Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Astrology and TRP gimmicks


After getting up from bed first thing what I do is switch on the TV for news and then perform other routine activities. While browsing through channels some ‘BHAVISHYAVANI’ with Acharya Indu Prakash, was being aired on India TV. He is an astrologer who tells your horoscope and numerological fortune and reveals the connection between your celestial mechanics and the terrestrial dynamics. He gives you guarantee of 99 per cent if you follow his instructions; in one of his show I saw him giving tips on how to possess a man whom you love. He gave one remedy and some pooja methods to perform in the evening. I wish if I follow astrologer’s instructions then I might get Julian Assange as I really have a crush on him. If this astrologer gives 99 per cent guarantee of his methods and predictions, then at least I should reach Assange’s gate.

These kinds of shows are nothing but a TRP gimmick. If this astrologer is so perfect in predicting things and has solutions and remedy for whatever you want to possess then he should actually try to own that 27/7 channel and telecast his rubbish 24/7. And as he has all the remedies, I am sure he won’t need to struggle much to earn money because he knows and have given loads of such tips earlier to bring wealth in life. Indian Ministry of Information & Broadcasting should issue advisories to these TV channels for spreading “misinformation”, “fear” and “horror”. Every morning you’re imbibing some unexpected fear in common man’s mind. Some channel says today you’re lucky colour, some say its yellow while other says green. Who should one trust? From morning 7 to 9 a person’s vital time is wasted in watching such scrap. I know we are not forced to see such programmes but it’s a psyche of every common man as every one are under stress, these kind of stupid things make them believe in what the astrologer is saying.

Forget about these minor predictions, in the recent past some bunch of astrologers on Aaj Tak and India TV were predicting the world coming to an end in various forms that were inappropriate for children and unsuitable for public exhibition. People had panicked as the programme was repeated ten times. However, the world has not moved any where and it’s still there but the astrologers have changed. And a new programme hosted by Indu has started. How funny it is to know that if you call her to know how you can get your missing son back home, from there she predicts and tells you to keep some coins in the right direction of main door which will result in your son to come back. Hello Indu Jain why don’t you ask the Mumbai Police to follow these remedies as every day minimum four children go missing from Mumbai and have failed to return home. Then some woman suspects her hubby having extra marital affairs, and Indu again gives a solution and promises that henceforth hubby will close his eyes and never look at any woman further. God knows whether these solutions work or not but that particular call costs six rupees per minute. Thus, you are losing 30 rupees minimum. Each such telecast generates lakhs of rupees. I think Family court should hire people like Indu Jain to solve divorce issues and re-settle the families with her remedies.

The Indian Broadcasting Federation (IBF) and the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) members should exercise some restraint while broadcasting such content. Moreover hardcore news channels should stop practicing such things. The commercial aspects of news channels are sucking the brains of common man by installing such superstition. They claim that daily dose of ‘Bhavishyavani’ aims to give you practical solutions to all your problems. Dial 0120 – 2517251 and make a refreshing start to know your stars, just a phone call away. How emotional fools are we? They want to extract benefits by pinching your pocket early in the morning, and for one in ten thousands by fluke if that works he becomes publicity manager for the TV channel and that astrologer. The much faster and effective publicity is word of mouth publicity; these astrologers are very good at social engineering, hundred times better than even Kevin Mitnick. They are the real hackers, they hack your faith, your emotions and over all the revenue from your pocket without your knowledge. I don’t know anyone if anyone gets to reach their destination through these programmes. On the other hand, we take miracle dose to combat our problems, but nothing actually works. One of my employees took Rs 7000 loan from office, second day I realized he has taken that loan to buy an astrological stone to make his stars bright; his faith was forcing him to invest in stone for easy money and quick remedy. He wore that stone and continues to work on the same profile. Although every month 2000 rupees gets deducted from his salary against that loan, that poor guy is still waiting for that golden moment where he can achieve success with the help of stone. As a boss I know that the only miracle that can make him successful is his hard work. Finally, he became frustrated and decided to sell the stone back, he only received 30 per cent returns, 70 per cent of his money has been falsely wasted in superstition. Imagine how many persons like him must be getting fooled every day? Yet sometimes those future predictions made many years ago have come to pass.

I remember some astrologer Dr. Sharma predicted the occurrence of a mass casualty in the country within the time span of 90 days in his programme “Rashichaal” on “Sahara Samay”, on the eve of Shani Amavasya. Same day there was bomb blast attack in Pune. And next day, the channel announced this is the first major terror strike since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks killing at least eight and injuring 53 lives. It came true on the very same day with the occurrence of our astrologer’s predictions. Damn fools so many such terror incidences happened in our country without any predictions and moreover 90 days period to make believe about such predictions because India is under threat of terror attack. Why he failed to predict who and when and where the terror attack is going to take place at least police force would have blessed him in abundance. If these astrologers can really guarantee and predict such big incidents then they should be recruited in police force, CBI and with undercover agents, so the investigation may come up with accurate results. No astrologer ever predicted when Kasab is going to be hanged, what would be the fate of Afzal guru, are we going to get money back from Swiss bank or not. Why any astrologer failed to tell about J Dey’s murder motto, why they failed to predict about the rapists who escaped after raping a minor child.

Why these astrologers failed to make this very own channel the world’s most popular and number on channel, by proving remedy to switch off all other channels? Television is the next fastest-growing medium and is the largest contributor to global growth. Television’s share of the global ad market has risen steadily over time and shows no sign of reaching a plateau: The amount of time viewers spend watching television continues to increase. Even though viewers are presented with a wider choice of channels than ever, the biggest television show attracting record audiences is astrology and predictions; one of the major revenue chunk is earned by these scraps.

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