The morning cuppa and newspaper are like the proverbial twins, just one of them on the table leaves you craving for the other. Old habits die hard, we grew up watching our fathers doing the same and we just sort of followed the tradition. I am speaking for our generation who were born in the sixties or earlier, may be some of the 70s generation too would be similarly placed. The millennials entered into the complex web of internet world and jettisoned such distractions altogether, tea gave way to coffee and the mobile replaced the newspaper. But this blog is not about nostalgia, as we still get our newspaper in the mornings and relish it, only change being that it is with ‘hibiscus’ tea now. What I miss though are the front page headlines screaming at you giving you the gist at just a glance. The front pages have now been usurped by the advertisements and although some of them are quite captivating with beautiful damsels on the cover laden with exquisite branded jewellery, but alas, news content is hidden underneath. It is no longer a newspaper but just another flyer containing promotions and endorsements of various brands.
Now I know some of you will call me a spoilsport as setting your eyes on a pretty face early in the morning naturally augurs well for the day ahead, especially with the headlines containing gory details of the heinous crimes committed all over our huge subcontinent of a nation of 140 crores and counting. True to some extent, no doubt, after all I am not a sadist and don’t enjoy the miseries of others, but the point which my friends may be missing out is the danger to their precarious finances being posed with the alluring ads for all kinds of jewellery and other such highly desirable articles to entice the mistresses of the house. Ladies, mind you are immediately gravitate towards any such object like bees on a flower, and then what follows does not need any description as that is then “ghar ghar ki kahani“. That is not the only grouse of mine, we were used to a newspaper with ads to support the revenue, as we understood the business model for the print houses. Today the whole thing has been turned on its head, with ads actually being the content and news forming just an appendage almost like the appendix, a vestigial organ. The readers may recall the good old radio programme ‘Vividh Bharti’ on All India radio and how we enjoyed listening to lilting music without any interruptions for a commercial break. Today we have to suffer a plethora of FM radio channels, which actually peddle just products with breaks for songs. Thankfully Vividh Bharti is still running and if you want to switch from the cacophony being aired by the FM channels, you may try switching to it, it will bring you some solace.
The Times of India types obviously miss the “common man” of the genius that was RK Laxman, his wit was incomparable and left us demanding more always. The other thing that I miss in the journals are the once ubiquitous “middles”, which brought a smile on our faces amidst all the serious happenings in and around the world. So much so that I have resorted to writing these myself in an effort to keep at least some of you amused with my amateur efforts. So here goes….