Skip to main content

Indian Idle

Indian Idol. Auditions across the country. Only the best make it to the televised regulars. High profile judges, peppy host, higher profile guest stars, the works. The show then takes the (by now jaded and predictable) 'Reality Route' that contrary to its name bears little resemblance to reality.

In the resulting hullabaloo, the question that is foremost in my mind is... WHY?

Why does the Indian 'Idol' have to be a singer anyway?

Why do they have to sing the same songs that have been 'classics' for the past 69 years instead of allowing fresh talents to showcase their musical abilities?

Why do the judges have to be so diplomatic in their criticisms?

Why does the final decision have to be made by the voting of the masses who know NOTHING about how the candidate sings and EVERYTHING about how he's poor/ has an aged mother/ bursts into tears etc..?

Why do they have judges anyway if the final decision is made by public vote?

Why is the host so irritating?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Patriotism and Parti(san)ng Sorrows

Is patriotism overrated? What is patriotism anyway? An irrational love for ones country irrespective of regional, ethnic, religious or cultural differences. Why is patriotism? It is obvious. To build a 'nation' one must have people who relate to one another so that they can see beyond the short boundaries of personal/familial interest and look towards the interest of the group as a whole. Ideally, the relation can be ideological in nature. However, historical evidence and the knowledge of human nature leads to the conclusion that as humans are irrational beings, thus they can be governed by principles of irrationality. This is done using the concept of patriotism. Patriotism (or nationalism, or social-nationalism or national socialism or nazism... see where I'm going with this?) is but a name for the Universal Method. Now the Universal Method goes by many names and flavours that differ subtly from one another in their means of execution or agenda, but essentially they ...
4 comments
Read more

The Companion

A gray-walled room with a window. That's how he remembers it. It looks the same now: a large window in a small room. It makes the room look even smaller. The window-sill is thick with dust. Beams of sunlight stream in singly, their path illuminated by many-sided dust particles spinning. Or seeming to spin. Is the room this dusty everywhere? He wonders to himself, trying not to breathe it in. The sunbeams merely illuminate what's already there. Slowly, as his eyes adjust, more details of the room start revealing themselves. The room is bare. Devoid of anything except walls and tiny patches of plaster embedded in the cobwebs at corners. The effect is almost artistic. He wonders if rooms could feel. If they could, what would this room be feeling. Do they remember the people who lived in them? It's almost impossible to believe that people would have lived here once. The walls would have been new and shining with paint and resonant with echoes of laughter or tears or screams....
5 comments
Read more

Object Oriented Life

In the grip of road rage, I have often thought of violent solutions to my problems. Just today I was thinking how much traffic would be improved if there were no pedestrians crossing the road. Even in places with Foot Over Bridges (FOB) people tend to cross the road; often a high-speed high-traffic speedway; right in the shadow of an FOB. How simple it would be, I mused, to simply pass a mandate that absolved the driver if he/she ran over a pedestrian jay-walking within 250 meters of a FOB. It would rapidly solve all problems and the road would become smooth and hassle free. Now I've wondered at how many people would actually run over the pedestrians crossing. I don't think anyone would be able to resist the reflex braking when they see someone running right in front of them. I have often witnessed car pile-ups due to one driver braking to avoid hitting (even a) dog. But that was beside the point. The chief flaw in this system is that it loses sight of the objective of a FO...
1 comment
Read more