Since the day media has been given complete freedom to report, news channels have cropped up like mushrooms. But are these channels doing justice to their responsibilities?

When I hear the term, “Media”, the first thing that comes to my mind is a news reporter interviewing a helpless calamity affected villager, asking him all the useless questions that one would never even have imagined.

Since the time media has been given complete autonomy, we have forgotten the good old days of the news-reader reading out the news from his news-room occasionally going to the correspondent who would be as short and precise as possible. These days it is the correspondent who takes more time than the news-reader. News channels have cropped up like the mushrooms that crop up during monsoons. With the increasing number of channels the quality of news has dropped.

When you surf to a news channel to see what is the latest news, this is not what you actually get to see. What you would find is crappy gossips of third rate television soaps and movie stars and not to forget unending commercials. You would feel as if the real programme is the commercial.

If at all there is a news coverage that you come across, what you see is ridiculous correspondents covering important news in such a way that the importance of the news itself is lost. How can a correspondent ask a flood affected villager, “How he was feeling”?

The definition of  breaking news has changed. For these news channels, even a news that the city police commissioner was suffering from Influenza, is a breaking news. With all these commercialization, are these news channels doing justice to news coverage. Your answer is as good as mine.

What is it that differentiates a developing country from a developed country. The answer from an economist would be Greek for me, but I figured out the difference.’, ‘

My friend was getting ready for the homecoming of his uncle. His uncle had left for the United States about 18 years back and was coming back for the first time. His son who was only 5 years then would be a grown up man now. The house was getting ready as if for a celebration. And why shouldn”t they? After all it was the home coming of the only son in the house. The preparations were just about complete when the family arrived. With all the embraces and feet-touching, there were sweets and some songs also.

I had been staying with my friend for the past 3-4 days, helping him in the preparations. After the lunch, it was finally time to relax and we all spread ourselves in the beds that were put under the shady trees in the courtyard. As we all – me, my friend and his nephew along with a few other friends sat down and discussed things, my friend said how tiring it was to rennovate the entire house. My friend’’s nephew bore a lost look on his face and asked surprisingly, “Isn”t there a home warranty on this house?” We couldn”t understand what he meant. When he explained that his house was under home warranty from American Home Shield and that he did not have to worry about unexpected repairs and replacements, we kept looking at him with an awe on our face.

That day I had figured out the difference between the developed and the developing. I knew there were lot more things to be known but I was at least in a position to understand what the difference was and all the while I thought about the peace of mind that such a warranty would provide people.

I happened to attend this motivational session conducted by my organization for managers on the day of Christmas. The speaker was a renowned motivational guru. Before the session began I found this man of short height explaining something to a person and by the sheer look of him I could guess that he has to be the speaker. He had a pleasing personality and a confidence that was lacking in the rest of the people who were present in the room that day. Our shoulders told the story and he stood there with his shoulders upright, with a confident grin on his face.

The session started and it went on for some time and we forgot all that was the normal routine in our work life. We were all managers and were stressed out when we entered the room but gradually there was a feeling of relaxation that was creeping into us. The speaker was humorous and entertaining and we, for a minute felt that we were indeed motivated.

We left the session, discussing how energetic the speaker was and felt that there was some change in us. We were motivated. Or,probably we thought so.

As we moved back to work, we walked across our boss who wanted our teams to work an overtime that day and we felt we were loosing motivation. As we walked into our workstations, we saw the gloomy faces of our team members who knew that they cannot be with their families on the day of Christmas.

It was then that we realized something. There is no motivation other than Self-motivation. No motivational speeches can motivate you unless you are self-motivated. Speakers and Orators could be influential for the moment they speak to you, but this would not stay for long till one is self-motivated.

The land of the mahatma, are we going the mahatma way? We might want to console ourselves by saying so. But the actual story is a big “NO”. Our acts prove it and it requires no proofs….’, ‘

Exactly 60 years ago, a lean man clad in a dhoti took on the mighty english empire, without any arms or, weapons. He won the freedom for our country with his simplicity and his mantra of non-violence. The youth has no given this mantra a new name-”gandhigiri”.We might call it with whatever name we would want to, but the important question is, “Are we still following those simple principles”. My answer to this question would be a big “NO”. We are not following his principles.

We and our political leaders would flaunt our khadi dresses, or deliver speeches on the mahatma, but we seldom care to follow his simple principles.Be it a simple brushing of my vehicle to another one, or a love-affair between my sister and a person whom I do not like, we prefer to settle it once and for all. Murder them. From children who are less than 16 years old to elderly who are above 80 years,we have finally taken to the killing way to achieve our goals. Is this what the mahatma taught us. Probably not.

Only if we learnt his simple ways of life and had learnt to forgive, and win hearts the simple way we could have been a much better and successful nation.Winning a world cup brings passion into us.The aggression shown by our players pumps up adrenalin in us, but no more the words of the mahatma.

I wish, only if we could decide to go the simpler way,our achievements could have been much more cherishable.