True role models

Ashish Kaul
If you have been watching television for the past week, you will by now know what IndraniMukerjea eats for lunch or what cell phone network Jasleen Kaur uses.  The chemistry, biology, physics everything about these cases has been explained to us, but whatever happened to the dynamics of humanity? This exposes a deeper rift in society, a rift that rears its ugly head with every passing year. There is no major hue and cry or national outburst about positive stories, which don’t have a hidden scandal or at least one in the making.  Because scandals reflect the murky underbelly of human nature that makes us consume media at an unprecedented scale. Yes, the verdict is out we as human beings are  on the path of becoming comfortably numb! But the question that begs to be asked is why is it that stories such as these have been mainstreamed to the point where this is all the information a ‘youthful’ nation is interested in? India is a country where 64% of our workforce is in the 15-35 categories giving us the title of a country of youth, but as we take nascent steps to negotiate our future, who will these youth become 20 years hence? Where will our country be headed? The misplaced role models that impact the minds of our youth will create a future of a different kind for India.
A next-gen India,  that will be built on the fruit but not on the root.  An India of chaos,  hinged on moral depravation, where perhaps ‘ethics’ will be taught in a class room as a thing of the past. Where individuals will handle human relationships as mechanical business investments and not emotional ones. Families or family trees will be rooted in hatred amidst this fusion and confusion. A generation so confused and consumed by a ‘use and throw’ culture that the voice of reason opposing this mindless destructionwill just be shunned like an idiot.
The Veda’s say“We become what we eat or what we feed our mind”. This brings me to the more worrying part of the context. How many of us knew the name of Dashrath Manjhi two months back, probable answer is none. A man who lived his life in an untainted manner with no dark side or secrets to his life, a man who spent 22 years of his life to shatter a mountain and created a road for masses around him. And yes he did it alone and that too barehanded. It took more than half of a century for us to know about him courtesy Ketan Mehta who decided to make a movie on Manjhi’s life. This is the sort of intake we should provide to our brain to make it strong and ethical. Continuing with the context, the media has show cased Jasleen Kaur and more recently Indrani Mukerjea. They have spent a lot of air time on highlighting these individuals. The common factor between the names mentioned here is that they both eventually took the short and unethical way to attain name and fame. Especially Indrani Mukherjea who otherwise is a model success story hails from Guwahati and reached the pinnacle of success in almost no time. The media gave enough coverage to her and made her the next big thing. A certain part of our modern society indeed looked at her as a role model without even knowing her complete story. We saw her eventual downfall in last 10 odd days however media is still pouring in detailed reports about her past and present life. This should have been done earlier in order to provide our youth with a detailed insight about the person whom they started considering as there role model. Jasleen Kaur was also highlighted as a flag bearer f the new age Indian youth however her campaign to be one failed during media trial, leave the matter going in front of court of law. The reason I mention this incidence is to highlight the way media portrays selected information which is often filled with the “X” or “zing” factor. It helps media to gain on TRP however it misguides our masses when it comes to selecting and following a role model.
Speaking of selecting a role model, the youth is not left with much choice, as it is often decided by the media as a default option. In many ways celebrities have been forced upon us as role models. For instance today’s youth has preferred to take a Salman or Shahrukh as his role model based on the way media has highlighted there lives. The limelight and glamour of there life has overshadowed the decision making powers of our youth and they are not able to differentiate between a role model and celebrity. Its true, a role model can be a celebrity but its not essential that every celebrity can be a role model. We need to be more careful, wise and introspective when it comes to selecting our role models.
So what next? The media should be more prudent in their approach, as they know the kind of impact they have on young impressionable minds. We need to apply a bit of brain and insight in order to recognize and discern the real role models from the society.  A certain Dashrath Manjhi never go attention from media because our media barons didn’t think that his story has the zing to attract TRP or sponsors. May be and just may be, if we were supplied with right feed of role models Indrani’s story would have been different. She may have taken the hard yet correct way to success and inspired many more Indrani’s from Guwahati and India. That’s the impact a role model can bring in to our society. They have got the power to impact and improve others lives for good. They can tell us that hard way to success will give you more satisfaction when you finally attain it. They can help us understand that route to success is as important as attaining success itself.
True role models are those who possess the qualities that we would like to have and those who have affected us in a way that makes us want to be better people. To advocate for ourselves and our goals and take leadership on the issues that we believe in. Another fact is that we have grown confused between what we desire and what we actually want to be. The day we clear our brain about the fact that it’s not the attire and looks but the behavior and deeds, which should be considered to determine our role models, we will find many glorious ones around us.
A country like ours thrives on choice- We have the luxury of choosing  to watch an anchor over another , or to change the channel. We choose a brand new political party over a tried and tested one. Or an act as simple as choosing strawberry over chocolate. It is the duty of the media to give us and the youth of this country a choice or bring to us a menu of options. A wide range of people and their stories so that we can choose whom we want to identify our new India with. We need to learn the art of choice- both providing choices and choosing from choices.  We’ve seen in the past-misplaced role models lead to a highly misplaced nation. A well-informed, active nation needs to replace these misplaced role models. The time has come and the time is now. Before we all become comfortably numb.
(The author is Media & Entertainment Business leader and can be reached on his Twitter @aashishkaul)

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