MY SILLY SEARCH FOR ADVENTURES

I was a huge fan of “Famous Five” series as a child. It was a series of novels written by a British author named “Enid Blyton”. The stories revolved around 4 kids who were cousins and their dog. Every novel used to describe their summer vacations together at countryside of Britain. It was always a mysterious story where the five would go out on adventures and figure out something unusual which could be anything ranging from an illegal activity to haunted places. The five of them were always brave and ready to take on challenges. They had their cycles that they would use to go around places and they all loved their dog – Timmy.

Over the years of reading these stories, I felt so connected with these 5 characters. I used to think about them, dream about them and talk about them almost endlessly with one of my friends (Nupur) who was also a “Famous Five” fan.

We were living in colony of Government quarters then – IIP Colony. IIP is the name of institute where my dad worked. It was one of best places for kids to grow up. At outskirts of the city – surrounded by green trees, acres and acres of tea plantation around and the best part was that our colony’s boundary wall was adjacent to Rajaji National Park. So just a few kilometers away, we could reach a proper jungle that had real animals.

Me and my friend Nupur always used to talk about the Famous Five adventures and kept dreaming of having one such adventure ourselves. My dad was very fond of taking all the kids of our colony on excursions inside the jungle early in the morning. It used to be like project and it was a lot of fun. We used to go deep inside the jungle then used our sense of direction to get back home.

Nupur and I in a hope to find an adventure used to take our cycles up to the nearest point of jungle boundary wall and after jumping the wall – we used to cover some extent of the jungle. Just the two of us! But unfortunately (or fortunately) we never found anything illegal happening there or never encountered any animals or ghosts. Now when I think back – it was quite dangerous because in no time the jungle used to get really deep and anybody could get lost there. But we were just so eager to encounter an adventure – that we never thought of any of this.

Those were the stories that I grew up with and that I believed was a reality in some part of the world. Later our adventures completely stopped because there was news of spotting leopard around the jungle boundary. Security was tightened around the boundary wall to ensure the safety of residents and that brought all our hopes of finding an adventure and solving it on our own to a complete halt.

I believed that Famous Five actually did exist and Enid Blyton wrote their stories. I wanted to be famous like them, so famous that someday some author would also write about my adventures too.

HAIL THE MEDIA

Encyclopedia and Wikipedia are the wholesome twosome,

That tickle minds in ways so awesome.

The international, national and local dailies,

Reach out to people merrily or wearily.

 

Live broadcast of sixers or bouncers,

Greedy in-laws who are sly pouncers,

Plane hijacks or illegally hoarded onion sacks,

Refuge crises and the killer seismics,

Create ripples in all circles.

 

Deprivation, Devastation or the programmes for Immunization,

Pollution, Corruption or Mass Frustration,

Forecast of raging cyclones and the birth of new clones,

Stupendous athletic feats and exposing big cheats,

Give rise to opinions bittersweet.

 

Regular newsfeeds and crafty tweets,

Keep channels on the heat.

Opinion polls and crimes on roll,

Stir up the human mind and soul.

Big and small scams on people’s faces slam,

A picture of reality behind the masked morality.

 

How detached the globe would’ve been,

Had so much been left unheard and unseen!

The media definitely is a big boon,

Which lets us know all things very soon.

 

Information and commerce,

It does aggressively endorse,

Reaching the masses without absolute remorse.

A responsible pillar of knowledge dissemination,

The media at times is wily in its articulation.

 

So hail the media and those behind it,

We nail those opposed to free permit.

May the voice of people reign on high,

And the banner of democracy freely fly.

3 IGNORED TRUTHS OF 21ST CENTURY MEDIA

The 18th century is the advent age of media. Since then the work of Indian media is remarkable. As the days went by media industry took new contours and today India is globally recognized for its media power. In India, Media is considered as the Sight, Sound and Voice of People. In our country every day 100 million copies of newspapers are sold, from 690 satellite channels, more than 80 are news channels and apart from this p-media (print media) and b-media (broadcast media), the o-media (online media) works like wild-fire. Every Indian kid above 10 yrs of age has a glimpse of what is happening in times today. And all these numbers and statistics clearly portrays ‘how active media is in bringing all issues, big and small into limelight!’

Apart from the entire statistics, the call of media is ‘to bring the truth to the people”.  Media stands for two things “TRUTH” and “PEOPLE”. The lifeline of the entire universe is also “Satyamev Jayate !”. Truth needs People to survive and People need Truth to survive ! But in this 21^st Century media has mostly fallen down from its call. In this 16^th year of 21^st century Media is more concern to TRP (Television Rating Point); Money-making; Market Competition; Glamour; Yellow Journalism, Politics; so on and so forth. Censorship is more on “Truth” and “People” rather than all sort of fabricated stories. Every media agents ask for one thing – “MASALA”, not for the sake of Truth but for TRP. In the blockbuster film “PK” when Jaggu (Jagat Janani) introduces PK to “Jerry – the pictured News head”, she says if we will bring Tapaswi and PK front to front, our TRP will increase and that’s what most of our media story is today.

Now the big question is, “WHY MEDIA HAS DRIFTED AWAY FROM ITS CALL?” Today, every individual’s plea to media is, don’t ignore the 3 central truths of your call!

