A 'glorified' p(i)lot against an MP

Its been some days since the drama unfolded. We have a memeber of parliament fighting for his rights as an MP on one side and an Air India pilot who says he was violated on the other. And just when we thought the tussle, which has more to do with ego now, will get nastier, the Muslim League Member of Par-lie-ment from Kerala, Abdul Wahab, has agreed to forget all the "bitterness" . The reason for such a retraction is funny. He said he wants to let "bygonesbe bygones", a week after he called flight Captain Rajat Rana of Air India a "glorified driver". The pilot had asked Wahab to get off the plane after an argument over his latecoming. Well, there are different versions of the same story. The flight could not have been possibly delayed due to an MP and the fight between him and the pilot not getting resolved on board. So, please respond if anyone was on the same flight as them. I left this piece incomplete last week, now when i want to wrap it up i cant remember what went wrong to call it an issue, a controversy. So much for a follow up, so much for information bombardment-the stuff we call intelligent information here in Thomson-Reuters...
Yeah, so my point here is very simple- when the "right of common man against that of politician" was becoming a big controversy through the context and may be a little interesting (ofcourse much lesser than the IPL matches) it went back in to the hush mode.
The last debatable material was the "MP threatening to move a privilege motion in the parliament against Mr. Rana, the pilot of the plane, who maintained that he was only safe guarding the passenger's interest. We had a perfect scenario for a "Voice of the People" talk show sorta thing.
Things took a different turn when the Indian Commercial Pilots Association retaliated back saying it would file a defamation suit against the "lawmaker" after he called the pilot a "glorified driver".
Okay, that was just another autopsy done on something long forgotten. Whilst the argument on special rights of special people continues...
Rushing the wrap and this might seem pretty unnerving to many as i am doing it without making a point. But i swear i will get back with a firmer foothold. I dont want to delay this any further and forget the importance of timeliness. So posting!

Locking horns!

Today is World Health Day. It marks the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) 60 years ago. Guess how our country is contributing to the global health awareness campaign this time? The traffic department of India's financial capital, which has a vehicle population of about a million and a half, has asked people to observe a 'No Honking Day' today. As BBC reports, the initiative organised by Mumbai's traffic police, is an attempt to educate the city's 1.5 million drivers to be more considerate while driving. I do not know if this is a plan, implemented by the cops, keeping in mind the long-term benefits to be reaped in heaps. If it is so, then i think it is a brilliant and bold first step to eradicate one of the lesser global evils. Ok, i am not sure about 'lesser' but definitely an 'evil ' because noise pollution takes a major toll on your health. I also do not know how successful this campaign was in Mumbai to take cues from it . People had different views on it with some who said driving in Mumbai without honking is next to impossible. Nevertheless, it is a very good effort i must say. Such campaigns should not be confined only as an annual event; it should be done more often with ample support pouring in from both the private as well as the public sectors.
I am at the IT capital and i wish cops in the city also took proactive measures like these rather than penalising drivers using high beam in certain areas. Wish they focused more on curbing the high pollution levels in Bangalore than do those silly acts of moral policing by banning dancing in clubs. The once garden city with only the rustle of leaves and chirps of migratory birds is now the hub of atrocious high decibel levels. Research says vehicular noise even increases stress levels. So lets follow suit, please honk only when its most necessary or make blowing one's own horn a punishable offence. A definite pun there! :)

Dhoni, Thackeray, Chidambaram and RAKHI SAWANT!

V/O- No, this is not one of those puzzles you get in an aptitude test -- to find out whats common between them or to strike the odd one out. To the ones who thought it was a game and made their own rules, i'd definitely like to know how many struck Miss Sawant out. LOL

This is about the media coverage each of them got in the past one month. I saw this ad on one of the daily broadsheets about a news channel, flaunting its coverage. Yeah, the advertisement of a news channel on a newspaper, which has a news channel of its own. Its not a big deal if you call that benevolence in a dog-eat-a-dog world. I'd like to call it 'mediaocrity magnanimity'- the new mantra of making money as news get transalted in to pure business. Now, its all about ads, viewerships and TRPs, the criterion that indicates the popularity of a channel , which later becomes very useful for the advertisers.

