Recently, I was holidaying @home and going furiously at my favorite time-passing activity. Click the remote the fastest that you can manage. Its a nice way to agitate mom and throw her off her routine marathi serials which let me watch my races and golf and soccer and any other sport under the sun...
I noticed that a new avtaar of entertainment has arrived in the form of news channels. I had read a report last week which says that they are the fastest growing media inititative across the length and breadth of India. Growing at 16 %, they far surpass sports channels except during the cricket fever; maybe. As i flipped through the multitude of these channels I realized news channels had arrived and Arrived with a Bang...
This got me thinking... What news do they show, which has all of us so hooked on???.. why do we watch so much of it and never get enough of it... Is the media coverage given to "Operation Prince" justified? Are news of desecration of some unknowns statue or prices of dresses worn by Hritik or such of the likes really deserving of the air-space and footage afforded to them?
What is the media upto??? I have been asking this question quite often; to myself and others over the past few days..rather weeks or months. I have always been critical of the way the western media picks and hypes up certain parts of a particular news. Also, the general public is very town centric and so a dog biting someone on his bum becomes a big local news out there.
This is a blasphemous misuse of the rights and powers vested in the media according to me. I used to have great pride in the way our media handled news and segregated and presented them with due importance.
This was, however, a few years back. When news was just that. Something you hear and take notice of. It was either a very good or extremely bad one that affected the way your world spun...
Cut to today and it is more about sensationalism. Anything to catch your eye, I say. The media wont stop at anything: be it malfunction or wardrobes at fashion shows or milk-drinking Ganeshas or rapist cops or corrupt politicians. The greed for titbits has meta morphised our media folks into ground hogs for whom any snippet is news.
There is no introspection and both the victim and the perpetrator are glorified. SMS contests are run daily and poor commoners are lured to participate under the lieu of great prizes...Everything is gift-wrapped under the pretense of being sensitive information or Breaking news.
The media has been converted into a circus where evrything from illicit love affairs to dastradly terrorist acts get equal publicity. That day may not be too far when media reports news even before they happen...
PS: Growing media influence has benefits too which would be discussed some other day...
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Banned...
Well, that I havent had a post in the past 20 odd days is half my doing and half, the brilliance of soem overtly enthu brains in the Indian government; ably aided by few ISP's.
I generally dont take a stand immediately on any issue and like to listen to the logic provided by the people or organization opposing my views before I speak out. When I reached home on 14th.. Bombay was still reeling heavily under the weather, both thanks to the rains and the bomb-blasts. The mood was sombre and vibrancy of the air was slightly diminshed.
It was an unexpected homecoming for me too... Generally, I get greeted by roads busting on the seams and people in a fury that only other more furious people could handle... This time, however, I felt as if the city was more accomodating and understanding. It was silent and it bemoaned me to play my silent part too.
I reached home and stories from all and sundry filled in. Sumone in the building was hurt; others had seen the whole blasts and were petrified and few more had lost faith in the safety quotient the city once very famously touted...
I thought this was nerve-wrecking and decided to write about it... But sumthing was eerie about the way the globe spun on my netscape browser as I typed in my blogsite identity. It wasnt gonna open. These were going to be feelings better left supressed. I tried a few other regular sites I am used to but encountered the same error. I cursed my connection and returned back to the follow-up news of the incident...
Thats when news poured in.. Blog sites are banned. They may be carrying sensitve information; it was said. I took it at face-value, admiring the intelligence agencies on such speedy work...
But then it struck me. Why my site? why a lot others like me? what differentiates the written word from being voicing a protest to perpetrating a crime? These are questions i am clueless about and answers that would take a lot of time to b answered........
I generally dont take a stand immediately on any issue and like to listen to the logic provided by the people or organization opposing my views before I speak out. When I reached home on 14th.. Bombay was still reeling heavily under the weather, both thanks to the rains and the bomb-blasts. The mood was sombre and vibrancy of the air was slightly diminshed.
It was an unexpected homecoming for me too... Generally, I get greeted by roads busting on the seams and people in a fury that only other more furious people could handle... This time, however, I felt as if the city was more accomodating and understanding. It was silent and it bemoaned me to play my silent part too.
I reached home and stories from all and sundry filled in. Sumone in the building was hurt; others had seen the whole blasts and were petrified and few more had lost faith in the safety quotient the city once very famously touted...
I thought this was nerve-wrecking and decided to write about it... But sumthing was eerie about the way the globe spun on my netscape browser as I typed in my blogsite identity. It wasnt gonna open. These were going to be feelings better left supressed. I tried a few other regular sites I am used to but encountered the same error. I cursed my connection and returned back to the follow-up news of the incident...
