The great Indian TRP Challenge...

The concern about content of the television has been reiterated time and again and the advent of a new reality show that deals with raw truth has once again stimulated it.


“After MTV and VH1, Channel V also enters the league of airing shows which are not related to music. What’s happening can we have a music channel that deals only with music?” expressed, a friend on Facebook’s what’s on your mind space. This man’s plight is very genuine, but he seems to be unaware of the old maxim, “Everything is fair in love and war. Rather TRP war”.
Indian television industry has traversed a dramatic evolution from a single national channel (Doordarshan) to mind boggling number of channels, apart from foreign channels which if added, adds to the bafflement. When there was a single or say very few channels, all genres of shows were telecasted on a single channel, then someone ideated the concept of genre specific channels and rest is history. Still the irony being they find it hard to stick to the defined genre, keeping viewers in dilemma (as mentioned above). As these channels were mushrooming the attention span of audience divided and then is when the TRP war came into existence, and with it came into the existence the never ending league of reality shows which includes the game show trend.
If we go back in time we will find the first reality game show that we used to watch were quiz contests, “Bournvita Quiz Contest” for example was a rage amongst viewers of all age group then. Then it got a bit more complex kids were replaced by adults, quiz masters were replaced by actors (god knows how good their general knowledge is) and last but certainly not the least scholarships and gift hampers were replaced by humungous prize money. This brought in the trend and every channel stepped onto the bandwagon with a difference and is still on with Sony’s “Dus Ka Dum” and the Johnny-come-lately in the list is Star’s “Sach ka saamna”. It was all ok till “Dus Ka Dum”, as it was fetching us money, a chance to meet stars and getting few minutes or sometimes hours of screen presence (hunger of most of the common people). But when someone’s “creative mind” brought in a major replacement, where general knowledge questions were replaced by personal and private ones it switched brouhaha in the country.
Not only this, but it has also made waves in the lawmaking houses of our country too and the reason being a clique in them believes it is against our culture. But hey! Don’t you think we are the descendents of “RAM”, the synonym of truth? So why suddenly are we afraid of facing truth? Is it because of the presence of an audience as big as half or the quarter of the country. No, it cannot be, as audience has never been an issue and probably will never be, as every tom, dick and harry is hungry for the limelight and wants to become famous. This is quite evident from the auditions of the reality shows which have more jokers than people with real talent. So, is it because it has started exposing the hidden side of the Indian society? Bingo!
But excuse me aren’t we over reacting. It was just an idea to entertain us (so what if it is directly proportional to the TRP). So when the participants themselves are ready to sell their secrets in the quest of a million of Rupees, audience should not have any problem. As it is only the participant who when reaches home with prize money is again supposed to play the game with questions raised on their answers in the show and this time asked by the people related to question. So when the participants are ready to lose all, to win sum amount of money why are we bothered, we are supposed to sit and enjoy someone’s truthfulness.Therefore come switch on your TV sets, fill in the couch and just wait and watch as there is still more to come in the great Indian TRP challenge...

The writer is CEO of no where and this is his opinion not of blogger.com

Whose suffering???

When we call it an Idiot box it might have hurt the inventor. But who so ever called it an idiot box must definitely have seen the future. Yes I am talking about the television and it present status.

With sudden influx of hoards of television channels it seems a rat race has started for TRP and channel rating. For which these channels are ready to show any shit and crap. It could have been digestible if it was happening with GECs or entertainment channels but the sad part is that even the news channels are into this eyeball catching business and the result is viewers end up watching flying man, ghost in lift and prince in ditch. So the demarcation between a GEC and news channels is fainting some where and the sufferers are the audience.

But are these audience really sufferer is a big question which is still unanswered. This is because the channels especially the news channels claim that they show what spectators want to see. When they say so, they do justify it by the TRPs and TAM reports. So these sufferers are not really the sufferers. They are the reason for there sufferings. But again someone defined the reason behind this which is looks quite justified. They say ours is a developing nation and the majority of our country comprises of villages and approx 39% illiterate people who are getting the access to these Television thanks to our booming economy. So I guess the answer is on our face. One can not blame only the illiterate chunk but up to an extent some part of literate people are also the reason behind it as after their daily hectic schedule they want to get entertained than watching some serious stuff.

So the fact is that the content of any channel depends on viewers’ choice. As these channels decide their content based on surveys and TAM reports. So these channels will go the way their viewers will take them.

Lonely no more

Someone very brilliantly said, “In today’s era being alone is no more being lonely”. Very true and for this I thank all the scientists and inventors.

Imagine yourself home alone, without TV, music players, computer internet. This is my worst nightmare.

I proudly say, “I never get bore when I am alone”. When gave it a thought I realized I am not alone even when I am alone. I am always with some virtual company, which keeps me involved and does not makes me feel lonely.

And so I wish not to face this worst night mare of mine ever in my life.

Rain Game

What exactly Indian media wants??? I am toh literally confused. When it doesn’t rains they worry about the farmers all over Maharastra and when it starts raining they start making hype of it.

For the past some days when it was not raining media was talking about less water supply, electricity problem and drying farms. But now when it’s been raining for two days they have started showing they water logging and traffic jam.

