STING...STUNG..SKUNK..SUNK

Ever since I have stepped into this field, I have been a constant companion to caustic abuses hurled at This newspaper. First it was local newspapers that thought of it as a demon. Then came across intellectuals from the 'meddiah'vehemently pronounce it as the next bad thing to Godzilla (NOTE: All most all people, who took part in the mud-slinging and waxed eloquent about its unworthiness, were at some time, in some way part of the organisation)
I also saw 20-23-yr-old somethings, with ideals to give the Mahatma a complex,rant and rave about the rape of ethics,abuse of social onus and what is that word...ah yes! Dumbing Down!

While my sympathies lie with Pradyuman for going through what he did (I met him once and could see he is a journalist to the core!)Heroic his cause to bring to the world the inside world of a corporate giant which is knee-deep in shit loads of money.
But, A hero's task can never be so easy. If it were, Any of us could have become a hero anytime by writing about all and sundry.

Agreed, money-minting minions of evil all sprang from this place.
So what did any ethical hero do? Oh yeah, I saw what the media as an industry did. It followed the money. To justify a wrong-doing by passing the buck..saying...HE started it.
If we go by that logic..God is in major trouble right now for having created Adam and Eve in the first place (oh! but then there are some ten million theories to counter that Adam/Eve/serpent/god concept too..Aren't they?)
Please, in no way am I belitting the anger or the stands that are taken. But then, who wants to be the bad guy and go against ethics and be selfish. Is it not more self-satisfying to be idealistic, to have a stand. Brandish that sword, sharpen those quills and dip them in mud and let the 'How to kill a mockery bird' begin.
What does it think of itself? Where are the ethics? Where are the principles of journalism? Yes, It must be sad at the end of the day to sell the sacred editorial space and live with it? How do they live with it? I tell you they do not have souls! Let's get those brooms and spank them. Yes, that is what they deserve -- a solid spanking. What, you say brooms are not enough, okay lets get those shadowknives and slice them into bits. They won't even know what got them. They have no right to decide for us. They have no right to call themselves a newspaper.
Well, they do not call themselves anything. They do what they have to do and make all others look like a severe case of sour grapes and walk away.
Anyways, how do they sell news..how can they sell news? What is news, a commodity? How dare they make it a brand? I tell you, You know that other newspaper that has much better quality than this one.....it took an ad on its front page masthead..yeah it did...but then what could it do?....survival makes one do everything you know. It was not their evil...it was the first evil's fault. Now, if we could find a justification for rape, prostitution and brutal murders...we could all live happily ever after.
Hmm! wonder if this is what heros are made of?
Hero case study (ancient!)1: Ram Mohan Roy had not taken to the cause of widow remarriage, I would either be a bald deprived widow or a dead widow.
So did he begin operation spank society? or did he simply criticise the other side and got himself that hero-bangaya tag. He wrote a lot of stuff you know.
Lets come more closer home:
Hero case study (yesterday)2:India TV sting-operations mein naya toofan headed by a man accused of killing his own wife (Suhaib Illyasi) {So what, Ram thought his wife was an adulteress and kicked her out of her home and family..he still was a great ruler was he not!} Let us not hold that one minor detail against him now, after all he is doing good by exposing the casting couch or love seat or whatever they call it. Yes! yes! Major bravado, I tell you, super da! super! You send a half-naked woman mouthing dialogues like I'm willing to do ANYTHING for a quick break and Don't be naughty, now you and expect the MAN in question to be the saint. Yeah!Right! Next they'll be telling us Gandhi was a virgin all his life or something completely different.Pity, he is not around now. He could have found his way to the sting operation hit-list with two women dangling on either side.
Now, this is true journalism. Brilliant! Brilliant! I tell you. Make it a mission. Poor girl (READ BRAVE JOURNALIST WHO PRETENDED TO BE A POOR STAR_WANNABE), she needed a job..so she was ready to DO ANYTHING...EVIL BAD MAN...a woman wanted to sleep with him and he should have said no. Exploitation, I tell you...now who was exploiting whom....we do not know! DID u say TRP ratings..You think we are into yellow journalism...shiv! shiv! shiv! shiv!
So ladies and gentlemen, here we are a bunch of want-to-do good idealists, who know money matters and matters a lot. We can either pretend to be Gautam Buddhas and retreat into our own jungles or we can vent our angers and fears by writing them down. But what we cannot do is change the society. We make the society...sadly we give society the credit for making us.
And no matter what happens, no matter which evil rules...we find our scapegoats, make them evil and rest in peace.. I am sure it was this newspaper which tempted that tv channel to take the expressway to fame.
Yes! mr Arun Shourie...sadly...sting operations and breaking stories are not what they used to be....but then there is this evil vile yeti organisation that has all of us in the grip and we are doing our best mind u..we do take ads and we do not even try and come together as a fraternity to fight this EVIL person...but we do write about it and we do cry about it...hell! we even send petitions to the PM.....but...then the all-powerful one is always one ahead of us. And last heard, in PAGe 3 circles..it was good to sport a cause on the sleeve..but please let Medha Patkar go jail...wonder if they serve Vodka panipuris in jail?

Heros are not made because they are carrying the torch. Heros are made because they do not care about the torch..and have only enough time to fight the evil itself not the vassal of evil.

Case study 3:Thelka: Now, that is what heros are made of. They are practical and they know :to quote 'Page 3' the movie: To fight the system it is important to be in the system and righteousness with anger do not make for a social path-breaking story at all!

I am not a hero, I cannot pretend to be. But I do realise one thing: to know the truth, to be part of a lie and to sleep at night are all three different things.

Blame games or not. Aishwarya Rai is more likely a brand ambassador of all things fine and wonderful...more than that kid from Dharavi who grew up to be an IIT-grad against all real-life odds.

Sad, we'd rather fight a personal war than face the public short-comings. Sad!!