Monday, July 24, 2006

Prince, The Fortunate Child

If you are in India then there is no way you could have escaped the episode of ‘Prince, the child hero’ (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1193090.ece). For more than 50 hours, all news channels were showing the live coverage of the rescue operation of a child who accidentally fell in a ~60 feet deep pit. One of the news channels calls it "Maut ko Maat"(Winning against death).

The child certainly has shown great courage but the bigger winner here are these news channels who would do anything for the TRP ratings (More TRP means more ads). Child’s relatives were also smart enough to use the publicity and declare that incidentally it was his birthday too. All this has raised many questions in my mind that I would like to ask everybody related to this successful television show.

What about the hundreds of children who are dieing without food in Orissa? Have these news channels ever shown anything about the children in Bihar whose families are fighting the floods for so many days? Would Center Government be kind enough to donate any amount close to the 2 lakhs that they have promised for the LUCKY child Prince? Would Zee TV sponsor even the primary education of countless children who generations are living hell like life? People who flooded news channels with phone calls and SMSs don’t have any idea that the news channels are earning from each call/SMS. They are happy just with their names on TV. People, who don’t have the heart to give one time meal to a poor child, are showing false emotions when they are calling these news channels.

By all this I want to emphasize that its time for the Indian media to spend their energies in bringing forward the real issues of India instead of such publicity gimmicks. It would have been much better if they had used this airtime to show the state of Kashmiri Pundits. It is the media which can help in making sure that the help (money or otherwise) announced by various agencies in case of tragedies reach to the victims not to the middlemen. (http://www.upgov.nic.in/news1.asp?idn=1978) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4492695.stm)

I would like to read your views on this. Do write a comment

1 comments:

kapil said...

Hi sumit,

It's great to see you here spending time with the internet community. The story of prince is a sort of blessing in disguise. It is been said that "All well that ends well" & above all there is someone supernatural too.

I would like to reflect that anything that brings unity, love & harmony in relationship is the thought of everyday or should be the thought of our everyday life. In the urge for more money, fame, recognition - the cut throat competition is just bringing jealousy, restlessness, small thinking & ego in us, where many people should just laugh & love. It's everywhere the phoniness, showoff, flambuoyancy and pomposity. I wish that just like the music, life also becomes so natural.

"Who says success is not optional, To me its purely optional" - I lived better in failures.

www.guitarmonk.com