Aishwarya Rai Bachchan wants to save the world from hair damage and Baichung Bhutia, in association with Aircel, wants to save the tigers from the world - both claims come within two minutes from one another on a national news channel as ads. Well, all of us are set out to either save the world from something or save something from the world.
A good section of the world thinks that this is a media stunt by Aircel for gaining brownie points... Duh... No points for innovative thinking. If the tigers are saved from extinction because of this initiative and Aircel gets favors from Santa Claus, why should there be complaints? The larger questions however is, what happens once the fad passes?
Not long ago, we fought for abolishing reservations in the country. I remember going on backward marches till my ankles ached, I saw a martyr burn his passport with a fresh visa stamp on it to take up the cause and fight for Equality of youth through eradication of such evil practices, and I even know a guy who wanted to go on a nation-wide bike tour and collect a billion voices on the issue of reservations. But the fad passed and life came back to normal and thankfully our martyred NRI applied for and got a new passport with another fresh visa stamp on it, while the biker failed to get funds for his venture. Reservations are still here with no date of departure on the cards.
I know some friends who thought they would revolutionize hyderabad into recycling household waste and went from door to door collecting garbage. Very soon they found the stink unbearable and 345 other reasons to abandon the cause. One of them, a good friend, creates a ruckus when I stub a cigarette on the street outside my friends' restaurant despite my assurances that it will be swept and properly disposed by the house keeping staff. But for the butt her life goes on, she is looking forward to bigger things in life.
So what happens when the number of visitors on Aircel's Tiger Mission Website dwindle like the number of tigers on this planet? Will Aircel continue the crusade? Or will all the crusaders fade away like the striped creatures might?
God save the...
1 comment:
See well that's the thing tho...I refuse to be sidelined by the diminishing hope that plagues everyone at some point and puts issues like this on the back burner. Every time I see someone spit onto the pavement or trash a cover on the road (at the risk of picking a fight) I walk up to them and tell them off. And who knows if we can start at the grass root level and not crave to create a media frenzy...things just might work!!! We all expect instant results for our campaigns and actions...some times things take a long time to develop...the trick is to repeat and not lose faith!
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