It is highly immoral to divulge the darker side of life simply to make money
Dr Aruna Broota
Consulting clinical psychologist
I get very upset when I watch this new TV serial Sach Ka Saamna.
It should have been titled Apne Ko Bechna! This serial has had a most deleterious impact on our society and family relations. India has always been celebrated for its social integrity, moral values and strong family bonding. Many things happen in life. But it is wrong to divulge the darker side of it simply to make money. It was painful to hear the anchor asking the participant whether he would sleep with another woman if he was sure his wife would not come to know of it. And it was just as painful to hear the participant responding in the affirmative and the “yes” being followed by frenzied clapping from the audience. Then the anchor wanted to know whether he had had physical relations with a girl younger than his own daughter! Yes, said the man, to more loud clapping.
All this should shame the serial’s producers to their feet. I ask, is this anything to rejoice about? It is quite possible that the man’s daughter is mature enough to listen to such stuff — but what about children from conservative and close knit families? Don’t you think they would feel traumatised?
My work is with children, mainly adolescent girls. I know their psychology well — know that they watch this programme very keenly. Not because they enjoy its contents, but because they like seeing the participants making money from their confessions. For these children too want to make easy money — the means be damned.
It is being said that the serial has been adapted from an internationally acclaimed show called Moment of Truth, which has a huge fan following in the United States. Well it may suit the American mindset which holds private space to be sacred. I can understand that. Nor for that matter am I averse to having a relationship myself. There is nothing in the least wrong with that and it is good to be pragmatic. Also, many of our young boys and girls spend 8 to 12 hours working in liberal workplaces. But then all of us, including them, have been brought up in a culture that is poles apart from that of the Americans.
It is quite obvious that the worst sufferers are the programme’s adolescent viewers. Just imagine what it must be doing to their minds! To think that such puerile confessions earn them Rs 1 crore — the bait the programmers dangle before their audiences, all of whom are dying to become crorepatis overnight!
No one will dispute that these stage managed shows grossly violate the sanctity of conjugal life; or that they pollute young and vulnerable minds. Yes, what are we teaching our children through such vulgar tamashas? Remember that in children and adolescents hormonal changes occur at a much faster rate than in adults; and more particularly in girls, who these days become physically active at age nine. All the more reason why these shows should be banned, seeing how deeply they damage child-parent ties. Such recklessness is a sure recipe for destroying familial ties.
Sex can be very beautiful when it is controlled and there is no vulgarity in it. And well, if in these fast-paced times we can’t stop such shows, we can at least do them in a way so that the damage is minimal. But then that calls for sensitive monitoring, which is completely absent here. We all know how little the censor board does about such content. And after the advent of internet, there is absolutely no control over content, which circulates freely in cyberspace. Go to Google and see it for yourself. My question is simply this: if one can’t watch a show with our families, why allow them to be made at all? Of course, as I said, adults are hurt much less than children whose ability to discriminate between good and evil is extremely limited. One day the father of a girl came to my clinic and started talking about the DPS MMS scandal. His daughter was sitting right in front of me, and there he was asking me whether I had seen the offensive MMS clipping. I said hadn’t and felt no desire to see it either. But just imagine what must have been going on inside the mind of this little girl.
Dr Aruna Broota
Consulting clinical psychologist
I get very upset when I watch this new TV serial Sach Ka Saamna.
It should have been titled Apne Ko Bechna! This serial has had a most deleterious impact on our society and family relations. India has always been celebrated for its social integrity, moral values and strong family bonding. Many things happen in life. But it is wrong to divulge the darker side of it simply to make money. It was painful to hear the anchor asking the participant whether he would sleep with another woman if he was sure his wife would not come to know of it. And it was just as painful to hear the participant responding in the affirmative and the “yes” being followed by frenzied clapping from the audience. Then the anchor wanted to know whether he had had physical relations with a girl younger than his own daughter! Yes, said the man, to more loud clapping.All this should shame the serial’s producers to their feet. I ask, is this anything to rejoice about? It is quite possible that the man’s daughter is mature enough to listen to such stuff — but what about children from conservative and close knit families? Don’t you think they would feel traumatised?
