Here is the song i wrote in class today...

LOST IN TIME
Tracing back the footsteps
that I first took as a child.
Racing forward on my mindscape
with a blissful world to recapture.

Breeze brushes my time-worn face
blowing away the maple leaves
that line my way back home
rushing into me the times of old.

Cradled by the innocence
that i lost somewhere back in time.
Its time for reminiscence of the days
when the clock stood still.

I never cared to look back
on my all conquering selfish march.
Until this day, when i lost everything
with just the memories to fall back on.

20/11/07

your crusader praveen

I AM BACK

So atlast the hiatus ends long before than expected. Its been more than one month since my last post and supposedly the last one in about 4 months. But, here I am much before that to bore you with more of my thoughts. The last one month been exciting having joined my job at a really wonderful campus at infosys, Mysore. The sheer enormity and elegance of the buildings and the greenery all around mesmerised all of us. Though the training is a bit hectic, we do enjoy every moment of our life here. The activity that we spend most time on is sleeping. The air conditioned classes and the boring powerpoint slides are an added bonus to sleep starved people like me. After many years of constant bunking, sitting everyday in class is a little hard. And after years of experience as a regular late comer, reaching class at 9'O clock is also a tough task. So, last week reminded me of my college days as i scored a hatrick in late coming and was thrown out of class for 3 consecutive days. The attendance tracking system is also a tough nut to crack. On any given day, you have to swipe in and swipe out your id card in the morning and evening. Then, there is an attendance client installed on our computer which has to be operated with your four fingers pressed on specific letters on the keyboard, all at the same time, four times a day. And the thing is active only for 30 seconds, to prevent proxy attendance. And then there are the daily assignments,module tests and projects. STILLL...we r enjoying...

Today, the assignment load is much less. So i found time to write this bit of nonsense. And surprisingly, the boring slides didn't put me to sleep in the morning. So i found time to scribble a song too. Am posting that too. Am missing the newspaper here. I only have the news channels to catch up with the latest news. But most of the time I end up watching endless clippings of the same news on every other channels in the 30 odd minutes I sit before the tv everyday. Rest of the time is spent in roaming around the enormous campus, playing one game or the other, eating at one of the food courts or just sitting somewhere and watching everybody. My walkman phone is a constant company without which I'd already've gone mad. So, life here is like a box of chocolates[forrest gump style]....

Hopefully, i'd soon find sometime to write on some serious issue[which is the purpose of this blog]...

Your crusader Praveen

100th post-A small goodbye

before the last show with Stoneage...
the last show......


100

This is gonna be a special post in many ways. After years of huffing and puffing and a slow down as the mark neared, I completed my long awaited century. yes, 100 blog posts. And this one gonna be the last one before i join my job at infosys in mysore. Last week been one of the most hectic ones that I ever had in my lazy life. It all started with the preparation for my last show with the band. And as always, we went for it with the last minute practise. thank god, we were able to put up a decent show[hope so]. Its hard for me to leave this band, which's been a part of my life for a pretty long time now. And I really hope these guys would continue for a long time to come and conquer some unchartered territory soon.

After my last show, it was a mad rush all week long to visit all my relatives and old gurus. And some trips did bring many nostalgic memories.

I gotta cut this blog short now...Since am running outta time...

From morrow, am gonna miss lots of things which been part of my life for a long time. My 'miss'list would read as follows... parents, band, friends, my bike, long chats in yahoo...and this blog too. Its ironic that my 100th post here is about something personal. As you all know, most of my posts here have dealt with issues that are not even remotely personal. And now, here I am, shedding 'blogtears' on the things am gonna miss...

thats it 4 now...maybe, my last post in 4 months...

A big thanks to all those who supported me all along in writing this blog...I dedicate this milestone post to all those who commented, to all those who criticised, to all those who advised and to all those who have read atleast one post of mine...

cheers...bye...

with love, your crusader Praveen


checkout some more pics of the last show-
http://picasaweb.google.com/blazeofglory2007/Stoneage

Rama sethu-aerial shot

History or 'His'-story
So, we got a new historian to teach us 'Ramayana'. Karunanidhi with his thoughtful comments questioning the existence of Lord Rama has added another chapter to his efforts towards national integration. He even asked 'which university did Rama get his civil engineering degree from'. Going by this comment, we can very well guess that all the egyptians, Romans and the guys who built Taj Mahal must have got their engineering degree from Anna university. And as a result of his worthy comments, the saffron army went on rampage and attacked his daughter's house and also torched a Tamilnadu transport corporation bus. After the incident, Karunanidhi commented that these incidents showed the culture of Ram sevaks. Talking about culture and such acts of goondaism, Karunanidhi has proved his mettle in this field too. Not many have forgotten his men's tirade against sun tv, which resulted in the death of some people. Also, DMK men been regularly torching buses and unleashing violence on the streets, from time immemorial.

