A Gordian Nought

We got caught bang in the centre of the underground rail strike. The workers’ union was demanding, among other things, a guarantee of no layoffs policy. Clearly an unreasonable demand, especially in financially stressful times, where many orgs are busy trimming flab. Expectedly, the city came to a grinding halt. And who suffered the most? Yup, the aam aadmi, as always. However, what I found interesting is that the local media (print and electronic) paid little attention to the issue and continued to be obsessed with Brown’s travails and Ronaldo’s new pay cheque, even as the janta toiled to get to work. In that context, I found the London media to be a bit elitist. In similar circumstances, our desi media, especially the Hindi news channels, would have taken the union leader and the state CM to the cleaners. We often crib about our "sensational" media, but the truth is more often than not it does stand up for the common man.