A passage through time

I "happened to see" my blog while I was searching for something else, and realized that the previous blog post was about media and 26/11.
I just happened to realize that today is 26/11. Even though I am not watching television these days, and completely banned news channels, I occassionally bump into them in cafeteria or even at home once in a while. Did it change from the previous post, answer is NO.
Will they change, time will tell.

Labels: 26/11, media

Below is an excellent piece of article which appeared in Deccan Chronicle today.

Before that,
Here is a very good article which appeared in TOI today.

New Delhi Dec. 2: India’s best-known television journalists appear to have finally beaten Ekta Kapoor in the battle for TRPs. In six days flat. The all-out war witnessed editors being paradropped, reporters lying prostrate on the ground when not blaring into the cameras, and a thousand “breaking stories” every day. Here’s how the TRPs were garnered, shot by shot, starting around 10.30 pm on Wednesday, November 26:

* Close in on the woman in tears — show her from every possible angle
and deliver a soul-wrenching commentary of what might be going through her mind.

* Repeatedly flash shots of the adorable, crying child. Shove your mike in his face. Oh! hasn’t learnt to talk yet, not even Yiddish? Ask the woman carrying the child how she rescued him from the carnage. Not maudlin enough? Ask how many dead bodies she saw, get a blood question in. Ask if she was scared, ask what she was thinking while bullets were being sprayed around.

* Download all background scores of Ramsay and his brothers —especially Khooni Shikanja, Vehshi Aatma and Shaitan Khopri — and play it every time (that is at least 25 times a minute) pictures of the terrorists are flashed.

* Catch a victim. Chase him. If it’s a “her”, then your channel’s reputation depends on getting an arousing account of how she felt — when she saw the bodies, the terrorists, when she heard the screams. Feelings. And get her to tell viewers what she was feeling when she saw her best friend’s body.

Remember, all world-class reportage always begins with that one question: “How are you feeling?” But it wasn’t just on borrowed ideas that the news channels competed for TRPs. The skills these news channels have been honing for a long time came in handy too. In order of priority:

* Flash “exclusive” — even if the reporter is sending in reports from outside the Taj Mahal Hotel, where at least 400 reporters are stationed. And for viewers gone blind while watching blood-curdling reportage, scream “exclusive” after every nine words.

* Forget that commandos are in the hotel trying to rescue innocent people. Scream into the mike and tell the world that you, and only you, have an “exclusive” bit of information from your source, now on the hotel’s 19th floor.

* Get your reporters to lie down, ducking killer bullets, even as the cameraperson is standing next to him, recording histrionics.

* Ask anxious relatives if they think their friends and family members, who are still inside, will be able to walk out alive.

To finally clinch the TRP race, many top television editors were paradropped and the story was turned around. It became all about them and their trauma. Barkha Dutt took viewers on a tour of the Taj Mahal Hotel, choked up and emotional, gesturing violently, shrugging, crouching, hand on her aching heart. Rajdeep Sardesai rescued a foreigner from other reporters, to ask, “How are you feeling?” Arnab Goswami, of course, was kept in the studio. No one shouts “breaking news” louder than him.

When it was all over, after the commandos had gone home and the funerals had run their course, some passers-by were collected, handed candles, and in the glow of burning wax, victims were hugged, preferably Muslims, and asked again, for a final boost to TRPs: “How do you feel?”

What next?

I am not asking the same question as all TV channels are asking. All TV channels seem to be asking the same question. They are saying the same things like "enough is enough" etc.
Directing anger towards political establishment. Suddenly all TV channels seem to have taken up this new fancy of changing the world. They are showing interviews of people who are dead against politics and politicians.

There are some conflicting issues here.
Are people against politics? If so, democracy doesnt exist.
If people have to change politics, they need to join politics, or atleast they need to vote on the day of elections. How many of these people appearing on talk shows, or offering sound bites to 24x7 television ever voted? Jaagore...

There is another issue. People want "immediate" response. They want instant results. Do people think that the whole system which failed in preventing these attacks can be changed in a day?
Or are they advocating an US style "war on terror" and go bomb another country?
Till this time, we have been so proudly saying that India never ever attacked any other country in spite of so many people attacking us.
I am not saying that we should keep quite. There are some "experts" which TV channels invite who are advocating "options" like operations of the nature "covert or precision guided" to attack hostile areas.
Even assuming that neighboring country is not going to react, is there a mechanism to prevent such attacks from these groups? We failed in such attempts. Unless, there is a fool proof way to protect our country from external threats, we should not be arrogant enough to jump the fence. We have seen what is the result of arrogance from "world power" like US. Sustained expenditure on trrops on foreign soil put pressure on domestic economy. Are we ready to face such challenges? If I ask the question today, every one will say "yes, we are a patriotic nation, we together will face any challenge..." But, when reality strikes, it is a different story.

