Sydney Fiasco – Indian Media going overboard
There is no doubt that it was really sad to watch India lose a match which they could have atleast drawn (realistically speaking, had all umpiring decisions been correct, India could have actually won the match). Then the racism row, something that should have not happened in the first place. Harbhajan was handed a 3 match ban instantaneously (quite amazing, super quick judgement – Saudi style) Be that as it may, on one hand things were already quite heated up in Sydney.
On the other hand, the Indian media seemed to add more fuel to fire. The effect to this “adding fuel to fire” was quite visible when we witnessed one of India’s most famous and familiar way of protest – “burning of effigies“. The media was also prompt in reporting as to how Harbhajan’s mom felt her son could never be wrong (it reminds me of the then famous ‘Sehwag ki Maa’ days) and how a conspiracy seems to have been hatched against her son. Moreover, never mind the official confirmation from ICC or the BCCI, the media had also started speculating the fate of the tour indicating that the tour might be well called off.
As if the contributions of the print media was not enough, the visual media lead by CNN-IBN (one disgusting news channel) and TIMES NOW (yuk, english counterparts of Stars News in terms of content) were quite irrepressible and tried their best to make the discussions with so called “experts” on the topic more glamorous. Would you believe it, the expert opinions of Irrrrfan Khan (I donno how many R’s his numerologist had recommended) and Mandira Bedi (after whom the experience of watching cricket was never the same again) on behalf of bollywood was also taken and quoted. I really donno what bollywood has got to do with this. Tomorrow a Rakhi Sawant would come, sit in the commentary box and tell us how Sachin should be playing his sweep shots or how Saurav should play his cover drives. Quite disgusting. And, NDTV, not to be left behind, are running a “India, Come Back” campaign on their website. Come’on NDTV, never expected this from you.
I wonder where the Indian media wants to take us at the end of the day. Biased views and irrational speculations guided by a commercial motive is the essense of todays media. Cricket is a sport which I have followed all through my life so passionately and it is quite disgusting and disappointing to hear actors like Irrfan Khan or Mandira Bedi talk about cricket.
Not surprisingly Mike Coward in his article quite aptly termed the Indian media as a partisan and ropeable.
Social Individualism
It has been my experience that ground-breaking, history making ideas start off rather insubstantially. One person thinks of something which meets my own thoughts at a tangent. And I, being who I am, am able to see the bigger picture and come up with the above mentioned g-b,h-m ideas.
So it was, today. Anand and I were chatting. It was then that an idea for the future was born. An Idea so Radical and World-Changing, you will not have seen before. Why, even the other halves and the typist-masses haven’t thought of it before. (And you must agree, anything that’s good for the Human Race and the Great Society has been a patented invention of the Half-lifes. Us tiny individualists are only so much clutter.)
So, anyway, let me present a snippet of our conversation:
Anand: yeah… in fact, wanted to discuss with you
me: ?
Anand: libertarians are somehow losing out on the rhetoric space because as you know those who seek illogic, do not appreciate libertarian ‘logic’. so, we’re losing out to the commie…
me: Ah, I get you. Since I am the least logical of the cartelians, I indulge in some rhetoric
Anand: of course, that does not mean we have to become illogical rhetoricians ourselves, but at-least have a bit of aym gramd
me: I could be cut out for that. Especially with my copywriting background, my Tamil pedigree (and its irony)
Yes, yes.
I shall be the Karunanidhi of Libertarians
Anand: sometimes, believe it or not, we kinda alienate people… i did, today, and that did not feel good.
me: Who?
Anand: a commie on the other hand does not alienate people and so , his version of logic sells
some people at work
me: Yes. I see a great future in Aym-Gramdish libertarianism
Leninistic Randism – That’s what I will call my new school or thought
Anand: tis already been done, it is called the american dream
me: Social Individualism
Anand: the problem right now is that american in a bad word
me: Social Individualism – how does that sound?
