24,168,720 and 8760...!!

I woke up late on Sunday .After coming out of the bathroom, I looked around; my bed was in a perfect state of mess with pillow cover lying on the bed and pillow on the ground. The table had everything other than the books and my alarm clock hiding in a distant corner of the room. The wall clock read 11 30 am, I had certainly missed my breakfast and it meant that everything was normal. My Sunday had begun perfectly.

I stepped out of my hostel lazily. The search for some food had begun. I went straight to Singhji ka dhaaba. “Two cups of tea chotu”, I placed the order and placed my self on a wooden stool. Chotu stayed there for a moment but then went away quickly. “Customer ek. Chai do-bahut nainsaafi hai re”, he giggled and turned away. “Too may movies…huh”, I mumbled to myself. The shop was pretty empty. It usually is at this hour of the day. I was the only customer in the entire dhaaba. It’s a great feeling to be alone in a restaurant or a dhaaba. You can choose the best seat of the place. You can switch on all the lights or for that matter switch off all of them. You can the turn the table fan completely towards your table or turn it entirely away. You can have all the newspapers or you can have none. You can have the TV remote, provided that there is a TV, the TV has a remote and the remote is still working. I chose to pick up the newspaper and changed the channel.

Huge roaring laughter from the TV attracted my attention. A bald man in his forties, with a heavy moustache covering his lips, was standing on a stage and he was narrating some stupid and partially obscene jokes. Every time he finished a joke (sometimes even before he finished it), two men produced the most thunderous laughter I had ever heard in my life. I was bemused but as soon as I saw the channel logo at the corner of the screen, I got a jolt. It was a news channel and not any entertainment channel as I had expected. I changed the channel and this time there were few pretty girls dancing on Rakhi Sawant’s item numbers on a stage. ‘Nach baliye’ was written at the bottom most corner of the screen and the top most corner had once again the logo of another news channel. The next channel was again a news channel and this time it was the worst of the three. The host of that show was explaining – “Veerane bangle ke prêt ka kahar aur gaaonwalon ki dahshat”. This was really disgusting, a twenty first century news channel talking about ghosts and superstitions. I mustered some courage and went ahead. Now I decided to find out what other news channels had to offer. I was disappointed to see that there were only four news channels that were airing some sensible news based program while all others were busy with some or the other crap. Out of the twenty odd news channels, the only few I could appreciate were- NDTV India, CNN-IBN , NDTV 24X7 and DD News. I have no intention of promoting any news channel but these channels do deserve a mention for maintaining the dignity of their profession.

While walking back I did some calculations. 24, 168, 720 and 8760 are the no. of hours in a day, week, month and year respectively during which some two dozen news channels telecast news across the country. Assuming that a man watches 1 hr news daily and he watches television for just 25 years in his life, then he has actually devoted 9125 hours i.e. more than an year of his life to the news channels. I personally believe that an year of my life is a substantial figure and I do deserve quality news. Unfortunately, our news channels are not providing us that. Instead of genuine valuable information we are told about ‘saas’ ,’bahu’ ki saajish. Instead of intellectually motivating talk shows, we get silly ghost and monster stories and instead of knowledge providing documentaries, we get dance clippings. Huh…

Recently, a poor girl and her house servant were brutally murdered in Noida. The news channels were quick to telecast the tragedy. My reactions to their coverage can be summed as-

First day- Oh...What a tragedy?
Second day –Yes... I’m curious.
Third day-Acceptable.
Fourth day-Oh…same stuff!
Fourth day- Enough!
Fifth day- Please stop it.
Sixth day- Some body change the bloody channel!

That is how I felt after a dangerous overdose of the same story day after day. Unfortunately, they are still showing it and I don’t watch it anymore. In a hysterical attempt to increase their viewer ship, these channels not only exploited the trauma of a family but also tried to solve the murder mystery, a task which investigating agencies should have done. For a few days these channels, though not openly, but conspicuously insinuated that a close family member was the murderer. A few days later the police accused the father for the deaths. “Wow! What a story?”- The channels would have exclaimed. They were quick to change sides and now proclaimed that the police story has loop holes. Poor police got the shock of their lives. I’m not competent enough to declare whether the father is guilty or innocent but I’m sensitive enough to pray to God that the man, his family and the victims must get justice.

I still hope that a day will come when Aishwarya Rai’s wedding won’t become a subject of national importance. A day will come when Rakhi Sawant’s tantrums won’t overshadow the feat of our hockey teams and there will be a day when I will prefer to watch news channels instead of writing a blog, bashing them.

