Moment of Truth

There is this TV show called 'Moment of Truth' on Star world. Apparently it hit the Indian airwaves some time in Nov 1997. It takes a while for such news to reach my little corner in the world and even when it does it takes some more for me to react to it. So it is only natural that I started watching the show only this Monday. It has got to be hugely popular, I am assuming, judging by its nature. Here's a show where people are asked scandalous questions about their private lives, where they bare the dark secrets they hold behind their public image, their extra-marital affairs, felonies and their inner insecurities. There is a polygraph monitoring if their responses or true or false. They have to be truthful if they want the prize money - half a mio if you answer 21 questions truthfully.
Every time the question gets too personal or too embarrassing you can hear a loud collective gasp from the audience but you can also feel the excitement building up about what the answer might be. Questions like:
'Have you cheated on your wife/husband?'
'Do you think you should actually be married to your ex and not to your husband?'
'Have you ever done anything with a co-worker that your husband would not approve of?'
And there are other kind of incriminatory questions like:
'have you stolen anything from your workplace?'
'have you ever flirted with your boss in order to advance your career?
'Have you consumed alcohol when you were pregnant?'
There are seemingly funny but pretty embarrassing questions like:
'have you ever fantasized about sex with a colleague' or 'would you act in an adult film to earn money for college?'
There are no simple questions on this show - at least none without consequences for you unless you have led an exceptionally principled life. As the show host often says the show is trying to see if there is a single honest person left in America.

It is pretty shocking to see the kind of things people are willing to reveal about their personal lives on national television but it is even worse because these are things that the affected people themselves- who are usually their close family and friends- have no inkling about. But isn't this how our lives and relationships are turning out in modern city life? We do not like it if our neighbour wants to know about our personal details but we do not seem to have a problem about sharing the same on a chat show on television or a blog. This is a generation of people who have all been oprahfied that way.

If it is all for the 500,000 dollars, is that the price at which they value their relationships with their family, best friends and their partners that they are willing to accept their darkest secrets that could ruin their relationships with them forever? I am not being judgemental as I am aware that it is a different culture and their relationships are founded on different kinds of arrangements and expectations than the one I am familiar with. And in any case it is their lives. But I talk about the damage to the relationships because one can see the damage right there on their shocked expressions, their stunned head-shakes, their tears of hurt. And oh, how the camera loves it all, lingering on their faces, focusing on their pain! And then the host does the inevitable 'How does that make you feel?' just in case the affected husband/ wife/ mother didn't catch the full import of the damning confession.
TV hosts are the same the world over.*

But the unkindest cut of it all comes when the participant has had a sort of public confession of all their misadventures and finally fails the polygraph test on a simple question like:
'Do you think you are a good person?'
And then she loses the 100 k she has so far won by facing some of the most difficult questions any person has to answer about his/her life.
Or perhaps these are indeed the real moments of truth on the program when a person comes face to face with their own conscience and its muffled voice.

I wish we could have our desi version of the same. While I am not too keen on the dirty linen of private individuals, it would be great if we could make it mandatory for all the candidates contesting the elections for our various legislative assemblies and parliament. Now wouldn't that be fun?



* -(Disclaimer: this statement has nothing to do with any Indian TV host- real or imaginary)