TELEVISION & OUR CHILDREN

Today, entertainment is taking that role. And hence, it seems that entertainment is going to be the religion of the future. And why not... both entertainment and enlightenment are a vacation for the mind. Cinema has been a projection of our shared beliefs, experiences and myths, providing us a common ground to interpret them and find significance in our lives.

But cinema can never be as addictive, as repetitive and as interactive as television. Therefore the role of faith is automatically inherited by television. The shattering of ideals has created a unique dilemma where we cannot rely anymore on shared beliefs. And while we are engaged in trying to discover what to believe in, we cannot reject or replace the importance and power of beliefs. But the lack of beliefs has created a vacuum in which television, the new faith of our children, finds itself. The dilemma is also the challenge.

Television came to America in the ’50s. And some of the kids who grew up on television were Spielbergs, Coppola, Lucas, Scorses. And when they grew up and began to make movies, they changed Hollywood. Are there our own Spielberg, Coppolas, Lucases and Scorseses glued to television sets watching... well. watching what?

The staple diet of the American kids in ’50s were B movies, science fiction, action fantasies and adventure series.

In the absence of any mythology, these replaced mythology in America. And Spielberg and Lucas recast what they grew up on in their own vision of ’70s and ’80s and ’90s. They were America’s first TV generation. They were shaped by television. And in turn, they shaped the future of entertainment in America.

What are we feeding our kids on?

Lord Shiva has an unmistakable Small Pox Vaccination mark on his arm. The Omnipotent also needs the protection from Small Pox. Vishnu has tobacco stained teeth. At least he doesn’t smoke. Hanuman has a distinctly Punjabi accent. And Lord Krishna who wears peacock feathers in his crown does so only because (the kids are told by a wise old man) a peacock is celibate. it doesn’t have a physical relationship with a peahen. The peahen swallows the tears of the peacock and gets pregnant and lays eggs. And since Krishna is considered ‘Urdhwa Retas’ (the ultimate celibate), he chooses to wear a peacock feather in his crown. So much for sex education.

We have had a tradition of never questioning the interpretation and enactment of our mythology. A mythological performed even by the neighbourhood kids attracts a huge crowd. In Marathi Tamasha, Krishna can get away with wearing sunglasses and a watch. But television is not a neighbourhood performance or Marathi Tamasha. We have all the tools and the technology of the 21st century with us. Forget computer graphics, 3-D Animation, miniatures, electronically controlled muppets and animatronix, we would not even bother to cover the Small Pox vaccination mark on poor Lord Shiva’s arm!

Are we turning our mythology into a joke just because we know very well that Lord Shiva is not there to defend Himself?

Or we are simply taking the advantage of the general benevolence of our gods, knowing fully well that even if they get angry, all it needs is a coconut to please and placate them?

But when it is the time to please and placate the powers who aprove mythologicals, a mere coconut is not enough.

You cannot question our mythologicals.

The excuse given is that inspite of their crudity, the mythologicals are popular. But so are the amateur performances of Ramlila put up by the local kids. And you are a big producer with all the resources at your disposal and you have made enough money out of the Gods to at least give them the decency of proper appearance. Popularity cannot be a licence for crudity.

Even the politicians who have a major investment in our Gods never react to this humiliation of our Gods. They are too happy being chief guests at the shooting of such serials. Our mythology is precious. It is perhaps the richest in the world. Just imagine what a Spielberg or a Lucas could have done with this mythology if it belonged to them? And we have made a shoddy joke out of it all.

Our mythology is unique. Mythology is a major difference between the East and the West. The West wrote history which is just a subjective compilation of mere fragments of facts long after the events took place and which may or may not be true. History, at best, is a boring repetition of human mistakes. But mythology connects with our roots, with our shared experiences of truth, with the wisdom of our racial consciousness, with ideas that played a vital cohesive role in society. And does it in a narrative form which not ony entertains but enlightens. Which not only reveals but also reinforces. Which, by repetition, interactive participation and virtual addiction, allows us to discover again and again the great source we belong to. Because story is a more powerful form to reveal the truth than a dry philosophic discourse. Stories have been used by the Sufis, by Jesus Christ, by the Zen masters of Japan, by Aesop, by the Panchtantra, to communicate the truth. India has had the best story tellers in the world. Every purana is full of hundreds of stories. Every epic is a treasure of stories. And from fireside to television screen, these stories have travelled centuries to perform their function.

