Media could be 'better'

'Media could be better,' remarked son Ganesh reading The Indian Express. That's what Rama says; she switches off Asianet News with a rare fervour; has moved on from earlier pride days of her husband being a patradhipan (journalist) in Bombay. And there is a nephew studying journalism, wanting to become more a Barkha Dutta than a newspaper woman. Sometimes chat with Janardhan, the newspaper vendor on Link Road, selling newspapers; old men and women, on their walks, pick up their copies of Times, Maharashtra Times, Gujarat Samachar ... young men and women snap open ipads for news sites. Janardhan is happy newspapers are selling. This term 'better' rumbles the mind; media --, social media, newspapers, TV channels -- was most disliked in 2015, fronted of course by our honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He dislikes the gang and in 2015 what Modi dislikes, India dislikes; what he likes, India likes. But then it has been so always, is it not? From Indira Gandhi to Dr. Singh, they have been in Modi clothes, bright or off bright....Sachin Tendulkar to Amitabh to Virat Kohli.... they prefer not journalists ... in the 80s, there were the Left and Right; in the 90s, business writers were pro or anti Ambani; today, it is for Modi or not for Modi; yet the media in 2015 has been socked most. Jawaharlal Nehru was a change; he quietly walked New Delhi roads to spend time with Shankar the cartoonist at his home without expecting any gains. No kind words for this absurd set of men and women in 2015....Okay we should be 'better.' No news consumer has come up with a common measure of 'better': if you praise Modi, you are pro-development; if you say hullo to Dr. Singh, you are a chamcha; so where goes better? A cricket writer is not sufficiently patriotic if he doubts a cricket pitch in Nagpur. An Arun Jaitley, after serenading the media, is getting it on Delhi District Cricket Administration. Pray, is the media then bought. In the 70s and 80s, media went weak with a pardonable sin: desiring year-ends, diaries and calendars from corporates and public sector outfits; the calendars went to office boys and diaries to wives for toting up dhobi expenses. Today, the sins may not be any pardonable; the world knows it; the media words it; confesses. Yet, newspapers in the morning go well with tea and coffee; TV is in our bones and blood; social media is interesting, looked anyway; perhaps, the best thing about media is it can be set aside, switched off, deleted, forgotten unlike orders from the PMO or managing directors; and also go back to the magic of words. Perhaps, none keeps media aside. Magic is magic. Like all of us hate T20s and watch every game. In one manner, media 2015 is better than media 70s, 80s, 90s....It is most human; a wrong worms its way to prominence, despite editorial likes or dislikes; a hurt to the poor gets pasted on the front page; a Nirbhaya could be Nirbhaya because of the media. A many-way cracked society can only afford or deserves an all-way cracked mirror. In 2015, media keeps the liberal faith without gods and priests in between. Enjoying T.M. Krishna: Moving on in Chennai in The Indian Express today.... 2015 has been a soft clap show. Yes, son Ganesh, the media could be 'better....'