Breaking News

That was a 'Breaking News' from Aaj Tak news channel of India Today group. The news is 'Amitabh Bachchan ko thand lagi' ('Amitabh Bachchan caught cold').

Now I'm totally against the people who are just ridiculing Aaj Tak for this. I think it was indeed a breaking news. Breaking news as per Wiki is "often loosely assigned to the most significant story of the moment or a story that is being covered live".

So if on that day "Amitabh caught cold" is the most significant story what would Aaj Tak do? They are a private enterprise to make money; they need to show 'breaking news' every 3rd hour otherwise the rival channel would 'break' some other news and subsequently Aaj Tak would loose the money.

We know that killing 15 policemen by Naxalites or killing innocent protesters by police or spreading of Bird flu virus and subsequently extra money given to voters for Panchayet election or giving financial support to the families of terrorist or China claiming Arunachal with Indian Leftists supporting them are never so important issues in any given day to be called breaking news.

A breaking news on a national channel has to be for the people to know instantly and react as to 'whoa' or 'oh my god' like 9/11 - America under attack or Eklavya selected as India's official Oscar entry or Shah Rukh Khan buys Kokatta team out of sheer love and passion for cricket or future prime minister Rahul Gandhi speaks a word in parliament after 457 days or why the Mughal king Akbar always marries his daughter-in-law in Bollywood movies.

These grave issues need to be brought forward in to the minds of people and what better way to do than to put them in 'breaking news' packets. Aaj Tak along with host of national news channels are doing a perfectly fine job in getting them.

As for the current news, Amitabh is from the first family of India (ok, second family after 10 Janpath government bungalow) and his actions wield a great power and impact on India's future. So it made perfect sense that channels are working their best to keep us updated. Bravo!

Thank God we are saved

Oh I'm relieved.

I'm so relieved that I drank three dirty martinis within half an hour yesterday evening that too in a weekday evening. And I ate rest of the olives too.

I'm relieved that at last we got such a great leader to save India, Hindus and Hinduism. The leader is none other than Mrs Sonia Gandhi who is now probably sipping in a cup of Arabic coffee (or maybe Sicilian wine we don't know) after saving Ram.

No, not the crook shop-owner Ram of our Galli. No no no, its not Ram Jethmalani also who comes in the nightmares of Sagarika Ghose. I'm talking about the Lord Ram or Rama of Ramayana, the epic "Mythology" of Hinduism.

Sonia saved Him.

In the darkest hour of Hinduism, when it was reeling under immense threat of extermination, the very existence of Hindu God Himself was hanging in wire, people were gasping for breath to know whether the Lord Ram existed or not so as to decide either to die or burn, Sonia appeared like Kalki (the last Avatar of Vishnu; with the white custom made bullet-proof BMW as the vahana) and saved Him.

Thank you madam. You not only saved a country of billion helpless people, you saved their own God and restore their faith on Him.

Diamond Jubilee Celebration

"Something is better than nothing" - old adage.

"Nothing is better than Nonsense" - my friend in university.

That's what it came to my mind after seeing the column of Sagarika Ghose on CNN-IBN. I don't remember if I ever seen such a blatant communal irrational anti-analysis of a highly significant decision that is taken in favor of the nation in an unbiased and rational manner.

That the questioning of the judgment as to why only Muslims are convicted (Sanjubaba and other convicts having Sanskrit names are exempt from her analysis anyway) and arguing that the equivalent number of Hindus must also be put into jail and/or ordered to the gallows in order to make it a 'secular' decision - made me sick at the level of cheap sensationalism and propagating of dangerous ideology of the 'Indian' English secular media.


For the not so blissfully ignorants who may have doubts about her capacity or capability in analysis, just to let them know hard that Sagarika Ghose is an 'eminent journalist' with two great qualifications as the daughter of Bhaskar Ghose, former director of Doordarshan and wife of Rajdeep Sardesai, currently CEO of CNN-IBN.


Meanwhile, Arjun Singh is maintaining the premier level of Gandhigiri by getting slapped fourth time (or is it fifth time?) by the Supreme Court on Higher Education Quota. Still he said that he's not perturbed about the slapping and would go for the fifth (or sixth) time. "How interesting!!!".

Happy Independence Day!!!