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ShareIn many ways the similarities of both ballots are obvious: candidates who we have come to regard as members of our own families, due to their long tenure in our consciousness and thanks to their omnipotent media presence, locked in a no holds barred, often unscrupulous fight to the finish to win a coveted title.
Most determinations that involve the choice of a large public over a small set of individuals tend to run similar courses. There is the polarisation of the electorate, the predictable rise of passions, the inevitable scandal mongering and of course finally -- as in most elections -- the results tell you more about the electorate -- than the candidates themselves.
So, as far as the recently concluded American presidential elections are concerned the choice of Barrack Obama has offered us an almanac about the State of the American Mind.
It has told us that the majority of American voters have distanced themselves from racial prejudice, conservatism and the war-mongering and interventionist policies that their country stood for particularly over the last eight years. It has told us that Americans are fed up of short-sighted economic policies, cavalier environmental apathy and smug foreign initiatives, that it is ready and willing for change-even if means handing over the reins of the nation to a relatively unknown, untested, African American man in his forties.
Now what will the election of the Bigg Boss winner tell us about ourselves? In a few days we will know who the TV viewing public has favoured between Rahul Mahajan, Zulfi Syed, Raja Chowdhury and Ashutosh Kaushik.
For those who think this choice is to be trivialised I have only this to say: any reading of the way a group of people choose, is valuable -- and when it happens to be a group as large,( TRP figures that are staggering) as spread out, ( over every state in the country) as young ( read the posts on the official web-site) and as crucial ( these are the chaps who spend money and choose governments) -- the outcome of the Bigg Boss nominations ought to be a matter that engages media watchers, marketers and social pundits.
If for instance soft-spoken, well-bred Zulfi Syed happens to get the public's vote, will it mean that the majority community's communal prejudices have been set aside and that a man in touch with his feminine side (unafraid to help out in the kitchen wearing an apron for instance) has won the day?
What if Ashutosh Kaushik, the small town boy who still hasn't left behind his accent or his earthiness wins? Does this mean that there is an overwhelming surge of empathy from the heartlands of this country for one of its own to make good over city slickers?
And how about the troubled Raja Chowdhury and the equally disturbed Rahul Mahajan? There has always been a deep wave of sympathy for the tragic anti-hero in India. Be it in our films, politics or cultural life. Will Bigg Boss viewers give their final vote to the poor little rich boy Rahul with his penchant for being at the wrong place at the right time and his ever-increasing ticks and eccentricities? Or will it be for the haunted, hunted middle class Raja Chowdhury, wrestling with his inner demons, trying desperately to overcome his violent streak?
The American public has revealed itself to us recently; in what way will we learn new and interesting things about which we are and how we think from the Bigg Boss final nominations?
I for one can hardly wait!
Email: s_malavika@nainia.net
