30 secs on CNBC TV18

It was a fine weekend all right. After waking up on a Saturday morning with no so amusing prospects throughout the day, I was pleasantly surprised to get a call from IIMI's alumni association to be a part of audience in CNBV TV18's "Reservation Riddle" program that was telecast thrice last Sunday. The whole program was about Four IIM professors (Two from IIM-Indore, and one each from IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore) presenting their 'solutions' to the reservation riddle and we, present and past students of IIMs as audience, along with 2 more professors who were video conferenced, were supposed to drill down their solutions and find out if the solutions provide answer all types of concerns.

I figured it isn't an experience that get you everyday and decided to participate, skipping all my other not-so-important plans. I was more interested to see how all these debates/programs are organized and if there were any instructions to the participating audience to take a specific stand.

The CNBC office was, well, as good as you'd expect it to be. Lots of plush decors, TVs and projectors all over, and bright colors and digital projections everywhere you turn. And of course, lot of attractive people too. :) We were initially made to sit in a discussion room before getting into the studio. Most of them turned out to be alumni of IIMA, and there were some from IIMI. No other IIM was represented. You could say that the proportion was skewed.

What was actually surprising was how we were never really told what to expect and what stance to take. We were just made to sit in the studio and the program started in 10 mins after very basic instructions - who's going to speak and what's our purpose being there. To be honest, I was a little surprised because I was always of the impression that the host (Media and the host person) pours a lot of instructions on what to speak and what not to, effectively biasing the discussion. It was great to know that that isn't the case. The professors started giving their solution in no time, and we got very brief windows of time to make a point or two. I just took the opportunity to squeeze in a point towards the end.

So much for being on the TV! I can't believe I wasn't exploiting that opportunity, after being an ardent fan of the movie 'Requiem for a Dream', if you know what I mean.

In all, it was really nice experience being in the studio. More so to know first hand that these programs are not 'programmed' to be in a certain way.