Then we landed on the news channel band. And there it stayed and hasn’t moved since.

Of course we started watching something described as a gang war. This built up into a chase behind the elusive truth of what was happening, trying to piece together the tracks of someone (some people?) who’d turned up at C.S.T. station with guns, popped up five minutes later at the Taj Mahal hotel and then apparently transmogrified a few meters away at the Oberoi/Trident. Abrupt cut to assemble a whole lot of other details.

Nariman House

Grant Road station

Rubber boats

AK47

Vileparle

Dockyard

Stolen Skoda

JJ School of Art

RDX

Hijacked police van

It was well past 1 am before I realized I hadn’t budged from the seat in front of the television set. In those three hours we’d absorbed and internalized all the starting details and figured out enough to relay them to others. By 2:30 am, I was tweeting away, weaving myself intricately into the drama that the whole city, a few minutes later the whole country and within a few hours the whole world would become a part of.

Well past 3:30am I collapsed into bed from sheer exhaustion. Emotional roller-coasters are tiring and I’d been riding for over 5 hours nonstop.

I awoke four hours later and for a virginal 20 seconds, my consciousness was devoid of any sensation. Then I remembered and raced to the living room where the television was already on. I’m not normally a TV person, even less in the morning and I only meant to get a fix on the day’s situation to take a call on going to work or not. I looked away ten minutes later to find four hours had passed.

The day is otherwise a blur to me. I don’t remember eating or sleeping. But I do remember flipping channels when one started going on a loop and finding another angle on the story within a fraction of a second. I remember phone calls and left-hand-typing SMSes with the right hand tapping out on the TV remote control. I remember watching a video shot on a cellphone, reading the ticker text at the bottom of the screen, listening to my caller at the other end and relaying a super-quick analysis of it all to my family. I remember tweeting, retweeting, replying, reading tweets, following tweeple and all of it on that woefully inadequate application called m.twitter on my superslow GPRS connection. I remember shifting into gmail every couple of hours for quick checks and having to reload each time since the phone doesn’t allow for multiple windows. And I remember feeling enraged at my computer internet connection going down at such a time.

The day ended around midnight for my family as they retired with the news that the Taj Mahal hotel had been recovered. I stayed glued to the set and Twitter. When 45 minutes later, came the news that it had been a hasty wire and there was still unidentified gunfire coming out from Taj, I actually rushed back to wake everyone up. Finding them asleep, I hastened back to my couch-seat, unwilling to miss even a minute of the drama. My brain gave out at 4 am.

In this interim while I watched a panel discussion among semi-celebrities being intellectual and socialist about the attack.

I (with a number of other blogger/tweeters) panned the politicians and sneered at the PM’s address. I had a lump in my throat as I watched the minute-to-minute battles of the firemen, the cops and the NSG commandos.

I watched replays of the highlights of the feature like the firing from the police van, the interview with the Navy chief, the soundbytes from the British hostage who’d escaped.

I tsk-tsked at Barkha Dutt’s insensitive questions to the relatives waiting outside for their loved ones trapped in the buildings. I listened with an almost indecent glee to the frenzied statements by celebrities and the dead-toned voices of the junta on the roads.

I processed numbers of hostages, prisoners, casualties, terrorists, commandos and mulled over them all.

And I also contributed to the mass panic, the collective griping, the unified expression of support, the unanimous indignation. I dissolved into and became one with everyone around and outside the terror situation – the media; the social media.

This morning my frenzied participation was interrupted by having to get out to go to work. Even so, I found myself holding my phone camera ready to capture anything that might contribute to the drama. Zilch (mercifully, in retrospect). The minute I got to office and was connected, I was back. Twitter, email, blogs and the news streaming feeds kept us very much plugged into every nuance. With every fake rumor, we reverberated along with the collective panic in the city and breathed a synchronized sigh of relief when they were proven false.