We all agree Man cannot be an Island unto himself
But can’t he be a Peninsula?
Anand: ithu romba over… enough of water talk
me: Thani Manidan, Thanni manidhan
It is brilliant, I say
Anand: n’gotha
me: I am a natural
Anand: ayyo… nilu’ve thevalai
So, there you have it dear people. The new version of Bleeding Heart liberals. The Bleeding Brain Libertarians. Welcome to Social Individualism.
Update: I erred. Gravely. I missed out giving a link to the great Nilu who originated the concept of Aym Gramd. Saari saar. I am very apologies. You the happy now?
Thought bubble series #3
Couple of thought I’ve been chewing on for about a week now…
It’s better to own brands than products. A product story is not half as interesting as a brand story. Pepsi ought to know. Theirs is the better product. Coke is the better brand.
– Between words and pictures, (not this one) – I prefer words. Obvious, you might say. But here’s the reason why. A word, any word, is open to many interpretations. It doesn’t impose upon the audience a specific interpretation like a picture does.For instance – take something as simple as colours – say Green.
Green written on a piece of paper can be interpreted by many people as many things – trees by some, traffic lights by others, ivy and moss by even others and as a carpet by a few. The written/spoken word lends itself to be anything anybody wants. But a picture of green, any of the above green or other greens, immediately impose upon the viewer one person’s idea of green. A picture in that sense is limiting, it limits imagination. It limits choice. And that’s a bad thing to do.
Take the example further. Let’s take a specific example of green – Trees. The word tree on a piece of paper again can be many things for many people. For me, trees signify coconut palms. For some others, it could be the banyan. For a long-time friend, it’s a mango tree. But a picture of a tree immediately imposes the photographer’s interpretation on the viewer.
Thought bubble series #2
What makes something an illegal activity? Who decides that? What’s the standard of measure? What makes an activity, any activity acceptable or not? What, in short, causes all your illegal activities and corruption?
The Law. Banish the law, and lo, you have done away with everything illegal. Kill the rule, and there are no rule breakers. Destroy a standard of measure/acceptable code of conduct, and everybody is a gentleman.
Yeah, right. Easy said.
Thought Bubble Series #1
Been chewing on this for over a week now. Everybody talks of redistribution of wealth, redistribution of riches.
What, my question is, will it achieve? You make one set of people poorer and another set richer. And then you’ll have to start all over again. A vicious cycle if any.
So here’s a thought. Redistribute governance. – take away the power that one small set of people have to govern the larger set and distribute it to everybody. In essence, bring down the effing government. Capitalist Anarchy is the way ahead.
Why shy about religion as University courses?Whether all the Religions have a common root?
I have been a serious reader of English Novels, since 1964, and continue to read, though the pace and the frequency has considerably slowed down. Further, during my early days, I was able to appreciate only the story line and nothing beyond. However, my recent readings on novels like, Da Vinci Code, or Daemons and Angels or even to a certain extent The Alchemist, (The Word and The Detective—some dusting of my memory past), my thoughts go a little beyond the story line.
These books, talk about Academicians and Religion as a subject of study- may be symbology, ancient Cryptography, Apocalypses, or Bible research. Even after giving generous allowances for Fiction, these books lead you into a direct conclusion that American Universities are not shy of conducting serious research and to offer Academic course either at Graduate or Postgraduate level to willing Students. Further, you are also amazed that Religion, the discussion, ownership or the practices are not confined only to Pundits, Bishops or Mullahs, but also to professors, and students. Had this made them less Christian or has the power of Church any way diminished? No! on the contrary, I understand from a number of my friends that belief in God is growing, and growing day by day, ( may be more after 9/11).
In India, if BJP wants to introduce Vedic studies, every other Party starts shouting Safronisation of Education. Either they vote out, or de-safronize the education or introduce various other cleansing programmes, as if anything Hindu is contagious.
