<p>Doordarshan recently completed 50 years of highs and lows and Salma Sultan and her daintily tucked rose in CNN IBN’s office looked like a hot house bloom in a dust storm. In an age of belligerent news anchors and the likes of Sagarika Ghose whose voice falls on the ears like a spray of bullets, there was Ms Sultan, whose lips used to curve in just a hint of smile and made our evenings with a gentle namaskar.<br /><br />Why do we miss those days still? And connect most with simplicity? Salma Sultan hit the nail on the head when she conveyed that news must be given but the manner must not replace the content.<br /><br />Yes, we are glad disaster is always a touch of remote away and we get to access everything right from Maoist massacres to the swab reports of rape victims. Nor do we ever want our media to be state controlled but news reportage has lost its sense of restraint. Sure, we are wiser, 50 years after Doordashan came into our lives. I don’t know though if we are nicer. <br /><br />I wish that at least one channel would beam something positive about the human race and the country we live in. A channel with just positive stories of courage, heroism and happy tidings.<br /><br />Regardless of the boggling, enduring charisma of a 60-something Mr Bachchan on the cheesy sets of Big Boss Tritiya, you can make sure that we will not see one moment of heartwarming humanity on the show. There is Rakhi Sawant’s mother, trying to out Rakhi..Rakhi. There is KRK and Vindoo already fighting over dirty dishes and glasses of water with Poonam Dhillon who was once the nation’s sweetheart and now needs a show like this to remind us of her once blinding beauty. <br /><br />No, I refuse to get sucked into this whirlpool of nastiness and would rather wait for another season of Khatron ke Khiladi. It has an appalling fascination with innards of animals but apart from that, it’s a show with a clean intent. It does not play with our need to see other people debasing themselves. It inspires most of us to grow past our set of fears and do something more with our lives than to sit in front of the telly and watch life play itself out.<br /><br />Among the few other invigorating shows on TV is AXN’s So You Can Think You Can Dance where Joshua and Katie recently danced fabulously to a song from Om Shanti Om! And then there is the reassuring paternal presence of style guru Tim Gunn who is always welling up when someone else is celebrating.<br /><br />How nice to know that there is more to our world than just dirty politics, violence and inhumanity. Even if its just the gift of a dream dress to a woman who needs to be reminded just how beautiful she is.</p>
<p>Doordarshan recently completed 50 years of highs and lows and Salma Sultan and her daintily tucked rose in CNN IBN’s office looked like a hot house bloom in a dust storm. In an age of belligerent news anchors and the likes of Sagarika Ghose whose voice falls on the ears like a spray of bullets, there was Ms Sultan, whose lips used to curve in just a hint of smile and made our evenings with a gentle namaskar.<br /><br />Why do we miss those days still? And connect most with simplicity? Salma Sultan hit the nail on the head when she conveyed that news must be given but the manner must not replace the content.<br /><br />Yes, we are glad disaster is always a touch of remote away and we get to access everything right from Maoist massacres to the swab reports of rape victims. Nor do we ever want our media to be state controlled but news reportage has lost its sense of restraint. Sure, we are wiser, 50 years after Doordashan came into our lives. I don’t know though if we are nicer. <br /><br />I wish that at least one channel would beam something positive about the human race and the country we live in. A channel with just positive stories of courage, heroism and happy tidings.<br /><br />Regardless of the boggling, enduring charisma of a 60-something Mr Bachchan on the cheesy sets of Big Boss Tritiya, you can make sure that we will not see one moment of heartwarming humanity on the show. There is Rakhi Sawant’s mother, trying to out Rakhi..Rakhi. There is KRK and Vindoo already fighting over dirty dishes and glasses of water with Poonam Dhillon who was once the nation’s sweetheart and now needs a show like this to remind us of her once blinding beauty. <br /><br />No, I refuse to get sucked into this whirlpool of nastiness and would rather wait for another season of Khatron ke Khiladi. It has an appalling fascination with innards of animals but apart from that, it’s a show with a clean intent. It does not play with our need to see other people debasing themselves. It inspires most of us to grow past our set of fears and do something more with our lives than to sit in front of the telly and watch life play itself out.<br /><br />Among the few other invigorating shows on TV is AXN’s So You Can Think You Can Dance where Joshua and Katie recently danced fabulously to a song from Om Shanti Om! And then there is the reassuring paternal presence of style guru Tim Gunn who is always welling up when someone else is celebrating.<br /><br />How nice to know that there is more to our world than just dirty politics, violence and inhumanity. Even if its just the gift of a dream dress to a woman who needs to be reminded just how beautiful she is.</p>
