Flying Angel on the Globe:

Studying Map is an interesting activity. Lines drawn on the map do not only define the countries and border but also personify them by infusing some meaningful character which is often invisible to us. I found a flying angel (Gabriel) on our globe, and how true indeed: Gabriel it is.

In Islam, Gabriel was the medium through whom God revealed the Qur'an to Muhammad, and that he sent a message to most prophets, if not all, revealing their obligations. He is called the chief of the four favored angels and the spirit of truth. Islam originated in the heart of Saudi Arabia’s desert and spread all along the way surrounding it and today it commands life of around one fourth of earth’s population. A beautiful religion that have been showing way to billions of people for centuries has now come under a dark shadow as a result of war, sectarian clashes and terrorism, but nevertheless it will survive and will continue to guide people as long as sun shines.

Look at the angel and you will Egypt and Iran as its hand (or wings), who indeed worked as its wing while helping angel to take big leap in civilization with their unique and enlightened history.

Turkey proudly occupies the position of head. It’s the position it deserves, as it continues to be looked upon by other Arab states who desires to embark on the road of modern civilization in conformity with religion by following the “Turkey Model”.

Feet are Yemen and Oman, and angel is staggered on its feet, because of widespread anarchies facing by one of its feet – Yemen.  Yemen is grappled with problem of extremism, and soon it may find itself on receiving end of ‘GWOT’ (Global War on Terrorism). Hopefully Yemen will come out of it, as it know without it Angel cannot walk properly J .

United Arab Emirates (UAE) is at the flying end of angel’s cloak. Extra clothes represent luxury and when it comes to luxury no one can compete UAE. So it keeps angels extravagantly clothedJ.

Kuwait occupies a position where usually men keep their moneybag: Pocket of angel ;). This small country commands huge wealth. Saudi Arabia is nearly hundred times of the this tiny country but in terms of oil it only commands 6th times total oil reserve of Kuwait. This indicates that how much oil wealth concentrates in this tiny country.

Stomach and legs of angels are made of Saudi Arabia. Money of the Saudi Arabia is what fills the hunger of Angel and also gives it ability to stand on its leg. Without Saudi Arabia we cannot think of Middle East, neither do we can imagine Angel. Donations from Saudi Arabia pour into whole world to help the goodwill of angel fly all over world, though sometimes it is diverted or actually channeled for other purposes.

Iraq and Jordan occupies the heart position, as its ancient Mesopotamian civilization pumped the life-blood not only in whole Middle East while in whole world. Hope Iraq will resume on this position again as angel will be very weak without it, and there would be dire consequences for whole world if it dies.

Syria is the neck of angel and twisting it will jolt whole Middle East. We hope the power mongrel countries will leave Syria to its own conditions and let it sort its own problem by itself.

Each and every part of angel is essential for angel to continue to be in existence. If all parts work properly and cohesively, a healthy angel will fly jubilantly over the world and whole world will be showered with its magic and earth will be a best place on planet where only and only happiness exists J

News or Noise:

In the age of digital and free world (supposed to be), where print and electronic media is revolutionized beyond one’s imagination, it’s ironic that I am scare to open 90% of the news-channel, news paper, news-website because of their contents. Getting news is no more easy in this era of print and digital revolution, where India is supposed to be saturated with hundreds of news channel and paper. All we manage to get is some non-sense if we dare to flip through these channels or newspaper.

It was my personnel view till now, but no more as the same is resonated by non other but Chairman of Press council Of India (PCI) Justice Markandey Katju. He has endured criticism from different part of media, but his comment nonetheless describes the reality.

In this age of fierce competition where media organization is actually managed by people with degree in business administration , instead of people with experience in journalism, media is losing edge of what actually is called news. There is hardly any difference between news-channel or entertainment channel.

When I flip through different channels, I usually avoid coming across any new-channel (Barring few), which is quite capable of horrifying me. I remember when CERN was to first conduct experiment through Large Hadrons Collider (LHC) on 10th Sep, 2008, there were several rumor about safety of project, worse of all was destruction of world as result of that. I was curious and wanted to know more about the ongoing event. So I decided to watch news. What I came across was: “Breaking news: world is going to be destroyed because of planned LHC experiment by CERN. Only Kashi (a sacred city for Hindus) is going to be survived because it is standing on Shiva’s Trishul”. There were also showing interview of several babas of Kashi who were verifying the fact like an expert. I was flabbergasted; News channel could go no lower. It was not some exceptional case, general trend of news channels and newspaper reflect this, again barring few. The simple minded rural Indian take the words of news channel as the words of god. What affect this news will have on them. Instead of pushing India forward they are pushing it backward. How can anyone expect to root out centuries of feudal and unscientific blind faith from Indian society and establish a progressive and modern society, if the propagator of information (Media) only doing the exact reverse?

On very few news-paper front pages you would ever expect to find some important news. All we get is either news of some so called celebrity (Aishwarya’s Baby shower, Omar Abdullah’s divorce blah blah blah) or some scandal or controversy. 90% of the substance of any newspaper or channel contains something which could be clearly termed as entertainment section. Rest of the 10% struggles to put news. It could be easily understood that how much we Indians are missing. People die because of disease, hunger and poverty in one part of India, but other part of India is unaware of that as hardly any channel or paper finds a space for this news among their schedule crammed with so called popular news.  

I accept in this age of fierce competition one need to go with public mood to stay afloat. But who decides what the public mood is? I am also part of public and so do lots of others who are repulsed by today’s trend. As the Steve Jobs said, “Public never know what to buy”. It’s us who show them the way. Why not show them right way, instead of wrong? It’s easy to capture one’s attention with a picture with lots of color but only a picture that fulfills the criteria of art and quality capture one’s imagination and stay for the long time.

I am happy that in this competition and profit driven news industry there exists some few channels and newspaper whose constant endeavor is to keep us informed. The Hindu group is among them. Though they are little left oriented, but I don’t mind as even newspaper have right to have their own ideology. I have to adjust and balance my view accordingly, but in any case I get some proper and investigative news. I really appreciate them of standing for their ideology even in this age where it does not have any monetary values.

There are lots of happening around us and as a citizen of India we are entitled to know that. Its media’s responsibility to connect us with the rest of India and world. This is the demand of age and media have to listen to this.