Ours is a democracy and so also USA. Is there sub sects and caste system within Democracy, as one system allows freedom of education and people’s choice in what they want to do, while the other sect of democracy says that people should get only what the parliament decides. The reason is not difficult to see. The parties in Government are more interested in protecting their length of rule/ Governanvce than to listen to their own conscience or what is called the Vote Bank. People at large like me and you are appeased with thirty silvers .
One of you may ask, “Why should there be education to common man in Universities than in VedaPada shalas, or in Madrasas or in Churches”. The so called Fictions or Novels, also talk about, how these religious institutions or the Protectors of Religion want to become more powerful than their own Gods, or even their agenda as to what should be taught or what should be documented or what should not be documented, and various other imposed controls. May be this is the reason why we see Religious Fanatics, fundamentalists or even terrorists. That is, terrorists are essentially misguided or wrongly programmed people by religious fanatics. Thus, it is my belief, that if religion is understood as much as we understand Physics, Chemistry or Mathematics or Psychology, it may lead us into universal brotherhood and understanding.
Over the years, I have been getting into a personal belief, that all the current religions are offshoot of one base religion, as much as we have seen in our own history that Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism have evolved from Hinduism. I have been drawing my own parallels from our Mariamman to Vigin Mary, Christ To Krishna, Deluge (Noah’s Ark) to Mahapralayam (Manu ), Christ feeding the multitude through five beads to Krishna feeding the Disciples of Rishi Dhurvasa, Similarities of birth, growth, and preaching of both Christ and Krishna, Star of David to our own Chakras, or even the sound of Namaz to that of Sama Gana to list only a few. Thus any open and unbiased or rational research in Hindu religion, undertaken as part of University curriculam might give a key to a common base of all religion.
C Gopalakrishnan (Senior)
Semantics and God
Semantic Overload did a brilliant job of confusing the heaven out of people and preachers. Now he follows it up with a great post that puts into words a lot of my own ideas
f I were god (as most of the organized religions define god), then I’d make the world as a perfect place simply because its easier to manage and wonderful place to be, for your kids (i.e. humans) to live and die. Unless, of course, I want to raise the bar, I want a challenge. Since I am god, the all-powerful, nothing could be challenging, so I wouldnt really gain anything by creating an imperfect world and then getting a high out of managing it. Which means that I actually created a perfect world, but imprefection crept into it, thanks to the devil (garden of eden and the serpent). If I am god, and I created eveything, then I must have created devil as well… so devil should be perfect as well, and completely controllable by god, but obviously the devil isnt.. so there is some disconnect there. Even if it wasnt the devil, imperfection still crept in, like entropy and the second law of thermodynamics. But god should be able to set all that right.. after all he is god! At this point logic fails.
This reminds me of a talk I had with a “born-again christian” colleague of mine. We were discussing a client and I don’t know when it happened, but we jumped tracks and started discussing god and the bible. I asked him the same question Semantic asks – That if God is all powerful, and has the power over happiness and joy, and is all compassionate, why doesn’t he deem that all his creation on earth be perpetually happy? And more on similar lines. All I got in reply was a few garbled words about testing faith and stuff.
My one question to friends, relatives and stray people who talk of god and creation is this – If you believe God created you, why would he allow for so much imperfection and defective goods? If he is really omni-potent and omni-scient, what prevents him from coming up with the perfect world and perfect people?
You have no problem suing a manufacturer who supplies you defective or damaged goods. Why don’t you sue god too, for wilful negligence and inferior products?
My experience with my own family members is not very different. My father and cousins and uncles and sundry relatives question me endlessly on my beliefs and egg me on to find god. And I have a real hard time speaking my mind about god.
Oh well, nobody listens to my rants anyway
About
Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan is a copywriter, photographer and goofball from Chennai. He is also an archaeologist, historian and a city lover. He is currently a documentary film-maker and desk-monkey for a film production house.
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