Media mania

With the advent of satellite communication and wider reach of TV attributed both to falling prices and rising income, no of news channels has increased manifolds in India.

Gone are the days when one had to wait to watch Mrinal Pandey reading news in Hindi at 8.30 pm on Doordarshan. Now all one needs to do is to switch on the TV set and some or the other “Breaking News” is flashing on.

Is it really for the good? Part of it, yes. The sting operations, the real time images, better quality, increased coverage, more opinions and the right to exercise a choice. But piggy back on all this is what is dished out to us, branded as INFOTAINMENT.

We have seen Amir Khan on prime time talking about his epic Mangal Pandey( was that!) when more important issues must have been given airtime, and the blood shown live when a minister was shot at in Bihar. It leaves me a bit puzzled as what is NEWS?

I saw a news piece on a prominent Hindi news channel about a reincarnation of a child, and that went on and on. I find both, the blood on the stage being shown as it was, and the story trying to show what there was not, equally appalling.

What have we done to deserve that is a question that needs to be answered. In the age where consumer is god, we are shown what we want. We have been indifferent towards these bigger issues for a long time and now that they have gone out of control we stand up and say we deserve better. Think again.

News is much more than facts and figures, images and interviews. Media has the responsibility of showing things in perspective, but in the times when TRP ratings decide what and how things are shown then their impact they can have, the fourth pillar of democracy have succumbed.

We are being materialistic in our attitude, and media has sensed it well. They tell what we want to hear, not what we should be hearing. After all, they are a part of society where being informed is a status symbol. We might feel sick in our stomach to hear it but it sells, and they are selling it well.

The worst part of it all is that this is here to stay. But like all natural cycles, after a boom there is a recession, and like the keen stock broker, one might have to wait for the bust to pick the best. It might take some time, but I believe that it will come. The sooner the better.

So.. you want work??

It is 6.30 in the evening and I am cursing myself. Why, why I wanted to be worth the amount of money I was being paid for just billing the client and surfing net? When I was a kid I read a story about every hero being stupid and I liked that a lot but that might be the topic of some other blog, let me not digress.
It just happened the other day. Sick and tired of warming the bench, I mustered the courage and walked upto my team lead and asked for work.(For those of you are unaware, I am a software engineer). And he smiled, benevolent I thought, I now know, it was otherwise.
Smiles can be so misleading..you need the entirety of the individual to realize the exact nature of it, the exact curve of laugh line, the twinkle in the eyes, the glow on the face, and I was mislead.
"So, you want work?"
“Yes"
"Hmm, let me see.."
And I stood there waiting..
"I'll let you know the moment something comes up"
Good. At least things are moving, I thought.
The day was meandering towards an uneventful end.
Just when I was surfing and checking my mails, a window popped up "mail: Sub: Task of the day"
I looked at my watch; it is 15 minutes to the day. But atleast I had something to do. I was excited.
I opened the mail and it was some documentation.
The rest is history. I have been doing documentation for so long now that I do not remember what writing a line of code is.
All I wanted to do was to add value..to the organization and myself..I am told that I am doing that.. and how?
I can envisage him smiling everytime he sends me a mail, asking for more documents to be created, I know, behind those glasses fitted in a golden frame, those eyes have a sparkle, like the one a butcher has everytime he sees a fat chicken. Resting on the chair, pushing it back as far as it can go, he smiles.
Only if I knew what that smile means.

Why am I here??

This is my first shot at blogging. and I have finally started it.Why?
Every thing that we humans do has a reason behind it..consciuosly or subconsciously we justify our actions. We need an approval, appreciation,acknowledgement of what we do..and I think that blogging caters to that need of ours brilliantly as it takes our opinions beyound the geographical bounds and the whole world(net surfing) becomes your audience. And we become actors..playing our part through words and showing emotions through logical construct of statements.
It is exactly this kind of gibberish that I keep coming up with and my friends say that I should pen t down. So here I am.. an egotistical with an opinion about everything under the sun and now having a way of speaking out.
Probably the reason of me starting to blog and the answer to the question"why do we have blogs" is one and the same.I think that my opinion matters and I need to voice it. You will have more of it now.. and keep posting your comments.
An_empty_mind