This seems to be the extreme spectrum in terms of testing the patience of a nation and its citizens. The terror attacks raging in Mumbai, entering it 45th hour as this article is being written has and must be the last straw for our tolerance towards any form of terrorism. The audacity of such terrorists to enter into our financial capital for an ill tempered man hunt is something which cannot be tolerated with our very meek replies seen before. It is time to stand up and meet our fates, which is to fight, fight for our independence, fight for our citizens and fight to save our sanctity. Enough is enough; we need to finally push for the last frontier in our fight towards and with terrorism.
In this hour our Prime Minister gives a robotic, insanely passive, dead and morose speech while addressing the nation. In this moment of complete profanity towards our sovereignty the President addresses the nation in a very submissive tone while reading a pre written speech which delivers on the same content time after time when our men and women, who drive the nation day after day, die without any fault of theirs. Where is our leadership? Is it time for our leaders, be it from the government or the opposition to speak from their sheltered houses to call for useless conferences to address the nation. For what is this needed? Why do you need to visit the injured in the hospitals now when most of the security needs to be beefed up at the spots where the terrorists have hauled up themselves or are mercilessly killing the innocent? What will you do by meeting the injured? Yes Mr. Prime Minister, can we have answers. Answers we need, answers we desire for our peaceful sleep in the night, and answers we deserve to let our children and parents go to do their daily business in the cities knowing we will see them safely at then end of the day or hear from them that they have conquered the day with safety. Did it make any difference to the injured by your very plastic visit to them? Will you even remember the faces of these people after the election?
Let me pose a few questions. We compare ourselves to our western counterparts every day with hope of our equality to them. After the July bombings of London have any other terror strikes occurred in the U.K.? Let us keep aside U.K., it is tiny in size as compared to the proportions of India. Has U.S.A. suffered any terror attacks on its own land after the 9/11 happenings? India is smaller in terms of size to the U.S.A. yet it cannot contain these terror traps. For Gods sake, we are the largest spenders in the world for defense equipments and ammunitions. Where are these purchases going? Where are these ammunitions being used? Of course I am well aware that most of them are being targeted towards Kashmir but how can the police in Gujrat and Maharashtra, the intelligence and the Indian navy loose track of a small rubber boat laden with well trained and planned terrorists who have the audacity to enter a foreign territory and create havoc and the worst terror attacks we have ever seen. How is it possible that our country and its leadership have tolerated attacks after attacks when the last straw should have been the very assault on our Parliament in 2001?
After 9/11 occurred we along with the world decided to condemn U.S.A when they installed a complete screening device in their airports. It was their way to safeguard themselves. What was wrong in it? It at least did not allow any more such attacks to be conducted on them. Why cannot we learn from them when we learn every thing else from them. We take up their accent, their entertainment, their foreign policy methods, their governance values but cannot learn the way they effectively and with single handed devotion and focus fight inland or international terrorism. Who are we trying to appease here by softening our stand day after day, year after year, and attack after attack? With what intentions does the Prime Minister give a speech about non-tolerance towards terrorism when in fact we have tolerated about a handful since they have come into power. With what convenience does Mr.L.K. Advani address a press conference when in fact our symbol of democracy, our greatest strength and the joy of our representation to the world, the Parliament was daringly attacked under their regime?
It is time we stand up to what is truly ours, peace. It is what we deserve. We have led our citizens, our democracy and our foreign policy with peace and courtesy. We deserve the same and if we are not getting it in return, which is the cold fact, we need to fight for our right. Our neighbour has done enough damage and time and again got past us because we dared to continue peacefully, but it is high time we stop the same and fight with our guns. Words have been spoken, hands have been shook, files and paperwork on peace have been exchanges and enough of these measures have been taken. It is time for affirmative action.
