My First TV Shoot.( BBC Talking Business)

Its been a long time since I have posted anything and I think this is the best moment to get back to writing.  A month back one of my school friends messaged me asking if I was interested in coming on a talk show “Talking Business” on BBC .She said that this time on the show they were planning to have a discussion on issues faced by women in India’s workforce and what stopped them from pursuing their careers. The discussion was supposed to be an element of Talking Business show  consisting  of panel discussion with Naina Lal Kidwai, Vaishali Kasture – Former Goldman Sachs  India Head and a HRexpert.

I wondered just like many others who have been asking me why  I was selected for the same. They needed a real face someone who would openly discuss the issues that women face actually and wouldn’t think twice about being  open about it. My friend Kinjal ( who is a producer of the show)thought I would be apt for it and roped me in.

When I got the opportunity , I thought I should take someone else along with me someone who Is equally bold like I am and someone who is equivocal about such issues.And that is how I roped in my best friend Aswathi for the chat show.We had a lot of discussions with the producer of the show before we actually went for the shoot. Points that we were going to discuss were put forth and finally the date , the schedule and the script all were ready and we were asked to report for the shoot early in the morning before the office hours.Facing the camera for the first time wasn’t very difficult as we thought and the shoot went as per the schedule.The show was supposed to be aired both on BBC English and Hindi as well. And this is what the show exactly looks like . Please go to the link and check the video ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36426579)

We discussed a lot of points and not a lot of them were shown on TV. The points that I felt as to why women have to leave their careers as compared to men is because of the following reasons:1)      Mental Harassment & Sexual Harassment2)      Lack of Safety3)      Unfriendly HR policies4)      Lack of Role Models5)      Orthodox  mindset of the society.I also shared an incident of being mentally harassed by a former colleague of mine ( which is not shown in the video) for over three months.That was one of the darkest period of my IT career I would say. I had even thought of quitting my job and taking a sabbatical .But then I found my lost strength in my family who said we would end up meeting such people in every walk of life and that running away from situations isn’t a solution for the same. You need to fight the situation and make peace with it . And that is exactly what I did . 

I spoke against the harassment and decided not to take it lying down inspite of being a fresher in the field of IT. I am thankful to that former colleague of mine for torturing me so badly that I emerged strong out of it. Work bullies is a concept that I was introduced to all thanks to him.  One thing that I wanted to express via my presence in show was women shouldn’t take things lying down silently. The main reason why people take advantage of women is because they consider women as a weaker sex and someone who would bear everything silently. Via my blog I would want my readers as well as everyone who would be watching the video that always speak up against what you think is wrong. Speak up if someone /something is going against you in an unfair way. No one is going to help you out if you don’t help yourself. I am not trying to vent out any personal grudge via this post but I feel fighting against a situation  will make you stronger in life J

I am extremely glad I could do my bit by being on the show and speaking for my gender , on behalf of so many women who dream big in life and are struggling to see their dreams turning into realities. I am extremely glad that a lot of my friends & my family are very happy and proud of me for doing this. Thanks to all of them. I am also happy that there are some who find all this too much of a hype and have openly expressed it. But the hype is worth it as it is not every day that I would wake up early in the morning to be messaged by a friend in Spain just to say that she spotted me on BBC  TV.  There are also people who have said “ that was just a two minute shoot” . Not everyone gets a chance to be on Global news for something good even for two minutes. For me every achievement small or big is an achievement  .

And thanks to a lot of people who actually made me realize that it is a big thing to be on TV for something good and something sensible. Thanks a lot . This one is definitely going to be something I am never going to be tired of being proud of. Because it is totally worth it.:)