The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Monday, 27 October 2014

DIWALI, MODI, GADKARI'S HELMET, MAHARASHTRA, BLACK MONEY AND MANY MORE. BUT THE FARM SUICIDE?

Diwali celebrations were in the air and are still continuing in many parts of the country. It made for news headlines and many shows. Understandable.

Narendra Modi was in Jammu & Kashmir on the Diwali day to spend time with the flood victims. He was there to show solidarity with the Indian soldiers in Siachen and the flood victims in J&K. He held high level meetings and announced fund from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. It contributed to the second largest chunk of editorial planning on the Diwali day. Understandable.

The Maharashtra political scene was not clear on two fronts after BJP emerged as the largest party in the state but 23 short of majority mark of 245 in the Maharashtra assembly. One, who would be the Maharashtra chief minister from BJP. Two, what price BJP would extract from Shiv Sena to oblige the Thackeray party as the 'junior partner' in the alliance. The newsmaking treadmill has continued unabated since then. Understandable.

Black money issue has been an evergreen fodder and was making for news headlines midst the reports that the government was about to disclose names in the court. Though a damp squib so far based on today's developments, the issue has infinitely immense potential to oil the newsmaking machinery. Understandable.


A Shahrukh Khan starrer was to be released and it did roaring business in the opening weekend and made for loads of entertainment based content in media programming. Understandable.

Nitin Gadkari's helmetless riding was caught on camera and transport minister of India along with his scooter became the talking point on social media and in mainstream media. Made for good visual story with scope for 'sorts' of debates on 'moral and ethical' issues over it. Understandable.

Communal clashes broke up in a part of Delhi and it threatened peace and harmony if not contained. A balanced newsmaking approach to it was required. Understandable.

All these and many other developments were adding to the foliage that makes for the fodder of the mainstream news media content. And the supply has been copious. And the supply to product conversion ratio has been in abundance making their outreach clearly visible.

On the Diwali day, news-reports came that said six farmers in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra had committed suicide within 24 hours. Erratic monsoon and the resultant agrarian loss forced them to take the extreme step. And mind you, these must not be seen as mere numbers. The region, like many other parts of India, has been facing agrarian crisis and farm suicides. According to the reports, the Vidarbha region has seen over 11000 farm suicides since 2001 and the figure this year so has reached to over 900. Yet, it did not make for the news headlines the way above-mentioned issues/developments were picked up.

And this has been like this. The question mark that it puts has been there for quite long. This time also, the trend continued.

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/