I do owe an apology for my earlier blog about the way Kolkata newspapers had reacted to Steve Jobs’ death. I had made the comment reading the internet versions of the newspapers, which had a news story about his death, in stark contrast to the way other newspapers had splashed the story. The reality is that The Telegraph was shut on October 6 for Dashami (Dussehra) and, therefore, there was no edition of the newspaper the next day. The early morning net edition of the paper carried the news as its second lead. And, I had misconstrued it as it had been carried in its print edition.
I could have easily sneaked in a delete click and let my post go into oblivion as if nothing happened. But I chose to keep the post, say sorry in my next one and expose my misunderstanding of the reality. That's loyalty for the newspaper that shaped me up. Cheers!
Friday, October 7, 2011
M’i’das fails to touch Kolkata media
My 10-year-old daughter rushed to me this morning and asked me: “Will there be more versions of i-pad, now that this person has died?”
That is the level i-technology has pervaded into our system. We no longer just connect, we “touch” each other’s lives.
I have never been a gadget freak, not even too friendly towards technology. I just about managed to understand its power and applications. Even the choice of my mobile handset is banal for the “arrived”. The three factors that guided me to choose my handset were: making and receiving calls, sending and receiving text messages and setting the alarm clock. So my present Nokia phone with its bulging number cover thanks to having been dropped umpteen number of times by my butter fingers, has just these functions. And, it has worked very well, has kept me connected (not informed) and has been loyal to me (no complaints) as I have been to it. So is my personal Dell. We were all living happily ever after…till I was bitten by the apple bug. The i-pad did help me shed my diffidence towards technology. It seemed to work intuitively, almost like magic. It seemed like this little rectangular device understood me and willingly came alive by my touch. I felt like Midas.
Then tragedy struck. The real Midas died. I came to know only when my Facebook account was full of tributes to the tech leader, who had once said: “Thomas Edison did a lot more to improve the world than Karl Marx.” I then told myself, “Why am I unable to react the way my Facebook friends have?”
I was not alone. I had company in the form of two leading newspapers that come out in Kolkata. Both these newspapers covered Steve Jobs’ death without much ado. Newspapers across the globe splashed the news on its front pages, like the world was being struck by a calamity. I was shocked to see The Telegraph and its muted coverage of the ‘i’con (this has now become a cliché). And, this came from a newspaper, which usually reacts furiously to even street clashes, giving banner headlines every other day.
I tried to understand the reason. I developed my own little argument: technology is connected closely with market, economy and consumerism. My friend had once told me how many schools in Kolkata even today were reluctant to allow technology walk past their wrought iron gates. And, the newspapers seemed to reflect this attitude. While the media across the globe screamed and wept for Steve Jobs, the Kolkata newspapers chose to let out a silent moan.
Time to ‘i’ntrospect?
That is the level i-technology has pervaded into our system. We no longer just connect, we “touch” each other’s lives.
I have never been a gadget freak, not even too friendly towards technology. I just about managed to understand its power and applications. Even the choice of my mobile handset is banal for the “arrived”. The three factors that guided me to choose my handset were: making and receiving calls, sending and receiving text messages and setting the alarm clock. So my present Nokia phone with its bulging number cover thanks to having been dropped umpteen number of times by my butter fingers, has just these functions. And, it has worked very well, has kept me connected (not informed) and has been loyal to me (no complaints) as I have been to it. So is my personal Dell. We were all living happily ever after…till I was bitten by the apple bug. The i-pad did help me shed my diffidence towards technology. It seemed to work intuitively, almost like magic. It seemed like this little rectangular device understood me and willingly came alive by my touch. I felt like Midas.
Then tragedy struck. The real Midas died. I came to know only when my Facebook account was full of tributes to the tech leader, who had once said: “Thomas Edison did a lot more to improve the world than Karl Marx.” I then told myself, “Why am I unable to react the way my Facebook friends have?”
I was not alone. I had company in the form of two leading newspapers that come out in Kolkata. Both these newspapers covered Steve Jobs’ death without much ado. Newspapers across the globe splashed the news on its front pages, like the world was being struck by a calamity. I was shocked to see The Telegraph and its muted coverage of the ‘i’con (this has now become a cliché). And, this came from a newspaper, which usually reacts furiously to even street clashes, giving banner headlines every other day.