NEWS FROM THE FUTURE

I had just returned from a week long, tiring tour of Uttarakhand. It was an official trip meant to impart some training to us, as a result of which the erstwhile panoramic, green and exciting Uttarakhand appeared so tedious and vapid this time. When I came back to my room, I was extremely exhausted. My kneecaps were numbly aching and my forehead was screaming with agony. Due to the omnipresent turning roads of the hilly terrain, my intestines had to experience a lot of centrifugal force resultantly my whole abdominal region was internally warped and twisted. Even my sleep had fatigued out and I was finding it extremely difficult to find my sweet slumber. Somehow, I placed my self on the disorderly bed and switched on the television. After wandering through a few dozen channels finally I settled for a news channel which was showing some report on a drastically decreasing female-male ratio in the country. According to the report and the gorgeous looking reporter, female foeticide was one of the principal causes for this skewed ratio. I don’t know whether it was the gravity of the report or looks of the reporter which glued me to that channel. It was a pretty serious issue and even my worn out brain was quick to perceive the severity of the problem. I didn’t realize when I dozed away but it was not a sound sleep. The whole night I felt as if I was traveling or listening to the news. I think we all experience these type of weird nights marked by a disturbed sleep especially after a long journey.

At 6 am my alarm clock started shrieking. With my eyes still closed, I reached for it and gagged it by tapping the button. I kept lying on my bed in a half conscious state for another five minutes and then lazily walked outside the door. The newspaper was lying innocuously at the doorstep. I picked it up and went for the headline- ANOTHER GIRL CHILD TAKES BIRTH IN BIHAR, THIRD SINCE JANUARY. I was slightly bemused by this strange headline. My eyelids were up in a flash opening my curious eyes wide open. I started reading the whole news- “19 feb, 2025. Government efforts to boost up the abysmally low female-male ratio have slowly started….” My eyes quickly went back to the date—19 feb, 2025. I was shocked, I was bamboozled and I was everything other than being patient. I looked for the date at the top of the page, thinking may be it’s a misprint in the article but to the biggest shock of my life till date, the date printed on that newspaper was jarringly same-19 feb, 2025. I looked around and pinched myself to ensure it wasn’t a dream. I went back into my room and started reading the article---

ANOTHER GIRL CHILD TAKES BIRTH IN BIHAR, THIRD SINCE JANUARY- 19 feb, 2025, New Delhi. Government efforts to boost up the abysmally low female-male ratio have slowly started to show some results as another girl child takes birth in Nalanda district of Bihar. This is the 3rd female child born in the country since January and after including her, f/m ratio becomes 32/1000. The president of the country has congratulated the teacher couple, who have parented the child and the prime minister is scheduled to visit the house of the baby on 21st February. The baby is healthy and weighs around 7 lb and has not shown any abnormal symptoms. A team of obstetricians and pediatricians from AIIMS has been already stationed near the home of the child and will look after the child and the mother for the next one year. Meanwhile, in Patna, the chief minister of the state has announced full financial and medical assistance to the family for the upbringing of the child. People all across the country are jubiliant and in a celebratory mood...(contd. on page 2)

Well, I was still scratching my head after reading this article when my eyes fell suddenly fell on another headline---

DOCTOR AND A MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR FOETICIDE- 19 feb, 2025. New Delhi. The Delhi High Court has awarded death sentence for a Delhi based doctor after he was convicted for female foeticide. The father of the deceased foetus has also been convicted and has been awarded capital punishment. The mother of the foetus, though proven guilty has been exempted from the death punishment because it would have hampered the f/m ratio. She has been sent to prison for 5 years. This is the 28th death punishment offered for the similar crime and the government has insinuated that it will show no mercy in female infanticide/foeticide cases. Human rights group have also decided not to appeal for any such criminal, though they have appealed to the government to ensure transparency in the investigation proceedings of such cases(contd. on page 2)

I was about to run out of the room to show this to my neighbor but just then the most shocking headline met my eyes—


UN PUTS INDIAN WOMAN IN THE ‘ENDANGERED SPECIES’ FAMILY- 19 feb, 2025, Geneva. A UN report has placed women of India among the ‘endangered species’. As per the UN report, the present rate of elimination of female fetuses is enough to bring about a complete extinction of female sex in India. The hurting reality is that it is the educated and well-to-do families who are more enthusiastically involved in the process of female foeticide as a result of which the sex ratio in India have fallen to a miserably low 32/1000. The UN holds social stigma attached to the girl child, responsible for this problem. The report reads-“…most Indian families still believe that the girl child is a financial burden and therefore prefer a son. This daughterphobia of Indian families has caused the present situation and inspite of government claims, the situation has now become irreversible and now it is certain that after few years India will have to look at other countries for matrimonial alliances of its ubiquitous male population”

I was flabbergasted by this news and ran to show the newspaper to others when suddenly my foot got entangled in the chair leg and I fell on the ground. The impact of the ground on my head jolted me out of my sleep and I looked around in complete disbelief. I was still lying on my bed and there was no newspaper around. My table clock was lying on the ground with its batteries dislocated and everything else in the room was in a perfect state of mess and therefore normal. I tried to recall the strange dream and then decided to pen down my nightmare before I forget it. Finally, I hope that my nightmare will never become a reality and much before 2025, good sense will prevail among all the people who consider a girl child as an unwanted child.




Just before you move away from my crap please have a look at the following data to understand the gravity of the situation—
Decline in FMRs (Females per 1,000 males)
in the 0-6 Year Population, 1991-2001 in INDIA

FMR- FMR- FMR- FMR- Decline Decline
Urban01 urban91 rural01 rural91 urban rural

903 ------ 934 ------ 935 ----- 948 ----- 32 ----- 14