This is certainly not the first time I've had to apologise for too long a sabbatical and like any other Indian professional-in-the-making (hail Sharu Rangnekar), I have an unquestionable excuse.
This time, it's AIEDS - Acquired Information Exaggeration by Doofuses Syndrome. What's that, you ask. As I believe, practical experience is the best way to learn. Let's play a game now. Switch on your television; flip to a news channel. I will now use my extraordinary psychic powers to guess what's on your screen. An image is forming… slowly… yes! It says BREAKING NEWS in large red font. I have no doubt that I'm right.
I love adrenaline in my life, but news channels have murdered it. I no longer perk up my ears and sit up when I see the letters "BREAKING NEWS". I have turned into a cynic, wary of media gone awry.
Here's another exercise for you. Pick up today's newspaper. I bet you a Cheesy Disco Pav (from Relax, no less) that the entire front page is hogged by pieces about long-drawn corruption/heinous murder/atrocious rape/never-ending terror/mind-numbingly threatening epidemics while more pleasant news about achievements/research /good (however rare) government policies/spiritualism lies hidden somewhere on the Classifieds page or something. (Of course, if you looked at TOI, the front page will also be likely to contain some news about one of the frequent ostentatiously humble achievements of the Times Group.)
It irks me no end; this continuous sensationalizing of otherwise less significant happenings. Sex, gore, pigs, new viruses and meanness sell; adorned as they are, in the shiny wrapping paper of faux social responsibility and sensational words like rape-terror-epidemic-corruption. The audience delights in unwrapping this Schadenfreude and then fretting over it.
(A side note: Once while taking up a writing project, a mentor gave me a talisman to test how neutral a news-piece is. It's very simple – Look at how many adjectives the writer has used in the story. An opinionated article would be subtly spiced with adjectives like overwhelming, severe, radical, legendary and the like. They lend a mood to the article. So now you know.)
It is this that COMPLETELY and EFFECTIVELY puts me off wanting to blog and adding to the melee of views and counterviews on the internet. Too many people talking and speculating, too few listening and even fewer acting – this has become the USP of our generation. Yes, it's essential to have an opinion of your own and to share it, but it seems that technology has facilitated opinion sharing to an extent that would provide an effective test-platform for a probability mathematician. (see below)
The Infinite Monkey Theorem:
The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.
Source: Wikipedia. Read the article here.
I have no simian inclination to hit upon THE right idea for a better world and feel no need to add another monkey to the million; hence my continued absence from the blog-world.
Now I HAVE finally decided, no more. The sensational news is that I'm giving the monkeys some serious competition and that you’re going to have to check back in soon for my views on the world. Maybe with a few personal experiences thrown in.
Yeh hai live report; cameraman Aankhon aur'Kaanon ke saath, El Buscador, Blogspot.
5 comments:
tune meri man-ki baat cheen li :P
goood post! nice to see u back! :p
@ nidhi: woman ki baat nahi cheeni ab tak :P
@priyu: tx! keep chkin back for more
Blowing things out of proportion sells.
"I have turned into a cynic, wary of media gone awry." - loved the economy of words and the unintentional but automatically intended word play. Had chanced upon your "25 things about me.." through some link on another blog - it was too good.
Actually, it was very much intentional. Believe it at your cynical leisure :)
(and thanks for pointing out my masterpiece to people who who wouldn't otherwise have noticed ;) i risk sounding a tad too heavy-headed, but again; your cynical disposal)
Thank you.
Do come back for more. Soon enough.
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