A Bandh,A Marriage & Some Shamlessness!!!

How was life on the other side of the bandh? I was stranded at home and that too against my wish. Though most of my colleagues had decided on Saturday itself that they won’t be coming on Monday I was undecided because I wanted to come as I didn’t want to show my solitude with the so called All India Bandh; not that the price rise isn’t affecting me but I strongly feel that bringing the nation to a stand still served no purpose. These Bandh’s are nothing but political ploy and instead of showing any real sympathy or solitude with the poor’s they are actually hitting on their stomach. It isn’t hard to imagine the plight of a daily wage earner whose daily meal depends on what he earns on a given day.

 

As is Bandh in Mumbai is always different from Bandh in any other part of the country. With goons like MNS & Shiv Sena flourishing here, we all expected violence and were not disappointed. I was very clearly told by my colleagues that in my condition I shouldn’t even think of taking any kind of risk and I didn’t but I couldn’t help cursing the politicians for spoiling a day. The worst part in this case would be that I have ended up wasting a leave of mine especially when every leave in my account counts. Given a chance I would love to know ki what was achieved at the end of the bandh. Will the price be rolled back? Will the poor be compensated for the loss of their one day’s salary? Too many uncomfortable questions!!!

 

Despite all my grudges the day was well spent. On Sunday hubby decided to fulfill his long time desire of buying a Carrom board and the better part was spent in playing the same. It was fun fighting over a simple game but it surely transported both of us to our respective childhood! Though it is a different matter all together that my already-in-pain-right-hand is now paining like hell but hey we had fun.

 

The other important news over the weekend was “Dhoni’s shocking surprise marriage". I have always been a fan of Dhoni’s levelheadedness but his present antics increased my respect for him. He very well knew that lest the news is leaked his marriage would become a media circus; we all remember what happened to Sania Mirza and thus the hush-hush manner in which he conducted his affairs is worth applauding.

 

What was however funny in the whole scenario was the media reaction. It was like they were caught with their pants off. One of the most eligible bachelors of India had gotten engaged and they didn’t have a whiff about it. I laughed out loud when I heard this apology on one of the channels “we knew about the impending engagement but since the news wasn’t confirmed we didn’t tell you in advance.” As if till now they have given us confirmed news only, as if they don’t speculate?

 

I also remembered that few days back these were the same media that were busy linking Asin & Dhoni and even claiming that Asin was the lucky charm in Sri Lanka which had brought us the Asia Cup trophy. Isn’t this a classic example of eating their own words? In fact to cover up their tracks one channel even went on to the extent of saying that Dhoni didn’t marry Asin because height problem 😀

 

When I had slept on Saturday the channels were busy trying to get a background of the girl Dhoni had hitched on to and with a astrologer in tow they were busy predicting “the marriage can happen only after world cup/ these are the auspicious dates” etc etc.

 

Trust Dhoni to stump them all by marrying the very next day. This is one guy who knows how to play smart and that’s what he did. If only the media understood the message he was trying to give them. That is of staying away. But trust our media to not to accept defeat. One channel had brought in some locals from Dehradun and we were given a glimpse of how Dhoni would get married. Seeing those locals dancing & singing was one hell of a sight.

 

Cashing in on the hype was the Auto wallah who had supposedly driven Dhoni on the roads of Aurangabad. The mother of all was the trick photography, due to the lack of any real picture, poor fellow Dhoni’s head was fixed on to the body of Rahul Mahajan (decked up in his Swayamwar’s fineries) and the poor brides face was fixed onto the body of God Knows which bride. The result for sure was hilarious & the imagination of these guys, impeccable.

 

With the Bandh news taking over on Monday I had thought we have had enough of Dhoni’s marriage coverage but alas! After the marriage they managed to get into the resort where Dhoni was married and the news which followed was

 

“Yahan Hui thi Dhoni ki Shaadi” or

 

“Yahan Lagi thi Dulhan ko Mehndi” or

 

“Dhoni ke Mandap main at 9:30 PM, Star News Exclusive” or

 

“Hum aapko le ke challenge Dhoni ke Bedroom main raat ke 9:30 baje”.

 

I almost choked on the milk I was drinking 😀

 

All said and done these News channels must be given some due. They have learned their message from the politicians by erasing the word called “Self Respect” from their vocabulary/ dictionary. Despite all the indications they decided to ignore the clear message “Media was not wanted” and kept showing hours and hours of reels when they had nothing to show. They showed true sportsmanship by forgetting the previous link ups that they had created in Dhoni’s life and went on to report what was happening.

 

Now this shamelessness for sure deserves a standing ovation.

 

What say?

 

Ah! The weather out here is lovely let me get my Cappuccino and you decide as to what should be done with our Politicians & Media!!!

Click HERE to read more articles by Smita