Thats when news poured in.. Blog sites are banned. They may be carrying sensitve information; it was said. I took it at face-value, admiring the intelligence agencies on such speedy work...
But then it struck me. Why my site? why a lot others like me? what differentiates the written word from being voicing a protest to perpetrating a crime? These are questions i am clueless about and answers that would take a lot of time to b answered........
Monday, July 03, 2006
A career.. loads of memories...
I am an avid sports watcher; almost all kinds... One of the most thrilling to watch over the years has certainly been tennis and the two guys who got me hooked on to this thrill a second roller coaster have been John McEnroe and Agassi. Both legends; nutty, ecentric, showmen but their best quality was the talent to match this atrocity.
My first images of Agassi was Wimbeldon'92... a young, strappy, punk-haired, earring wearing dude with amazing service returns. The guy who could sizzle up the green lawns with both his looks and his game. The debonair image was further boosted by the likes of Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon and a host of other celebrtities shouting hoarse in their support for thr darling.
His strokes had a certain elan, a flair, an adventurous spirit. It displayed the kind of freedom known only to vagabonds. The cross courts and down the lines always knew where they were supposed to land... Thy were the free spirit which always knows it destiny. And they seldom betrayed the owner. Agassi was the artist whose strokes bewildered even his opponents.
However, he was always gonna be the second fiddle against the great Pistol Pete. For all his flair and charisma; he couldnt shake off the indomitable workmanlike precision and accuracy of Sampras. He would be the darling of the masses and media but he was always second-best. But the showman from Vegas was determined to carve a niche as a champion more than a blazer.
He stuck to his fitness regime, always focussed on his goals; tried harder each year and finally survived more thn most would dream to... Playing 15 odd years on the professional tennis circuit is no joke but Agassi achieved it with verve and spunk. As always fortune favored the brave and he joined the enviable company of greats to have won on all the surfaces- a feat even Sampras couldnt match...
The rapid decline in age and painkillers have finally taken a toll on the champions body. Since last year, he wasnt as competitive as we are used to see him. Agassi realized this and reduced the amount of playing he was involved in. Just last week he declared this would be his last Wimbeldon and the US open his last competitive tournament...
All his die hard fans wished him luck and hoped for one final hoorah. That was not to be... My tennis hero was defeated (perhaps by the guy who will emulate his sucess; Nadal) but definitely not disgraced. The age showed but so did the quality. If the greens have seen the last of the maestro; so be it. Lets hope the showman has in a sense passed on the mantle to the most worthy shoulders.
The cross courts and service returns would always be remembered. His career was a package reel full of highlights. The sun is setting on one of the most loved tennis careers but the love never will.
Agassi- my tennis idol; take a bow...............
My first images of Agassi was Wimbeldon'92... a young, strappy, punk-haired, earring wearing dude with amazing service returns. The guy who could sizzle up the green lawns with both his looks and his game. The debonair image was further boosted by the likes of Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon and a host of other celebrtities shouting hoarse in their support for thr darling.
His strokes had a certain elan, a flair, an adventurous spirit. It displayed the kind of freedom known only to vagabonds. The cross courts and down the lines always knew where they were supposed to land... Thy were the free spirit which always knows it destiny. And they seldom betrayed the owner. Agassi was the artist whose strokes bewildered even his opponents.
However, he was always gonna be the second fiddle against the great Pistol Pete. For all his flair and charisma; he couldnt shake off the indomitable workmanlike precision and accuracy of Sampras. He would be the darling of the masses and media but he was always second-best. But the showman from Vegas was determined to carve a niche as a champion more than a blazer.
He stuck to his fitness regime, always focussed on his goals; tried harder each year and finally survived more thn most would dream to... Playing 15 odd years on the professional tennis circuit is no joke but Agassi achieved it with verve and spunk. As always fortune favored the brave and he joined the enviable company of greats to have won on all the surfaces- a feat even Sampras couldnt match...
The rapid decline in age and painkillers have finally taken a toll on the champions body. Since last year, he wasnt as competitive as we are used to see him. Agassi realized this and reduced the amount of playing he was involved in. Just last week he declared this would be his last Wimbeldon and the US open his last competitive tournament...
All his die hard fans wished him luck and hoped for one final hoorah. That was not to be... My tennis hero was defeated (perhaps by the guy who will emulate his sucess; Nadal) but definitely not disgraced. The age showed but so did the quality. If the greens have seen the last of the maestro; so be it. Lets hope the showman has in a sense passed on the mantle to the most worthy shoulders.
The cross courts and service returns would always be remembered. His career was a package reel full of highlights. The sun is setting on one of the most loved tennis careers but the love never will.
Agassi- my tennis idol; take a bow...............
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