I found it hard to believe when a colleague mentioned that Indian Railways has introduced side middle berths in most of the coaches of trains starting from Chennai. Middle berths themselves were new to people who travelled in meter gauge trains. When I first encountered them, I found them so inconvenient. They were good in the day time, but were inadequate to accomodate tall passengers.
When I made those journeys between home and hostel during my engineering days, I remember always trying to squeeze myself into the side berths and always ending up sleepy the next day. One consolation was that atleast the side berths had more vertical space when compared to the regular berths in sleeper coaches.
But now, Lalu, with an eye on short term profits, has introduced middle berths in all sleeper coaches. Just a look at a photo in the Hindu (4th December Madurai edition) made me feel claustrophobic! Without any change in passenger space or other amenities (like restrooms), they have managed to increase the number of passengers in a coach. In the day time, the additional passengers will sit in the regular lower berths, so each regular bay will accomodate 7 instead of 6 passengers while sitting. Moreover, I hear that even three tier AC coaches have not been spared. At a time when Indian Railways is drawing flak from outside on the design of its toilets, this clearly goes on to show the utter disregard for event basic hygiene and comfort for the passengers.
Till recently, I was not a regular viewer of the current Super Singer season. The reason was that they took the 2006 edition too far, stretched it as much as possible, gave so much air time to the outside-music activities like getting the finalists dressed up, just stopping short of capturing the contestants in their bedrooms and bathrooms (which meant capturing every other act of theirs), bringing some so-called celebrities needlessly and showing us the well-rehearsed “surprised” reactions of the contestants and so on. In short, in an attempt to highlight the “reality” aspect of the show, they lost out on the music and subsequently lost so many viewers who came here for the music content. I didn’t expect this year to be any different and I still don’t, given the aspects Vijay TV programme directors concentrate on (if you need evidence, just watch the “Neeya Naana” show on Sundays; the stupid participants bitch about their close relatives so badly episode after episode that my wife and I wonder if they will have a life at all after the episodes are aired). One more irritant in the first season was the attitude of some of the finalists. I was eventually happy they didn’t win the edition.
The Super Singer Junior, I should say was worse. Though the competition was probably better, again doing things like shooting in the schools of the finalists and all didn’t really appeal to me. Add to that the reactions of some of the kids suddenly pushed to stardom. Some of it was apparent on the show itself, and the off camera incidents have been pretty boldly captured by Chimayi in her blog. Again, I think the Vijay TV folks are to blame for the whole episode.
Hence, when the new season started this year, I almost gave it a miss but for a few glances when I browsed the channels. Frankly, it was easy to miss the programme when you’re browsing channels. There’s a break at the end of every fifth minute. The maximum content in the one hour slot is for 25 minutes, the rest of it is taken over by the “very short commercial breaks”. However, recently there has been so much talk about this programme in the web that it is hard not to notice it. There have been talks of prejudiced judgements favouring a particular contestant and so on. This made me get a little more interested in the programme and watch it more regularly (for the last 2 weeks or so). And I must say, I have seen some very good singing, far better than the 2006 edition. Even though the show seems to be dragging, the content is still music and not the “reality” type stuff has not reared its ugly head (atleast not yet. Vijay TV can be trusted to bring those aspects in one we reach the final rounds).
I think I heard the best singing last night with the performance by Ravi for the medley round. Like Shreenivas pointed out, it looks like this guy will easily be crowned the Super Singer with his current form. The first few minutes and the Udaya song is simply amazing and I still don’t get tired of viewing this video. The reactions of judges in the end says it all. Sujatha, who to me looks like a no-nonsense judge (from what I’ve seen so far; I know there have been a lot hue and cry over her judgements) summed it up very well.
My personal favourite has been another contestant, Arvindh. I know he has been consistently receiving adverse comments with his carnatic flavour to all that he sings in all the earlier rounds so far. Though the judges have been very harsh on him in the medley round (with Shreenivas almost accusing of being arrogant), I still like the way he easily sings the difficult songs.
I just hope Arvindh just makes that small correction in his singing and competes with Ravi on better terms. That would add to the overall interest in the current season.
Another highlight of the season has been Chinmayi herself. She is so natural while hosting and does a lot of things impromptu. Though one initially feels she shouldn’t be venturing outside singing, given her divine voice, compering seems to come to her very naturally. The bond that she shares with everyone - the contestants and the judge - makes it a fun to watch everytime she comes on stage.
