Too much psephology

You8217;re utterly-butterly confused: these channels are clones of each other. For instance, each had reporters stationed outside the homes of the three main Bihar babus: Laloo Yadav, Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan; each one does the caste-vote-region analysis thing and when Sardesai opens his mouth, the words as always speed down his tongue like on a national highway. You visualise him seated next to Roy barking out, 8216;8216;8230;In 15 seconds, give me the mood of the leader you are tracking8230;8217;8217; Ah, the comfort of the same silly questions..

On the CNBC/TV18 screen pops up another old NDTV face, Bhupendra Chaubey. He explains that there is no 8216;8216;mood8217;8217; to describe since the leader he is 8216;8216;tracking8217;8217; is inside his bungalow watching Chaubey, on TV standing, outside his home?. The leader, Chaubey reveals, with omniscience, will not 8216;8216;surface8217;8217; for another couple of hours. Ah, the joy of the same non-sequitur replies.

When IBN as CNBC/TV188217;s English channel will be called goes on air 24215;7, there will be an identity crisis for the two channels, unless one, the other or both radically change. Sardesai has promised to be different from what he was on NDTV but so far he8217;s acting out the same script. Let8217;s wait for IBN.

It8217;s game time, folks. An actor plays anchor, a contestant plays contestant and the public encircles them. There8217;s the money ladder, dim lights, the danger zone music and close-ups of the contestant in his extreme duvidha. And, a phone-in facility. The anchor is charismatic, personable, sympathetic to the contestant. The contestant seriously considers his options: there is joy when he is right and despair when he makes the wrong choice.

KBC. No, Sony Entertainment Television8217;s Deal Ya No Deal worth Rs.1 crore with actor Madhavan as host. Talk about mistaken identities. Sony purists will split the games, saying Deal8230; is a different game. It is. Here, there8217;s no need to exert the brain 8211; this is not a quiz show but a row of sealed boxes with certain 8216;notional8217; amounts of money that the contestant eliminates when he chooses one box again and again, until he there have been only males so far reaches the last box and the box next to him which will decide how much money there is in his box unless of course he chooses to accept Madhavan8217;s bank offer instead of the box8230; And there is Jassi on the phone to wish him best of luck. Alright, it8217;s confusing and not KBC and yet it is KBC because everything but the game is taken from KBC, down to a young Madhavan pulling off an Uncle Bachchan act.

Want to know why the judges on Nach Baliye Star One invariably agree with each other? There should be disagreement, if only for the sake of drama. It8217;s getting to be a bore and suspicious. Also, there ought to be rules: for instance, Rajeshwari has trained in classical dancing, albeit Bharat Natyam. For her to perform Meera Kumari8217;s Pakeezah kathak was a cakewalk and she got high marks for it. Unfair to those who danced with no training at all. The show is delightful, don8217;t ruin it.

The punch Ganguly and hit Chappell show continued into another week with Ganguly the clear winner 8211; in his innumerable TV interviews, he was as smug as Camilla Parker Bowles at her wedding to Prince Charles. And dear Chappell, if Indian crowds/TV audiences want to see a raised finger, it8217;s the umpires, while the opposition bats 8211; not yours.