Raju Korti
In my 41 years as mediaperson, I have come across a category of people that has a special talent for stating the obvious. It occurs fairly equally in high and low intelligence people. Even with the specious argument that what is obvious to one may not be obvious to the other, it has the potential to make a dumbass of others. But the hilarity of not understanding what you say and believing the other people don't understand or  realize makes the irony delicious.

In 1982 I was into third year on my job and had been just elevated as the Shift In-charge of Page One. It was actually baptism by fire. From rewriting mofussil stories I was suddenly asked to do Page One on the day the union budget was presented. The stories from the wire and correspondents were coming in thick and fast. Those were the days when pages were being made manually on the Lino and the editor in-charge had to not only edit Page One stories, he also had to design the page. When I entered the newsroom around 8 pm, I saw my desk flooded with agency copies. 

Since, I knew fairly well what went into the making of the budget, I was confident of putting the edition to bed by the stipulated deadline. Before I could take my seat, a senior colleague of mine told me "Boss, aaj budget hai." I hid my sarcasm and asked him, Oh, is it? 

This colleague had a habit of reminding me the most important development of the day, especially  when I would be handling Page One. When the ethnic conflict broke out in Sri Lanka, he told me in his charitable tone "Boss, aaj Lanka ka story hai." If I had shouted "yes", I am sure LTTE chief V Prabhakaran would have heard it in Jaffna. But I let that pass.

Over a period, I acquired the reputation of a newsmaker in whose Page One shifts something shattering would invariably happen. My colleague would take a great delight in telling me what were the lead stories of the day. He sincerely believed I had zero news sense. On the night of 2-3rd December 1984, as I walked into the newsroom he sported his trademark benign smile and said "Boss, aaj Bhopal gas tragedy ki story hai." A year later, it was "Boss, aaj Indira ka assassination hua hai." 

"Boss, aaj railway accident ki story hai, Boss aaj Rajiv (Gandhi) cabinet ki story hai...." the list is countless. The only redeeming feature of these serial episodes was being addressed as "Boss" which was seemingly used out of habit. I do not recollect when this stopped but somewhere along the line, he realized I wasn't as dumb as he thought.

Stating the obvious has its own advantages. It fills up news space and talk time. Our erudite folks on the television have fine-tuned the art. "Aap ko kaisa lag raha hai?" is a universal question for all occasions and tragedies. The English version of 'stating the obvious' found a regional version in 'Zaahir si baat hai.." The obvious is consolidated by the camera which has better quality than the accompanying journalist. 

Lifestyle publications and channels have made a living out of inane questions. Food vloggers and anchors are sound so profound when they shoot questions like:Ye hotel aap ne kab se shuru kiya?

Iska matlab hai, aap ki teen peedhiyan is line me hai.