My work is with children, mainly adolescent girls. I know their psychology well — know that they watch this programme very keenly. Not because they enjoy its contents, but because they like seeing the participants making money from their confessions. For these children too want to make easy money — the means be damned.
It is being said that the serial has been adapted from an internationally acclaimed show called Moment of Truth, which has a huge fan following in the United States. Well it may suit the American mindset which holds private space to be sacred. I can understand that. Nor for that matter am I averse to having a relationship myself. There is nothing in the least wrong with that and it is good to be pragmatic. Also, many of our young boys and girls spend 8 to 12 hours working in liberal workplaces. But then all of us, including them, have been brought up in a culture that is poles apart from that of the Americans.
It is quite obvious that the worst sufferers are the programme’s adolescent viewers. Just imagine what it must be doing to their minds! To think that such puerile confessions earn them Rs 1 crore — the bait the programmers dangle before their audiences, all of whom are dying to become crorepatis overnight!
No one will dispute that these stage managed shows grossly violate the sanctity of conjugal life; or that they pollute young and vulnerable minds. Yes, what are we teaching our children through such vulgar tamashas? Remember that in children and adolescents hormonal changes occur at a much faster rate than in adults; and more particularly in girls, who these days become physically active at age nine. All the more reason why these shows should be banned, seeing how deeply they damage child-parent ties. Such recklessness is a sure recipe for destroying familial ties.
Sex can be very beautiful when it is controlled and there is no vulgarity in it. And well, if in these fast-paced times we can’t stop such shows, we can at least do them in a way so that the damage is minimal. But then that calls for sensitive monitoring, which is completely absent here. We all know how little the censor board does about such content. And after the advent of internet, there is absolutely no control over content, which circulates freely in cyberspace. Go to Google and see it for yourself. My question is simply this: if one can’t watch a show with our families, why allow them to be made at all? Of course, as I said, adults are hurt much less than children whose ability to discriminate between good and evil is extremely limited. One day the father of a girl came to my clinic and started talking about the DPS MMS scandal. His daughter was sitting right in front of me, and there he was asking me whether I had seen the offensive MMS clipping. I said hadn’t and felt no desire to see it either. But just imagine what must have been going on inside the mind of this little girl.
seeking allotment of 2,400 sq feet of prime land near Chennai (for housing purposes), he predictably agreed. Reason: The DMK is a minority government run with Congress support. Gnanasekaran – the Congress MLA who led the move – had no trouble getting the signatures of 105 MLAs. But some sections of people in the state are at odds with the decision. The question some are asking is – if each legislator is allotted a spacious flat in the MLA hostel, why this new requirement?
Patiala set the cat among the pigeons. The militant outfit claimed responsibility for the murderous attack on Rashtriya Sikh Sangat leader Rulda Singh, who succumbed to his injuries a few days later. This was not an isolated incident.
In the newest act of a political theatre complete with false starts and building expectancy that has been dejected at every turn, a fresh roadmap by Honduran pro tem President Roberto Micheletti to break the two-month old crisis in Honduras is being flaunted as a “breakthrough”.
the cape of a continent, America another world.” This is the doctrine of Winston Churchill, which he shared with Charles de Gaulle. The US and the Europe are truly two different countries with divergent interests. Let us travel back to the past a bit to understand properly the genesis of these two richest and most powerful land spaces on the earth. These two rich brethren worked in close harmony for much of the twentieth century, mainly to defeat the common enemy viz. Germany in the first two world wars and then the Soviet block during the Cold War. During the World Wars, Britain was still holding on to the pivotal position of a great power with the support of its empire, which was still almost half the world. But cold war was an American thing, and by then the US had amassed enormous wealth and military prowess to replace Britain as a superpower. But after the cold war was won by the US and her West European allies, their economic and political interests began to drift apart. The NATO countries of Europe did not need the American protection any more and this heralded a doom for future friendly relation. On the contrary, new opportunities emerged for NATO when the erstwhile Soviet controlled East European states showed keen interest to join the US bandwagon. It showcased a perfect opportunity for them to cut deep into the Russian periphery, who quite naturally was infuriated by American advancements.
‘closed’ after the court acquitted Mridul Phukan – the prime accused in the journalist Parag Das murder case due to “lack of solid evidence”.