Are We Really Entertained on Television Part -II ?

Continued from previous post...

Channel owners knew that apart from serials they have to go for more interactive shows to keep the audience glued to their channel . So another breed of TV programming came to the forefront consisting of game shows, musical hunt contests & reality shows. The concept of most of these shows were taken from western countries.

Indianised version of KBC has great Bachchan as its anchor who is nothing but a picture of grace & humility even after scaling such heights of stardom. But the same can’t be said about other hosts & judges chairing various game & talent hunt shows running on the TV.

It started with Neena Gupta’s show on SONY where specialty of the show was the rude behaviour & terse remarks made by the host. As expected Indian public rejected the show & it was a huge flop.

Then came musical hunt cum reality shows on various channels! Just to add a bit of zing in their programming every negative emotion of hate, jealousy, frustration, desperation of the participants was on air. Add to that was terse comments about the performances of participants by the judges. And all this in the name of borrowed concept of reality shows from the western world!

But what kind of reality is this?

All I want to say to these people that Please don’t sell human emotion in the name of reality. We love to hear these new young talented people perform. So just to sensationalize & add masala to their programming , recording every thing they do unrelated to music is a cheap type of entertainment, which they should desist from.

Similarly pointing the mistakes is a right of judges but once on air they should not be so harsh that their language becomes abusive. Take the example of Indian Idol. There was this participant from Punjab who was a signboard painter by profession. Somehow he tried his luck & got through the initial round. When he qualified in the final 10 the difference between him & rest of the participants was huge. But forgetting his background the judges including Farah Khan, Sonu Nigam & Anu Malik passed humiliating comments about his dress sense, lack of performing abilities & sur. Most of the thing said by judges were correct but the tone of the criticism was not accepted by Indian Public. The more the judges criticized him the more number of votes he got in each successive rounds.

Are we really entertained on Television? Part-I

When it comes to television programming related to entertainment I feel that we r steadily going downhill. Before saying something about present situation let’s have a look when it all started.

Unit the early eighties it was Radio in form of Vividh Bharti which ruled the roost for any sort of entertainment. At that point of time all we have in the name of entertainment on TV was a regular dose of Hindi Movies & our fav biweekly Chitrahaar.

In 1982 when Asiad happened for the first time we saw programming in colour. Few years later the era of television soaps started with the success of Hum Log a serial, which shared the joys & sorrow of Indian middle class. It was followed by another hugely successful serial Buniyaad based on the story woven around partition era. Then came serials based on epics like Ramayna & Mahabharta which captivated Indian audience for few years.
The success of these serial started an era of soaps which is continuing till date. In the late nineties our national broadcaster DD was joined by new cable channels like DD Metro Star Plus, Sony & Zee.

So what these channels have really offered us in past few years?
A host of serials enacting the same saas bahu saga, family intrigues in so called joint business family with full of 3rd, 4th & 5th angles !. Such was the regular dose of these multi vitamin capsules in the lives of section of our population consisting mostly of housewives that they became addicted to it. Indians always love melodrama so there was enough twists & turns put in by the likes of Ekta Kapoor’s to keep them interested weeks after weeks soaring the TRP ratings of their umpteenth K….. products.

But my question to these money monger production houses is straight & simple.
What is their creativity quotient?
Why all the serials have same plot, same type of characters & a same feel!
It ‘s a shame on the successful soap directors that even with so much success they failed to do something new, something more challenging. I agree that creativity is not always accompanied by the success but then there was no effort at all from their side. Their brethren from other section of media have fared much better!

Look at the advertising industry!
Our advertisements are just world class! Not only they have come up with innovative ideas every now & then but at the same time they have thoroughly entertained us. Bollywood is still formula prone but still there is new breed of directors who have avoided the clichés & given us something fresh to ponder upon…

But why I have been forced to write my post on this subject. Not because of these serials! I hardly see any of them. My main anger is directed on another breed of television programming which is the IN THING today.
More about it in my next part !!

To be continued…

A Snap Shot from Bengal...

Two official tours within a week!
And this time I was in Bengal in the city of Durgapur! Of all the states there is something unique about its people & culture. There r so many facets of it & one of them touched me when I was going to my Hotel.

