Small things and influence

We were studying cyclones and anti-cyclones when I was in my seventh grade. My geography teacher asked us to watch the BBC World weather report to get a glimpse of isotherms and isobars and keep a diary of how low and high pressure systems progressed over the period a month.

I suppose I was the only one to do this assignment. I would watch the weather report at ten minutes to six o’clock every day. I  simply liked the way it was being presented. Neat and polished, in brevity, but classy. I’d watch the weather report whenever I got the chance.

But one day, I tuned in rather early, and the main news was still being aired. It was Nik Gowing. I listened to it for about fifteen minutes and I thought that the main news was even more classier than the weather reports. I somehow liked it a lot. Since then, I started to watch BBC World’s flagship new programme called ‘The World Today’ so regularly that it even made it to my study time table.

Well there’s been no looking back ever since. I started learning new things about the world and my general knowledge far surpassed that of my peers. I started scoring kickass grades with absurd ease at school. In fact, I walked in to a world history exam without much preparation and ‘maxed’ it. My teachers were so fond of me, and I of them.

Watching BBC World has had such a huge transformational impact on me that I shudder to imagine what I would have been if I had never watched that weather report back in my seventh grade. I still watch the channel everyday. Whether it was the announcement of the new European currency or NATO’s blistering operations in Kosovo, the channel remains one of the finest in the world – generations ahead of the other major news networks.

And so even the teeniest of incidents can bring about an avalanche of transformational change – change that can make one polished, well-read and classy. Three cheers to BBC World.

These are my favorite shows on the channel: