Went to colleague’s place this evening to attend his kid’s birthday. After the candles and the cake, I started flicking channels while my colleague’s wife busied herself in laying out the dishes. I stopped at ‘Aaj Tak’ where one of the many pundits was analyzing the UP elections. He was speaking about the ‘Rahul Gandhi Effect’ or the lack of it. I could barely listen to him for a minute when my host barked out-
“What the hell are you watching, Mitra? If you want real news then you got to stop watching this bullshit. These guys can only talk gibberish. Let me show you where to find quality stuff!”
He almost snatched the remote from me and whizzed past a horde of channels before settling for a well known English news channel.
“Now watch this. Although it is not as good as CNN, at least some sort of a standard is maintained here. This is the best we can hope for. CNN, after all, will hardly analyze UP elections”—He guffawed.
I started watching dutifully and immediately noticed that there was a similarity between what was being aired here and in Aaj Tak. It was the same analyst and he was speaking on the same topic.
There were two major differences. The language was English and my dear colleague was watching the discussion intently, as if his life depended on it.
One piece of information, my friend understands Hindi very well.
It was, otherwise, a very enjoyable evening. My only regret is that I forgot to ask the hostess about the recipe of that wonderful chicken dish she had prepared.
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