Column

My New Year resolution is also my new mantra for success! To shout as loud as I can! Because shouting has proved to be the single most dominant factor of last year. Everybody who shouted, whether in politics or in showbiz or even in your neighbourhood, actually managed to make their point - even when their point seemed pointless.

Like Pakistan, who kept shouting at India for “evidence” to prove its links to terrorism and then started shouting “war alert” so loudly that India had to stop pointing to the evidence and watch helplessly as all that shouting enabled Pakistan to deflect the global pressure on acting against its homegrown terrorists. So we’re left exactly where we started one month ago!

As a kid, we’ve heard the story about the boy who cried wolf. After a couple of false alarms, the villagers turned a deaf ear to the prankster when a wolf actually attacked him. In an updated version, the boy would cry wolf repeatedly through the media and blogs. However, much like Ghajini’s amnesiac hero, the villagers would get carried away by the hype and react each time without any recollection of having fallen for the prank earlier. And it would be left to the poor wolf to issue denials in the media!

Shouting out the other person into submission is a very effective political tool. It’s used either to deflect public attention from a wrongdoing or to highlight a frivolous issue that’s easier to draw attention than by addressing a real issue that requires hard work and homework!

While Bollywood discovered that shouting helps turn a flop into a hit, some of its denizens used it to boost their public persona. So a publicity-hungry dancer repeatedly sneaked stories into newspapers about how he’s busy teaching Madonna or Britney Spears - and nobody bothered to verify his claims! He shouted and we simply listened! Just like we listened to actors boast of being cast in an “international film” - which is usually being directed by an aspiring NRI filmmaker!

These are days when you could accuse someone of a crime and enjoy your 15 minutes of fame as you shout “chor! chor!”, while the accused will have to spend the rest of his lifetime proving his innocence – only to realise that when he does prove it, nobody is interested! So the next time you drive your car recklessly and bang into someone, just shout him into apologising to you!