I tried to understand the reason. I developed my own little argument: technology is connected closely with market, economy and consumerism. My friend had once told me how many schools in Kolkata even today were reluctant to allow technology walk past their wrought iron gates. And, the newspapers seemed to reflect this attitude. While the media across the globe screamed and wept for Steve Jobs, the Kolkata newspapers chose to let out a silent moan.
Time to ‘i’ntrospect?
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
‘Maha’ blunder
A new “gem” from the Maharashtra government: it has floated a new proposal to “reward” families who have a third child if it is a girl. Am I mighty impressed by this sudden girl shopping spree of the government? Apparently, the government wants to correct the skewed boy-girl ratio in the state, which is among the worst in the country at an abysmal 883 girls for every 1,000 boys. It also plans to tweak the existing laws to ensure government employees or elected representatives at all levels, including the gram panchayats, are not disqualified for giving birth to a third girl child.
This is the most bizarre proposal I have come across in a country, struggling with a high rate of population growth. We are already grappling with many many more mouths to feed, and a state government in this country comes up with this brainwave of encouraging families to go for a third child.
This is certainly not a solution to improve the sex ratio. The state government has ignored the gaping holes in its implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act (PC-PNDT) and the consequent large scale female foeticides. Now does it have a moral right to introduce an idiosyncratic proposal?
It says it will now introduce an awareness campaign in the state’s seven-worst affected districts. Where were those awareness campaigns when there were loud warning signs of a lop-sided gender ratio? Besides, how can families predict that its third child will be a girl? And, what if the third child turns out to be a boy in two of every three or say four families? Can our country afford to take this risk that will throw us beyond the edge of a population explosion? What’s more? The state government seems to be going against its own law, banning sex determination.
On the whole, the entire idea is ridiculous, bordering on profligacy. Merely doling out largesse and incentives to the girl child is grossly insufficient to curb the practice of female foeticide. In fact, it will only open up fresher avenues of corruption; the more proposals and incentives, the more money goes floating around, and more are the chances of that money sticking to the palms of our powers-that-be.
There has to be a turnaround of our psyche to make the girl child wanted; and this will work only if certain social evils are rooted out of our system. There has to be awareness in every warp and weft of our society’s fabric to eliminate gender discrimination that is prevalent at various layers and at various levels. In lower echelons, the gender discrimination begins with food and work distribution, education and health care; it continues at the altar and ends at the grave. In the middle-level society, basic education and health care is by and large taken care of, thanks to peer dynamics. But then career choices are given to a privileged few. In any case, most of them end up getting entangled in the evil web of dowry (sometimes in the guise of grand weddings). And, the lavishness of weddings despite the affordability of this class speaks volumes about the bias firmly entrenched in society.
The government must effectively implement laws securing gender equality. It must work from the grassroots level to ensure right to food, education and health care across gender; it must ensure to put in place effective mechanisms to root out social evils.
Finally, the bulk of the population, which comprises the middle class, must understand the meaning of bearing a healthy child, rather than a boy child. We, as a populace, must understand that it is not necessary to have a male progeny to “carry” forward the family name. That is the most preposterous of arguments in favour elimination of female foetuses and the urge to keep trying for a male child.
So instead of blaming our dumb politicians, let us clear the cobwebs in our minds; the gender ratio will automatically improve.
This is the most bizarre proposal I have come across in a country, struggling with a high rate of population growth. We are already grappling with many many more mouths to feed, and a state government in this country comes up with this brainwave of encouraging families to go for a third child.
This is certainly not a solution to improve the sex ratio. The state government has ignored the gaping holes in its implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act (PC-PNDT) and the consequent large scale female foeticides. Now does it have a moral right to introduce an idiosyncratic proposal?
It says it will now introduce an awareness campaign in the state’s seven-worst affected districts. Where were those awareness campaigns when there were loud warning signs of a lop-sided gender ratio? Besides, how can families predict that its third child will be a girl? And, what if the third child turns out to be a boy in two of every three or say four families? Can our country afford to take this risk that will throw us beyond the edge of a population explosion? What’s more? The state government seems to be going against its own law, banning sex determination.
