PS. There is an analogy to the universal solution for the desktop computer. Minimize all windows, right click on the desktop and click Refresh a couple of time. That supposedly solves all the problems. Or if that doesn’t work, there is the good ol’ format command. Guaranteed to solve all your PC problems.

Last night he had gone out to watch a movie and had not paid much attention to the message. But now Rajit dialled the number from which the SMS had come. Strangely, there was no such number. Now curious, Rajit switched on his computer. He entered the number into a search engine online and tried to find out if any one else had received such a message. Zero results.

I got to check this out, Rajit thought. The Jalputra river was just on the outskirts of the town he lived in. There was a single bridge over the river. An old dilapidated bridge, it was built many years ago and was now unused. The reason why the message seemed all the more mysterious to him was the fact that someone knew that Rajit lived near the river and had specifically targeted him. All this caused a keen sense of intrigue in his mind. He was a great fan of mystery novels. And he loved to write about mysteries too. And here was a mystery waiting for him in his own town. What’s the harm in checking it out anyway? he thought. If it is a prank played by someone, well and good. If there was some actual mystery waiting for him, it would make for a great post on his blog, he figured.

He called out to his mother, saying that he was going out for some work and would be back by 8pm. Rajit planned to visit the bridge and see what the SMS was all about. Then he’d probably spend some time with his friends before heading back home for dinner. He put on the hands-free connection and pumped up the volume on his mobile. Rajit started his bike and made his way towards the highway. The Jalputra river was to the south of town and it would probably take him about 20-30 minutes depending on the traffic.

The traffic was unusually light for this time of the day. He had now reached the highway. Another five minutes and he would be near the bridge. Far ahead he could already see the river. The Jalputra river was the major source of water for his town and other neighbouring villages and this time of the year it was overflowing with water. The sun was setting at one end of the horizon and it looked as if the river had flowed out of the sun.

As he parked his bike near the bridge, he stopped. Did he just hear what he think he heard? Did someone just whisper “Welcome” in his ears? Or was it just the song? Carefully Rajit removed his helmet, and took off the headphones. It was just the song, he figured. He placed the helmet on his bike and locked the bike. Rajit made his way towards the bridge. It was deserted. Not many people come here anyway. This bridge was built some 20-30 years ago by the municipality and had been damaged during a flood. Now with broken railings and arches, it was barely walkable. He stepped his way across the gaps in the bridge and made his way to the center.

Rajit was half-expecting that his friends would probably be hiding somewhere behind the bushes. They would scream and jump out and have a merry laugh at Rajit’s expense. Then they would all go back to the local mithaiwalla and have some hot samosas. At least Rajit had taken up the dare bravely, he thought.

But there was no such scream. There was just the whistling of the wind between the branches of the trees bordering the river bank. The water flowed furiously below the bridge and the rickety bridge vibrated lightly with the water’s force. Rajit had reached the centre of the bridge and had found nothing strange. Except for the sounds of nature around him, there was nothing. Slowly his ears become impervious to even those sounds. The birds which were chirping had stopped. There was now a pin drop silence. He just stood there looking blankly out at the river. Rajit wanted to turn around and walk back to his bike quickly. He wanted to meet his friends and go back home. But something stopped him from doing so.

The sun had now gone below the horizon and there was a reddish hue in the sky. Rajit moved near the broken railing of the bridge. Then he saw it. On the railing, between the layers of peeled-off paint, someone had scratched with a sharp object. Rajit slowly read what was written on the railing, and he stared at the words,”look below rajit.”