This might have continued ad infinitum. After all, I can’t see any end in sight just yet. From what I hear, hostage situations in terrorism aren’t quick-and-dry deals and rather tend to drag out to exert pressure on both sides. But I spent an hour with a friend. Though our conversation started with our sharing our fears, our mutual outrage and our common jaded-by-now analysis of the situation….it gave way smoothly into the more mundane details of our daily lives, our own little soap operas.

And as I made my way home, I realized I was breathing smoothly for the first time in two days. Reality shows are tricky things. They’re interesting and engaging simply because of how well we identify with them, how involved we get with them. And we get our emotional adventures as we swing up and down and get rattled about by the situations we find ourselves in, by proxy. We connect and we’re thrilled to the bone. Yes, I said thrilled, not chilled. It’s an adrenalin rush.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as outraged by the indignity of fear perperated on us as a city and as a nation by a handful of terrorists. My heart still aches for the bravery of the people who fell defending us yesterday as it does for the broken people staggering out of the Taj, Nariman House and Trident. But I can’t stand anymore thrills from chills. I’m disconnecting from the most vivid reality show I’ve ever been a part of. This is too much reality for me and I’m ODing. I think I’d rather go live my own mundane, selfish little existence for little while just so I can survive. Enough, already.

MTV was promoting the show with the tagline ‘Jobs your parents won’t understand,’ which showed a girl from their community working as a masseur and her father suddenly discovering her new profession.

Ironically, a masseur is not among the careers profiled by the channel on the show.

The protestors managed to trash the office and destroy 3 plazma tvs, each approximately costa 65000/- rupees

Rakhi Sawant and Abhishek Awasthi
Rakhi and Abhishek first met on the sets of a shoot and later, during gym sessions and stunt classes.
Abhishek proposed to Rakhi in South Africa but she didn’t take him seriously. She finally said ‘yes’ during the celebrity reality show, Bigg Boss.
“Abhishek is not just a great dancer but a great cook as well,” Rakhi says. Incidentally, he had his own dance academy in Kanpur during his college days

Shweta Keswani and Alexx O’Neil
Shweta and Alexx first met at Mumbai’s J W Marriott hotel. Shwetha’s parents always wanted her to marry a Sindhi, but now, have an American for a prospective son-in-law.
“I have to first translate the lyrics to Alexx and then start rehearsals with him,” Shweta laughs.
But Alexx is now getting used to the jhatkaas and thumkaas.

Karan Patel and Amita Chandekar
Amita did not know Karan until she showed up at his place with one of his friends. They met often after that, and one day at a party, he asked her if she fancied the rest of her life with him.
The couple are currently shooting for the serial Kasturi together.

Shakti Kapoor and Shivangi Kapoor
They first meeting was a disaster because Shivangi saw Shakti in a wig with grey hair. Later, when he removed it, she found him very charming and fell in love with him.
“My wife and I are enjoying dancing with youngsters and hope the whole world will enjoy seeing us dance,” Shakti says, adding, “I am dancing with some of my friends’ children and my son’s friends are on this show. I hope they enjoy dancing with us too.”
Shakti and Shivangi are the oldest couple in the lot.

Vikas Sethi and Amita Sethi
They met each other for the first time in a club, and tied the knot soon after.
Amita, a trained kathak dancer, serves as an airhostess with Air India.
Vikas, meanwhile, is popular as Swayam, in Kahi To Hoga. He also stars in Kasauti Zindagii Kay.

Karan Grover and Kavita Kaushik
They first met at a hotel and later at a party. Karan offered her a drink and she asked him ‘Are you the bartender?’ They are still high on life.
Karan stars in serials like Saarathi and Meri Awaz Ko Mil Gayi Roshni, while Kavita has done a lot of serials like Tumhari Disha, Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki, Kumkum – Ek Pyara Sa Bandhan and Dil Kya Chahta Hai.