On the whole, the entire idea is ridiculous, bordering on profligacy. Merely doling out largesse and incentives to the girl child is grossly insufficient to curb the practice of female foeticide. In fact, it will only open up fresher avenues of corruption; the more proposals and incentives, the more money goes floating around, and more are the chances of that money sticking to the palms of our powers-that-be.
There has to be a turnaround of our psyche to make the girl child wanted; and this will work only if certain social evils are rooted out of our system. There has to be awareness in every warp and weft of our society’s fabric to eliminate gender discrimination that is prevalent at various layers and at various levels. In lower echelons, the gender discrimination begins with food and work distribution, education and health care; it continues at the altar and ends at the grave. In the middle-level society, basic education and health care is by and large taken care of, thanks to peer dynamics. But then career choices are given to a privileged few. In any case, most of them end up getting entangled in the evil web of dowry (sometimes in the guise of grand weddings). And, the lavishness of weddings despite the affordability of this class speaks volumes about the bias firmly entrenched in society.
The government must effectively implement laws securing gender equality. It must work from the grassroots level to ensure right to food, education and health care across gender; it must ensure to put in place effective mechanisms to root out social evils.
Finally, the bulk of the population, which comprises the middle class, must understand the meaning of bearing a healthy child, rather than a boy child. We, as a populace, must understand that it is not necessary to have a male progeny to “carry” forward the family name. That is the most preposterous of arguments in favour elimination of female foetuses and the urge to keep trying for a male child.
So instead of blaming our dumb politicians, let us clear the cobwebs in our minds; the gender ratio will automatically improve.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Lust property
Two days back, the back page of a daily had this rather huge picture of a woman’s back side that said “WHAT AN ASS” in all capitals. The woman in question was showing off her ample rear for a jeans brand that incidentally also doubled up as a writing board for the copywriter’s rather trite one-liners. An example of one of the patronisingly sexist taglines: “The idiot who refused me a ride home.”
A few days back, there was a news story about Air India’s decision to clear its stock of “matron-like” air-hostesses and replace them with the young, alluring ones. The national carrier, it seems, has had enough of plain Janes adorning the aisles; it now wants to add chutzpah to its flights of fancy. It wants to follow the success route of other airlines, whose USP is not their fleet of safe aircraft and sober pilots, but its flock of hot, attractive air-hostesses. The news story also had a table on the list of airlines that had the highest BQ (beauty quotient). Needlessly to say, Richard Branson’s Virgin topped the list, followed by Singapore Airlines, Air Etihad, Emirates, Aer Lingus (all in the UAE area), Lufthansa, cathay Pacific, TAP and KLM. A predictable observation is that all these airlines’ air-hostesses are (by default?) fair-skinned (by the sheer nature of their origin). India has been attempting a befitting reply to this “international look” via Punjab and Delhi, which breed the maximum number of air-hostess training institutes in the country!
Now what is the scale that measures beauty? Fair skin, tall and slim frame, and…what else? We do not know. These air-hostesses are expected to be turned out exceptionally well during each flight. They are given warnings even if their nail polish is chipped by a fraction of an inch, or their hair clips move by a few centimetres; they even face salary cuts if they weigh a few grams more. Basically, they have to sell cold sandwiches and colder juices using their bewitching smile to the starved passengers.
But does the air-hostess carry an airline’s success on her pretty shoulders? Probably. Considering a poll, in which travellers across the world preferred to savour those airlines that had the maximum DQ (drool quotient).
One can blindly credit the entertainment industry, cutting across the globe, with this large-scale commodification of women: from creating the voluptuous pin-up girls to the anorexic ramp reeds.
In the Indian film industry, female actors seem to prefer the “item girl” sobriquet after filmmakers set the trend of showcasing the bosom-heaving, cleavage-baring item girls breathing out raunchy numbers to tease the male libido. And, these show girls have created an iconic status for themselves, and are proud of it.
The Indian film industry is known to be canning this heady concoction of the “bad” woman (the I-dare-to-bare types), and her fully clothed and servile “goody” counterpart (the bejewelled and beclothed ones), to fan the flaming male fantasy. But, ultimately, both this good and the bad represent the ugly face of the raw male authority that crushes the feminism with its six-pack muscle power.
