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SHORT STORY: FTII- WHY DID KALCHAKRA HAVE TO PUNISH GAJENDRA SINGH CHAUHAN

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By Kamlesh Tripathi

goi gajendra chauhan kalchakra

Long time back I had read a story about a small sparrow; that goes as follows:

THE STORY OF THE SPARROW


On a beautiful winter day in Siberia, encouraged by the warm rays of the sun in a clear blue sky, a little sparrow left the security of his nest to fly and frolic in the air, but the 40o below zero temperature quickly overcame the imprudent bird who fell on the ground, frozen, and found himself buried in the snow where he would certainly have died in an instant. But by chance a cow trotted by at that moment, and at the very spot where the sparrow was struggling for his last breath, she dropped a large soft cow-dung on top of the bird. The warmth of this dung-bath resuscitated the moribund sparrow. He was so happy, he raised his head out of the cow-shit and started to twitter joyfully, which drew the attention of a wandering homeless cat who delicately pulled the sparrow out of the shit and devoured him.

The moral of this story: Your enemy is not necessarily the one who shits on your head. Your friend, however, is not necessarily the one who pulls you out of the shit. And besides, one should never twitter when one is buried in shit.

The recent controversy in FTII in which actor Gajendra Singh Chauhan got caught up reminded me of the above story, where for no fault of his, Gajendra is in the cross fire. Can we call it the wrath of Kalchakra?

For Gajendra too like the little sparrow was perched in his warm nest, quite away from the limelight doing small roles in movies and television serials, is when the GOI approached him as the warm rays of Siberia and Gajendra then dared to fly out of his nest, quite unaware of the Siberian winters—in this case being the sting of FTII- students.

The new job like the cow-dung covered Gajendra for a while when the wandering cats of Bollywood, Social Media, TV-channels and some Political Parties and so also the students union of FTII, who thought he did not have the tall stature, and moreover, he had committed the grevious crime of acting as Yudhistir in Mahabharat, thereby promoting Hinduism was definitely not suitable for the post. Because, in current day India even talking about Hinduism is considered non-secular by some.

While the wandering cats have so far not devoured the so called sparrow—Gajendra, but the Kalchakra has definitely crushed his film career. For Gajendra Singh Chauhan will now be known more for his poor stalk in Bollywood than the hard-work he has put in to make a career in Bollywood. And quite unknowingly and unintentionally he has antagonised and estranged many bigwigs of Bollywood and the social media; and has emerged as a full-fledged victim of Kalchakra.

    But what was his fault in all of this; that the electronic media almost stripped him naked as far as his career credentials went, that people who didn’t know about his average career also know about it now.

Kalchakra is not in the business of compensating losses and therefore won’t compensate Gajendra Singh Chauhan, for having torn apart his career and making him a laughing stock. I don’t know about GOI how they will view it. But the reality is,

    In life you often don’t get into problems because of your own doings, but it could also be the doing of others and in this case it was clearly the Kalchakra disguised as GOI.

For in life you really don’t know what will come and hit you, or who is friend and how distant is your enemy. But mind you Kalchakra spares no one, not even the wandering cats.

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#PRIME #TIME #TV #DEBATES-Keep hearing the #speaker but watch the eye-movements, facial expressions of others in the #panel to get a better sense

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Kamlesh Tripathi

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Of late participants in prime time TV debates have increased. All put together they go right up to eight on the screen, and some more join for special effects either at the studio, or any other location. Anticipating the hot intensity of the ensuing debate. I often find participants with parched throats. Some sipping water, which I wouldn’t dare to call it Vodka. In many ways Prime Time TV debates have replaced entertainment channels. As every individual is now eager to understand what is going on in the country. Also, news for many has become entertainment. Where, these debates are better understood both by literates and even the illiterates, unlike newspapers and magazines.

In the recent, prime time TV debates have become more cut throat, because many political parties are competing in the same political space, and have therefore become a multiparty affair. In any debate we now find time 3-4 party spokespersons. Most prime time debates start around 9 pm when office goers return from office after a hectic day’s of work, is when they want to analyse and know what all has gone right and what all has gone wrong in the country.

And, how cleverly or daringly their elected representatives from Karnataka and Telangana are hoodwinking the voters by going on a foreign junket. To how shrewdly BJP government is keeping the TRAI discussion paper alive, because Modi has to return election favours to Corporates. Or how Congress’s Anand Sharma in his own arrogant manner is spiking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, because he said something awkward in Canada about the country, but preferred to remain quiet when the scams were being committed by Congress under his own UPA regime. As if that didn’t spoil the country’s reputation. Or how PDP is kowtowing with separatists and how deeply is Mamta Banerjee involved in Sarada Chit scam and how J Jayalalita’s case on disproportionate asset is progressing. Or how Srinivasan is fighting his BCCI battle. The list goes on and on and on.

