iPL-as simple as it is...

          Having just  witnessed the #IPL extravaganza, I will be not be doing myself any world of good by not penning on this. And also having an ardour for twitter, I ve decided to use #trends in this blog.

          It just had everything. It was like an #AlfredHitchcock’s movie as Navjot Singh Sidhu quoted. It had resonance. It had #Rajnikanth- scripted fortunes that kept fluctuating. And as it turned out, 8:00pm became the appointment slots for nearly fifty days. But somehow it has found a perennial attraction to one colour and as a token of acknowledgement, it pressed the #Yellow button yet again. Yeah, needless to say, the #Chennai #Super #Kings have been the emperors of IPL.

          This season of IPL was never expected to be like this. Especially after the setting(aftermath of India’s world cup triumph)  in which it commenced. And in less than a week, two of India’s world cup final Super heroes- #Gauti and #Mahi were seen doning black and yellow jerseys respectively rather than #BleedBlue. All the ‘#DeGhumakhe’ and ‘#ChakDe’ had to give way  for ‘#KorboLorbo’ and ‘#WhistlePodu’. But What India was good at was that it was slowly  getting acclimatized to it.

          The chips were certainly down in the initial stages. Some off color shows, pitch controversies and off the field events. But one man-the giant looking-the tornado-the demolisher from #Jamaica-#ChrisGayle had some other ideas and reassured that it is cricket that should take center stage. He just kept on bludgeoning ,showing no respite for the opposition bowlers.

           If it is a #Gayle, there was a #blizzard too that shook up. There was also this unfolding mystery of #Slinga-#Malinga with his Yorkers. Eveyone had their time out. The resonating oldies- #Sachin and #ShaneWarne proved yet again that they are still the ring masters in the cricket field. And then there was this short and sweet story of #dada, the scriptwriters of which would have taken their cues from anyone except #AshutoshGowarikar. And not to forget the inconsistent yet impressive debuts of #kochi and #pune franchises.

          So this is what the #IPL is made of :#chokers( #Mumbai #Indians),#jokers (#Delhi team owners),#whistlers,#kings and #tuskers and what not. This will top the trends in #twitter next season too. Because  this gives some reasons to cheer for the media, who get bored covering all those wonderful scams of our netas. And finally, IPL  is and will be India’s #festivalOfJoy.

          Before I end, many congratulations to the Chennai Super Kings for getting crowned as the champions yet again. Even though my heart never said #CSK, my head always said Good Cricket and that’s what Chennai have displayed!!!!

ethics v/s profession-a toss up

       “The curious case of Ram Jeth Malani’s cases”  is a much debated topic among the Indian public: in fact a topic that would send vibes across and eventually involves the emotions and sentiments running high. Having that unfortunate little tag of being a “Devil’s Advocate” for defending the likes of Manu Sharma( Convicted in Jessica Lal Murder), Satwant Singh (Indira Gandhi’s assassinator) , of late of Kanimozhi, Ram Jeth Malani has drawn vivid criticisms , very much on the expected lines. And this curious case of his generates a big question-should ethics and human values dictate a profession or shouldn’t it be the other way around? Will it mean betrayal if inclination is shown to one?

       Well, these are probably the questions that might top the chart in the list of expected questions for civil service examination or any high profile journalistic interview. But for general public, the answers to these are much sought after ones.

       Take the case of a journalist reporting a murder case. Going by the ethics of his profession and not by the general ethics, his job is to just accentuate the case by considering it just as another news. And quite expectedly  he ends up drafting a holistic news report satisfying his boss. On the other hand, there is a colleague of his who does the same thing but puts in the human values to his profession. He believes that his job is not only in reporting the news but also in ensuring that justice is done: and in the process he too joins the fight for justice. Now, the later will of course be a figure high on demand in the society. After all a profession is not just a way to earn breads and pennies but also a way  how we preach our lives, how we extend its contours to real life practices.

       And coming to Jeth Malani’s example, he has proved to be a chief destroyer of his own principles and thereafter has blown away all ethics and morality. He justifies his stance by avowing that as a judge, he is well within his rights to take up case as per whims and fancies. Yes, he is right but again if he is to rewind back some years of his life, one of the first lessons that he would have been taught is to ensure that ‘truth should triumph’ .

       It is not just the journalists and lawyers, be it any profession, the roles of virtues and ethics should be conveniently assigned. Even in business, emotions and sentiments should be given its due importance. After all it is the human values that makes a human and not profession.

India's intimidating media

      Last one month was full of climax, anticlimax, fluctuating fortunes and what not to keep that buzz in the media going. We’ve witnessed everything. From the Nirvana of  a spiritual guru to the end of the Osama era, from the “better late than never” arrests of scandal-filled politicians to a septuagenarian’s fight for a clean India, from the glitz and glamour of the IPL to ‘Go Green’ campaigns. And media has done what it is best in doing- it has hyped, sensationalized and packaged every news to attract people’s attention.

      In a country like ours which relies too much on the media because our system probably has one of the world’s most diverse elements running the industry, a closer insight on it might give us exciting results. India leads the pack in the number of dailies, weeklies and monthlies that are getting published in more than 20 languages.

      The media is often accused of sensationalizing a news. Celebrity gossips and scandals are covered in the most dramatic ways as one would imagine. More spice is added on to these issues. But still nothing should take away the job the media is doing. Many felt that it is the media that  was putting in a lot of effort than even the CBI officials in the CWG scam and 2G spectrum scam.

      The media can be quite tricky too. It might pour praises in volumes but it doesn’t hesitate to take on someone when he/she has an off day. And no one knows this notion better than our cricket players   And when Duncan Fletcher was appointed the coach of the Indian Cricket team by the BCCI, many felt that the major challenge for the Zimbabwean is not just to emulate Gary Kirsten but also to handle the Indian media which is as tough as the former.

      So it becomes fairly imperative that media clearly defines its roles. Should it be just a vehicle to convey information to  millions   or in an extended dimension, shouldn’t it promote itself to have a major say in some of the burning issues? Should a journalist view a murder case just as another news or shouldn’t he do enough to arouse people’s consciousness and join the fight for the victim’s justice? Well, these are the million dollar questions that definitely needs affirmative replies.