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Be ready to see a
lot of Ravan in the Media
WSN
Network
NEW DELHI: Last week, the WSN reported 'Media Mein Ravan' about how
Indian TV channels were trying to propagate strange news stories
claiming investigations by their correspondents who are finding the
real Ravan flying machine, the tablets made by Sita and the helipads
of Ravan. In the intervening week since then, many TV channels have
climbed aboard this bandwagon. On Tuesday night India, the Aajtak
channel of the TV Today network which also publishes India Today
weekly, carried a long winded program with animated flying machine
of Ravan which it said can seat as many people as one can wish, may
be even a lakh. "There will still be a seat left to spare," the
newscaster, shown flying on the machine in an animated visual,
announced from atop what she called 'Ravan's pushpak'.
It seems the Sri
Lanka government's push for getting the island nation more and more
tourism is responsible for it and huge cash injections were being
made for the purpose.
Sri Lanka Tourism has
identified five “airports” where Ravana parked his fleet of pushpak
vimanas, the mythological aircraft he used to abduct Sita when she
was in vanvasa on mainland India. The ruler of ancient Lanka — a
brilliant Brahmin and devout Shiva disciple — didn’t only excel in
charting an air route, as he was a pioneer in “underground
transport” as well.
No doubt then that
remains of intricate tunnel networks, leading to palaces and
battlefields, that Ravana spread across the island, are also to be
seen. These and nearly 50 more sites, related to the “Ramayana
trail”, have been showcased by Sri Lanka tourism in its new deal to
promote “spiritual tourism”, an experiment aimed specifically at
Indian visitors, who, at 100,000, already constitute 20% of the
country’s annual tourist inflow. Sri Lanka Tourism Development
Authority director-general S Kalaiselvam said that these sites are
not imaginary and have existed since times immemorial. The Indian TV
news channels are lapping up such stories and propagating them on
prime time news slots without even a hint that it could all be part
of a tourism promotion exercise.
“We are simply
putting all details together. People in villages have always revered
these sites, which form a part of the folklore. A five-day tour
would be enough to make a tourist realise what we’re talking about,”
he said before launching the package with cricketers Arjuna
Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva.
So much so, that the
board appointed a research team to trace the “trail” before formally
making the findings public. Ashok Kainth, the main researcher who
began work four years ago, said 59 spots had been located which
relate to various stages of the Ramayana period.
“Among them are
Ravana’s palaces and dairy farm, besides several later-period
temples devoted to Sita,” Kainth said. The trail even encases a pond
which is believed to have come into existence through Sita’s tears.
“Evidence suggests that even during worst droughts, this pond never
dried up,” the researcher said.
So be ready to see a
lot of Ravan in the media in the coming days.
23 January 2008
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Media Mein Ravan