So, this channel as i was saying was talking about its coverage on a lot of events that took place recently. They said they beat most of the counterparts with their observation, analysis, and report on the Twenty-twenty cricket victory, the Raj Thackeray controversy, the financial budget and some more. If you are still thinking where Rakhi fits in, oh well she can sneak in anywhere and at anytime. Believe me!

The same channel's ostentation on how it leads with the maximum market share on the "news that matter" was proved by Rakhi's apperance on it a couple of days ago. It was not a simple cameo role for her. It was way beyond that. She was on primetime and her antics managed a bloody 10 minute slot on the channel. The story lacked only a flash, which was easily overidden by the star herself. And guess what the feature was about this time around -"Rakhi Sawant's item number being removed from the movie KRAZZY 4!". They got Rakhi puffing, panting, bantering, praying and crying on television. Wow... whatta story!

I dont want to question the ethics of journalism. Nor is this an attempt to vex the Fourth Estate. But, i would like to question ad guru Prahlad Kakkar's logic cum reasoning to whatever is going on after he said the media tell (verb to be soon replaced with sell) and show what the public wants to know. It could be true once i put it simpler--it caters to the tastes and views of the m-asses. That way, a job well done.

But, is that all people want to know about? Is the idea of creating sensation taken too literally that you have discussions on an actor's love life and keep betting on how long the star will spot a tattoo of his girl friend's name on his hand? I dont know. Beats me. I am yet to learn the art of 'page 3' reporting. I'd love to some day to satisfy my EQ (entertainment quotient). But as for now, i am happy being an amateur. I am done with my voice over.

PTC (Peace to Camera) - No more TV today. May be tomorrow ;)

Introspection

I broke down at nothing, for nothing. That was not the first time. I have undergone such internal conflicts many a time before , but yesterday i just could not handle it. I was cranky, crazy and crappy and so were my reasons. I dont know how many people have reached the same threshold as i have, but all i know is that it was meaningless and beyond anyone's comprehension. It is the time when you are only millimeters away from solitude, which is also the almost preferred thing at that particular moment. You need time for yourself, but you also want the whole world to listen to your feelings. You are perplexed and spiteful, all at the same time. I'd even go a little further and be a sadist and wish 'some' others went through the same innnervations as i did. I am at my weirdest . What i write or do may not make any sense to anyone other than me. Its okay if noone relates to this one piece. I dont want anyone to understand how i feel. Not obstinate at that yet. I am writing this coz it makes me feel lighter-- in many ways. This could be the most bizarre topic anyone has ever written about. Sometimes its better to confuse yourself today than get convinced tomorrow that you were wrong yesterday. I leave catechization to priests., while I am still on a mission- the one that of confusion and final introspection!

Run Lola Run

I dont know if it is the regional bias which gets me addited to Lola Kutty or if it is genuinely the humour that is more than titillating. Eitherways, i love the way she gets going in her so called 'mal' accent. There is another kid on the block going the Lola way now. I saw her on Channel-V Campus Star and she was quite impressive. She did a wonderful job emanating Lola and preferred calling herslef Ammu Kutty - an easier name to relate to within Kerala. Ammu Kutty or Rachel, which is her real name, was funny too. I wonder where these guys get the inspiration for such satires from. There was a general dearth of jocularity and wit in the reel world for so long and this has given rise to innovations Full marks to Lola and her creative team for capitalising on the "God given opportunity ". Lola aka Anuradha Menon herself hails from the God's Own Country. So credits also go to my mallu comrades for being such good sports.

Mallus come second to Sardars vis-a-vis jokes made on a community, or may be its a close call. I dont know, but I used to take offence earlier and thought people were rude . I realise i was irrational and silly. Now, i take pride in being party to spoofs of any forms. Afterall, we are a community wide and large, spread across countries, continents and planets...or anywhere in the universe! Heard of Appu Kuttan Nair's chai kada (tea shop) on the moon yet? They serve amazing vadas and bondas ;)

Sohhh...Lola aandy keep rohcking! Trala LOLA la...