The doorbell rang at sharp 8:00 am. The maid opened the door.
"We are from AzadIndia TV channel. We have an apointment with Ms Aparna today" said a guy in early thirties wearing a light blue formal shirt and black trouser and a dark blue tie with an Indian badge .
"Yes,please come in, I will inform Mam",the maid replied.
After about an hour the guy was sitting in the drawing room with a lady in her mid thirties wearing a white salwar kameez with blue dupatta.
The camera rolled and they went live.
"Hello everyone, good morning, this is Akash Srivastava reporting from AzadIndia TV. Today we are celebrating Indian Independence with the national award winning film director Ms Aparna Basu.
So Ms Basu how are you feeling right now after winning the national award?
Aparna: I am feeling more confident than ever.
Akash: What is the response from the team with whom you worked?
Aparna: Well this is a victory for all and not me alone. We work together and hence its our victory.
Akash: Ms Basu as India celebrates her 72nd Independence how would you motivate our viewers?
Aparna: Let me start by asking you a question Akash. Do you know who wrote the song "Saare Jahan se accha"?
Akash looked a little puzzled. He scratched his head but couldnt get the answer. Smart as he is he replied wittily I dont remember that right now but I can sing the song if u ask.
Aparna smiled and continued : You see we have been independent since 71 years yet every year the media goes around the streets and colleges highlighting people who knows little about our history. We consider us to be free but are more happy to ridicule a person whose knowledge may be insufficient in terms of Indian history.
I will tell you a story. I hail from a very proud Bengali family and my forefathers were involved in freedom movements. While I was a fresher studying in the 1st year of my college some journalists came and asked us to sit for a quiz contest about India. I reluctantly sat and was handed a question paper and answer sheet. One of the questions asked "Who wrote Vande Mataram and Sare Jahan se Accha?" Being very young I did not recollect the names at that point of time. I was confused between Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. I will tell you at that time I haven't read much of their literary works . So even though I had some idea about Vande Mataram I had absolutely no clue who wrote Sare Jahan se accha. I reluctantly wrote Jawaharlal Nehru. Winning quiz competitions were not one of my likings. And similarly there were few more questions which I answered absolutely incorrect.
The next day I featured in a supplement of an English daily as the results were declared. I featured among the Top Losers. That day was 15th August and my parents scolded me like anything. I was ridiculed by my seniors at college, friends and class mates, relatives and neighbors. I admit I must have known the answers but today I want to ask the media is ignorance a crime?
Just like you now dont recollect the author of Saare Jahan se accha to be Mohammad Iqbal, I believe you wont be terminated from your work, similarly there are thousands of us who are unaware of who the President of India is at present. And I dont think India will disown them either.
But what did you gain by ridiculing a young lady studying at college? When you print in your newspaper or show them in your channel not only they, their family members are ridiculed as well. And its not easy to remove such instances from peoples' memories.
I dont see newspapers printing stories of how India has fared in the last 71 years and where we can improve.
We dont preach people about some of our glories like
"We are from AzadIndia TV channel. We have an apointment with Ms Aparna today" said a guy in early thirties wearing a light blue formal shirt and black trouser and a dark blue tie with an Indian badge .
"Yes,please come in, I will inform Mam",the maid replied.
After about an hour the guy was sitting in the drawing room with a lady in her mid thirties wearing a white salwar kameez with blue dupatta.
The camera rolled and they went live.
"Hello everyone, good morning, this is Akash Srivastava reporting from AzadIndia TV. Today we are celebrating Indian Independence with the national award winning film director Ms Aparna Basu.
So Ms Basu how are you feeling right now after winning the national award?
Aparna: I am feeling more confident than ever.
Akash: What is the response from the team with whom you worked?
Aparna: Well this is a victory for all and not me alone. We work together and hence its our victory.
Akash: Ms Basu as India celebrates her 72nd Independence how would you motivate our viewers?
Aparna: Let me start by asking you a question Akash. Do you know who wrote the song "Saare Jahan se accha"?
Akash looked a little puzzled. He scratched his head but couldnt get the answer. Smart as he is he replied wittily I dont remember that right now but I can sing the song if u ask.
Aparna smiled and continued : You see we have been independent since 71 years yet every year the media goes around the streets and colleges highlighting people who knows little about our history. We consider us to be free but are more happy to ridicule a person whose knowledge may be insufficient in terms of Indian history.
I will tell you a story. I hail from a very proud Bengali family and my forefathers were involved in freedom movements. While I was a fresher studying in the 1st year of my college some journalists came and asked us to sit for a quiz contest about India. I reluctantly sat and was handed a question paper and answer sheet. One of the questions asked "Who wrote Vande Mataram and Sare Jahan se Accha?" Being very young I did not recollect the names at that point of time. I was confused between Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. I will tell you at that time I haven't read much of their literary works . So even though I had some idea about Vande Mataram I had absolutely no clue who wrote Sare Jahan se accha. I reluctantly wrote Jawaharlal Nehru. Winning quiz competitions were not one of my likings. And similarly there were few more questions which I answered absolutely incorrect.
The next day I featured in a supplement of an English daily as the results were declared. I featured among the Top Losers. That day was 15th August and my parents scolded me like anything. I was ridiculed by my seniors at college, friends and class mates, relatives and neighbors. I admit I must have known the answers but today I want to ask the media is ignorance a crime?
Just like you now dont recollect the author of Saare Jahan se accha to be Mohammad Iqbal, I believe you wont be terminated from your work, similarly there are thousands of us who are unaware of who the President of India is at present. And I dont think India will disown them either.
But what did you gain by ridiculing a young lady studying at college? When you print in your newspaper or show them in your channel not only they, their family members are ridiculed as well. And its not easy to remove such instances from peoples' memories.
I dont see newspapers printing stories of how India has fared in the last 71 years and where we can improve.
We dont preach people about some of our glories like
- India has 29 states and 7 union territories
- We are a land with population of over 132 crores practicing different religions
- We have 22 major languages with 13 different scripts and over 700 dialects.
- We have around 82237 newspapers printed in those languages
- India's economy rank to be 6th largest by nominal GDP and 3rd largest by purchasing power parity
- We have the 2nd largest army in the world
- India ranks 2nd world's nation where English is most spoken
- Our nuclear power is the 5th largest source of electricity. We have around 22 nuclear reactors operating in 7 nuclear power plants
- India ranks 3rd in nuclear power installations
to name a few of the many advancement we made in the last 71 years.
Yes we all must know about our roots and history but lets not teach our people through insult and mockery, lets enlighten them with our knowledge, lets instill hope and courage and encourage them to move ahead. Let us show the positivity amongst the negativities. Let the media behave more sensibly and responsibly and most important sympathetically towards our country. Then only we can truly cherish a free India. Jai Hind"