It is an appeal here that the leadership of this country does what is needful that is to truly be aggressive- aggressive in our dialogue, in our ultimatums and in our action. It is time to fight. The time for soft dialogues has gone. This has to be the last straw.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
REALITY TV: A HISTORY OF ENTERTAINMENT
Reality TV is the new mantra of television producers and channel executives. It is the means to high TRP ratings and the end is always to ouster the other channel and similar-but-tweaked-here-and-there shows from the competition. So fierce is the competition in this segment that every channel at least boasts of two to three brands of reality shows. Some of them are inherited legally from abroad, mostly and always that is from the USA- the god-mother of reality television, or some proving to be very cheap copies of the shows abroad.
If one channel boasts of ‘Jhalak Diklaja’, a take on the American dance reality show ‘Dancing with the Stars’, then another one has ‘Nach Baliye’ to offset its audience value. Both the shows boast of television heavyweights, but at times the soup served by these shows becomes a concoction of soap operas, bad production values and precarious mud slinging. Unlike its foreign contemporary where contestants’ master classic dance styles like the jive, rumba-samba, ballroom etc, these shows making the contestants dance on ordinary Hindi songs which leads the show to be mundane.
Then there glitzy talent shows, mostly singing or dancing, which makes us all feel that any other talent is worthless unless you can shake a hip to coarse steps and be a professional in multiple acts of melodrama as seen in these shows. The worse seems to be the addition of children to these shows. Apart from the very obvious labour of shooting these shows the most disturbing issue is the unearthliness of dance, crude choices of songs and impolite costumes for children aged between 5 and 10. These shows apart from becoming platforms for movies to be publicised, also produce talent which very soon goes into anonymity.
Then there are other brands of reality shows- quizzes. ‘The Bournvita Quiz Contest’ remained and will always remain, for me without doubt, the epitome of dignified, knowledgeable and a polished format of fun and delight for children and adults alike. Derek O’ Brien will forever remain the consummate host who set trends for future knowledge based game shows. The only contemporary who stands shoulder to shoulder with him is the ageless Siddhart Basu, who’s ‘Mastermind India’ produced geniuses par excellence from amongst us. In recent times Amitabh Bachchan brought himself out from oblivion along with respect for the medium of television, in the incomparable show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, a reproduction of the hit show ‘Who wants to be a Millionare’. Shah Rukh Khan hosted the same show with enviable enthusiasm and also brought out the desi version of ‘Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader’, though without much success.
In this regard we must mention, we must mention Neena Gupta’s brilliant yet sarcastic take on ‘The Weakest Link’, which did not go down well with the audience due to the stinging scorns from the forever black wearing hostess. The latest entrant into this segment is Salman Khan with his new show ‘Dus ka Dum’.
MTV brought out very successfully at it, two reality shows centered on today’s youth. ‘Roadies’ especially ‘Roadies 5.0’ along with ‘Splitsvilla’ brought out a new version of reality dosage which got the youth hooked on to the idiot box, me being no exception. These shows showed the mindset of the youth and there expressions which were well received though it was very tasteless at times.
The chief question is where did it all start from?
Without a doubt USA is he mother of this concept though European countries have had sizeable contributions to the same.
Well, the genre came on to its own in the very south of the 20th century and early 21st century, it existed from late 1940’s in America. Allen Funt’s ‘Candid Camera’ is often described as the granddaddy of reality television. Shows like ‘Beat the Clock’, ‘Truth or Consequences’, Ted Mack's ‘Original Amateur Hour’, Arthur Godfrey's ‘Talent Scouts’, ‘You Asked For It’ showed contests, practical jokes, stunts, amateur competition, audience voting and selections dictating the shows’ trajectory .
Beauty pageant gained light after the ‘Miss America’ beauty pageant attained heady success since its broadcast in 1954. The winners often got instant celebrity status. This laid the ground for international beauty pageants like the ‘Miss Universe’ and the ‘Miss World’ Pageants, both of which began very successful journeys in the 1950’s and continue till now with record participations and audience viewerships across the globe.
