AapaN yaannaa paahilat kaa?

A huge favourite of the Doordarshan generation, the serial Fauji is back on air, this time on Sahara One. Apparently, they air each evening, but they also play all the week's episodes on Sunday afternoon (which is what I chanced upon by accident). You will be happy to hear that the series hasn't been affected too much by time - the basic production values don't hamper your enjoyment of proceedings, while the story still has some interest on the repeat viewing. The dialogues are a little stilted for sure, but as a nostalgia trip, it still stands up.

SRK only appears third on the credits in this Colonel Kapoor helmed ode to the armed forces (detailing a commando training course), fittingly behind "elder brother Vikram Rai" (played by Rakesh Sharma) and the brother's lady-love (Amina Kapoor). There are some familiar faces and names, and much of it comes flooding back. We learnt the word "buddy", thought a lot of the catchphrase "I say chaps" and were chuffed at the veiled Pakistani references. Loy Mendonsa wrote a basic but memorable "CASIO" theme tune. So if you want to rewind memories of Lt. Abhimanyu Rai and mates, tune into Sahara when you can.

(tip-off by Sameer DS)

*** Watching Harsha & co. talk about cricket was like finding your favourite chair empty and easing into it after a long while. The collective brain-surgery by Mandira, Charu, Chika and co. has left me with many a migraine. Here it was back to the harmless antics of Gautam Bhimani and the sometimes soporific but usually reassuring accent of Alan Wilkins. Even though play was washed out, you could leave the discussion on and potter about. What a relief. *** News channels carried a few stories on Nov. 19th on the occasion of the first anniversary of Manjunath Shanmugham, the slain IOC employee, reporting progress on the story and covering some new initiatives by the Trust established in his name.

On CNN-IBN, Bhupendra Chaubey interviewed Anjali Mullatti, one of the trustees, and proceeded to ask a fairly annoying question on whether IIM grads only highlight this issue once a year. Now, I haven't been following the activities of the Trust and am as neutral an observer as possible. Even I have read (on blogs) and heard about some of the activities around the year, first in raising money for the case and then for other initiatives. To question this commitment was patently unfair to these people, however large or small their numbers be, and the very fact that new initiatives like the RTI helpline have been implemented speak of much activity behind the scenes. To her great credit, Ms. Mullatti replied that it was just the media that focussed on the story once in a year and that a lot of work was happening.

I think we need to be careful in our cynicism and criticism. It would help more if news channels did not make a spectacle of the grieving family, like one story which ended its piece-to-camera by getting the parents to pose awkwardly with photos of their grieving son in the background.
(Read Gaurav's post on the anniv.)