Satyamev Jayate...

So, Sunday mornings… What do they remind us of?

Sleeping late into the morning

An enormous brunch

Most TV channels (including Cartoon channels) telecasting our age old mythology and epics.

Well folks, wake up! The season of ordinary Sundays is over.

And here comes Aamir Khan in a new avatar to revolutionize our country. So they say.

I know I’m a bit late in catching up on the television program ‘Satyamev Jayate’ in which Aamir Khan has been creating a national sensation for the past two weeks. With innumerable advertisements and promos for the program and a heartwarming theme song for months together the show was sure to create a huge expectation among the masses. The ‘Rang de Basanti’ star is an added value which pulls the people to the show. I wonder how many digits will figure in his salary.

Few months ago, the advertisement was quite mysterious and it definitely made us all wonder, ‘So what’s up with Aamir these days?’

‘I’m sure he’s up to something in ‘Rang De Basanti’ style’ remarked one of my friends who promptly watches all the Ekta Kapoor stuff on TV even if it goes on for decades and added ‘There’s no actor to compete with him’.

This is a statement where I had to disagree. Aamir is a good actor. But just because he does a TV program which portrays social issues, it doesn’t make him the best ever.

‘Satyamev Jayate’ – the title itself is a sensation. The theme song and the promos showcase the star travelling to the nook and corner of the country covering the diversity of our land and culture,  interacting with comman man – ‘aam aadhmi’ (mango people).  At last on May 6,2012 the long wait was over.

The pilot was watched by most youngsters as far as I know. Within minutes, most Facebook walls and tweets were all thumbs up for Aamir. It was a talk show seasoned with high flavors of emotional quotient and it left people crying in front of the idiot box. When three ladies braved to tell their tales on what was inflicted upon them by their husbands and mothers-in-law for bearing a girl child, the audience listened to their pathetic stories with bated breath. Most of them broke down to tears and even Aamir was shown shedding tears.

If ‘female infanticide’ made us weep, the next episode on ‘child abuse’ made us bawl. Again three different people who initially had no courage to fight against the abuser boldly faced the audience led by Aamir to narrate their stories. Most of us have read about all these social concerns but to view it from the victim’s perspective and to live the moment is like a visit to hell. Media is a very powerful tool but I’m not sure whether these programs really reach out to everyone like the way it reached me. The people who speak out in this show are only one in a million who silently suffer in their everyday life. From what I’ve seen so far it’s always a female kid that confronts a million obstacles in the society and almost everyone is aware of that. If that is the case, literacy and employment are two things that a girl can have to protect herself from depending on others. Why doesn’t everyone in this country wake up?

Female infanticide or Child Abuse, the criminals are always in their right minds and make us wonder whether they are born or made. Are they really humans? While they are at their own free will to commit crimes and get away with it, why don’t they come and speak to the world too? It’s really high time that these people are weeded out and made to face reality. Also, it’s not important that we bring out an issue alone, it is mandatory that something has to be done to stop this atrocity. India is a diverse country and things are not going to improve overnight. Also it’s not a single man’s popularity and reach that’s going to change this nation. It’s every one of our responsibility to make our country a safe haven free of social evils. Now Aamir wields a powerful tool in his possession – the media. Hope he does the right thing at the right time for the rightful people.