Lockdown Diaries Nominee#39 World being a village, interconnectedness, style of reporting By Rohit Kiran Kulkarni

Last month, the country had witnessed a suicide of a young promising actor, Sushant Singh Rajput. The entire nation is still not able to wrap their head around this incident. And there is something I found out revolving around this incidence, and I believe that we need to rethink some things.

We are living in a small world, figuratively, due to the internet which has made the world connected and hence a small place. Something happens at some corner of the world, and within no time everyone’s in it. Now this coin also has two sides. The good side is stemmed in survival. Earlier you know, the better you can prepare for the change. The bad side, which I personally sense, now more than ever, in this pandemic situation is the anguish one bad news can cause. During the trying times, the global nature of news really blows a sucker punch to one’s faith. I have seen smiling faces gone dry this pandemic, mostly owning to the situation at hand, and partly because the way it has been reported. I sense a need of much more subtle and sensible style of reporting rather than the prevalent fear-mongering that some media channels are restoring to, for the reasons best known to them. Some kind of detachment must be practiced while reporting of unfortunate incidences, for the news to be perceived objectively, as any passion or clamour can only add to the agony. I have seen media folks calling forth debate and their wiser-than-thou approach of how it could have been prevented. Particularly in the case of this suicide, we have seen a depressing trend of circulation of photos of Sushant’s body. The graphic nature of information does two things, one that it is not just impertinent and uncivil, but deplorable as even the deceased does not deserve that.

Second is that it causes a wave of grief. Now, grief is a very private matter. Display of grief is another different matter. Now, unfortunately, we have seen how social media has reacted to it, and it doesn’t take much time to realize that the netizens may have their heart at the right place for Sushant, but their methods are unacceptable especially when they’re are demanding public display of grief and if not done are reprimanding the individual. Grief, its expression or otherwise, must be left to individual volition. Some space, some responsibility, some sense of objective reporting, and some acceptance for the fact that the soul is decease would definitely make us better in some way.

ReachIvy.com organized an online blog/vlog competition to provide people the unique opportunity to share their lockdown stories using their creativity. Rohit Kiran Kulkarni beautifully pens down the impact the pandemic has had. . Here is a little snippet for you to read. ‘Last month, the country had witnessed a suicide of a young promising actor, Sushant Singh Rajput. The entire nation is still not able to wrap their head around this incident. And there is something I found out revolving around this incidence, and I believe that we need to rethink some things.’

e above entry has been submitted by Riddhi Srivastava from Lucknow, India. She is a 20-year-old student of the University of Delhi. Kudos to Riddhi for this beautiful piece!

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