March against media

Its was an event by the YES!+

March 1st 2009 was a historic day for youth of our nation. Where The March was organised

In Delhi, as more than 10,000 youth marched on Parliament street to stand up against corruption and terrorism along with likes of Prahalad Kakkar and Kiran Bedi supporting the cause.

One would imagine that such a news would be covered by all major media, its BIG news for sure. Well all major media like NDTV, CNN-IBN, TOI etc were present, and surprise surprise, none of the big channels and print names reported one word of it.

‘The March’ also happened just before the elections, and reporting such an event would definitely be a slap on the face for the government, which unfortunately got re-elected. A few days back I stumbled upon this interesting forward, which I suspected had some truth in it, especially after having a first and experience working with TOI.

* NOTE: the contents of the below article are of questionable origin, it may not fully true, it is used purely for the purpose of illustrating a point.

Who owns the media in India ?
Let us see the ownership of different media agencies.
NDTV: A very popular TV news media is funded by Gospels of Charity in Spain Supports Communism. Recently it has developed a soft corner towards Pakistan because Pakistan President has allowed only this channel to be aired in Pakistan . Indian CEO Prannoy Roy is co-brother of Prakash Karat, General Secretary of the Communist party of India . His wife and Brinda Karat are sisters.
India Today: which used to be the only national weekly which supported BJP is now bought by NDTV!! Since then the tone has changed drastically and turned into Hindu bashing.
CNN-IBN: This is 100 percent funded by Southern Baptist Church with its branches in all over the world with HQ in US.. The Church annually allocates $800 million for promotion of its channel. Its Indian head is Rajdeep Sardesai and his wife Sagarika Ghosh.
Times group list: Times Of India, Mid-Day, Nav-Bharth Times, Stardust, Femina, Vijay Times, Vijaya Karnataka, Times now (24- hour news channel) and many more...
Times Group is owned by Bennett & Coleman. 'World Christian Council¢ does 80 percent of the Funding, and an Englishman and an Italian equally share balance 20 percent. The Italian Robertio Mindo is a close relative of Sonia Gandhi.
Star TV: It is run by an Australian, who is supported by St. Peters Pontifical Church Melbourne.
Hindustan Times: Owned by Birla Group, but hands have changed since Shobana Bhartiya took over. Presently it is working in Collaboration with Times Group.
The Hindu: English daily, started over 125 years has been recently taken over by Joshua Society, Berne , Switzerland .. N. Ram's wife is a Swiss national.
Indian Express: Divided into two groups. The Indian Express and new Indian Express (southern edition) ACTS Christian Ministries have major stake in the Indian Express and latter is still with the Indian counterpart.
The Statesman: It is controlled by Communist Party of India.
Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle: Is owned by a Saudi Arabian Company with its chief Editor M.J. Akbar.

Looks like we have a huge task ahead to reform our media.

Beyond words

Here's the problem I face. I write for a living, and when this is all you do, day after day, any extra writing, starts feeling like a pain. In circumstances such as these I have realised one thing that makes every piece of writing memorable. The integrity in it. Writing for a newspaper, I pretty much don't have a choice on what to write. And over a period of time, writing starts feeling artificial, as if they are just a lifeless string of words, meant to be forgotten in a nano second. But writing can be alive, it can be vibrant, and it captures in them, the very essence of who you are.

So the best pieces of writing reflect your image like a mirror. By ‘your’ I don't mean the writes’s but every person who reads that it. The words start becoming a part of you, as though it was echoing your own thoughts. And for the writer, its a spiritual experience, like art, it manifests itself out of thin air and acquires a personality of its own. Then you read back your own words and go ‘I cant believe I wrote that!’.

But when you write for a living, these moments are so rare, that you almost fight for it...and then when you let go, it magically reappears. As vibrant, as alive as ever. Waiting to be written. In such times there is really no difference between the writer and the pen or keyboard in this case, as both are mere instruments, that allow higher experiences and knowledge to flow though them. In fact there is really no difference between the writer, the pen, the words and the reader.

Its not a problem anymore, so what if I write for a living, so what if i do this day after day. So what! Its all the same anyway. The writer, the pen, the words and the reader.

And as a writer its not what I write that counts. But the experience in itself. I don't write 'for a living', but I write 'living'.

What made news

Have been inhumanly busy past one month, but have been dying to post about so many things. So I have compiled a list of things I loved, I might blog about them in detail sometime, but in the meanwhile, please check out the following on youtube/wiki/google etc. And plz post your comments/feedback on what you like, and maybe on my next post I can feature the best ones.

