The My India Report gang strikes a pose. Picture by Rashbehari Das

Six young people have embarked on a month-long mission — to understand and identify the Indian youth and all that they hold dear. Channel V’s new show on the country’s 60th year of Independence, [V] My India Report, takes the form of a video blog, with six anchors trying to gauge the pulse of the nation’s youth. “Channel V started the first video blog two years ago when, instead of getting professional cameramen to cover a show, it got a group of college students and gave them Handycams to cover it. This is like an online blog, but instead of posting the views online, here the six will be interacting and recording the people they meet,” explained the show’s producer Karl Katgara. The six will also maintain online blogs on the show.

Ami Shroff, Kartik Mahajan, Prashant Miranda, Azhar Meer, Ruhi Deol and Pallavi Sen are the chosen six, having been selected from a group of more than 300 applicants. The six will be interacting with young people in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Varanasi, Calcutta, Shillong, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Cochin. “They will be finding out the youth’s views on subjects like sex, love and marriage, people they look up to, religion, politics, entertainment, the future, the environment and careers. The idea was very simple — to find out what the country’s youth are thinking. Just the metros do not represent India,” stressed Karl.

In the city between September 13 and 17, the six stood out for their strong individuality. Mumbai has left a strong impact on Azhar, from Bangalore. “We had a beautiful view from our hotel. We could see the airport and the planes. And right next door were the slums,” he said. “We went to a nightclub in Chandigarh and honestly, that could have been any place in the world. That doesn’t mean though that the youth there have no individuality. The way they talk or behave all shows the values that have been ingrained in them,” said Prashant, 32, the eldest of the six. Pallavi, at just 19, is the youngest, the others all being in their 20s. A happy blend, for the age group they are targeting for the interviews is 17 to 35 years.

They come from different backgrounds, too. Mumbai is home to Pallavi (a student) and Ami (a flare bar-tender). Prashant left Toronto and a corporate job to become an artist. Azhar, 20, is a law student in Bangalore, while Delhi girl Ruhi is a graduate from Lady Shriram College, now working. Kartik, originally from Delhi, is now in Mumbai.

Calcutta has lived up to its image of being an intellectual city for the half-dozen hosts. “One guy quoted Aristotle’s views while talking about politics. I think they have really absorbed what they read,” smiled an impressed Pallavi.

Their impressions of the cities differ, as well. “People in Chandigarh do not respect women. One guy admitted that if a woman on the street protested against any harassment, he would slap her,” said a disapproving Ami. But gentle Ruhi points out that north Indian women are strong and rule the roost, though the patriarch is given the impression that his word is law.

The anchors, however, are only meant to be filters for the views of the people they meet. “Our job is to find out what they think. It is all their views,” points out Azhar.

With the interaction still on, the six are not yet ready to reveal their findings. But they all agree that they have evolved in some way during this month. If nothing else, the programme has made serious bloggers of them all, though Prashant and Pallavi were the only two who had blogs prior to the show.

“We are not looking for a single view of the youth. We know the picture each will draw will be different, but they will all be true and they will all be real,” signed off Karl.