Let’s get into the recently-concluded London Olympics. India won almost double the number of medals than they won in the previous edition. Awards, cash prizes, government job offerings, etc. poured in from all corners for those who made our country proud. News flash on every channel – ‘XYZ wins gold/silver/bronze for India!’ It hasn’t even been a month since the London Olympics concluded, and the London Paralympics are still in progress. Do most of us know that? Do we even know what Paralympics is? Where are the athletes now? Mary Kom, mother of two, made the country proud when she won silver in the women’s boxing category. There was a huge media storm over her win. Add to this some coverage to her arrival from London and grand reception at airport by some ‘proud Indians’ (and the awards that followed too).
But where is she now? Do we even know which state she belongs to? Do we know what a mother of two beautiful twins, who is more than 30 years of age, had to go through in her life to achieve what we Indians just celebrated a mere number of days ago? ‘Like and Share if you are a true Indian’ is what was trending in most popular social networking websites
Bragging around that we are ‘true Indians’ at websites by liking and sharing photos and pages doesn’t take us to that level of patriotism at all. If we have actually done something which has made every living soul in the country proud, then we are entitled to be called a ‘true Indian’ (I strictly don’t include the modern day politicians in the list. They are involved in far more scams or scandals than the number of MMS scandal videos you would find at any premium rated xxx website).
It is true that the media is the eye of a common layman. It is through them, and only them, that a common Indian will get to know about almost everything. It is their responsibility to lead people (or mislead, which they often do) to any information or happening around the world. The monopoly of making an athlete famous overnight and making him/her disappear the other day belongs to the ‘free’ Indian media. Sorry to say, but they suck at the job of reporting when it comes to sports and athletes, cricket being the exception.
What are they doing? A prime-time show at a national news channel goes like this: “Do aliens drink cow milk? A special report!” Are you kidding me? And nowadays the ‘Ekta-Kapoor-serials-inspired’ special effects are in full use; news flashes from all corners of the screen multiple times are announced with special sound effects, of course, to add more masala to the report and terrify the audience. They make a serious news report funny and humorous. In this open letter to the Indian media I want to say – you are making a mockery of yourself just to earn a few extra TRPs.
Billions would have been proud and inspired to watch the life stories of the hard-working, dedicated, ‘lesser-known’ athletes if those stories would have been showcased instead of aliens and cow milk!
But where is she now? Do we even know which state she belongs to? Do we know what a mother of two beautiful twins, who is more than 30 years of age, had to go through in her life to achieve what we Indians just celebrated a mere number of days ago? ‘Like and Share if you are a true Indian’ is what was trending in most popular social networking websites
Bragging around that we are ‘true Indians’ at websites by liking and sharing photos and pages doesn’t take us to that level of patriotism at all. If we have actually done something which has made every living soul in the country proud, then we are entitled to be called a ‘true Indian’ (I strictly don’t include the modern day politicians in the list. They are involved in far more scams or scandals than the number of MMS scandal videos you would find at any premium rated xxx website).
It is true that the media is the eye of a common layman. It is through them, and only them, that a common Indian will get to know about almost everything. It is their responsibility to lead people (or mislead, which they often do) to any information or happening around the world. The monopoly of making an athlete famous overnight and making him/her disappear the other day belongs to the ‘free’ Indian media. Sorry to say, but they suck at the job of reporting when it comes to sports and athletes, cricket being the exception.
What are they doing? A prime-time show at a national news channel goes like this: “Do aliens drink cow milk? A special report!” Are you kidding me? And nowadays the ‘Ekta-Kapoor-serials-inspired’ special effects are in full use; news flashes from all corners of the screen multiple times are announced with special sound effects, of course, to add more masala to the report and terrify the audience. They make a serious news report funny and humorous. In this open letter to the Indian media I want to say – you are making a mockery of yourself just to earn a few extra TRPs.
Billions would have been proud and inspired to watch the life stories of the hard-working, dedicated, ‘lesser-known’ athletes if those stories would have been showcased instead of aliens and cow milk!
No comments:
Post a Comment