Arnab Goswami has a new fan - youngest, perhaps!

Below given is the detailed account of my “ordeal” in which the News Hour turned into an intensive session of “Question & Answer Hour” for me recently! I am sure, while going through the narration you too would be transported into ‘your’ time spent similarly somewhere, sometime. :)

“Who is he?” was my kid niece’s first question from her inexhaustible inquisitive brain’s armour.

“Arnab Goswami,” I replied without showing much interest as I was deeply engrossed in the ongoing debate.

“Ornot Goswami?” my just turned 5 years old niece couldn’t follow me properly.

“Not Ornot; Arnab, Arnab Goswami.”

“Ornot, Orshot, Arnab are rhyming-words!” she shouted with her kindergarten enthusiasm.

“What does he do?” quickly came the second query.

“You tell me what is he doing?”

“He is reading news; Oh, then he is the news reader!” she exclaimed at her own ‘knowledge’. “But why there are so many people in the news?” she was perplexed seeing numerous panelists’ faces on the Television screen.

“You like them?”

“No,” she was straightforward in her response.

“Not even Arnab?”

“No, I like Arnab Goswami; he is very good!” she sounded like a real admirer. “What is his “spelling”?

“You try.”

“O.R. – Or; K.n.o.b. – Knob; G.o. – Go; S.w.a. – Swa; M.e. – Me!” she was clearly delighted at her spelling-skill.

I corrected her, “A.r.n.a.b. – Arnab; G.o.s.w.a.m.i. – Goswami.”

“He has an interesting name! He is Orknob but writes Arnab!” she was amused in her own childlike way without actually understanding the pronunciation of a Bengali name.

“What is the meaning of Arnab?"

“Arnab means “Ocean” .

"Like Indian Ocean"?! ... "Yes."

"He is Indian Arnab!"

"And, Goswami means?"

"Goswami is his surname,” I was almost exhausted by then.

Her curiosity was still not satisfied and I had to bear her barrage of questions till the News Hour was over. And, as you must have guessed it right, I couldn’t watch it in real sense even for a moment.

“News Hour means?” … “One hour of News.” … “News Hour had started at 9o’clock and will finish at 10o’clock?” And, when the NH didn’t end at 10pm, I had to explain why the show was called News “Hour” and not News “One-&-Half Hours”! Naturally, she was laughing loudly all the time!

“Arnab has written “Breaking News” just like that but he is not taking any ‘break’,” she said matter-of-factly in her all-observant style reading the words at the bottom of the screen.

I really didn’t know how to make her understand the “Breaking News” phenomenon! Honestly, I didn’t even want to try.

“I will write Arnab’s name in my diary!” was her open proclamation of her newfound admiration for Arnab Goswami. The next day itself “Arnab Goswami” got included in her “list” of “luminaries” like Barack Obama, Shakira, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Michael Schumacher.

Yes, she has only “international” personalities in her “diary” and they are her favourites. Arnab Goswami is the only exception – written in his “correct spelling”, of course! :)

……………………..

P.S.: Chinki - my kid niece’s “daak-naam” - has now been permitted by her mother to stay awake beyond 9o’clock for a few minutes and watch the News Hour – whenever she is with me, of course, which is mostly on Friday nights. :)