Switch That #%#$@ Box OFF !

Last week as I was browsing through the sea of news channels available to me, I came across an interesting report in one of them. It was on how the international fares have nose dived. The reporter, obviously a lady, along with the desk help put in a series of graphics to show that the rates are at the bottom. It further added that this is the best time for the Indians to take up a foreign holiday.

That made me think how out of the world are these channels are. They are so desperate for stories directed at the urban elite that they cant see a huge deluge of stories about socio-developmental aspects just outside yours and my home.

First the stories are nothing but truth. People who watch these ‘sponsored’ stories and makes up their mind to visit Kualalumpur or Singapore will be disappointed to learn from the airline officials that the tickets under ‘these category’ are full. Instead, they offer full rate tickets which are almost double what the graphics displayed. I had a bad experience of visiting a British Airways office in Ahmedabad for booking discounted tickets to the US. I was impressed by the BA fare that they advertised in all the national newspapers which promised return airfare of Rs 34,000 to Chicago or any other places in the US. Of course, the taxes and other levies will have this charges climb to nearly 50K. But that is still half of what the full rates are. I called up their helpline number in a northern Indian city and held the phone for 37 minutes before a lady executive attended. She told me that the fare are actual and I can visit BA office in Ahmedabad for the booking.

At the Ahmedabad office, it was a rude shock since the only girl who was sitting at the booking counter paused her telephone conversation and asked me why I was there for. I said I need to book the ticket. She asked me the dates without hanging on the phone. I told her she can complete the conversation and I can wait till that time. No, ‘just tell me the date for which you want the ticket for’.

For a moment, I felt she was managing the modern East India Company and I was a famine struck Indian who went to the company in search of a mouthful of morsel.

While she kept the phone receiver on her lap, which made me believe that it must be her boyfriend or husband at the other side, she keyed in a number of strokes from the keyboard and smiled. Unfortunately, the smiles appeared because she can get rid of me fast and continue with her conversation.

“There isn’t a single ticket available sir,” she raised her head and picked up the receiver asking the fellow at the other end to hold the line for some more time.

“What about the next day, or the next. Can you give me a date on which I can get a confirm ticket?”

‘None’ pat came the reply. “Why” I was not far behind.

‘Because there isn’t any ticket available. It is as simple as that. You can book on our regular fare but we don’t take cheque or credit cards. You have to bring cash,” she again took up the receiver and asked the person at the other end to wait and then looked at me.

Can you please get out. To hell with your tickets – this was what I thought she would tell me by the gestures she started portraying.

“But you continue to give ads in the newspapers. Why is that? Your call centre executive told me yesterday tickets are available. Why…..”

“I don’t know all that. Anything else sir?” she interrupted me. It was more than obvious that staying any longer would be dangerous.

This is just the tip of an iceberg that corporate world plays with the media. This is also the result of the changing scenarios of media business. I expect a reporter to go to an airline office and book a ticket and tell the viewer how the airlines makes fool of the passengers by announcing tickets at discounted rates. Not the other way round.

But now every reporter’s dream is to have a mic and appear in mini screen, the fastest short cut to fame. Why not, they have studied journalism from colleges that charged as much as any doctor would have paid for his MBBS studies including the capitation fee.

Fraternities of good journalism and imaginative journalists have disappeared. Story telling is not more the motto, it is story selling rather. Today we have cub reporters who have no idea of what they are reporting on but since they are paid salary, they have to invent some ways to give a live byte.

I was not interested in Rahul Mahajan because he was an ordinary citizen whose case would have made headlines only in a crime magazine. But I was fed not for one day but for days together about his cocaine habits not by one channel but by all the sundry ones. But these are the stories that the urban elite relishes on. Any news- however, important may be- cannot dominate twenty four hours of a news channel. I am paying from my hard earned money to watch national and international news and you are feeding me with what you think is saleable. How fair is this?

Binu Alex