Live and Exclusive… Trilemma of Sorts !!!
Today I had a Trilemma of sorts, if that could be accepted as a correct entry of the English alphabet. It was already half past seven in the evening and my TV was sleeping overtime. I hit the remote and browsed through the channels. Buttons 1-15 are the ones I dare not press. These are the South Indian Regional Channels competing with each other, trying to attain sweeping success, showing weeping daughter-in-laws vying for maximum TRPs (Read Tear Rating Points).
Channels 18,21,30 and 33 are the ones I enjoy the most. That these numbers are multiples of three is just a coincidence. No wonder Channel 18 is CNN-IBN. Again a coincidence – IBN is a Television Eighteen Venture!!! The other three channels are Ten Sports, Star Sports and ESPN in that order. Yesterday I vowed not to watch IBN again after their story on Vidharba farmers’ suicides. I felt they have no respect for individual’s feelings. How else could you explain a journalist asking a wailing widow how she felt, just hours after the breadwinner of her family had committed suicide? And they flashed this video of her son collecting the bones and cranium from the ash that remained of his dad, all over again and again…
However, I was not keen on watching the Quarterfinals Preview on ESPN. The channel has definitely been ‘Harsh’ on its viewers by robbing the football viewing public of John Dykes’ expert opinions and forcing us to listen to Mr. Bhogle. The conversation between Harsha and the guests takes you nowhere. It would be something on these lines – Harsha saying Steve McMahon something about cricket only for Steve to rubbish it and Steve teaching Harsha a thing or two in English, giving the dictionary meanings of Opportunity and Chance in his unmistakable husky voice.
If Harsha’s soccer show was Harsh to the ears, then Sanjay’s Straight Drive was equally rasping. TEN Sports is not known to have the best of anchors. Once it had Mike Haysman in the anchor’s role for a Hockey Tournament!!! They have this “Mirinda Mouth Ka Champion” competition, which asks the viewer to vote for the best commentator of the India-WI series. Pity the viewers – “none of the above” is not one of the options!!
I am not an avid watcher of Tennis, but now I had good reasons to watch The All England Tennis Championships – IBN didn’t suit my mood, ESPN wasn’t interesting and Ten Sports’ Straight Drive was prosaic, to sound euphemistic. Thus I logged on to STAR Sports to watch Wimbledon. The Swiss Satrap Roger Federer was there, playing his third round match against a hitherto unknown N.Mahut of France. He showed exactly why he was the King of Grass. Federer playing on grass is perfect poetry on the tennis court. The lobs and smashes from his racquet give the tennis ball a certain direction, a certain speed, a certain swerve, a certain arc which is combination enough for the ball to land beyond the reach of his opponents. And today he didn’t need to be at his best to cruise to the next round. The more I saw of Federer, the more he seemed to weave magic on the lawns of Wimbledon. I was stuck to my chair and my eyes were fixed on the yellow furred sphere that danced to the tunes of Roger Federer.
Suddenly I saw my watch. It showed 8.29PM. Oh my God… The Quarters is gonna start in 60 seconds. And Phew… I missed the toss at Jamaica… Missed the line-ups at Jamaica as well as Berlin… Is Irfan playing?? Will Saviola start?? By the way, Federer is jus a game away from victory... Now what do I see... Never before have I ever felt the need to have a television that shows two (maybe three) channels in a single screen, albeit one on a smaller box.
Just an hour ago, I didn’t know which channel to put up with and now there I was, with a Trilemma… WC or Federer or Cricket??? I decided that sanity should prevail and changed the channel to ESPN to watch the Quarters. And I paid a price for that. It was the dullest 45 minutes of Football that I had ever seen at this stage of a competition. Both Argentina and Germany were lackluster and didn’t look the aggressive outfits that they were in the round stages.
In the Meanwhile, I had missed Roger Federer’s final act in the second round and his traditional Bow wearing the White Masters’ Coat. This was not all – I had also lost on an opportunity to watch the Indian Batsmen hip-hop to some real Calypso music.
But the second half and the ensuing extra time and penalties made my day. It was cruel on the South Americans but they had themselves to blame for their poor spot kicks. It was a wonderful exhibition of Energy, Talent, Tenacity and Skill and I simply loved it.
PS: The Giant Screen in Sabina Park, Jamaica kept feeding images from the Italy Vs Ukraine match intermittently between overs and sometimes in between balls. This was to boost the morale of the sparse crowd, which had turned up at Kingston to watch the Test match. You had to empathize with them, because it becomes sour for your eyes to see a side notch up 29 runs in a session. But then, the Italy V Ukraine match was equally sour for the eye during the early stages. Now you really feel sorry for this crowd.
PPS: I may at any point of time, renege on my decision to not watch CNN-IBN. Maybe as early as NOW.
PPPS: I thought Carlos Tevez, the Argentinian forward looked like Ronaldo but for his scalp; His facial patterns apart, even his gait was similar to that of the Brazilian and his waistline too. Now was that an illusion or is there anybody to join me and say “I Agree”??
