Television Today

Television today

After TV invaded the Indian household radio was pushed in the background. It became insignificant. But I had read long ago that radio is the medium of imagination. TV is an idiot which makes people tired. At first I did not agree with the statement.

TV was considered a great source of agreement. Every house was considered incomplete till there was a TV of the size that the room deserved. To begin with we had a limited number of black & white TV Programmes. This included The News and some educational programmes for children & farmers.  The real sought-after programmes were – the weekly film & ‘Chaya Geet’. I had a small advertising agency. So I was particularly interested in the viewership versus the cost. There was a programme that would inform viewers about the weekly schedule of programmes. Advertising was not expensive. But the viewership was reasonable. My small agency had smaller clients – for most of whom the Ad-spend was critical.

Then TV was thrown open to private players. Programmes were thoroughly screened by the authorities before these could be produced. This increased the interest of the people. The first continuously running serial was Hum log. Quite popular. But soon it was overshadowed by ‘Ramayan’ produced by veteran film produced Ramanand Sagar. But then came the most popular even “Mahabharat” produced the greatest film producer BR. Chopra. If you had an important family, social or society meeting people would ask “before Mahabharat or after Mahabharat?” Mumbai roads would be empty during the telecast of Mahabharat. The greatest India epic was a classic creation.

Today’s we have too many channels, offering mostly regular type of programmes. Religious programmes still score.       

Magnifying Glass

Except for the watch maker, palmist or others who use it professionally, a magnifying glass reminds you of your childhood. I was particularly fond off burning paper or creating heat on a summer day.We friends would compete on the duration of time one could tolerate the focused energy produced by sun rays on hand.

But today, the name magnifying glass symbolizes far greater importance in an individual's life. It signifies 'focus'. Focus that we often miss. Focus that can kindle a fire of desire in our minds. Desire when converted into a passion can bring about a total change in one's life and its purpose. Success is bound to follow in anything that you do!

Kala Ghoda Festival

Today I visited Kala Ghoda Festival. A good colourful Mela. Many artists have displayed their creations. Good crowd. Lots of Food Stalls. And the same NGOs displaying their usual stuff year after year were present this year too. Mehdi stalls, Ceremics, Artificial Jewellery, and gift items were there. 

What I found noteworthy is that some effort was made to focus the attention on the current issue – the issue of crime against women, female feticide, were exhibited and condemned with rather unimaginative art works.

Nothing great but worth a visit. Since I had gone there in the afternoon, there was less noise and lesser people. There was no loud music and no theatrical performances which are consipuicious in this festival. However, a few village men and women dressed up as Sadhus and Soothsayers were moving around in the crowd. To me it appeared they were trying to attract attention. 

I sat on the step close to Jahangir Art Gallery. A thought came to my mind. Why is it called the Kala Ghoda Festival? Someone had told me that once upon a time, there used to be statue of a Black Horse with a rider. But that was quite some time ago. It did not appear to me a good reason to call this festival remembering the insignificant ‘Kala Ghoda’ and its rider. I looked around and found that the place is called Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Chowk. I did not find any reason why it was not called Netaji Subhash festival. It would have been a very significant move. A great tribute to a great courageous leader our country has ever produced. 

I got up and started moving around, until I saw the Municipal signboard call the place Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Chowk. It saddened me to find that where such celebrations were going on, the board carrying the name of such a historical figure was in a very dusty and shabby condition. I took the photograph which is reproduced above.

"A room without books is like a body without a soul".

Though I have never been an avid reader, buying and collecting books has always been my hobby. Unfortunately, I had to part with almost 500 books, because I did not have space to keep them in the apartment I shifted to. I donated some of these to free libraries run by some NGOs. Others I had to sell to the pavement book sellers at a fraction of the price at which I had bought them. In fact, many of those had been bought by me from the pavement book sellers themselves. 

What attracts me to buy a book? Sometimes, only sometimes – it is the need. But often it is the satisfaction of acquiring something precious which will come in handy at the time of need. How often I may need a particular book is a question that I never thought important to answer. Yes, whenever it was possible I would go through the contents page on the pavement itself. Whenever the contents were spread over two or more pages, I invariably ended up buying the book.

I am not too happy with the trend of buying books online. You do not get the first hand experience of touching the book cover, browsing through the contents, and some of the pages that might interest you at random. The best piece of decoration in any room – any room in a house, according to me is a well crafted book shelf. It must be well stocked with books both new and old. Old classics, like the complete works of Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Poets of the romantic era constitute the essentials.

 
Cicero indeed left a great advise for all of us, “A room without books is like a body without a soul”.

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Well & You Know

I did my masters in English Literature long ago from Government College, Ludhiana. My friend Ajit Prasad Jain and I shared the same bench in the class – in the last row. One of our lecturers who taught us kept us engaged in a rather unusual manner. He had a habit of repeating two words – ‘well’ and ‘you know’, almost in every sentence.

We did not have a counter at that time. Nor did we have a stop watch. But we gave ourselves a task of keeping track of how many times the lecturer would repeat the word ‘well’ and ‘you know’ during the period of 45 minutes. The wager was simple. If the professor repeated ‘well’ more than ‘you know’ Ajit would pay for our tea and samosa in the tuck-shop (college canteen) and in case ‘well’ left ‘you know’ behind, I would have to foot the bill.

It appeared to be a never ending game; and it kept our interest high in the prose lecture of our dear Professor. None of us or any other student in the class had the guts to point out and say to him, “Sir, 15-20 per cent of what you speak in class comprises just of two words – well and you know".

These days too I find that a lot of professionals who come to me for improving their communication skills have similar habits. Filler words, are intruders who reduce the efficacy of speech. I still encounter, ‘You know’, though ‘well’ is not commonly used these days. But the most repetitively used words these days are – ‘like’, ‘basically’, ‘actually’ etc. Besides, other common intruders are – and, eh, uh, etc. In the first session itself I ask my students to remove these intruders (filler words and sounds) from their speech.

Bertrand Russel

Today on the 2^nd of February, I remember the great English thinker and philosopher, Bertrand Russell. He died on 2^nd February 1970.

Russell was born in a powerful political family. His grandfather, Lord John Russell served as Prime Minister under Queen Victoria, not once but twice. Following the death of his mother and father, Russell was brought up by his grandparents. Initially, he was privately educated but later on he joined Trinity College Cambridge. He graduated with degrees in mathematics and moral sciences.

Russell would not follow the path tread by most of the so-called reasonable people. In fact he chose to go to jail protesting against World War. This was a time when most British people saw reason in fighting the war. He was sent to prison for the second time when he protested against proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The above photograph was taken when Russell made his speech accepting the Noble Prize in Mathematics was awarded to him in 1950. Conspicuously, he said, “One should choose desire when asked to choose between duty and desire”. Without desire he said it’s not possible to perform the duty the way it should be performed.

Russell’s ideas were his own and he would not make any compromises. He would rather express himself clearly and fearlessly. Many people opposed him for his ideas but there were many who followed them.

Given below is a photograph when he was addressing his followers.