Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Shame on "YOU"

I recently received another junk kind of forwarded mail. It's content as follows.

"Shame on Indian Media

By the time u read this news, the body of Major Manish Pitambare, who was shot dead at Anantnag, would have been cremated with full military honors.

On Tuesday all the news channels said: 'Sanjay Dutt relieved by court'. 'Sirf Munna not a bhai' '13 saal ka vanvaas khatam' 'although found guilty for possession of armory, Sanjay can breath sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are withdrawn' Personalities like Salman Khan said 'He is a good person. We knew he will come out clean'. Mr Big B said "Dutt's family and our family have relations for years he's a good kid. He is like elder brother to Abhishek". His sister Priya Dutt said "we can sleep well tonight. It's a great relief". The suspect in Mumbai bomb blasts, convicted under armory act...was being transformed into a hero.

But the news on BBC startled me. It said ,"Hisbul Mujahidin's most wanted terrorist 'Sohel Faisal' killed in Anantnag , India . Indian Major leading the operation lost his life in the process. Four others are injured.

Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about the terrorists' whereabouts. Wasting no time he attacked the camp, killed Hisbul Mujahidin's supremo and in the process lost his life to the bullets fired from an AK47. He is survived by a wife and daughter who's only 18 months old.

Major Manish never thought,'I have a daughter', before he took the decision to attack the terrorists in the darkest of nights. He never thought about having a family and he being the bread earner. No news channel covered this since they were too busy hyping a former drug addict, a suspect who's linked to bomb blasts which killed hundreds. Their aim was to show how he defied the TADA charges and they were so successful that his conviction in possession of armory had no meaning. They also concluded that his parents in heaven must be happy and proud of him.

Parents of Major Manish are still living and they have to live rest of their lives without their beloved son. His daughter won't ever see her daddy again.

Please forward this message around so that the media knows which news to give importance, as it is a shame for us since this Army Major's death news was given by a foreign TV channel!!!

"

I was not sure, if the content was true? But http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=Major+Manish+Pitambare increased my quest, and http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/29/stories/2006112912840100.htm confirmed the sacrifice. As a matter of fact, Hindu is the only news paper covered the news, in India (source : google archive news search; also look at the date of the source).

I would like to join with everyone, who criticizes WHOLE INDIAN MEDIAS. It was the case even, when 1000's of people died in Gujarat, while most of the media's were behind the fashion show in 2001. It took few days for media to understand the scale of loss.

How many good TV programs are there for kids? Cinema, Cricket, Politics, Girls were the breath behind media. How many times they covered innovation made by farmers in India? Have they covered bright students and achievements made by them?

Why should they? After all they are running their business, and making hell a lot of money. Even housewives never realize that they are watching 10 mins of commercials, and 5 minutes of title song in 25 minutes of TV serial. We have to understand that corporate behind TV's and magazine's bother about the balance sheet, at the end of the year. They never bother what you need.

We always find fault with others. But, Can media survive without public support? Does media make money using the content doesn't require for common man? How many Indians stopped watching ODI cricket (if not test cricket)? How many Indians are spending time in sports and physical activities? At least replace all my Indians with "Educated Indians", again the answer would be the same, regardless of education, Indians are always Indians. (Me too :)).

I always try to argue against "Generalisation" theories, "Punjabis are healthier, Gujarati's are wealthier, Mallus are ..". When it comes to Indians, there are some commonalities. We may find exception, but they are like needle in skyscraper of haystack, in India.

What "YOU" did? "YOU" are the person of the year - "http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html". Blogging is considered as new age media in western countries. They already debating about how simple video on youtube, may change the future political campaign in US. Considering Power of social network and its usage in marketing.

Did we utilize it? What we (IT professional) know is forwarding mails. Forward the junk/spam mail to keep in touch. Call someone and talk all our theories and let it fly immediately. Theories may be good and valuable, but it is flying in the air.

I am not here arguing that everyone has to jump into the blogging by tomorrow. Even it is not possible as still it is developing country; considering our per capita is 135th. We had habits of blaming others than blaming us. First we have to find what "I" can do, rather than whats wrong with others.

Truly, I stopped buying news papers in India for this reason; I subscribed economic times for stock market knowledge. Made it as a habit, to fight within family against watching TV serials.

Something-is-better-than-nothing, so I also appreciate few souls who bother, react somehow, and who forwards such a mails to others. But please make sure it is latest and if make sense to forward.

1 comment:

Mohan said...

Please read the book “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation”

Your Blog is relevant but not very readable because you hardly use any punctuation. It sounds more like a rant than a blog.

Email comment from Ravi.