Mean Media

My Gran and Mum, both commited a murder a few days back. Guess who’s the victim? Our TV. You may think I’m addicted to tv or something. Not really. I’m addicted to the net and nothing has happened to it yet, Thank God.

But how many hours do I watch TV? Practically none. Because Granny dear makes it a point that whenever I switch it on, she’d come see-sawing* from the kitchen and press the big square button or the main switch. My mum doesn’t do that often. But she’s the ringleader. She’s the Queen of the House. She will ask my Gran to off the TV. Mommy says, so it’s a rule. My Gran loves doing it so much that she’d little idea how much the poor TV is getting hurt. Finally the idiot box gave up. It’s dead. Some internal damage, obviously. No switch works. No light. No sound.

Now Mum’s searching for the TV guy’s number/the shop number in every folder and file in the house. Not to mention the phone books are in a sorry state.

Not surprisingly, I’m not missing TV. Possibly, because of the following:

1. TV is not only an idiot, it’s a jerk and very boring too.

2. No good movies.

3. I’m fed up of watching serials.

4. I’m busy with the computer.

Anyway, TV is no more tempting. I find hardly any good shows. I hate reality shows. I hate mean reality shows. I hate copy-cat reality shows. I hate Splitsvilla. I hate Roadies too. I suck, right?

I wanted to write about this before, but I didn’t. Because, um, I was kinda lazy. But coupla days back, I read about the “reality if life” and “things what happen in this world” and “educated-people-always-have-mouths-full-of-scum” thing and “how-producers-are-working-hard-to-show-us-the-harsh-reality” thing and many other heaps of crap which enlightened me about the reality show concept.

Let’s take the example of the show On the Job on MTV India(Mean/Male Chauvinist/Motherfucker TV India). Not Music TV.

That show is a simple 1 hour show, I think(or more) in which they are 3 people or even groups to perform a task. For example, shooting a promo of a show. The one who wins gets a laptop and a job. Even in that show, people can’t help swearing. One of the judges swore at a contestant who he didn’t like from the beginning. Even in that show, they have to show the contestants’ and judges’ opinions about each other which is absolutely unnecessary, in my opinion.

Next example is from Get Gorgeous series on Channel [V]. I find Channel [V] far better than MTV.

When a girl is kicked out, the other girls, look absolutely ugly. Not that they look gorgeous otherwise. Ugly, because they squeak, swear, yell, make abominable faces, and scream,”Bitch, fuck off, you will never get gorgeous.” The fact is they are already un-gorgeous. How will the members who stay get gorgeous?

I’m not saying that a woman cannot/should not get angry. Or that an angry woman looks ugly all the time. No. I just say, anyone who overacts or overreacts looks stupid.

And lastly, Splitsvilla, the only “romance” reality show in India where sexism rules and “love is war”.

I can criticize this show for ever. Sexist. Male chauvinistic. Stupid. Disgusting. Pointless.

The show is nothing but a tool for 2 morons to find girlfriends. I guess, the game rules have changed now. Because the producer or somebody realised that it’s sexist. I don’t think anything in the show has changed. Spiltsvilla is still Sexistvilla. In one of episodes, which I watched briefly, Ranvijay was explaining how important it is for a woman to look sexy. The morons aren’t capable enough to find girlfriends themselves. The girls get to go on a date with the guys if they find hearts in a big tup of soap. You can imagine how stupid the other contests in this show are.

I don’t watch talent hunt shows. Because there they hunt for talent and then kill them. And neither do I watch Dadagiri or Khatron Ke Khiladi.

All these show promote negativity and nothing else. And the producers show reality. Oh yeah, let’s take an example of reality. You are with 10 people in a contest at college. Out of 10, don’t particularly like 3. So if s/he’s disqualified, do you start jumping all over the place and swearing?

Or another example: You and some of your colleagues are working on a project. You don’t like one colleague of yours and s/he’s criticised slightly by your boss when you submited the project. In that case, do you swear loudly and say how much you hate your collegue and how much s/he deserves the criticism?

Of course, we swear at people we don’t like, but not really the way people swear in reality shows. Swearing is fun. Agreed. But watching people swear isn’t fun. Atleast, that’s not my idea of fun.

Reality shows also say that there can never be peace in a group of people. Each one will scheme against another. Oh probably, the producers are trying to show that there’s no unity in India. In that case, I do agree with them and I feel very sad. I wish I lived in Finland.

*that’s the way Gran walks, as if she’s a human see-saw and she balances her body that way.

Most Stylish Air Hostess Uniform

Air France

No wonder Paris is the fashion capital. Though I don’t really fancy an air hostess career, I can’t help loving this uniform!

Ninety Is Nothing

Really, I pity my juniors. Getting 90 percent and not getting their names even in the third merit list. Isn’t this horrifying? I feel really lucky. I got a dismal 66 % and still managed to get a Science seat. Of course I did not get it in a good college. But no it seems that people who score like me now, can only be home-schooled. And that’s really bad.

I personally feel that education is a more like a business than gaining knowledge. I mean, it’s not possible for everyone to get 90. And I don’t approve of get-ninety-or you-are-a-loser thing. Because I know people who study well but have no general knowledge or communication skills.

Engineering is considered to be the top choice for any student in Science. Even if they have no idea what’s Engineering, they go for it. Then when they realise that though they can get a job immediately they have finished college, they aren’t happy doing it. My guitar teacher was an engineer, he says as I look at him incredulously. I though he got a degree in Music or something. Now he says, he feels great doing something he likes.

