping with the work from home situation said, “Working from home surely has its advantages but I feel more comfortable with working at the office cause then you get to meet your colleague and have a laugh. You also get to feel the physical connection which is in very much under the water right now.”

Similarly, Geeta Singh* said, “It is tiring sitting in one place for 8 hours and sometimes 10. We are supposed to work overtime because if we don’t then our work won’t end.”

It is important to find ways to connect socially, ease stress, prioritize sleep, ease your body, and try and fuel your body with as much healthy food you can (which is very difficult to do in times like these), try and get up from your desk and loose up your muscles, intentionally create ‘shutdown’ time in your schedule and last but not the least accept the turbulence meaning accept that things have changed and you have to mould yourself in it; allowing yourself to acknowledge it.

* We are willing to maintain the safety and security of the employee by not disclosing the name

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