Will Cricket Be Next After Bigg Boss in Being Banned on Prime Time Television?

by Sreelata S. Yellamrazu

   The biggest sensation of the day was not the introduction of Baywatch star, Pamela Anderson, in the Bigg Boss 4 House. Rather the I and B Ministry stole the thunder with something so inane, it could only have come from a bureaucratic set up.

      It felt like one should tear one's hair out at the decision. And it had nothing to do with the fact that watching Bigg Boss is now going to be a late night, adult affair. Instead what is infuriating is that someone else, in a democratic set up, will decide what I watch and when. What is exasperating is that the very gentlemen who are now deciding what is good for children and young adults to watch on television do not have the temerity to curb their own over the top excesses when it comes to holding their own in the Parliament House. As a result, we have drama, violence, foul language, vulgarity and serious lack of literacy in the one place where the country is expected to address issues of constitutional rights.

     Who are we kidding? Are children of the technological era waiting for Bigg Boss to air? Blatant truth? No. They have the imploding internet and its own varied vagaries to contend with. Cell phones are not just for adults and neither is the access to information. Anyone who has kids or spends time around kids, and one does not have to be rocket scientist to figure this out, knows that kids today know more than the adults can even begin to imagine. And the information is so explosive that they do not even ask why anymore. Instead they can rattle off in depth details of how things work, what happens in the world around, that is beyond the comprehension of a dulled adult mind.

     To say something passes the muster and something does not is not their prerogative, even if they hold the portfolio. Pushing back programmes to a 11pm schedule is not going to prevent children from watching what is on offer. Twenty-four television and the subsequent acclimatization has already solved those problems. Instead perhaps it is time to take Lok Sabha Live and cricket off the television sets during the day time.

      What are the children learning if they watch the people's representatives at each others' throats quite literally? What are they learning when they watch their super stars, the cricketers, dancing to the tunes of their sponsors, talking up the beauties and glitz of after parties, the hob nobbing with page 3 wannabes with the prize ticket for insane amounts of money even as the cricketers walk away with thick wads of notes from their stint in extravganza such as the IPL?

        Never mind if the only other option on television apart from cricket, which is a huge chunk of the sports channels, is the ludricrous, heavily dressed, saas-bahu soap operas that are so insane that the hair has already started to thin. In the name of awareness, there is the subject about finding a suitor for a dark complexioned girl ( so cliched), about child marriage, regressive issues, and extravagantly senseless marriages  that one would not blame them for looking like an IPL tamasha. But of course, when there's nothing good on television ( and one can no longer tolerate the heavily edited stuff on foreign channels all in the name of censorship ), one can always flick the news channels which serve up everything from a bizarre tantrik to animal sacrifice to what have you. Who could be bored by television? If nothing else, there are always scams such as Kalmadi's Commonwealth Karnamas or the fake Kargil reward of Adarsh society or some luridly graphical video of some politician or self-proclaimed guru indulging in a bizarre sex orgy that will have children definitely tuning into the search engines out of bored curiosity.

     The game of cricket certainly loves it characters. But it also puts up with a lot of inanity and immaturity in the name of the character. Choice words, degenerative sledging, twisted fingers, name calling, over the top in your face aggression, name it, you have it. One does not have to even be an established cricketer. Every cricketer who wears the cap thinks he has arrived and with it comes an arrogance that is so totally out of place, one wonders if it even makes sense to tap the cricketer on the shoulder and tell him being humble can be equally eye catching and standing tall can speak volumes.

        So, what is a desperate smooch from Mohammad Asif's ex-girlfriend, Veena Mallik, for out of place, Ashmit Patel, whose claim to fame is a stupid MMS clip, even as she eyes another virtually unknown entity? What if Sara Khan, the so called television star, shows how mature she is when she swings herself into the arms of one and in another minute, marries the boyfriend, Ali Merchant ( who knows how to make money ) who she says she feeling nothing for and then goes back swinging again? How boringly dull our own lives are that Dolly Bindra's drama makes for huge headlines? Put one or two Indian cricketers ( and a handful of Australian cricketers) in the house with her and surely Dolly will have met her match.

     But thank the I and B Ministry who knows best.