A few days back, there was a news story about Air India’s decision to clear its stock of “matron-like” air-hostesses and replace them with the young, alluring ones. The national carrier, it seems, has had enough of plain Janes adorning the aisles; it now wants to add chutzpah to its flights of fancy. It wants to follow the success route of other airlines, whose USP is not their fleet of safe aircraft and sober pilots, but its flock of hot, attractive air-hostesses. The news story also had a table on the list of airlines that had the highest BQ (beauty quotient). Needlessly to say, Richard Branson’s Virgin topped the list, followed by Singapore Airlines, Air Etihad, Emirates, Aer Lingus (all in the UAE area), Lufthansa, cathay Pacific, TAP and KLM. A predictable observation is that all these airlines’ air-hostesses are (by default?) fair-skinned (by the sheer nature of their origin). India has been attempting a befitting reply to this “international look” via Punjab and Delhi, which breed the maximum number of air-hostess training institutes in the country!
Now what is the scale that measures beauty? Fair skin, tall and slim frame, and…what else? We do not know. These air-hostesses are expected to be turned out exceptionally well during each flight. They are given warnings even if their nail polish is chipped by a fraction of an inch, or their hair clips move by a few centimetres; they even face salary cuts if they weigh a few grams more. Basically, they have to sell cold sandwiches and colder juices using their bewitching smile to the starved passengers.
But does the air-hostess carry an airline’s success on her pretty shoulders? Probably. Considering a poll, in which travellers across the world preferred to savour those airlines that had the maximum DQ (drool quotient).
One can blindly credit the entertainment industry, cutting across the globe, with this large-scale commodification of women: from creating the voluptuous pin-up girls to the anorexic ramp reeds.
In the Indian film industry, female actors seem to prefer the “item girl” sobriquet after filmmakers set the trend of showcasing the bosom-heaving, cleavage-baring item girls breathing out raunchy numbers to tease the male libido. And, these show girls have created an iconic status for themselves, and are proud of it.
The Indian film industry is known to be canning this heady concoction of the “bad” woman (the I-dare-to-bare types), and her fully clothed and servile “goody” counterpart (the bejewelled and beclothed ones), to fan the flaming male fantasy. But, ultimately, both this good and the bad represent the ugly face of the raw male authority that crushes the feminism with its six-pack muscle power.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
I want to believe you, Mr Modi
Narendra Modi joins the swelling bandwagon of satyagrahis.
The man who has nothing but the state (and language) in common with the original script-writer of satyagraha, M.K. Gandhi, has decided to sprinkle some saffron strands to this cauldron that has stirred the imagination of the burgeoning middle class urban India, courtesy Anna Hazare.
He plans to go on a three-day fast to give peace a chance in Gujarat.
A very novel gesture, Mr Modi.
There is a saying in Tamil which roughly translated means “rocking the cradle after pinching the baby”.
Sorry, Mr Modi. Am I alluding to a sticky past?
The Gujarat Chief Minister today finally broke his “silence”, apparently buoyed by the Supreme Court directing a trial court in the State to take a final decision on the complaint filed against Mr Modi by Zakia Jafri, wife of former MP Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the Gulberga Society carnage.
Mr Modi said he believed that the Supreme Court's Monday order had ended an “unhealthy environment” created by the “unfounded and false allegations” against him and his government.
Have you and your government been given a clean chit, Mr Modi? The highest court has only shifted the case.
He then came up with this emotional masterstroke: “For the past 10 years, it has become fashionable to defame me and the State of Gujarat.”
We are in tears, Mr Modi.
He plans to go on a three-day fast to “further strengthen the State's environment of peace, unity and harmony”.
I am overwhelmed, Mr Modi.
“These elements who could not tolerate the positive developments in Gujarat have left no stone unturned to defame Gujarat.”
I have read reports, Mr Modi, about the modus operandi your government has been adopting to usurp farmland in exchange for the attractive industrial climate you are offering.
Are they also false campaign, Mr Chief Minister?
“But even amid these lies, false propaganda, conspiracies and allegations, the State has always marched towards peace, harmony and progress, and it will not waver from this path.”
"It is the responsibility of the people of the State to strengthen unity in social life. We have got an excellent opportunity to proceed with a positive attitude. Let us come together and contribute to enhancing the dignity of Gujarat.”