Aamir Ali and Sanjeeda Sheikh
Aamir and Sanjeeda met at a friend’s party and soon, became good friends.
She became popular thanks to the serial, Kya Hoga Nimmo Kaa, and is currently seen in Kayamath, while Aamir Ali has been seen in serials like Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki and Woh Rehne Wali Mehelo Ki.

Kashmera Shah and Krushna Abhishek
They first met on the sets of a film, and very soon, fell in love. Krushna is Govinda’s nephew.
Kashmera, who was last seen in Bigg Boss, is all set to sizzle on Nach Baliye.

Kiran Janjani and Ritu Janjani
The first time they met was when Kiran gave her a ride to a common friend’s birthday party. From there, they steered them into a journey of love.
Kiran earlier worked for the Jet Airways, and has done quite a few ads. He starred in Deepak Tijori’s Oops! as well.
“Now if you see my wife and me fight, it will be only for the dance steps,” he says.

Pooja Bedi and Hanif Hilal
She met Hanif at the dance reality show, Jhalak Dhikla Jaa, where he was her choreographer, and they clicked instantly.
“Each couple has performed well. You cannot say some are experienced and some or not,” Pooja says.
Hanif has his own dance troop called Flame and used to have shows in Mumbai and Pune.

Content Credit : Rediff.com

For your information the Indian version of ‘Big Brother’ is currently running on Sony TV as ‘Bigg Boss’ which is produced by Endemol, the company that produces ‘Big Brother’ internationally

“Being a celebrity is really tough,” she said in a pre-recorded clip. Yeah why wont it be with all the celebrity tantrums.. Just look at her here throwing a trantrum over which place she wi l sleep..

This is what Shipa had to say :

“I honestly, truly feel that I am special.”

“I’m very synonymous with glamour.”

“I have never travelled without an entourage.”

“I thought it would be incredible for a Bollywood actor to go there and showcase not just Bollywood but also Indian culture.”

“I don’t put 100% into everything I do. I put 200%.”

“I just want every Indian to be extremely proud that I’m in here.”

Apparently Ms Shetty is being offered a whooping 30 million rupees for the show.Shilpa joins “Big Brother” from Jan 1 and spends the next 25 days on the show.. Lets wait and watch how our Sheetty gal manages to survive in the House of Big Brother..

Have you seen the cute advertisement of KBC? The launch communication showcases a cute kid ( supposedly little Shahrukh) from Delhi, who always keeps asking questions. He keeps asking questions till he reaches a point where he realizes that he is not getting answers for the questions which really matter to him.

He then packs his bags and leaves town with a bag full of unanswered questions and lands up in Mumbai. To his surprise it is the city of Mumbai, which is now asking him the questions.

The promo picks pace from here and goes on to show – how having answered some of these questions, the young lad’s life now comes a full circle, where he is again in a place where he is doing all the asking.

The rest of the film shows that the young boy has grown up as Shah Rukh Khan and is on the hot seat asking questions.

Am sure that It would be totally unfair to even compare Sharukh with Big B… People say that Sharukh always tries to get into BIG B’s shoes… Maybe yeah but Sharukh does go about things in his own style and rather than copy Big B… Although he may be a fan of Big B’s success story. One of the best example I can point here is the song of DON “Kaike Paan”… Big B had made this song a super hit back in the days and today Sharukh has made it even more popular with his own unique dance and style… Even with KBC the promotions are a bit more lighter, and the focus has been shifted from the money to a different angle.. (Atleast the initial ones which are on air now)

Am eagerly looking forward to the new KBC which will be hosted by King Khan. The show goes on air from January 22 from Monday to Thursday at 2100 hrs.

PS: I’m cribbing so much because I cant do without Star Movies, HBO and Star One. All are stellar channels. Does anyone have a way of getting around this too?? Speaking with reference to the advice I got for getting around the recent Blog Ban in its post…

If you want to follow the TV channel, and do not get it on your TV set, then go online.

On the top right side of the ibnlive.com website u will see a link for live TV. They have a great streaming video stream and its absolutely free. And the coverage, is as good or as bad as it comes. More good…. !