# Pastebin dMijsA9v
def _produce_message_via_rest(self, topic, message):
        import requests, json
        KAFKA_REST_URL = "<URL>"
        KAFKA_X_AUTH_TOKEN = "<TOKEN>"
        LOG.info(" Inside produce_message_via_rest")
        LOG.info(" Kafka REST url is ", KAFKA_REST_URL)
        
        proxies = {
            'http': 'http://x.x.x.x:3128',
            'https': 'http://x.x.x.x:3128',
        }
        # Metric payload to be sent to Kafka
        message_payload = {
            "value": {
                "type": "text",
                "data": json.dumps(message.decode('utf-8')),
            }
        }
        # Sent message via POST call to Kafka REST API
        response = requests.post(
            KAFKA_REST_URL,
            headers={
                "Content-Type": "application/json",
                "Accept": "application/json",
                "X-Auth-Token": KAFKA_X_AUTH_TOKEN,
            },
            data=json.dumps(message_payload),
            proxies=proxies,
        )
        
        LOG.info(response.__dict__)
        # Check the response status code
        if response.status_code == 200:
            LOG.info(' | Message published successfully')
        else:
            LOG.info(' | Failed to publish message. Status code:', response.status_code)