A voice in the darkness

What I’m going to say could get me lynched by a mob of Indian housewives (or stay-at-home moms, to be politically correct), but I’ll say it anyway. These family dramas on Indian television get on my nerves. And I only encounter them when surfing channels. Just can’t stand these never-ending over-the-top saas-bahu (mother-in-law, daughter-in-law) sagas, but I imagine I’ll be whacked on the head with a saucepan if I say this to any woman who plans her household chores around when they are aired. Excuse my ignorance, but I had to google the names of the soaps ruling the roost at present since I have not progressed beyond Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi. The protagonist Smriti Irani has, however, made admirable progress. As a vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, she now takes on Times Now’s Arnab Goswami on the Newshour every now and then. Given that Goswami has the propensity to act like a tyrannical mother-in-law on occasion, Irani has the experience to handle the situation...

After five years of working on the newsdesk of three newspapers I find myself pondering over one question, 'Whither commitment?' Is journalism all about achieving cult status and big bucks today? Not that these virtues are a problem. Prannoy Roy makes a lot of money, Vinod Mehta does too and so do a number of other senior journalists. So why do I respect people like Roy and Mehta while I can't stand some of the other journalists? Commitment, lack of initiative and a lot of times, paucity of grey matter! Yeah, a lot of people tell me, 'What do you know about people like Roy, they do this, they do that...' That's fine, I judge people by the manner in which they speak and conduct themselves. And, of course, what they produce! Today, quality has been slaughtered at the altar of sensationalism. Yes, there are feature editors who believe that Britney going bald merits a pointer on the front page. Tell them about a pile of children's bones found in the vicinity of ...