আইডলস Idols
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Indian Idols
First of all we congratulate Prashant Tamang of Kolkata Police and a resident of Darjeeling for becoming the New Indian Idol.
But here are a few thoughts that we should not ignore any more.
The system adopted for these competitions over the electronic media is undoubtedly a form of very artistic Show-business at its zenith! They also bring in very distinguished panel of judges also for judging the participants. The Anchor is also a great performer in his own right. In fact almost every thing is good! So what is it that is not so good?
The judgment is not done by the Judges! They are decided by the general public by means of SMS messages! the participant getting the highest numbers of SMSs in his favour is declared the winner. Very Democratic too!
While this may seem very good on the surface, the under currents that follow in parts of the country where regionalism is the main political platform, is alarming.
In order to get their local boy or girl the winner's tittle, people tend to become hysteric! The whole community takes upon themselves the duty to send maximum SMSs at any cost. Every one around is compelled to use his mobile set to keep sending SMSs during that time. Even outsiders such as tourists are approached to join this game!
Recently they even got down to damaging mobile telephone communication Towers and installations in Darjeeling district of West Bengal because the network was down during one such event! We have first hand reports from people, who want to remain anonymous, working in various offices of North East States where people were forced to send such SMSs.
While mostly it may be dismissed as ordinary people's expression of love for their own boys or girls, it does not always remain that way. After some time it whips up sentiments of regionalism which invariably grows to become the Dreaded Tiger it always is, if not tamed in infancy. We should be proud of who we are but that feeling must not reach such levels when we start discrimination and intimidation on that basis and start feeling and propagating hatred for people who are not of our kind!
We suggest that these competitions be judged by judges only, who are experts in these fields. We understand that such events are the brain children of various Mobile companies, who stands to gain maximum from them. They may have started these events in right earnest but now a lot of ordinary people and this country stands to loose 'harmony' and 'peaceful co-existence'.
On the other hand the contestants are really a very talented lot of youth and we do not see how and why they should require the support of their community to win some competition. They can and should win on their own accord. We want this SMS business to be stopped for such competitions. Producers of these events should be happy to earn by ways and means adopted for making other TV programs. The zeal to earn more is good. But when zeal is overtaken by greed, you are bound to harm a lot of people, including yourself !
Indian Idols
First of all we congratulate Prashant Tamang of Kolkata Police and a resident of Darjeeling for becoming the New Indian Idol.
But here are a few thoughts that we should not ignore any more.
The system adopted for these competitions over the electronic media is undoubtedly a form of very artistic Show-business at its zenith! They also bring in very distinguished panel of judges also for judging the participants. The Anchor is also a great performer in his own right. In fact almost every thing is good! So what is it that is not so good?
The judgment is not done by the Judges! They are decided by the general public by means of SMS messages! the participant getting the highest numbers of SMSs in his favour is declared the winner. Very Democratic too!
While this may seem very good on the surface, the under currents that follow in parts of the country where regionalism is the main political platform, is alarming.
In order to get their local boy or girl the winner's tittle, people tend to become hysteric! The whole community takes upon themselves the duty to send maximum SMSs at any cost. Every one around is compelled to use his mobile set to keep sending SMSs during that time. Even outsiders such as tourists are approached to join this game!
Recently they even got down to damaging mobile telephone communication Towers and installations in Darjeeling district of West Bengal because the network was down during one such event! We have first hand reports from people, who want to remain anonymous, working in various offices of North East States where people were forced to send such SMSs.
While mostly it may be dismissed as ordinary people's expression of love for their own boys or girls, it does not always remain that way. After some time it whips up sentiments of regionalism which invariably grows to become the Dreaded Tiger it always is, if not tamed in infancy. We should be proud of who we are but that feeling must not reach such levels when we start discrimination and intimidation on that basis and start feeling and propagating hatred for people who are not of our kind!
