Have a Heart!

It's a lazy saturday afternoon and I am flipping channels - not that I am really into television big time but there are days when the mindless flipping acts as a great stress buster. So there I am - as if in a limbo - watching channel upon channel mouthing platitudes about family values or women who suffer in silence and ah.... there's also India's actor of the millenium giving gyan on a B grade show where some idiotic people are being their idiotic best for the audiences' voyeuristic pleasure.

And then I stop! I see a dwarfish, disfigured man (born with twisted arms) doing the most amazing dance. His arm movements are restricted (there are really no arms to speak of - humps growing from the shoulders with twisted fingers attached to them) but he has tremendous strength in his legs - he does the most intricate maneuvers, rolls, jumps, slides on the floor - all with extreme ease. I am spellbound as I watch - no flipping the channel this time - this supreme act of confidence. The fire in the eyes is distinctly visible - the man knows it is probably his only chance in a life time to showcase whatever his is capable of.

The music stops abruptly and it is then that I notice the judges - Ah well...as it turns out - this is the selection happening for one (more) dance based reality show. Which is fine. The judges are applauding the man's effort - and it seems to me that maybe this is going to be show with a difference. Their tears seem as genuine as mine and I think - well thank God there is still some sensitivity left in people of their name and stature. However, I am wrong...terribly, terribly wrong...

What follows is probably the most shameful act I have seen on TV in recent times. One of the judges (a renowned dance guru) tell Hari that he's done a great job and he selects him. But of course there's a panel and the others have to have their say too. Speaks the next judge (small time actor, side kick to Munnabhai, past time choreographer famous for his tapori dances et al) to tell poor Hari that though his foot work was good - he could have used his arms (?) and the rest of his body better. And it doesn't end there - he decides to rub in the fact that Hari is DIFFERENT from the rest of us and therefore even though he dances well he cannot qualify for selection because he is DIFFERENT!

As I watch this horror show Hari defends himself and asks the judge to define how he is different. He says and I quote him verbatim - I can drive, ride a cycle, teach dance (he has a dance school), do all my work without anyone's help so please let me know how am I different...what is it that normal people do that I don't or can't! Hari stands his ground - the judges fight and to add salt to Hari's wounds the choreographers for the show endorse the actor's view.

The channel thinks this just the right time to create some more drama and announces a break! I don't come to know the outcome of the fight or whether Hari did finally get selected or not as I do not have the stomach to digest it any further. I am aghast, ashamed, and so saddened that I can't stop my tears. Silly me - crying over some stupid show but it doesn't end there.

I am hounded by Hari's image - his flying dance - his verve - his desire to succeed and finally the despair in his eyes. The despair somehow permeates my being....I need to know - I need to know why a human tragdy is being thus advertised. I have so many questions to ask - of the channel, the show producer, the judges.....why must you demean and degrade a human soul by bringing into focus his difference and then on national TV degrading him beyond belief by telling him he is DIFFERENT so cannot be part of the NORMALS.

If the show was meant only for the NORMAL people then was Hari selected to dance so that he could be used as a sympathy factor to make the TRPs soar? Did anyone on that stupid show even spare one thought to what they did to Hari's spirit that night? Did anyone offer a few words of encouragement to him? Did the channel apologise to Hari for putting him through the misery of rejection and ridicule...

I have to say this...to all the people who are in some way or the other involved with Media - print, visual, audio - please for God's sake - HAVE A HEART. If you can't do anything to assuage the pain of or lessen the sorrows of those whom God has chosen to send to the earth as DIFFERENT then please keep your mouths shut, keep your opinions guarded and before you decide to create or judge such shows, decide who is fit enough to appear on it. It will spare the ones like Hari to aimlessly dream of glory that will never be theirs...!

Ray