India in Googletimes

By Vijaya Pushkarna





“We live in difficult times ,” M Hamid Ansari, former vice president observed. 
Ansari, who gave awaythe IPI award for excellence in the national capital on Friday, to NDTV referred to the traditional media’s job of seeking facts, forgoing fiction, andcoping with objective and subjectivedifficulties that inevitably confront any journalist.
While he was confident that the high standards set by the award winning channel would be sustained and even improved upon, Ansari was quick to add,“This is easier said than done.”

Coincidentally it was the day when the Ministry for Information and Broadcasting slapped a 48-hour ban on two channels—Asia News and Media One News -- for “questioning the RSS, and being criticalof the Delhi Police”. It pertained to the coverage of the Delhi riots on Feb 25.
The former vice president elaborated on what had changed .“We once took pride in the principles of the Constitution, in Rule of Law, in the accountability of the executive , in th…

By Vijaya Pushkarna




Many Indians are waiting for March 8. Not because it is International Women’s Day, but to see if Prime Minister Narendra Modi  will actually give up his social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. 
He had tweeted on March 2 that he was “thinking of” doing that on Sunday, and mentioned he would keep his followers posted. Even before his next post on the subject, the world of social media was ablaze with why the Prime Minister who enjoys 53.4 million followers, would do that!

According towww.brandwatch.com, Prime Minister Modi has the 18th largest number of followers on Twitter,even Shakira of the “Hips Don’t Lie” number trails behind. Most of the top 20 are Hollywood ,show world celebs, there are a few chat show hosts, a sports star, and three political leaders.Modi trails behind the US President Donald Trump and the former US President, Barack Obama who tops the list!
The Prime Minister’s tweet that he was thinking of giving up his social media…

By Vijaya Pushkarna





“My name is Adhira Goswami”
“My husband’s name is Gaurav…. Mazumdar”
“My daughter’s name is ….” And she pauses, thinks, runs to the daughter’s room, flips the pages of dozens of books there, looks here and there.

“I remember” made by Geetha Sahai in mid 2018is an intense hour long drama film in a happy mix of English and Hindi .The film is going to  be shown at the 11th Annual Women’s History Month Festival, New Jersey, USA, on March 31. The festival celebrates women infilm, music and art , and is on from Mar 25 to April 16. A variety of films of different genres from all over the world are slated to be screened.
Geetha, who is co-director of her production house Heart and Soul Media Pvt Ltd, is delighted, but it is not the first time that she and “I Remember” are seeing laurels. What  has always brought her joy is the appreciation of a subject close to her heart by viewers, and the message that they take home. 

The film is about early onset of Alzheimer’s. The story of…