Media Entertainment

Media, whether electronic or print, seems to be a better source of entertainment in an era where one has to pay heavy bucks to watch movies which are more like old wine in a new bottle and surfing entertainment channels makes one wonder why Ekta Kapoor doesn’t start her own TV channel rather than competing her own soaps, simultaneously, on different channels. .. I won’t be surprised to watch KNEWS - produced and directed by Balaji telefilms- soon being aired at peak hours on NEWS channels too... The possibility is high when media is obsessed with presenting NEWS with high entertainment indices only... and a channel called India TV has left no stone unturned to keep someone new to an idiot box entertainment guessing which category does the channel belong – although they remind their viewers after every minute of being a news channel – for everything shown is a news pehli bar India TV par... No one can break India TV Breaking News – when all other reporters are busy questioning PM or HM related to something shaking the Nation, India TV reporters are busy looking for exorcists, Ghosts, and the Cows that India TV cameras captured being taken away by aliens... Well others are also not far behind... the competition is growing at an alarming pace. In times when NEWS is nothing but a biased reporting of channel or print media owners’ interests or ideology, channels like India TV is following the former and the rest later... Well versed knowledge surely comes from reading, watching and analysis but on a serious note, let us also understand that a human brain takes the privilege of borrowing thoughts and ideologies presented, framed or narrated well...

News on Doordarshan in my home town, which is aired once in a day, has been the all time favourite for the elders at home... The news is read in two languages and people seem to be more than interested in knowing how the same news sounds in the other language also... This news also makes me feel proud of my ethnicity... of doing more than one activity at a time... my mother offering prayers, with radio or TV on, and to my surprise she doesn’t miss anything reported... Don’t ask me how important the news is... they can very well present something recorded last year as a daily news and people will still show same enthusiasm ... only thing they do is play with numbers... and my sister intelligently used to make best use of this... she would make her own news and narrate it well with a sophistication when asked by someone, going out for some unavoidable reason, to listen for the same... The reason to go out would surely be unavoidable... Attendance in local Masjid also used to be low in the evening bcoz the timings clashed with news... I don’t know if it still remains so... neither could I understand the reason for this news obsession... People seem to be more interested in, what India TV calls, Sansani... People have found a new entertainment... something that used to give Goosebumps to our elders.

When media itself comes in news, the best weapon to be used is freedom of speech... and that makes a pen more powerful than a sword. Offence is a best defence and who else knows this better than media... You can write anything... only condition being it shouldn’t offend media or a writer... My Professor says, education is the ability to listen to almost anything without loosing temper or your self confidence... although this applies to me only, for nobody is going to question the Prof’s credibility when he looses his temper on anything I say... Freedom of speech is not an absolute right is all I need to understand here... Everything doesn’t apply to everyone, we shouldn’t forget... Might is always right!!!

Nincompoops....

Life would have been better, had we been like the heroes of Indian cinema who apparently and seemingly, are capable of doing anything inconceivable in their real lives... The hangover of the character, which nudges into one’s soul, is so much that it sometimes requires watching another movie with another macho character with digital Dolby voice to fade away the earlier one – something a human mind is well capable of...
It was after a very long time that I went to watch a movie when my friend insisted – excellent movie, awesome reviews, best acting, best cinematography, best story etc etc... Had he been the jury in the Oscars, Hirani would be the Indian of the year, no matter what rest of 1.17 billion people minus Mr Hirani do rest of the year.. My friend had no choice but to handover Oscar to him, even before watching the movie... for he would never have been able to find a lady in a place like IIT, with whom he would make the people around envy his luck... that too for a late night show. Had he been – and I would ask for a movie – Hirani would have been the worst of the lots... someone in dire need of my friend’s advice... but then, not very surprisingly, he couldn’t find any like rest of the IITians and asked me for a treat - for something that never conceivably happened.. I had no option but to accept his prejudice and joined...
Watching the movie was fun and more than that watching people around giggle... for I had already borrowed a thought from some research, known only to Times of India, that we have an instinct to laugh watching people laugh...
Five point someone was a better narration, more practical – something I could relate with hostel life in IIT... seemed far better than the prize charged by a kid on the Hauz Khas traffic light... which I bought inspite of writing in favor of IPRs... ofcourse for earning my living.
Movie, definitely, had many social issues to deal with... especially when Aamir is so adamant on teaching parents parental care... Degrees don’t matter but capabilities do... and I wish it was true!!! Listen to your heart and chase your dreamz... everyone had his or her own review and learning indices to share... I was there, purely, for nothing but a 3 hours monotonous campus free life... The end of the movie, although, was very unusual – everyone left and I too left for hostel but with a character called Ranchodass... my friend was completely lost in the character ... Now that he is ready to do even my assignments, I wish the hangover lasts longer.

Happy New Year

Greetings for the new year – a year of new hopes; a hope for better future and resolutions for making it better. Some of us celebrate this new hope, some give farewell to the year which delivered the expected for them and some celebrate the hope that it is over, for it was a difficult one for some like me..

There, certainly, were the things which could have been managed better... Experiences that make us feel, better to be inexperienced than to make mistakes and learn.. Relations that took years to build and moments to break... Situations with reasons many but logic none.. In general, an unforgettable year that reminds me Charles Dickens and a “Tale of Two Cities”...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us...

The year past was a difficult one and a year ahead is a hopeful one.. What regresses, never progresses, said Hazrat Umar ibn al Khattab (RA). I have decided to progress and leap into the year ahead.. for there is a hope – a hope that kindles my candle.

Wishing you Peace and Prosperity in the years ahead.
Happy New Year 2010