When KBC and Amitabh Bachchan touch not just our minds but our hearts

There are times when the Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) quiz-programme and its renowned anchor Amitabh Bachchan touch not just the minds but the hearts of viewers. In the midst of the latest controversy over TRP scams, there are TV programmes like KBC (telecast on the Sony Entertainment Television or SET channel) which seem to be striving to make a difference by raising social awareness.

If Aryan is into drugs, it might be a long road back. Rehabilitation in India is in its infancy. You will have to take him to the West. An adult member of your family will have to be there dedicated full-time to his recovery. Maybe it’s going to be you. And it’s not going to be easy when the recovered Aryan gets back to India. Taunts in India can be mean.

Maybe he will forge a career abroad. He has dreams of becoming a director. Maybe you will quit your career (how much more do you have to achieve?) and dedicate yourself fulltime to your son. It’s imperative that Aryan lands on his feet. He’s your oldest offspring and an example for your younger kids.

I am sorry for giving gratuitous advice. Your and your son’s lives are too precious to India. And please, please tell those Pakistanis that are hollering that this is a case of Muslim targetting. We Indians are just tired of bigoted Pakistanis sitting on judgment on us. Indian Muslims hardly ever seem to tick off Pakistan. Please do, Shah Rukh, you will earn many brownie points in India that way. For yourself and for Aryan. God knows he needs them.

Yours etc.,

On the prime time of Friday, October 9, I watched the urologist and transplant surgeon Dr Sunil Shroff and the actor Riteish Deshmukh participating together on KBC to raise not so much money as awareness for the Chennai-headquartered not-for-profit MOHAN Foundation which has been promoting organ donation and transplantation in India since 1997.

That edition of KBC showed an audio-visual (AV) of a very bright young teenager who had lost both her hands when the bus she was in overturned while returning from a picnic. The narrator of the AV, the teenager’s mother, told the viewers how her daughter used to cry constantly after the accident. The teenager added that, whenever she saw people in the wake of the accident, she would look not at their faces but at their hands.