Thursday, July 17, 2008

The Hindu

After a while...(or may be it was not that long ago) I am going to complain!

I think I have mentioned this in one of my earlier posts; it’s about the obsession on a few websites that almost every one of us has… to begin the day with. It’s like morning business…. If you skip it…you have a day ahead that you would not want to handle. I was reading one of those websites this morning and realized that there used to be days where we would fight for the morning-few-minute-glimpse of “The Hindu”. If you are one of those who have the privilege of calling yourself a Mylaporeian…I guess you could relate to this much better. Nevertheless, it is probably the case with a whole lot of people who were a part of the newspaper generation in South India. The same fights have been for a lot other newspapers as well and even for the Tamil/English magazines that come with that. The fight has been with parents, siblings, and even with Roomies! It was not one of the cute fights you would see in movies, this one is filled with blood baths, mean remarks and profanities running all over the place! I have witnessed respects shattering on these kinds of fights.

Jokes apart!

May be I was busy graduating, but suddenly I realize that I have survived, I repeat survived, the last few years of my life without taking a glimpse of the newspaper. Now, this is certainly for people who agree that reading news from the website is not an equivalent replacement to the raw newspaper. Call me green-un-conscious or digitally challenged or from the generation stubborn or whatever, I really don’t have an ear for it. The feeling of waking up with a laptop is no way nearer to the one I got with the newspaper.

Of course, I get to read the newspaper even now, almost every day. Is it as exciting as it was from a normal paper format?

Hell NO.

Yes, I know that they do have an e-paper, which btw I tried…. but for some reason…I could probably say that I felt similar to playing book cricket on a 5 ‘0 clock Madras evening.

With the digital revolution et al, I guess its time to quit complaining and move on. We are at the age when news comes to your pillow side on your mobile. Pick that up and get the news. You really don’t have the time to get up early and read the newspaper in and out with the morning coffee and breakfast with your best friend by your side, before you get to work/school. I am sure you would rather appreciate the few minutes of sleep that you get in the morning because of your long phone conversation with the same best friend the previous night after postponing that for a few months, who btw is miles apart cribbing about the same thing.

I have started to appreciate James Cameroon’s hidden/obvious message in The Terminator more and more now a days.

I guess I am trying to say I miss the raw version of “The Hindu”, trust me it is not easy to find a replacement.

3 comments:

Preethi said...

It's really strange that only this morning, i was in a dilemma whether to sign up for NY times (hard copy!)I went thru this circle... will i have time? ami going to let the paper pile up everyday? Can't i read it online?? but hell i went ahead and signed up nyways!! I'm going back to coffee+breakfast with a newspaper IN HAND! :)

BB said...

@Preeths

Thats the way babe...:)!

G U R U said...

Nice thought machi -- something that we 'feel' everyday, yet somehow don't discuss with each other that often. It's been years since I woke up with 'The Hindu'. NY times, BBC and CNN may embellish your laptop, but am not too sure if they can create the same impact (or even come close) that 'The Hindu' had once done. Whatever said and done, 'The Hindu', with it's southern (read 'Chennai') flavour, is unbeatable and simply the best!

Young world, crossword, Science and technology, Friday features.....man, am beginning to feel nostalgic!