I got back to Bangalore today after a 6 month stay in the UK. Good ol' Blore hasn't changed much really, the heat was tolerable for April, and the traffic just the same. I was browsing the telly today, and got my first real glimpse of the new 24/7 channel CNN IBN. They are running a special on Bangalore, and today's program was a talk show in front of the Vidhana Soudha about the 'State of Bangalore', a poll sponsored by CNN-IBN-Deccan Herald-Radio City-Udayavani-Le Monde-Playboy (ok, I made the last three up!). Commendable initiative by a news channel wanting to do something different, or so I thought. Here are some observations:
- Rajdeep Sardesai conducted the program in his usual in-your-bloody-eye style. I was concerned for Ram Guha and Ramesh Ramanathan, who were in serious danger of having their eyes gouged out by Rajdeep's rapier-like hands. There are many who like his style, but I don't. His confrontational attitude, over-the-top bluster and talking down style pisses me off. Methinks he tends to become larger than the interviewee and the issue on hand. But hey, he is probably better than most others we see on TV in any case, so I just have to live with it.
- Rajdeep continuously mispronounced 'Bengaluru' (pronounced Bengal - uru) as "bungaluru'. It may not seem to be as big a crime, but when the topic of discussion was the renaming of Bangalore as Bengaluru, he had no excuse for this mispronounciation. Lack of homework, or didn't really bother!
- This was my first glimpse of Kumaraswamy speaking in English. It was apparent to everyone that he was struggling in the language, but instead of helping him out (he is not on the podium for his English, but his views on policy and future direction), Rajdeep barely got him to say anything coherent, cutting him abruptly, cracking jokes which HDK couldn't get, and basically wasting a perfectly good opportunity to get him to talk about the plans.
- The AC Nielson poll was quite shoddy, to say the least. Ram Guha said as much, and Rajdeep tried to cram so many questions into a 1 hr program that no one issue was highlighted and discussed even in cursory detail.
- Dr. Rajkumar was voted as the most important Bangalorean according to the poll, with Dravid coming in 2nd and Kumble 3rd. However, instead of calling someone from Dr. Raj's family, they honoured Kumble on stage, with no explanation offered as to why Dr. Raj was not being honoured. Nothing against Kumble, God knows he deserves it all, but why not call Dr. Raj's sons or associates, or do a video recording of an interview with the ailing actor himself?
My first viewing of CNN IBN was quite disappointing. I really did not see anything here that wasn't similar to that on NDTV already. The Bangalore initiative concept is laudable, but execution left a lot to be desired IMHO. But what do I know?
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