Public Enemies

I hear very frequently some news anchor saying that "This news is coming up right after a short break and you don't want to miss this". First, the break is not short and secondly, how does he/she know that I don't want to miss this?

Remember the days when news was just news and anchors just gave us the news and not their opinion. Today, every news anchor or correspondent is an analyst. And thinks that he/she is a much better analyst than the one on the other news channel. If it had just stopped at this, I wouldnt be concerned and would not write a blog.

My concern is that news channels today don't just give the news or the public opinion, they form the public opinion. A news that should take 2 minutes will be followed by a 10 minute analysis. Sometimes analysis is done by informed people but more often than not its done by someone who just wants lime-light or who is very animated and people will love to see him. These days news channels are 24 hours on and there is not enough news.

And second, and more importantly, we as listeners have stopped to process this information and think. Thats why news channel are able to form public opinions. An example would be --- President's approval rating is above 60% some 5 months back, now its 30%, lowest ever for his term. What is the source of this information? How many people took this survey? Why do we believe that the President was good earlier and now he is not or for that matter why should we believe that 60% approval rating means he was doing great earlier? Even if the news channel is able to provide answers to these questions, isn't the right thing to do would be to filter out the news from "news + analysis" and think and decide for yourself what the President has done and does his work makes sense to you?

Lastly, for a news channel or an anchor or a correspondent, I dont think that news is very important anymore. Its all about those individuals. In an Anderson Cooper 360 show, you would hear Anderson Cooper much more than the "breaking news" he is providing you. A typical news segment will go like this:

News Anchor Jane: This news is brought to you live by our chief correspondent John Doe, who is on the site of the scene himself. Remember, channel ANX brought you the story first. Over to you John Doe.

John Doe: This is John Doe and here in Mobile, Alabama a fire has broken out in a forest and the city of Mobile is just 50 miles away from the cite of accident. Firefighters are trying hard to contain the fire. No life is in danger. The chief of fire department has said that fire would be contained in the next 2 hours and there is no reason to worry.

John Doe doing analysis: The question here is why this fire started? Is this arson? Is this because of climate-change? We have here with us Mr ABC to discuss this fire. -- a 5 minute analysis will follow.

Later John Doe signs off: This was John Doe providing you the first video footage of the fire only on ANX. Back to you Jane.

News Anchor Jane: You just saw the first visuals of this fire in Alabama from John Doe only on ANX. This is Jane at the top of the hour and ahead the great story of a missing cat. You dont want to miss this.

Game Set & Match CBS

I am watching the Federer-Djokovic Semi Finals at US Open 2008. Alongside, in a near-by court the other semi-final between Nadal and Murray has started. CBS is showing the Federer-Djokovic match. Federer wins and the match ends.

Now, instead of showing the LIVE action of the Nadal-Murry match, CBS decides to show it from start. Already 2 sets have finished and the viewers are forced to watch deferred action.

No other channel is covering it. Viewers have no other option but to watch it.

CBS knows that this is the only way they can sell these 2 sets. Who wins?

Zindagi Zindabad

On 3rd August 2008 www.timesofindia.com had these entries, all, on its frontpage.

• Naina Devi stampede toll mounts to 146
• Class 9 student killed hostel mates at Asaram ashram. Madhya Pradesh police said that Rituraj Dixit (14) has admitted to killing two Asaram ashram students in the bathroom of the hostel.
• Bomb explosion kills four in Kolkata
• Bihar: 41 labourers killed in mishap
• Nine climbers feared dead on K-2
• 12 killed in Baghdad bomb blasts
• 18 dead in latest clashes in Lanka
• Amarnath row: 37 hurt during protests in Jammu

And this is just a normal day. Not a day of panic or unrest.

Saurav Ganguly's Will, Sachin Tendulkar's Calm and Simon Taufel's Confession

The second cricket test match between India and England is not yet complete. The test, however, has seen some great things. Sports, I feel, always evokes some true emotions.

Saurav Ganguly was made to feel unwanted a year back. Every newspaper had written him off. The greats of the game suggested him to retire. Friends too, thinking, its not just for a great to be treated like that. In an interview he said, its easy to just leave. Thats the easiest path. Anyone can do that. So he decided to challenge himself, to see if he can force a comeback. Of all odds, he came back. In this test match he played a great innings. He was nearing his 100, but was given out wrongly. His will though, will bring him another one soon. All his career, he was known for one thing, his dogged will. That is what he will be remembered later.

Sachin Tendulkar too was nearing a century but was a victim of another poor decision by Simon Taufel. When he was given out, he was stunned and shocked. But he didnt make noises, he didnt make faces towards the umpire. We get a bad deal, say a road jam, and would make a big fuss about it. He just turned back and went. It is these small things, that give the big insights inside the soul of big champions.

Lastly, umpire Simon Taufel, had a bad day. The best umpire in the game today gave two wrong decisions. We all have our bad days. His greatness was his confession. Its not easy to say "I made a mistake". He could have said something else, or could have refused to speak. But he chose to accept his mistake. And on top of that, he felt bad for the spectators and fans, for it was them who felt the most let down. And Sachin and Saurav? They were fine. One eating an ice-cream and the other cracking jokes with his team-mates.

