Limalenden Longkumer
Mokokchung
I have said this before and I say it again – westoxication deters the Nagas from embracing the mundane modern exigencies for concrete and permanent advancement. We are so much westoxicated that we no longer recognize imitation as the tribute that mediocrity pays to genius (whatever the definition of genius be). Inhabited by a people of consummate cant, they manage things better across the other side of the globe. Sure God help the Nagas, if it was raining soup, we’d be out with forks! In Nagaland, there is a precedent to everything. Except commonsense.
Boiled down to the essentials, Naga Idol was (and is) nothing more than a third class show business whose organizers lacked corporate strategy … a mere “imitation competition” without any holistic objective, or self-contradicting if it has any. With that, I am sure I’ve found some of you an argument, but I am not obliged to find you an understanding. Am I?
And behold, we have the usual circumlocution… MDACC bragging it out loud! It ‘believes’ it has given a platform to young Naga singers “who have become established singers” but the post Naga Idol reality is that we have an odd 50 or more talented but misguided youths hiding in obscurity. With the MDACC promising a “bigger, better and bolder version” of Naga Idol which in their words “rocked the state last year”, one can only hope that their end justify the means, not their means justifying the end. “Stupendous success” is how last year’s show is highlighted. Nice to blow one’s own trumpet for a campaign sometimes! The MDACC need to do a holistic evaluation of its corporate culture. It’s not wise to make a decision ignoring the much evident “Stochastic Process”, if I may be allowed to use a managerial term. MDACC is not certain of its own system. At least consider some social accounting.
The word “Naga” deserves to be honoured and kindly deleted from the title of the show if there has to be the word “Idol” in the same. “Naga” appended by “Idol” makes it Naga Idle. I suggest for the title “Naga Ola”, etymologically meaning “Naga Voice” (I know it don’t sound like American because it is Naga). For ushering marketability, it was said last year, is the show titled “Naga Idol”. Well, invite a syndicated market research and see how ‘stupendous’ a success it was! Organizers will find it impossible to even do a break-even analysis from the marketing point of view, I am afraid. I heard it in the grapevine that last year’s financial implications still remains to be audited. You might feel the need to furnish an audit report this time. Now, that’s going to be a monumental task here in Nagaland where the money falls apart in your hands and you can’t tear the toilet paper!
Thousands witnessed the show last year no doubt. You know, people who like this sort of thing will find it the sort of thing they like. What the mass enjoys is not always the right thing though. Try organizing a hiccoughing contest and you’ll see the same result. They do it in America. It will be a ‘howling success’. A girl takes the stage; she is a singer who takes any note above A with her eyebrows, and 10,000 spectators, mostly inebriated, howl. And that’s howling success!
The sense of integrity on the part of the contestants is questionable. Not a single “Idol” contestant performed a local Naga song last year, and they are competing for “Naga Idol”. Baloney.
It’s “dough or die” in America and here in Mokokchung, our talented but misguided youths are systematically engineered to compete like its “do or die”. More baloney.
There is this western singer who looks like she combs her hair with an eggbeater and our girl successfully combs like her. Avril Larrikin or who’s that? A girl, who can’t be said to be dressed, but clothed, and our girl imitate her and the crowd goes gaga. That’s even more baloney. But it’s good that you get to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn’t have in your home, thanks to television.
Those people do all those weird things to make your face look like it was made of sugar … and someone had licked it … and you ‘think’ you look oh so cool!
You are taught table manners? We’ve all heard soup gargled and siphoned, but why yodel it?
And the winner gets a free ticket to Bangkok and Amsterdam and Hawaii … a picture of my “Idol” in a foreign land for me please!
As a fan of local artistes, I enjoy listening to Naga music genre. Is the “free album record” contract still contracting in the sound studio?
The dictionary and the Bible define the term “Idol” quite differently. Dear pastors and deacons, someone said, “in the tango the church has danced with the world, we’ve let MTV and Hollywood shapes our children’s ideas”. Sure it takes two to tango - Church and idols!
Now there’s the hips-don’t-lie-figure that describes a set of parabolas that could cause a cardiac arrest in a cow and there’s this judge who encourages our talented but misguided girl to dance like Shakira! If a four-foot tall white bread could sing, it would sound like her.
Finally, let’s do away with the voting card system. We know we are not too good when it comes to casting votes. Good intentions will not help us on our way if we take the wrong path. Introduce the SMS voting. Finally, again, it will be regarded wise if a caption that reads somewhat like “feel the pulse of our land” is not writ large alongside the picture a titillating girl posed in scanty outfits.
Finally, once again, if it is not your taste, make it clear to the intending contestants that Christian songs are restricted in the competition. Make your intend clear.
And if the word “Naga” has to be there in the title then let the penultimate round be a ‘Naga folk round’. Let each prove how much a Naga s/he is.
In every round, let the top half of the number of contestants moving forward to the next round be based of viewers’ choice and the bottom half based on judges’ choice.
Let only four survive the penultimate round. In the final round, let the one that best performs his/her own original track win.
Give us some real good judges, not some stooges (with due apology) who seem to have nothing to do between yawns.
Introduce corporatism in the organization of the show if possible. Voluntarism is proving more expensive these days. Let the “core group” of Naga Idol ver.2.07 do a zero-base review (budgeting) before they work out the “modalities, logistics and schedules” for the Idle … err Idol contest.
MDACC need to pluck a few feathers from its wings of imitation and stick them in the tail of judgment.
And if the next Naga Idol contest, or the next, or the next … or the next is a failure, don’t blame each other.
I am critiquing, not criticizing.