1. Intent must be prior to Content:- Every word that we convey has an intention behind it. There is nothing called random ! Nowadays there is frequent divergence between Intent and Content in media stories. Which ought not to be ! Most of the media presentations are politicized with party politics, every statement that is flashed is in favor of some political party. Yes, every good work must be appreciated but that must not become the means of upliftment/buttering. Mostly media contents portray the promotional picture of the ruling party.

Every media agents must be PEOPLE intention and TRUTH contented !

2. Stand for TRUTH:- Media agents name their programs/presentations with sellable words like “Sach Ka Samna”; “Aap ki Adalat” and much more but where is the change? Do we truly present “SACH (Truth)” for the cause of “AAP (People)”? or again some more well-dressed lies with flamboyant masala!

Today we bring censorship on Truth, let not that day appear when we will find censorship on our Rights !

3. Remember, People trusts you:- While conveying some news to our friends we often quote “arre, you don’t know! This has come on media.” This simple line expresses the trust level we people have on media. People trust media because they consider media, “as their ears to listen to their plea; as their eyes to listen what is happening behind the curtains, and as their mouth to speak for them”. In short, if it is good enough to be on TV, it is good enough to be true.

My two questions for media is:-

• Does Media have the guts to say, ‘yes, we have obeyed our call (bringing the Truth, before the People)’?
• Can Media prove itself today, ‘yes, we are the Ears, Eyes and Mouth of People’?

Keep thinking!

CHOOSE YOUR MEDIA…

I stopped reading the newspaper long time back. With the news full of scams, murders, rapes and corruption, it makes me feel helpless and resigned. “Nothing can change this country” – we say and get on with our daily routines. This feeling of resignation makes us blind. It makes us somebody who is only ready to blame and not take any responsibility. It makes us blame the authorities, government, neighbors, schools, colleges and youngsters – basically everybody other than the people living under our own houses.

It is very easy to sit at home, watch news the whole day and read newspaper which is anyways full of negativity and blame the government. It is not very easy to take up an issue that our society is struggling with today and make it a mission of your life. Fight it with all your might – like a soldier protecting his nation.

Few years back, when Aamir Khan (renowned Bollywood actor) premiered the show named – Satyamev Jayate, I was touched to the depths of my heart. The first episode was about female infanticide and feticide – a major problem in this country. I cried my heart out imagining how many girls are killed every day, either as an infant or in the womb.

Satyamev Jayate is not about the problems in our society, it is not about finger-pointing and blaming the authorities. It is about looking for a solution at the ground level. The way this team has got the heroes of this country in limelight, it gives a huge inspiration to each one of the viewers.

To believe in the fact that “change is possible”! Yes, there are burning issues but the solutions are also available. In a country of 1 billion people, even if 10% of us take up a cause and a mission to bring about a change, corrupt politicians will be weakened.

I don’t read the newspaper at all. I rather subscribe to Facebook pages of the organizations and individuals who have taken up the mission to bring about the change. They give me much more hope and motivation to continue my own mission. I am not interested in reading about scams, murders and rapes; I am more interested in reading about heroes of this country who never come into a limelight of media.

I was so surprised to know that somebody named “Kailash Satyarthi” from our own land won the Nobel Peace prize 2014. I had never heard of him, never knew what sort of a mission he had taken up till he was honored with Nobel Prize. Why our media never recognizes such heroes? How come a common person of India (like me) didn’t know about this great person and his work? And I am sure there are many more like him who is just working without seeking any selfish returns. Let us get those heroes to limelight.

What is it that you choose to read/watch – Inspiration or hopelessness??

MEDIA – THE MASQUERADE

We live in a fair instant world where everything is easily accessible, may it be a letter from a friend or the hidden agenda of plotters. Media has filled those long gaps with its ‘sovereign’ rule all over the world. It has acted as an unstoppable boon to communicate the thoughts of common man to the higher authorities and vice versa. But with all the perks it has brought, there are some inevitable curses it hasn’t failed to bestow upon us!

In this magically fast world, the kids have become smarter than their elders. They know of things and stuff which they aren’t supposed to know at that tender age. They are growing up in a world where vulgarity is the norm of the broad minders- the classy ones, and the poor innocent ones are mocked for being way too timid. Babies these days are literally born with an account in social media. The danger arises when the kid starts handling the account at a pre-age and learns of things beyond what his mentality can take. He grows up with that and unknowingly, the actions practiced in the dark become completely normal for him which if I were to describe religiously, I would call it ‘sin’.

Fake has become the new trend. People are heading towards it not necessarily in their conscious mind because the media has made it appear more like the ‘basic component’ of surviving in this present world. Youth compete to look better and they do so with the help of various editing apps which conceals their authentic appearance. We look up to the far stretched wings of media as our ‘godmother’ and it is leading us to the path of ultimate destruction.

Movies, TV shows inspire people more than anything. No matter whatever the theme be, messages of jealousy, anger, fight, quarrel, hatred and so on are transmitted subtly and displayed in a manner where it isn’t awe-inspiring as in cinemas, rather emptying the world of its peace and harmony. The media is actually breeding a generation of inhumane.

Time would be short if I were to describe it all one by one. But apart from all these, I believe the world would be restored to its former glory of authenticity and peace if the media would fold its wings in certain areas. And of course, until that problem is fixed, we should be careful to choose what we imbibe from the media!