INSPIRATIONAL REAL (OR REEL) LIVES !!

recently, there was a huge celebration in media and across the country of sachin completing his 20 glorious yrs in international cricket .. truly, a remarkable feat that goes to show his dedication and passion for the country and cricket ..

however, seeing the celebration on TV news channels made me wonder whether sachin has had only success in his lifetime ?? perhaps the only hardships and difficult times he ever faced were his tennis elbow problem and ofcourse the 99 WC when he returned from his father's funeral to hit a century against Kenya (indeed an inspirational story for ne one); however, there was no mention of the not-so-famous Sialkot test, which was the last in his 1st Test series against Pakistan, where he was hit on face by a Waqar's delivery and still continued to bat to save the test fr India; (i read it in an interview of K Srikant, who was the captain of Indian side then; click here to read the complete interview) ... one can be quite sure that there would be many more such instances, but since they do not belong to his glorious/glamorous years (which arguably, start from the famous sharjah series against team australia) most of us would be least interested in such stuffs; and the same reasons why media is not interested in such stuffs coz such stuff wont sell in today's consumerist world .. almost similar was the case when Big B recently completed his 40 yrs in B'wood ... and looking @ the media coverage made me wonder did he start his b'wood career with Zanjeer !! he gave up his job as a freight broker for a shipping firm in kolkata to move to mumbai in 1968 and Zanjeer came in 1973 ... but again, those 5 yrs, (when he appeared in more than 10 movies which, barring movies like anand, were not commercial hits) dont form a part of his glorious yrs, and so the lack of interest .. in fact, many of those reading this blog might be surprised to know that he even slept on the pavement and benches of Marine Drive (click here) during his initial days in mumbai!!

these legends are truly an inspirational story in themselves .. they hv written their own destinies with an effort that's characteristic of super humans, but y i made above comments is coz i believe many of us want to live in our world of fantasies where ppl become legends and earn name, fame, money and power without much of a struggle ... and in today's world of fast paced life, call it the side effects of globalization/commercialization or nething, but we want success easily and with little efforts .. and hence, these "success stories" are as well moulded to suit our fantasies: coz if these legends can do it without much struggle, so can we!! we probably want our b'wood actors (dont know what acts of heroism they do that we love calling them heroes) to succeed in their reel lives the way the likes of Sachin and Amitabh succeeded in their real lives so that we can draw an inspiration from their reel lives, knowing fully well that their hardships wont continue for more than 3 hrs!! (prob thats the reason we love to take inspiration from the movie lakshya by remembering the "tough times" Hrithik Roshan had in the movie but not the numerous real videos of army which are easily accessible) ...

SHAME ON INDIAN MEDIA OR SHAME ON THEIR AUDIENCES ???

I got a mail a few days back abt how, in Nov 2006, media completely neglected the ultimate sacrifice of Major Manish Pitambre - who became a martyr in an Anantnag (Kashmir) encounter with Suhail Afzal, divisional commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, who topped the list of most wanted terrorists at that time - while highlighting (or rather celebrating) the release of Sanjay Dutt in the TADA case where he was found guilty of possession of armoury. (The entire mail could be found on the following blog: http://satyameva-jayate.org/2006/12/09/munnabhai-vs-manish-pitambare/; plz go thru it atleast once if u hvn't already read it). The incident mail referred to was long back (it occured in Nov 2006) but i forwarded it to many in my contact list and even had some kind of discussion on it ... The subject of the mail was "SHAME ON INDIAN MEDIA"; however after having the discussion, I m not sure is it the fault of Indian media or is it WE, the people, who shud be blamed ...
i mean, lets accept the fact that media has become a business today and it shows what it's able to sell...what else can u expect when we hv so many 24X7 News Channels running, all claiming to be "India's No 1" or "Sabse Tez" etc ... there is indeed a lot of fight amongst them for the so called "loyal" audience ... and in such a scenario, they just can't show news which doesn't sell ...
and isn't it true that the "loyal' audiences of media would rather listen to some news on Indian cricket eg, who hit how many sixes in a match b/w India and XYZ or some b'wood gossip rather than read abt the hardships which our army officers and jawans face almost daily ? after all, what effect does it hv on us if chinese armies incur into our territories and loot the bordering villages, or an Indian technology is being patented by some foreigner, and other such issues ?? these are meant only for some half-an-hour discussion on some national news channel, isn't it ?? and how many of us would prefer a magazine that mentions the gallantry award recipients of the country, and the heroic deeds for which they got it, to some bollywood masala magazine which details out when and where a 'couple' were last seen together ??

Time for SACH KA SAAMNA (with yourself, ofcourse) , r v ready ???