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Monday, February 27, 2006

Equating the e-Quotient

Sensing the lack of excitement in my voice, my mother dubbed me an anti-Northeast Dilliwallah. In a nation hooked to high emotion talent-hunts, showing disinterest in programmes of public popularity brings forth some uncomplimentary comments. Debojit Saha from Silchar, Assam winning the 'coveted' Sa Re Ga Ma Pa on Zee TV should have had me partying all night and distributing sweets to my colleagues. The fact that I didn't even watch the show (which ended in its unearthly climax well past midnight), was unforgivable. I was made to feel as if I had missed an India-Pakistan Cricket World Cup final.

The males in the family were of the opinion that Debojit had bridged the gap of animosity and distrust amongst the different communities of the Northeast, and bound them into one for a cause - to make Debojit win, to let for once the Northeast win against the hegemonistic tendencies of the dominant India. He won, they won. The producers won, the channel won, the mobile service providers won, neighbourhood sweetshop owners won and Shivakashi also won.

The last time when I went vacationing home and stretched my itinerary to Assam's Barak Valley - the place from where Debojit hails - the initial impression was that there were some elections on. The town walls were pasted with posters demanding SMSes in favour of their local boy. Locality youth clubs ran special 'awareness' drives. The place must have erupted with joy and celebration.

But I'm not asking anyone. "Did you vote Debojit?" would be the inevitable question. I wouldn't like to lie, nor would I like to be branded something more unflattering.

6 Comments:

dwaipayan said...

ha haha........ and my little crazy cousin is saying that the other contestant was more deserving. which i oppose.......anyway, a good way to see it. and hey, neither me has seen the show for more than 10 mins so far

San said...

oh he didn't deserve to win imo, he wasn't the best contestant. I'm not saying he wasn't good but others were better. I quite enjoyed this show until the ego bashing between the mentors started to take place and as soon as Hemu left the show I quit watching.

Hemachandra should have won, but it seems that the voting trends were more personal rather then objective.

@ Dwaipayan - Vineet the other contestant was far more consistant in his performances and if I had to pick between debo and him i'd deffo pick Vineet.

Pallavi said...

yeah here too there was this sms fever.... but it was good to have him win..

Ashi said...

who is debojit

Anonymous said...

ahem.....

Something similar happened to me during Indian Idol...Amit Sana was from Bhilai...he same place as me..a small town in Chattisgarh...and there was SO MUCH pressure to vote for him...I didnt even watch the show!!

Madhavan said...

very nice feel to this piece...nice, rhythmic writing