06/28/2024
Starstruck mass! Role model scarcity, Does education matter?
Written by Vijay Bhatt June 27, 2024 for blogs posting
Being in Los Angeles, I do not get to watch Indian TV channels very often. Lately, I got exposed to constantly watching Indian TV channels due to elections and more so to watch World Cup T20 Cricket. Yes it was indeed a great fun watching cricket! I live in LA but my heart is in India. Fir bhi Dil Hai Hindustani.
While watching Indian TV, at every break there were many advertisements. It was quite noticeable ( to me frustrating) that most commercials were enacted by Bollywood, AB, SRK, Ranveer.... to Kaira. Showing Deepika and Karina with detergents made me laugh! Do they ever do laundry! Ads of Paan masala, AB in flour ads, and so on and so fourth....
I came to some inferences which I am not ready to accept as it is not acceptable to me. The conclusion is those are the role models of India. Are these our social role models? I know all my relatives and friends in India. They all have superlative intellects, very high IQ, extremely driven with high character moral None of my relatives get influenced to buy a product because of Deepika or Karina's recommendations. So I cannot accept my own inference.
Then why do these people, who have not even properly finished high school, have become such icons for the Indian society?
Product promoters are putting them on the screen with their products and must have done a market survey before paying them so much $$. So it defies my inference also.
So another conclusion could be that there must be a big part of the Indian mass which is strongly influenced by these semi-educated entertainers.
What contribution these high earners have made to our nation, our nation's prosperity, our nation's defense, social uplifting, or any such? Nothing! Zip! Zero!
They make 500 cr to 1000 cr from the public who paid to watch them on the silver screen and feel good.
Similar scenario is in politics. Many, if not all elected officials have very low moral compass. Why do we choose such bad representatives? Yes, we choose some, knowingly.
I just heard in an interview where a leading actress bragged that she has never completed high school. Also, some leading actors bragged he was bunking classes to go to theaters to watch movies.
On OTT and in some reality shows, some actors boast how useless it was to go to college!
Do people care for personal values, morals, characters? I know they do. Then why do we fall for such influencers who do not represent our real values?
Why not have more commercials by great real contributors to the country, philanthropists, scholars, soldiers, writers, poets, and other real life heroes?
In India, there is no scarcity of thousands of 'real world heroes! Just as there is no shortage of 'fake' heroes in Bollywood..India has world's best in many areas. Maybe the general mass does not want to come out of the fantasy world of silver screen. If at all it is true, we as a community, as a society, should be ready for mediocracy. Too bad!
I see three distinct extremes. One. hyper religious India which is in awe of thousands of years old religious and cultural history. The second India is more western than the westerners! and the third India is influenced by fake role models.
My dear fellow Indians, please wake up. Please find 'real role models'. They are already among us, right now, just look around. Praise them, recognize them, reward them and be influenced by them. Reject these fake heroes who are taking away your money, time, and corrupt our youth's future with bad influence.
India has never had any shortage of 'real heroes'. Let us prove SAARE JAHAN SE ACHHAA HINDUSTAN HAMAARAA!!
Written by Vijay Bhatt June 28, 2024 for blogs posting.
