‘Watching’ Doordarshan, from heart of Europe

        A journalist-cameraman team from Franco-German TV network called Arte (Association Relative a la Television Europeenne) was here  in kerala over the weekend to capture the shoot of the ‘Green Kerala Express’, the social reality show being aired on trivandrum  Doordarshan. ‘‘We read about this show in the ‘Indian Express’ and the ‘Hindustan Times’ and we thought it was pretty interesting to have villages compete with other villages on sustainable development initiatives. We thought people in France also should know about this,’’ said Marjolaine Grappe, a French correspondent with Arte.

        Marjolaine and Christophe Barreyre, who are based in Delhi, wrote to their headquarters in Strasbourg city, which is on the border between France and Germany. ‘‘You see, in France, there’s a lot of interest on environment protection, but we have no programmes like the Green Kerala Express being aired there. So we got a go-ahead signal right away,’’ said Marjolaine.

       The French team followed the Green Kerala Express crew as they went from village to village in Alappuzha. ‘‘Even the anchor was on sustainable transport, on a bike at Arattupuzha!,’’ recalled Marjolaine. What the Arte team was mainly tracking was the rural employment generation schemes, the agricultural schemes and conservation of nature in the various villages.

       They even went to Palamel panchayat to shoot how the villagers viewed the programme on TV. ‘‘But the response was a little on the low side. I had thought they would yell and scream to see their representatives on screen, but there was nothing of that sort. But the minute the show ended, all of them were on their mobiles, sending out the highest mark for their villages,’’ said Marjolaine.

        They were surprised to see the environment-consciousness among the people at Palamel panchayat, given all the noise the Western media makes about the developing giant called India polluting the atmosphere! But what struck Marjolaine the most was the beauty of the place.

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