It was with a great degree of expectation and devotion that I decided to eyeball the charismatic Swami Ramdev on Aastha channel. I had often heard about this unusual TV star whose live yoga classes provide succour to viewers across the world. But, somehow I had never got down to watching the realtime footage.

So, this time around it was appointment viewing, to understand this television phenomenon. Aah…. from the first look of the show; this saffron dhoti clad guru brings out the vitality of the visual medium in the true sense of the word. With his jet black long flowing hair and long beard, Ramdevji goes extempore with his script, interacting with the viewers in a lingo that is best understood by them.

His natural flow of blessed conversation, which was a mix of spiritual talk, then tips on diet and healthy living and most important accompanied by some yoga demonstrations. The televised session that I caught, had hundreds of people, attending a camp and listening with rapt attention.

So, what could be the reason behind the stupendous success of this TV star? From the televised footage the guru though not a trained anchor seems completely at home with the medium. Apart from that, he stands out as a breath of fresh air on the small screen from the rest of the stuff being dished out. A prime example of how, moving away from entertainment, the tube can even influence the real lives of people.

I must confess, I almost went into a trance at some point while following swami Ramdev. To sort of wake up to the real world of news, I moved on to news channels.

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Surfing on, I stumbled upon the new kid on the block called `Tez'. At a first glance, it looked like a fresh change from the existing news channels around. Tez has gone ahead and used split-screen technology. There were two frames side to side, one with an anchor reading out news at a rather fast pace; while the other frame had footage being played out simultaneously.

Looks like the channel is trying to move away from the concept of reading out news which leads on to the reporters doing the stories. Here, there were no analysis or stories but just some crisp and snappy headlines. The pretty anchors on the channel definitely stand out.

Another paradigm shift in news delivery? Looks like.

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Caught up with an unusual interview with the BJP President Lal Krishna Advani on Sahara Samay. While posing the questions the anchor cum cartonist Irfaan was also seen cutting out a real good sketch of the BJP supreme.

Advani looked very relaxed and in a very candid mood where he shared interesting anecdotes from his personal life. Overall what emerged was a lesser known side of his personality. It seems whenever he has the time, he manages to watch Kyunki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi. He loves to watch films and he recently managed to watch his old time favourite film - Pyaasa.

It seems the BJP President has always been very fond of Pakistani serials. And in fact he often wonders as to why the Indian television space doesn't have such serials. In fact, it seems Advaniji prefers all things Pakistani. So the anchor asked Advani since noone has ever objected to you admiring all things Pakistani, why did they create such a ruckus when you called Jinnah a secular.

Of course, the BJP president chose not to reply to that. Even if the question was asked in a lighter vein

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The Indo-Pakistani cultural landscape can always throw up some good stuff. In terms of television viewing, there is Star's comedy Life Out of Control (LOC). The weekly serial is weaved around the Indo-Pak relationships.

From what I gathered, there seemed to be a constant `tu tu main main 'between the portly chef Gurpreet Singh Malick (Manjoj Pahwa) from Bhatinda, India and Pakistani waiter Chand Mallik (Sanjay Mishra). Both seemed to be forever engulfed in a war of words deriding each other and their rival's country.

Overall, the barbs seemed very merciless to me, sometimes even at the risk of getting `out of control.' Like Gurpreet teasing Chand "You are a pucca Pakistani." Downright hilarious? No, not really.

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Coming to daily soaps, I strongly think they all seem to be losing their sheen; especially the `k' serials. The Agrawal family of Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki looks virtually deserted. It seems like without the main male protagonist Om, the serial writer doesn't really know how to take the story forward. So, it's back to the old villains Sanjay Doshi and the Pallavi act. Haven't we had enough of that.

Then there were some dark and depressing scenes and some really overt over- dramatizing stuff. On Sony's Kkusum, I saw some weird scenes of one Kkusum being bunped off and another one emerging. Looked like the Sita and Gita act.

Then there were promos of someone shooting out Mr Bajaj (Ronit Roy) in Star's Kasauti Zindagi Kay. I think it was Prerna, his wife. Gawd…everyone seems to be bumping off everyone else.

Comeon guys, I am sure you can do better.

L K AdvaniF's Pic from: rediff.com