He had recently got engaged to Saniya just days before the crash, and they were set to get married in November. A heartbreaking video from his funeral showed Saniya crying as she bid him goodbye. "Baby, you didn’t come to take me, you promised you would," she was heard saying in Hindi.

"Please let me see his face once," she said repeatedly. "I am proud of him," she added. Sidharth and Saniya were slated to marry on November 2, and preparations had already begun at home.

My father works at Tata AIA and a close friend’s father works at Tata Power. Both are 55+ years old and nearing retirement. You’d expect companies—especially those like Tata—to treat their senior employees with dignity and respect. Instead, here’s the reality:

• Forced weekend work is the norm, not the exception.

• No holidays for Indian festivals like Diwali or Holi. Zero cultural sensitivity.

• Reimbursements are delayed or never approved.

• Yearly bonuses revoked, shifted to incentive-based systems, but incentives are never released.

• Appraisals are a joke — 5–6% hikes after decades of service.

• Senior leadership is incompetent, wasting hours on video calls blabbering nonsense.

• Toxicity is normalized, and respect is nonexistent.

And this isn’t an isolated issue. This is the systemic rot in many parts of corporate India—even under so-called “prestigious” names like Tata.

What’s worse:

• These are old employees, they can’t just quit and switch jobs.

• They’re harassed and disrespected daily.

• If this was the US, there would be lawsuits for hostile work environments. Here in India, it’s just “how things are.”

This is abuse, exploitation, and mismanagement wrapped in legacy branding. It’s not okay.

Tata might sell itself as a legacy brand, but many of its subsidiaries have become toxic corporate sweatshops. And this post is not just about Tata—this is about corporate India’s toxic work culture, especially towards older employees who’ve given their lives to these companies.

Younger generations are now rebelling against this culture, and instead of being heard, they’re being labelled as “lazy.” No—this generation isn’t lazy. We’re just not willing to accept being abused in the name of “hard work”.

⚠️ This needs to change.

Stop accepting this culture as “normal.”

Stop believing “this is just how it works in India.”

Speak up. Share your story. Post anonymously if you have to. Use Glassdoor, Reddit, Twitter, LinkedIn—but talk.

📢 Be loud. Be vocal. Be relentless.

Toxic workplaces thrive on silence. The only way to kill them is by exposing them.

If you’ve seen or experienced this in your workplace—drop a comment. Let’s bring accountability back into the system.

BookMyShow has crossed a line. They've removed Kunal Kamra's shows simply because Shiv Sena demanded it. This is what happens when one company controls the entire ticket booking market - they become enablers of political censorship.

As India's dominant ticketing platform, they're now using that power to help political parties bully artists they don't like. This sets a dangerous precedent for free speech in entertainment.

Uninstalled their app. Left a 1-star review. Who else is done with BookMyShow's cowardice?

Academic and commentator Ashok Swain of Uppsala University in Sweden is in the unique position of having his OCI status revoked twice by the Indian government. The government did not give any public reason for doing so but said that it had “sensitive information” which it submitted to the courts when Swain challenged the decision. On both occasions the courts overturned it. “I have great faith in the Indian judiciary,” Swain told Sidharth Bhatia in a podcast discussion.

Swain’s writings and tweets have been sharply critical of the Modi government. Now his X account is ‘withheld” in India and he says all his tweets before December 2024 have vanished.

“I got a lot of threats of a serious nature” and petitions to the university, said Swain, adding that his colleagues had been very supportive. “OCIs of many academics have been targeted.” However, he insisted he did not want to indulge in “victimhood”.

Atleast they know how to sign, please look at education in your states and don't comment on signature. I am not a DMK supporter but I am from Tamilnadu and I see outright robbing of this state and then calling us anti-indian for not speaking Hindi.

Give Tamilnadu the money you are holding for our education funds. more than 2000crs.

It started with a chaiwala and a dream.

A man who rose from “nothing,” promised everything, and delivered… lynch mobs, bulldozers, blackout zones, and temples on prime time.

Ten years later, we’re in a version of India where the absurd is now policy, and outrage is just a trend that expires in 24 hours. Here, Muslims lynched over meat, Women stripped and paraded in Manipur, A 15-year-old lynch on a train, Activists jailed for tweets, Comedians arrested for jokes (isn’t that their job?), Journalists labeled “terrorists” for doing their job and entire homes flattened because someone “offended” the wrong people.

Meanwhile, Ram Mandir was launched like it was the Apple Event of the year. Cameras, fireworks, aerial shots, celebrity endorsements. All we were missing was Tim Cook chanting Hanuman Chalisa. It wasn’t a religious event, it was a flex. A giant, state-funded, saffron-colored flex.

But hey—“development,” right?

Sure, as long as we ignore the unemployment, inflation, collapsing healthcare, and an education system that’s being replaced by WhatsApp forwards and “Sanatan science.”

And then there’s the Waqf Amendment Bill: because nothing says secular democracy like quietly targeting Muslim institutions under the noble cause of “transparency.” Add to that the CAA-NRC cocktail and you’ve got a slow-burn strategy of exclusion. Very chill. Very democratic.

Now, about the media. Or should I say “Godi Media”, brought to you by Bhaktcoin.

