ice-cream with irani chai

Insulated from all news of the happenings around here, I was obviously in for sort of a shock when I came back from a month-long trip abroad a couple of days ago. (Obviously, I put behind me all the memories of Hyderabad burning over T-issue - who would wanna take such issues on mind on a much neeed holiday to a sand-surf-n-sea paradise!)

On the flight back here a co-passenger (from the country I'd just visited) asked if there was a "cease-fire" and whether it would be a problem even getting back to the hotel in the "curfew". A frowny-blank expression on my face and he added - there's a war in 'Hydrabaaad', right? I heard there are people burning on the streets and government beating up students? 

While wondering who put it in his point-haired brain such "burning" thoughts, I rewinded my memory a bit and then tried to calm him into thinking all izzz certainly well in my beloved city and he need not panic about something that happened so long of a month ago...

However, when we did land, the city did certainly meet his feary expectations. The media rather. A few odd incidents, and the tv channels and newspapers made it look like the entire town burned, stoned and was curfewed and what not. At the airport (the city's greatness of being host to a world-class one, about which I boasted on my blog {backed by a survey} just a couple of days prior to my return) I almost asked dad if I should fly to Delhi for a few days (no I didnt)... I asked if I needed to avoid the flyover at Osmania on my way back home, or is there some sort of road I could take so I could avoid being near JNTU... he (annoyed) brushed away my fears and asked me to relax and come to his place...

The point is the media is so shameless. Ya, it is old news that media has been sensational for some time now. I am almost ashamed I was part of this profession once upon a time. Ya, there are good and bad apples in every profession, but it seems the media is mostly bad apples in their bid to outdo others for TRPs and revenues. Everything bad is blown out of proportion.

I wouldn't like to compare the media here with the media in the country I visited. But, there wasn't a day I didn't look forward to reading the paper. The front page almost always had a positive story for the main headline. Not that horrible incidents or crap didn't happen in that city or the country - but then, politics wasn't really the staple diet for the headlines there. There were stories about people - the common people, their lives, their festivals, their community work, the development around them, the civic issues and the resolving of those issues, the good work of NGOs, the booming innovative businesses even in the recession, the efforts and special initiatives of local governments to attract investments, the new and upcoming infrastructure etc... 

How come, we don't feature such news except for in some tiny space like in hidden 17th page or so between all the Obit ads? How come for the media, anything good is so bad to cover? Why is only the bad good enough for the front page, the news @ 9 and daylong headlines?

Media, the matter is it's time to mind your manners please!