Batting, batty, battling

That8217;s not always enough. Last Friday, to a man, DD8217;s expert panel disagreed with Dravid8217;s decision to bowl first after he won the toss. It was left to Arun Lal, the only one to get a feel of the pitch, to agree with the Indian captain and, as it turned out, they were right. Moral of the story? Don8217;t always believe what you hear.

On the other hand, we would like to see what we are there to see, if you see what we mean. We are there to watch cricket not Jassi or Aamir Khan drinking a Coke 8220;sar uthaake8221; 8211; with their heads held high. When it8217;s them we want we8217;ll tune into J Jaisi Koi Nahin a big mistake these days or one of the movie channels. We want to watch the wickets fall, the runs scored. Is that asking for too much? Apparently. None of the sports channels time their commercial breaks accurately so DD Sports was still snacking on a break when Irfan took Dilshan8217;s wicket. Do you mind?

Star News doesn8217;t mind being impolite to likely losers. On Wednesday, after its exit poll on the second round of voting in Bihar indicated thumbs firmly down for Ram Vilas Paswan, the evening anchor went for politician8217;s jugular. Congratulations, you have ruined Laloo8217;s game8230; you like to play spoiler8230; you are the dal in the salt !?8230; Some of the rudeness may be lost in translation but say it in a very aggressive, belligerent tone and even 8220;namak8221; sounds abusive. It8217;s like the news channel is passing judgment on Paswan; no need when the people will pronounce his verdict. NDTV 24X7 interviewed Paswan the same night. While Prannoy Roy also pointed out that the minister was playing spoilsport, he did so in a polite manner like he was asking Paswan to please pass him the salt!

Onto sweeter subjects, then, and what else but the season of mithai, Diwali. All the news channels are binging on Diwali specials on shopping, crackers and just how many ladoos one company can make thousands. Aaj Tak had a bizarre take on the festival: it visited a beauty parlour to find out what women want. What some women want is to become 8220;fair8221; for the festival of lights just in case it shines too brightly in their faces?. Others want a facelift 8211; we had to watch a woman having Jello scraped off her face. Thanks very much, Aaj Tak.

Clearly, the aforementioned women do not want to look like Saloni, the heroine of the latest serial on Zee 8211; Saat Phere. The actress may actually have a complexion that resembles hot chocolate or else the producers have darkened her skin so that she looks the part of a young girl who is discriminated against because, you got it, of the colour of her skin. She will face many trials and tribulations 8211; the going rate for marrying a dark girl is apparently Rs 25 lakh or some such nonsense.

The serial is a serious attempt to criticise Indian social norms but it would be helpful if there were a few shades thrown in so that we don8217;t see everybody in terms of black and white. No, not skin colour, but we want characters who are neither one or the other but shades of both.