But the debate becomes daggers drawn when one spokesperson of a party criticizes the party supremo of another party, such as Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Mulayam Singh, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamta Banerjee or for that matter any party’s top boss. The defending spokesperson as if goes into a tizzy and loses his cool as if they are about to lose their jobs and are being monitored by party bosses, debate to debate and channel to channel.

So, in all of this. There is but another way of viewing these TV debates, which I find is more gauging, engaging, absorbing, interesting and even revealing on a lighter note. And, that is when the anchor or a panel participant, like a party spokesperson or a journalist or even a lawyer or anyone else is making a point, don’t concentrate on that person visually. Just keep hearing him and look in the eye of the person he or she is attacking, and also take a quick glance at others in the panel, and you’ll find the debate to be much more interesting and revealing. For example, let’s take one prime TV channel ‘Timesnow.’

Where, when, Arnab Goswami anchor of ‘Timesnow’ taunts on, Azam Khan’s buffaloes getting lost and police personnel being suspended. One should notice the taut and staring expression of Gaurav Bhatia, spokesperson of Samajwadi Party. As if wanting to say, ‘if stares could kill Arnab you would have been dead by now.’ And in the adjacent box Sanjay Jha of Congress with a smug on his face and in extreme silence and patience as if is willfully intending to say, ‘That’s a good one Arnab.’ And Sambit Patra in a fizz and gulping down, ’Arrey maza aa gaya.’

Yesterday, when Narsimha Rao, the BJP spokesperson was being cornered by Arnab for likely six fold increase in mobile NET tariff by corporates. I was watching AAP spokesperson Somnath Bharti whose expression, as if said, ‘Dear Arnab you have made AAPs job easier.’

And, in several land bill debates. The expression and eye movements of many Congress spokespersons only said, ‘Thank you Modi ji, you have once again made us relevant and greater thanks to Arnab for getting us to limelight.’

But, there is a converse also. With Nepal tragedy, did AAP get off the hook on the tragic death of Gajendra Singh. Perhaps, Arnab will have to invite Kejriwal or Ashutosh or Raghav of AAP along with spokespersons of other parties and some journalists and lawyers for the viewers to gauge and find it out.

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“MISSING IN ACTION”- THE UNCOUTH TV-CHANNEL RANT –TO DESCRIBE “RaGa” … And the sleepy Rahul brigade

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    Let’s call a spade a spade. We all know. TV-channels, more often than not, run on the fetish of TRPs. Nothing more and nothing less. Even if a cock and bull story, has the girth to sell and bring TRPs. TV channels will broadcast it—period. For important may not be interesting and interesting may not be important, for viewers.

    Rahul Gandhi is one such case in point. Ever since he lost UP polls. He became that non-charismatic politician, and after Lok Sabha debacle- useless, and after his 56 day spiritual-sabbatical at Myanmar, a gone case. As glaringly drummed by TV- channels.

    But this time TV-channels went berserk. When they used an impudent idiom like ‘missing in action’ to describe ‘RaGa’s absence from the Indian political space, during his sabbatical and thought they’ll be able to justify it by giving it a semantic hue, if asked. And, I even heard some senior journalists of repute, using this silly idiom while covering ‘Raga.’

    But that apart. I was quite surprised when Congress Party and more so. The young Rahul Brigade did not take umbrage to such a dubious and debatable term of expression. That on one end hinges on–‘as presumed dead’ being used for their young leader. When I’m sure the likes of dictionaries or thesauruses could have offered a much more dignified and decent set of words to describe ‘Raga.’ Or, is it that the TV-channels slipped up this time on simple English, which looks quite unlikely, or is it daggers drawn with Raga. Only they can explain.

And, let us for once analyse how close ‘missing in action’ is ‘to presumed dead.’

As per the Oxford ADVANCED LEARNER’S Dictionary

Meaning of ‘missing’

  1. That cannot be found or that is not in its usual place, or at home SYNONYM- LOST: I never found the missing piece. * My gloves have been missing for ages * Two files have gone missing * They still hoped to find their missing son * (especially brE) Our cat’s gone missing 2 that has been removed, lost or destroyed and has not been replaced: The book has two pages missing/missing pages * He didn’t notice there was anything missing from his room until later on. 3 (of a person) not present after an accident, battle, etc. but not known to have been killed: He was reported missing, presumed dead. *Many soldiers were listed as missing in action. 4 not included, often when it should have been.
  2. Google

Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to armed services personnel and other combatants who are reported missing during wartime. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave has been positively identified.

