Was watching TV ‘actively’ after a long time yesterday. And I think I had a good time, because of three things that struck where they should.

One, the new ad of Tata Tea. The set is a crowd of people waiting outside a cinema hall for the show to begin. A group of young men come and start serving tea to everyone asking them to wake up. An irritated lady says – “I am not sleeping, I am wide awake, and waiting for the film to begin!” And the man coolly replies – “Well, if, instead of going to vote on an election day, you are here to watch a movie, you must be sleeping!” Point made very well, I must say, and tied up so wonderfully with the product. I guess the Tatas have realised and taken it up on themselves to create awareness about the farce of democracy that we have in our country, to avoid any more recaps of the Singur saga. As I searched the net a bit more, I found that they have also launched a site Jaago Re, creating awareness about how important your vote is, and giving you reminders etc when you are due to register yourself as a voter, at the time of elections etc.

Second, the Bell Bajao campaign being covered on CNN-IBN. Boman Irani is endorsing this campaign against domestic violence. The clipping of the ad that the news channel broadcasted showed a woman being beaten up by her husband(perhaps). The next door neighbor hears the shrieks of the woman, gets up, and rings their bell. The wife-beater opens the door, and this guy simply says – “Doodh”. Now this guy does not look like a doodhwaala, so the wife-beater asks again, and this guys asks him to lend some milk. So, the violence was stopped for the time being. The message that the campaign wants to send across is don’t be a mute spectator or listener if you know someone being subjected to domestic violence. Go, ring their bell, perhaps they’ll be embarrassed, or perhaps, the heat of the moment will pass, and the poor victim will be saved from further humiliation. A very good initiative, according to me.

Third, and the most impressive – there was a special report on the NDTV on the maintenance (or the lack of it) of the barrages built on Kosi river, that according to the reporters and an expert, was the cause of the catastrophic flood that Bihar faced this year. It brought to the fore the point that the governments or the opposition do absolutely nothing to prevent the floods or the situations, but are only interested in capitalising on the disaster (something that we know all along I guess!), but more than that, the report covered the ground realities of the barrages built on the river, how the nature was manipulated because of human follies, and then, when the disaster happens, it is all blamed on the fury of the river which dared to change its course. The goverment could have averted it, if they had waken up on time, and repaired the barrages in the months before monsoon. The most hard-hitting point of the report was the credits – they said, the reporter and the camera-man do not have any contribution in making this report. It has been made because of the efforts of the current and previous governments of Bihar, and if you like it, don’t send an sms to the news channel, instead write a letter to the Bihar CM. I think if the news channels do make such good use of the media, rather than spreading rumors and superstitions, and sensationalising everything under the sun, perhaps our country will be a better place to live in.

Looking forward to more ‘active TV-watching’ now!