Modern reality television featuring participators who were more than raring to let go off their confidentiality and decorum to attain their very precious yet fleeting five minutes of success began in the 70’s. ‘Chuck Barris: The Dating Game’, ‘The Newlywed Game’ and ‘The Gong Show’ brought out the early version of the brazenness that we see today in reality shows across the world.
‘Cops’ which began airing in 1989 brought out the camcorder filming style to reality television. The concepts of heavy soundtracks being used to confessional room videos were pioneered by the series ‘Nummer 28’ which was a Dutch production. ‘Survivor’ had its basis on the Swedish show ‘Expedition Robinson’, created by TV producer Charlie Parsons, and began airing in 1997.
The 21st century brought with it multiple reality shows which hit the bull’s eye with regularity. ‘American Idol’ is one such show which has been reproduced in possibly every part of the globe. Other shows like ‘Survivor’, ‘Top Model’, ‘Dancing With The Stars’, ‘The Apprentice’, ‘Fear Factor’ and ‘Big Brother’ have all also had a global impact, having each been successfully syndicated in dozens of countries.
‘Project Runway’, ‘America's Next Top Model’ and ‘The Simple Life’ have all racked audience appreciation with strong contentions. So much is the effect of such shows that in April 2008, the ‘Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ announced it will give its very first Primetime Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Host for a Reality Show or Reality Competition’.
Another type of reality shows involves celebrities. Often these show a star going about their everyday life: examples include ‘The Anna Nicole Show’, ‘The Osbournes’, ‘Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica’, ‘Hey Paula!’ and ‘Hogan Knows Best’. VH1 has created an entire chunk of shows devoted to celebrity reality, known as ‘Celebreality’.
In India, reality television came with the advent of ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’. Consequently the flood gates opened and reality television has swamped our television screens and lives alike. Though these shows make for interesting viewership, they become monotonous and unrealistic. It is obvious that the show has been scripted, even if loosely.
The apparent rudeness in the show seems to be shown as if it is an acceptable norm in the society which is apparently not. It is not like we don’t live in a closed world. In a competitive scenario as is in our colleges, there is only one top spot yet I have never seen any kind of offensiveness ever. I completely agree that incentives vary. We cannot and should not compare academic excellence with trivial shows and the money it generates but what is appalling is that we mock our own value and educational system through our behaviour in such scenarios.
Reality television should stay and it must, as entertainment is required, but I believe that yes, it must be regulated. One cannot be expected to switch off the television if they do not want to watch. It is high time we see what young children are watching and doing on television.
If one channel boasts of ‘Jhalak Diklaja’, a take on the American dance reality show ‘Dancing with the Stars’, then another one has ‘Nach Baliye’ to offset its audience value. Both the shows boast of television heavyweights, but at times the soup served by these shows becomes a concoction of soap operas, bad production values and precarious mud slinging. Unlike its foreign contemporary where contestants’ master classic dance styles like the jive, rumba-samba, ballroom etc, these shows making the contestants dance on ordinary Hindi songs which leads the show to be mundane.
Then there glitzy talent shows, mostly singing or dancing, which makes us all feel that any other talent is worthless unless you can shake a hip to coarse steps and be a professional in multiple acts of melodrama as seen in these shows. The worse seems to be the addition of children to these shows. Apart from the very obvious labour of shooting these shows the most disturbing issue is the unearthliness of dance, crude choices of songs and impolite costumes for children aged between 5 and 10. These shows apart from becoming platforms for movies to be publicised, also produce talent which very soon goes into anonymity.
Then there are other brands of reality shows- quizzes. ‘The Bournvita Quiz Contest’ remained and will always remain, for me without doubt, the epitome of dignified, knowledgeable and a polished format of fun and delight for children and adults alike. Derek O’ Brien will forever remain the consummate host who set trends for future knowledge based game shows. The only contemporary who stands shoulder to shoulder with him is the ageless Siddhart Basu, who’s ‘Mastermind India’ produced geniuses par excellence from amongst us. In recent times Amitabh Bachchan brought himself out from oblivion along with respect for the medium of television, in the incomparable show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, a reproduction of the hit show ‘Who wants to be a Millionare’. Shah Rukh Khan hosted the same show with enviable enthusiasm and also brought out the desi version of ‘Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader’, though without much success.
