Is the Indian Media ashamed, yet?

On Tuesday, this news swept across all the news channels 'Sanjay Dutt relieved by court'. 'Sirf Munna not a bhai' '13 saal ka vanvaas khatam' 'although found guilty for possession of armory, Sanjay can breath sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are withdrawn' Then many personalities like Salman Khan said 'He is a good person. We knew he will come out clean'. Mr Big B said "Dutt's family and our family have relations for years he's a good kid. He is like elder brother to Abhishek".. His sister Priya Dutt said "we can sleep well tonight. It's a great relief"

In other news, Parliament was mad at Indian team for performing bad; Greg Chappell said something; Shah Rukh Khan replaces Amitabh in KBC and other such stuff. But most of the emphasis was given on Sanjay Dutt's "phoenix like" comeback from the ashes of terrorist charges.

Surfing through the channels, one news on BBC startled me. It read "Hisbul Mujahidin's most wanted terrorist 'Sohel Faisal' killed in A nantnag , India .. Indian Major leading the operation lost his life in the process. Four others are injured.

It was past midnight , I started visiting the stupid Indian channels, but Sanjay Dutt was still ruling. They were telling how Sanjay pleaded to the court saying 'I'm the sole bread earner for my family', 'I have a daughter who is studying in US' and so on. Then they showed how Sanjay was not wearing his lucky blue shirt while he was hearing the verdict and also how he went to every temple and prayed for the last few months. A suspect in Mumbai bomb blasts, convicted under armory act...was being transformed into a hero.

Sure Sanjay Dutt has a daughter; Sure he did not do any terrorist activity. Possessing an AK47 is considered too elementary in terrorist community and also one who possesses an AK47 has a right to possess a pistol so that again is not such a big crime; Sure Sanjay Dutt went to all the temples;
Sure he did a lot of Gandhigiri but then.......... ..

Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about the terrorists' whereabouts.. Wasting no time he attacked the camp, killed Hisbul Mujahidin's supremo and in the process lost his life to the bullets fired from an AK47. He is survived by a wife and daughter (just like Sanjay Dutt) who's only 18 months old.

Major Manish never said 'I have a daughter' before he took the decision to attack the terrorists in the darkest of nights. He never thought about having a family and he being the bread earner.

No news channel covered this since they were too busy hyping a former drug addict, a suspect who's linked to bomb blasts which killed hundreds. Their aim was to show how he defied the TADA charges and they were so successful that his conviction in possession of armory had no meaning. They also concluded that his parents in heaven must be happy and proud of him.

Parents of Major Manish are still living and they have to live rest of their lives without their beloved son. His daughter won't ever see her daddy again.

Point of view

Ever wondered why you some time cannot get along with some people? Why you don’t like some one, while others can get along with those people very well. Your group may feel that a particular person from other group is not good to talk to and he might think the same about your group.

The reason for this is simple and the topic says everything about it. Lets take an example; Modern art is a kind of art. People who make it and love it will talk about the freedom with which the colors have been used, how they are mixed, what it depicts as a whole. Now take a look through the eyes of a normal person (by that I don’t want to say that modern art lovers are not normal). For him the picture has no meaning, it is a mess of lines and scribble (sorry if any modern art lover is reading this line). The value of the art can be priceless for the modern art lover but not even a dime for a normal person. What is this point of view? Why does it differ from person to person? Why can’t everyone love the same thing? One part of the answer lies in the environment where you grew and most of your adolescent age spent. Someone tells the understanding of right and wrong to you. If you have been told that stealing is bad then you will consider it that way, but if you look at a robber it is right for him because it gives him food to eat, so for his children it isn’t a crime. So when you say that you don’t like a particular person you actually don’t hate him as a person but actually how he has behaves. If the same person had grown in your vicinity he would have the same frequency that you have and what do you know he could have even been your best friend. What I want to argue over here is not the age old fight between good and bad but rather how one can forget the barriers between people thinking differently and accept as they are. You need not love them nor hate them but rather accept their good points and give away the bad point you feel they have. You will be surprised if you spend even a small time with a person you hate and find out what good points he has. You need not be friends for that but just acquaintance with him. For a bat the whole world is upside-down for a squirrel it is right side up and they never stop debating.?