Am not supporting the attackers in anyway. But Karunanidhi has no right to talk about the attacks. Its his own inflammatory comments that resulted in this backlash. For a long time, he been muscling the central government with his MP strength into doing things in Tamilnadu's own selfish interests. Its no secret that the DMK ministers at the centre been exclusively serving their state. Serving ones own place is understandable, but sometimes this has crossed limits to damaging the interests of neighbouring states. For eg, in the Salem division issue, they took away more than 500 Kms from the Palakkad division and gave back just 59kms, that too from the metre guage portion of madurai division, which will only add to kerala's woes. They were not even ready to give that. Now, they are planning to cripple the Trivandrum division by taking away nagercoil from under its jurisdiction. Another recent issue is the Mullaperiyar dam, where Tamil nadu stood adamant on its stand to raise the height of the dam, even after it was scientifically proved that the move will cause serious damage to the life of lakhs of people in Kerala. Such high handedness and arrogance from ministers at the centre is a violation of the Indian constitution. It also will cause serious damage to India's unity. One should never forget that we are all Indians first, state borders shouldn't be turned into LOCs.

Now back to the Sethusamudhram issue. The Rama setu[or Adam's bridge, as the non Indians call it] may or maynot be man-made. If its man made as the Hindu organisations claim, it is certainly a thing that should be preserved under the archeological laws of India. And if it is not man made[natural], as the 'well-educated' historian Karunanidhi claims, then also it should be preserved as it may be to serve some purpose. Last week, some scientist was claiming that this bridge could've been a factor in reducing the effect of tsunami in the Kerala coast. Am not sure, how much of this is true. But still, destroying the bridge could produce certain negative effects on the ecology like damaging the coral reefs and affecting the small sea creatures. The Sethusamudhram project is aimed at reducing the shipping time by a few hours. Other than this, it serves no purpose. So destroying a historical or natural formation, spending a mammoth amount of tax payer's money is out of the question.

And Karunanidhi would do well to give his tongue some rest. The same goes with arrogant ministers like T.R.Balu...Also Mr.Karu should brush up his history lessons. Making unguarded comments against Rama, whom the whole of India reveres and who is considered as the perfect human being can cause serious backlashes which may even result in Karu's head rolling on the ground. People still worship Rama even thousands of years after he walked or the face of earth[or belived to have walked]. Karunanidhi is in the evening of his life and his name will be forgotten within 10 years from his death. And 'his'-story would die with that. But not real 'history'.

your crusader Praveen

Rage- Making Chennai bang
Yeah..am at it again. Writing another concert review. After I wrote the report on Motherjane concert, someone commented, ''That is the most Amateurish write-up that I have read in my whole life about a concert''. So, here is another amateurish stuff on an awesome band coming your way.

Rage, the band been ruling the kerala metal kingdom for sometime. No one played the way they played their covers. Over the years, they've built up a legion of fans all over the state. And it was just a matter of time before they crossed the boundaries of the state and won fans beyond the borders. And cross they did... with a majestic show at Madras Christian College[MCC]. As we all know, MCC is a place where almost all the top bands in India have performed at some point or the other. And, so Rage getting a call to play at this very same venue is a matter of pride to its loyal fans down here. So, we [me, raja, nikhil, pappu, jk] decided to go with the band to chennai.

We reached there on Saturday morning, the day of the concert. The campus, with its vast greenery blew us away. In the morning itself, Biju chettan and pramod chettan were called upto judge some acoustic competition. The other rage fans like govindan potty arrived in the afternoon. The soundcheck started around 3 30. And tell you one thing, the whole sound system was a piece of shit. The band had a hard time getting a presentable sound out of it. The soundcheck took close to 2 hours to complete. After the soundcheck, the local band Udaan performed. It played some Hindi rock stuff, somewhat like 'jal'. The band got ample support from their home crowd. It was over in less than 30 minutes, and now it was time for the all out attack from our very own RAGE.

