The current impasse in the Parliament in the country since the last 18 days has been a matter of concern for not only the people of this country but also to law makers in the country (coz Parliament sessions are the time when a sizable group of criminals get locked up in the Parliament house with a sense of doing something important like breaking furniture, throwing up a delectable assortment of gaalis which shows how much they love their mothers and sisters etc etc)
The only Parliament in session right now in the country are the ones now held by various news channels during the prime time 9 p.m shows... As 3 main English news channels vie for eye balls (interestingly the 2 news editors of these 'new' channels are a product from the 'old' channel which is the only news channel older than the DD Channel - no offense to grand old DD- where the grand patriarch laboriously drags on presenting news like a cross between Ghajini and George W. Bush. Jr.)
The stuff strutted on these channel is more entrainment than the actual Parliament... This I realised early on my life, (does that qualify me for a Nirvana like tag as seen in Mani Shanker Aiyar with a eternal expression of "I -told-you-so" plastered on his face like the wall of our government offices are with paan spittle?) that the ultimate entertainment lies in watching representative of the world's greatest democracy in action...
As a young college going kid I would sit down in front of our small B&W T.V set waiting for the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha to start (by the way Lok Sabha was and always will be most entertaining as compared to Rajaya Sabha which is populated by senile septuagenarian and octogenarian in a perpetual state of dazed dementia and a worried expression which is clearly indicative of a leaking bladder/bowel)... My family members forgave me with the magnanimity of Rakhi Sawant on "Rakhi ka Insaaf" thinking that I have gone bonkers...
But with new age television and cable T.V hitting the circuit, the old school charm of the 'bonhomie' of Parliament session looks outdated similar to Dev Anand trying to make a come back for the umpteenth time in Bollywood movies (by the way Dev Saab always takes the compliment like 'the ever green man of Indian cinema, the great don of Bollywood movies, the eternal charmer ' etc etc a tad too seriously and always make a 'comeback' embarrassing everybody but himself failing to get the message each time)...
So right now I am hooked to the telly everyday from 9 p.m onwards where Jayanti Natarajan's crying herself hoarse (a latest and major congress strategy to drown the view point of other panelists) which will put to shame Ekta Kapoor's mother in law in her saas Bahu serials... Or the BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad's stoic ('pregnant'?) silence and the considerable effort to appear solid as a rock (must have been influenced by Bhishma Pitamaha's character in the Mahabharat), Pranab Mukherjee talking to T.V reporters in an accent (which is so heavily accented in Bengali to put even the most rustic Bengali to shame) as if addressing a gathering of the inhabitants of the Mangrove forest in Sunderban , the CPI spokesperson speaking like a newbie PhD research scholar trying hard to impress his/her faculty... the minority party spokesperson whining and complaining of how they are never heard.. even on T.V shows...
The master piece is however, the DMK leader Kaurnanidih's (the guess game about his age stopped around the time when the cave man invented the 1st stone weapons to hunt down animals for food) statement from Chennai is a treat to watch... He talks as if talking in a dream (the expression on his face is a mix of emotion wondering if he has really taken his last shot of insulin, whether the crooked nurse, who always happens to be a Mallu, ensured his bowels are cleaned and wondering if the camera is not capturing a leaking catheter jutting out of the Loins oops Lions of T.N )....
Guys, I Sh@# you not... If you are looking for a heavy dose of entertainment better than the daily soaps, movies, reality show etc and if you do nt want yourself bombarded by lessons in morality (by tons of SILLY cone which has been hit by a make up van doling out her own version of justice) then prime time news at 9 p.m is the place for you to be...
Hope to catch up with you there the next time around...
