2G, Coal, Rail, ... IPL

As usual there is a lot for meat for the media in the latest IPL scandal. It is a golden opportunity to earn some TRP ratings. It is time to grab some CCTV footage and let all Inidans know how they were cheated and deprived of ....well wait what are we deprived of.

"One billion people cheated" flashed the headlines and I started wondering do all the 1 billion watch Cricket and that too IPL. Of the 1 billion , many women do not watch or even like Cricket. Some many too do not watch or like Cricket , some are crazy for Man U that they don't give a damn even if Bradman is batting.

So that wipes out maybe a half of that 1 billion. How many follow IPL really, is it so popular in cities outside of where they are played? Anyway lets leave the statistics and come to the cheating part.

Did I loose money, No someone betted that some team will won , he lost, maybe he won so what is in it for me? Nothing

Did he take my tax money and paid for the bets? No

Did the exchequer loose money? No

Ok he paid money for people to underperform so that he can win money on bets.
Did someone force me or even ask me to watch the match? No
Did someone force me to follow a team/player like crazy thinking they are the Gods and Demi-Gods? No

Did I miss some work or lose my pay for watching Cricket? No

When I think of the other bigger scams where my dear earned money I paid as tax was looted, price of commodities increased as someone siphoned off with my tax money, when the exchequer lost lakhs of crores , it did hurt, it was a blow below the belt but this well this is just entertainment.
Media better stay focussed on issues that matter.

DD Days - 2 : Johnny sokko and his flying robot

Saturday evening around 4:30 I think there used to be a scramble to watch the nearby TV wherever it was available. Not all houses had TV those days, and most were mere black & white ones. However this program called "Johnny sokko and his flying robot" was quite a popular one.

This program was one that showed larger than life pictures on television. It I guess introduced the concept of robots to many a common man and children. One can still remember Johnny soko controlling his robot from outside a perimeter kind of place (more like a boxing ring) and fighting other alien kind of things which as far as I remember had tentacles and all.

The Giant robot would follow instructions of Johnny and kill the enemy alien. Well the story was more or less the same every episode and Robot and Johnny would win all the time. There was a team behind Johnny helping him and the robot.

The people were mongoloid looking (Japanese) but they used to talk in Dubbed English but as I said the story did not matter the sheer larger than life and an entry in to an imaginative world was good enough to get us hooked for half an hour and wanting more.

Now I see Wiki Entry it has lot of information and also there is an online shop for the episodes (cannot vouch for the same).

Those days it did not matter much one was happy to have a window to something unique and refreshing, even if it lasted all but half an hour for 6 months. It has stayed for long in the heart.

DD Days : A journey back to DoorDarshan

It was quite amazing feeling to be able to talk about a particular program on TV the next day at school knowing exactly that every other person in the class would have watched it. It was not the over hyped IPL match or the recent block buster movie but the daily soap operas and weekly movies on the TV. Yes I am talking on those days where Chitrahaar and Rangoli were the only hindi song programs and Oliyum Oliyum was the only tamil song program for an entire week. Imagine hardly 1.5 hours of filmi music for a whole week!

It might be hard to believe for kids and teens of today but those were the days of doordarshan. The music of Pandit Ravi Shankar on Band-1 Channel-4, Band-3 Channel-7 were like a grand opening to our evenings. One channel one program, all viewers were the mantra those days and the emptiness on the streets were proof of the fact that everyone watched it whether they like it or not. There were no fights for remotes, in fact I hardly remember a remote :)

There were no malls to hangout and no pepsi/coke products to drink and most televisions were black and white. Life was simple too and TV watching did not complicate it. There were only a very few peeks available to the world outside one's own. There was the DiDi's comedy show and the World This Week which showed glimpses of Western world. Disney cartoons were shown for an hour every week.

This is a series, rather a nostalgic trip to those programs that marked our days in Black and White .

Media and Molestation

Well this is on the Guwahati molestation case that has gone viral on the media. I just have a few questions to the media

1) The girl was molested once three days ago, how long are you going to show the video and clippings again and again and again. Is this not outraging the modesty of a women?

2) Your questions on police inaction are very valid. However what was your reporter doing there watching and calling the cameraman to film it. Will he be doing the same if the girl were his sister?

3) Is this media ethics and social responsibility to watch everything from sidelines, make it a breaking news and complain inaction from politicians and police. Dammit you were at an arms hand and did nothing.

Does media know only to sensationalize and not act. Is TRP more important than ethics?

Maa Maati Manush and Media

Well first thankfully I do not live in Bengal for I could land up in Jail for criticizing something which CM of Bengal does not agree to. However I also wonder why is the media so against Mamata Banerjee . Are the days of Neutral media dead and buried with the Cable revolution?

I did see the episode of Mamata Walking out on Sagarika Ghose on CNN-IBN. In the first place someone of this position must know what to expect on a show like this. Did she expect to be garlanded and the whole office painted White and Blue? One has to either have the knack of making diplomatic statements or not agree to give interviews in hostile environment. I believe she is too straight forward (Am I praising her?!!) to hide facts or cannot think twice before letting her mind out.

The people who attended the discussion seemed genuinely interested in Bengal's well being and they asked questions which were natural to expect on such shows. Either she was totally unprepared or childish. It was totally unprofessional ( preofession?!!) to just claim the people who asked tough questions as Maoists and CPM supporters and not answer the questions. Questions were tough and it was a great opportunity for her to earn some brownie points given the Media throwing thrash at every opportunity. Well she did give them yet another chance. Now itself people are thinking of next elections.

On the other hand she did ask why college students were all from one particular university which supports CPM.  That was a fair question I felt maybe she felt cornered. In the end I can only say she squandered a great opportunity.

The other point ofcourse is why is media so damn against her. Every opportunity is used to tarnish the image of Bengal government and the CM. I am not trying to justify some statements made but media is no longer media that reports facts. Generating news and negative publicity have become the need of the hour, rather every hour if you run 24hours a day .  TRP matters (TRP = Trillions of RuPees).