The crowd was slowly building up when the band got on stage. Most of them preferred to sit in the gallery at the back. Only a few were standing in the front. And then, rage started the blast with '2 minutes to midnight'. In 2 minutes, the whole scene at the grounds changed. People were rushing to the front and banging their heads in tandem. The crowd was composed mainly of guys from the north east, whom we all affectionately call 'chinkis'. In recent times, the Chennai scene was dominated mostly by funksih bands. And Rage was a whiff of fresh air for them, as one of the students there told me. Biju Chettan was the most active on stage, running around, jumping and displaying all his 'Dickinson inspired' mannerisms. Abi chettan and Pramod chettan competed with each other in coming right to the front and proudly giving a wavy display of their long locks. Nithin Chettan preferred to let his guitar do all the talking, cutting out all the show off. Mithun chettan was all smiles as he attacked the drums with all his might.

The sound system was the one bad element in the whole show and any other band would have wilted under the pressure, but not Rage. The guitar lead parts were getting somewhat drowned because of the improper mixing and the sound system's limitations. The S & M version of 'one' gave keyboardist Biji his own time under the spotlight. It was all going along well until Nithin chettan's cable got separated from the processor towards the end. It happened when he, in a spirited mood, tried to come on to the front seeing the frenzied crowd. And, for a minute Pramod chettan's guitar[the processor was having a bad tone], the keyboard and the drums were the only things audible. But, they somehow pulled it back and ended it. Another untoward incident was the breaking of Nithin chettan's string towards the end of 'Master of puppets' lead. Barring these two incidents, there were not much human errors to speak about. And that is a huge credit to the band, since the whole show happened in trying conditions of sweltering heat and a sound system that could boast of nothing.

They also belted out 'Holy wars', 'aces high', 'back in black', 'gets me through', 'caught somehwhere in time'. The crowd were screaming out the names of all their favorite songs especially from Maiden and Metallica. Maybe, they thought that this would be their only chance to hear such near perfect covers which even the original bands themselves find difficult to perform on stage. Some nu metal fans were obviously in the audience as there were calls for 'killing in the name of', 'toxicity' etc. The crowd had a great time swaying to all the songs. Biju chettan and abi chettan played their part in bringing the crowd to its feet. Biju Chettan even hurled a bottle full of mineral water at the audience, a really thoughtful move considering the crowd who were getting tired with constant screaming, banging and jumping. And, so the show came to an end by 7pm, which was the time limit set by the college authorities. After that, there was the band interview with SS music, which also covered the entire show. Those who missed the live show should try to catch them on SS music sometime soon.

Thus, Rage has made a mark outside the state too. Hope many more big concerts come their way in the near future. Best of luck to the godfathers of metal in Trivandrum...rock on RAGE..\\m//

your crusader Praveen

God's Own countries
Haven't written anything in a while. Been busy with onam, mainly eating, hanging out and visiting relatives. So, I thought I'll post something here today. And here it is, a song that I wrote some weeks back. Our band was having a practice session without our drummer. So we decided to do some funny acoustic stuff. And our bassist Mahadevan came up with this idea of ''God's own countries'', about kerala and guys like us...and thus this song happened. Since we din't record the song properly, the song can't be uploaded here. As an onam special, am posting the lyrics here.

***God's Own countries***
We were born to rule the world
With not a care for the ways of the herd
It may all sound so weird
But we sure will burn you red.

We ride the boats of freedom
Our lips taste the smelly toddy
We search for lips to share the taste
But we end up sharing more.

So you hear our words coz we r writing this
The song of nothing.
The song of nothing

We r the god's own countries

We spit fire..
We ride the storm..
We kill the flies..
We r the god's own countries...
We r the god's own countries...


Once we believed in those grandma tales
where white clad damsels ruled the roost
Now we write our own stories
Ready to end up in history..

We have the world at our feet
Ready to bang to our beat
We never tasted defeat
So this is for you to repeat...

We spit fire..
We ride the storm..
We kill the flies..
We r the god's own countries...
We r the god's own countries...