It was 7.30 PM in the night when we boarded the taxi . But soon we were in the midst of two small political demonstrations coming from opposite sides which we call here as Juloos.
Now Juloos is a common phenemona all over India but then ....untill now I have presumed it to be a day time activity! but Bengal proved me wrong.:) So we waited patiently to let them pass & then moved on.

The next day just when our car was going to the plant for some site visit we got stuck in the midst of another meeting this time called by CITU to support country wide workers strike proposed in last week of September.

It was 4.30PM & there were red flags all over the place.

Workers have just started to trickle in. Warming up exercise was on. There was this gentleman in front of mike with three to four person around him for generating chorus & what I could gather from my little knowledge of this wonderful language bangla it was someting like

29th Septambere Chokka Jaam....Chokka jaam Chokka Jam
Haat bazaar hobe naa hobe naa..... hobe naa hobe naa
Gadi ghoda cholbe na cholbe na.....cholbe na cholbe na and so on.......

Such was the symphony of the chorus that I thought that I was hearing some Hindi poetry of Veer Ras. These poltical workers are so good at their art of mobilising a crowd. Soon the entire campus was filled with people. I soon found out that most of them were not much interested in speeches of their leaders. They have heard so many of them before & for them coming to the meeting was a good excuse to leave their work early . The leaders also knew this fact & ended their meeting quickly with in half an hour so that their listeners can go to their home in time.

The Marxist culture is so omnipresent everywhere in Bengal. Though the marxist ideology is mellowed down considerably but still u feel its remnants as soon u enter this state....

And the WINNER is.......

Congrrats PUNEET ! U won comfortably :) Once u took the lead there was no looking back . Great showing dear!

It was wonderful to have all of u with me for last three weeks ! I hope all of u enjoyed this quiz & now u have a fair idea about me ! My special thanks to Avik, Chutki, Divya, Don, Joyas, KL, PR, Puneet & Pari & others too for sparing ur valuable time here.

Answers !

Section –I : Movies & Music
Here are the answers for the Ist round as all of u have already participated in this round.
Answers are along with name of participants who guessed it correctly !

1. D (None)
The first movie which I saw with my friends in a cinema hall when I was 18 years old.
Quite odd naa that’s why none of u got it right :)
Chutki : Class mein gana gane ka matlab ye to nahin ki picture bhi ja ke dekh lee ho :)
Neel : Ur logic was grt but it proves that I was more dumb than u at that age. :(

2. B (Don , Divya & PR)
The only movie I have seen twice in a theatre Yes it was 1942 A love story & it has lot to do with Manisha Koirala’s fresh cute unpolluted looks…

Neel : hey , as a matter of fact the songs of all these movies are my fav. Like Pehla Nasha from JJWS & Kyun naye lag rahe hain ye dharti gagan from 1942..

3. C ( Don, KL)
For me Shahrukh is good actor but other three r really great!
Chutki : Apni mum se poochna Sanjeev Kumar ki acting ke bare mein !
Divya : Tum bhi option A. Ab ye mat kehna ki ye actor bhi thakela tha :)
PR : U do not like Aamir ?:)
And surprisingly many of u opted for Bachchan including Puneet !

4. B (None)
This was a real big surprise for me. It seems all of u r die hard fans of Madhuri Dikshit?
I disliked her choice of roles in major part of her career.

5 C ( Every body except ZA,KL & Joyas lagta hai tum sab ne ye gaana suna nahin :( )
Hmmm most of u got the song Jaddu teri nazar …. Tu haan kar ya na kar tu hai meri Kiran!Well Done :)


6 A (almost everyone)
Neel : U wrote option A makes u cry & in my question I also told u that’s a qt emotional song for me so why ‘B”?

7. C (Pari, Puneet, ZA, KL, Neel)
Yes Jagjit Singh became my fav in college days. Incidently I was not selected by class teacher to sing that song.
DON : How can u miss the clue?

8. A (most of u)
For those who selected option D : tell me can option A & C go together ?

9. A (most of u )
I enjoy singing in any situation but then it is my only solace when I am sad & lonely.
Chutki : Ur confidence is appreciated :)

10. C (most of u)
Avik : I like Ash u must have missed one of my post on this blog

Section –II : My Early Childhood

This round proved to be quite tough for all of U! The reason being that most of u chose ur answers based on my present traits & hobbies !

