This Christmas, team Beacon decided to try and light up the day of the children you see in and around parkstreet. Not the ones tightly held on to by their parents muncing a bag of chips but the ones standing in a corner trying to sell you a balloon or a hat to earn a meal. The child hidden inside her mother's torn shawl, too scared to say her real name when asked. The girl-child too scared to take a meal box when given one. The one whom you bargain with for a santa-cap when you come to ParkStreet for a walk with your friends. The ones we are accustomed to just looking over. They deserve gifts too. Not used gifts thrown in a lot, but brand-new seald ones, hand packed and decorated with love.

Hello everybody, here's presenting the 15th December edition of 'The Beacon'. 

Also, This is just page 1, page 2 will be up on the 18th. Examinations are on, hence the delay. Thank you for your support. Looking forward to your valuable feedback.

Trial by Media and its loopholes

Welcome to the latest court of law in India. The jury members are: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, regional and national news (?) television channels. 1 like/ share/ retweet is equivalent to an evidence point and if the picture/video starts #trending and goes viral, you’re sentenced. This is the Media Court.

Take the recent example of a video of the ‘Rohtak brave hearts’ which has taken the internet by storm. Or, the image of our ‘aam aadmi’, Arvind Kejriwal travelling via business class. The science is simple, show the public what it likes to see, allow your viewers/readers to passively make up a convenient mind set and your content for tonight’s segment is ready.

Media today plays such a mammoth of a role in our daily lives that it is no surprise seeing us so driven by it. It’s the magic bullet theory and the spiral of silence all in practical application in India today. What is trending is assumed to be right. What is most shared/viewed is blindly accepted as the fact. All this in the backdrop citizen journalism and the web explosion. It is funny that how being ‘different’ has become so necessary that its ‘regular’ now.

While the media trial is a tough judicial procedure, there are a victorious few who have swept the media jury off their feet.

How to do it? Well, it’s simple.

A little dash of ‘mainstream feminism’, sprinkle some ‘rural development’, pour in a few ml about ‘eradicating poverty’ and the last and most overused tried and tested formula of ‘women empowerment’ and don’t forget to garnish it with ‘the ideal son/daughter’ edge. There, the recipe’s out there. Go, make your carefully crafted media approved video/ appearance. After all, it did give us a very important elected-representive, didn’t it? 

Hello, here’s presenting the 1^st December issue of 'The Beacon', please do check it out. I look froward to your feedback. Also if you want a hard copy delivered to you please do let me know. It costs 2 Rs and is hand delivered by me personally : p.