Reality (TV) Bites !!!

Add drama, controversies, tears, cat-fights, abuses and of course, a controversial personality as the host and you get a perfectly cooked Reality show...

With so many reality shows flocking the prime time on all leading entertainment channels, you can’t help but think, where is Indian television heading to? Shows like Indian Idol, Dance India Dance, etc. were ok to some extent except for a few controversies here and there. After all they were all about showcasing your talent. And then came the trend of really shocking reality shows.

The trend started with NDTV Imagine’s Rakhi ka Swayyamvar. Appalled? Went beyond your imagination, didn’t it? The Gods must be crying up there and why won’t they? After all what mockery was made out of the so sacred institution of marriage and not just once. The atrocities were repeated by the channel with Rahul ka Swayyamvar. The only difference being that Rahul promised to marry, unlike Rakhi. And he did get married to the 18 year old Dimpy Ganguly.  Well, we all know what happened after that.

As if that wasn’t enough, Rakhi and her ‘Chosen One’ came back on a show, Pati, Patni aur Woh as foster parents to an infant and of course, Rakhi realized that neither Elesh nor the baby were controllable in her smart way and so she said goodbye to her beau, all on that reality show. Obviously, a lot of hue and cry was made, with my own dad reacting to it in a way I least expected. He said, “It is easy for them to participate in such shows for money but they don’t realize that parenting is not simple. It is not a fun job you do for some time in your life. Once you have children, parenting becomes your life.’

At the moment, Big Boss, on Colors, is running into its fourth season and they have roped in Sallu Bhai to host the show. What a move! From the winner of the Big Brother (U.K.), Shilpa Shetty, to Amitabh Bachchan and to now getting Salman Khan as the host! Anyway, I am not here to talk about the hosts of his show. What I am concerned about is how far can a show go to raise its TRPs?

Rakhi Sawant, the name that is, how could she be silent for long after her swayyamwar.  She came back with a bang with her nainsaaf, err.., I mean Rakhi ka Insaaf, on the same channel which tried choosing the right groom for her. Now whether she was doing insaaf or nainsaaf is there for everyone to see and understand.  Like bhai said, ‘I can’t stand watching a show that makes a mockery out of Indian Judicial system, a profession I have chosen, a career I have decided to pursue.’

And how can I forget the so popular show on Bindaas- Emotional Attyachaar that helps couples find whether their partner is loyal or not. Rahul Mahajan and his wife also came on that show to check each other’s loyalty. Now I have serious doubts about the authenticity of the show and I am sure it is scripted but that is not the point. The point is however much people talk about this show and however much they hate it, they still watch it.

Dear readers, I am not here to tell you what each show is about, nor am I writing this blog to criticize the era of reality television.  No way. Because I, just like everyone out there, enjoy the drama, the suspense and the masala reality television offers!

But what I want to point out is the content that is now being shown in the name of reality television. What with airing the Suhagarat of Ali and Sara and Dolly’ji’ hurling abuses at every one every now and then, sometimes not remaining silent for even a single second on television every night on a channel that claims to be promoting ‘Cohesive viewing.’

Of course Rakhi Sawant has an FIR to her name for abetting the suicide of one of the guests on her show whom she humiliated to the core, by calling him impotent and what not, so much so that had it been someone else, he would have died on the sets itself.

I have issues with shows like Sach ka Saamna and Raaz Pichle Janam ka too. What are they really trying to show on Sach ka Saamna I want to know. With questions like ‘Have you ever contemplated killing your husband,’ to ‘Have you had sexual relationship with your sister,’ where is reality television going.

As a large portion of TV content is in form of reality shows with dream concepts, dream marriages, parenting, finding whether your partner is faithful or not, or getting justice on TV, all that matters is that the channels, producers and participants/hosts don’t care about anything except TRPs which of course means more money. But what matters to me is what kind of an effect these shows are having on youngsters.

I am worried about a ten year old watching Emotional Attyachar because I am worried what how her thoughts would mould when it comes to relationships, trust and loyalty. I don’t want a bunch of eight to ten year olds playing Sach ka Saamna because they have no understanding of what truth is and how it can change your life.

Those who think the government has taken the right step by moving Rakhi ka Insaaf to a late night slot and spanking Rakhi Sawant or warning Big Boss, I want to ask them what is the use now? Why did the government wait till things went out of hand and the public rose in rebellion?

Of course, those who produce these shows become famous, those who telecast it become famous, those who participate in it become famous and the best part is that who criticize it also become famous! It is clear that to stay in the limelight, the easiest way is to get associated with a reality show. Be it Rakhi as a participant or Baba Ramdev as a critic or those MPs whose names you’ve never heard before, playing moral police.

And now with news media jumping into the bandwagon, providing minutest details of what’s happening inside the Big Boss house or what kind of language did Rakhi use on her show while giving insaaf. Clearly these channels don’t realize that they too are becoming a catalyst in the entire process, for those who have not seen the shows, get to see all this drama, over and over again, in every bulletin.

