Amidst all the haywire that had happened last year, October 2020 saw another ‘so not right,’ ‘so not justified’ episode unfolding in India which took the entire nation of India on its edge.
Yes! You’ve got that quite right. The sensational TRP SCAM slammed on the leading media network of India-Republic headed by the most controversial THE Arnab Goswami. A persona- who is undeniably too strong to be ignored.
On 8th Oct., ’20 , the then Mumbai Police Commissioner – Mr Parambir Singh sensationalized a TRP SCAM in a press conference claiming that Republic had rigged the viewership data by bribing the sample households with this mammoth amount of Rs 400 !!! No, not a joke! What followed thereafter is not unknown to anyone!!!
But that is really not my point of contention today! A pretttty long ( understatement !) prelude/ preamble to what I really wanted to say today loud and clear.
You know what REAL TRP looks like? Ok. Let me paint the picture in front of you all with ZILCH EXAGGERATION!
This morning, I come to the living room, coffee in hand, sat down for work (per my daily morning routine). With a sip of coffee, to make sure that I didn’t fall behind on news, I gave a bold shoutout to my assistant- the Google helper that I have at home-Echo dot.
Well, to my defense, my rational is to just go with the flow. If I could get something done just by blurting out couple of words, why bother taxing my busy & lazy self to lift up the remote , press a few buttons to guide back to the channel?
I fervently asked my Alexa app:— Boldly,loudly, in distinct clear voice :-“REPUBLIC, please turn on NPR news”. Waited for 30 secs.Pindrop silence! No sound popped up from the Echo dot.
I repeated REPUBLIC!! This time even louder. A little hint of irritation in the voice. No result yet again!!
Now, muttering a few unpleasant unholy words under my breath I tried the third time. (My hope was that the third chance should do the charm). And yet again yielded no result and just when I was to check the connection for the gadget resulting in no response,I did realize WHAT the glitch REALLY was !!!
Bamm !!!! Inner voice rebuked me :-
“Ranita- IT IS ALEXA !!! And Not Republic!!!!! Why do you keep thinking of REPUBLIC day in and out?”
‘Oops,’ I said. I did plead guilty . I realized that the crosswiring between my heart and brain was the reason behind this early morning goof up. The brain functioned per the way my heart wanted it to, even if that was leading to the WRONG COMMAND!! Well, this was TURULOBH as they say! Some things what money can’t buy.
The trust, the dependence, the representation that we- the viewers have with the network- “Republic “is symbiotic in nature! We each live off each other in love , trust and care.
Somethings in life are priceless.
For everything else there is Mastercard.
Amen.
