A Mosque, A Temple, A Wrestling Ring....
The long awaited verdict is out... Or so the media says....
At times like this, I end up thinking, 'Am I really one of them?'.... I am thoroughly ashamed to be a journalist. I try to tell people I'm a producer, when they ask what I do. At least that confuses them...
Take the Common Wealth games, for example... It should have been a moment of pride, of clarity... A way to show the world that we are more than statistics... But what do we do? We, the media, highlight every flaw, every speck of dirt, every thing that went wrong....
But what about what went RIGHT? What about the good that went with it? How many of us have ever been able to even manage a perfect House-Party? None, I'll guarantee it. And if we can't do that, why is it so hard to accept that an vent of this scale will automatically come with similarly large shares of problems?
The questions we need to ask is, Where is our Loyalty? To What or Whom? If the Australians say that they don't want to come, it is because OUR media showcased what was wrong... Which isn't to say that everything should be condoned. But there is a time and place for everything. The time would be AFTER the games, without the world thinking of us as a tin-pot third world country....
And it's not just the CWG. In every step of the way, we Indians just prove that we are NOT loyal, that we don't care, that we are selfish to the core of our beings. Thinking of the 'Other' is just NOT in our DNA...
That is why we should be ashamed of the CWG. Not anything else.
Which is why I am ashamed to be a journalist, which is why I am ashamed to be a part of this system, which is why I am ashamed to be Indian.
Jai Hind
At times like this, I end up thinking, 'Am I really one of them?'.... I am thoroughly ashamed to be a journalist. I try to tell people I'm a producer, when they ask what I do. At least that confuses them...
Take the Common Wealth games, for example... It should have been a moment of pride, of clarity... A way to show the world that we are more than statistics... But what do we do? We, the media, highlight every flaw, every speck of dirt, every thing that went wrong....
But what about what went RIGHT? What about the good that went with it? How many of us have ever been able to even manage a perfect House-Party? None, I'll guarantee it. And if we can't do that, why is it so hard to accept that an vent of this scale will automatically come with similarly large shares of problems?
The questions we need to ask is, Where is our Loyalty? To What or Whom? If the Australians say that they don't want to come, it is because OUR media showcased what was wrong... Which isn't to say that everything should be condoned. But there is a time and place for everything. The time would be AFTER the games, without the world thinking of us as a tin-pot third world country....
And it's not just the CWG. In every step of the way, we Indians just prove that we are NOT loyal, that we don't care, that we are selfish to the core of our beings. Thinking of the 'Other' is just NOT in our DNA...
That is why we should be ashamed of the CWG. Not anything else.
Which is why I am ashamed to be a journalist, which is why I am ashamed to be a part of this system, which is why I am ashamed to be Indian.
Jai Hind
posted by Ruth at 10:01 PM
2 Comments:
Partly agree with you on the essence of the piece.
The problem was with the zest with which the media [especially one newspaper which both you and I are aware of] went about the whole task. As an ex-journalist, I could have named it but now that I'm in PR, I can ill afford to make enemies there.
Nonetheless, as I said, the problem was with the overdrive and not the fact that we chose to criticize per se.
That said, you don't need to feel ashamed of being a journalist Ruth. Instead strive to 'be the change that you want to bring about' [What co-incidence that I'm saying this on Oct 2]. I know it'll take time, one normally has to reach a certain stage before one can call the shots..But I'm sure it'll be worth the wait, hope you think that way too :)
Best of luck...
And keep posting!
hey kid you cannot be so cynical..leave that to us. You have your whole life ahead. Make the changes, seriously, it is possible.
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