Professor Courageous

Virginia Tech witnessed USA's worst massacre.

Professor Liviu Librescu faced the bullets and asked the students to flee and jump out of the window. Around 8-9 lives saved. A split second decision to save lives and a split second decision to give away his own life. What courage and what selflessness!!

Immortality surely comes from the deeds. A remarkable life as it is, and a remarkable death. He has definitely made his family, friends and students extremely proud. And he will continue to inspire all those who will come to know of him.

What more can I say?

Few Good Men

Three great champions Andre Agassi, Michael Schumacher and Shane Warne have retired in the year 2006. While I have watched most of the grand-slam semis and finals and most of India-Australia cricket battles, I have not watched F1 at all. However, thanks to my roomie's enthusiasm, I was fortunate to watch Schumi's last race. Lagging behind by one lap to ending the race at 4th position was quite an achievement in a game where a difference of one second is considered pretty big.

Andre Agassi lost in the 3rd round of US Open 2006 and that was his last match. The time when I started to understand and enjoy watching tennis, Stefen Edberg, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker and Navaratilova were ageing and about to retire. Becker was the favorite owing to his flamboyance. They slowly made way for Agassi, Sampras, Ivanisevic and Graf. I liked Sampras because on his day he was unbeatable and more often than not, it used to be his day. I liked Goran Ivanisevic for what else but his serve. 15-love, 30-love, 40-love, Game Ivanisevic. What else could you say after that? I liked Graf for her finesse. I liked the way she carried herself. I liked Agassi for his unpredictability and his return of serve. You could never say that Agassi has lost the match until the match got completed. How many times he came back to win the match from a position of 2 sets down. I liked the fight between Agassi and Sampras. Their matches were like joy and sorrow together. A point won at the same time was a point lost.

Another stalwart of a different game Shane Warne has retired after the 2006 Ashes. His life, both on and off the field, was full of one thing, turns. He made the art of bowling interesting to watch. He used to expect a wicket every ball. His big turns, his wickets, the joy on his face and the confused look of the batsmen made it all the more interesting. Teams were expected to score more in the overs not bowled by him. It was almost taken for granted that he will take wickets and if not that, he wont concede too many runs.

Now that Agassi and Warne have retired, I feel sad. I grew up watching them play. They were a part of my life for so many years. And now that they are gone, I feel a void, I feel that a part of my childhood and teenage years has died.

One day Sachin will retire too. That surely wont be a happy day of my life.

The Elderly

I bought some groceries from Giant Eagles and was standing at the queue to check out. There I saw an old man standing at the end of the queue. He was putting the stuff people bought into plastic bags and then putting them into the carts. He didnt seem to be in good health. There might be many factors for his being in this position at this time, but its a pity that he still has to work at this age. First thing that comes to mind is that why didnt his children take care of him? But, may be he didnt had any, or they themselves were not in a position to take care of him. There can be 100 other factors, but whatever may be the reason, it was not a good sight.

While my mind was doing some guess work to find the reasons behind it, initially I wanted to blame such stores who make elderly work. But I think I was wrong there. Its good that stores like Giant Eagle hire such people for tasks that are relatively easier both mentally and physically. With every job there will be some stress involved but without job it would be difficult for them to survive.

So what can the society do? Ideally, no one should need to work in the evening of their lives, but life doesnt always go the way we want. So there is a need to search for avenues where elderly can fit in. Grocery stores is a good option. Toll-booths probably might be another place where they can work.

And what can you and me do? Alot. While there is no upper limit to what we can do, the least however, is to make sure that our parents dont have to go through this.

Expressions

Societies these days are becoming more and more self-centric. Very few people today will stand up for someone else. Most of us are happy to maintain status-quo untill it really starts to hurt us. All this leads to the development of a mutually-admiring society where everybody shows they are happy with everyone else. You speak well about me, I speak well about you, you support me here, I support you there, everything is fine. However, Artificiality is not the topic of this blog. But I guess this mindset makes our expressions ornamented, which by the way, is the focus of this text. So today if someone asks "How's the coffee?" and you say, "its good" it actually means "its ok" and you didnt like it that much. You have to say "this coffee is awesome" or "this coffee is amazing" or to add even more "this coffee is out of the world". These words will reflect that you really liked it. But poor word "good" really doesnt represent "good" anymore. "Awesome" was a word which was used to describe things that made your jaw drop. That made your eyes wide in amazement. Something like "Looking at Tajmahal is awesome". We have really taken the steam, the emphasis out of this word because so many things can be "awesome" today. So now not only Tajmahal but your socks can be awesome too. Same is the story for the word "amazing". And "out of the world" ?? Sometimes when somebody uses it, I feel, that the thing in question is so bad that it didnt even deserve the right to be on earth and only some aliens would like it. However, it means the opposite.

To put more force in what we say, we start to use these strong words for expressing not-so-strong sentiments. And with that we not only belittle the importance of that word but also add a fakeness to our demeanor. Something almost all personality development books teach.