In this regard we must mention, we must mention Neena Gupta’s brilliant yet sarcastic take on ‘The Weakest Link’, which did not go down well with the audience due to the stinging scorns from the forever black wearing hostess. The latest entrant into this segment is Salman Khan with his new show ‘Dus ka Dum’.
MTV brought out very successfully at it, two reality shows centered on today’s youth. ‘Roadies’ especially ‘Roadies 5.0’ along with ‘Splitsvilla’ brought out a new version of reality dosage which got the youth hooked on to the idiot box, me being no exception. These shows showed the mindset of the youth and there expressions which were well received though it was very tasteless at times.
The chief question is where did it all start from?
Without a doubt USA is he mother of this concept though European countries have had sizeable contributions to the same.
Well, the genre came on to its own in the very south of the 20th century and early 21st century, it existed from late 1940’s in America. Allen Funt’s ‘Candid Camera’ is often described as the granddaddy of reality television. Shows like ‘Beat the Clock’, ‘Truth or Consequences’, Ted Mack's ‘Original Amateur Hour’, Arthur Godfrey's ‘Talent Scouts’, ‘You Asked For It’ showed contests, practical jokes, stunts, amateur competition, audience voting and selections dictating the shows’ trajectory .
Beauty pageant gained light after the ‘Miss America’ beauty pageant attained heady success since its broadcast in 1954. The winners often got instant celebrity status. This laid the ground for international beauty pageants like the ‘Miss Universe’ and the ‘Miss World’ Pageants, both of which began very successful journeys in the 1950’s and continue till now with record participations and audience viewerships across the globe.
Modern reality television featuring participators who were more than raring to let go off their confidentiality and decorum to attain their very precious yet fleeting five minutes of success began in the 70’s. ‘Chuck Barris: The Dating Game’, ‘The Newlywed Game’ and ‘The Gong Show’ brought out the early version of the brazenness that we see today in reality shows across the world.
‘Cops’ which began airing in 1989 brought out the camcorder filming style to reality television. The concepts of heavy soundtracks being used to confessional room videos were pioneered by the series ‘Nummer 28’ which was a Dutch production. ‘Survivor’ had its basis on the Swedish show ‘Expedition Robinson’, created by TV producer Charlie Parsons, and began airing in 1997.
The 21st century brought with it multiple reality shows which hit the bull’s eye with regularity. ‘American Idol’ is one such show which has been reproduced in possibly every part of the globe. Other shows like ‘Survivor’, ‘Top Model’, ‘Dancing With The Stars’, ‘The Apprentice’, ‘Fear Factor’ and ‘Big Brother’ have all also had a global impact, having each been successfully syndicated in dozens of countries.
‘Project Runway’, ‘America's Next Top Model’ and ‘The Simple Life’ have all racked audience appreciation with strong contentions. So much is the effect of such shows that in April 2008, the ‘Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ announced it will give its very first Primetime Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Host for a Reality Show or Reality Competition’.
Another type of reality shows involves celebrities. Often these show a star going about their everyday life: examples include ‘The Anna Nicole Show’, ‘The Osbournes’, ‘Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica’, ‘Hey Paula!’ and ‘Hogan Knows Best’. VH1 has created an entire chunk of shows devoted to celebrity reality, known as ‘Celebreality’.
In India, reality television came with the advent of ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’. Consequently the flood gates opened and reality television has swamped our television screens and lives alike. Though these shows make for interesting viewership, they become monotonous and unrealistic. It is obvious that the show has been scripted, even if loosely.
