The Stunt And The Saviour

When we were small father insisted that me and my sister read the Newspaper everyday. If not the full article then at least the headlines. It was considered a General Knowledge booster so much necessary for competitive exams.

Well, I was never a Newspaper person. Neither did I sit for any competitive exams nor my General Knowledge was ever enviable. However, now that I have retired it’s one of my resolutions to read the papers diligently. But of course, I fail. Not because they are boring. In fact, they have become awfully interesting nowadays.

The first page is devoted to all the mudslinging that goes on in politics. Along with how ingenuously somebody murdered somebody. Real Christie stuff! Then there is invariably an article on how pollutants are numbering our days on planet earth. The latest is how state after state are taken by the floods which pointedly proves that nothing has so far been done to manage the climate change which is to be blamed for all the catastrophes according to the respective State Governments. These disasters every time remind me of Gulzaar’s cryptic lines:

उफ यह भीगा हुआ अख़बार

पेपरवाले को चेंज करो

पांच सौ गांव बह गए इसबार

(Oh! This soaked newspaper /Let’s change the vendor/Five hundred villages have been swept away this time)

To distract us there’s always the Page 3 full of colourful photographs of over made up faces half of whom I have never heard the name of.  One thing that I have realised is once you have that ticket to fame the paparazzi follows your every visit to the loo in the morning to the number of dates you bungled.

More baffling is the fashionistas – the handkerchief sized dresses they call high street fashion !!!

I guess  the Chief Editor of Daily epitomises the pinnacle of  diplomacy. He can give the bureaucrats a run for their money. The poor chap has to always do the tight rope walk between what he actually feels and what he is allowed to. Most of the time the editorial starts with the abject misery that everything and everyone is in and ends with a Utopian dream of  a rainbow streaked horizon in the very distant future.

At last the sports column which I don’t bother about because I have all my life religiously avoided all forms of physical exertion.

Now having said all that today I was really fascinated by a microscopic article that appeared in the magazine section. It was about how the city firefighters rescued a crow tangled in a tree while the public stood around with bated breath. How multiple bird rescues have been possible with the help of the hydraulic trucks of the fire department which can reach over 30 to 40 feet. How the Delhi Fire Services usually carry a 100 foot pole with a blade that helps cut through branches without hurting the birds. And how hundreds of calls have been received by them last month to save animals in distress.

Now this is what I call news which reinstates that we are still human. We still care for the birds and bees. We are still there for the poor animals, our fellow creatures, who cannot call out for help or dial the emergency helpline number when in need.

Above all the saviour of humanity discharges  duty without the crave for accolades or an eye on how many votes the act is going to earn.

And that is what I call a true hope raiser.