BLOG NO -36

In the fast evolving world and society, especially in an increasingly market driven India, more so in a globalised city like Delhi, the convergence of different spheres and thoughts often open a Pandora’s box of choices, which is enough to confuse even the most determined person as well. Lucky are those who find a way to get out of this maze, built inside the mind and in the outer world also.

Thankfully I got an opportunity to experience a unique course, where all the different spheres of media converged at one place. Where the people could experience first hand, what are the fields in which they feel the most comfortable at.

After the explosion of 24x7 news channels, the face of media is changing rapidly. In the western world, the traditional form of news i.e newspapers, is fast turning as a thing of the past itself. And to keep up pace with the changing world, most of the newspapers have turned digital in the form of online news.

Although, in India Newspaper industry is at its peak and growing at a robust pace. But, it is predicted that here also a time will come when newspapers would also become a relic of the past. To be able to deal with this situation it's important to equip yourself accordingly. Thanks to our online media teacher Ben, we got to know a lot about the distict style of online writing. The blog which I have been writing is solely due to the help and initiative taken by him.

Even the most uninitiated of classmates often say that the best thing which they got from this course is their Blog. Blog, is an online personal diary, which can be used to convey your thoughts and reflections to the other people and in turn get their responses in the form of remarks. One can use it to vent out one's frustration, or to offer the most ingenious solutions to the trickiest problems . Perhaps, students also like the fact that unlike Newspaper and Television Script writing ,here the rules and guidelines are not as rigid and formal.

STRUCTURE

‘’I like the Structure’’, ‘’focus more on the structure’’, ‘’you have the content but not the structure’’. These are some of the many instructions which we regularly receive from our esteemed writing professor. With due respect to his capabilities and dedication towards his students, I sometimes feel frustrated by his constant exhortations on the need to have a particular structure, and have started to wonder if the structure was all that is needed to judge anything. Yes anything and anyone, as that is what his criterion seems to be of judging almost anything.

Yesterday, while returning back with him on a metro train, we were chatting about anything which came across our way, when one of my friend spoke about his recent visit to Agra’s Taj Mahal, to which my professor said that '' Although, Taj is a great monument but he personally liked Delhi’s Red fort more, because, it has a certain structure''. I brushed this statement aside as his personal opinion and we moved further. I asked him about his most favorite city, to which his reply was ‘’I like big cities like New york, Paris and Los Angeles, in smaller cities I like London the most’’.

London,a small city. I quipped, ‘’are you talking about the same London which is the capital of Britain or some other American town’’? But indeed he was referring to London, the capital of Britain. Then i asked ‘’How come, London is a small city’’? ‘’He said because it looks small, its structure is not like New-York and Los Angeles’’.

Without caring to know the facts, he demoted one of the biggest cities of the world to a small city. I agree, London has a certain architecture which makes it more accessible and well connected, which gives an impression that it’s a small city, but the fact is London is as big as Paris if not NewYork.

These are some of the examples when too much of focus on structure makes you miss the real picture. His emphasis on structure is so intense that it seems to be bordering to obsession. But isn’t the society has also turned up just like that. More than the product, it’s the way you package your product that sells more. Gone are the days when movies used to revolve around a good script backed by strong acting and direction skills. Today, the way you market your movies through songs and dazzling sets often end up pulling the audience, at least for the initial couple of days, and these two days more than make up the entire production cost of the movie. But, does that mean the movie was great?

Same is the problem with media as well. From, being a mirror to the society, newspapers and news channels have become the dressing table of it, where the reader comes to make him happy and trendy. Can this momentary happiness be a substitute to the actual situation of this country, which the newspapers try to bury under the middle pages?

Coming back to our highly respected professor, on one occasion while teaching history of media he touched upon the subject of Iraq war. During the Iraq war how the Whitehouse packaged the myth about WMDs in a manner that the American public started into believing as if it was indeed a crusade.

 I guess structure of a product more so in a creative work is indeed important. But, too much of emphasis on structure at the cost of content could jeopardized the whole product.

INDIA RISING BUT WHERE ?

Yesterday I saw the movie ‘’Peepli live’’. I somehow got interested in the subject, where the director through the
 use of humor takes potshots at media, government and the social system of the country.The movie portrays the theme of farmers committing suicide in the rural areas of India, while the government and media are being busy in painting the whole world in the India rising slogans.

 In reality what is rising is the number of people who are committing suicides due to the burden of ever increasing debt, and the number of poor and malnourished children who go to bed (if they have any) without food. Forget about the rural hinterland, even in the capital itself there are thousands of homeless people who have nothing to protect themselves from the harsh chilly winters. Winter is not a one off phenomenon, it comes every year, still the government has done little to shield them from the cold winds of North India. The few and far between night shelters which the government  has opened are insufficient to take care of every homeless person. Why can’t the government take this problem with the same seriousness which it showed during the last stage of commonwealth games preparation?