Wow! The state’s environment of peace, unity and harmony! Please, Mr Modi, I honestly want to believe this.
But just one question: Fear can also spur peace, unity and harmony. Right, Mr Modi?
The man who has nothing but the state (and language) in common with the original script-writer of satyagraha, M.K. Gandhi, has decided to sprinkle some saffron strands to this cauldron that has stirred the imagination of the burgeoning middle class urban India, courtesy Anna Hazare.
He plans to go on a three-day fast to give peace a chance in Gujarat.
A very novel gesture, Mr Modi.
There is a saying in Tamil which roughly translated means “rocking the cradle after pinching the baby”.
Sorry, Mr Modi. Am I alluding to a sticky past?
The Gujarat Chief Minister today finally broke his “silence”, apparently buoyed by the Supreme Court directing a trial court in the State to take a final decision on the complaint filed against Mr Modi by Zakia Jafri, wife of former MP Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the Gulberga Society carnage.
Mr Modi said he believed that the Supreme Court's Monday order had ended an “unhealthy environment” created by the “unfounded and false allegations” against him and his government.
Have you and your government been given a clean chit, Mr Modi? The highest court has only shifted the case.
He then came up with this emotional masterstroke: “For the past 10 years, it has become fashionable to defame me and the State of Gujarat.”
We are in tears, Mr Modi.
He plans to go on a three-day fast to “further strengthen the State's environment of peace, unity and harmony”.
I am overwhelmed, Mr Modi.
“These elements who could not tolerate the positive developments in Gujarat have left no stone unturned to defame Gujarat.”
I have read reports, Mr Modi, about the modus operandi your government has been adopting to usurp farmland in exchange for the attractive industrial climate you are offering.
Are they also false campaign, Mr Chief Minister?
“But even amid these lies, false propaganda, conspiracies and allegations, the State has always marched towards peace, harmony and progress, and it will not waver from this path.”
"It is the responsibility of the people of the State to strengthen unity in social life. We have got an excellent opportunity to proceed with a positive attitude. Let us come together and contribute to enhancing the dignity of Gujarat.”
Wow! The state’s environment of peace, unity and harmony! Please, Mr Modi, I honestly want to believe this.
But just one question: Fear can also spur peace, unity and harmony. Right, Mr Modi?
Friday, September 9, 2011
Punishment on democracy
Anna Hazare has made a surprisingly unexpected statement. To quote him: "If any candidate takes or gives money in Vidhan Sabha or Parliament for asking questions or voting, such people should be given severe punishment, in fact according to me, they should be hanged."
His remarks came soon after former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh was sent to Tihar to join the other high-profile politicians. By the way, Amar Singh’s neighbour in jail is Madhu Koda, the former Jharkhand chief minister who is facing trail for siphoning off millions of dollars.
But what is strange is Anna’s demand for capital punishment. I hope he was at least referring to the judicial process of execution, rather than execution by “people’s judgement”. I have this confusion because of his “fast-track” resumption of a Lok Pal, ably fuelled by the electronic media that propelled large-scale citizen participation in a classic film style mass appeal. The Lok Pal Bill had been part of the legislative woodwork ever since Shanti Bhushan introduced it in 1968, popping up into debates subsequently once in a while by our “conscientious” men in white.
Coming back to the demand, it is strange because it came from Brand Anna, who has been portrayed as the post-modern Mahatma Gandhi. His brand positioning has been done carefully on the lines of Mahatma Gandhi and his ideals of satyagraha and non-violence. His Ram Lila fast episode was remarkably advertised by news channels as a peaceful, non-violent, Gandhian method to coerce the UPA government into tabling a “people-centric” ombudsman that will be sympathetic and for real, rather than mere tokenism. And, it struck a chord with the middle class, who were tired of paying bribes for almost every service they expected for smooth running of their everyday lives.
But the point is having carefully nurtured this Gandhian image, why did Brand Anna, who commands a mass hysteria, make this comment? Isn’t this a dangerous remark in a country of human icon-worshippers? Remember the original Gandhi once said: show the other cheek to the one who slapped one cheek?
