Chasing a boy
When you might have been recharging your body for another day of work, or Diwali shopping, on Thursday night, a six-year-old boy was the lede on US electronic and Internet media. Emergency rescue team and television news helicopters were chasing a helium weather balloon, which was supposed to be carrying Falcon Heene, son of storm chaser Richard Heene.
The boy was supposed to have stepped into the silver balloon at his family’s home in Colorado at around 11am local time. The balloon was not tethered and it launched unpredictably.
The entire chase lasted for about three hours, keeping rescue team and television crew on their toes and wide-eyed television viewers glue to their TV sets. Apparently the boy was never in the balloon; he had been hiding in a cardboard box in the attic of his family home, fearing punishment from his father. (Read the entire timeline of the events on NYT.)
How did the search team fail to find the boy when they were scouring the house? Some people even accused the Heene's of a hoax alert for publicity. (The boy and the family who were the leading news on the US television did make it to a few television shows.) And, several storm chasers now say the father of the boy wasn't a genuine storm chaser.
What would have happened if this entire boy-in-balloon drama would have unfolded in India?
The boy was supposed to have stepped into the silver balloon at his family’s home in Colorado at around 11am local time. The balloon was not tethered and it launched unpredictably.
The entire chase lasted for about three hours, keeping rescue team and television crew on their toes and wide-eyed television viewers glue to their TV sets. Apparently the boy was never in the balloon; he had been hiding in a cardboard box in the attic of his family home, fearing punishment from his father. (Read the entire timeline of the events on NYT.)
How did the search team fail to find the boy when they were scouring the house? Some people even accused the Heene's of a hoax alert for publicity. (The boy and the family who were the leading news on the US television did make it to a few television shows.) And, several storm chasers now say the father of the boy wasn't a genuine storm chaser.
What would have happened if this entire boy-in-balloon drama would have unfolded in India?
- How long would have it taken for the local police to realize the emergency nature of the incident?
- How many times would have had the family requested the police before they came into action?
- Would the police have questioned the jurisdiction of the incident?
- How would have the Indian media reacted?
- What would have been the lines of the anchors on India TV?
- How much money would have political parties, corporate houses and local strongmen donated to the family?
- Would the Indian news channels have used helicopters for coverage?
- Or they would have aired "live" coverage standing on the terrace of the news channel's office?
- What would have been the TRP of news channels?
- How much would have their ad rates shot up?
- The most important question: when are Indian news channels buying their own choppers for live coverage of high TRP events such as this?
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