Missing in action

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the military term. For other uses, see Missing in action (disambiguation).

  The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (July 2011)

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    Grave of an unknown British soldier, killed in 1943 during theBattle of Leros. Because his identity is unknown, he is missing in action.

    On a dismal note. one can only hope the nation’s conscience keeper- the fourth estate and more specifically the English TV channels will introspect the real meaning of “missing in action” within themselves by rewinding their sound bites; when RaGa is back safe and sound.

By Kamlesh Tripathi

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“#Arrey … PUBLIC BEWAKOOF HAI” – THE MENTALITY OF MANY #PARTY ‘SPOKES PERSONS’ WHO COME ON #PRIME TIME #TV #DEBATES

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A majority of party spokes persons, still don’t believe in this age old but popular Hindi song– “Yeh jo public hai, woh sab janti hai.”

    Most party spokes persons who appear in prime time TV debates of various reputed channels need to realise that the Indian viewer has matured far beyond their imagination. And heart to heart they hate this growing wisdom of the Indian public. As it makes their job even more difficult. Which is quite apparent if you attentively watch these programmes.

    Today’s mature TV viewer can clearly make out when the party spokesperson is lying or trying to defend the indefensible, by blindly following the party whip. And that, he or she has walked in, with the solemn pledge to defend the party at all costs. Where, one can glaringly make out from the screen. Whenever, they try to abide by those intermittent instructions that keep trickling into their mobiles in staccato rhythms. Basis, the intensity of the debate resulting in who is losing and who is winning through these frequent text messages or Whats-App. When, each time their eyes dip below, to read those crisp instructions.

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    The debates on TV have become more issue based than mere political pragmatism. Generally, trying to open each other’s ‘dhoti’ to score a brownie point. Just to stay ahead. This is what competition teaches you. Where, politics is no different, even when it has strange bedfellows. One can possibly consider the stale political rhetoric emanating out of TV screens coming all the way from the studios as mere gap fillers something like a comma or even a full stop. Often the panel comprises of spokes persons from BJP, Congress, AAP, SP, BSP, Akali- Dal, Janata Dal, Janata Dal United, TMC, NC, PDP, NCP, CPI, CPM, AIDMK and the DMK, to name a few. They all jostle to capture sound bites. The competition is mostly between political parties on one end, and journalists, lawyers, individuals- in-question or any other luminary from any other field, on the other end. All, trying to score a point over the other.

    Most spokes persons are, boastfully well-to-do. Apparently affluent, refreshingly articulate, and from the front ranks of political India. Who, while performing in these vibrant debates, quite often amalgamate a concoction of lies just to defend their party, come what may. But they cannot hide the disconnect between their pumping hearts, agitating minds, guilty eyes and tethering tongues and at times even their wavering hands and fingers, while confronting the camera. For, in a heated and not ready to give-in debate when the tongue tells a lie your eyes naturally look down, is when the heart sags, the throat chokes, the mind beeps and the hands and fingers balance between the heart and the mind. In all of this I guess the conscience is left behind, quite intentionally at a place where you can’t readily find. This irritates the viewers which the party should realise. In fact the party would gain more by accepting its mistakes if any. Than by stupidly arguing about it, as it is only human to err. One must not forget you have a new generation viewership now, that likes transparency.

    So, then why is it that no spokesperson can ever accept his party’s mistake openly on a TV debate? Perhaps, because, you require guts to do that. But then one must realise, by accepting mistakes you raise the bar of integrity. Recently, a new phenomenon has come alive. That is, to block co-panelists in debates from talking, by talking over them. I have seen this happening quite often in recent times. The latest was, what I saw the other day in Timesnow. When Arnab Goswami was debating the AAP debacle. The official party spokesperson of AAP, Preeti Menon was not allowing her own party M.P. to speak. Preeti Menon must have thought. She is doing a great job for her party, by not letting her own colleague to speak, just because he was critical about the establishment. But in such a case. The viewpoint of the viewers is quite different, where, she looked and sounded quite shallow and frivolous. As truth crosses all human boundaries. For make no mistake you can’t scuttle the truth by merely talking over it or by blocking it on a TV debate. Because, truth is  much closer to the viewer’s heart than one can even imagine.

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Posted by Kamlesh Tripathi

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