The apparent rudeness in the show seems to be shown as if it is an acceptable norm in the society which is apparently not. It is not like we don’t live in a closed world. In a competitive scenario as is in our colleges, there is only one top spot yet I have never seen any kind of offensiveness ever. I completely agree that incentives vary. We cannot and should not compare academic excellence with trivial shows and the money it generates but what is appalling is that we mock our own value and educational system through our behaviour in such scenarios.
Reality television should stay and it must, as entertainment is required, but I believe that yes, it must be regulated. One cannot be expected to switch off the television if they do not want to watch. It is high time we see what young children are watching and doing on television.
COALITION GOVERNMENTS AND DEMOCRACY
Our political system is brimming over with coalition governments. They have sprung up like mushrooms in majority of states along with a government in the centre. The core cause behind these phenomena which has rocked the very foundation of Indian democracy is the emergence of regional parties at the whims and fancy of a political leader.
Democracy is a system of forming governments where the ultimate source of power are the people and they make use of their power through their representative who remains responsible to the people for the exercise of power. Although we have been endowed with a beautiful legacy of democratic history, in my opinion, our political scene is highly unstable and in serious trouble due to the emergence of a string of coalition governments. With the emergence of multi-party system in India, increasing media focus and limelight has been liberally poured on regional parties who have seized this opportunity and have made formation of government at every level a Herculean task.
The party system that has emerged in India is not only incompatible with the particular democratic institution that we have adopted but also constitutes a clear danger to the survival of democracy in the country. Our constitutional experts need to scrutinise this situation and advocate clear guidelines using which we can iron out the flaws which crop up while forming political parties and such similar outfits and suggest what could be done for dealing with the situations likely to be thrown up after parliamentary elections where no party can form the government.
At the root of it all is that the public votes for regional parties often born on shoddy principles of caste, religion, language, region and gender. Disgruntled politicians manifest their own narrow principles to float political parties and win votes with populist strategies. The value of public opinion rests on the united show of aggregate views about causes and concerns which the community face as a whole. This is where these parties cash on.
Uneducated and ignorant as these people often are, their votes get swayed away due to regional bias and religious beliefs which make the end result a very distorted version of what the public opinion had to be or was projected to be. This leads to a very sorry state of affairs as public opinion is horrendously disintegrated and no one emerges out as a clear winner.
Though coalition governments may bank upon the advantages of representation from various quarters of the societal landscape its disadvantages brings a much wider picture highlighting the core problems in our constitutional machinery. Every coalition government formed with the union of several parties is like a newborn with medical defects which hamper its growth at every level.
The biggest disadvantage of a coalition government is that the end product depicted is very unstable and vulnerable as the core element of the coalition has to keep up with all the promises made to its partners and do the impossible, that is to make every one happy with the platter offered to him or her. By doing so the government has to sacrifice on various key policies and important programs. A succession of undisciplined activities, horse-trading events and defection take place which lowers the public morality, all just to serve to every ones narrow political interests.
The cabinet size blooms out of proportion to accommodate every interest thus fuelling increased expenditure of valuable public funds for seemingly wasteful purposes. Finally the supreme position of the Prime Minister becomes shaky and he is tied down towards preserving and sustaining the coalition and duties towards the country, thus staying distinctly non-committal to the latter.
If one has to put my list of disadvantages to test, the result will prove to be true to what we are seeing in the present UPA coalition government. The left parties leave no stone to veto the action of the government thus making stumbling holes in the path of the government, acting as if they are the opposition and not an ally. Instances can be given of the issues pertaining to Disinvestment where the government had to ultimately bow down to pressure. I believe that in the case of Third World or Developing countries the concept of coalition governments may not prove to be successful.
The next question which arises is that what needs to be done to rectify the situation?
I have a few answers.
Firstly, the voting age should be increase to 21 from 18 as we need more intelligent and matured citizens to vote as it is a serious and responsible task. I believe that a person who has reached the age of that of a graduate should vote rather than high a high school pass out or a person of that corresponding age.
Political literacy drives sponsored by Election Commission to educate rural citizens about the basics of politics and voting rights should be started at large scale to make them responsible and intelligent voters.
