Get a life! Borrow somebody else's!

CNBC-TV18 has done a deft trick by putting in a weeknight capsule called "Get a life!" on its prime-time business news slot. With a bull run in the stock market, the focus is on spending and goading viewers to lead the good life. But one needs to ask: Is getting a life nearly always about buying paintings or drinking a previously untested brew that is riskier than a junk bond? There seems to be a cliched approach to defining the good life, and the unspoken code is to go for the imagined joys of the elite westerner, with a token bit thrown in on some local stuff.
I know some CEOs who love old Bollywood music, and some in Delhi prefer gossipping in invective-laden Punjabi to the French accent (which they can't tell from a Hyundai Accent!).
I dare say that a better part of CNBC-TV18's viewership is decidedly ethnic in cultural traits, never mind the neck-tie. As India emerges bigger as an economy, perhaps it is not a bad time to re-examine some cultural equations.
But I love this show, nevertheless. The script is taut and funny, and the anchorette who presents it most of the time is engagingly chirpy. The fun is in the packaging, not the sushi they talk about!