Channels 18,21,30 and 33 are the ones I enjoy the most. That these numbers are multiples of three is just a coincidence. No wonder Channel 18 is CNN-IBN. Again a coincidence – IBN is a Television Eighteen Venture!!! The other three channels are Ten Sports, Star Sports and ESPN in that order. Yesterday I vowed not to watch IBN again after their story on Vidharba farmers’ suicides. I felt they have no respect for individual’s feelings. How else could you explain a journalist asking a wailing widow how she felt, just hours after the breadwinner of her family had committed suicide? And they flashed this video of her son collecting the bones and cranium from the ash that remained of his dad, all over again and again…
However, I was not keen on watching the Quarterfinals Preview on ESPN. The channel has definitely been ‘Harsh’ on its viewers by robbing the football viewing public of John Dykes’ expert opinions and forcing us to listen to Mr. Bhogle. The conversation between Harsha and the guests takes you nowhere. It would be something on these lines – Harsha saying Steve McMahon something about cricket only for Steve to rubbish it and Steve teaching Harsha a thing or two in English, giving the dictionary meanings of Opportunity and Chance in his unmistakable husky voice.
If Harsha’s soccer show was Harsh to the ears, then Sanjay’s Straight Drive was equally rasping. TEN Sports is not known to have the best of anchors. Once it had Mike Haysman in the anchor’s role for a Hockey Tournament!!! They have this “Mirinda Mouth Ka Champion” competition, which asks the viewer to vote for the best commentator of the India-WI series. Pity the viewers – “none of the above” is not one of the options!!
I am not an avid watcher of Tennis, but now I had good reasons to watch The All England Tennis Championships – IBN didn’t suit my mood, ESPN wasn’t interesting and Ten Sports’ Straight Drive was prosaic, to sound euphemistic. Thus I logged on to STAR Sports to watch Wimbledon. The Swiss Satrap Roger Federer was there, playing his third round match against a hitherto unknown N.Mahut of France. He showed exactly why he was the King of Grass. Federer playing on grass is perfect poetry on the tennis court. The lobs and smashes from his racquet give the tennis ball a certain direction, a certain speed, a certain swerve, a certain arc which is combination enough for the ball to land beyond the reach of his opponents. And today he didn’t need to be at his best to cruise to the next round. The more I saw of Federer, the more he seemed to weave magic on the lawns of Wimbledon. I was stuck to my chair and my eyes were fixed on the yellow furred sphere that danced to the tunes of Roger Federer.
Suddenly I saw my watch. It showed 8.29PM. Oh my God… The Quarters is gonna start in 60 seconds. And Phew… I missed the toss at Jamaica… Missed the line-ups at Jamaica as well as Berlin… Is Irfan playing?? Will Saviola start?? By the way, Federer is jus a game away from victory... Now what do I see... Never before have I ever felt the need to have a television that shows two (maybe three) channels in a single screen, albeit one on a smaller box.
Just an hour ago, I didn’t know which channel to put up with and now there I was, with a Trilemma… WC or Federer or Cricket??? I decided that sanity should prevail and changed the channel to ESPN to watch the Quarters. And I paid a price for that. It was the dullest 45 minutes of Football that I had ever seen at this stage of a competition. Both Argentina and Germany were lackluster and didn’t look the aggressive outfits that they were in the round stages.
In the Meanwhile, I had missed Roger Federer’s final act in the second round and his traditional Bow wearing the White Masters’ Coat. This was not all – I had also lost on an opportunity to watch the Indian Batsmen hip-hop to some real Calypso music.
But the second half and the ensuing extra time and penalties made my day. It was cruel on the South Americans but they had themselves to blame for their poor spot kicks. It was a wonderful exhibition of Energy, Talent, Tenacity and Skill and I simply loved it.
PS: The Giant Screen in Sabina Park, Jamaica kept feeding images from the Italy Vs Ukraine match intermittently between overs and sometimes in between balls. This was to boost the morale of the sparse crowd, which had turned up at Kingston to watch the Test match. You had to empathize with them, because it becomes sour for your eyes to see a side notch up 29 runs in a session. But then, the Italy V Ukraine match was equally sour for the eye during the early stages. Now you really feel sorry for this crowd.
PPS: I may at any point of time, renege on my decision to not watch CNN-IBN. Maybe as early as NOW.
PPPS: I thought Carlos Tevez, the Argentinian forward looked like Ronaldo but for his scalp; His facial patterns apart, even his gait was similar to that of the Brazilian and his waistline too. Now was that an illusion or is there anybody to join me and say “I Agree”??
posted by VAC | 4:06 PM
2 Comments:
what a trilemma :)....pesaama poyi thoonga venditadhu dhaana? :D...a really nice blog....vocabulary is really good...
dude u need to be an expert in switchin channels!!!!! the remote is ther for precisely the same reason.... cud have watched fed's final point, then switch to WC... if its borin switch to cric and so on...... heheheh...... anyway i dont think tevez is that fat, hes pretty quick too... and fed's tennis' own michaelangelo.... art in motion
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