SIGHT & SOUND
Yeh hai Varanasi
Amita Malik

I think perhaps the best known musician of Varanasi (Banaras), maestro Bismillah Khan, summed it up when he said: "Isko Kaha Jaata: Bana-Raas". And as I write this, I have half an ear on a beautiful woman, a Sufi singer, sitting on the banks of the Ganga and singing her heart out. She interrupted her singing a few moments ago to say in English: "This is what our culture is about: love and music".

To those of us watching in horror the aftermath of mindless violence on innocent people at evening prayers in Sankatmochan temple, the large blobs of blood in the courtyard of the temple, little children unconscious in hospital, swathed in bandages, we could not believes our eyes when, within hours of the outrage, Varanasi, the second oldest city in the world—some say the oldest—calmly reverted to normal.

Worshippers returned to the temple, Hindus and Muslims, who were Indians first, sat as usual in teashops, sipping their chai. When a solitary Muslim boy, working in a Hindu shop and factory making textiles and sarees, for which the city is famous, was asked that he did he not feel scared, he said "nahi" without a trace of fear and went back to his work.

There are two professional differences in the media coverage of the attack on the temple which stood out.

First, in the Hindi heartland, the Hindi channels scored over others. With Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt pontificating from Delhi, the Hindi channels with experienced reporters on the spot were the first with the reports. And they spoke the elegant Hindi or Urdu of the region, which is very different from AIR’s contrived Sanskritised one, which no one speaks or understands. In fact, so far removed from reality was even an experienced reporter like Barkha Dutt that, speaking Punjabi Hindi on an English channel, she asked Dr Veerbhadra Mishra, the mahant of the Sankatmochan temple, only about religion. She did not seem aware that he was a famous professor of science, who had won the Magsaysay award because of his efforts to save the Ganga, who had figured on the cover of Time magazine and whom former US President Bill Clinton, who had been greatly impressed by his efforts as an environmentalist, had specially invited to Delhi for a discussion.

The moral of the story is that the political pundits of the media in Delhi should realise that those on the spot are far more competent to cover such events and should be given the time the pundits waste in Delhi. Because it was only when reporters such as CNN-IBN’s Dubey and NDTV’s Srinivasan Jain arrived in Varanasi that reporting picked up. Both wisely concentrated on the cultural harmony of this city, which made all of us feel proud of ourselves as Indians. We saw on the screen the divisive intentions of the attackers defeated by calm, culturally integrated people, who have lived in this holiest of cities for centuries in full harmony and treated the attackers almost with contempt. The day after the tragedy went on as if nothing had happened; people simply resumed their normal peaceful lives.

I am not ashamed to say that as I write this, my TV set is on. After having listened to Bismillah Khan, on a stage improvised in the open air on the banks of the Ganga, with visual interruptions as the magnificent receptacles holding the flames of the aarti are reflected in the calm waters below, I am listening to a famous thumri by Channulal Mishra. I am glad the channels conveyed the spirit of this temple town through music. It made its point and also kept the politicians at bay.

The women anchors of the relatively new CNN-IBN channel are mostly amateurs whom the channel is desperately trying to build up as stars. Perhaps the only real professional amongst them, who makes her points without histrionics, waving of arms and sudden bursts of speed, is Suhashini Haidar, who comes from CNN and with experience.

She made a very good job of her interview with President Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan. She began with some astute political questions to the President which she asked with confidence and assurance.She followed this up with more personal encounter with his family. Quite understanding was the President’s mother, who spoke with intelligence, affection and analytical wisdom about her son, as she did about her early life in Aligarh and Delhi.

It was a warm and relaxed encounter and Suhashini was as relaxed in the family atmosphere as she was in the political one. And, that is not easy.