I saw the images of the delhi blast on TV last night.
It was a regular after work night...
I watched TV over dinner,
when I saw people rushing for safe places,
injured people being brought into hospitals,
blood stained bodies,
people carrying the dead,
and people who have gone through pain and shock.
Delhi was shaken last night.
And many news channels said that Delhi was shaken
but the spirit of Delhiites wasn't.
Doesn't this sound like the recent Mumbai flood report?
Or the reportage straight from South America during Katrina?
Or was it what I saw on news channels during the London blasts?
Experiences are universal all over the world.
What we think of as our personal experiences are universal.
People go through the same fears, hopes, glory, failure and difficulties
in every part of the world.
What's so different about these blasts?
Sadly nothing.
We have got used to everything.
Be it natural calamities or tragedies of these kinds.
Media will write about the incident untill something else catches their fancy.
Politicians will make statements for a few days before they get
busy in their polictical game again.
People will panic for a few days but will get back to their normal life.
It' s true that we need to put things behind us and move on.
But what we do is, after we are shaken is, talk about it for a few days
and then everybody goes back into a kind of stupor till
something else wakes them up again.
We are fighting an invisible enemy.
What we need to do is make our intelligence agencies
sharper than the terrorist minds.
And have more stringent rules implemented against terrorists.
There are no straight answers
but whatever the answers are, they got to be universal.
5 comments:
For the emphasis on universality, and the concern shown, well said, in this case well written for the points brought up. But then it's not the just the corrective measures or the rules for the events that need to be thought over but the larger picture of the society as a whole and it's development.
For example
No matter how good intelligence agency you will have terrorists, not just in India everywhere because people differ in the ways and means that they adopt.
Natural calamamities are something that cannot be avoided but at the same time it's important what is done after it.
Since I know that you are from media I will make a point. Media sucks, and the mainstream media sucks big time. Sometimes I pity the poor and naive journos but then no point cribbing for we are still evovling and there is along way to go.
Another point, look what you doing when you could be doing far more important and worth while things in Media itself (this is what me thinks you might differ). So applies for your roommates who I suspect are working in media, aren't they? There is more to it than just discussing about in when you on cloud nine with the totos boost or home organised party.
Again example here, blogs itself. The bloggers did a commendable job in Tsunami and they continue to do well with respect to the earth quake as well. You have to chek those blogs. Though India you may say with 14 percent computer penetration what could be dome but then, maybe this is the 14 percent that is interested.
I can go on with rambling to disturb Madness Incorporated. Justy felt too strong and had to comment so I went ahead. Apologies if I have managed to rub you the wrong way.
Realise that this is your media and your shaping of mind through media could start right here now.
Anyways think about blogs! Cheers.
Though must say Totos isn't a bad place to spend time at!
too easy to keep blaming the media. look at huiman nature. we look at suferring... we sympathize and then forget. this is true even when we suffer ourselves. only difference is that when we suffer ourselves, the scars remain. the media is only a reflection of human nature in general. it is cruel no doubt but nature and the universe in general is cruel. if we keep thinking of the pain there will be no time to cherish the joy.
my dear anonymous friend! I'm glad that some kind of arguement was generated by this post...but the arguement is endless...we can go on and on about this...
what i posted was just my reaction to what i saw and what i felt as a common person and not as a media person...my feelings were honest and sincere...and i'm not as superficial and naive as you make me out to be...
another point is that you cannot generalise about journos..or for that matter anything...i'm sorry but these kind of topics are not discussed at Totos...i feel strongly about issues and i'm not so superficial as to just discuss things like these over a few drinks and forget about them...
i'm sorry boss...but you are blinded by your own perceptions and are in the least receptive. also you fail to understand other people's percepectives and feelings...
we can't look at things in black and white...and there's a lot for all of us to learn and discover each new day...
i don't know which profession you belong to...but i don't think media sucks...the role of the media is very important in a democratic country....and i think indian media will soon come of age...
i agree though that it's not an ideal way in which the media is functioning...it could do with some major changes but nothing is ever perfect and i believe that most of us give our best to the media we work for...
Anonymous Replies
"i'm sorry boss...but you are blinded by your own perceptions and are in the least receptive. also you fail to understand other people's percepectives and feelings..."
I expected this, I mean this kind of response, infact it went the exact way I thought it would. Kudos. The point I tried to make is that `realise the importance of blog as medium' and more and more people could use it as a tool for a change. I never doubted your intentions or feeling expressed, all I tried to drive home was the fact that the change could start right here and people are doing it and about time more people get involved in doing the same.
About generalisation, boss I have been in, around and out of media (sometime on will sometimes kicked). I hold my statement about journos so should you till you find it for yourself which could be what you think.
Daily Nonsense allowed isn't a great paper that it is meant to be, it's a by product of dirty opium money from abroad and some loser minister funding a major vernacular media group which has managed to lure people in with some fat salaries,ask Ayaz what he gets or Guha for that matter.
I do not want to demean anyone or your views. Or rule over anybody's feeling or view point, that would be contradictory to the purpose of the comment. I just wanted to make a point.
No harm in working in the system and working for a better media.
All said, thanks for the reply and yes keep posting, maybe one day yo will actually write a book, say `Surviving Mumbai' (inspired by Five Point Something), by the way One Night @ Call Centre may not be as exciting, but I guess the writer manages to get the pulse of the majority of youth.
Anyways I shall bring an end to ramblings of Cynical Anonymous.
See you at Totos sometime or maybe at DNA testing centre
hmm...i don't necessarily agree with your views but respect them mr anonymous...
looks like being in and around the media has poured some amount of cynicism in you...
i don't really know who poured in how much money to run this newspaper...i work in this organisation and i'll be loyal to it till i'm in it...
i have learned to be loyal to the organisation i'm working with, whether it's good or bad or whatever...
and mr anonymous...i know you are not all that anonymous...doesn't make sense to remain anonymous anyway...
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