Journalism - reality and fictions about it

A lot has been said, written and watched about Bharka Dutt, Vir Sanghvi and Niira Radia.  This made me go think about ethical journalism and check my memory of movies that describe a similar struggle.

The first one that comes to my mind is timeless classic All the President's men in which Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford wonderfully bring out the struggle journalist undergo to collect information and the extent to which they risk their lives to gather evidence before they publish a story. The next one is of course Wag the Dog in which Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman tell us how a manipulated promo and marketing can make or break a country's top leadership positions.

In Tamil, we had Oomai vizhigal an with Jayshankar, the newspaper editor struggles to uncover the mystery behind beach resort murders of chennai. Page3 is another excellent effort from Madhur Bhandakar in the same lines. Then we have the latest offering from Aamir Khan, Peepli live which showcases the brutal realities of today's Media. This list would not be complete without mentioning about Alaigal a TV serial which I watched in my childhood days. Sivakumar is at his best as the publisher of a newspaper in it.

My own post in this blog talks about yet another fictional movie about the same topic. In the edited versions in front of the camera, we see the shows where journos and anchors grill the opponents and we even feel that they go overboard to sensitize the issues. But in reality (and as all the above movies depict) it looks like the politicians, corporates and nay their lobbyists are the ones actually in control of the media !

Paparaazi

Seriously, how crazy and absurd can the paparaazi get? Why should I watch the video and photographs of MS Dhoni and his wife having a good time in Goa? I can ignore if this news is about showbiz icons or if it appears in Page3, but WHY in the sports column of a national newspaper ! A south Indian male actor recently tweeted - " It is easy to become journalist today, just follow somebody's tweets and yo! you have a 100 words writeup."

Puducherry Kacheri

On Saturday evening it just occurred to me that I have been in Chennai for the past few months and never tried out the ECR. So we just decided to drive down to Puducherry the next morning. It might sound as an ad-hoc decision I did do my bit of homework on Sat night to explore Pondi online first.

So we hit the road in my car on sunday morning 6:30 am. We stopped at Thiruvadanthai to visit Nithyakalyana Perumal, but the Darshan was only from 8 am (so much for my homework!). Our net stop was at Mahabalipuram outskirts for breakfast. I wouldn't recommend the noisy A2B, but as a vegetarian you don't have much choice. I had always wondered why they collect a 48 Rs toll for the ECR which does not even have a median or what you call a divider. But the ride was smooth and easy, but be very careful about incoming traffic from the side roads from villages and the speeding vehicles in the opposite direction. You do see the wonderful seashore to your left here and there, but the road does not actually run near or along the coastline.

We took a detour at about 7 km before Puducherry town to check out Auroville, the city for universal human being. You gotto take the muddy, bumpy road for about 8kms to reach the Visitor Information center. This is not a tourist attraction as they declare in their website, you need to understand and appreciate the purpose of universal harmony and peace and the divine humanity. You have to call up and book ahead if you would like to visit the Matrimandir, otherwise you just get a glimpse of it from a distance as we did.

Once we reached Pondy, we checked in at Executive Inn - a pretty decent hotel I must add, and had lunch. We started out on foot to visit Aravindhar ashram. We had to wait in the long queue till 2:15 pm when the gates were opened. I had no idea what to expect. But was not happy by the way one of the volunteers was yelling "switch off the mobile, don't speak, follow the line". You are allowed to pay respects to the Aravindhar and Annai Samaadhi. We did some shopping at Pondi bazaar (the real one), bought some stuff at FabIndia in sufferon street and picked some souvenirs.

Then we walked along the beach. For the first time in India I found concrete blocked streets here and enjoyed the mix of French, Indian and contemporary styles of architecture. But contrary to whatever I had read online, the beach is no different from the Chennai's Marina. It was crowded and dirty. At 8pm we visited the famous Manakkula Vinayagar temple. It was nice to see the Vinayakar carvings from various places around the world including Java, Indonesia !!

I always explore different cuisines when I visit places, I mean whats the point of traveling if you still want to have Idlies and Dosas? If you are not familiar with the cuisine, ask the Chef for recommendations based on your appetite. You can always give pointers like you don't want too spicy too oily stuff etc. We dined at this wonderful place called Hotel Du Parc.We had Pastas, Connelini, Lasanga and French cakes. It was awesome. They had a friendly staff and great ambiance. Great way to end our one-day tour ! 

We woke up early the next day drove back in 2 hours.

How unique is our Unique ID Aadhaar ?

The ambitious UID project was launched yesterday in India. But how different or useful it is from the numerous numbers we already have. 

UID claims to solve the problem of each person having 10 different numbers for 10 different departments. But the registration process itself takes the very same documents as proof of Identification and Address ! Also, not to leave out the poor who might not have a ration card of any of these 'proof documents' UIDAI has come up with the introductory system which is similar to the bank account opening introductory system. Now, knowing how power can be misused in this country, the harassment and fake registrations some "introducer" can accomplish is any body's guess. The next fact I'm confused about is the number itself. Contrary to the popular expectations, the 12 digit number is just unique, and means nothing more than that. Unlike similar efforts worldwide it is not made up of any codes or numbers of any significance to easily identify the location or date of birth or any information about the individual. One of the documents available to the public explains this logic behind not having any intelligence in the number as follows - The approach of storing intelligence in identification numbers was developed to make filing, manual search and book-keeping easier prior to the advent of computers. This is no longer necessary, since centralized database management systems can index the records for rapid search and access without having to section data by location or date of birth. Well...well ! The last bullet is always the killer - UID registration is NOT mandatory !! Now that certainly makes me wonder WHY do we need this number at all ???

Are we trying to stop another 26/11 ? Are we using GPS / GIS so that our police and soldiers don't have to end up lost or massacred in jungles while fighting ? Are we trying to ensure basic healthcare and education is available to every citizen ? We have so many other issues in the country where the time and effort of somebody like Mr. Nandan Nilekani could be useful. No the UID does not attempt to solve any of these but hey, it never claimed so !

Day labourer Bhiru Mali, who was among the first few who got the card said "They say the card would improve our lives and support (Aadhaar) us, but nobody explained how"

Why Tier II Indian cities struggle to become IT hubs ?

Yesterday, my friend with 3+ years of IT experience went for a job interview in an IT company in Coimbatore. The company whose parent group is into many industries from hospitality to entertainment has ventured into IT also almost a decade ago and has managed to get hold of a bunch of clients all over the world. Yet, the HR first wanted to know if my friend would be willing to "come down to local standards" in her salary expectation. Also, if she would be ready to get into an agreement with the company that she would stick on for 2 years at least. The work culture once you are inside an IT company in tier II cities is also not up to standards. You face a huge hierarchy, not the usual flat IT office.

The attitude of new entrants and biggies from traditional industries who want to venture into IT MUST change. The HR policies need to be overhauled in these organisations. This recent article could be a starting point for learning. Improving infrastructure and building IT parks do not solve the puzzle completely for any city that tries to become the next Bangalore.

My friend asked the HR if the company is willing to "come down to local standards" in her deliverables at work?