Monday, August 8, 2005

Monday madness

Well the sun is refusing to move far away from the equator and is making days long and temperatures soar both inside and outside. It is in upper 30’s all over the state and clouds for the month of August are yet to arrive. I was in the cafeteria beating the heat with a cold glass of freshly made orange juice and perusing through “Deccan Herald”. Newspapers have taken a different stand in creating and disseminating news. They are creating sensational news to attract readership and improve circulation. The authenticity and credibility of news is questionable, but who cares if it can improve the circulation.

The headlines in the first page caught my attention, “Solar eclipse on Oct 6 will cause peace.” Violence is supposed to mark the arrival of Solar eclipse and this is supposed to continue for the next 6 months. Peace is a priceless commodity in today’s world is never ever present. Without the arrival of solar eclipse we already have violence out of the can. This prediction was made by astrologers and news item was masala cooked by our journalist. This is a front page news items to attract attention and create panic. Is this an example of professional journalism? Press all around the world behaves with immaturity and callousness. I started to sweat due to the radiation from the asbestos sheet in the cafeteria, and not from the news. But news items like this would possibly make terrorist choose their targets to coincide with the event. Astrologers and journalist can be an autopsy later than try instigate terrorism and create panic around us. I hope the rest of you will also side with me on this issue.

Well we lost an A class journalist today to lung cancer. For those of you who have watched the evening news on ABC at 6.30 pm, Peter Jennings exhibits every quality a journalist needs. Patience, calmness in describing events, knack of disclosing sensitive information with caution without creating anxiety is a few to name. He is an university for aspiring journalist. Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings the trio on the evening news until last December exhibited a. Dan Rather left while Tom Brokaw retired and Peter succumb to the inevitable. This is definitely an end to stupendous journalism. May his soul rest in peace.

Today is “Aadi Pooram” and birth day of Andal aka Mahlakshmi (consort of Vishnu). She is considered the last of the 12 vaishnavite alwars (saints) and is closest to Vishnu. Srivilliputtur is her birth place and her birthday is celebrated with the famous car festival. The Govt. of Tamilnadu is proud of having this temple Gopuram on their official government emblem. I had a chance to visit the temple and take part in the celebrations yesterday. I had no idea and plan to visit the temple on this auspicious day, but I had been wishing for it secretly. She heard me and invited me to catch a glimpse of her beauty and the car festival. I prayed for those of you reading this blog and those of you who don’t know me as well. Let this world be blessed with more peace loving people unlike our journalist and astrologer. We’ve seen enough of bloodshed and destruction of life in the past and present. Let us pray for the Solar eclipse to bring peace and only peace.

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