We suggest that these competitions be judged by judges only, who are experts in these fields. We understand that such events are the brain children of various Mobile companies, who stands to gain maximum from them. They may have started these events in right earnest but now a lot of ordinary people and this country stands to loose 'harmony' and 'peaceful co-existence'.
On the other hand the contestants are really a very talented lot of youth and we do not see how and why they should require the support of their community to win some competition. They can and should win on their own accord. We want this SMS business to be stopped for such competitions. Producers of these events should be happy to earn by ways and means adopted for making other TV programs. The zeal to earn more is good. But when zeal is overtaken by greed, you are bound to harm a lot of people, including yourself !
Please write your COMMENTs and experiences if you have any on this topic.
To read and write in Bengali, please download FREE Fonts and FREE Keyboard Software by clicking the links given under "You must visit" and Set your Browser Encoding to Unicode (UTF-8 ). Thank you.
To read and write in Bengali, please download FREE Fonts and FREE Keyboard Software by clicking the links given under "You must visit" and Set your Browser Encoding to Unicode (UTF-8 ). Thank you.
Mrs. J.K.Rowling writes one after another best selling books based on Harry Potter. She is never considered or will be considered in future for nobel prize or even any other low ranking prize in literature. Nobel committee or for that matter any committee or groups of judges never consider how many copies of the book , which they are deciding as the best book , are sold in the market in how many countries in how many languages. However, this is also a fact that the writer of the best selling book earns more than the nobel lauriate. The publishers will always be interested to pay more money to the author of best selling book than the writer getting nobel prize in literature. The publisher is in business and his main concern is earning as much profit as possible from an investment. Hence, commercial ventures cannot be mixed with artistic expression. The long-standing fame, respect, love a nobel lauriate gets as a social reformer , philosopher, real human and above all entertainer and developer for mankind as a whole for the present as well as the future generations makes a mockery of the immediate return a best selling book's author gets. The return that the nobel lauriate gets for himself and gives to the mankind in general cannot be equated with money. So, his action can no way be commercial. His merit can only be judged by others equally merited. The popularity does not play much part.
ReplyDeleteIn the present context , the entire competetion is commercial, earning and distribution of the amount collected is the main goal and it can only be done if the programme entertains the viewer. So, it must be of the best quality in all respect. The earning is concentrated on advertisement and SMS. The more the SMS, the more the popularity, the more the advertisement, the more the earning , the more the prize money , the more the better production, the more the better singers or dancers, the more the viewers , the more the advertisement , the more the SMS. So,the vicious circle goes on. On what basis we can even propse there should not be SMS to judge a singer. The programmer decides what should be done and what not. We can maximum refuse seeing such programmes. But the sheer popularity tells us that we do not take that road.
So, the programmer should actually take all steps to ensure the number of SMS increase to the maximum, the judgement, irrespective of the well-known judges, is based on the SMS so the senders of these SMS feel they are the deciding factor resulting in more SMS. Hence, many participants are chosen from small towns, regionalism is provocated, best performer is eliminated to prove the supremacy of the SMS, nationalism takes a back seat, the participants and viewers both look from the angle of their small regions , judges and the anchors act well to ignite regionalism over nationalism.
In fact popularity of such programmes and the mad rush for sending SMS for the regional participant only brings out the total decadence of our national character.
If national leaders still exist in our country , they should stop such programmes whose main bread-earning is regionalism.
Just as we write this comment, Siliguri in West Bengal is burning! What ever may have been the triggaring incident, there are clashes going on between Prashant Tamang Fan Club and others. Section 144 of IPC has been enforced in many parts of the city. Extra Police has been called in from neighbouring towns like Jalpaiguri.
ReplyDeleteIn retaliation, the situation in Darjeeling has also turned tense. Schools have been closed down.
We all understand and know too well, who are actually fighting in the garb of fan clubs. It is not the fans, it is the communities that are on the streets.
This was bound to happen as we have stated in the post.
The authorities must take note of this and stop this SMS business immidiately for any other program in India. India, it seems, is not yet prepared for this technology and democratic mind frame.