Capital punishment is a debatable issue. The blast outside the Delhi High Court premises is apparently a message to the judiciary to pardon Mohammad Afsal, or Afsal Guru, the Kashmiri convicted of conspiring the December 2001 attack on Indian Parliament.
Then came the President, Pratibha Patil’s rejection of clemency petitions of three LTTE members, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, for conspiring to kill Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
The rejection acquired a parochial hue with most Tamil Nadu political parties seeking pardon for the perpetrators of the crime. The Dravidian parties are, as always, playing their game of political one-upmanship by lending a sympathetic shoulder for the cause of Tamil eelam. It will help them in their election speeches to draw lusty cheers from the dialogue-hungry Tamil electorate.
But why can’t we do away with capital punishment? Is it fair to practice this in an adolescent democracy like ours, of politicians, by politicians and for politicians?
Capital punishment in India seemed to have become a blatant political tool. So while the presidency is simply sitting on Afzal Guru’s mercy petition, it rejects those of Rajiv Gandhi’s killers. This automatically draws attention to the fact that the President is a UPA government nominee.
Crime has no religion, caste or linguistic identity. Irrespective of the nature of the crime, our country’s leaders, with a myopic wisdom, have no right to decide who can live and who cannot. An impartial presidency is a constitutional truth, but remains only that: a documented fact with no evidence of it being applied.
His remarks came soon after former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh was sent to Tihar to join the other high-profile politicians. By the way, Amar Singh’s neighbour in jail is Madhu Koda, the former Jharkhand chief minister who is facing trail for siphoning off millions of dollars.
But what is strange is Anna’s demand for capital punishment. I hope he was at least referring to the judicial process of execution, rather than execution by “people’s judgement”. I have this confusion because of his “fast-track” resumption of a Lok Pal, ably fuelled by the electronic media that propelled large-scale citizen participation in a classic film style mass appeal. The Lok Pal Bill had been part of the legislative woodwork ever since Shanti Bhushan introduced it in 1968, popping up into debates subsequently once in a while by our “conscientious” men in white.
Coming back to the demand, it is strange because it came from Brand Anna, who has been portrayed as the post-modern Mahatma Gandhi. His brand positioning has been done carefully on the lines of Mahatma Gandhi and his ideals of satyagraha and non-violence. His Ram Lila fast episode was remarkably advertised by news channels as a peaceful, non-violent, Gandhian method to coerce the UPA government into tabling a “people-centric” ombudsman that will be sympathetic and for real, rather than mere tokenism. And, it struck a chord with the middle class, who were tired of paying bribes for almost every service they expected for smooth running of their everyday lives.
But the point is having carefully nurtured this Gandhian image, why did Brand Anna, who commands a mass hysteria, make this comment? Isn’t this a dangerous remark in a country of human icon-worshippers? Remember the original Gandhi once said: show the other cheek to the one who slapped one cheek?
Capital punishment is a debatable issue. The blast outside the Delhi High Court premises is apparently a message to the judiciary to pardon Mohammad Afsal, or Afsal Guru, the Kashmiri convicted of conspiring the December 2001 attack on Indian Parliament.
Then came the President, Pratibha Patil’s rejection of clemency petitions of three LTTE members, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, for conspiring to kill Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
The rejection acquired a parochial hue with most Tamil Nadu political parties seeking pardon for the perpetrators of the crime. The Dravidian parties are, as always, playing their game of political one-upmanship by lending a sympathetic shoulder for the cause of Tamil eelam. It will help them in their election speeches to draw lusty cheers from the dialogue-hungry Tamil electorate.
But why can’t we do away with capital punishment? Is it fair to practice this in an adolescent democracy like ours, of politicians, by politicians and for politicians?
Capital punishment in India seemed to have become a blatant political tool. So while the presidency is simply sitting on Afzal Guru’s mercy petition, it rejects those of Rajiv Gandhi’s killers. This automatically draws attention to the fact that the President is a UPA government nominee.
Crime has no religion, caste or linguistic identity. Irrespective of the nature of the crime, our country’s leaders, with a myopic wisdom, have no right to decide who can live and who cannot. An impartial presidency is a constitutional truth, but remains only that: a documented fact with no evidence of it being applied.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Shall we have a mature television?
