North India is in the grip of a cold wave. States like Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh have witnessed heavy snowfall, with even warnings of an avalanche. It’s quite expected, then, for TV media to send its crew to these areas to get a sense of the problems the aam aadmi is facing there, given the harsh weather conditions.

Aaj Tak, we guess, intended to do that when it sent its anchors Anjana Om Kashyap, Sweta Singh and Meenakshi Kandwal to get a ‘ground report’ from parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. But the anchors’ ‘Zero Degree Se Ground Zero’ reporting, which aired on prime time on January 18, was anything but that.

The segment starts off with snapshots of snow-covered vista with a smiling Kashyap looking out of her car window. Singh sets the tone with a rather poetic opening: Rui ke yeh jo phahe chipakte ja rahen hain mere dastaaon par, yeh barsaat nahin hai, yeh barfbaari hai [these cotton strands that keep getting stuck to my gloves, this isn’t rainfall, it is snowfall.] TV incidentally is a visual medium.

Going ahead, while Kashyap is seen prancing around in knee-deep snow, Singh gives us a tour of the roads leading to Gomukh and promises to take us to apple orchards. Kandwal talks to tourists and empathises with how red their noses have become in the cold.

At one point, you see a slideshow of Kashyap striking various poses in the snow with the song Kitni Khoobsoorat Yeh Tasweer Hai playing in the background. Singh’s photo session had Husn Pahadon Ka Kya Kehna playing in the background. This is interspersed with few quotes from locals stating how difficult life has got and how they have no electricity or water, even as the voiceover makes inane observations like how the leaves on trees are finding it tough to move.

Meanwhile, reports coming in have stated that close to 10 people have died in Himachal Pradesh owing to the cold wave. But then why get so serious on prime-time TV news.

Watch and weep. (Don’t miss the film audition at 10:34 and 16:51.)