The Lacksidasical Pen

SRK's detention at a US airport has hogged all limelights and front page news on every leading daily for the past three days. What a shame it is that our journalists do not have better news to cover and are wasting precious bytes on egomaniacs like SRK. Do you remember President Kalam making such a hue and cry about his frisking in US? It was only the headless chickens who decided to dig up the story months later.And to think of it, Dr Kalam's contribution to the Nation has been incomparable as compared to the stature which SRK assumes himself to be. For SRK this publicity may or may not payoff depending upon the quality of the film he is coming up with, but it sure does speak volumes about the crass quality of our journalism. Floods in Bihar , suffering millions, Impending fears about the forcing farmers to committ suicide, and we have nobody to bring it to the front page of news. But then, aren't we Indians exactly as we are reported to be? I remember reading an article sometime back about a British General's remark about "The slippery and treacherous Indians" We keep useless people like SRK at the top of the rungs while we leave out the backbones of our society on the lowest rungs. Do you think SRK's movie will bring a smile to a child who has not seen food in days or to someone whose house and life has been washed away in the floods? Obviously not ! What is more shocking is our lack of apathy every time we hear a farmer committing suicide. For us it is just another debt story, gone wrong! In our bid to move forward we are so untouched by the sorrow of those who suffer. We get affected by the whims and fancies of people like SRK, who can very well survive onslaught of any number of droughts or floods. As an Indian, I feel ashamed to see our media spending precious reporting space on such petty news. What a country does to protect itself, is none of our concern as we do not have our own house in order. Besides, if the Americans are paranoid about a person being a Khan, it is a NO Big Deal in itself. There have been glaring co-incidences world over and Fears have been more often been compounded by Facts ! Remember Al-Qaida,LeT,JEM, etc etc... A security guard at the airport is given the repsonsibility of protecting his country from unsafe elements, and if there is a rule book which he follows to do that, then it is their right to do so.It is after all the security of their country at stake. America may be vicious,voracious in its perception of the rest of the world, but their fears have more often than once, been so true. We have our own homegrown paranoia with such issues, however the difference is that the lacksidasical attitude of our security establishments which has created a huge mess to be cleant or rather, Suffered. Bottomline, SRK has quite effectively twisted the media around his little pinky !