Selective activism has been in vogue. & why not, charity afterall is only cleavage deep. That TOI, one of the least respected and most popular newspaper has learnt this over the past few days shows the way.
Keeping objectification of woman aside, we forget the objectification of humanity that this pick & choose method of activism does. A tabloid known for its raunchiness (sic entertainment) picks up an actress in a paparazzi act, and behold the nation has found a cause to take up. To add, in the free time, we get over passing all the entertainment (sic sleazy) content on whatsapp. Who anyways has heard of the widows of Vrindavan, they are the art film material anyways.
There is a reason a TOI triumphs over an Hindu - because we let it. A GK quiz question - who is Irom Sharmila? It's because only blockbusters sell - whether in films, in politics or in activism - & so do they fade out. Life as a struggle continues for the rest.
Our gods may have come from the depths of the outer space but our monsters are native & indigenous. TOI did what it does to survive, remain contemporary to its audience. This controversy besides, it will continue to do so and flourish till it decides to go the way of an idealist journalist.
It is a forgettable experience of reading about crotch, nipples and vagina in a newspaper and hopefully forgettable will be the activism around it. That TOI is the national commode daily is common knowledge, that we will continue to zoom further in the zoomed about images of cleavages is an existential (sic ugly) truth. Let Irom Sharmila be googled till then, let the widows of Vrindavan be sent back to wherever they don't belong. There is a blockbuster activism playing around now, next change will be another one. Till then, the nation wants to know...nothing.
Keeping objectification of woman aside, we forget the objectification of humanity that this pick & choose method of activism does. A tabloid known for its raunchiness (sic entertainment) picks up an actress in a paparazzi act, and behold the nation has found a cause to take up. To add, in the free time, we get over passing all the entertainment (sic sleazy) content on whatsapp. Who anyways has heard of the widows of Vrindavan, they are the art film material anyways.
There is a reason a TOI triumphs over an Hindu - because we let it. A GK quiz question - who is Irom Sharmila? It's because only blockbusters sell - whether in films, in politics or in activism - & so do they fade out. Life as a struggle continues for the rest.
Our gods may have come from the depths of the outer space but our monsters are native & indigenous. TOI did what it does to survive, remain contemporary to its audience. This controversy besides, it will continue to do so and flourish till it decides to go the way of an idealist journalist.
It is a forgettable experience of reading about crotch, nipples and vagina in a newspaper and hopefully forgettable will be the activism around it. That TOI is the national commode daily is common knowledge, that we will continue to zoom further in the zoomed about images of cleavages is an existential (sic ugly) truth. Let Irom Sharmila be googled till then, let the widows of Vrindavan be sent back to wherever they don't belong. There is a blockbuster activism playing around now, next change will be another one. Till then, the nation wants to know...nothing.