11. C (DON, Divya, Joyas, PR & Puneet)
When I was in class I–a fellow student whose seat was adjacent to me lost 50 paise coin. She thought that I have taken it so she told me to say Vidya Kasam Though I have not taken the money I still refused to take that oath becoz I was angry with her that she has no faith in me

DON : Correct Observation :)
Divya : Nice to know that u have done the same!
Avik & Dewdy : so u thought I am fun loving liar hee hee:)

12 B (None)
Single out the fact, which is incorrect about my childhood school I-II days : I always figured in top 10 during examination
Most of u opted for option A (me being a front bencher) & option C (me bullied by boys). Both were correct. All of u has this studious kind of image of me that’s why I kept that option B & you all fell in the trap. In primary classes I never figured in top 10 :)

DON : Not scared just shy!
Chutki : Contrary to ur assumption just opposite was the fact but that perception changed over the years.

13 C (DON , Divya , KL & Puneet)
I was in awe of my class topper who was a short stature, dark girl with beautiful eyes. Being shy I have very few interaction with her but her performance inspired me to do better in my studies.

14 A (Divya)

Divya – Bole to kya tukka mara!
Thx KL & Joyas at least both of u thought that I could score 6 goals.
As for others don’t underrate me so much grrr :(

15 D ( Avik & Chutki)
Apart from Maths another subject which was my favourite in school was History.
I knew with my Hindi blog around most of u will opt for that but my love for the subject grew only after entering college.
Well done Chutki & Avik for figuring out this correctly!

16 C (Avik, PR & Dewdy)
I was greatly influenced by Cricket Commentators like Sushil Doshi & Narrotam Puri in my school days.

17 D (Avik, DD,Puneet, Pari)
U all played it safe but that was right thing to do!:)

18 B (None)
Apart from stamp collection & listening BBC World (Radio) my favourite past time during those days was Pen Friendship. I loved to write snail mails & believe me I am good at it :)
Except Avik all went for music, which came a bit later in my life.

19 C (Avik, Puneet & PR)
Yes my classmates were too excited to see glamorous Brook Shield and I almost agreed to joined them but changed my decision at the last moment.

Great guess from the trio who lead this section !

20 C (PR)
Boys of my class wanted to go in annual fete organized by Notre dame (girls) school.as usual the question was put to me by my CT . Yup I told her that no purpose will be served by going to a girls school apart from wasting money. :)
I still remember I got so much gali from classmates ! Ant mein yahi kehte gay ki Yaar ise akl kab aayegi :) :)

PR : U got my psychology right this time :)
DON : U forgot, I told u this incident :(

Section-III : College Days

21. D (None)
Wrote my first poem during Ist yr Engg reflecting something about my past .

22. A (Most of u except Divya, Avik & Joyas)
In my first year in engineering the most dreaded subject for me was Engg. Drawing.

23. B (Most of u except Kl, Chutki, Avik & Joyas )
My first crush in real sense happened when I was in Class XII
Kl & Chutki : Hmmm so you both thought that I am incapable of having crushes :(

24. B (Don, Puneet & KL)
I did my BE from BIT Mesra. It brought certain drastic changes in my nature & thinking. Other options were correct but flirting was not my cup of tea :).
Chutki : with my perceived image ye answer to sahi karna tha Which one of the following is incorrect

25. D (Puneet, KL, Pari, Chutki)
Though I was introduced to various form of music in my college. The one, which influenced me, the most was Ghazals. Infact it was mentioned against my name in my college batch book that Manish & Ghazals r inseparable.

DON : It was ur biggest blunder :( !

26. B (Divya, Avik)
One fine morning our computer teacher was changed without any prior knowledge. In place of a Khoosat prof a young maam came to teach us ! Her first class finished with pin drop silence as every one was too surprised to react! In the next class waise log bhi naha dho kar aaye j hafton na nahate hon aur der se aane ka to sawal hi nahin kyunki har koi first row mein baiyhna chahta tha :)

27 D (Most of u except Puneet, Pari, PR & Joyas ).
Whenever there was no electricity and that was often the case we used to play playing cards with candles or emergency light.

