Summer Note …and some Summer Wine

Let me first get the unimportant bit out of the way—Summer Wine is simply a favorite ol’ song I’m plugging in --  check out the link here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=325jxJIJkJM

Well , after the desktop got straightened out early in  April –  the tv has again got relegated to second spot, except for special occasions--  occasional  doses of an old favourite (Masterchef Australia) ; then  the new weekend favourite of this summer (SJ, the  truth serum show that tells tales which need to be told, not brushed under a carpet of apathy and ignorance);  or  a definitive must-watch film -- Saudagar,  the graceful Nutan-Amitabh starrer from  1973; or The Help , currently on  tv today.
Sadly the film has never made it to our  Indian theatres; incidentally, the book is  good too, in my uninformed opinion—since a section of American public seems to have had problems with the tale  ( as per web reports).

However, browsing of world wide web remains a staple activity, beyond, home, books, real  life ; and the  variety it throws up can lead to engagement in a good way, occasionally, or despair at the cynicism  and frivolity pervading our media spaces. 

Take my disenchantment with  a magazine that began so well in 2009 – Open magazine, the news weekly that started off as  really  different, open-minded with a new fresh voice.  Check out their archives --  http://www.openthemagazine.com/archive/146

And check out their recent  issues :  a cover story that  is plain pessimistic and disbelieving -- (http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/art-culture/does-he-mean-it

Or you have  another one , simply superficial  and  out of touch with  an India that matters  --  http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/living/the-vagina-wears-diamonds

This last story made me go  --  ‘ugh—does this matter as an inside story, leave alone  a cover story?’

Glad to see though that an old favourite is still doing good.   Two years back,  Tehelka  weekly wrote two consecutive cover stories about something that touches us daily—the irradiated and deadly air around us, courtesy the friendly mobile cell phone tower  in your neighbourhood,  a place it has no right to inhabit.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main45.asp?filename=Ne050610coverstory.asp

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main45.asp?filename=Ne120610coverstory.asp

The second issue offered a simple solution to  householders faced with  the dangers  of  mobile phone tower  radiation in their vicinity :

‘Look at simple steps in the house that might help, like placing plants in balconies and by the windows, because plants tend to absorb EMR to an extent.’

 I need to plant a Jasmine or Bougainvillea creeper in my balcony asap.

I am not sure how much it will help, but whatever the benefit, it’s surely better than being fried by  invisible rays, courtesy, the looming  tower  visible from my balcony.

Meanwhile, to get back to browsing matters, here is the latest issue of Tehelka : it  talks of a picturesque Indian state  that is, in great part, being abandoned !

Excerpt –

The ghost villages of Uttarakhand

Over a decade after the state was founded, nine of its 13 districts are facing a crisis of migration. More than 1,000 villages have been deserted for the comforts of the plains, reports Baba Umar

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main53.asp?filename=Ne070712Ghost.asp#

Close family  members  honeymooned in Uttarakhand  less than two years back spoke about its heavenly beauty and calm.

Can’t this state be turned into a tourist paradise, bring employment to its young, revenue to its coffers?

Won’t  migration to plains make the latter even more overcrowded and uninhabitable?

Wish our media would  write about topics which matter—not ghastly essays on personal adornment and surgery that is horrendous to read, leave alone experience!