Old Post: Last monsoons

As I start writing this blog, I am filled with the grim picture of Mumbai rain and the havoc it has wreaked across the country. Mumbai, the industrial and commercial heart of our nation was paralyzed for 2 days. As it was coming back to normalcy, yet another spell has come to the great misfortune of all the mumbaiites and us Indians.

We are trying to cope with the situation, and I am pretty sure we will. Though, there is one thing that will be forever engraved in my memory. The almost no-role played by Indian media that touches the heart of almost 60% of population. In fact, all they did was spread panic by various means like showing ghastly pictures of floods, of people crying and the disaster that Mumbai was. The question that arose in my mind was, is the media to be blamed or are we such people that panic and ONLY panic can take our attention to matters of national interest?

I started watching TV in the night of 31st July, when almost every Indian was shocked by the news of yet another spell on Mumbai. Every channel (I can name them but don't want to) were showing people coping with the floods. In my mind I was searching for something that the news failed to provide. With all the scientific breakthroughs, these news channels failed to provide any scientific information that the layman could use.

--> What EXACTLY happened that caused the 94 cm rain (a graphical analysis probably)?
--> Will the situation get worse or better and when?
--> Can this happen again and what seems the best solution to this?

I was waiting for at least one channel to bring a IMD meteorologist to get into a discussion, so people could ask questions. We know govt failed to understand the warning given by met dept. But with the power that media carries, should it just sit there and blame govt? Does it not have a responsibility to spread the warning to ordinary people?

With 50 years of free press behind us, and all this new age information revolution in India, if this is the state of media, I think part of the blame lies in us. People who can make change anyway form an opinion and people who cannot do anything are attracted by the panic-driven media.

The height of this panic-creation was another "breaking news" that some airline is routed to Delhi for emergency landing (London-Mumbai AI111). I was wondering what fun do this people get by creating such extremely sadistic moods in Indian people.

All in all a hopelessly dim condition arises because of this. And I believe we, the people with knowledge and information have a onus on us to change this!!