SIGHT & SOUND
Scorching exposes
Amita Malik

When we got away from the instant scandals, the daily dose of exclusive horror stories, we sometimes long for some good, sustained investigative journalism which does long-lasting good to Indian public and personal lives. Such meaningful stories need long-time research, specialisation and dedicated pursuit. One is happy to note that a few such reports restored one’s faith in the electronic media to go beyond star-building and do something for the ordinary citizen.

I list first in this category CNN-IBN’s research on the child adoption racket, rightly entitled Cradle-Snatching. Please note that this story had been pursued over six months, which is unusual for our instant action channels. And it was a horrific story of a couple pretending to be in search of an adopted child. They were told (all shown with the help of a hidden camera) by a gloating owner of one such adoption agency that he sometimes charged a foreign couple as much as $ 12,000 to enable them, with proper but forged papers, to take away the child of some poor villager in some impoverished area of our country, to a foreign country. The story was repeated several times, as it should be, and was finally wound up by CNN-IBN’s best investigative reporter, Ruksh Chatterjee.

One hopes it will lead to some punitive action legally, or the cradle-snatchers will be back in business after the hullaballoo is over, as often happens with such exposes, which get lost in the middle of daily, more trivial stories.

The second story was shown in its first instalment, and with facts and figures and this time it was NDTV which started research in the possible presence of lethal toxins in some well-known ayurvedic medicines. The case for the defence by some well-known manufacturers was aggressive but not convincing. So one is glad this is going to be a serial investigation with more to come, because in one way or another we all use ayurvedic stuff, even well-known toothpastes and other mundane articles of daily use, including mosquito repellents, claiming to be "herbal" and "ayurvedic".

My third choice, not because it was investigative but because it went off the beaten path was Barkha Dutt’s trip to Karachi, once considered Bombay’s twin city.

One is a little tired by now and all to familiar with reports on Lahore and the attitude of Pakistan’s Gen Next and journalists there on things Indian and, above all, Kashmir. After giving us a background of what happened to Karachi after Partition and how it affected those who stayed on and refugees, Barkha held one of her usual talk sessions.

Gen Next in Karachi spoke very much like Gen Next in Mumbai about their immediate interests and aspirations. Most charming of all was to find a veteran editor from one of Karachi’s, and indeed Pakistan’s, most reputable dailies, running and anchoring a pop music programme, much liked by the young, on a radio channel. Great!

Tailpiece: One perpetually views with distaste advertisements in very poor taste on TV and wonder what Indian advertisers and channels are up to. During recent sports events that disgraceful advertisement for underwear cropped up many times. It has a bridegroom on his wedding night taking out a murderous pair of scissors and he scares his waiting bride to death because his underwear has irritating tags he wants to cut off.

Then there’s a jingle advertising a product, of all places, in the men’s toilet, where two men are relieving themselves, side by side. The first man starts humming the jingle, when the second man, no doubt a stranger, asks him rudely to shut up and then hums it correctly for him. All this while, they are relieving themselves.

I don’t find this funny, I find it as vulgar as the bridal night scissors. Are there no better places for men to hum a jingle than in the men’s toilet? And have channels become so oblivious of normal decency and propriety that they will accept any ad, regardless of its contents, which might offend viewers?