Condolences….and something about News

The other day I came to know that Newsreader of yesteryears Mr.Tejeshwar has expired. My condolences. He was an excellent newsreader, quite active in 80s. He also acted in a movie as a villain (Jalwa had some great songs). If I am not wrong he started Sage Publication, I really don’t know what kind of books they published since most of us don’t buy books based on publishers (who ever does that !!). He belonged to a breed of newsreader who read news and not anchored. They were credible in their approach, it is for the same reason I can still recall atleast few names like Salma Sulthan (the matching saree and flower!. She probably read the most significant of events in mid 80s), Neethi ravindran, Gitanjali Iyer (she did act in a TV serial if I recall),Sukanya Balakrishnan, Minu (big bindhi lady!!), Rini, Navin Andrews, Komal, then there was this guy with thick glasses (he probably was the first few, he was dead serious!! …we waited for him to finish so as to watch ‘picture ka baaki baag’), there was a maverick Damodharan and many more. You really cannot forget these people. Kadhapi nahi!!. Vinod Dua is one whom I always admired, he was and is brilliant . I also used to regularly catch up with News for hearing handicap on Sundays. I loved the way the anchor showed ‘people dead’!!. For 6-7 years I didn’t watch TV much ( got stuck in my little problems little life!!) so wouldn’t know what happened those years. Now of course there are hundreds of channels (Delhi based and state based- I abhor the use of the word ‘regional channel’. Placing oneself in Delhi or speaking in English doesn’t make one National that is an insult). News rooms now have become fiefdom of babalogs, some rare shades of brilliance here and there but mostly mediocre (I am not against them, every body has right to make a living!!).

Listening to News was inculcated as something important, I was asked sometimes to tell what the News was, quite randomly, so I had to be very cautious. Later I took it quite seriously and in my teens graduated to BBC and Voice of America- it was difficult to understand, years of listening made me comfortable, I listened to it right till mid 90s- they had very interesting phone in program every night 10:30, they discussed international issues. In school during Morning Prayer there was few minutes of main News reading, I was chosen few times. Later in teens I had to write down News from Radio most Sundays for some official purpose. When in Kerala I found most people took News very seriously. Even in small tea shop they switch to News sharp on time. I was amazed. Now I get the News mostly from Net, sometimes from some TV channel.

Mass media has incredible reach and has been a source of fascination for me. My brush with Akashwani started when I was probably in 6^th std, we participated in ‘bachon ke liye vigyan’ in ‘Akashwani ka jaipur kendra’. It was a program that was telecasted on Sundays, the intention being to inculcate scientific temper among children I guess. The lady interacted with children and asked questions, later it was explained scientifically. The program was in hindi and I got to hear the word gurthavakrashan many times. It sounded quite good, quite later I came to know what it meant!!. In Chennai in mid 90s went for Audition test at AIR, given thumps down. Few years later I was back in AIR Delhi reading poetry. I did try to extend it to discussion programs (thankfully this was before RJs and related crap) didn’t work out, few years later there was an explosion in number of radio channels, I though had lost interest, its like ‘seen that done that’!!

TV was another area of interest, right after college I worked for few weeks in related field. Back in Kerala we thought of starting a quiz program, there was this girl who was absolutely convinced about the idea and she had lots of contact, in the meantime things had become worse for me. So had to leave and landed up Delhi. The very first thing I did was to find out about TV channels, and that is how I came to know about NDTV. Got the address and landed up in their office, I guess it is in GK(?!!). The person at the reception told that I got to write my ideas in paper as request ‘you cannot meet anyone by barging in’. The reception also was a space for babalog to smoke and chat. I absolutely had no means of contact so gave the phone no. of my house owner. Nothing came out of it, anyway my house owner at that time was a petty fellow.

During those days I had access to a phone booth cum computer centre, the fellow working there had become a friend, I could type right into midnight absolutely free. It was here I came to know a fellow we all called Bose, a man in his 40s. He had a skill for writing and had been a journo, he edited a tabloid that came out from Mumbai at that time. He was such devious fellow, he concocted interviews. Once he ‘conducted’ interview with Ghulam Nabi Azad (a congress leader) right in front of me!!. Asking questions and answering himself with an keyboard speed to match. He then showed me the complete interview and asked how it is??!!. There was nothing about him that could be trusted but still I lend him some money now and then, despite the fact I too was not very financially sound. He took money from lots of people in the vicinity and one fine day vanished!!. Few years later I met him in chandni chowk he refused to recognize me!!. Why I mentioned Bose is because he took me to Zee TV office (I guess it was in Noida film city). He tried to help and introduced me to few people. I kept in touch with them for few weeks and then it fizzled out. In the meantime I had got into something else. I guess the job in this sector needs some basic competence beyond that it is contacts. For an outsider to break in from the lower end is next to impossible. Now though I am immensely satisfied as an audience.

TV is a powerful medium but unfortunately it is mostly in the hands of some very mediocre people. The kind of things they do requires minimum of talent, they have more to thank technology. It is about contacts and positioning and they do it with tremendous ease. Brilliance is about, lets say, Austin Stevens or the dude with funny scarfs who makes incredible stuff for children in Pogo or the guy who comes in Man vs Wild (amazing fellow that one… unfortunately most indian channel has babalog talking about anything in the world, they lack passion, credibility, talent….but still carry on quite successfully) or asking hard and straight questions like Christiana Amanpour (BBC standards have fallen quite significantly in recent times). There is no agenda, there is no marketers or socialite activist to share thoughts, nothing chic when discussing serious issues. It is about hitting the reality. Unfortunately in India most in elite have more reasons to be grateful to their surrounding than talent. Even their best is mediocre, their good intention sloppy. It is mostly marketing gimmick.