All YOU HAVE TO DO IS WATCH NEWS CHANNELS
India is a country rich with history. Many people have inhabited here living their lives full or void of any action. I wonder how they passed their time when there was no television or to be specific, news channels. What sort of entertainment exactly filled their existence surpassing other forms of pastimes. Being born in an era when even tape recorders, forget the idiot boxes, were hard to be found, one can easily ask for the details to this creature. But that was far away in the locked doors of my memories. They have already been blurred by the continuous bombardment of images in the aftermath of that age of innocence. One reason why I cannot recall the things people did to amuse themselves was that I was a mere child then. Most of my waking time was spent in worrying about my studies and it was proved beyond doubt in later period that the worrying was not uncalled for, because I could never do anything memorable in my academic career.
By the time I was accustomed to the torment on account of the studies, a tape recorder entered the life to accompany an old radio set. Poor thing radio, it worked on vacuum tubes. But its efficiency was never surpassed by any instrument which tried to fill the vacuum which was apparent there when the radio set did not blare any program. The arrival of tape recorder set the tone for influx of the audio cassettes by all and sundry in the household. Each member tried to bring the cassette as per his own choice. Shortly thereafter, the television arrived on the scene.
From the day the TV set came in, confusion has prevailed on the viewer as to what is entertainment and what is not. The foremost use our TV set was put to was to watch the live cremation ceremony of Indira Gandhi, late prime minister of India. Whole of surrounding areas thronged our old house then to catch the glimpse of young Rajiv Gandhi setting fire to the sandal pyre of his slain mother. Sobs could be heard from the each and every corner of the room where the TV set was put up. That was my first experience of surround sound!
As the days followed, the same confusion prevailed. The programs which Doordarshan, the only boradcatser at that time which has only a meager airtime of eight hours a day, beamed thinking that people will relish them were discarded without any hesitation. Programs which were supposed to educate the people were instantly lapped up as being most entertaining. Films Division’s documentaries always fell in the latter category. I remember we younger lot always looked forward to the election time because DD had a knack of turning into a movie channel when results were declared. That habit was in vogue till as late as 1990s. Bosses in DD thought that people in Maharashtra will be dying to know who was elected from the Hardoi in Bihar or viewers in Uttar Pradesh will be deprived of valuable knowledge nutrients if they do not know who was defeated in Thiruchchi. So they always intertwined old movies in between the programs which gave shape to the careers of Pranav Roy and Vinod Dua.
The same fate has now befallen on the news channels which are supposed to relay newer information. But seeing these channels is no less than an amusing distraction for a common man like me. They have all the spices to fill your dish making sure that you are never short of amusement nutrients. Like when a simple act of launch of party manifesto is turned into major serial for three consecutive days stretching the every corner of imagination’s limits. In addition to the sundry details of promises in the party’s ritualistic paper coming out at every election, the reporters of the channel do not tire of reminding you what the party piece has been missing in it.
Their latest muse seemed to be fixed not on the elections but shoes. About a month ago, each alternate two days, we heard of someone throwing his shoe at someone. The moment such an incident took place, you were bombarded with the clippings of past such incidents ranging from Iraq to China. You are not forgiven if you dare to question the authenticity of the information or the limits to which the coverage can go. It is okay to say that you have the remote control in the hand and you can change the channel anytime. But what can one do when every channel is playing the same footage and playing same nonsense game.
After the election results, it was proved that predictions from all channels were gone awry. Not to learn anything from this, the channels starting blaring one dose of sycophancy after another. One particular family in the country is labeled as the sovereign leaders of the land. As if it is not sufficient, the clips from Bollywood movies are played in between. It has become a staple for the channels. So much so that the entertainment and news are mixed irrevocably. That is why, if you want entertainment, do not go further. News channels are here.
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