The Political Soap

I was a little saddened with the IPL drawing to a close…it was a routine for me. Getting back from office, landing directly on the bean bag and watching which ever match was being played… it did not matter who was playing whom. And like all good things it had to come to an end. Left a huge void in the 8 to 1130 PM slot…What do I do when I get back home?

I am not particularly a fan of Soaps… the saas bahu types. But I chanced upon the Political Soaps that run in the news channels nowadays. The twists and plots that they brew up is absolutely original and gives you a rush most often than not. Every week our news channels diligently take issues and blow the hell out of its proportions. Then there is this ‘tamasha’ they call debate. One of the main news readers would take the lead and shoot seemingly uncomfortable questions. This, interestingly, will be very comfortably fended off by ‘spoke persons’ from different political circus troops.

I am not politically inclined…probably a little inclined away. Nor does any of the politicians of today inspire me. You must be wondering why on earth did I stop at a news channel while zooming away towards VH1. To be frank, some of the news readers are very good looking, the women that is. And I mean it in a very good way. Yeah, you got my point…

A typical evening show begins with the news reader picking out, an unnoticed incident otherwise, and placing it in front of us. He invites people who are I think paid for these visits, and initiates the debate. Another intriguing aspect is the audience poll on these issues. They read out the results at the end of the show and there are people, who have actually sent in the SMS, I would like to meet one of them. Some have live tweeting during the program too…just in case you wanted to speak your mind!

I am not politically inclined. And I don’t know if any of those debates makes any sense. The guys who hurl at each other, all the filth they can lay their hands on, don’t have any commitment to the topic of their own. They are spokes persons. The wag the way they have been asked to. Another interesting aspect to these soaps is that, you don’t have to put up with ‘elastic’ scripts which are stretched across several weeks. The issues that are picked up are not debated for more than a week, to keep the interest levels high, I suppose. A lesson for the less evolved Soap directors. May be they should get some news houses to do their scripts.

I think a disclaimer is valid here…I am not rubbishing all the politicians and all of news readers. But the incompetent ones out-number the good ones by a huge margin that even the law of averages at times is a failure here…

Again, I am not politically inclined. I watch it for the sheer fun. Have some fun listening to the debate. The victory of ruling government over opposition on some day and the other way around the next. Get some sleep after that, while the news house finishes the payments for their performances…and set out looking for a new ‘real’ issue