Thanks for reading that load of crap.....Happy onam to everybody

your crusader Praveen

\m/otherjane- The homecoming

They Came...They rocked...and they conquered... That would aptly sum up Motherjane's sojourn in Trivandrum. Titled 'The coming home' tour, this was really a coming home for the band after having conquered more than 100 venues all over India and being featured in numerous international radio stations and compilation albums. Its a little known fact that their first album 'Insane biography' have sold out. Now with the second album 'Maqtub' ready for release, the band is at the threshold of even greater success. Even before the 2nd album released, everybody knows all of its songs by heart. And that was evident from the crowd singing many of the lyrics alongwith them yesterday..

So..Here is a brief description of the day. The day started with me and Raja going to Hotel Maurya, where Motherjane was staying. After meeting them all, we went with them for the soundcheck at Nishagandhi in the afternoon. Sooraj chettan satyed back nursing his sore throat. John Chettan had already gone there. A glance at the stage had all of us laughing. It had a broken bullock cart, many small pots[like folk dance set] and some raised platforms made of cardboard at the back. Motherjane's great sound engineer Fali got to work. After tweaking it all around, the band started the soundcheck. We got a sample of what to expect when they played 'broken', 'chasing the sun' etc. They kept on doing it until it all sounded perfect. After the soundcheck, me, Nikhil and Raja returned to the hotel with them. Baiju chettan enlightened us with some great tips and some interesting anecdotes. Deepu chettan was his usual self cracking some really intolerable jokes that made everyone burst into uncontrollable laughter. Sooraj Chettan was radiating positive energy all around although he was suffering from some throat problems. The band had a private meeting behind closed door before leaving for the show. Once they came out, we posed for some snaps with them.

Raja n me with John chettan

Me, Nikki n raja with Mother

And, now it was time for the real show. We reached Nishagandhi around 7pm. The crowd was only starting to build up. Maybe beacuse of lack of ads in newspapers and banners at the venue gate, the crowd was not as big as expected. Anyway, I was really happy when I got my prized possession, the Motherjane t-shirt. I saw some of my non-rock friends among the crowd. They all became Motherjane fans recently after the wide coverage in rosebowl. The screen which was set up in front of the stage was constantly playing the motherjane rockumentary produced by rosebowl. At around 7 30, the band appeared on stage sending the crowd into a frenzy. They all rushed to the front. If not for the wooden barriers, they wud've stormed onto the stage. Sooraj chettan started the show in a thoroughly professional manner with some pep talk and then bursting straight on to 'Disillusion'.

Baiju Chettan on the lead was the cynosure of all eyes. The crowd was chanting 'baiju, baiju' everytime he started one of his legendary leads. John chettan with his brown tinted goatee was not giving any respite for the hapless drums as he pounded on it mercilessly. 'Mindstreet', in the new version with heavy eastern influences was a favourite with the crowds. Not to forget, the now cult classic 'Broken' from the new album. One quality which i found with this song is that everyone who heard this loved this song[including those who never listens to rock, even my mom]. Clyde chettan, though not at all talkative off the stage, was attitude personified on stage with his bass doing all the talking. Deepu chettan with his infectious smile, provided the rhythm support and also was singing all the songs along with sooraj chettan. Sooraj Chettan carried the show wonderfully well and no one there would believe that this man was nursing a sore throat all day. He punctuated the introduction of each song with some wonderful anecdotes. The one I loved the most was about 'Walk on'. A foreign guy having cancer used to listen to this song everyday because this inspired him. After his death, his brother wrote a letter to the band thanking them for giving his brother hope while he was alive.

'Maya', the song about a girl of big dreams, who ends up as a prostitute also struck a vibrant chord with the audience. My other favorites were 'Chasing the sun', 'Questions' and 'soul corporations'. The innovative 'shh..listen' had the audience hissing 'shhh' all the time. The band also belted out 'prison chains', 'blood in the apple'[about 9/11] and 'karmic steps'. But the ones i missed the most were their 2 short songs... 'An Ode to life' parts 1 and 2 from the 1st and 2nd albums respectively. Both the songs consists of only just 4 lines each. But the story behind the songs were amazing[saw that in the rockumentary]. 'An Ode to life' is about losing loved ones to death and it was written after the death of sooraj chettan's mother. 'An ode to life 2' is about new life. This was written after the birth of his son. These songs are an example of how much you can convey in an one minute song. As soon as the last song ended, I held out my hand at Baiju chettan asking for his guitar pick and he promptly obliged. Now, that is a souvenior for life.

