Of late there’s a lot of cross-pollination going on. Television seems to get progressively symbiotic, specially on Sony Entertainment. Rajeshwari who plays the spirited social activist in Rihaee showed up on the rapidly declining Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin as a fiery protester charging Armaan (Apoorva Agnihotri) with sexual harassment. Whatever happened to good ol’ Jassi, her spectacles and her middle-class demeanour? Never come across a more wayward soap. Everything in Jassi, from the cast of characters to the character of the cast has gone downhill. There was a time when one actually looked forward to seeing Jassi’s angelic attempts to find space at a high-class modelling agency. Now when she’s glamorised to look like one of them the shine has gone out of the old wine.

Rihaee too has slumped. From being a hard-hitting look at the crusader’s conflicts it has moved into turgid territory. Last week, we even had an item song ? if you please! ? by one of the contestants from Fame Gurukul. Soon after, a girl was bumped off and a model-friend began to get threatening calls. How on earth does this qualify as a woman’s issue? Rihaee is among the better happenings on television in recent times. Let’s keep it that way.

The incessant hammering of the Salman Khan tapes got my goat. Surely we need to exercise more self-control in matters which have to do with paparazzi-styled scandal. One Hindi news channel ? desperately trying to consolidate its position ? sent out SMS messages to all and sundry to ‘hear’ the Salman tapes on screen. One thought audio kicks were for radio only.

The closing episode of Zee’s Closeup Antakshari was a memorable event. There were tears galore…by the gallons, in fact. Host Anu Kapoor invited all his co-hostesses from Pallavi Joshi to Richa Sharma to Durga Jasraj to Rajeshwari Sawant to join him on stage to sing farewell songs. But where-oh-where were Renuka Shahane and Shefali Shah who co-hosted Antakshari many moons ago? Admittedly, they are now mired in motherhood. But surely they could have made an effort. It would be hard to forget Anu Kapoor and his achievements on Antakshari, especially when there’s so much that’s mediocre.