Our World, Entropy and Heisenberg

When I think about today's world, one thing that comes to my mind is Entropy. I have fading memories of my chemistry classes in school and remember that entropy of the universe always tends to increase over time. So the molecules from a position of tight coupling will try to move away from each other to a loosely coupled state depending on temperature changes as ice melts to water. We humans too are a part of this universe and I wonder that this law of chemistry has something to do with the face of today's world. We also tend to move from an organized state to an unorganized state. From civilization to uncivilization. Look at North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Israel, Afghanistan, Lebanon, US, UK, India, Pakistan, Russia -- doesnt it seem that
the entropy is increasing? Some of these nations are part of that chemical reaction, some are products and some are catalysts (which dont take part in the reaction but help it).

On a brighter side, some of us did understand the importance of how to keep the ice as ice - by controlling the temperature. There are good things happening around the world too. Human quest and conscience has taught us the importance of being civilized, of being organized, of research and development.

So both processes are going on simultaneously. And as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle said that some things have an unavoidable uncertainty -- we will never be sure which process will win ultimately.

Mr. Manjrekar

I have spent many nights watching India play Pakistan or some other country. Sadly, here in US, I always would have to listen to the commentary of Sanjay Manjrekar and Rameej Raja. People staying in India were lucky not to listen to them. Rameej Raja wont say a word against the Pakistani team and Manjrekar wont say a word in favor of Indian team. So it was brutal. I always wanted to say something about Manjrekar but thought he was not worthy, however, he has now forced me to dedicate a blog to him (may be that was his aim -- to gain publicity) by saying that Sachin Tendulkar faked injuries due to fear of failing. On a cloudy day, you dont blame the sun for not shining for the fear of facing the world. Question his form, question his ability to play like earlier but please never doubt the heart of a true champion.

The Comparison Game

How often are we a part of comparing people, things etc? We compare Kishore and Rafi, Maradona and Pele, Sampras and Federer, Sachin and Lara, Asha and Lata, A R Rahman and R D Burman and many others all the time. We all have our favorites and in the quest to elevate them or to win the argument we will ruthlessly bring down the other person. Why dont we give importance to the great service they have done to their respective fields? Why dont we give importance to the joy they all have given to us? Why "comparison" is the only thing important? I feel, By comparing and criticizing I dont elevate one or bring the other one down, what I do is I bring myself down. To have your likes and dislikes is fine, expressing your love for one is fine, expressing your dissatisfaction for the other is fine too. That's your perception, your view and is not wrong. But why do we always tend to compare? Why do we think that to compliment one, we always need to criticize the other? Why cant we just settle on the fact that they all are simply great?

Creativity: an art or science or something else?

Have you looked at the recent Travel Insurance advt?? (The man who can fly but cant swim) Or the various mastercard advertisements (Somethings money cant buy, for everything else there is mastercard)... How creative?? Creativity is everywhere. Its in Beckham's kick and its in our day to day excuses. Now science and art are supposed to be two different things. The bridge between them is talent. If you have the talent you elevate it to the level of art as a Tendulkar, if not, you will play a methodical and bookish but stylish shot as a Dravid. Some gifted people between us have crossed the bridge several times. Earlier sports, painting, singing were considered art. Today too, but constant practice, understanding and studying has made all these subjects possible for common beings too. You might not become a Tendulkar or a Federer but with constant efforts an average man can become a Dravid or a Patrick Rafter. Many factors are out there to help you. Coaches, Technology, Literature -- you need it and you have it. What I mean to say is that the things which were earlier considered as purely art are now becoming more and more scientific. Balance is shifting towards science. So I wonder whether creativity will one day shift towards science too. Today I doubt it, but so did many people who long back thought the same about sports. Today it seems highly impossible as creativity is just an intuitive thought you will either get in a moment or never in years. This way creativity is different than both art and science. Then where do we categorize creativity?? I guess just considering it as a talent or god's gift is fine.

The Dudes

I was born and brought up in small towns in India like Gwalior, Jabalpur, Indore, and therefore never really came to the terms with the "dude language". I now live in US but somehow couldnt get accustomed to the dude lingo. I sincerely dont want to speak that kind of a language. Not that I am here to pass any decisions, but I just wonder and feel amused how quickly people adapt and follow to what they feel is funky and in vogue. On top of that, how quickly they also start to feel uncomfortable with the same people they were living all throughout there past life. I can understand Americans speaking something like that because thats the environment in which they have grown up. But 3 months in US and some of us are just masters of the "dude language".

It actually is quite an entertainment for me to listen to such people saying something like "Just take out that freaking phone of yours from the freaking pocket, maaaaaaaaaan!!!" or the more common "Jesus Christ" or "Jesus H. Christ". I wonder where "Hey Ram" or "Hey Bhagwan" have gone. You can find more such stuff on various scrapbooks.

I recently went back to India and was surprised to see "dudes" all around me. Metros like Pune, Bangalore besides the usual 4 have changed quite a lot. Some for good and some I am not sure.
Just wonder where are we heading?? Well, who cares? Just enjoy.