This is a media ecosystem where: A rape survivor gets silence, A temple gets 24x7 live coverage, Unemployment hits a 45-year high—but let’s cut to breaking news: “Was Rahul Gandhi’s beard anti-Hindu?, Farmers protest for a year? Irrelevant, A fake WhatsApp forward about beef? National emergency.

And the bhakts? Ah yes, the hyper-nationalist keyboard warriors. The ones who’ve turned “Go to Pakistan” into punctuation. They’ll worship the Prime Minister like he’s India’s second freedom struggle, and still blame Nehru for the pothole outside their house.

They don’t need facts. They’ve got reels, rage, and Republic TV.

Call out hate crimes? You’re “anti-national.” Point out inequality? “Tukde gang.” Raise a question? “Urban Naxal.” At this point, they’re just a rebrand away from handing out loyalty cards for fascism.

And we’ve gotten used to it. That’s the scary part.

We got used to the bulldozers. To the silence after rape. To the spin after hate speech. To the idea that some people’s lives matter less.

We got used to thinking this is just how things are now.

But it’s not normal.

It’s not normal for justice to depend on your religion. It’s not normal for dissent to be equated with terrorism. It’s not normal that media sounds more like a North Korean highlight reel than journalism.

And if Modi comes back again, fully armed with narrative control, institutional capture, and a fanbase that cheers for bulldozers, then we really need to stop pretending this is a democracy on pause.

This is the direction. This is the plan. And the longer we laugh it off or look away, the harder it gets to undo.

This isn’t just a government. It’s an ideology. An ideology that thrives on fear, silence, and a population too distracted to care.

We may not control the institutions. We may not control the headlines.

But what we say still matters. What we post, call out, document, still counts. Maybe not in TRPs or viral views, but in memory. In resistance.

In refusal to accept this as “just politics.”

Because it’s not. It’s our lives.

And if this is the new normal, it’s worth asking: How much worse are we willing to let it get before we call it what it really is?

Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal have approved central allocations of ₹ 328.90 crore, ₹ 2,151.60 crore, and ₹ 1,745.80 crore respectively for the current fiscal year, no funds had been released from this central share to these States.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala-tamil-nadu-west-bengal-have-received-no-funds-under-samagra-shiksha-for-fy2024-25/article69409044.ece

The union government has not done anything to ease Tamil Nadu’s financial burden and has different yardstick for devolving funds to states, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu told reporters at the secretariat on Friday. Thennarasu reiterated his earlier charge that for every single rupee given to the centre, the state got back only 29 paise, but this ratio was different for BJP-ruled states.

Talking to reporters, Thennarasu said that between 2014-15 and 2022-23, the centre gave Rs 4.75 lakh crore to Tamil Nadu, including tax share of Rs 2.46 lakh crore and a subsidy of Rs 2.28 lakh crore. At the same time, direct tax collections accounted for Rs 6.23 lakh crore. During the same period, the BJP-ruled states were given Rs 15.35 lakh crore for providing Rs 2.23 lakh crore to the Centre, Thennarasu said, adding Uttar Pradesh was an example. He also said Sitharaman did not say anything about indirect taxes.

https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2024/Jan/06/tn-got-just-29-paise-for-every-rupee-given-to-centre-says-thennarasu-2648383.html

Outright Lying is what leaders of countries are doing nowadays. Zero Fact just lie, who is going to ask question? Wont give interview to the media companies that they control itself. Comedy only is happening in this country.

FIR has been filed, please clap good start, usually they say some story of no one has given FIR. Hopefully they catch the culprit soon and put him before a judge and jail him.

My father served for 13 years at a company, holding a senior manager role where he managed the entire state of Gujarat. Subsequently, he was forcefully and unwillingly promoted, which involved a shift in his domain from sales to service—an area where he lacked proficiency—and an expansion of his regional responsibilities to include both Gujarat and Rajasthan, all without a salary increase. He then faced a highly toxic boss who pressured him intensely to perform well, despite his best efforts and discomfort in the service domain. On Saturday, this boss told him to resign, repeatedly demeaning sales as useless, a burden on the company that should not exist, and explicitly telling him to leave. My father, deeply frustrated and fed up, was coerced into resigning on Monday. He intends to request a demotion back to a sales position or resign altogether. My father, a person of great dignity, is severely mentally disturbed by these events. He was consistently a high performer, receiving monthly awards for his achievements, but this transition to service has caused him immense distress. I love him and do not want him to remain depressed, even though he has sufficient savings for my college and my sister's schooling. He desires to continue working, and his history of respect and hard work has shaped him such that he finds it difficult to accept a lower status. I am deeply saddened by this situation. How can I explain to my father that it is acceptable for him to resign for the sake of his mental health, especially since I can manage my own finances if necessary? How can I help him find happiness? He is very sad and panicking significantly. Furthermore, what other options does my father have? At almost 43 years old, is he considered too old for private sector employment, and will companies still hire him? What steps should we take now? Please help. And to that boss, I express my extreme displeasure. I wish my father would agree to press charges against him and pursue legal action, but he is unwilling to do so.

Ps: rewritten by ai, as I wrote in frustration and did not want to recheck grammar... Sorry for that.