The
Olympics have been a pleasant change from girls being harassed, Assam
being burned, power failure and train deaths.
I’ve learnt that
Indian sportspersons (at least at the Olympics) don’t lose. They ‘crash’, ‘get
knocked’ or ‘get kicked’ out of events. Anyone who has qualified for an event
is an Olympian, that’s something to be proud of. Winning is the icing on the
cake, but the cake itself is valuable. But our channels haven’t figured it out
yet. No doubt, the heartbreak and tension of the archers, shooters, badminton
players and boxers were shared by those like me who were sitting crossing
fingers and limbs hoping hard for good news.
Assam’s riots
and deaths kept cropping up. I was surprised this hadn’t happened earlier, for
the area’s been simmering for years now. One reporter irritatingly said, “the
Army made lame excuses” about why it hadn’t reacted earlier. As a responsible
viewer, I’d say sack the guy for homework not done. It took the channels four
days to understand that cops and the paramilitary had to be called in first.
The Army is basically meant to fight enemies, and help civilian administration
only in rare circumstances (in India
these ‘rare’ circumstances happen so often that we fail to recognize as
not-routine). And even then, it needs a nod from the Ministry of Defence, who
needs a nod from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Not a single channel asked why
or how this hadn’t happened earlier, the riots. Had the government not known
trouble was likely to erupt? I could guess that sitting here in Goa. What did the government do, what had it done, to
prevent it? No channel asked this question. They were more keen on putting the
blame on who wiped the mess last. A medal for their effort, I say.
The power
collapse eclipsed the big, big disappointment of Mahesh Bhupathi’s bowing out
of his last attempt at The Olys. Silly questions ruled the screen: ‘Hesh
created the row and didn’t play with Paes, what does he have to say now?’ The
answer given by another reporter says: ‘there’s always joy and sorrow in life,’
etc, etc. Fundas and facts versus talk-talk-talk opinions. The power collapse
news bite was handled better by a regional channel (Marathi) that wasn’t even
affected by it. The Delhi
based folks gave us obvious feedback about office-goers being stranded on
railway stations and teenagers not being able to study (like they weren’t
relieved about it). Again, not surprising at all, for this was yet another
disaster just waiting to happen. If you’ve ever seen the net of wires and
cables criss-crossing the Uttar Pradesh-Gurgaon-Ghaziabad-Noida skies, you
could have made an accurate guess yourself. Specially if you’ve spoken to
people who’ve told you their bijli-bills were in three digit figures in spite
of having air-conditioned kitchens and bathrooms… which weren’t attached to the
mandatory diesel-sets that every factory, farm and home seems to have in those
areas.
The thing about
girls getting molested: it’s time we raised a Seetha Sene instead of running
off to complain to the government. Learn judo, girls, or taekwondo. Learn to
box, wield sticks, swords, nails, teeth, elbows, wrists, anything that’ll help
keep you safe. What you wear isn’t important. Where and when is. Be
appropriate. After taking care that you’re in the right, if goons hassle you,
be ready to kill them if need be. Then walk out with your heads held high.
(Now my comments on the Assam
girl: the channels said the girl was sixteen years old. Do we have age limits
for pubbing? Should we?). As for the goons labeling themselves as Ram’s sene….
According to the Ramayana, they were monkeys, right?
At the end of
the week, I find that the television channels that I like to watch are
Doordarshan (specially the Prasad Bharati channel which continuously gives
India’s best music and dance) and the Goa channels that tell us the good that’s happening in the State. As
one who believes that there’s always more good than bad in the world… Goa has got the JRD Tata award for doing well in
Reproductive Health and Family Planning. And theoretical physicist Ashoke Sen, a
string theorist at Allahabad's Harish Chandra Research Institute, became a
millionaire overnight as he is one of the nine winners of the first Yuri Milner
Fundamental Physics Prize which at Rs 16.7 crore is the most lucrative academic
prize in the world. After the DD and the Goa
channels, I flip back to the Olympics to see what mankind is capable of. Vive
la good times.