sooraj chettan n baiju chettan

And so that was the story of Motherjane conquering their home territory after a long journey out of the state. An analysis of what endears them so much to everyone, we can find many reasons. The strong eastern influence in baiju chettan's guitaring, the underlying melody in all of their songs, the thought provoking lyrics or the innovative progressive stuff, the reasons are just too many. But the thing I find most remarkable about them is that they were able to pull in some people who have been known rock haters. I salute them for that single achievement more than any awards or recognition won abroad.

PS- After writing this post, I happened to read today's Indian express and found that the opening line of this post matched word to word with an article on motherjane that appeared in it. It read , ''They come, they rock and they conquer''. And mine went, ''They Came...They rocked...and they conquered''... Needless to say, I was astonished at the similarity. Maybe a case of great music bringing the same thoughts in two different minds. ..


For more concert pics, checkout my online album
http://picasaweb.google.com/blazeofglory2007/MotherJaneRocksTVM

your crusader, Praveen

60 years young

Happy 60th birthday to my motherland... This is gonna be another post on movies. But a different one at that. This is a tribute to the men who guard our borders, men who fight for people they don't even know, men who love their country more than their family and men whom we all forget. Yesterday, I happened to watch the Hindi movie '1971' about Indian soldiers held as POW s in Pakistan after the 1971 war. Most people won't even have heard about this beautiful movie. Though I've seen the ads some months back, me too never thought this would be so good until my friend Nandan recommended this to me.

After the 1971 Indo Pak war, India handed over all the Pakistani POW s to that country. But Pakistan didn't reciprocate the gesture as it secretly detained 60 odd Indian soldiers. They even duped the red cross into believing that there were no Indian soldiers left in Pakistani prisons. They hid the men in some secret locations close to the border. They were made to believe that they'll be released soon. But some men among them got the plot and decide to escape from the place. The movie follows their escape bid and ends in a very sad and realistic climax. The camera work is splendid, capturing vividly the heaven on earth, Kashmir, in all its splendour. Manoj Bajpai dazzles with some superb acting. The supporting cast is also equally good. The climax will surely leave you misty eyed. And to think that 60 odd men spend the better half of their life in prison unknown to the people of their motherland is really sad.

Only their relatives remember these war heroes now. The government seems to have not even heard about them. 2 days back, there was this news that a 1971 war veteran threatened to suicide on august 15th, 2007 as a protest against the government for ignoring him and not giving him the benefits which are due to him. This is a sad state of affairs since soldiers are the ones whom the whole country owes a lot. And by not giving them what they deserve, the government is showing disrespect to the country itself. They brave bad weather, bullets and so many unfavourable conditions just because they love their motherland. And what do they get in return... apathy from the part of the government and forgetfulness from the self centred Indian citizen.

Its time to change it all. The Indian soldiers should be given pride of place in the society and the benefits that are due to them should be cleared at the earliest. On this independence day, lets salute those forgotten heroes, if not for whom, we may not be walking so freely as now.

Checkout the great Jana Gana Mana Video initiative by A.R.Rahman featuring India's greatest artists. Its shot at the world's highest battlefield, Siachen. As always, when it comes to Indian patriotic music, this maestro is the last word....

Jana Gana Mana by A.R.Rahman and other famous Indian artists

Take a look at my old post on how meaningless Independence day celebrations have become..
http://crusadertvm.blogspot.com/2006/08/happy-birthday.html

also see this video..a foreigner singing jana gana mana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIE9uPm731A

with salutes to the great Indian soldiers,
your crusader Praveen

The Drug Trilogy

Last 3 days been a trip. A drug induced trip of unimaginable highs and the final fall from the top. In these 3 days, I tried my hand at every imaginable drug in the universe, from cannabis to cocaine to heroin. I thought like any other addict, I had my own share of hallucinations and illusions. Ok, now don't get me wrong. I haven't yet broken the vow of my life..I.e. to never touch any drug or alcohol. And after this trip, am sure I'll never break that vow in my lifetime. The 3 day trip am referring to are the 3 movies that I watched in the last 3 days. 'Trainspotting', 'blow' and 'Requiem for a dream'. All these movies deals with drugs, drug peddling, addiction, drug mafia, withdrawal syndromes and the ultimate tragedies of this social evil.

