It’s not every day that I am in a foul mood so I’ll try and make the most of it. Not really sure what the reason is but I suspect it’s got to do something with me not getting good aloo paranthas. Therefore, I would like to crib, criticize left, right and center, be judgmental and everything else that one’s not supposed to be.
Since, I started with this post just because I couldn’t find anything that could keep me occupied, I would like to begin by venting my wrath at the Indian media and the content they carry.
There’s this channel that claims to voice the voice of Youngistan. I’d like to ask. “Who are these effing youngistanis the channel claims to voice the voice of?” Are these the same people on their show who don’t know how many states does “Hindustan” have? Or are they those who think that the Taj Mahal is in Delhi? Cuz that’s exactly what their version of youngistanis think/not think. Their (both the channel and their ‘youngistan’) version of reality is as different and removed from ‘the real reality’ as twitter is from blogger. I don’t expect them to know or talk about the Naxal menace or Telangana or terrorism or Pak getting another bunch of F-16s from the US or any other socially-relevant issue but I am surprised and disgusted at the sheer lack of awareness amongst them.
Youngistan? Novel idea but poor execution. It seems it was just a marketing gimmick for a Bollywood film which “woke up” to a good response courtesy this. Even a cola brand now has a slick looking commercial where Youngistan exclaims “WOW”. To this, I have just one question. “HOW?” “Please MAT PAKAO. GHAR JAO. SO JAO...just so you actually ‘wake up’ some day”.
Then, I feel anyone and everyone who has a handy-cam out there is out making a reality show these days. Sample this - a TV show, another ‘scripted’ reality, has a bunch of good for nothing vella people who happen to have cameras and that’s why are out to test loyalty between partners by performing a sting operation on one partner at the request of another. Invariably, it’s the guy who gets ‘stung’ and, more often than not, comes out looking like a sleaze-ball at the end of the episode. More than the ‘disloyal’ partner, I personally feel it’s the perverted mind of the show producer who’s at it here- what with all the sleazy footage being shown in the disguise of a sting (Why did they ban FTV again?). Am not sure how legal is it to film private lives of people (even if they have permission from one of the partners) and air it on national TV for commercial purposes. Maybe the couple knows everything beforehand and is also actually getting a percentage of the profit from the TV channel/show. It’s a sicko show and tells a lot about our ‘voyeuristic’ tendencies. And possibly also about how these same tendencies are getting exploited by such clever and targeted marketing.
Marketing, marketing everywhere. But nothing worth buying.
IPL. And more IPL on news channels. It’s hardly about cricket it seems and more about entertainment and marketing. I am not against the entertainment part. I love the cheerleading. Infact, cheerleaders should be there during test matches too. It’s the marketing aspect I am perplexed about with it becoming even more irritating (and honestly, novel too). I used to get irritated when the advertisements aired between overs would run long and they ended up consuming a ball or two from the next over. But now they have a gone a step further in the IPL. There are commercial breaks between deliveries now. It seems like a bad joke that has been taken too literally. Let alone the cricket action, even the commentary has become a medium to market. Even the illiterate who cannot speak much English have learnt that there’s an ‘MRF blimp’ floating around on top of the cricket field. GG and RS are ‘brand ambassadors’ for MRF. And, a catch just caught is a ‘Karbonn Kamal Katch’. And, as if all this time to air commercials still wasn’t enough, there are two 2.5 minute dedicated ‘Maxx mobile timeouts’.
Amidst all the IPL action, people seem to have forgotten that there’s a T20 World Cup starting at the end of this month. I sincerely hope that all the dollars earned will help our cricketers to be in good shape for the world cup. On the flipside, maybe, it did come as a blessing in disguise for Pakistani cricketers to not get a chance to play in the IPL (HAHA!!!). Who knows, they might end up defending their title.
Anyway, I feel I have dissipated a lot of negative energy around that I have none left to blabber more. I feel sleepy.