Summer
Mangoes: That's what I love about summers, like Bawa says, “All fruits are god’s experiments to make mango gone wrong

Sugarcane juice and tender coconut (both happen to be sugar less)

Elections

BJP, Advani, thumbs up, commis, congs, third fronts especially Mayawati thumbs down, huge threat of mass migration abroad looms if Mayawati wins

Theatre
Bikhre Bimb, Doordarshan meets Alfred Hitchcock. Worth a watch.

Places
Bangalore: Is the metro rail project ever gonna end? are we gonna be alive to see the day when its finally built?
Hyderabad: Hot
Chennai: Hot and sweaty (worse!)

Food

Ragoo’s at KR road, the epitome of delicious veg continental food.

Music

Madagascar: “I like to move it, move it” (though its a lil old now)

Documentary
What the bleep do u know, watched it again, made an amazing lot of sense this time.

Geek stuff
Dear Macbook, Why do u have to start peeling off. Is this Apple’s commercial strategy to force people buy the macbook warranty pac costing 300$.
ipod: Is there an easy way to convert stuff into itunes format?

(fine, I admit it, I mentioned ipod only so that I could put this pic!)
Fashion

Naomi Campbell at India Fashion week wearing Saree. It takes a foreigner to tell Indians, “hello people, its fashionable to wear your culture.”

Books
Eragon: Does anyone know when the fourth inheritance book is gonna be out?
Twilight: Yet to read the fourth sequel, like the first two books, Twilight and New Moon, Eclipse was a washout, might as well finish reading the series with Breaking Dawn.

(P S: Movie sucks!)

Ponniyin Selvan: First flood, must read Tamil lit by Kalki (you get English translation too)

Google

SEKEM

Emoto Masaru- Messages from Water

My articles

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/Mar232009/metromon20090322125661.asp

http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Apr212009/metro-tue20090420131356.asp

Thats enough for now, enjoy maadi!

Being centered

I am going through one of those 'god-why-do-I-exist' phases again! Imagine a day like this
I wake up late (already a bad sign), take an auto to office,
then I realise I forgot my
wallet at home. Thankfully the auto guy is nice enough to accept the fare next day, so takes my phone number.
Get to work. Make stupid mistakes, and was threatened to get fired 3 times. Finally I get chucked out of making the pages (I work for a newspaper). And at this point I just observe how I feel. Things going wrong is not really big deal for me, by now, I am a self confessed expert at it. But then inevitably I always go into 'this-always-happens-to-me', or 'everyone's-here-to-give-me-a-hard-time' mode.
But today, as my boss screamed on top of her voice so that the whole office could hear how badly I screwed up, I could just detach myself and watch what was happening and just smile (internally).
And a strange calmness enveloped me. And then I felt just empty, blank.

And then a realisation of how impermanent each situation is hits me. And how empty they feel as they fade away in the magnitude of time. And every time I get back to this emptiness, I get in touch with truth. As I walk back from work to home, in the busy MG road every single day, I feel, I am at the centre, and events, happenings, emotions..are all revolving around me. While I remain rooted, untouched yet ephemeral.

Walking the talk, being a journalist

Its been 5 days since i’ve Joined Deccan Herald, and am still reeling in a bit of culture shock.
Coming from TOI, which is more of a corporate setup rather than a newsroom, this place had overwhelmed me!

I mean the place even smells like old newspapers (not that I am complaining)

The first thing I noticed here are the people. I mean we could easily have a fancy dress competition for the most authentic journalist look. We have 3 Barkha Dutt lookalikes, one Sagarika Ghosh, two Sreenivasan Jains. It looks like they go through great lengths to painfully ‘create’ the journo look. I mean, how tacky! the signature jhola, jute earring (a la barkha dutt)if you look carefully enough, you’ll find that even the expressions on their faces match.
I mean its quiet amusing, the guys, uh....I think there is an unwritten rule that all men journalist have to be below 5’7 to qualify for the job, unfortunate for me (I happen to be 5'7) . There are always exceptions though.

Press conferences: The press kit and press lunch....the first PC I attended in Blore, I got a coffee maker for just having to write 150 words, and not to mention the brilliant lunch at Leela palace.

And I kinda enjoy the way PR guys suck up to journalists, and then we can act all hoity toity for having the talent of putting sensible sentences together (believe me, 90% of the population can't)

What I love about Bangalore is that it's so happening! I do more assignments and stories in a day than I used to do in a week!

In the beginning I sorely missed my private cubicle at TOI, then I realised that there is so much to do, that I don't need a private cubicle to stop getting caught taking a nap.

And oh, I love the 3 o'clock tea and snacks cart that comes in proper airlines style. Ok maybe Metrolife isn't the best metro supplement Bangalore, I mean not yet...but now that I am here, am sure things will change.

Reporting from Bangalore bureau, Madhuri Kalyan, Metrolife, Deccan Herald.