#ripmedia

Monday 21/09/2020

I switched on the TV for my daily dose of news and soon without my knowledge the dose proved to be an intoxicant. The anchor on the tv was roaring and griefing profoundly over the sudden demise of an actor. I felt it too. My agony was much more than the grains on my plate. The infuriated tv reporters mobbed the accused friend of the actor and fired questions at her demanding to know whether she killed him,  force-fed him drugs, or robbed him of his money. She answered none. Maybe god will scrape her off the smugness I thought, forgetting about the girl in my neighborhood who was set on fire for protesting eve-teasing.

The news broadcasted on all channels that she was involved in an illegitimate affair with a movie director who happens to be her father's age. I promised myself to guard my son from these witches whose only job is to entice men and rob them of their money, least bothered about how many chaste sons of their naive mothers have robbed those maligned women of their modesty and life.

Finally, the day came of her arrest when the media's mammoth coverage proved ineludible for the accused who was sent behind the bars not because she was proven guilty of murder, but rather because she was paying money for the drugs which were later consumed by the actor. She was convicted by the media and hatred of the people soon clouded her side of the truth and her right to justice. 

A friend of mine once asked me how Sushant Singh Rajput was as a person. Being a part of Entertainment Media he trusted me enough to ask me about him. What I told him goes like this, 'He's arrogant, misbehaves with people, no one in the industry likes him because of his high headedness and he doesn't have many friends because of the same reason.'

I never thought twice before saying it and never realized the kind of information I was putting out. I never met Sushant in real life,  I was solely dependent on the information I got from my colleagues, from their interview experiences and other industry people I knew. I just trusted everything I heard. 

I would have kept going on saying the same thing about him or anyone else based on the information I got from my friends or associates. But things changed in the last 34 hours. 

When the news of Sushant Singh Rajput's demise came in, it shook the hell out of me. The first 12-18 hours were just about processing another celebrity death and after that, the realization started.  I never thought about the fact that the reason he behaved in a certain way could have been because of a deep-rooted pain or any personal problem. I missed this one very important detail and from being this wise person I think I'm, I became what you call a Gossipmonger. 

The incidents I told my friend did happen, my team did have a hard time during interviews so what I said wasn't untrue but what I didn't think while putting out this information was there might be a reason for it. 

So here I'm covering this news since 14th June 2020,2pm and by now all I feel is guilt. So today, when the same friend texted me telling me to understand what Sushant went through all I wanted to tell him that what I told you wasn't a lie it was just the information I had which I put out in the worst way possible and I'm truly deeply sorry about it.

I know this entire post won't make a difference to the world but I want you to know that I did put out something nasty about someone and became a part of a chain. I may or may not be the point of origin but I was not the breaking point of it. I had no bad intentions but I had no right to say anything about anyone.

Sushant Singh Rajput may or may not have had an attitude problem and may or may not have done something to upset some people, but I do realize that it wasn't my place to say these things about him. Because non of it happened with me nor in from of me. 

I'm not talking on behalf of anyone else from the entertainment industry I'm putting this out taking full responsibility for what I said and asking the ones I said to please consider this as a mistake. 

There are a lot of things that this one incident has taught me in less than two days.  

Being part of this business doesn't make me a character assessment expert. 

People here are far more lonely then one can see from the naked eyes. 

Every information I put out about someone reaches at least one person who then does takes it forward. So I need to be extra careful and be very sure about it. (This applies to all sorts of information, not just entertainment industry.)

I need to be more and more careful with what I say especially about someone I don't know. Be it a celebrity, a co-worker, or someone I don't like.