Wednesday 24 June 2009

Reality (shows) bite

I had been to a musical concert arranged on the occasion of World Music Day.

It was a good experience with music and songs by Bickram Ghosh, Usha Uthup, Lopamudra Mitra, Hassan Raza and the brilliant Shankar Mahadevan. The little ones from the finals of 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champs' were also there and they stole the show with their innocent charm and brilliant singing talent. 

As I sat enthralled at their skills, I noticed a small kid sitting in the row in front of me behaving strangely. He was twisting, turning , looking away to all corners of the hall, making strange hand signals to no one in  particular-- and doing everything to draw attention to him. I looked back again and realised that this little boy had been part of the same singing competition and had been eliminated a few episodes back.

Realisation dawned upon me! This little guy had seen the glamour and had felt the attention. Now, he just couldn't digest the fact that he was not getting the old attention like his friends and was behaving strangely such that people noticed him. And he was probably only 8 years old!!

What a tragedy! Innocence was killed and I stopped enjoying the show even though Mr. Mahadevan was being kept in able company by the five little finalists.

6 comments:

sujata sengupta said...

beautifully expressed, I have often felt the same thing about reality shows. Competition is one thing and being in the limelight with competition and at times no good judges is a totally another thing. Good post.

Sucharita Sarkar said...

You have made a very important observation here. The media and the hype-overkill and the dazzle of the arclights are trading the innocence of the children for TRPs and advertising revenue. What upsets me even more is that the parents seem to be blinded, too.

Mampi said...

This was an expression to what the shows have initiated. I have a student here in my college who was eliminated similarly in 'awaz Punjab Di' and he has stopped wishing his teachers, always is on cell phone and is totally in need of attention and crowd around him.

pradipwritenow said...

Anirban
I saw worse than this. Some one took me to Tiljala stadium. His daughter from Sodepur was partcipating there. Unfortunately on that day she got eliminated. The parents were more shocked and was giving biting comments to their daughters and judges as well. The daughter was in tears and there was no body to console her except me.

Oreen said...

yeah, difficult to keep one's head on one's shoulders at such a young age...it is all about murdering a childhood...

Unknown said...

Beatifully captured.Ei byapar ta niye amader barite ekdin besh torko holo. Show gulo te bachhader opor atoi kharap effect hoy je shob talents noshto hoye jay r ATTITUDE o sathe sathe.