I don't trust news anymore

As a kid, I had learnt that news stood for North-East-West-South. I believed it then. I am no longer sure it is true anymore.

Going by the acronym it would represent the directions from which share-worthy information would be disseminated by those who knew their news, making the news credible. It is sadly no longer the case. Or at least I am convinced so.

Take the case of Arvind Kejriwal. He seems to be unleashing at least one new scam or something of the size and shape and pointing new fingers everyday. This seems far more programmed than television channels themselves! How much of it is believable? Speaking for myself, I choose to believe none of it. I am realist, not so much of an idealist.

Every one has the news even as it breaks. And somehow everyone on Twitter is talking about it within seconds of each other. No sooner has the timeline been flooded by so many reworded versions in just 140 characters, it has already begun its spillover on Facebook, YouTube and websites. And rest, as they say, is history.. or becomes one! Says so much about the ingenuity of our communication skills!

It is no wonder then that recently a lot of celebrities have been RIPed off virtually. Sting operations rule the roost. Half stories start doing the rounds even before the whole story can get itself out of the bag. You believe what you see but you don't think anymore. Or don't need to? Or do we? And what, who and why do you believe anymore?

Our Professor Mohan Sinha taught us the 5W & 1H of journalism. The speed at which news does the round barely leaves the time to verify the what, who, where, when, why or how anymore. So, does that mean 5W&1H is now old school news? Or are we getting ahead of ourselves with respect to news being news itself?

Truth be told: these are the times of social news and citizen journalism. News now updates even before it actually happens! To me the paradigm of news itself has changed. It is no longer the truthful looking glass from which one could look at the world. It now always needs to be treated with a healthy dose of salt and sensibility.

Do you still trust what you hear anymore?

Why is reality TV so unreal?

Let's be honest. I never did like reality TV at all. Never. Ever. Not for a moment. The idea that TV can be real repulses me.

When I was tiny and growing up in the middle of India in the 80's TV had just started making inroads into Indian households who gathered religiously around the TV every Sunday morning to watch Ramayana or Mahabharata or dance and whistle when India scored another century. That was entertainment!

We kids were still just discovering cartoons. I still remember my shock when I had realized one day that it was not really playing for real somewhere, but it was careful programmed and recorded. That is why the word - program. If it is programmed, how can it be real? I don't think I understood then or even now!

Anyways, I continued to miss the bus with television shows. While the country was hooked to KSBKBT and such serials I happily kept to myself rather than get involved in fake show with fake people in even more fake and absurd situations. I have been told Baa lived up to 109 or so and Tulsi was married some 3-4 times and even had kids which she didn't know about or something of the sort - I still wonder how!

Hop-skip-jump and we arrive to in 00's where reality takes over and people still love their TV sets - even more as they are now slimmer, flatter and wider. Improves perspective, no?

So now we go a step further and say we are bringing you live action and reactions and still manage to keep you in emotional upheavals that will keep you coming back for more! Are our audiences and producers so naive that they believe real life is so over melodramatic to be completely over the top? Are are pseudo celebrities so bored that choose to act in "reality" shows? 

With the recent roster of singing/dancing/comedy shows and the love (or is even that fake!?) showered by fans upon it I wonder do we even understand the difference between real and reality anymore. Or thanks to years of mindless TV viewing we now perceive better-than-real-reality as an antidote to our tiny tired lives which may not hold too drama but just too many struggles. Is that really entertainment then? What about all the news channels (barring a few) who try to dish something as serious as news with high levels of melodrama and entertainment/eyeball value? Why do we even need so much entertainment?

That is precisely what got me thinking about the way we humans behave and do what we do. Why do we watch what we do as a nation? Can something as simple as an idiot box (is it even that anymore?) make us so idiotic? It might be true, we are the company we keep. Why is there a need to own 15 minutes of fame when no one can remember half an hour after the show who you even were?

From where I come from a weekly television serial could still bring and keep the family together. Today we may have a TV set in every room, with a show targetted at each and every family member and yet we are so drawn apart that we look for reality elsewhere except within our homes and hearts.

What do you think?

P.S. : Just by the way, what really got me thinking about all this was chancing upon the promos of a particular musical reality shows which happened to feature my-up-to-that-moment-favorite singer. He sadly is no longer my favorite. Doing reality shows is just too wannabe for my taste. I am better off with Raghu Dixits of the world!

#SMJ - Arousing a nation!

There is a new obsession with my Sundays.

No matter how late I have slept, I wake up bang at 11am to turn on my TV.

My last treasured memories of awesome Sunday morning goes right back to my childhood days where waking up to He-Man, Discovery of India, Chanakya, etc on Doordarshan was an absolute must!

I have to say after a huge time lapse another show is tingling my senses with good minded excitement. Satyamev Jayate or #SMJ

A lot has been said about the show already. Every Sunday morning as I log in to Twitter, I unfailing notice at least two trending topics around #SMJ. Every time a Facebook update shows up, it garners 500+ likes within seconds.

The content on the show is thought provoking albeit a bit dramatic. However, I don't see that as a negative. For all those who only notice the drama, you fail to realize we have had channels like NDTV that dish good content consistently without dramatics and most of us do not even notice the channel quite frankly.

The fact is that as a nation, we are obsessed with drama / reality TV.  The dramatics attracts your eyeballs and keeps them there too! Uninteresting content does not hold our attention for too long... 

Kudos to #SMJ for making people watch a show that addresses everyday reality. These are topics that one feels always happens to someone else, until it falls upon you.

The rating and the widespread fire is for everyone to see. It is doing what it set out to do - garner attention. It is difficult to ignore it. And I believe its a good thing too. Good because it has even been able to move a few state governments into action. This is positive action associated with it. And that is exactly why I think it is so powerful.

Having said that it does not mean all evil is now eliminated from this planet. Good things come in small packages. Every bit counts. And I believe that is the need / necessity of the hour. The belief that a billion of us can bring a positive change.

Too long we have believed "Even if I change, not like the country will come back on track". That needs to change. Every single positive change matters.

If #SMJ can ring in the bells for those changes, then it can be called truly successful.