When a Swine flew over my city!

It started as a pandemic in Mexico and soon made it big in the media circles all over the world. The origin seem so far that one would hardly imagine it to land in India. Special care was taken so that the fliers don't carry the virus across the nations. Inspite of the safety measures (wonder if there were any taken in India) some of the travelers were found positive and soon Pune became a hot spot for H1N1.....

And then started a circus. Media fed on the rumors and fear of the common man. Reports of freshly detected patients bombarded day in day out on all the news channels. This was followed by the crazy ideas of how the masks protect people against the virus, which is in fact not clinically proven. Adding to the lack of knowledge, people were made to believe that even the doctor masks that were nothing but just a plain piece of cloth with stings can provide some relief. Pictures of masked people from various countries wasn't a new sight. Even Pune was, till recent, know for its scarf covered two-wheeler riders. But seeing a people use mask in Bombay came as a surprise. Aren't they supposed to atleast evaluate whether the masks provide any safety? The worst part was that the educated class especially the students category too was following the media reports blindly and using the suffocating masks. While traveling in train i once overheard a student saying, "arre yaar i don't know if i will die with swine flu but i m sure i will choke to death if i used this silly mask." ...and still he was using it just like many others. It is really surprising how media can influence people on some petty issues but fail to do so in the much more crucial issues. Now some people will say that you cant blame media completely. Ofcourse I cant, media is smart enough. They first make a big deal out of nothing and when they know that they have achieved their target then they slid in interviews from experts about the reality that H1N1 is no worse than the common flu pandemic and that most of the deaths caused were not due to the swine flu but due to underlying medical conditions.....so what was the fuss about? Well to me its all about money making baby ...its all about money. The mask manufacturers must have made profit of lifetime and news channels had food to munch on for weeks.

Well I would like to end this post with a funny incident. When I witnessed thousands of masked bombayites i couldn't stop laughing and with the funniest sight being a bunch of girls in all whites wearing bright yellow masks remind me of ducks. Little did I knew then that I would encounter one at my home the next morning. My eyes popped out, jaw dropped to the floor and split my sides when dad pulled over a bright yellow mask and proudly marched away for his office.

Sensitives v/s Sensationals

Its been a week since the terror attack that took place in various parts of south Bombay now. I have been keeping a track of the activities on the various news channels as well as the news papers and can see a gradual change in them. For the three days of ongoing battle between cammandos and terrorists, there were no commercial breaks shown on the news channels, they were showing live updates of the the three places under attack and to fill in the time they were saluting the martyrs. A continious bombardment of the teror attack tht made me feel so very vulnerable. In the news paper the news spilled from the main sheets to the supplimentary sheets that are more popular for colourful imagery and full of articles on lifestyle. But soon after bringing down of terrorists things changed. News channels were back to their usual format. The follow ups shrunk. A mere BREAKING NEWS strip at the bottom of the screen would have certain facts in marquee. Some news telecasts about the attack were completely repeated. But in all these, Doordarshan's News Channel maintained a consistency. Even during the conflict, DD News was not restricted to the exclusive terror attack videos and news alone. It still continued to cater to news form all over the world. It always gave updates on the bombay issue and even had talk show, but as a part of their usual format. I think it was the one that was aware of its responsibilty to maintain a certain limitaion on waht information to be given out and wot needs to wait for the time being. While the other news channels seems to hav facilitated the terrorists in keeping a track of the moves outside, DD surely did a commendable job in minimalising such drawbacks of media coverage.

Today the news has retreated back to its original position, same pages in the news paper and few minutes on channels. Now its taking the usual turn to the Blame Game, pointing fingers at one another, especially with the elections right ahead. Hope this time the case will be seriously investigated and not used as a weapon bt people for selfish motives. May our media matures and redefines its role...........for the betterment of everyone!