News now became a veritable à la carte with sections on Mogul, Chinese, Punjabi, North-South Indian cuisine. See, we have also breakfast news, dinner news, and news at lunch, late night news and the like on tube.
I switched off my TV in disgust and went to a restaurant and I was also hungry. Sooner I pulled a chair that the waiter started giving me a brief (that too at length), on each item printed on the menu card, including how it is made; how served on table; and how I should relish (licking the back of my palm). With a coy look the bloke almost foresaw the kind of aftertaste that fancily named and priced dishes leave on my palate. Once he took the order, I was left to watch various distractions including the images on a Big TV on the opposite wall. It filled my vision and I had to watch whatever goes on air till my waiter lands with my order. He did so eventually and I began attacking those well praised dishes. Pity then, I was now interrupted by some fanciful sounds and flashes that came from the screen opposite. I assumed they were breaks on the TV new show that made me raise eyebrows as well as my head from the plate. In the ad some sponsoring products were being shown in action; say a washing powder acted ‘whiter than white’ and a toilet cleaner cleansed cleanest with a demo by some top celebrities from indiwood (Bollywood, Tollywodd etc). You guessed it right. In the end when I paid the check-- the cleaner than cleanest-- had won hands down and so its aftertaste lingered not the latest cuisine as promised by the waiter till my next breakfast.
The tomorrow came and again I was watching the news on TV and also went back in the memory lane. Those were the days when I used to listen to the 9 o’clock news on my radio. I used to be like bridegroom waiting for the bride to join on every night at that expectant hour. With my ear pressed to the transistor, I used to follow the diction and accent of the lady news readers very closely. The newsreaders voices virtually showed the events they were describing.
Alas, today’s news channels spoiled all that for me, a bad dream for my listening and thinking mind. No wonder, I am escaping to FM stations on my transistor. Conveniently these FM frequencies are put on the TV sets too. But my TV set is a prehistoric one. Talk of FM outfits; they are doing an excellent job raising the imagination levels of listeners thanks to their jockeys’ beautiful voices besides airing the pollution and traffic levels by the hour. Then I can’t be blamed for taking away credit from the present day newscast. No doubt they hare highly evolved and transformed to become livelier by the day. Unfortunately to me, at personal and emotional level, they are not my cuppa that is what news used to be in my childhood. Some may counter this and question was not it the case with news from pre-renaissance days to post-renaissance to the modern global news age.
I had to praise the present era for one more reason, these are the days of surpluses in everything that is towards excess, including the excesses of governments. You may find excess wording (verbiage) in my above line. Still there is an overdose of news channels not speaking of excess news. Earlier, news had no commercial breaks before in between news. See, they have them now. They are showing news highlights they covered since the time the ‘popular’ channel launched that particular news hour that was no news and still fills the filler. I wonder the so-called breaks may sooner show what we are going to see in future alive (live) today, as some stringer is already on prowl to catch some VIP or celebrity at the wrong time (some difference between these two). How in the heavens the channels get so much newsfeed (see again sounds food) 24/7 is anybody’s guess. It is no secret we live in a global village that has no morning, noon or night for all of us alike all at once. This year too, they showed how Australia hilariously invited the New Year dawn ahead of us when I was eagerly waiting to do so for my New Year arriving in India at midnight. A reminder we are late bloomers in the timeline- They robbed me of the thrill in anticipating the new-year day. My American co-viewers will suffer more if they think like me, especially those on the west coast.
I find each competing news channel (local city channels not far behind) giving the same analysis in monologue with similar footage bringing in its wake various commentators and experts with all the obvious angles and opinionated blah blah. There is proliferation of exclusive new channels with kind of political clout it gathers or behind it and the cut throat competition in this field and the unimaginable command in instilling fear among all sections of society, victims or violators alike.
Well. After a few days, I may be watching on the screen in my Bedroom at some animated characters of dead people telling their minds/heads off, how they ended(now continuing on the screen) as victims and what they felt during their dying moments and who killed them.
Ultimately, I felt it is hight time I restricted my news thirst, and threw away my remote over my balcony on to the road (of course when no one was passing). I should satisfy my news quenching on the news flashes highlighted and hyperlinked on my homepage i.e., that is the time before I rush to my inbox. One-liner news is godsend like good old Reuters (I remember so) that used to spit out news sheets on our fax-like machines at our office a quarter century ago. Or, were they TELEX/ Teleprinter machines? I don’t remember. Here I see my spellchecker in my MS word suggests Teleprompter for Teleprinter. So much for acceleration in new transformation—news transformation.
