Samit Basu » idiotbox

Ah, nostalgia.

Samit Basu — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 08:05:00 +0000

Just discovered they show The A-Team on Star World Oh joy.

NDTV blogging story

Samit Basu — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 06:46:00 +0000

So, if you were watching NDTV at about 955 last evening, you would have seen:
-An introduction to a piece about new-age astrologers with laptops
-immediately followed, surprise, by the blogging story, which consisted of -
- lots of cutaways of my room, my posters and my books
- two incoherent quotes from me (taken from a loooong interview, part of a fairly gruelling 2.5 hour shoot at my house, where shots were taken of a (they said) ‘lonely loser’ blogger’s surroundings. Me standing on the balcony looking at a dog, me scribbling in the NDTV reporter’s diary, me reading Watchmen, me climbing stairs, me opening doors, me fingering my keyboard, me staring solemnly and cheesily at my book (ha! I used the Swedish translation, and they never knew). Praise the GODS that none of this actually went on TV. Incidentally, I am now the size of a medium-sized whale, and fairly glad that the new book wont get any media attention because then i would have had to become thin. Why am I so much more bloated on video? Friends reference – Monica: The camera adds ten pounds! Chandler: So how many cameras are actually on you?
- lots of shots of my blog, the ‘your blog has published successfully’ thing, and some other blogs. I noticed Jais and eMs.
- random cybercafe-type place shots, unless it was the NDTV office
- and just when you were waiting for Jai, eM, Hurree Babu and Kiruba Shankar, the other people interviewed for this story (and i have to say they did a LOT of shooting for a small feature), or even for shots of the very nice, bright-future reporter (sorry about the flush, K) talking to the camera, you got
- a few seconds of black screen
- Vishnu Som (I think) saying solemnly, there were problems with that clip (like someone had discovered it wasnt about new-age astrologers) and ok, byebye now.

I apologize to the Indian blogosphere at large for being the only face shown in the story, for not saying anything interesting on TV (though i promise i said many clever and interesting things during the long interview) and for being the most unattractive poster-boy for blogging since…well, ever, actually.
Advice for the good people at NDTV
- In future, do not shorten what could have been stunning docu-features on blogging (for what? news! I ask you, dont you get tired of the news on a 24×7 news channel from time to time?), or if you do play the intro to one, do call it a blogging story
- Show all the attractive bloggers during the first part of the story
- Blog

Caught in the act

Samit Basu — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 06:37:00 +0000

I am, even as I blog, being photographed by an NDTV team. This is truly bizarre. I cant move my head, or look at the keyboard. I think Im doing pretty good.

DD, DD, DD

Samit Basu — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:36:00 +0000

Just got back from the DD News studio, where I was part of a panel discussion (heh) called Chandamama se Hairy Potar. Other panelist: Samrat Chowdhury of HT, resplendent in bright orange kurta. First of all, the DD people refused to believe I was a writer – they actually went around the lobby asking people if they were me, because I didnt look authoritative enough. Then we were made pretty with liberal doses of makeup, and scary thing happened when the woman handed me a comb and i realized Ive actually forgotten how to comb my hair. Last time it happened was at my sisters wedding, which was December 2001. Or maybe there was one time in the middle…dont remember. Anyway, I confessed frankly that I didnt know how to use the thing, which she was OK with. On to the studio, where mikes were attached, and 70-odd Delhi school students clapped politely. And then the really scary thing happened – ALL the kids said they hadnt read a book in the last 2-3 years. ALL. Variety of stupid reasons were offered. Got me wondering: Was the audience representative? Surely not on an all-Indian level – any Cal audience will be full of precocious and alarmingly well-read kids, as will any Bombay audience too, Im sure. And Im not willing to think that badly of Delhi either – I mean, there are always a few kids in bookstores. Maybe they just picked the wrong schools.

So, having gained momentum

Samit Basu — Sat, 27 Nov 2004 07:43:00 +0000

Did I carry on and write a super final chapter?

No, I lazed around and watched high-octane intellectual TV.

1) The Miss World prelims, where girls from 107 countries lazed around in bikinis, talked about how they would make a difference, and then urged the viewer to vote for them. My favourite vote-for-me line was Miss Switzerland – ‘Dont be neutral, vote for Switzerland!’

3) This show on Star World called Koffee with Karan, where Rani Mukherjee and Kareena Kapoor and Karan Johar all simpered happily, signed coffee (koffee?) mugs and talked about how much they loved one another and how great they all were as actors and people.

My brain has been sludge since then. to wake it up, i have been binging on chocolate, watching kung pow: fist of fury, which tries hard to be so bad its good, but ends up being bad, which is good. ooeeooeeooo, as the heroine keeps saying.

Swordfish, starring Halle Berry in underwear, is on tonight. But i dont think i deserve it.

Worst Show on Indian TV

Samit Basu — Sun, 21 Nov 2004 08:40:00 +0000

cant choose, as of now, between ‘He-Man’ a manhunt hosted by Shekhar
Suman on Star One, and anything on Akash Bangla. The thing about Akash
B is, occasionally its so bad its good, so I suppose He-Man wins. All
the more so because I love the damn cartoon, and this show is a black
mark on the name. Was discussing this with Rukmini yesterday, and we
were doing the almost obligatory Bollywood casting. We couldnt decide
on a He-Man, but as for the rest…
Teela: Sushmita Sen (woh!)
Evil-lyn: Priyanka Chopra
Beast-man: Sanjay Dutt
Orko: Johnny Lever, no makeup required
The Sorceress: Madhuri Dixit
Skeletor: Rahul Dev
Battle-Cat and Panthor: Rambo the Wonder Cat. Rukmini claims he/she
exists, I am not so sure.
Hum. Writing this book has evidently microwaved my brain