Gossip in the name of news

All men are equal before God and the law. Then why is that ‘we’ lesser mortals feel compelled to categorise everything? Including the race of Homo sapiens? There are ripe mangoes and there are raw mangoes, there are inbred dogs and exotic dogs, there are classy clothes and trashy clothes; ok categorising all these things may make some sense at a commercial level. But classifying people; rich and poor, urban and rural, educated and uneducated and subjecting different categories of people to a different set of rules and opportunities! Completely unfair!

That said; let’s consider the SRK hullabaloo of abusing a security guard and getting banned nor it. Well, I cry foul! No one interviews me when my editor blasts me; it never becomes a topic of debate when I have a brawl with my neighbour every evening over his parking sense, or when I get into a rage at the fellow behind me when he tries to jump the queue at the movie theatre. Actually I don’t think I should be complaining seeing poor Shah Rukh Khan’s plight, I might actually be getting away with a lot. Anyway, anything Shah Rukh does demands so much attention; his every word needs to be debated upon, his every micro-expression deciphered. And all this only because we cannot contain our urge to classify people and pay too much attention to some and too little to others.

At the end of the day, he is just like any of us. We would be irked if somebody shoved and pushed our children around; whether we are drunk or not. Whatever category we choose to put him in, he will still remain just human; nothing more and nothing less.

Now continuing with the debate of our urge for indulging in an exaggerated curiosity for a few and an equally diminished interest in even the being of others, I don’t see much coverage being given to the other party in the fracas, and whatever is heard, is again that of the angry young man and father’s version. In the court of the public, the not so rich and famous don’t have the right to defend themselves. His plight has been getting no takers. The poor fellow is armed only with a now-stuck-now-shrill whistle and a uniform for whatever respect it commands. And he is expected to manage a highly volatile crowd, which has nothing pinned to the shoulders distinguishing the ordinary from VIP, VVIP or Do not Touch.

Now in reel life, the roles would have been reversed with SRK being the whistle-wielding righteous crusader of his ilk, faithfully discharging his duty while singing ‘I am the best’ from the side of his whistle-blowing mouth. And while packing rebellious arrogant rich kids in an orderly queue, he would have bashed up all the ugly macho guards surrounding the rich father and his spoilt brats with a bloody nose, tear-filled eyes and victory oozing out of every gymned muscle. The lesson to take from this for the now-contrite family and the audience would be that the law is one for all citizens in our land.

All of us choose to play a part and try to do our best at it. He chose to be our time-pass and he does his job well. And why shouldn’t he? He is paid well for it. (Did I hear someone say a little overpaid?) Anyway, his job is to keep us entertained in our spare time, so why must we allow him to spill over and occupy our productive time also?

We should not make SRK and his antics nationwide news, or better, we could humour his histrionics as an occupational hazard most actors seem to suffer, or sympathise with the father playing out a reel role to protect his daughter in real life. Not to propagate gossip in the name of news will help.

The writer works for Postnoon.

Tags: featured, From the Hip, full-image, gossip, IPL 2012, Shahrukh Khan

Category: Opinion