Idiot box irritates

To work out how to operate a television set, you practically have to make love to the thing,��� the British queen���s consort Prince Philip was quoted as saying the other day while holding forth on the difficulty of using modern remote controls. Those who are not particularly fond of ageing royalty could quip that it is asking too much to expect an 88-year-old to even woo the idiot box.

Others could quote the calypso which goes: ���Old Methuselah was 900 years old/Older than anyone the world has known/One day he thought he���d have some fun/The poor old man never lived to be 901���. And Harry Belafonte sang that calypso years before the Punjabi play Chadi jawaani buddhe nu.

Prince Philip is, of course, not just known for his jibes at TV remote controls. The other day, at a Buckingham Palace reception for 400 influential British-Indians in the wake of the state visit by President Pratibha Patil, the prince looked at the name-badge of businessman Atul Patel and quipped: ���There���s a lot of your family in tonight!���. But, then, the prince has been known to ask Australian Aborigines whether they still threw spears at each other. Compared with his other gaffes ��� he once described Beijing as ghastly and advised British students not to stay too long in the city lest they become slitty-eyed ��� a comment about making love to a TV set could even be considered positively politically correct!

The only query the comment raises is whether the pages operating the TV remote control were on leave that day or whether Buckingham Palace is now economising on pages. Unfamiliar remote controls can be quite complicated for even those half the age of the United Kingdom���s reigning queen���s consort. It���s only those still in their first childhood who are not intimidated by TV remote controls and who have a great time pressing all the buttons on the remote-control simultaneously without bothering too much about the final effect!