Idle Thoughts

Tendulkar failed in three consecutive innings in tests. Worse still, he was bowled in all of the three dismissals. So it is that time of the year when some of us dig out the obituary that we had ready but had forgotten for a while, dust it, update it to reflect the latest dates and numbers and hang it out for all to see. The age has finally caught up with him, we love to write. If there is something more incredible than the number of centuries that Tendulkar has scored, it is the number of times that the age has ‘finally’ caught up with him! He says he still loves the game. But we are sure it must be the Ad money and the pressure from his contracts. If money is what keeps us going, why should his case be different? I have not held any record other than the college lab records but that is beside the point. I am sure his motivation works the same way as mine. By staying on, he is preventing young talent from coming up, you see? You might argue that players like him in fact hav...

When Aamir made his television debut, it invoked a great deal of interest. Many of us watched it and many of us wrote about it. That wasn’t surprising, considering that it was a different kind of show. Rather than being pure entertainment, it was intended to bring awareness on serious, socially relevant issues. What was surprising was that most of us treated it just like any other show, dwelling on the entertainment part and totally ignoring the informative part. Look at some of the questions raised and answered by these reviews. Is Aamir trying to be an Indian Oprah?  Did he choose the Sunday morning slot to avoid comparison with other talk shows? Was it good acting or did he really cry? Was the TRP as good as other celebrity shows? Will he be able to sustain the interest in the subsequent episodes? How much was he paid per each episode? Why did he do it in the studio than on the road? Why weren’t many of us interested in aspects outside of entertainment? Did he pick releva...