Instead of reporting about the social issues surrounding our country, most of the news channels are busy showing how inmates in the Big Boss house are doing, fighting. Reality TV has taken Indian television by storm but there is no need for the TV news channels to hound over it. We can leave Rakhi Sawant alone to sort out her life and the legal notice against her, can’t we?

Of course, TV produces need to understand where to draw the line but news media too needs to know this.

yourname@facebook.com !!

It is basic human nature that until there’s something ten times better and ten times faster, there will be no reason to switch to something else. The point is to decide whether what is going to be available soon is better? Faster? What I am talking about is Facebook-email. Will it outdo Gmail, MSN Live, and the likes? Will you and I make the shift to Facebook-email for personal and professional use?

And the buzz is still on, since the time Facebook's CEO Mark Zukergerg announced the launch of this email service on Monday. Facebook, a social networking site, not only reduced other networking sites like Orkut to shambles but also overtook MSN Live and Gmail as the most viewed site earlier this year. Now the question is whether Facebook-email can do the same. Can it outdo the number of users MSN Live and Gmail are proud of?

With this email system nicknamed 'Project Titan,' Facebook hopes to bring together instant messages, text other non-Facebook systems into one place- A Facebook user's account. The idea is to make it easier for people to stay connected and communicate better. Of course it is a great idea, considering that you won't have to worry about different accounts for social networking, chatting and emailing. You can easily do it through one account. Its more like a sigh of relief for those who use net on phone. because now instead of being able to open only one application at a time, you can be on Facebook as well as email!

The kind of image Facebook has had until a few years back has been completely non-serious, more like a time-pass. It is now that professionals have started using the platform offered by Facebook at the corporate level. So, what needs to be thought about, not only by me, but by the Facebook guys is how many people are actually going to make this shift from other webmails to Facebook-email? The question is tough and the situation is dicey.

With more than 500 million users, that Facebook proudly boasts of, even if half of them switch to Facebook-email, it would be a big achievement to start with. From what I can see around me, many avid Facebook lovers are very excited about this new feature which according to them holds a lot of promise.

Also, with more than half of India's population being young, the switch doesn't seem to be too difficult to achieve. After all, young people are going to be more open to experiment.

All said and done but why the Facebook-email? As CEO Zukerberg said, "It is just a way to take Facebook forward and give the users something new and better." Though what comes to my mind is taking Facebook ahead of whom? Like I wrote , Facebook definitely took the world by storm six years ago and Orkut could never recover from the shock but in recent years it has faced tough competition from Twitter, the celebrity social network. Maybe that is why Facebook needed to be taken forward..

I am not sure how good this service will turn out to be in terms of popularity but it is going to accelerate the revenue generation, and thats for sure.  Thats obvious. As more and more people keep logged into not just Facebook for social networking but also for Facebook-email, more and more revenue will be generated through advertisements that would keep pouring in with additional services.

And finally just like the CEO himself said, "I don't expect people to wake up tomorrow and say, 'I am going to shut down my Yahoo account or Gmail account'... Maybe one day, six months, a year, two years out, people will start to say this is how future should work."

Till then all we can do is Wait and Watch.

More Hope and Hype than Substance - One Year Hence

(Originally posted on 25th January,2010)

As Mr. President completes his one year in office, there is a lot of noise around, ranking him, rating his first year as the president. Some terming him as a big let down and others calling him America's hope that lives on..

Through his campaign speeches and a vision for 'Hope for Change', Barack Obama, from the very beginning, set a high bar for himself. Creating history as the first Black man to reside in the White House, sit in the Oval office and run the world's most powerful nation, he talked about America undergoing a make-over and quite literally.

When he came to power, the economy was at an all time low and America was lost. The population hung onto his words and clung to him, 'hoping for a change'.

Mr. Obama had promised he would bring the war in Iraq to an end, bring health insurance to every American household, start the cap-and-trade system to curb global warming, and revive America's lost reputation by closing down the Guantanamo prison. One year hence and he hasn't done any of these yet.

Winning the Nobel Peace Prize, something he himself says he did not deserve, he still seems to be a bit of a let down. Though some may argue that he prevented the Economic crisis from getting worse and he largely changed the way the rest of the world thinks of America. True. But is that enough?

After the Bush government vacated office, Obama became not only America's hope, the answer to a lot of questions. People around the world started believing in his 'hope for change'. He was their messiah..

But America seems to be fed up with the recession and the government and Obama being the public's face bears the brunt. Even though Obama's not at fault that much. His election itself raised the bar so much. There were miracles in the ballot box and people expected the miracles to continue.

Atleast Obama has not endured disaster even if h is yet to pull of a signature piece of legislation in the vein of what Roosevelt and Lydon achieved early. Even if he did not achieve something big enough that the entire world bow down to him, we can't take away credit from him.

If we remind ourselves of the state of the country when he took office and the distance America has come since then, in terms of policy changes, it is impossible to argue that his first year has been anything short of an achievement.

And lets not forget, Early failure do not portend a failed presidency.