The Radio Jockey Hand Book (English, Paperback, Simran Kohli)

Gone are the days when cabinet expansion used to get total media attention. Now cricket is hogging the limelight and team selection is the most debatable issue inside television studios before every series. Gone are the days when political king makers, who played a major role in selecting the ministers, used to grab unprecedented attention; now it’s the turn of national selectors. Gone are the days when, after every general election, media-persons used to spend sleepless nights talking about the likely allocation of the portfolios. ‘Which batsman is going to play at what position’ seems to be their major concern now. Gone are the days when psephologists used to be media’s prize catch. Now former cricketers who can become good in-house guests are in demand. Gone are the days when people used to wait for general elections with bated breath. The World Cup is the most awaited event now. Prime Minister of the country is still a powerful man, but the captain of Indian cricket team can give him a run for his money as far as popularity and media attention is concerned. Nothing reflects this better than our television screen. From dawn to dusk, from womb to tomb cricket follows us. Some of my friends say that it’s a metro trend, but I can say that it’s catching up in far and remote areas of the country as well. Often people complain about why we have extreme reaction on Team India’s performance. Swami Vivekananda, who taught his disciples to worship God like heroes, used to say: ‘There must be no fear, no begging, but demanding-demanding the highest. The true devotees are as hard, as adamant and as fearless as lion’. In our generation, politicians failed us as they became synonymous with corruption. Bureaucrats failed us as they stood for delaying rather than getting the work done. Film stars gave us momentary feel of bravado, but then they were reel and not real-life heroes. In our search for heroes, we zeroed in on the cricketers. And this is the reason as to why we react

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