A Letter is a Joy, No doubt!

Well this is going to be weird. For the first time since I started blogging, I felt like sharing something really personal, as a 
testimony to a wonderful friend I have! Chinni Chintu! Yeah, she rocks! :D


For this to make any sense, I ll have to fill you in, May 15th 2011, the last day at BITS Pilani,we were bidding farewell to each other when Chinni said, we should write to each other and stay in touch not only through calls and mails, it will be nice to have something to save, in an unconventional way. After 3 months in Bangalore, when I left to Delhi, I started writing to her! Here goes..

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Dear Chinni, 21st March 2012
Wednesday, 19:48


When I first wrote to you,even when I was to write a simple letter I was scared stiff as if faced with looming seasickness. I am writing this letter in a very very very very.. yeah, keep that going for 2 days and you ll get to.. right about how happy I am, right now. Well, here it is.. Sometime around Nov 15th last year, I was reading the newspaper and underlining away to glory (yeah, thats what I do now! ;) ), when I saw this headline about a boeing crashing down in Haryana,saying one of the cockpit pilots lost his life, that was also the time around which I started writing letters to you.. I got the details of the guild which he belonged to, and wrote down a condolence.. Well, it was not a war, but I just felt like writing. Today, I got a postcard, I think it would be more appropriate to say, a 'Thank you' note saying that the letter meant something to the family. I am very happy seeing the reply!It is beyond me!I just read it with a grin from ear to ear! I did not expect that a 'postcard' would make me so happy! Walking on air, I must say! I owe this to you, Chinni! You made me take interest in writing to you, whatever it might be about.If memory serves me correctly,today, in the 6 months I have been writing to you, for the first time, I feel like I am writing something that is worth the postage. Elated, I am! This feeling is oddly unsettling! Love you Chinni, you are one person who just brings the best out of me! Love does not come to you only through calls, e-mails, msgs and Facebook,I would love to write something that is worth reading, and if not, something atleast worth the postage.. It is good to know that someone is ready to read what you wrote,even if it is not worth reading and that it is always means a lot to them! Love you Chinni, for not letting me give up my old habits for the new..! :) I know, I ll love reading them even 50 years from now because, Its good to know, someone remembers and treasures your handwriting.. Leaving behind, a value legacy!
Love,
Ravali (Snug as a bug in a rug!)


PS: I ran out of inland covers the other day, and when I went to the post office and asked for 20 of them. I got one of the weirdest stares I ever got!Call me old fashioned,but I am learning to write! It feels good!
Out of ink now,till I next write to you then! Take care..


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To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.

Yellow Journalism | Prohibit Pulitzer or A Riot against Randolph?

39,775 newspapers

4,207 dailies
14,00 telivision stations
India: The second largest market in the world for newspapers


After waking up late and reading the Newspaper for some time, I was really keen on doing something fun to make up for my extremely lazy weekend that summer all I could come up with, is some junk food by my side and a remote control!! :D Seee.. You are right.. Television! :D is the only thing that comes to mind.. right?

Huh.. Wait for it..
That was not the first time I heard of a criminal offense in the city, but.. Butchering is what we can call, pestering an already chafed and galled mother, Tears streaming down her cheeks, refusing to stop, of
the utterly agonizing murder of her eumoirous daughter, with unending questions for that was what I see when I was lazily scanning through those news channels. The controlled tears brimming in her eyes asked several questions.. Her tears, went unanswered!

'Bing!!'
There.. I commute to a safer zone frustrated with the urge to find something soothing.. Eventually ending up with those channels which are least bothered even if the third world war is about to commence, and all that matters is a spouse's distress in a daily serial which is not even remotely TRUE!! What we see is a young lad challenging his so-called-mentor (who are never, surprisingly, taken-aback) about his skills, everything that shows his disrespect and overconfidence which comes to a young lad whenever there is a corrected ego as a result, masquerading his actual reason of being there! Couldn't take it any longer..

That is it! There is a 'Bing!!' Here again!!
To yet another station which interestingly anchors.. Of how they sold their soul to the craving before mutilating innocence!

Lol things?? Haha! There was this ‘one n half hour’ program on a celebrity’s marriage and his affairs!! Yeah, admirers would want to know personal details.. But one n half hour?!!! Come on!! And may be if I waited, they would have spoken about many other ‘sensational’ things. So, when you wonder why someone on the TV says they spoke to Obama aide and that aide said Obama will drop out soon, just remember what Yellow Journalism is. When you want to know why MSNBC trashes Hillary, dismiss it as move on and don't give in to the "shock value" that drives what they report and how they report it.

Need less to say, A country with the second largest market in the world for newspapers, that country which ranks 4th in the list of countries by number of television broadcast stations, is no exception, invigorated by the Yellow fever! Lack of good is not what a person is complaining about!! Ethics! Lack of ethics is what is being questioned here!!

There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil, is something that was long forgotten by the media that is now suffering with the yellow fever.. "Yellow journalism" (The Spanish American war did not teach anything! No aversive stimulus! Rather promised a reward’!! ) Today, the most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust. A free press will either be good or bad but a press without freedom is nothing but bad. Well if 'freedom' was understood as sensationalism, distorted stories, and misleading images for the sole purpose of boosting newspaper sales and exciting public opinion. A small voice in my head says.. 'Sorry, we are not for it!' (Conveniently unheeding the other instincts)

Meanwhile, the TRP ratings for all those 'Bing!!!s' reach a sky-high value... I don't pause and say "Uff!!! Audience!!" ( Wanna add more?! ) Ratings=Money that's what it is all about.We talk about a free press. They hide, behind the slogans of free press make a lot of money, they can come out with any crap. It's an insult to the readers.

They make us believe things.
The first search result on Google India for ‘Trust in media’ is
“Don’t trust Indian Media!” (Yeah, ‘with’ an exclamation!!!)
It is still the same, they make us be’LIE’ve things.

What is to be done? Prohibit Pulitzer?? Riot against Randolph?? Haahh!! Why not conveniently go for the 'None of the above' option? Now, all of sudden after so many years of yellow fever, A HRC comes up to realize the violation of the Human Rights 'in every aspect', yet giving an open chance to the respective TV channel managements to discuss on the verdict delivered by Commission which ofcourse obviously goes into the list of the conveniently tackledtaboos.. Quest to impute someone?? The media? The system? Or the audience?? Whom?? Or may be.. I let myself go for the 'None of the above' again... Slyly raking through those 14,00 options infront of me for something that is less disturbing... Or may be, thought provoking!! Well, if this is the case.. How many of you chose none of the above??
BREAKING NEWS!!! ??? When they begin to look like the rest of them, It's hard to pull them back. Astray. Dismiss it and move on, and don't fall for it. I think we're all smarter than this. But deep down somewhere, I know.. Someday Sometime.. I ll find another option and I ll choose that, to make a change! The ungratified mind rants.. Though clearly ignored...
Bing!!!