I started the journey with 'Train spotting' about a group of friends who are heroin addicts. A pacy well conceived film on their life which revolves around drugs, their attempts to clean up their life, then going back to their old habit and atlast the main character's final act of coming clean and choosing 'life', as he puts it. Ewan McGregor as Mark Renton puts up a great performance and also doubles up as the narrator in the film. To fully enjoy this film, you have to tolerate a really disgusting toilet scene at the start. I almost puked on the screen when i saw that. Then another disturbing scene is that of the death of a baby. Robert Carlyle as Begbie demands your attention. This is the man who blew us away with his portrayal of the great dictator in 'Hitler-the rise of evil'. 'Train spotting' was a great start to the drug movie fest.

Next in line was 'Blow', the real story of the drug smuggler George Jung. Johnny Depp gives it his best shot as the central character. The film chronicles Jung's rise from a simple village to one of the biggest drug dealers in America. He starts by selling Cannabis, gets rich but get busted soon. In jail, his room mate tells him about cocaine and the great opportunities that are awaiting him. So, after he gets out he goes to Colombia and starts off a roller coaster ride of smuggling drugs all over America. At one time, more than 85 percent of drugs that came to America came through Jung's hands. But his friends double cross him and his family life is affected. He ends up in jail and his wife divorces him taking custody of their only child. He gets out again and gets ready for one last job before he settles down with his daughter. But he's again double crossed and he fails to keep the promise with his daughter. Now, the real George Jung is serving a sentence in jail and will be released only in 2015. His daughter visited him in jail one year after this movie was released. Ray Liotta portrays George's loving father who tries to bring his son into the right path and delivers a great performance. At last George realises that all this dabbling in drug trafficking was not worth it. The final words from the movie are really well written and well delivered,

''So in the end, was it worth it? Jesus Christ. How irreparably changed my life has become. It's always the last day of summer and I've been left out in the cold with no door to get back in. I'll grant you I've had more than my share of poignant moments. Life passes most people by while they're making grand plans for it. Throughout my lifetime, I've left pieces of my heart here and there. And now, there's almost not enough to stay alive. But I force a smile, knowing that my ambition far exceeded my talent. There are no more white horses or pretty ladies at my door.''

Its an irony that the film's director Ted Demme died some years later because of cocaine addiction.

The final film in my drug trilogy can be called perhaps the most disturbing and effective of the lot. Accompanied by a rousing soundtrack, 'Requiem for a dream' is an all out attack on your senses. If you are a drug addict, you should see this, because you would never again touch or smell that thing in your life again. If you are not a drug addict, this is for you too, because this film would keep you away from the temptation to try out for atleast one time. The film is a commentary on the drug culture that has gripped the youth. Its also about people's addition to reality television. The models who take 'diet pills' to look slimmer also should see this. Ellen Burstyn as the old TV addicted Sara delivers one of the best acting performances I've ever seen in my life. Her love for her son and her obsession to appear on celebrity TV will keep u glued. She begins to take 'diet pills' to fit into a skin tight red dress she wore as a young lady. This takes a toll on her health and she begin to get hallucinations of the worst kind. Her son, Harry played by Jared Leto and his girlfriend Marion played by Jennifer Connelly are heroin addicts. Harry even forces Marion to sleep with another man to get money to buy more drugs. The makeup man deserves special mention for aptly capturing the physical changes in each character as their dependence on drugs increases. We are also teated to some imaginative cinematography. The film is depressing to the core. But this is a true depiction of how one's life could get damaged because of addiction. And kudos to the director Darren Aronofsky for not providing a positive ending. The horrific fate of Harry, Sara and Marion will serve as a deterrent for the wild youth of the world.

Checkout one of the songs that I wrote against drug addiction. This also happens to be one of our band's new original songs.

http://crusadertvm.blogspot.com/2006/12/drug-addicts.html

And do checkout the article by George on the rock stars who ruined their life as a result of drug addiction.

http://intothegreatwideopen-iceman86.blogspot.com/2007/07/27-rockstar-syndrome.html

yours addictedly, crusader Praveen

Media Matters

These days the Indian media is making it a point to go overboard with issues that are of no concern to the common man. If the national media is obsessed with bollywood and the celebrities, the media down here in Kerala is over focussed on the political battles, that too within the same party. They find it hard to include issues that are of social relevance in their prime time news. Yes, its all a matter of ratings. And its all a matter of money too.

