Arnab Goswami- Thanks for stimulating my parents' brains

I have been following Indian Politics since November, 2013. One fine day, I paid for the channels, including Indian News Channels. My life here sucks. I care for my old parents and nothing exciting is happening. I nap during afternoon but still feel drowsy around 8.30 PM. I tried different channels. I love watching tamil movies. They are a drag many times. I listen to music. It puts me to sleep. I need to be awake to have a good night sleep. My daughter left for USA and my Son in Law left for his hometown in January. With nothing to look forward to, I have been wasting until one fine day when I switched on to Times Now, a news channel. What it shows is just a repetition of news made before 10 am each and every day. I could paraphrase everything, by the serial order. My eyes wouldn’t stay open. I try.

And then it happened around 9 PM. I suddenly started to hear some noise. It became louder and louder. People were screaming. I opened my eyes. Six guests and a host. The host Mr. Arnab Goswami is talking and talking and talking. Everyone who is a guest waiting in bated breath. Then the question is thrown. It is like starved animals looking at a carcass. All hell breaks loose. Everyone talks, all at the same time. It is not just a cross talk.It is more than that. Everyone, speaking to their lungs fullest capacity, pitching as loud as they can,as though it is a dying statement from someone who wants it to be recorded, or a shrill plea from a person who is walked towards the gallow. The host has a good team who does research. All the information is provided to him. The problem is he doesn’t know to pick the best and make his point. He reads, or gives a lecture based on the information he has grasped. His brain doesn’t permit him to analyse or let him think in an abstract manner. As a host, he holds the sway. Poor Representatives of the Political Organizations, get pulped and mashed by him, happily joined by others who sit there and thank their stars for not having their head on the chopping block. They are happy to play along and are grateful and thankful to the host for giving them a reprieve. They get their cues from the host to cause death by a thousand cuts on the one who defends his party that is being ridiculed, by talking loudly, non stop till they hear the host call for a time out. By that time, the host is prepared with his next salvo. Remember with all the tamasha that is going around, my eyes are fixed to the television, my ears trying to listen to what I think makes sense from a guest, but the noise drowns the message. I am frustrated. But couldn’t think of changing the channel. I am mesmerized by the self promoting advertisement that is shown every fifteen minutes, reminding every viewer that it is the most watched channel, numbers which tops more than twice of all news channels combined. I tell myself that It’s got to be good. I can’t look stupid if I get to speak to someone someday when I get a break from my daily routine. But until such time- I decided to try to get the best out of Times Now.

One day I visited my parents around 9 PM. My dad in bed, sleeping with his mouth wide open. My mom sitting on a dining chair with her head on the table and one hand on her food plate, dozing. I switched channels and got to the Times Now Channel. I slowly increased the volume. The caregivers were lazing around. I am sure they were upset as I changed from the channel which showed their favorite serials. And then hell broke loose at home. MY mom immediately straightened up hearing Arnab and her bloodshot eyes kept staring at the TV. My Dad forgetting that he has been recovering from surgery for his hip fracture, tried to sit and kept saying, “whats, whats going on”. The pain stopped him from jumping out of his bed. There are times I have wondered and worried about my parents slow response or delayed ones which has got me all confused. I have decided to use Arnab Goswami’s program as a neurological test to verify their brain activities in the future. Thank you Mr. AG.