Television is the new fireside that the family gathers around, and the stories need to be retold in a visual idiom and expression that connects to the generation growing up on bytes. And we, instead of exploring the stories to find interpretations relevant to our times, reduce them to crude repetitions which only exploits the reverence of the masses to their Gods.

Television shapes us as we shape television. In the current election, for the first time in the history of this country, televison has played a crucial role. The television screen became the bathtub where every political party and politician exposed himself or herself. Their doublespeak, their hypocrisy, their blatant lies, everything came out in the open. From the no-holds-barred-microphone-slinging in the UP Assembly to the video coverage of booth capturing and ballot stamping, democracy has come a long way and television has finally become democracy’s greatest asset and a politician’s worst liability.

One is not worried about the impression it may be creating on young minds. Smooth seas make poor sailors. Children are the ultimate survivors. They are far more resilient and tougher than we give them the credit for. They are getting the chance and the opportunity we never had. They can see the changing faces of our political parties right in front of their eyes. They can see the floor crossing, the horse trading, the blackmail disguised as packages for the people, the manipulations , the seductions, the threats, the verbal duets which will shame the dirtiest street fighter, happening right in front of the TV camera. They are learning far more in front of the television screen than they can ever learn in the classroom. In any case, sooner or later, the classroom is going to be extinct. Most of the education will come home to children through internet and computer software. Information will reach students without the mediation of a teacher. A teacher will at best be a guide. Probably, the schools may be reduced to playgrounds and guidance centres. Television can do this and may do this.

The generation which is currently growing up on television is perhaps the most important generation in the history of this country. The kids do not need to be handled with kid gloves. They need to be exposed to the best and the worst a man is capable of. And a man is capable of almost anything. They do not need protection from harsh realities. They need to develop the abilities to question anything and everything. But we make the mistake of killing most of their questions by readymade answers. And most of the answers we provide are idiotic, irrelevant, dead and useless.

Television has that power over their minds. Television can teach them the courage to doubt. Television can re-interpret our past in an idiom that makes sense to them. Television can be the spaceship that takes them on a quest of inquiry and adventure. A quest that can be as much fun as it is enlightening. The power of television is obvious from the body language the kids are acquiring. The wiper movement of hands to hi-fives, the new rhythm of music videos, the ritualistic gestures to celebrate, Indian youth is discovering a whole new vocabulary. Perhaps for the first time in history, an ancient nation like India is discovering her youth in mass communication of body language. If mere five years of satellite television can do this to a whole generation, imagine what television can achieve in proper hands?

But what is being offered simply insults their intelligence instead of stimulating it. Yesterday’s stale mashed potatoes are being re-warmed and served on a hi-tech platter.

We fear the new and cling to the past even if it is dead. We get scared of exposing the children to too much. The environment they live in is much worse than anything they can watch on television. Television is often seen as a danger to our values. But values are not forever. They belong to and are created for a particular time and period. The values were different in the age of the Mahabharata. You can’t apply them now. The values were different in the days of Ramayana. The values were different in the days of the Upanishads. Values need to change according to the needs of an age and time. The fear is not because the values are in danger because of television. It is because we do not have a new set of values to take the place of old values. And we feel that in the vacuum, the children may go astray. Because the old values cannot measure up to their needs and new values aren’t there to follow. And most minds behind the hottest medium of the century are too timid or too imprisoned by their own values to take any risks. But life doesn’t care for our fears and preoccupations. It goes on evolving, changing, no matter whether we are ready for change or not. It goes on forcing a future on us. And it goes on sending children to populate that future. But we go on shackling that future to the past, to the dead.

The children of television are watching it all. We do not know what they are thinking and what they hold for us in the future. Suddenly, the voice of Manna Dey in the famous song Nanhe munne bachche teri mutthi mein kya hai, from the film Boot Polish expresses our own desperation when he asks Hamse na chchupao bachchon, hamein to batao, aanewali duniya kaisei hogee samjhao...

We have given them a Lord Shiva with a Small Pox vaccination mark... we don’t have any right to ask them.