Stop Press. SRK-Salman Hug

SRK-Salman push dying children, acid attack victims and Chinese intrusions off our front pages. Even the media deserve a hug.

WrittenBy:Rajyasree Sen
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Last night I felt the stars slowly align and the Fates murmur quietly. And then came the announcement on Twitter. The sub-continent’s two superpowers had broken bread, or in this case biryani. If you are the only person who doesn’t know what I’m referring to as yet, brace yourself and climb out of your cave – here it comes, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan had hugged for 2 entire seconds at an iftar party held by Congress’ Baba Siddique. A party of guests applauded them loudly, because that’s what we do when people hug. Leave our plates of biryani and start clapping wildly. After all, this was as momentous as Tavleen Singh and Sonia Gandhi hugging or Kim Jong Un and Barack Obama or Rekha and Jaya Bhaduri or… you get my drift.

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But it’s not just the iftar guests who left their biryani plates to applaud the duo. Our news editors also dropped their glasses of Old Monk and all news of national importance to re-position their news stories on Page 1 and on their late night and breakfast bulletins.

Last night when news of this momentous occasion emerged on my Twitter timeline, I’d tweeted – only semi-jocularly – that I was sure the media would carry the news on their front pages. And sure enough, the media didn’t disappoint.

I have to give it to The Times Of India that it’s has come out of this looking a shade better than Hindustan Times. TOI carried the news as a snippet in their News Digest with the headline “Salman, SRK hug, make up at iftar” with a picture and a larger story on Page 11. HT didn’t show such restraint. They carried a two-column short report on the front page with a picture and pretty much the same headline – “Salman, SRK hug and make up”, with a larger story and a “Video On the web”. Wow. Be still my beating heart! I’m actually surprised TOI didn’t think of putting this on their Alive section, where we could wave our phones over the picture and see the duo hug it out. Next time maybe – when Aishwarya and Sushmita hug.

The Hindu, The Indian Express, The Telegraph and The Statesman didn’t carry the news – and may Walter Cronkite bless their collective souls. But it’s good to know that TOI and HT managed to shake their news bureaus into action before sending their front pages off to the press. Good job, boys and girls. Now we know which papers to subscribe to for breaking news.

And how could the news channels be far behind? Of the three headlines on NDTV 24X7’s morning bulletin, vying for attention with midday meals and violence in the Bengal elections was The Great Hug. Which they actually carried in the late night news as well – with some mood music. Watch the video, you must.

Headlines Today, not to be left behind, carried a two-part news report on its morning bulletin Wake Up India (to rubbish reports?). With a full analysis of tweets and pictures which is lasted for 2:14 seconds. Such dedication to in-depth reportage, really.

And CNN IBN followed suit by carrying the news of the iftar with SRK and Salman on their Breakfast with India show. Times Now very solemnly informed us last night itself that the “sworn enemies surprised the world today…”. And keeping with Times Now’s questioning air, they questioned the genuineness of the bonhomie on display.

So if you were tuning in to watch the late night news or morning bulletins to find out the fate of the country’s children who are being poisoned through our midday meals, and hoping that stricter laws had come into effect to protect people from acid attacks, and whether the government has indeed been colluding with the tobacco industry – you really should know better. The one silver lining that has emerged through this very commendable show of editorial prowess is that at least our editors are capable of taking late-night and early morning news decisions. It might have been Sunday night, but they all seem to have been ready with these wise editorial decisions which we have had the privilege to suffer through.

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