On Facing The Truth
A couple of months back, while watching 'The Moment of Truth' in my living room, I confidently declared that this is one show that will never be customised for the Indian audience as however much we might swear by our morality and uprightness, there are many skeletons in our closet that we would never want revealed, and especially not on national TV. But I had to eat my words when 'Sach ka Saamna' was launched. Note to self: Never say 'NEVER'.
Actually about a month before the show was launched, I received a call from Star Plus inquiring if I would be interested to be a contestant on the show. I thought that it would be a way of making some quick money as I didn't have much to hide. But after questioning me on my life for about five minutes, they must have also guessed the same thing. They would get back to me, but they never did. So it wouldn't be far fetched on my part to say that they were specifically looking for something scandalous, something that could increase their TRP's.
In spite of the rejection, I feel that there is some potential in this show. They must be very bold and courageous to push the envelope to such an extent in a country which is highly sensitive to even the minutest of slights-actual or perceived, where even non existential issues become the bone of contention for legal suits, riots etc. and even the slightest provocation has the capability to snowball into a huge dispute replete with the antics, drama and all.
We Indians consider ourselves to be self righteous with all our morals and values in place. We have strong principles which we claim to uphold under any situation. We strongly believe in the institution of marriage. We say that we respect our elders and value our family. We point fingers at the West and blame them for polluting our culture. But on a basic level are we actually the people we project ourselves to be? Or are we just living a dual life? The latest show raises all these fundamental questions to which we would rather not know the answers. Or perhaps we do know the answers in the deepest recesses of our minds but prefer to not bring it up as it causes a lot of unpleasantness.
Truth is truly liberating. As children we are taught to always tell the truth irrespective of the consequences. We are told stories with morals like "Truth always triumphs" and stories in which the liar has to suffer a lot. But as we grow up these lessons get lost as we realize that the real world is completely different from the idealistic, fairytale world. Here good guys don't always win. And lying is an easy way out of many situations. So we come up with the concept of white lies, diplomacy and sensitivity to make ourselves feel at ease. As time progresses we keep slipping and get sucked into the vortex of lies and deceit. We can no longer stay true to our character so we try and shove things beneath the carpet and hope that no one finds out. Many a times there is a clear disconnect between the way we conduct ourselves in private and the way we behave in public as image, prestige and honour take a front seat.
Sometimes, telling the truth is not the hardest part, being able to take it is. It is not easy for a parent to hear that his child does not respect him or for a friend to hear that his friend doesn't think much of him or for a husband to find out that his wife has lost interest in him. They would rather live in their bubble and continue believing things that make them happy. As the truth has tremendous power and sometimes leaves behind emotional scars that no amount of money can heal. Sometimes, telling the truth is just not worth it.
So probably telling the truth is overrated. We like to be truthful only as long as it's convenient.And probably it is for the better good that we are not truthful at all times. However much we appreciate truthful people there are times when we would prefer people to reinforce our beliefs no matter how far away from the truth they may be. I would like to conclude using James Woods' dialogue from the American TV series,Shark,"Truth is relative. Pick one that works."
Actually about a month before the show was launched, I received a call from Star Plus inquiring if I would be interested to be a contestant on the show. I thought that it would be a way of making some quick money as I didn't have much to hide. But after questioning me on my life for about five minutes, they must have also guessed the same thing. They would get back to me, but they never did. So it wouldn't be far fetched on my part to say that they were specifically looking for something scandalous, something that could increase their TRP's.
In spite of the rejection, I feel that there is some potential in this show. They must be very bold and courageous to push the envelope to such an extent in a country which is highly sensitive to even the minutest of slights-actual or perceived, where even non existential issues become the bone of contention for legal suits, riots etc. and even the slightest provocation has the capability to snowball into a huge dispute replete with the antics, drama and all.
We Indians consider ourselves to be self righteous with all our morals and values in place. We have strong principles which we claim to uphold under any situation. We strongly believe in the institution of marriage. We say that we respect our elders and value our family. We point fingers at the West and blame them for polluting our culture. But on a basic level are we actually the people we project ourselves to be? Or are we just living a dual life? The latest show raises all these fundamental questions to which we would rather not know the answers. Or perhaps we do know the answers in the deepest recesses of our minds but prefer to not bring it up as it causes a lot of unpleasantness.
Truth is truly liberating. As children we are taught to always tell the truth irrespective of the consequences. We are told stories with morals like "Truth always triumphs" and stories in which the liar has to suffer a lot. But as we grow up these lessons get lost as we realize that the real world is completely different from the idealistic, fairytale world. Here good guys don't always win. And lying is an easy way out of many situations. So we come up with the concept of white lies, diplomacy and sensitivity to make ourselves feel at ease. As time progresses we keep slipping and get sucked into the vortex of lies and deceit. We can no longer stay true to our character so we try and shove things beneath the carpet and hope that no one finds out. Many a times there is a clear disconnect between the way we conduct ourselves in private and the way we behave in public as image, prestige and honour take a front seat.
Sometimes, telling the truth is not the hardest part, being able to take it is. It is not easy for a parent to hear that his child does not respect him or for a friend to hear that his friend doesn't think much of him or for a husband to find out that his wife has lost interest in him. They would rather live in their bubble and continue believing things that make them happy. As the truth has tremendous power and sometimes leaves behind emotional scars that no amount of money can heal. Sometimes, telling the truth is just not worth it.
So probably telling the truth is overrated. We like to be truthful only as long as it's convenient.And probably it is for the better good that we are not truthful at all times. However much we appreciate truthful people there are times when we would prefer people to reinforce our beliefs no matter how far away from the truth they may be. I would like to conclude using James Woods' dialogue from the American TV series,Shark,"Truth is relative. Pick one that works."
My initial feeling towards the concept of ---- fetching your bedroom to everybody's drawing room,was,in Indian context this is never happening.After the initial weeks,I feel,it's only a matter of days before the moral police is up in arms against it.We live in a society which is slowly waking upto globalization,but the process will take a few decades.So the show is much ahead of its time.
ReplyDeleteI liked your interpretation of our habbit to safe guard our interests by being prudent at times.Lastly as someone rightly said,"There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity." Speaking the truth is a virtue no doubt,but one should be matured enough to know where and when to do that.And coming on national television and making a mockery of yourself,your family and your friends,is not my cup of tea for sure.It's really nice to see that such a topic was discussed with minimum of bias...cheers Rachana