The electronic media has gone berserk. The television anchors are getting hysterical trying to bringing to our drawing rooms the Anna Hazare phase of post-independent India. The sound bites were flying back and forth; political temperatures went soaring with camera-friendly spokespersons of parties ripping one another apart; and there was a fair sprinkling of familiar Bollywood voices too. But what could not be swallowed was the mindless adrenaline rush of our anchors and their sense of having achieved this possibility of bringing the drama “live” on to our flat screens; their senseless holler drowned the scream of politicians and even became more prominent than the UPA government’s apparent gaffe. Is it Peepli going live again?
The print media, too, is at a loss for words. Most of their headlines have the UPA government eating “humble pie” in the wake of Anna’s fast. And, the urban middle-class is feasting on the fasting capsules and is lovin’ it. Anna is hogging the elite drawing room limelight, leaving the i-pad2 behind.
The Congress is indeed in a corner, and seems to have lost its marbles in this show of strength by civil rights activists and their swelling support base. The movement against corruption has reached a stage of a virtual revolution, with Facebook pledges and text messages pitching in for the cause. The Right and Left twain also met to corner the “undemocratic hand of the Congress”.
Whoever said the Gandhian method of fasting had worked in the colonial era, but would not work now? Who said it needs an audience to carry forward Bapu’s method of non-violence? Sorry Ms Arundhati Roy, it seems to be working big time. When one of the civil rights activists, Manoj Sisodia, was released, he told the waiting television crew that he came out of Tihar to convey to millions of Indians watching television, that’s right, television, that Anna would remain in jail despite his release orders till the government gave him unconditional permission to hold his hunger-strike at JP Park. Our electronic media has created the new, post-colonial audience. It does have a potential to carry forward this anti-corruption revolution. We are lucky to have a fairly free media, unlike Egypt, which still managed with an active virtual participation.
This movement has the potential of giving lessons on maturity to our television journalists. The medium is explosive, and this is the right time to fine-tune the mechanisms and let the medium ripen and mellow. It has to become wiser and stress more on content than voice culture, or howl culture. The audience is waiting to take on the corrupt; a little help from an adult television presentation would go a long way into stirring up this audience further. Let the people in power and aspiring for power get the jitters next time they extend their hands for kickbacks; let the next generation understand politics as a serious cause and not use it as a five-year recurring deposit scheme; let the audience turn out in large numbers at poll booths and decimate the men in white with dark skeletons in their fancy cupboards.
The print media, too, is at a loss for words. Most of their headlines have the UPA government eating “humble pie” in the wake of Anna’s fast. And, the urban middle-class is feasting on the fasting capsules and is lovin’ it. Anna is hogging the elite drawing room limelight, leaving the i-pad2 behind.
The Congress is indeed in a corner, and seems to have lost its marbles in this show of strength by civil rights activists and their swelling support base. The movement against corruption has reached a stage of a virtual revolution, with Facebook pledges and text messages pitching in for the cause. The Right and Left twain also met to corner the “undemocratic hand of the Congress”.
Whoever said the Gandhian method of fasting had worked in the colonial era, but would not work now? Who said it needs an audience to carry forward Bapu’s method of non-violence? Sorry Ms Arundhati Roy, it seems to be working big time. When one of the civil rights activists, Manoj Sisodia, was released, he told the waiting television crew that he came out of Tihar to convey to millions of Indians watching television, that’s right, television, that Anna would remain in jail despite his release orders till the government gave him unconditional permission to hold his hunger-strike at JP Park. Our electronic media has created the new, post-colonial audience. It does have a potential to carry forward this anti-corruption revolution. We are lucky to have a fairly free media, unlike Egypt, which still managed with an active virtual participation.
This movement has the potential of giving lessons on maturity to our television journalists. The medium is explosive, and this is the right time to fine-tune the mechanisms and let the medium ripen and mellow. It has to become wiser and stress more on content than voice culture, or howl culture. The audience is waiting to take on the corrupt; a little help from an adult television presentation would go a long way into stirring up this audience further. Let the people in power and aspiring for power get the jitters next time they extend their hands for kickbacks; let the next generation understand politics as a serious cause and not use it as a five-year recurring deposit scheme; let the audience turn out in large numbers at poll booths and decimate the men in white with dark skeletons in their fancy cupboards.
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