ENTERTAINMENT ESCAPADES

BEAUTY HAS MANY dimensions, but its essence is succinctly captured in the well-honed axiom: "Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder".

- Kiran Karnik

Random ruminations on this led me to discover that entertainment too lies in what the beholder chooses to perceive. This epiphany, unlike Newton's, was not triggered by a falling apple; rather, it came as one surfed through a dozen Indian channels looking for that elusive needle in the haystack: news. Surprisingly, not a single news channel seemed to have any news!

What every channel had on-air was some sort of discussion amongst multiple people. Disappointment and dismay that news channels had no news, gave way to curiosity. However, the challenge of deciphering the topic was tougher than solving a five-star Sudoko puzzle. Focussing, instead, on who might win the debate, it seemed the competition was about who is the loudest and most aggressive. Of course, it took only a few viewings to figure out that the winner in each one was the channel anchor.

Soon, one was almost addicted to watching this: not for the content (that was vague, and hardly seemed to matter to any of the participants; in any case, none had any special expertise), but for the sheer entertainment of the screaming, shouting drama that unfolded day after day. In the heyday of educational TV, one of the approaches was "education as entertainment". Here was "news as entertainment" - except that there was no news, leaving the viewer to savour pure, unadulterated entertainment!

NEWS AS ENTERTAINMENT