He stepped back instinctively and almost tripped. His leg was trapped among one of the gaps in the bridge. He carefully lifted his leg out from the hole and steadied himself. He walked back to the railing. He leaned over and stared at the water flowing beneath the bridge. The water was clear and he could see the bottom. There were rocks, and stones and other debris on the riverbed. All kinds of shapes seemed to be trembling in the water. He strained his eyes to get a steady look. And then he saw it. His eyes just froze. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t take his hands off the railing. He darted his eyes away from the water back to the words on the railing. First he thought he had just imagined what he saw in the water. But he was too afraid to look back to check. He would not check. With great effort, he put his hand in his pocket and took out his mobile. He slowly composed a message on the screen, “If you’re brave enough, go visit the bridge over the Jalganga river between 6-7pm tomorrow” and sent it out to his friend. He put the mobile back into his pocket. As soon as he heard the familiar double beep of the delivered SMS, he climbed on to the railing. And then he took a step forward into the dark water and in the trees, the birds started chirping.

So finally someone has done it. A batsman has hit 200 runs in One Day International cricket. And what can be more satisfying than the fact that the person who most deserved to get this has done so. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar has become the first cricketer to score 200 runs in ODIs. And by no means was it against a weak side. It was against South Africa who may have reduced in strength from their days of glory yet are still a power to reckon with.

Today’s knock seemed effortless to Sachin. As he found himself reaching nearer the magical yet elusive score of 200, he had the whole of India supporting him. From what I heard from friends and colleagues later, entire office cateens were filled cheering for Sachin. Online, twitter was buzzing (no pun intended) with four of ten trending topics related to Sachin’s 200.

People were more eager to see Sachin on strike than to see Dhoni hit sixes and fours. The moment of victory came in the last over. Although he had reached his previous highest score of 194 in the 46th over itself, it was only in the final over that he managed to get the strike for the final run. And when he did get the strike, sachin wasted no time playing the ball gently away to take a single. It was a muted yet one of his most important runs.

And when he reached the other side, a volcano erupted in India. Sachin had arrived on the cricket scene. Once again. For the little master, the journey has been long. Filled with ups and down, battling injuries and criticisms over his ability to continue playing, his career has had a major peak this year. The little master still bats strong, able to demolish the strongest of bowling atacks in a mere couple of hours. If there was a player who has tilted more matches in his team’s side, it is Sachin.

Along with the achievement of being the first to score 200, this was a fitting reply to the recent controversy which dogged him briefly. The Shiv Sena had questioned his integrity in one of their editorials. Although the Indian public and media had rallied with Sachin and the issue fizzled out quickly, this was the answer Sachin was waiting to give. They say the pen is mightier than the sword, but Sachin’s bat proved mightier than their  pen.

It is amazing how much love, adulation and respect the man commands (and rightfully deserves) from the people of India. There are hardly a handful who can claim of such adoration, less who actually deserve it. Sachin is someone who can bring India together, halt the whole country to a stand-still when he’s batting and can be sure that the country shares his grief when he gets run out on 99 due to a bad call.

Hats off to this utter genius of a player. May he amass hundres of runs more and give Indians something to look up to, and future generation something to talk about. Once upon a time there was a legend such as Sachin Tendulkar. This is how coaches in the future will introduce Sachin to young aspiring cricketers.

For instance, this is what the lady had to say while quoting her rates.

Rs 400 – Washing clothes (assuming 4 people)
Rs 600 – Washing utensils, drying them and placing them in the cupboard (400 for washing and 200 for drying)
Rs 400 -Jhaadu pocha.
Rs 400 – Dusting furniture (excluding windows)
Rs 200 – Cleaning windows.
Rs 200 – Cleaning bathrooms.

That works out to around Rs 2200 for a month’s worth of work. And oh yes, before I forget, here’s the clincher – the paid-leave clause. The lady is expected to take 2 days of leave per month. But if she doesn’t, you have to give her that two days’ worth of pay.

Wow, even I have never gone into such a level of detail during my salary negotiations. Maybe this is not a bad strategy to adopt. After this level of detail, you just don’t have any room left for negotiation. You pick what you want to get done, and do the rest yourself. Obviously the wife isn’t too thrilled about this.

Let’s see, hoping the previous maid resolves all her family problems and returns. Else it is time to tighten the purse strings and make some difficult choices.

