Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Ganguly wins and the incestuous media.

Chappell might have fired the first salvo, and like the German WWII Battleship, the Bismarck he tasted early success, but sunk in his final quest. But Ganguly regrouped, played the media in a manner that made the Stephen's imbroglio seem innocuous (Heck, what is one stupid snobbish Delhi college compared to the de facto national sport of a billion-odd people). But now the BCCI has decided to act and gagged the lot of them. And told Ganguly and Chappell to kiss and make up. I don't think that the two of them will be having rocking make-up sex somehow! However, I do still believe while Chappell is good for Indian cricket, Ganguly has to perform. Because Bengali parochialism can only protect you so far (Ganguly was seen coming out of the BCCI meeting clucthing a copy of the Ananda Bazaar Patrika). Final Score Ganguly : 1, Chappell : 0.5, Indian Cricket : -2.
Though that said, when my mother, step-Dad and brother were rushing down to Calcutta for my grandfathers funeral, they were also stuck with Ganguly when their Air Sahara flight got canned (I was already in Cal). So the four of them spent a lot of time in the airport, yakking in Bangla about life and parents waiting for their Jet Airways flight. And they all told me what a sweet person the guy was. As a result of which I have a Ganguly autograph (and a proper one at that, not just a crooked line) on the back of a boarding card. Wonder if it'll fetch any moolah on eBay?
Swati left a comment on a previous post mentioning the incestuous nature of the Indian Media. Sorry, but I was in splits reading that. This is by far and away the most incestuous profession in the country. Of course, there is Vir Sanghvi and his ex, Malavika (who spells her name with a double 'g' for vaastu reasons I assume). Vir spent the last year planning the launch of HT Bombay and Malavika along with Gautam Adhikari planned the launch of DNA Bombay. While Vir might have the telly shows, and is the more high-profile journo, despite the hoardings of Malavika all over the city, DNA seems to have won the battle of the new papers in Bombay. Which again proves that marketing is all important. Anyway, Vir has gone on to other women journalists since then and I am unclear on his ex-wife's status.
But that is only possibly one of the more high-profile ones. Not quite, because the biggest drama which was of Shakespearean tragediesque levels was the implosion at one of India's largest news magazines. Here, the two top journalists were in love with the same woman, who incidentally was also a journalist (of the wine and cheese variety) in another high-profile publication. This one not only devastated the publication concerned, where the number two had to leave (with his marriage intact it must be said) and so did many of his friends who were all brilliant writers. But, this tragedy also got caught up with the security agencies, the owner of one of India's largest mobile operators (who it is said disclosed cellphone records under duress) and the CEO of one of India's most admired companies (a Bangalore based IT firm) who was alledged to be also having an affair with the same woman. To make things funnier, it also reached the highest echelons of government - with the then Deputy PM being forced to intercede in the matter. This is top-notch gossip in Delhi (actually all of India) for the rich and powerful for weeks on end, with twists, turns and couple of stalkers thrown in for good measure. It made Bollywood stories of sex and sleaze seem childish in comparison.
Then there are cases of husbands and wives working in the same media organisation, though sleeping with different people. How some journalists, married and claiming to be powerful are dumped by their wives for other journalists making them into perverse intern snatchers. I can write a novella on all this and it will make Sidney Sheldon seem tame. Seriously.
But then again, I shouldn't be the one doing much of the talking. Closer to home things are equally funny - my Mom seperated from one senior journalist (and thank god for that) only to marry another. And my Dad ended up marrying a journalist too. In a way, I guess it was in my fate to become a journalist too. God knows what'll happen to me, I don't want to marry a journalist. Maybe, its a good idea not to get married at all (for some time). But then again, it is worth being a journalist for gossip factor alone.
I should really not be writing all this on the blog!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

this one is quite hilarious ... and i note u've left out your boss ;-)

have u met up with S's 2nd wife now that u are in Mumbai ... she's not too bad looking even at this age ... but her attitude is quite something ... she went to interview kamath, and came back and said "the bugger knows nothing about banking" !!!

btw, i am sort of losing it ... cant remember the name of the lady involved with the cell baron and NN ... eeeks ...

K said...

Boss reads blog, and me not write about boss on blog because me write blog on office time as is with Boss' sanction. Don't wanna lose that.

Anonymous said...

This is so outrageously funny! That woman must be one hell of a hottie then. I think you can easily push the script to someone like Madhur Bhandarkar, and I'm sure he'd be able to wring some moral lessons out of it. Forget Page 3, here's Page 1!

Anonymous said...

Taking incestuousness to new heights. I tried to Google that Malavika Sangghvi poem you had mentioned, and guess what I learnt? That Malavika Sangghvi and Devieka (that's how she spells it now) Bhojwani are sisters. And the daughters of Usha Khanna! I used to think Delhi had the six degrees of separation thing, but I guess Bombay's not far behind.

Anonymous said...

Dear K, I reward to you "The most Hilarious and interesting blog" It used to be Jammy who happens to be another Journo. You beat him on the Gossip factor..

And I am spending more time reading blogs than RFPs eeeks..

K said...

Its only the truth!

K said...

Yes, and if you go a few posts down on my blog, you'ld notice that I blogged about this too. I should actually feed this off to a newspaper or two over here.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I went a few posts down on your Blog; I noticed you highlighted the gore part of pictures, not that these were used as currency to swap for pornographic Web site. However, US army investigating this claims they could not verify its authenticity and so no prosecutable offence has been committed.

Anonymous said...

Another thought,
yesterday for no purported justification, I was leisurely rummaging through your Blog. Could instantly connect with the very first line..

"Sorry for this pointless post, but I am stoned and a bit high on Vodka." - jan 2005

..for I was high on Vodka too.

Nice Blog! Good reading, Thanks!!!
Though there aint many topics that
I can relate to, except maybe sedans, Bond and Aston Martin connection and YES, intention to see Machu Picchu someday.

K said...

Would be nice to know who you are though, in case you have a blog I'll drop by there sometime.

Anonymous said...

you got a lot of time to waste, think about that amba car crash in delhi the cops are re-investigating dude.

Anonymous said...

whats the news on the porn writer/columnist-is it true her husband's broke -and living off her income?