Just like that

Look at the gall of the **** American Radio jockey.. NDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK [ THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2005 04:12:30 PM ] First it was Indian call centres, now its the victims of the tsunami that struck Asia in December. American radio has found the ultimate way of ruling the air waves – get racially offensive. The first case that one heard about was that of Philadelphia radio jockeys Star and Buc Wild getting racially abusive on their early morning show. The duo dialled an Indian call centre and proceeded to call the female executive a "b***h" and a "filthy rat eater". Many US-based Indians were understandably offended and the radio station very magnanimously suspended the two for a day. Far from deterring others, Star and Buc seem to have inspired more such potty mouths. The latest in the RJSS (radio jockey s**t strike) is the 'Tsunami song' aired by RJ Tarsha Nicole Jones aka 'Miss Jones' and Hot 97 on New York's WQHT-FM . On the mor...

In continuation with the irritant images on the TV: More recently, Sun TV, overplayed its bid to invite relief for tsunami victims. To ensure that the channel garnered the maximum relief amout (there was a competition among the media firms to prove their mettle!!???), it telecast the most disgusting scenes of the diaster as a 4-minute short film. But the film was so frequently shown that the aid part of the message lost its impact after sometime and many were seen switching to other channels with disgust and irritation when the film was being shown. What a noble way to way to garner relief?!!

The so-called 24-hour news channels have become more a source of irritation than one of information. Among the worst irritant are the scenes of any tragedy that are being repeatedly telecast by these channels. In their bid to catch the news "hot" there is not an iota of consideration to the impact of certain crude images may have on the vast masses who are watching the channel. The latest one, after the tsunami of course, is the coverage on Manidiradevi Devi temple stampede in Wai in Satara district, Pune. The repeated focussing on the dead lying on the road coveys more a feeling of revulsion than one of horror or pity. The worst of the coverage are the news presenters, who akin to us are watching the events unfold for the first time, but are forced to quiz the reporter on the spot for want of more news ( or is it that they are instructed to stretch the conversation to show better coverage??) and end up asking some stupid questions. One classic example was cited by a Sri ...

This is a article that appeared in the latest issue of India Today... it surely makes me feel dizzy.... Shefalee Vasudev India Today Jan 17 2004 Let me hold you. You got me going crazy. Turn me on, turn me on,"crooned reggae singer Kevin Lyttle. So turned on were the 200-oddschoolchildren by the seductive notes that the dense cigarette smokebarely veiled the edgy anticipation on their faces. Inside a posh newpub in Delhi, the partying adolescents had turned up in body glitter,diaphanous stockings, crimped hair, micro-skirts andcleavage-revealing tops. As the music became more frenzied, so did thejiving students. They sipped fluorescent drinks with adult-likehauteur, remixing morals, manners and mama's instructions. This was a Conti (continuation) party hosted by Class XI students forthe outgoing Class XII batch from a prominent Delhi school. Contiparties are a big trend in Delhi, but schoolchildren partying in apub? After the infamous mms incident involving two school...

The following is an editorial that appeared in the Daily Pioneer. At last, some sane analysis in a newspaper though a Delhi-based one. Wish more read it down south too. Plot against mutt The Pioneer Edit Desk (January 12, 2005) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has never been known for restraint. Even so, she had one redeeming feature: She normally ensured she could not be tripped for her draconian actions on technical, if not moral, grounds. But her Government's anti-Kanchi mutt rampage has no such mitigating factor. On Monday, the Supreme Court granted bail to Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, passing a scathing stricture on the prosecution's failure to furnish even a shred of evidence on why his two-month-long detention should not be terminated. Within hours of the order releasing the pontiff, junior Shankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswati was dragged into custody on charges of 'conspiracy' in the Sankararaman murder case. The timing of the arrest leav...

This is an article that appeared in the columns of The New Indian Express today. It is very sickening to note as to how some mediamen stoop to such low levels to get their scoops and bytes. A reporter is expected to report the event without being affected by a tragedy; however, he has not right to be indifferent towards the victims's feelings. Amidst his enthusiasm to pip his counterparts in giving out the news in the "best-possible" manner, most of them end up giving a go-by to the emotions of others. As this was not enough, one of our fellow blogger had quoted something worse by a BBC Correspondent in Sri Lanka. Standing amidst the decaying bodies which are being put in a mass grave in a village dominated by christians. Mr. Jeremy Bowen of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) asked. "Isn't it a shame they are not getting Christian burials?" How terrible this is! The question looks more abominable when we come to know the answer given by the pri...

This is one of the best forwards that I have received till date!! SUBROTO BAGCHI (The author is co-founder & chief operating officer at MindTree Consulting. ) On a hot July day, my colleague Moses and I were trying to locate our car on Chennai’s Nungambakkam High Road in front of Nalli Silks when I saw a roadside cart laden with cucumbers. The seller was vacantly gazing at passersby. Clad in a white shirt and a dhoti worn in the traditional Chennai style, he had long hair and an unkempt beard. I did not know Tamil, and asked Moses to find out the price. One rupee apiece, came the reply. We wanted one piece each. The cucumber seller began deftly slicing them to put salt and the delectable red chilly powder on the neat halves. As we bit into the cucumber, I asked Moses to tell him that his pricing was too low, and that he should raise it. Moses conveyed this. The seller shook his head, and replied that "customer satisfaction" is more impo...

God! how are we going to save them! AFP, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2005 JAKARTA: Human traffickers are targeting the children made homeless or orphaned by the tsunami disaster in the devastated Indonesian province of Aceh, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said. UNICEF's spokesman for Indonesia, John Budd, said that there had been a confirmed case of a child being smuggled out of Aceh to the nearby North Sumatran capital of Medan for trafficking purposes. He said UNICEF's Malaysian office had received an SMS on Tuesday advertising 300 orphans from Aceh aged between three and 10 who were for sale. He also said that Medan was a well-known centre for the child-trade. Authorities have, in the past, arrested people on child trafficking charges in Medan, for selling babies for adoption to people in Malaysia and Singapore. "It's chilling," Budd said. "What this indicates is that they have got children or they have a network where they can identify a ...

10-year-old Mahesh, who lost his parents in the tsunami, ailing at the hospital, was suddenly surrounded by an uncle and aunt, claiming to be his mother's sister. But the truth of the matter was that his mother was the only daughter to his grand parents. Luckily, his grand father, who is also a fisherman, who had been out on the sea and was deemed dead, returned alive to stake claim of his grand son. Such stories of suddenly-sprung aunts and uncles are abound in most of the tsumani hit areas in the State. Many of them, mostly orphans, suddenly seem to have too many unseen and unheard of relatives around them. But all these uncles and aunts are not here not to take care of them but to take away their Rs 1-lakh solatium announced by the chief minister for tsunami victims. The district authorities and the voluntary organisations are having a tough time in ascertaining the veracity of the claims of such con men. But with everything lost for all these children, it's the duty of t...