TELEVISTA
Images of fear amid festivity
Amita Malik

DIWALI, or Deepawali, to give its formal name, is a festival of joy. Very much on the loud side, with the elders holding their fingers to their ears and keeping out of the way. But with the youngsters whooping with joy, even the baby extending a tiny hand towards the phuljharis. But sadly, it is also the time of the worst kind of accidents. They start with the usual explosions at the so-called factories where fireworks are made. And already, at the time of writing, 19 persons have been killed in Madhya Pradesh at a so-called factory. And, again it also involved children among the victims.

This happens year after year, but nothing seems to change. And it is the painful duty of reporters to remind people to be careful, after describing the horrible consequences of irresponsible use of fireworks in most normal households. It only takes a bad accident, like a child losing his eyesight while trying to light a "bomb", to remind people all over again to be careful. But it makes little difference.

This column has always been raising a voice against horror being shown on the screen after train and other accidents. But this time, one would like to ask channels to interview the people in households where somebody has been badly burnt or worse, to drive home the dangers of fireworks.

Much more than over Dussehra, people were looking over their shoulders when they went to the market for Diwali shopping. After all, you never know when some sick mind will deposit a time bomb on a cycle in a crowded market place to cause the utmost damage.

One doesn’t know whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, but partly due to inflation, there has been much less frenzied shopping over Diwali. Some middle class families even confessed sadly on television that new clothes for the children were out.

Nobody has yet come on screen to discuss what will happen to the customary gambling during Diwali. Since it is technically illegal, although no one misses a chance because of that, one wonders, not knowing the ins and outs of the practice, whether this year the stakes will be higher or lower.

Meanwhile, the unseasonal worries about inflation have forced our Finance Minister, normally one of the best TV performers among politicians, to look unnaturally worried even when trying to cheer us up. P. Chidambaram is normally so relaxed on screen that his worry really showed this time. The only politician I have never seen worried on TV is Lalu Prasad Yadav. Somehow, even when sharply criticising the attacks on North Indians in Mumbai, he not only managed to be cool but also introduced some wry humour into what he said.

But for viewers, eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth mentality made trains passing through Bihar and going towards Mumbai the target of return violence. But in the midst of it all, a group of intellectuals from Mumbai, who had been on a pilgrimage to Bihar, had heartening stories about how they were protected by local people when threatened. This was the best TV news item I had seen in a long while.

For sports lovers, the spat that developed over the weekend over some controversial comments about Tendulkar, in an autobiography by Australian cricketer Gilchrist, has naturally made headline news. Gilchrist was trying to wriggle out of it at the time of writing. But he should have known that any criticism of Sachin will have the whole of India up in arms. One looks forward to all the main characters battling it out for weeks on the media. But knowing Sachin’s media-shy nature and abhorence of controversy, it looks as if it will not blow out of proportion as far as the main characters are concerned. But what the media will make of it is a different matter.