Ruby Bhatia146;s silly points

Is it possible that media coverage, both domestic and international, is helping to keep the Jammu and Kashmir elections more honest?On the f...

Is it possible that media coverage, both domestic and international, is helping to keep the Jammu and Kashmir elections more honest?

On the first day of the state assembly elections, the Indian media was on the spot in large numbers while the likes of CNN and BBC kept a keen and constant eye on the polling too.

It is commonly believed that terrorists, militants, rebels with or without a cause, use violence to attract publicity. However: do acts of violence in J038;K during an election, aid the cause of the militants, or are these increasingly viewed as an assault on the democratic process? If the answer is yes, they challenge democracy, then such acts of violence in the glare of TV cameras could well prove counter-productive for those who commit them. Especially, since foreign governments are depending heavily on media coverage to form an opinion on the elections.

Conversely, excesses by security forces, coercive tactics of governments, also stand immediately exposed. Remember Gujarat? So it doesn8217;t help the National Conference, or the central government if news channels headline stories on coercive voting as they did during Monday8217;s poll.

If elections can make Prannoy Roy emerge from his self-imposed exile, his admirers will be hoping they are held more frequently! The gentleman many consider the best broadcaster in India, has been in hibernation all summer, so it was a rare treat to see Roy on Battleground Star News analyse the J038;K polls with Dorab Sopariwalla and Yogendra Yadav.

Meanwhile, there was huuuuge disappointment with the Pyramid Rover8217;s failure to penetrate the secrets of the Cofu pyramid. This was, largely, the fault of National Geographic: it grossly exaggerated the potential discoveries during its Pyramid Live broadcast from Egypt: why, any thing less than a beautiful mummy would have been a let down. As it was, we had to be satisfied with the skeletal remains of a 4,500 year old man, his bones still positioned as he was laid to rest on his side inside the sarcophagus.

The young National Geographic anchor admired the pyramid and exclaimed, 8216;8216;It8217;s awesome8217;8217;. Pallavi stood in her sitting room usurped from her in-laws and exclaimed, 8216;8216;Fabulous8217;8217;. She was admiring the new Parvati Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki, Star Plus. Adjective-ly speaking is there no difference between the pyramid and Parvati? She has, quite literally, let down her hair, donned an armoury of jewellery and hidden her eyes behind purple dark glasses. Her entire ensemble proclaims Parvati8217;s transformation from the woman who thought of everyone but herself to the woman who will think only of herself.

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Have you noticed how clothes, make-up are used to signify character or denote change? Take Kkusum Kkusum, Sony: while she was a dutiful wife she appeared in a saree. Now that she is dutiful and divorced, she wears the latest in fashionable salwar kameez: short and 100 percent synthetic. Indeed, the short kurta is the latest in trendy TV: Barkha Dutt8217;s wearing them and so are a host of TV characters: Gauri, Nikki, Ganga, Komolika, Prerna, Pammi8230; The brief kurta places the age bar between the younger generation of women, single or 8216;settled8217; and the older women 8212; you8217;re not about to see Tulsi sporting one in the near future.

Make-up is also going places. All over the face. Forget the thick kohl around the eyes which make Payal and Komolika appear like witch-bitches, look at Kittie Party Zee. The women curl and prim and perm their hair, they wear it long, short, around the nape and down the back; they have bindis and beauty spots on the forehead, the chin, the nose, on the cheek8230; With circles, squares, triangles, straight lines everywhere, their faces resemble a geometry lesson.

Ruby Bhatia would look rather fetching with an isoceles triangle between her eyebrows alongside the other Kittie Party cuties. Better than at the oval pitch of cricket, chattering like a pair of false teeth in the Antarctic Cricket Extraaa, Sony Max. By her own admission, Bhatia knows as much about the game as George W. Bush does. Okay, slightly more.

Then, why is she there stumbling over names, games, sounding like a silly filly? 8216;8216;Justin has lost 5 kilos since his arrival in Sri Lanka, will that affect his performance?8217;8217;, 8216;8216;We have some uhhh8230; really exciting8230;.ummm8230;players on the field today8230; Lance Klusener8217;8217;, she smacked her lips.

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Cricket, unlike a Hindi film, doesn8217;t require comic relief. But Sony Max appears determined to reduce the the Champions Trophy to a joke: there8217;s loopy Ruby, there8217;s the Predikta contest which asks you how many sixes will be hit and gifts you a refigerator and above all, there8217;s Ma Ritambhara and her tarot cards predicting players8217; fortunes: 8216;8216;Jonty Rhodes is a little indolent, he might be a little laid back on the field.8217;8217; 8216;8216;That8217;s a very enlightening8230; experiment,8217;8217; marvels Ruby Bhatia and you want to smack her for six.

Last week, Zee News crossed over: on Thursday, it carried a story from Dehra Dun about a young boy who allegedly murdered his brother. 8216;The Accused8217; proclaimed the banner and there followed an interview with the young boy. Should we be using children to titillate us?

Tailpiece: 8216;8216;Doordarshan brings India alive,8217;8217; claims the billboard outside Prasar Bharati HQ in New Delhi. Guess what? The public broadcaster has placed this ad on the wall of a public convenience! Highly appropriate, some might say.