The first couple of minutes of the movie, even before the opening titles, show in a nutshell what TV journalism in India has become. The film further reveals that slowly and surely, even TV channels which were, previously thought of to be upright and unbiased in their coverage of news, get caught up in the race to gain more viewer-ship. So here are my five reasons why you should forget what Ram Gopal Verma has given us in the past, and watch Rann.

1) The growing sensationalism in the media - Unless you’ve been living under a rock for all these years, you know what news on Indian TV has degenerated into. In the race for garnering more viewer-ship, more ad revenues and more TRPs, news has been relegated to the sideline while at the same time, a generous dose of entertainment (mindless to say the least) has been mixed in the programming. The movie explores a few reasons for the same.

As Rajpal Yadav’s characters explains to a director in the movie – “We both are in the same business. You make films, we also make films. Only we call it news.”

Some would say this mix is harmless. What’s wrong if you can get a little entertainment out of news channels as well? But the danger lies in the future when it would be difficult to distinguish between the entertainment part and the actual news part. This movie is for all those people who are already ignorant of this distinction. This movie is for all those people who are tired of the rampant “Breaking News” permanently plastered on TV channel screens.

2) Hard hitting facts - The movie discloses a few facts about how politicians and business-people can manipulate the media into twisting or actually creating news stories out of thin air. Without directly mentioning the parties involved (but giving enough clever hints), RGV has picked up (real) stories from all across India to give an example of the nexus between politics-business and politics-TV media. How many journalists today can honestly say that they haven’t compromised on the quality or content of the news which they report in order to get a few more eyeballs?

4) Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? This is a Latin phrase from a Roman poet, but made famous by Dan Brown in his novel Digital Fortress. The literal translation of the phrase is “Who will guard the guardians?” If the sole medium through which we receive our news are the TV channels and newspapers, who will ensure that the veracity of these news is unquestionable? As is shown in the movie, if facts can be distorted or reversed at the mere mention of money or power, whom will the common man believe when he is watching the news? The scenario described is not far from the Orwellian control of all media by the government or a part of private industry.

3) Rajpal Yadav’s histrionics – Rajpal Yadav plays a wannabe TV anchor at India 24×7 who wants to bring in more creative programming on the channel. In order to achieve this purpose, the character practices – in front of the mirror – the now famous mannerisms of the “b-grade” anchors who have built a whole genre of programs on TV with their loud intonation and their exaggerated descriptions of news. Think . If you jog back your memory a few years back, this trend was most probably started by the now forgotten Suhaib Ilyasi for India’s Most Wanted. But thankfully, RGV has kept this character in limits. Even though you would enjoy the face tweaks and gestures of this enthusiastic reporter, the seriousness of the film would have gone for a toss if he had been given more screen-time.

5) Last but not the least, Amitabh’s and Paresh Rawal’s performance. None of the actors in Rann have a dominating presence in terms of screen-time, but as is expected of them, these two towering personalities put everything into the screentime allocated to them. Paresh Rawal, as the scheming politician Mohan Pandey is menacing and not far from today’s politicians.

The movie has its down-sides too. Some parts of the movie are typical Bollywood. For instance, the part where everyone receives an SMS at the same time on their mobile revealing the truth of Mohan Pandey is hilarious. The telecom companies would have made a killing in this part. One major irritating aspect of the making of the movie was the camera angles. RGV’s cinematographer tried the same angles he tried in Sarkar 2 and fails miserably. Since the movie was about TV news, the least the director could have done is to try out a news studio kind of setup. A static multiple camera setup would have been better than the shaky, twisting angles which the cameraman constantly tries. It’s like the cameramen wanted to go for a susu but the director wouldn’t let him.

All in all, the message that Rann is trying to send across is beautifully exemplified in one of the lines Yashwardhan Malik Vijay Harshvardhan Malik speaks in his closing news broadcast in the film.

…”[For the media industry, ] news was supposed to be the goal, with money being a medium. However, today money has become the goal, with news becoming a medium…”