All for a smile

During a lull in activity yesterday, I took up an endevour to look for the most famous smiles in India. I expected the obvious answer would be Mona Lisa, with the second, third and other places going to Ms Chops, Ms Kaif and the other motley crowd of modern day dolls (Ms Pinto et al). For those of you who live in Mars, find the famous Mona Lisa pic (a copy of course courtesy google image search) below

Imagine my consternation when I found the top result gives me, believe it or not, the picture of Mr. SPS Rathore. Remember the line to the effect “The smile has been wiped off” appearing in all news channels in over the past few days? Somehow I felt that the news creators (that’s the best name I can think of for the various news channels) were more annoyed that he was smiling than the fact that he got away lightly; that if he had appeared morose and defeated, he would have been pardoned and offered a shoulder to weep on. The congratulatory tone the channels took up when he appeared glum (remember his sentence is no more or less than what it was when he was smiling) was laughable at best. No worse social conscience keepers could I have imagined that these guys.

Another fad of the “responsible” media that is catching up the “candle vigils” that they give call for every now and then. A vigil for every case that is in and out of court, for any and every issue, and sometimes in memory of events (if there is no news worth talking for a whole week). The most paradoxical “candle light vigil” I have heard is one to spread awareness regarding global warming. Come on guys, you think you are reducing emissions by switching off lights but what about the smoke from your vigils. At one candle per person, it is a huge waste of “candle resources”. And if I have to draw the argument to a point of irrelevance (like you guys usually do), then as this wax is from petroleum extraction, did you mean to replace a less polluting source of energy (petrol/coal used for power generation would be used more efficiently and would pollute less) by a more polluting one? And to top it all you will have self-styled experts (aka self styled commanders of the J&K insurgency fame) from various channels sitting in midst of these candles with a righteous grin, almost expecting a Pulitzer or a Padma Shree. Thanks guys but no thanks. Give us news, we can form our own views.

An aside: One of my friends pointed out that Mr Rathore looks like Grinch. I found the resemblance striking. Find a pic for the ease of comparision

All images are courtesy google images (this is to meet the copyright obligations or whatever)