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Sachin, the Indian
Mannika Chopra

If you are not really fond of cricket (gasp) and cannot tell a silly point from a news point despite being an Indian, chances are that you would have moved away from the news channels this week. Because from November 14 midnight onwards, all the news channels went into a collective media swoon about Sachin Tendulkar having played for India for 20 years. With 86 centuries, 30,000 runs and 20 years of the game in Sachin's kitty, TV was busy doing umpteen victory laps.

The cricketer was called the "God of Cricket" by Aaj Tak; "Sachin Nama," yodelled News 24; "Twenty Spectacular Years," stated CNN-IBN; "Glorious Years" was Times Now's take; while NDTV was more muted, should I say balanced, with "Simply Sachin." But though the catch lines varied, the approach was simply linear in each laudatory feature. Headlines Today put together a passable report on the life and times of "20dulkar," and India TV did what they do best - create a sensation out of nothing.

In a terror-laden voice over, we were told that "this" was the hotel room that Sachin and his wife Anjali would be staying while the Indian team played in Ahmedabad. Of course, all leading channels carried exclusive interviews with the willow God — you have to wonder when does the poor man rest? Topping the list of vaguely interesting exclusives was Boria Majumdar on Times Now and Anjali Doshi on NDTV.

CNN-IBN, in a great marketing coup, thought of auctioning 20 bats signed by Sachin for a charity. Silly me, I thought bids would be of nominal amounts but offers for Rs 10 lakh came swooping in. Then there were the eulogies that were spouting forth from anybody who had anything to do with cricket. Sharad Pawar even called him Lord Krishna. Ricky Ponting, Sunil Gavaskar, Saurav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, the man on the street, the man on the moon — everyone had something nice to say about our man.

The list was endless, taking reams of space on the ticker tape on the bottom of our screens and lots of air time. So yes, there was a surfeit of Sachin in the air, even staid old DD unbent and called him a cricketing sensation. And honestly, if he wasn't such a rooted, soft-spoken, solid sort of fella, treating each question put to him with a sort of reverence and respect, I would have gagged on this overdose of Sachinitis.

But I persevered and ploughed through the good, bad and the weird stuff. But what really made me respect Sachin the person was his one comment in a heavily televised press conference of being an Indian first. And in that one instant from being simply a cricketing icon, Sachin turned into a desperately needed role model. So, Sachin the Indian, was in my book at least, the true hero of the week, the Biggest Boss.

November 14, and can Chacha Nehru, and by extension Children's Day, be far behind? Not really. The trick is to find a smart angle and run with it. After buttonholing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wife Gursharan Kaur and their two daughters some months ago, CNN-IBN's Suhasini Haidar again was able to corner the First Couple. Only this time it was a gaggle of free spirited children who quizzed Chacha Manmohan Singh and his wife. Coming from vastly disparate backgrounds, the children asked some rehearsed and not-so-rehearsed questions — why does the PM only wear a blue turban`85 was he ever punished as a child`85 his love for music`85 and so on. But it was an entertaining exercise — just the right mixture of positive ideals and personal anecdotes.

Not so entertaining, but perhaps more educative, was the spotlight on Manu Sharma's antics. The alleged killer of Jessica Lal was out on parole, happily prancing about in Delhi's nightclubs much to the consternation of TV news. The issue became a subject of NDTV India's Muqabla, whether India's rich and famous were held to a different standard of media scrutiny and legal help than the poor. One would think that it was not such a sharp proposition, and the answer was quite obvious.

But when advocate KTS Tulsi argued forcefully that Sharma was simply utilising the existing legal provisions to access his parole, you were left wondering. Thankfully, offsetting this argument was a response from legal beagle Kamini Jaiswal — wish she wouldn't scowl so much — and Jessica Lal's sister.