Indian Idle

Well, this post has taken a lot of time. Not because I was busy as such, but there are other things like semester exams etc. which really require a lot of time and effort. Being the final semester of third year of engineering, I no longer have any faith in the current syllabus followed by our University. Heck, we are stuck with reading about IDE drives while SATA-II revolution has changed the meaning of hard disks everywhere. Anyways, my semester got over and I was left with nothing to do. So I did what I thought was a logical action: Switch on the TV.

I had been bashing INDIA TV for everything; Khali to Youtube video ripoffs. Apparently, there's more to INDIA than INDIA TV. Its a fictitious work called Reality TV. The channels are swarming with shows that show "Reality"...apparently.
As far as I can remember, it all started with the internationally acclaimed Idol series making it debut on Indian television 4-5 years ago. There was a certain Abhijeet Sawant whose voice brought a nation together. Moving on, presently there are atleast four to five song/dance shows on each channel. Be it Star's Voice of India, Zee TV's SA RE GA MA PA Challenge, or even Sony's Indian Idol. Other less popular ones include Fame Gurukul among others. TRP ratings of these shows used to hit the roof when the inevitable occurred. The channels lost the concept of reality. Each and every precious moment the contestants shared turned into nothing more than a publicity gimmick.
So, we had Harshit's octogenarian grandmother congratulating him on live television with everyone on stage crying to their hearts' content (It really made my stomach churn). Once upon a time, when we watched these shows, there was bond we developed with the participants. They were one of us, struggling to make a place in society. Their pain was our pain. We laughed when Rahul Vaidya cracked jokes, we cried when he was voted out. Somehow, gradually the connection was lost. A tried and tested success mantra bit the dust due to over-repetition.

Word of the Day: OVERKILL.

Now we have Star's "Jo jeeta vo Superstar", a platform for the finalists of Indian Idol, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Voice of India etc to once again compete for the #1 spot. Well...it's not alone. On a similar track is Zee's "Ek Se Badhkar Ek". Now, the contestants; although familiar faces; seem distant. There's no bond, no connection. Most of them are now playback singers or have big record labels backing them. And WHERE'S THE REALITY, for crying out loud? Even the conversation between participants is some sort of advertisement.

"Hey, why don't you try ***** shampoo? It will make your hair smooth and silky."
"Thanks, it really works!!! WOW!! Now my hair is smooth and silky!"

OH PLEASE! We don't need that. Are you playing with our emotions? Cut it out!

Well, leave it to the channels to destroy an internationally successful franchise.
With these thoughts in mind, I switch to Cartoon Network. Ben10 and Naruto are good enough to pass the time. Atleast they don't have a silly anchor shedding crocodile tears.


P.S:
Even stand-up comedy hasn't been spared. We have all sorts of vulgar/obscene remarks being telecast in the name of comedy. It all started with an experimental show called Laughter Challenge. Its the same Laughter Challenge that gave us Raju Srivastava, who is now a pet of all news channels. Go figure!