No one would have forgotten the extent to which the media suffocated us with news on Ash- Abhi marriage. The speculations which started months back reached its climax when the national news channels made the marriage a week long festival. For days on end, all the channels were showing the closed gates of ash's and abhi's palatial buildings. And then after the mariage, we were given a daily dosage of their temple visits, honeymoon and what not. Recently, there was the Haneef mohammed episode which went on like a soap opera for weeks. It was as if he had saved India from a national disaster or he did something heroic. And now its the Sanjay Dutt saga. Am a fan of his and is sad at the verdict he got but I just can't tolerate these kind of media madness. A common feature of all this is that we are bombarded with tons and tons of irrelevant details on the subject. Also they keep on repeating this same thing for days, with only a change in the name of the program. Am just wondering whom are they barking for.. For Whom are they wasting their precious journalistic saliva.. The national media's cameras have a visibility range only till the borders of the metro cities. They prefer to close their eyes to the ordinary man's plight. Instead they would show how sivaji rescued India or where exactly did Cristiano ronaldo kiss Bipasha basu.

For example, just tune into headlines today, owned by the great India today group, at 9pm everyday. This is the time most of the people are back home after a hectic day of work and switch on the tv to keep abreast with the day's happenings. And what do they get to see.. Pure celebrity news. The channel has devoted the prime time slot to special reports on the latest release or trivial details on celebrities. So, we had Paris Hilton's jail days, a serial actor's sexual escapades, Ash's horoscope, Harry Potter madness, Rakhi Savant's latest s'expose', Shakira's shaking hips and many more page 3 stuff, everything except serious news. The 4th estate is doing a commendable job indeed.

The scenario is a little different down here in Kerala, or it may appear so from the surface. You can never see any celebrity news in the channels. Here the channels are more focussed on the political battles, and that too mostly within the same party. During the UDF regime, we had the shameless father-son-daughter trio of Karunakaran-Murali-Padmaja playing all kind of dirty tricks against the A.K.Antony and Oomen Chandy. Then there was this comic circus of them joining NCP and now the occasional ''Going back to congress is not a crime'' dialogues from Mr. Karunakaran. But, wonder where the retarded daughter of his, Padmaja is hiding now. She's not been seen in the media for more than an year now. Now, its the time for the communist party and its ugly infights to take centrestage. One of the few sane persons left in that party, our CM VS Achuthanandan is being targeted by Mr.Mafia Pinarayi Vijayan and his goonda accomplices. The latest in this murky game is the interview with the tainted bussiness man Faris Aboobaker in the party channel, Kairali TV.

I had high regard for the Kairali TV MD John Brittas till yesterday. He used to handle the raging discussions on the channel impartially and with impeccable coolness. But he spoiled all the respect I had for him with this interview. It was clear that the interview was scripted cleverly at the behest of Pinarayi Vijayan to make some baseless allegations against VS Achuthanandan. The arrogance with which Faris talked was notable. There was also a stupid bishop[More on the other stupid bishops in the next post] to support him. He dint spare Mathrubhoomi, one of the best newspapers here, either. 'Mathrubhoomi' was the paper which came up with the damaging reports on the unholy nexus between the communist leaders and some dirty businessmen. And from that day on, the communist leaders are up in arms against the newspaper. And now they are using their own channel to tarnish the newspaper's and their own leader VS's image. John Brittas says that Kairali did only what any normal media would do and also that the whole interview was not at all a drama. But, having seen it all, i beg to disagree. Its no secret that VS is now the communist party's greatest enemy having taken a strong stand at Munnar and in various recent issues concerning the party. Now, the channel has also become a pawn at the hands of this goonda leaders in their battle against the old man.

The other channels like asianet also waste precious time discussing on issues such as these. But compared to the national channels, they are making an effort to go beyond the cool confines of the city and bring to the fore the sufferings of the poor. The channels have also taken a strong stand in various issues affecting the soceity. Still, as instruments to bring about a change, they also have to go a long way...

Waiting for a day when celebrity escapades are no more prime time news on the channels...

your crusader Praveen