That city in France

There was a time when Kamzor Kadi Kaun did not work on Indian television. One of the main reasons given, and I believe it is true, was that it was too disrespectful. It, in adherence to the original British format of The Weakest Link, treated its contestants as dirt. As people, who deserved to be ridiculed and made fun of simply because they had agreed to come in front of the camera for money.

I was watching Roadies on MTV today. And it made me think if today the quiz show was launched again with Neena Gupta, wouldn't it be a big hit, maybe with a numerologically correct name of Kkamzzor Kadii Kkaun? I felt insulted as a viewer when I watched Roadies. I can't imagine what kind of desperation would make these idiots to participate. In fact, from whatever I have seen of Raghu - that bald demon with a frenchie, who terrorises Roadies participants - I think he is intelligent enough to have latched on to the fact, earlier than most of us, that we have reached a stage where most of us feel extremely comfortable baring everything, figuratively and literally, in front of the camera. And enjoy others doing it too.

I watch only two shows on TV these days. Boogie Woogie and Indian Idol. It's convenient for me that both are telecast on the same channel, back-to-back, on Fridays and Saturdays. Both have this feeling of warmth, of respect for participants, that I really enjoy. Unlike most other 'talent shows', people here are really made to feel good about themselves, and their weaknesses and insecurities are not blown up disproportionately for the benefit of the viewer.

Particularly in case of Indian Idol, it's amazing how much genuine nice-ness the anchors - Hussain and Meiyang - and even the judges bring to the show. I have felt bad everytime any of the contestants has left the show. But today was particularly painful. Remo Ghosh - admittedly one of the weakest singers on the show - had been propelled forward and into the top 5 completely because he somehow could connect with the audience in a manner that very few people on TV can do. I really felt bad when he left today.

I was trying to frame this post in some way to talk about how difficult it is to be just nice and then why I like my firm so much because it just tries to be nice and thus is such an anti-thesis of what I always thought investment banking is all about - ruthlessness, money-mindedness, selfishness - but I lost the chain of thought somewhere back there.