Friday 17 July 2009

In the dock!


It's only in India that "serious" television debates center around the absurd! Last night I was amused to watch a heated discussion that deliberated upon the new Hindi T.V show Sacch ka Samna, which is fashioned on the international reality show Moment of Truth, being heralded by the moral brigade as a corrupting force to the social fabric of apna Indian society! Let me make it clear that I find such programs a waste of time. However there is an audience that enjoys it and therefore my opinion is not necessarily relevant in this case. Which is perfectly fine because there is such a gadget called a remote control (!) which allows me in my comatose T.V watching couch potato state, to merely move my finger ever so slightly to press a button, and hey presto!..... the channel will change or better still, I can switch the idiot box off! So what is all the fuss about ?


Some of the objections by those making a furore was that the long term implications can be damaging for a contestant in regards to the relationships that are exposed from these public confessions. But excuse me, isn't this a deliberate choice that each contestant who is above 18 is aware of, because I imagine that there is an option to decline the invitation to participate! Another ridiculous objection was the accuracy of a polygraph test, and it was suggested by the speaker that contestants are offended when their "truth" is rejected on the basis of the polygraph test. Well my friends when will we ever be able to play by the rules of the game in India! For heaven sakes the risk of the polygraph reading your responses incorrectly is precisely the game! So if you choose to have your moment of fame on T.V in the glare of millions of people who are tuned in to watch these "confessional trials", then don't cry foul to what you have agreed to subject yourself to. If it is the contestants free will to want to bare their soul in public and have it adjudicated by a machine, then this is the risk and this is the price; so let's all stop cribbing and whining about the fairness of a system from the preachers pulpit please!


In any democracy you get the crap along with the best, because the spectrum of freedom allows for choice, so let's get real about this once in for all.




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