'Just a..'

I initially decided to stick to liking facebook statuses, retweeting and sharing articles on this issue, but then I decided I would become 'just another' one of them if I didn't type this one out.

Twitter, people say is the medium where one talks to oneself waiting for others to join the conversation. Yeah, when I used it I was doing so. I considered myself a celebrity and tweeted about every single worm I saw in my garden. Then I stopped cause, no one was reading. Anyone who read it wasn't gng to benefit from it and I was just typing and refreshing because I was bored. 

The recent Deepika vs TOI issue caught my attention and I was a bit amused at first. A leading news daily actually tweeted the words 'cleavage'. And they actually said 'OMG, her cleavage'! If I were still working in Google, it would be an equivalent to disapproving an ad because they used the words 'Click Here' for an online ad. In my head, I read the tweet and Deepika's reply and thought -policy violation, dissed for use of word 'OMG'. And mainly dissed for morality. You wouldn't shout out to the public saying 'come see a woman's cleavage!' 

On that note, TOI - whether u say so or not, people are going to look and people are going to see. I'm not going to say men, because women around the world are wanting to have an amazing body like hers. 

I then read through this final clarification from Deepika and thought 'Why on earth is she clearing the air? She was quite clear, wasn't she?!' But then, what would I know. I'm 'just' one of those millions reading this and thinking the same thing. The lame comeback from TOI which said 'just another calendar girl for a liquor brand' ticked me off. What part of her profession do we not understand? First, the cheap use of words. Then, the cheap use of words again. A celebrity lends their face value when they endorse a brand. A model, their beautiful looks. In my head voices were going haywire. But then I thought - 'just another newspaper who wants a pretty girl's face splashed all over their pages.' 

I wanted to be a journalist as a young girl. Those dreams didn't take root but I never gave up my passion for writing. Journalist is just a name, I told myself. The pen maybe be mightier than the sword but this time, turns out, the pen puts the holder to shame. Having said that, I'd like to add that 'any' profession is a profession. No profession is demeaning until the one doing it thinks so. 

TOI - pull up your socks. Apologise on behalf of your tech department. Say it was the wrong use of words. And finally, thank Deepika Padukone for the increased sales for the past two weeks. Meanwhile, work on a policy where you do not say a few things on media. Media, It's a beautiful thing. People chose to hear you, read you and see you. Don't make it 'just' another news channel with flashy ads and trashy headlines.