Monday, August 17, 2009

A Letter to the Times of India

Subject: Deterioration of the "Masthead of India"


Dear Editor,

It is with great regret that I am penning down this e-mail.

Once the TOI was really a Leader. Features such as articles by Prof. Yash Pal, Dr. Nadkarni, Hi-Tech and Sci-Tech, the Centre articles on the Editorial page (which was on the right), an International page (which even the Economist would have been proud of), a crossword section unrivalled anywhere, food and lifestyle articles by eminent writers by Siddharth Kak, etc, were what made the TOI a prized newspaper.

Times change and so should we... but consistency should be maintained. Now, all your articles are becoming smaller and more opinionated, your editorials sound like advertorials, ad space has increased, etc. Infact if you compute the quantity of column inches dedicated to core news vs. that dedicated to advertisements and advertorials, over the last 15 years, you'll find a substantial decrease.

More important is the quality of news. Once what was a hotbed of incisive journalism is beginning to sound more like a tabloid like the Sun of Great Britain. Pray what is going on? Your Sunday editions are no longer readable, except for a few sections by Jug Suraiya, Bachi Karkaria, et al. Swaminomics and Gurcharan Das also seem to be getting rarer.

Is it a sign of the times (pun unintended) that the TOI must join its crass counterparts in Aaj Tak and India TV, where the news is so unreliable that it must be seen as a comic relief, at best?

It sounds suspiciously like your marketing department is running the show. Being a marketing professional myself, I can tell when you try to maximize short term revenue. But it is at a great cost. The reputation which was painstakingly built over the years will be irrevocably lost. It us, the Readers, because of whom your circulation is large. Because of which you can command a premium in advertisements. But increase advertising and advertorials beyond a point, and your readership will flag, sooner than you think. Because your target audience is still your Readers and not Advertisers. Your differentiating factor is your reputation as a serious, critical newspaper - and converting it into a tabloid will only hurt, not help. Just wait and see. For all the hits you're taking now, recession is not the answer.

My marketing professor used to joke: "Definition of Marketing: A sucker is being born every minute somewhere - your job is to find him." Let's hope you are not unwittingly taking him seriously. Because customers/readers take great objection to being suckered, and they vote with their purchase/reading preferences.

Think about it. It's about TOI's survival.

Regards,

A Reader

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Grow up, Indians

The Taliban-Al Qaeda threat is at our borders, and we people are still fighting on religion, caste, and now - region...

When will we grow up?

Sunday, February 15, 2009

India: State of War


"Even if we are spared destruction by war, our lives will have to change if we want to save life from self-destruction."
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn


India is at War. No question about it. This may not be a war in what we generally take war to be: two nation-states facing-off each other, soldiers and machines of war on the battle-field, planes flying through the skies - raining munitions and destruction, warships facing each other at sea, missiles flying off to destroy civilian and military installations, et al.


But it still is war - lives are lost, blood flows, weapons are used, tempers exist, warmongers rule the roost, innocents are harassed, truth is subverted, accusations fly thick and fact, gruesome images haunt and there is a rule of chaos.


Consider these:
  • Kashmir primarily and the rest of India sporadically faces bombings, shootings, hijackings, murders, pillaging by proponents of a extreme form of hatred, under the guise of a religion, which like other religions, never sanctioned or condoned such wanton violence under any pretext
  • North-East states of India being devastated by self-styled groups under the pretext of liberation of the people there
  • Areas of West-Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, etc being degraded under the Naxalites, claiming to follow the principles of equality and self-rule for the people, but actually have suppressed and looted the people, maimed the economy and destroyed the will of the people they claim to serve
  • Self-styled armed groups who resort to periodic violence under any pretext of religious and casteist slights and injustices
  • Political groups who do not mind resorting to divide-and-rule policies on regionalism, language, caste, culture
  • The new players on the scene - self-styled 'moral police' who claim to protect a culture which they know nothing about and care even less

This is the war by fundamentalists, people who have no other agenda but to subvert entire groups of free-spirited people, impose regressive agendas on them and use unwarranted and unpardonable violence to keep the people enslaved. Under guises of protecting and benefiting people, all they want is: Power and Money.


Let us not kid ourselves that they are benefiting us. Lots of comments in the media indicate that groups of people support the activities or the ideals professed by these groups. That is sad. What we, the people, don't realize is that all the causes are elaborate facade for power-hungry money-grabbers. If they were really concerned, they would put themselves through the rigors of proving their point, instead of planting bombs, wielding guns or beating up innocent women and men.


The end-result of all this will be, without doubt, dead or suffering innocents, psychologically scarred individuals, economic losses, an atmosphere of rage and fear, and - more importantly - a weak and divided nation.


About time we woke up to the reality.


Make no mistake - India is at War.