Friends, on this 2nd Tuesday of Sept 2019, there are few news items which I would like to brief you with my observations.
1 You all are aware about the Chandrayaan 2 story and I am not going to repeat the same. When on late last Friday night ISRO Chairman announced that there have been glitch in the mission and they have lost contact with the lander just 2.1 Km before it was to land on the moon, and PM Modi who was present there, consoled ISRO Chairman K Sivan, and this action of PM was widely publicised in the media next day. On that night a press meet was also arranged to brief the media about the Chandrayaan 2 mission, with anticipation that mission might be total success, and this press meet was to be addressed by ISRO Chairman. With the last minute glitch happening in the mission, finally the press meet was addressed by a ISRO Senior Scientist DP Karnik.
But at the press meet one journalist from NDTV, Pallava Bagga seeing that meet is not addressed by ISRO Chairman, suddenly started shouting at the ISRO official by asking why ISRO chairman has not attended the press meet. He repeatedly kept asking the question to the Senior Scientist, who was seen stumbling and struggling to respond to the aggressive behaviour of the journalist. He even insulted the official by telling him that we (the journalists) are not interested in listening to some junior.
When the news/video of this press meet was aired on the media and social media, all the hell broke loose. The NDTV journalist was trolled on the social media, and most of the people questioned the audacity of Pallava Bagga’s behaviour with ISRO Senior Scientist. And when NDTV news started saying that Pallava was within his rights to ask the question, then response on social media was that OK he has right to ask question but he has no right to abuse/insult official of ISRO. After this happening NDTV co founder Prannoy Roy said NDTV journalist’s behaviour was not correct and NDTV apologises.
In the end Pallava Bagga had to apologise and he wrote “ my sincere and heartfelt apologies to DP Karnik for inadvertenly raising my voice to ask question in the media room last night. I have sought apologies from him personally and this is to let larger community know that I have tremendous respect for ISRO.”. He further added that “ Sorry guys, my behaviour did not conform with my own standards or the organisation I work for. It won’t happen again. Pardon me”.
My feeling is that in the recent times the behaviour of the journalist from TV channels is becoming highly deplorable, and you get the feeling that these guys think as they are from media they can speak and write any thing for TRP without bothering the repercussions.
2 Tennis–In the recently concluded US open tournament, in the ladies section, again it happened that Serena Williams could not equal the record of Margaret Smith by winning her 24th Grand slam title. Now this has become a routine, as in last 2 years she reached finals four times, and every time she lost to lesser known players. In 2018 Wimbledon she lost to Angelique Kerber 3-6, 3-6, in US open 2018 Naomi Osaka beat her 6-2, 6-4, in Wimbledon 2019 Simona Halep beat her 6-2, 6-2 and now in US open 2019 Binaca Andreescu beat her 6-3, 7-5, Of all the losses the latest loss is quite surprising because Binaca is not well known player, till last year she could not qualify for US open, other players Simona Halep and Angelique Kerber had the top ranking for some time and Osaka also became top ranked player few months after beating Serena. All her losses came in straight sets, which indicates that bshe was totally outclassed in all the finals. Now it is looking that she may never be able to equal the record of winning the maximum Grand Slam singles title, as age is catching with her, in few months she will complete 38 years. Now it seems that she is physically incapable of winning 7 matches at stretch, which is required for winning the grand slam. After winning the Australian open in Jan 2017, she has failed to win any tournament post the birth of her daughter in Sept 2017.
What you say my friends.
Awaiting your comments/views/feed backs.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
10th Sep 2019.
R. N. Mungale.
Pallava’s behavior was certainly deplorable.
It is unfortunate that Cerena lost.