28. A (Most of u except Divya, PR & Joyas)
How many girls I really flirted with during my Engineering – Nil :) this answer automatically comes from Q 24

29. B (Most of u except KL, Avik & Joyas)
One of the thing which I tried desperately to increase in those 4 years without any success was my wt. I weighed only 42 kg in my final year!
KL : U opted for option C hmmmm wo to socha karte the try nahin karte the :)
Avik : On that front I was more consistent

30. D (Most of u except DON, PR, Avik & Joyas)
I really hate smoking !
Don : Oye ye paan wala idea kahan se aaya tere dimaag mein!
PR : U just forgot…
Joyas : u got me totally wrong specially in this section :)

Section-IV : Travel, Books etc etc...

31.C (Don. Chutki, Puneet & Pari)
I love to travel. Out of all these places I have visited, the one which I have enjoyed the most is Andmaans. Goa was my fav till last year when I visited Andmaans. Though Goa’s beaches are still the best in totality I found the islands more attractive.

Divya : Tumhein to Goa kehna hi tha! Wahan ki meethi yadein jo judi hain tumhare man mein :)
PR : So u have been to Pokhra ! Infact when we went there we could not see those beautiful peaks of Himalayas due to cloud cover.

32 A (Pari)
There is this city which is situated along side river Ganges. The bridge not only covers the river but also crosses through part of a city. I always love to observe this whenever I happen to be on that route. Yup I was talking about Allahabad!

Pari : Great answer! How u figured this one out?

33 D (Puneet & Don)
I love all these shades of Blue !

34 C (Everyone except Joyas)
My fav transport is Railway ! Obvious isn’t it.
Joyas : U have also got it if u knew a bit of Hindi !

35 C ( KL & Joyas)
I never studied in Delhi. I did my PG/ ME from Univ. of Roorkee now known as IIT, Roorkee.
Joyas : see this tie ur guess was more accurate than others!
Puneet : U never heard name of Roorkee! Yaar now its an IIT. Its situated near Haridwar.


36 A (Most of u except KL, Joyas & Chutki)
Yes I couldn’t stand science fiction!
Chutki – Of all choices option B, tell me how u arrived at this conclusion?

37 B (Don & Chutki)
Ohh I like all of them to some extent or the other but if one option is asked I will go for the Ashapoorna ji ! Most of u may have never read her but she was one of the most popular Bengali novelist who wrote extensively about gradual awakening of women in joint families of Bengali society.

Kl & Avik : Have u read any book of her?

38 D (Most of u except KL, Joyas & PR)

39 A (Chutki & Divya)
I am out & out left hander all the other statements were true.

Puneet : I thought u will crack this one but u doubted on my six hiting capabilities but then hostel cricket ground was not that big :)

40 B (Puneet, Divya & Chutki)
The most important quality I seek in my friends is Honesty & Humility.
I like intelligent people but only if they r humble.
Puneet , Divya & Chutki : Extremely pleased to see that 3 of u got me correctly

Section - V :Which is True ? Which is False?

41. My favourite colour during childhood was light green.
True ( Divya , KL)

42. I have never seen test match cricket.
False (Most of u except Avik, DON & Pari)
As a kid I saw India –Australia test match at Green Park, Kanpur. India won that test match.

43. Out of eight semesters of my engineering I topped in two of them.
False (KL, Avik)
KL u got it right expecting too much of me hee hee. I only toped once in 7th semester.

44. I am quite particular about my appearance & dress sense.-
False ( Divya , KL, Avik, Chutki)
No I am not that particular, the reason is my laziness.

45. I have undergone two major operations in my life.
True (Most of u except Puneet, DON & Pari, Divya)
Hmmm for my right hand !

46. One thing which I am unable to control many times is my anger
True (Everyone except PR & KL)

47. I always prefer north Indian food to the south indian one.
False (Everyone except PR & Avik)
Masala Dosa, Uttapam, Bada sambhar, Idli, Upma I love them all.

48. India’s current wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni lives in our colony
True (Avik, Joyas, Puneet & Divya)
U four readily beieved me :) though I have yet to meet him.