Campaign and candidacy done on cheap principles such as caste, religion, language, region and gender should be severely discouraged and checked. Finally, the procedure of formation of political parties and outfits should be amended making it as difficult as possible so that it is discouraged.
If we wish we can pull our country out of this menace and have our country elect a responsible government .The power always resides in us, we the people.
Democracy is a system of forming governments where the ultimate source of power are the people and they make use of their power through their representative who remains responsible to the people for the exercise of power. Although we have been endowed with a beautiful legacy of democratic history, in my opinion, our political scene is highly unstable and in serious trouble due to the emergence of a string of coalition governments. With the emergence of multi-party system in India, increasing media focus and limelight has been liberally poured on regional parties who have seized this opportunity and have made formation of government at every level a Herculean task.
The party system that has emerged in India is not only incompatible with the particular democratic institution that we have adopted but also constitutes a clear danger to the survival of democracy in the country. Our constitutional experts need to scrutinise this situation and advocate clear guidelines using which we can iron out the flaws which crop up while forming political parties and such similar outfits and suggest what could be done for dealing with the situations likely to be thrown up after parliamentary elections where no party can form the government.
At the root of it all is that the public votes for regional parties often born on shoddy principles of caste, religion, language, region and gender. Disgruntled politicians manifest their own narrow principles to float political parties and win votes with populist strategies. The value of public opinion rests on the united show of aggregate views about causes and concerns which the community face as a whole. This is where these parties cash on.
Uneducated and ignorant as these people often are, their votes get swayed away due to regional bias and religious beliefs which make the end result a very distorted version of what the public opinion had to be or was projected to be. This leads to a very sorry state of affairs as public opinion is horrendously disintegrated and no one emerges out as a clear winner.
Though coalition governments may bank upon the advantages of representation from various quarters of the societal landscape its disadvantages brings a much wider picture highlighting the core problems in our constitutional machinery. Every coalition government formed with the union of several parties is like a newborn with medical defects which hamper its growth at every level.
The biggest disadvantage of a coalition government is that the end product depicted is very unstable and vulnerable as the core element of the coalition has to keep up with all the promises made to its partners and do the impossible, that is to make every one happy with the platter offered to him or her. By doing so the government has to sacrifice on various key policies and important programs. A succession of undisciplined activities, horse-trading events and defection take place which lowers the public morality, all just to serve to every ones narrow political interests.
The cabinet size blooms out of proportion to accommodate every interest thus fuelling increased expenditure of valuable public funds for seemingly wasteful purposes. Finally the supreme position of the Prime Minister becomes shaky and he is tied down towards preserving and sustaining the coalition and duties towards the country, thus staying distinctly non-committal to the latter.
If one has to put my list of disadvantages to test, the result will prove to be true to what we are seeing in the present UPA coalition government. The left parties leave no stone to veto the action of the government thus making stumbling holes in the path of the government, acting as if they are the opposition and not an ally. Instances can be given of the issues pertaining to Disinvestment where the government had to ultimately bow down to pressure. I believe that in the case of Third World or Developing countries the concept of coalition governments may not prove to be successful.
The next question which arises is that what needs to be done to rectify the situation?
I have a few answers.
Firstly, the voting age should be increase to 21 from 18 as we need more intelligent and matured citizens to vote as it is a serious and responsible task. I believe that a person who has reached the age of that of a graduate should vote rather than high a high school pass out or a person of that corresponding age.
Political literacy drives sponsored by Election Commission to educate rural citizens about the basics of politics and voting rights should be started at large scale to make them responsible and intelligent voters.
Campaign and candidacy done on cheap principles such as caste, religion, language, region and gender should be severely discouraged and checked. Finally, the procedure of formation of political parties and outfits should be amended making it as difficult as possible so that it is discouraged.
If we wish we can pull our country out of this menace and have our country elect a responsible government .The power always resides in us, we the people.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