But then it feels they are doing their job by keeping everyone informed about the happening in the society. But there’s a small request do your job but don’t blow things out of proportion just for the sake of TRP.

Menka's Dogs...

Last night I was going back home badly tired by my day’s routine. I was carrying my dinner in a parcel and stuffs for a small Saturday night party at my place. As I was walking up the hills of Borivali east (the extreme northern part of Mumbai) to reach my PG in not so lightened road, I felt a drag on the carry bag I was carrying.

Ya guys, I do fear ghost so I ignored it and kept walking because I didn’t wanted to face my worst nightmare. But to my fear the drag became stronger and stronger. Then finally I gathered all my strength and decided to turn.

As I turned, to my surprise I found a group of dogs were behind me and the one heading them all was grabbing my carry bag. As I tried to pull away my bag they all started growling.

I got frightened and left the bag and as the bag touched the ground they all broke on it and ripped it apart and ate all the chicken and mutton I was taking for my dinner. It was worth 350 buck I saw it been eaten up by a bunch stray dogs.

Thanks to Menka Gandhi for her unwanted love for animals and unwanted animals like these stray dogs. Hey its really getting bad guys when u walk around some places you find as many dogs as humans.

And I believe government all over must do something as it a common problem of all the Indian cities.

Who are the real child labours???

He is a perfect son of his mother, a perfect brother to two siblings. He helps his mother to earn daily expenses and run the family of four. Ten or twelve years back his father left his family to live with other woman in his life. This incidence could be the reason for his dedication towards his family as he has understood his responsibility towards his family.

I am talking about Ajit Janardan Sawant a 15 years old boy (which he claims, but he hardly looks 10 year old) who sells novels and magazines at a traffic signal in Linking road in Bandra the central part of Mumbai. He is into this work since five years. He works from 10:30 AM in the morning till 6:30 PM in the evening and faces the harsh sunlight and smokes and pollution in the traffic which he explains is affecting his health.

He lives in Grant road the Southern part of Mumbai. He comes 20 km to Bandra to sell his stuffs not because sales are high here. He do so because of the fact that when he used to do this in Mahalaxmi in south Mumbai he was caught once by police and was in the lockup for one night because he sells pirated novels and he is a child labourer.

So, here comes the theme of this blog… You guessed it right it CHILD LABOUR one of the most burning issues of our country.

The point that I want to make here by telling you guys this story is that, when Mr. Janardan Sawant didn’t took his responsibility seriously and left his family no where, Ajit even being a small child did felt it and now when he wants to help his mother himself and not under any pressure or anything. Not only Ajit but there are many such kids who are earning for there family and if they will not their family might suffer. So, the question arises that if these small kids are acting responsible then who is government to stop them?

And even if they do stop them because of some good reason they must be equal to all. You might think what I mean by “equal to all”. By this I want to point out to the kids who are into modeling and acting or professional games. So when their parents can decide for them then why not Ajit’s mother and these parents. So government needs to explain who comes under the criteria of child labourers.

Frankly speaking I know the some of the reason why they are targeted but I am saying this with the mind set of Ajit and her mother who had this strong feeling. I just wanted to convey this to some people and guys who better then future journos. So guys think again with the mind set of these poor children and do something in future for them if you all can.

Spliting country

“Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maratha Dravida utkala banga” is this what we sing only for the sake of being an Indian, or do we learn something from it. You guessed it right I am talking about the unity of our country.

Before it was all in the name of religion but now it seems has shifted to region, thanks to Raj Thackeray. Raj is certainly not doing something new, he is just repeating the history once done by his uncle Bala saheb Thackeray 40 years back. At that time, their aim was South Indians, which has flipped 180 degrees and is aiming North Indians now.

The start of this conflict seemed sudden as there wasn’t any incident that could have lead to the conflict. Just because Amitabh Bachchan has planned to start a school in UP and not in Maharastra seems a foolish excuse. This looks more like a publicity stunt to hype MNS as a prominent party in the country. But can anyone imagine how badly it affects the thinking of the people. It seeds hatred in the mind of people and compel them to think in that way. But this is something they don’t care about and the thing that they need is name, fame and power.

Raj thackery now being called Raj “SAHEB” Thackeray is like Bala saheb Thackeray and MNS gained enough name for the future State elections. Mission

You people might think why all of a sudden I am talking about this topic when almost everyone has forgotten it. Then that’s not the case because I feel some people has not yet forgot the thing and the seed sowed in the mind of people has taking shape. No I am not talking out of the blue but this is something I experience daily in the local trains. Be it the sarcastic comments or the direct quarrels or be it the graffiti comments in the train. For example the one which I saw today morning was “Meri Agli Supari, Bhaiya aur Bihari” which reminded me of a similar bad quote told to me by my friend about their religion long ago.

Now my only question to these guys spreading this non sense is that, have we all forgot our 61 year old history and 150 years long struggle for freedom. It is said that we learn from our mistakes but aren’t we repeating it because I believe if we keep discriminating on different grounds the day is not far that we will split in many small territories like we used to be 200 years ago.

So the future is in our hand and we have to decide what we want our country to be like.