In a Blog article written by Mr Riaz Haq ‘’ Peepli Live’’ destroys Indian Myths. The same issue has been explored. I agree with the writer's claim  that India is  doing  badly as far as uplifting its people from the margins of poverty is concerned. The policy of  making the country rich first and then distribute the wealth among the masses is taking more time than accepted. Although, I am not totally against the market driven trickle down approach, but, knowing the delivery system or the infamously inefficient bureaucracy of our country, I tend to feel that India will  remain an unequal society.

Unless and until there are some revolutionary steps taken in the functioning of the government, I don’t see any real difference which this India growth story can make in the life of the 40% poor’s of our country. For them surely the rise of India is just a myth.

MEDIA IN A MARKET DEMOCRACY

Today I met a seasoned journalist who has spent a considerable portion of his life in the print as well in the broadcasting media. As our topic of discussion veered towards the condition of print media in India , I got surprised to know  how 'Times of India' the biggest English daily of our country manages its business.

It is basically the TOI (TIMES OF INDIA) which is responsible for making newspapers sexy and attractive; it  is this paper which brought the page 3 and other soft news like stock market on the front page and gave more importance to the advertisement. The smart marketing moves that Sameer Jain the owner of TOI took turned out to be legendary. Almost all newspapers followed the model of TOI, and increased their readership through cutting prices and increasing the number of pages.

Initially, I felt very happy that due to these marketing moves a lot more readers can afford to read newspapers, as the TOI was full of soft and glamorous news with glossy layout which attracted the young college going generation also. I was thanking Mr. Samir Jain for changing the way people see newspapers, until I came across an article by Mr.Riyaj huq in his blog, Huq’s Musings. Titled "Rulers and Media Manufacturing Consent in India"    after reading it ,I realized that the content of the media post liberalization has actually changed for the worse. News has been commoditized and the readers are being treated as consumers.

In the pursuit of becoming beautiful and attractive, the media has somehow banished the concrete and more important real news to the middle pages. Even the readers themselves don’t want to see the reality any more, and remain in the make believe world of India rising, India the next superpower and various dazzling but illusionary India centric things. This tendency of the public has resulted in the leaders getting off the hook easily on matters which require intense public scrutiny. This dichotomy of newspaper readers were shown during a Pew global survey where 85% Indians who got surveyed were satisfied by the government’s performance. And a country where 7000 people die every day because of hunger, still feel that terrorism is its biggest threat.

After seeing these figures and facts the qoutes of Naom Chomskey seem apt “Propaganda is to democracy what violence is to totalitarianism.” 

Rather than being a watch dog, Media seems to have become a loyal dog of the government and the Market.

THE LAST OLIGARCHS

In the latest batch of wiki leaks revelations, a lot of fears of the public have come true. Pakistan is indeed an oligarchy run by few with the help of foreign assistance. Reflecting upon the blog ‘’Haq’s Musings’’ which I have been following, I guess Pakistan is truly a defunct schizophrenic oligarchy running on the fuel of American aid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy

 Here, the select few who rule the nation, always remain in a state of fear about the other set of people whom they have just toppled to grab the power. Every leader has a series of conspiracy scandals behind him. Every one suspects the other so much that the most trusted person on whom a Pakistani politician can rely upon is the U.S. Ambassador in Islamabad. If  a politician wants to share his deepest secrets, he invariably runs to the U.S Ambassador and shares with him.The role of U.S mission is so deep that if someone wants to become the Prime Minister of the country he has to seek the blessings of the U.S Ambassador.

Although, it would be foolish to say that a country like Pakistan is in the control of the U.S, but indeed a majority of decisions which the political dispensation in Islamabad takes does have an American Imprint on them.

Pakistan being an extremely schizophrenic and disparate country has other considerable robust pillars of power as well, which time and again pull the strings according to their mood and likings. To find a common thread among these disparate pillars  would be difficult but one thing over which these oligarchs do strike a common ground is Kashmir and their hatred or rather Jealousy towards India. By doing this they somehow take the focus away from the more basic and pressing issues like food, employment and house.

The common people of Pakistan should take lessons from these Wiki Leaks and try to find out the real problems of their country. By lulling the consciousness of the ordinary Pakistani through the use of religion and an imaginary enemy called India, these rulers of Pakistan with a feudal mindsets have made a fool out of their public by condemming them into living in a feudal world.

2022 FIFA’s World Cup at Qatar, But Why?

Qatar has been chosen as the host for the 2022 football world cup. I am not against a relatively new country hosting the football world cup, But why only Qatar? What is so special about this country which puts it ahead of the pack of heavy weights like the U.S.A, Australia and South Korea.?