My closest pal’s mum is forcing her to take up engineering when she very well knows that her daughter is very weak in Math. Now really, I don’t understand why parents have to torture their kids.

In Tamil Nadu, where there no common entrance tests, things are worse than this. You get below 99 and you get no medicine seat. I’m not joking. They decide the merit list using points. For example, a student who got 99.39 is after a student who gets 99.50. Pathetic, no?

“You Raped Her, So You Marry Her” And Other Stupid Patriarchial Customs

Maybe, such things do not happen often in big cities. But such kind of shit happens in villages. No, I didn’t go to some hamlet to check this out myself, but you can trust Indian Cinema, particularly South Indian Cinema. Almost every movie based on village life has the following concepts:

1. When a girl hits puberty, she has to sit in one corner of the hut(she must not lift her head) and she will be embarrased in front of the whole village, when her parents tell everyone happily that she’s hit puberty and there’s some sort of celebration. Then when certain asshole(s) rape her. She’s blamed for it, obviously, and her fate is sealed. She has to marry the rapist because only that guy could give her a life.

I have questions:

If a rapist has to marry the girl he raped, how many girls will he marry? I mean professional rapists rape more than one girl.

In case of a gangrape, what the girl is supposed to do? Marry everyone who raped her?

2. Wife must eat after her husband does and use the plate he’s already used.

3. A girl is thrashed if she’s pregnant before she marries. When I was kid with no zero knowledge on sex and watch such scenes in soaps and movies, I used to aak my mum innocently,”Amma, why are they thrashing her. How can it be her fault if she got pregnant? God chose to gift her a child before she married. So what’s wrong?” My mum used to be silent, she would either ignore the question or smile.

4. If women go to beaches at late night. They are surely prostitutes. End of the story.

WTF?

5. The hero is always right. The haughty heroine is supposed to learn a lesson just because she asks everyone to treat her equal to a man. The hero succeeds in teaching her a lesson. Hence the heroine falls for him.

6. A woman who leaves her parents house, her old customs, comes to her in-laws house,starts eating non-veg even if she was a vegetarian, adopts all the new customs of her in-laws and never disobeys them is the ideal wife and daughter-in-law.

7. If there’s no rain in a particular village for a long time, the only way to bring rain is to make an unmarried girl strip and take a walk around the village at late night.

After doing all the above bullshit, there are also scenes about the greatness of women and such kind of greatness can only be acheived if a woman behaves herself, hooks up only after marriage, only to one man, doesn’t go out at night particularly to beaches, becomes the ideal wife and daughter-in-law.

Blog Stress

“Whatever you do, turns out to be detrimental!” my mother tells me curtly(shots a disgusting look). Then she throws a newspaper article at me. And this is what I read-

Blogstress.com - We warned blogging can be fatal

Burning the midnight oil, skipping meals, stressed out 24/7-we aren’t talking about students or BPO workers but bloggers.

Neck deep in competition to write the best post, get the maximum clicks or make the most money, their lives are nothing but grist for their next entry. They surf incessantly, are hooked on news updates, and are constantly thinking of opinions they can give. Taking a break is not an option.

In the US, two popular bloggers, Russell Shaw and Marc Orchant died of heart attacks suddenly. Another prolific blogger, Om Malik, 41, also had an attack, but survived.

Pratyush Ranjan has been blogging for 3 years and admits it’s stressful and needs higher levels of concentrations.”I’ve to socialise to make my blogs popular, which further saps my energy,” he sighs.

Zola Marquis’s blog Elitechoice.org started as a passion. But now it is a jobs in which she invests 16 hours a day.”Whether I’m partying or watching a movie, I’m disturbed by the fact that I’m not blogging,” she admits.

Dr. Ekta Soni, cheif clinical psychologist agrees that blogging is an addiction:”People blog for the sake of attention. This can become an obsession.”

There are also physical side side effects. According to Dr. Sanjay Swaroop, an orthopedic surgeon, these includ repetitive stress injury, which can mean chronic neck pain, tingling and numbness in the finger and a tennic elbow. Obesity is another hazard, and is linked to both diabetes and coronary problems.

Before he died, Russell Shaw updated his status for his blog editor:”Have come down with something. Resting now, posts to resume later today or tomorrow.” They never did.

Well, the article sounds real scary I know. But it’s true, isn’t it? Though I can’t understand one thing- How are heart attacks related to blogging?

Blogging can be very very addictive, especially when you have no other job. You all know I’m quite addicted to it too. I started blogging the very same day my higher school cert. exams finished. I had three whole months to sit at home without work and I was so glad that I found blogging. It’s also true that I sit many hours before the computer. But to tell the truth, I don’t really write more than 2 posts a day. I have many blogs. They are too much for me, because I’m single-handedly managing all of them. But writing really helps, and yes typing helps even more. Especially, for loners like me.

Though, one must not expect to get comments in his/her very first blog post. We bloggers are delighted and encouraged when we get comments. Yes, people blog for attention. And who doesn’t want to be famous? At first, when I started blogging, I obviously didn’t get any comments. But I kept blogging anyway because I love writing too. Maybe that’s because I’m quite shy and reserved in reality.

More than blogging, browsing or surfing is a bigger addiction, if you ask me. As we surf, we get many topics to write on. But I know that I can’t keep saying that I love writing. Because I love blogging more. No wonder I abandoned my diary after I started blogging. Moreover typing is easier than writing.

But now, I’m quite glad that my mother has fixed computer timings for me and my colleges are starting so that I get lesser time to blog.