Mysorean

The evergreen DD commentators strike Gold [I can take this word without getting emotional about it anymore. Thanks Abhinav!] yet again! I am not going translate this into any other language. If you know Hindi you will understand why!

“bird’s nest jise chidiyon ka ghosla kaha jaata hai kal se itna bhara hua nahin rahega”

“yeh ek aitihasik olympics hai duniya ke liye kyonki india ne apna first gold medal jeeta hai individual category mein”

“olympic ki shama ab bujhne jaa rahi hai….aakhri baar yeh shama jwalit hai….isse dekhkar ek pankti yaad aa rahi hai….” you won’t believe what came next….he started singing “shama hai suhana suhana….” dont miss the play on the word “sama”

Thanks to a friend [Link] of a friend [Link] for capturing this though her orkut scraps! If anyone has captured it on video then please let me know. I missed it! No not the ceremony, the commentary! :)

A few of the sentences (those scrolling headlines) I came across while changing channels on TV:

This was on Headlines Today. It should be called Headless today!

First scroller:
SALMAN KHAN IS TRAVELING IN JET AIRWAYS 9W… IN SEAT NUMBER 3C

Second scroller:
OUR JOURNALIST IS SITTING NEXT TO HIM

Third scroller:
SALMAN IS SENDING MESSAGES TO HIS NEAR AND DEAR

Fourth scroller:
SALMAN APPEARS COOL AND COMPOSED

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It was the King Khan’s first day at work. Tense and speaking thirteen to a dozen to cover it up, he tried to add a dash of confidence where there seemed to be none. And it all looked like a big mistake by Star to replace the legendary Bachchan with this present superstar Khan.

SRK, it seemed, went out of the way just to be a complete opposite of whatever AB was. Unfortunately, he also went on to break the norm that AB had set regarding dignity. The ‘petticoat’ joke though drew smiles initially, later showed that SRK was trying hard not-to-be-AB. SRK didn’t have to do that. AB was just being himself and SRK could have been himself and if that meant there were similarities then so be it. Why unnecessarily try to not-be something that you are anyway not?

For my part, I never wanted to compare SRK with AB when I sat down to watch the show. But I had a secret desire to see how better SRK handles the show. I was waiting to see his so-called on-screen charisma translating into this live show and the spontaneity translating into witty one-liners. That combination of charisma and wit combined with the boyish charm that he exudes would have done wonders to KBC. But alas! SRK tries hard to do something he doesn’t need to and fails miserably. And what more, he tries so much not to be AB that you end up comparing the two of them and that’s where the “miserably” failing part becomes a ”disgusting” failure. 

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I didn’t see it. Neither did I see the 175* by Kapil Dev during the 1983 World Cup against Zimbabwe after India was tottering at 17 for 4.

And I rate both the misses on the same scale. Missing to watch Ganguly make 98 especially when Krishnamachari Srikkanth described the knock on CNN-IBN as ‘He (Ganguly) was in full flow’ is a great miss. Ganguly is a treat to watch when he gets going on Indian pitches. And as Dravid says he set India up for victory. Well, maybe. But I didn’t see it.

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Reality Show

It’s either reality or it’s a show – it can’t be both! Whatever these American or Australian channels call their TV shows becomes a mantra for us! Suddenly, we have launched into all kinds of those shows (I refuse to use oxymorons as long as I am not aware of them!). But Indian television screen is a kind of used-scripts market. Any successful foreign show is just copied and pasted onto the Indian screen with even the same sets. The only Indian shows (reality or otherwise, but involving real audience) that did really take off were “Antakshari” and “Sa re ga ma”. Apart from that, every other show was a straight adaptation of the foreign original.

Anyway, I am not here to talk about the Indian shows that are doing the rounds and which ones are copied from where kind of an investigative study here. I was just wondering what’s happening on this ‘Big Brother’ show? Why is there so much of coverage on Shilpa Shetty being called all four-lettered words?! What is the whole issue? And is it an issue at all? These news channels seem to be relaying it on their main news headlines so much that you would begin to wonder if Shilpa Shetty is some official diplomat of the country?!  

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