Qatar is an extremely small country with a population of only 1.6 million. Apart from having one of the biggest oil and gas reserves of the world it has nothing to offer in terms of boosting the global appeal of the sport. According to the latest FIFA ranking The Qatar national team is at a lowly 113^th position. I am still clueless about why it got the nod ahead of other more deserving nations to host the world’s greatest sporting extravaganza?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/international/8176966/Qatars-hosting-of-the-2022-World-Cup-finals-is-Fifas-most-dangerous-move-yet.html

Holding a major sporting event like football world cup has a multiplier effect in the overall economy of the host nation. It lifts the overall sentiment towards its economy; the investment that goes into making the required infrastructure for the particular event becomes a sort of legacy for many years to come. We saw something like that during the 2010 Delhi commonwealth games. The infrastructure which was made for the games has been in use for the rest of the people as well.
http://www.commonwealth2010.in/new-delhi-games-village-2010.htm

The fact that hosting a major sporting event is just not about sports makes the decision of FIFA that more questionable.

http://www.commonwealth2010.in/new-delhi-games-village-2010.htm

ENGLISH CAPITAL

Do you know English? If No then Delhi is not the right place to live for you.

Probably I was too harsh to write that statement. Delhi being the capital of the country is a sort of microcosm of India, where a variety of languages are being spoken. Although, Hindi is the widely spoken language, but English has always been the language of aspiration, social mobility and status symbol here.
http://www.languageinindia.com/may2003/annika.html

From the language of elites and the upper strata of society, English is also becoming a functional and preferred language for business and trade , thanks to the mushrooming of IT and ITES companies in the capital.

But, recently the need of having English language skills was felt most prominently by the personnel of Delhi police. During the commonwealth games several foreign tourists complained about their inability to communicate effectively with the police
. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Commonwealth-Games-Pricey-English-training-but-cops-at-loss-for-words/articleshow/6527106.cms


This particular problem took another level when in the dhaula kuan rape case, the friend of the victim who was accompanying her during that ill-fated night, revealed that she had immediately tried to inform the police about the incident. But, due to the inability of the police to understand English no action could be taken in time.

The victim and her friend both from the northeast states of India don’t know Hindi. This situation has further raised the question about the various divisions in our country. Even after 63 years of independence we don’t know in which language should we all converse. Although, Hindi is the official national language of our country, not every Indian understands it, let alone speaks. In the south every state has its own culture and language. They consider the need of communicating in Hindi as unnecessary and a propaganda of the North.

English is emerging as a dominant language of trade and business albeit in the select metros only. Large parts of India still don't know English language. Moreover; the local politicians and culture groups are against the use of English, as it threatens to uproot the local and traditional culture. Although, the fact remains that those people who are well versed in English language have a considerable advantage over others in terms of employment and job opportunities. Should we follow the examples of European countries, Russia and Japan in promoting one language? Or in our own unique manner wear the batch of diversity on our sleeves and proudly say that India can accommodate any dichotomy and contradictions with ease.

Can English like the British raj unite us again as a country? This is a question whose answer is hidden in the layers of future.

SUV's (Socially Useless Vehicles)

At a time when the whole world is trying to forge a consensus to cut the global greenhouse gas emissions to a significant level, the criticism of diesel guzzling SUVs(Sports Utility Vehicle) by Jairam Ramesh, Union Environment Minister of India looks a step in the right direction. He has even said that these expensive luxury vehicles should pay the full price of diesel rather than the subsidized one.

 "I am not knocking the growth of the automotive industry but those who want to use diesel cars must pay the full market price for the fuel. Why should they get subsidized fuel meant for farmers?" he saidI vehemently support his outbursts against these cars. These SUV’s are infamous for being fuel guzzlers. In a poor country like India, with an acute problem of pollution and traffic congestion, a cheaper diesel further incentivizes the customers to continue with their private vehicles and discourages the government’s efforts to lure them towards the public mode of transport. The subsidy provided to different types of fuels is specifically meant for the rural and agriculture sector of our country. An upper or upper middle class person has no right to pay the same price for diesel as a farmer does. The government should seriously think of revising the diesel prices and make an effort to specifically target those strata of population which really needs that subsidy.

The auto manufacturers should also see the larger picture and try to invest more in the technology which makes their vehicles more fuel efficient. SUVs are clearly an anomaly and should be discouraged both by the consumers and producers.

"We need to move to a system which looks at rewarding or incentivise those companies that actually promote the objective of sustainable development, that promote energy conservation, water conservation and protection and preservation of natural resources.’’ Jairam ramesh said.