IPL happily Chose to Get out of India!

Is it that IPL organisers used elections as an opportunity to run away from India at a time when it is not able to guarantee returns to the owners?

Unlike last year, this year’s IPL is in the news for altogether a different set of reasons. Now that it has already been declared (assuming this decision to be the final one, without further change) that this season’s IPL would take place in South Africa, it is time for India to take stock of what she has lost and what not, on account of this decision. But before that, it is even more pertinent to question why IPL organisers accepted this in the first place? Is it that they are deliberately trying to run away from hosting the event in India, using the general elections as an excuse? And considering the fact that general elections should be given topmost priority, was it so very challenging to postpone the event by some time, and hold it later on in all the states? Why is there so much hurry to force upon a decision, and that too, to host one of the most popular sporting properties of India, outside India? Is it that the organisers knew that as a pure business model from the perspective of the investors, the IPL format hasn’t worked in India? And is it also because of the economic slowdown, wherein people in general are reluctant to spend on entertainment, (for example, even good films – but without star cast – are doing miserably at the box office) there are hardly any signs of it becoming a profitable venture even this time around? For all those who are hypnotised by the glamour quotient of the game – and completely sold out by the idea of IPL – here goes some awakening facts. Last year, during the IPL season, barring a few final matches and matches that were held in Kolkata, most of the other stadia were nearly half-empty. But the TV channels, who were incidentally also investors in the property, astutely kept focusing only on those parts of the stadium which had some crowd. Not that the same would have happened this time too. The fact is that in the last season, none of the teams except for Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals were able to make returns on their investments. To reiterate the fact, I would like to clarify that only Rajasthan Royals made money because of their consistent performance, while Kolkata Knight Riders made it simply on account of brand value, creativity and innovation, viz. merchandise sales and sponsorships.  While Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals netted profits to the tune of Rs.13 crore and Rs.6 crore respectively, the rest of the teams, namely Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers, Deccan Chargers, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab incurred losses of Rs.16 crore, Rs.43 crore, Rs.18 crore, Rs.0.2 crore, Rs.6.6 crore and Rs.2.4 crore respectively. Collectively, the losses were to the tune of a jaw-dropping Rs.67.2 crore directly, and around Rs.90 crore overall (including indirect investments)!!! Given the precedence and the current economic scenario, it definitely seems that the IPL authorities were actually looking for an exit route. On top of all this, even their last hope of the Santa-Claus list, the investors, have been backing out big time this season. With all doors showing them a ‘no-entry’ signboard, IPL organisers thought that it was wise to use the past season’s hype and make another country pay up to be the host for this season. And as far as the Indian audience is concerned, the organisers would time the matches in such a manner that they don’t lose out on TRPs. In doing so, they have subtly accepted the fact that IPL is going to be more of a TV spectacle than a live stadium spectacle in India! Nevertheless, even if it is in South Africa, the sport scene is quite different there as compared to India. Countries like South Africa or UK, unlike India, have a culture of sports ingrained in them. So such competitive sporting tournaments always attract the crowds. But wouldn’t it be funny that people there would be expected to come and cheer for a Kolkata Knight Riders or a Rajasthan Royals (no wonder even the names of the teams will be no less than a tongue twister for them)? It is just like hosting an NBC basketball tournament here and expecting that like the way Americans love it, Indians too would throng to the stadia! The only upside that I see in this entire thing is that after terming India as the world’s Slumdog Millionaire, the West will now cheer for the Indian Premier League. Though the truth is that on any given day, I would have loved to see it happen in India. And I find it quite embarrassing too that it’s not happening in India, because India sure hasn’t yet become Pakistan that we couldn’t manage security for some players – so what if the elections were happening simultaneously. It sure doesn’t speak highly of India’s confidence in its own security systems. Or is it –  that IPL organisers used the elections as an opportunity to run away from India at a time when they are not able to guarantee returns to the owners?