Another Sad Story

Rediff.com has always had Specials, at least as long as I can remember. And while there have been some good ones, there have been some absolutely meaningless ones as well. But this and this take the cake.

Bring out the glycerine... oops, the glittering jewellery. We Indians love our saas-bahu serials, don't we?

P.S.- Is Rediff taking a tip or two from the people at Medianet?

P.P.S.- For the uninitiated: know what Medianet is really about by reading this excellent Sucheta Dalal column. (Oops, yet another Rediff link!)

Just What the Doc Ordered

Given the fondness Amrus have for colour-coded alerts, a terror-alert van wouldn't be such a bad idea (from where do the Onion guys get such awesome ideas?).

On the other hand, if it's run by Murdoch-run Fox News or its siblings, it might as well be called the George W. Bush Van. And a red alert would probably be issued when a Sikh was spotted, or when a Catholic guy was seen buying condoms.

So, What's More Important?

University final exams on- the exams that will make me a graduate. And yet, this is what happens:

I walked into the college today, an irritated look on my face. My classmates were standing in a small group near the gate. I had an irritated look on my face.

Their remark: Why are you so worried?
My response: That idiot Ganguly just got clean bowled.
Them: Huh?
Me (grinning): The MATCH is on!
Them: Oh! (Their expression says 'Whatever!')

Unfortunately, I had to choose between Dhoni's innings and a two-hour paper on Broadcast Journalism.

Seen on NDTV Profit

Senior business journalist Vikram Chandra discussing mobile phones, of all things with some techie/gadget freak. The intelligent questions Vikram Chandra was asking were so what's good about X phone? And what features should someone look for when buying a mobile phone?

Sure, nothing wrong in asking such questions, but Vikram Chandra asking them? Why can't he hand over that show/segment to some rookie reporter? VC asking such questions seems ridiculous. Like Barkha Dutt reporting on a Page Three party. Or Prannoy Roy doing a vox pop on the latest Bollywood movie.

Open Letters

To Preity Zinta:
Journalists once called you the "only man in Bollywood" after you identified some underworld gangsters in the Bharat Shah case. So why do you have to lie now? Why do you even bother to say that no one ever approached you? You think readers are fools?

To Rajat Sharmaji:
Ok, I'm not going to tell you whether what you did was right or wrong. I just want to ask a few questions- were you even thinking of what you were doing? Did you even bother to ask yourself what the repurcussions of the operation will be? Not on Shakti Kapoor or Aman Verma, but on the journalism industry? So now the I&B Ministry is going to be demanding regulations for the broadcasting industry. Do you really want that?

To Sallu:
So we all know that you're trying to clean up your act, and project a good-boy image. What will the stories in BT and Mid-day. And it may just work. Who's your PR agent? (Maybe he could help out Rajatji as well.)


To Souravda:
Oh dear dear Souravda, much as I think that you are (or were) a good batsman, I really think you need to chill out, have some rosogollas, take stock of your batting, and then take action. Maybe we'll tell good ol' Geoffrey Boycott to perk you up a bit, and give you a piece of his mind.

To BJP members:
Kindly spare us this anti-US rhetoric. For once, we were almost on America's side, till we realised that wouldn't it be better if Modi just went to USA and got lost in the crowd there, never to be seen again?