Who are you scared of?

Last night, while tuning into radio I stumbled on this private FM channel where the jockey was asking “aap kisse darte hai (who/what are you scared of)”. I thought it was one of those programmes wherein the jockey herself would give answers like failure in professional life, financial or marital problems, and then go on talking about some philosophies of life and then play an encouraging song like ``mein zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya…”
In a nanosecond I realized I was way off the mark. After repeating the question twice, “who are you scared of?”, the jockey soon chirped, “The options to the question are a) Your boyfriend or girlfriend b) your boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s parents and c) your boyfriend or girlfriend’s dog. SMS your answers to me on this number…the winner will get a goodie bag!”
I stopped reading to hear the options carefully when she repeated them again and realized it was not a joke. The jockey was serious and this was a serious contest. Then, I started thinking. Given the options I wondered what was the right answer to this question? I wondered what was there in the goodie bag (perhaps a book on `overcoming fears’). I also racked my brain about how the radio station will decide who to give the goodie bag to? I understood the gravity of the question only after the options were listed. After all, what can be more scary in life than your girlfriend or boyfriend’s temper, or either’s parents or either’s disapproving pet? Profound! The jockey broke for a song which was not `main zindagi..’’ for sure…but a more peppy `Kajrare’’.
It wasn’t a coincidence that yesterday hundreds of comments flooded news sites with people wishing a certain celluloid goddess a happy birthday. Television and radio had played songs featuring her all day. Yes, the music channels just fell short of changing their logo as they do on other `important’ days such as Independence and Republic Day and Diwali and Holi. Perhaps by next year, they will make amends. I was touched at how the nation got together once again in wishing this certain lady (strangely with no hits to her credit in the last few years) a happy birthday.
And celebrations continued this morning with news channels devoting a segment, a song, a report and an `in-depth’ feature on the ruling king of bollywood on his birthday. Predictably, the day’s schedule across channels…entertainment and news… comprises generous segments and films featuring this actor who could once act, but no longer can. Nevertheless, people can wish him by logging onto news websites and even take part in trivia quiz contests that a news anchor announced only three times this morning.
And as I write this, I think we are living in Trivia times.. when trivia makes main news, when trivia contests comprise sizeable chunks of television, internet and radio programming.
If I were to answer who/what am I scared of, I would add another option to the list. Option (d): the changed priorities of the media.