I am not saying that we should keep quite. We should build up our defenses. Put better systems in place to protect ourselves.
If there a mad dog in your neighbors house, and your neighbor is equally mad not to contain the dog(or possibly sending the dog to your home by himself), what are your options?

Option1: Go kill the dog. But the point here is he has lot of such dogs. Killing one dog will produce 2 dogs.
Option2: First have an electric fence around your home, and then try to kill those mad dogs.

I am advocating Option2.

I have stopped watching news channels for some time.
Unfortunately, the Mumbai incidents let me glued to those channels for a couple of days.
I was shifting between channels, to avoid listening to those irresponsible "journalists" who want to sensationalize every piece of information which they have.

I used to think, if I am the only one thinking that way. But after seeing a few other blogs which I follow, there are more 1 2 .

Back with some pictures.
This one from my recent Rajasthan trip.

It is very unusual for me to post two back to back posts.
I just happened to find this news item just when I was about to logout...

Supreme Court of India says "Even God cannot save this country..."
Read on

How do you feel when some on damages your property, and you dont get to do anything about it?
Frustrated.


I live in an apartment complex, and I have put a Tata Sky dish for my viewing pleasure.
I have heard about the cable operators lobby trying to prevent Tata Sky connections, and I have heard from Tata Sky technicians who came to install the dish an year ago about physical attacks on them by cable "mafia". When there was a connection not proper, I called the technician, and he sneaked into my home saying that it is unsafe for him for the fear of cable "goondas"

Cable people never interfered directly with any residents. But today I saw that atleast four tata sky cables were cut by "cable goondas" in our apartment.
The official version given by my watch man was that the tata sky folks damaged their wires. I am not sure how true that is.

But the whole point which I am trying to make here is...
My personal property is damaged by intruders. It amounts to trespassing and damage to private property. But I did not go and file a complaint in the local police station.
Because, "normally" law is not fair and equal to all people in our country.
I have no faith that they will take up this "petty case".
I have no faith that even if they are in a mood to accept my complaint, they will act on it.
If the above two happen, there is no guarantee that they will act in a fair manner.
The local lobby, business lobby, political lobby, "goondagiri" will act against the "law abiding citizen" like me.

I did not go to Police station to file a complaint, and not even thinking about that because I donot have the time and energy to pursue this.
It is very easy to say, why dont we complain to Police? I myself would have made such statement a few times.

But, the reality is that we donot do that because experiences show that law is not fair and equal to all. Either media hype or otherwise should influence it.

I have always felt, and feeling very strongly against the law of the land, and helplessness and inability of law abiding people in this country.
Frustrated to the core.

My only place to let this frustration out is this blogland, which lets any one talk as much as they want.

Labels: life

They are all icons in their own terms. Proven track record, who can single handedly perform complex feats. Consistently "exceeded expectations" and performed more than what they are expected to perform.
When you put some of them in a single place, what do you expect. That is your dream team.
What could be the reasons for such a team to fail to meet basic objectives?
Failure to understand common objective?
No commitment to achieve the goal?
Bad leadership, which failed to drive them to achieve common goal?


The team in question is Deccan Chargers.
Is it bad leadership, to some extent yes, and it was visible in first few games. Even after Gilly took over as captain, things haven't changed much.
What is the root cause? Not sure, but some random thoughts about IPL.

Teams which have succeeded, had a leader who is either an expert at job(T20 cricket, not just cricket) or a good people manager.

Raj Royals - people manager. He understood the strengths and weaknesses of team, and used them in the best available fashion.
Chennai Super Kings - good at both. May be a good mix.
Kings Punjab - technical expert, who may not be a great people manager.
Kolkata - Good people manager.
Delhi Daredevils - May be a reasonable mix, but a good tech expert.

Other teams' captains are lacking this. So leadership may play a major part than the best possible minds on your task. In all the above teams also, except Punjab, most others are good managers, which is helping the team.


And all the above mentioned teams have a foreign coach. Only the others have Indian coaches.
Hyderabad(Robin Singh)
Bangalore(Venkatesh Prasad)
Mumbai(Lalchand Rajput)

Is it adding a new dimension to the already complex management theory. Are they contributing to the technique, or the external coaches are good "team management experts" ?
Because they themselves never played T20, and the job of a coach in such tournaments is limited to team strategy rather than teaching the players.


Just some random thoughts.