Harsha's pick for the day: Top 5

The top 5 pics from the desk of CnC for you:

1. Finally the Indian Prime Minister talks tough and delivers an impact on Zardari.
2. Two Japanese men were detained by Italian authorities last week, in an attempt to smuggle US bond worth whooping $134 billion (not sure, if its a true story or work of fiction, $134billion can put dollar on the edge and create a huge impact on world economy)
3. After the week long unrest, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to address the nation today.
4. Protests around the world to mark Aung Suu Kyi's 64th birthday.
5. Inflation turns negative after three decades (ask the reality to any Indian common man)

REALITY TV: NOT SO REAL AFTER ALL

The modern day is the day of information. Not just the availability of information, but the ease with which you can have it and how easily can it be dissipated! TV made its way into the Indian homes in the early 1980s. From the early days of the good old ‘doordarshan’ the television has come a long way. The early 90s saw the advent of a number of private channels with Zee leading the crusade against the friendly ‘Deepika ji’ ads in the crisp breaks of serials like ‘Hum log’. The enhanced vibrancy of the new age TV made people opting soap operas over a matinee show in a hot humid afternoon. Color television sets soon became a necessity and if you see a commercial for a television set on your old TV nowadays, you’ll find a number of options which reduce the strain on your eyes so that you can watch the repeat telecast of your favorite show (the fact that all soaps look like the repeat telecast of each other is another debate). I am a staunch enemy of the soaps operas basically because they steal my right of the daily dose of sports and music and news (which is happening all the time on TV now), and I have to submit meekly to the demands of my mother wanting to watch ‘Prerna’. With the world of entertainment changing so fast, we have got a new entrant. Well, not very new if you think of it but the way the ‘reality shows’ have captured the imagination of the people is something incredible.
Any channel you tune into has its own reality bite for you. People trying to make a lot of money through ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, people trying to be the ‘Indian Idols’, people trying to become the ‘Biggest loser’, people trying to ‘live together’ with ‘Big Boss’ around, etc. etc.! The TV today is full of such real shows which we know are mostly staged and well rehearsed.
Instant stardom has become such a common thing today that the next person I see at a mall seems to be belonging to some ‘Fame Gurukul’. The much hyped fame evaporates as easily as it was got. But the most intriguing aspect of this instant fame is how a few of the most ordinary people have been able to change their lives overnight. Take for instance the typical couch potato of the ‘Numa Numa’ fame. This Romanian song was lip-sung by a fat (and interestingly cute) male which he recorded on his (ordinary) web cam and broadcast it over youtube.com. This video became one of the most watched, shared and downloaded video of all times and the fat gentleman became a celebrity with offers for live shows pouring in.
So far so good! But when it comes to news the same reality TV type of hoopla created around local issues and non-important news items to catch the viewers’ eye is beyond imagination. What the news channels are being doing recently is opening the doors of our homes to the world; the private life is a myth with a number of journalist fighting hard to bring that very special ‘hatke’ report of a local issue perhaps which would give them an edge over their competitors. The universal pretence is ‘we bring to the people what they want to see…’ how far do we want to see a ‘real-life’ couple fighting on national news channels provoked by the news anchor is for us to decide!!! As far as I am concerned, I don’t like to watch an ugly, fat manager of some call centre beaten with ‘kolahpuri chappals’ by his employee for some alleged sexual abuse as part of my daily news update in the night.

NEWS BREAKDOWN

There is need for a committee which would monitor the various news channels that have bloated the TV screens across the nation. The local news channels have made the powerful tool of jounalism another mechanism of advertisement for the people in power. The people behind such news channels have full control over the content of the news that goes out to the people making the whole set-up a mere mockery of the game of power. The news 'items' are properly salted and roasted to suit the local taste which is mostly in search of 'masala' even when it comes to news. In such a senario keeping a proper check on the various local channels is very essential. If there exist monitoring bodies for movies which evaluate the contents of the cinema then having a similar body for news channels is mandatory, since news by its nature is considered to be made up of facts alone and a misreported news report can have disastrous repercussions.

Even more sorry is the state of the national news channels like 'sahara samay'. It has a national reach with reasonable number of viewers across the nation. This particular news channel is bare mouthpiece of the Sahara India Pariwar and all the people associated with it which includes prominent personalities like Mr.Amitabh Bachan. If there was a need for a medium to showcase the special relationship that is shared between the people associated with Sahara, an entertainment channel should have been the appropriate choice. Camouflaging the real incentives under the banner of 'news' is highly irresponsible and is more likely to be an effort to misguide the people.

This environment could lead to unnerving circumstances. Media is a power and all powers must have their restraints.

JAIL CREATIVITY

Nagpur jail has envisioned an extraordinatry event. They have decided to call it an essay competition; I dare say that it is much more than that! It is a sign of trust towards the jail inmates; trust on the fact that the people living on the fringes of society doing things that the society disapproves of may still have some plans for the betterment of the world.