News channels change India's religion..

India has won 3 Olympic medals and suddenly India's religion has changed. Haa?? yaa!! "Cricket is our religion and Sachin is our God" has now become "Shooting, Wrestling and Boxing are our religions and Abhinav, Sushil and Vijender are our Gods", not me but our News channels say so. I really wonder whether these channels would even be mentioning these Gods after a few months. They would end up being part of the General Knowledge books and a few quiz shows. "Who is the only Indian to win an Olympic Gold medal?"...A gawky stare at the ceiling and.."Er..hmm...Pass". Ask a kid "Who is the Captain of India?" He says "Dhoni". Wait, did I mention Cricket captain? But yeah, at the moment the Olympic medalists are the new found heroes and the most interviewed, most flashed faces in the country.

Now, Indian media has gained an unassailable reputation of creating news, instead of looking for them. Alright, I agree We, the people do not make enough news for them everyday to run a 24 hour news channel. So these channels conveniently take the liberty of subjecting the entire Indian audience to a torture which they brand news. After Vijender Kumar won the quarter final match against the pugilist from Ecuador, News channels rushed to the spot to take interviews of the guy who would then bring a 3rd medal for India.
Channel: Vijender, congratulations. (with a small box at the top right corner of the TV screen
showing some glimpses of what happened in the match)
Vij: Shukriya, I wanted to win it for country etc etc...
Channel: (OK, enough of all that crap types) Have you given a thought for modelling!!!
(Alright, Vijender definitely is a model material with the body of an athlete and the looks that would give any bollywood "star" a run of his money). (But hello, isn't he supposed to play for silver or gold yet?)..
Vij: Hmmm..Will do it if I get a chance..now I need to concentrate on boxing. (fair enough..)
Channel: Who is your fav heroine?? (Haaa?? Vij, please dont answer this..not now)
Vij: Bipasha Basu (Hmmm...not bad!)
Channel: Do you want to go on a date with her? (Oh! for God's sake..)
Vij: Sure (with shy smile)

Then few correspondents of the channel head straight to Bipasha Basu and here goes...
Channel: Vijender says you are his fav heroine and he wants to go on a date with you. (Haaa?)
Bips: Vijender?? Who? (Alriiiigght!!)
Channel: He has qualified for semis in Olympics and is assured of a bronze. (with hush hush)
Bips: Aaah..OK, I will go on a date if he wins gold. By the way what does he play??
Channel: wrestling...Aaah sorry, boxing.

Then the entire night all the news channels got a cooked up news to carry through the channel till midnight. The giant screens behind the news presenter showed Bipasha and Vijender and the audience were driven to the world of imagination where the new formed pair would have a candle light dinner with a medal flashing around vijender's neck. Media was jubilant about the medal more than the the pugilist himself. They got sports news, created gossip, a material worth 6.5 hours and all by doing nothing.

But nonetheless, India got a bit sporty this Olympics and 3 individual medals bring a glimmer of hope that the new found religions create more Gods and lets all play, (not pray)!!