49. Out of all the metros I love Mumbai the most
False (Everyone except PR, Chutki, Divya & KL)
My favourite is Delhi may be becoz I am more familiar to it
KL – O re baba Kolkata! Too much pollution with horrible humidity.

50. My average sleeping time is 6 hours.
True (Most of u except Avik, Divya & Joyas)

Section V - The Grand Finale !

This part of Quiz was not planned as such!

Thx to Puneet & Divya I have to only say some true & false facts about me to finish this tooo... long Quiz :) :)

So all the guys & gals get ready for taking the last shot at me.
All u have to do is to find out five true & five false facts about me!
Choose the answers with care becoz this is the last chance to improve ur rankings :)

41. My favourite colour during childhood was light green.

42. I have never seen test match cricket.

43. Out of eight semesters of my engineering I topped in two of them.

44. I am quite particular about my appearance & dress sense.

45. I have undergone two major operations in my life.

46. One thing which I am unable to control many times is my anger.

47. I always prefer north Indian food to the south indian one.

48. India’s current wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni lives in our colony.

49. Out of all the metros I love Mumbai the most.

50. My average sleeping time is 6 hours.

And I further tag Neel, KL & Chutki

Give ur suggestion What u want in prizes if u won this Quiz !

Best of luck to all of u! Hurry the quiz closes this weekend :)

Section-IV Travel, Books etc etc...

31.I love to travel. Out of all these places I have visited, the one which I have enjoyed the most is
A Darjeeling
B Goa
C Andmaans
D Pokhra (Nepal)

32 There is this city which is situated along side river Ganges. The bridge not only covers the river but also crosses through part of a city. I always love to observe this whenever I happen to be on that route.
There is this funny incident which I want to share with u. It so happened that one of my co passenger blew a kiss from the moving train to the young housewife who was preparing rotis. So the result ! Hee Hee :)

In an instant reaction she raised her belan like a Hanuman's Gada! Coming back to the question can u tell me which city I am talking about ?
A Allahabad
B Varanasi (Kashi)
C Haridwar
D Kanpur

33 My favourite colour is blue ! Tell me which shade of blue is my favourite
A Shade-I
B Shade-II
C Shade-III
D All the above

34 My favourite mode of transport is
A Personal Car
B Bus
C Railway
D Air

35 Which place is not associated with my student life
A Patna
B Roorkee
C Delhi
D Ranchi

36 I love to read novels. Tell me which type I hate most
A Science Fiction
B Human Relationships
C Suspense thrillers
D Historical

37 My favorite female novelist is
A Arundhati Roy
B Ashapoorna Devi
C Mannu Bhandari
D Shivani

38 I loved all these books except
A City Of Joy
B God of Small Things
C Other Side of the Midnight
D Gone with the Wind

39 Cricket is my favourite sport. Tell me which statement is false
A I am left arm off spinner & right hand batsman
B. My highest score in official cricket tournament is 29.
C I hit three sixes in an over in my PG hostel cricket ground.
D My favorite scoring area is leg side.

40 The most important quality I seek in my friends is
A Intelligence & Honesty
B Honesty & Humility
C Intelligence & Humility
D All of the above

This was the last multiple option round !

Since I have been tagged by my blogfrens Puneet & Divya(Thx both of u!) the last round will be collection of some truth & lies about me :) . You have to identify which one is true & which one is false!

Contest is getting hotter with every round :)

Can Puneet maintain his lead? Lets wait & see !

Well Done Kaif & Sania!

Hurrah ! great day for indian sports :)
Sania brushed aside her opponent 7-6, 6-4 even with 50 unforced errors to reach pre quaters of US Open! Oh gosh!

Well done Sania u r proving beyond doubt that u r not just hype but a real talent!
I hope u will be more consistent with ur service & try to reduce the no of avoidable loose shots u made today. Becoz with these type of errors u will be in difficult position against Maria Sharopova! All the Best for next round!

And at last our coveted batting order came to some kind of form against depleted Kiwi attack!
today I saw one of the best innings from Kaif. Yes he was the star of the day!
Waisey humare Dhoni ne bhi achche hath dikhaye ant mein :)