Media Players

Pradeep Gawande

Decades back it was popular to call it press. Gradually, it learnt that it could have more feathers in its plain ‘press’ cap. Determined to shed its plainness it began to travel by express. Gradually it grew plural as ‘media’ with the advent of its electronic avtar. Modified beyond recognition media now is an interesting organ. And there are media players far more interesting. Playing media organ is not everybody’s cup of tea. And fewer can play it the way Adnan, A.R, Bismillah, Ravishanker, Yanni or Zubin play it with their notes.

In the media history (Read, story if you are allergic to) nobody played it the way Ramar Pilley did. All idioms like, making a mountain out of molehill, and making hay while it shines were put to shame. Rain or shine no seasonal sanctions. The media for over a fortnight virtually was on herbal fuel. Ramar played it so micro(soft) fine that the mineral combustibles called petrol ( those days it used to be leaded), diesel and kerosene (the backbone of black-market economy) were gripped by the hydrophobia and felt like sinking deep, roughly speaking, ‘twenty thousand leagues,’ under the brackish sea water. Nightmares of deadly whales made them sleepless. Lexicographers had nearly made their minds to replace the word horsepower with grass power. Vegetarians saw more calories in every morsel they chewed. All green pastures not only looked greener but powerful. Everybody saw a full-length sword of legendary warriors in every blade of grass. Such was the magic of the limelight effect of media.

At times, the child prodigy producers play it to stunning philharmonic pitch. A. R. Antuley as the Maharashtra CM played with the media organ very aptly. He proved to a regular newsmaker with his, ‘Don’t worry, hence happy’, photograph. The Y2K virus struck the (vulnerable) editors sparing the computers.

The players perhaps are Freud and Jung of the editor’s psychology. The poets are just born but the editors are born with the divine dictate, “Thou shall edit and thou shall nothing but edit.” Thus they act. They can hide any window by pressing Alt + F4. With their mighty media machinery, they can steal any show. Or shower verbal petals on it. The choice is fully theirs.
Nobody except media players knows how to click them, when to click right, left or double or to mouse drag. The media players only know how to make it appear that they have bitten the dog. Because they only have deciphered the symbolic significance of the golden rule, ‘dog bites the man is no news.’
Its Laloo Prasad who can still prove that it’s the fodder that ate away the cattle hence it is a cattle scam. Thus he can claim innocent making the media play him and even overplay. His media appeal can beat the girls and guys of tinsel world.

The media has replaced the never erring ancient kings. It errs never. Hence never mistake the media or you will be mistaken. Once mistaken (by the media) always misunderstood by one and all. Media can make it or mar it. The wise know that there is no point in taking punga with it. Take punga and enjoy Tehelka. Jeet ka Mantra hai your media policy.