TELEVISTA
Driving home a point
AMITA MALIK

Apart from the routine functions of education, entertainment and information, the biggest responsibility of the media is social responsibility, which certainly includes education and information and, in the widest sense, should hold our attention by being entertaining. Last week-end was shattered by the death of two students who were returning from a five star hotel together with two friends. All four had excessive liquor and TV programmes took it upon themselves to analyse such accidents and the tragic death of young people who come from educated backgrounds.

There were a whole lot of issues involved— the role of the parents, or perhaps one should say the lack of it, since they seemed to neither care nor act to persuade their wards to be more careful, even when pampering them with ample funds and fast cars. What did their schools, mostly very expensive ones, do to instil a sense of responsibility in them? A whole lot of people and circumstances seem involved, and even the most stringent of laws cannot prevent such accidents because it is not easy to enforce them—inadequate police staff and, especially in the Capital, the VIP culture which allows the culprits to literally get away with murder by claiming to be related to the high and mighty.

All these factors were being probed by well-researched programmes. Alas, we have had them before and one wonders how effective such TV programmes can be. To see mangled cars and more mangled bodies (naturally not shown in detail) should be deterrent enough. But as one commentator put it, arrogant young drivers, used to drinking and driving, keep on thinking: "It happens to others; it cannot happen to me". All the same, the power of visuals on TV has effect on the mind. It might save at least a few lives.

Symonds’ complex

Andrew Symonds seems to be hungry for publicity

The doggedness of Andrew Symonds in creating controversy and getting some of our brightest young cricketers into trouble has ceased to be amusing. Symonds, to my mind, suffers from an inferiority or martyr complex which makes him see insults where none exist. The pleasure of seeing cricket is ruined but it gives him the publicity he so desperately desires. This, I hate to say, becomes evident from the way he has his hair in multiple ringlets and plaits. He also has a wide ring of white round his lips, which gives him a sinister — some consider it comical — look.

The purpose seems to be to draw attention. So I fail to see why he should be so touchy. But the way he has picked his victims, it seems to indicate that they are players he fears—both Harbhajan Singh and now young Ishant Sharma are bowlers who have given him anxious moments on the field. One cannot help suspecting this is a clever ploy to get rid of them. I am sorry to be so suspicious of Symonds because there is no doubt he is a good cricketer. But I have never forgotten how he claimed to have taken a catch which wasn't one—it had clearly touched the ground before he cupped it. The very fact that he is consistently getting into controversies from which he benefits does not exactly make him endearing. The whole world can watch what he is doing.

The Filmfare awards have been interesting, as usual. One sight I always enjoy is Rekha, the undisputed diva, walking in gracefully in an elegant saree and traditional jewellery and knocking all the young women in westernised pants or dresses, out of the picture. Not even Kareena, getting the award from Saif, could steal the show as much as Rekha did.