A Fire Today...

Rajahmundry airport observed fire service week this past week. The passengers were informed the same through this note. But the note itself seemed more directed toward the staff and their concern of holding down a job after a fire accident. Mundane side-stories such as typing errors, safety or survival were avoided in this crisp circular as it dealt directly with the heart of the matter - no one can work in a blazing inferno.

They don't like me happy

I was one of the guys out and about on the midnight of April 2nd, hugging strangers, shouting ridiculous slogans, clapping, punching the air and scaring dogs. India had won the world cup, and my buddies and me were determined to join the street party. It was more about not missing a significant expression public joy than being huge cricket fans. So we drove all around the city to witness the hooligan shenanigans in full show. There were bike and car stunts for us to see, the police were happy but weary. It was an experience which was scary but exciting.

But what actually took place at the world cup, what it means for 70 million viewers to watch a single event on TV in India and what the events means in the long run are three very different things. First, what happened was the Indian cricket team winning an event it was tipped to win. Second, it was the biggest viewership by far for any event or show in the history of Indian television, this therefore will be the touchstone in the future whenever the Indian viewers' attention is needed. Third, the longer term meanings though are hard to get now. Sports events have a euphoric galvanizing effect on the supporters or at least 70 million of them in this case, but how does that effect the larger population of 1210 million Indians remains a question.

In all this there have been voices of dissent. The opposition steadily comes from sources that see the event as a drain on the collective attention of the public. This attention, they say, would otherwise focus on issues that are more relevant to their own lives. During the coverage of the world cup, the media pushed a number of pressing issues to the fringes. There was a certain sense of abandonment of daily responsibility of their reporting duty. And the public did need constant reminders to not indulge themselves too much in the building those floating castles.

This being the case, there has to be a sense of proportion even in those high moral ground arguments. A case in point: The Hindu today carried an Open Page section by Narendra Shekhawat which linked the farmer suicides and the world cup coverage. This is a case of confusing the the profound with the ephemeral. If an argument can be made that the world cup has hijacked other news, then by the same logic it can be argued that these conscience-keepers are piggybacking on the excessive coverage to sell something unrelated. If there is a middle class guilt complex, it has to be channeled better. Rubbing guilt onto people for simply being happy seems cruel.

Links:
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article1761700.ece
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/article1597522.ece

Consolation Capital

A couple of days ago at RTC X roads, I saw this vehicle with cutouts draping its exterior campaigning for Hyderabad to be made the "2nd capital", what that means is beyond me. Apparently this "movement to make Hyderabad the second capital of India" has been around for a while. I vaguely recounts someone saying Ambedkar supported it.

Will they then have the losers' parliament here? Think the logic here was straight forward: since Hyderabad's Charminar (Char =4, as we well know) has 3 more minars than Delhi's Qutub minar (Singular used here to signify the solitary minar) therefore it follows that...