THE TIMES OF INDIA - A NATION KILLING NEWSPAPER OR NOT?

WHAT IS GOING TO DOGS IN MUMBAI IS TIMES OF INDIA COMING TO CHENNAI

A KILLER ZOMBIE

IN THE NAME OF THE TIMES OF INDIA CORRUPTING YOUNG INDIA WITH CRICKET CRAZE

I loved to read the Times of India ever since I was 17 years old. I am 58 now. A full four decades of reading the Times is an asset to my brain stuff, I cannot disagree that. But, that was when the Old Lady of Boribunder in the then Bombay was a paramour to renowned journalists like Dilip Padgaonkar, Malini Parthasarathy, Achin Vanayak, LK Jah, MC Chagla and the likes. I admit frankly that the use of conjuctions to frame long sentences in English language was taught to me by the Times of India and to thousands of youngsters at the time I took up the habit of reading newspaper in 1970. I was a part-time student in the Govt. Institute of Printing Technology in the Sri JJ School of Arts (Fine arts) situated next to the abode of the Old Lady of Boribunder in Dr. DN Road, Fort, Mumbai.


In the editorial page, at that time, the Times has spared large space on Sundays for readers to give vent to their views on topics of choice. It was "Open Forum" and I used to gurgle out my views on different social matters including Tamil literature, fake godmen like Satya Sai Baba, Romanization of Indian scripts and the lost continent Lemuria. At that time there were no internet or email postings. I simply used to write on a foolscap paper with ink pen and dip my "Open I walked past the Times Building to my classroom in the GIPT.


By the time I finished my diploma course in printing technology from the GIPT in 1975, I became almost an author to write on the debackle the US Armed Forces at the banks of River Mekong in far away Viet Nam and the war that gave birth to Gana Praja Tantri Bangladesh. Thanks to the Times. Nixon was ebbing out his political life as he was engulfed by Water from all the Gates! The "Link" was yet another weekly I enjoyed reading with the Times. Even in those times, the Times used get published in 32 pages on days with the finest of articles by famous writers and abridged and reproduced newsletter on world affairs as appeared in the Ashahi Shimbun, Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times and Pravda. So, the Old Lady of Boribunder was not only rich but growing richer with ardent lovers like me to become her inseparable paramours.


As I was lolling around West Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Japan working in different countries and companies, I never failed to spare time to read the Times available in the Indian Embassy libraries there. So, the Walter Crescent Road Embassy of India, Lagos, Nigeria or the Abdali Hill Road in Jordan or the Grange Road India House in Singapore were my places to quench my passion for the beauty that was predominent with the Times intellectually then.

Gone are all those days along with the charm the Old Lady of Boribunder owned - today. She is a widow now only with the left out for any one to end with his life but without her paramours to help her to revive as I named them above. In her eagerness to sell herself in the market filled by many young and colorful newcomers with and without covering them with wise write up but adorning them with CYMK in color separations, my earstwhile Old Paramour has morphed into a bundle of distaste for reading her as a newspaper with little substance in her reporting to events happening around but started selling her cities of publishing to dogs that gamble in the name of cricket. Yes, the Times of India has lieterally brainwashed the entire New Delhi and Mumbai cities to go spastic with the so called "news" on cricket. Sex arousing news titbits and semi-porno color images to make youngers among both the sex to go pulsating in carnal desire as they venture opening the city or center pages for news.


Extraordinary projection in multicolor images on cricket heroes fill in all the pages of the Times published from Mumbai. Cricket, cricket and cricket is the only news with blown up images of Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Bhajji, Shewagh and spent forces like Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and Surav Ganguly. The rest of the space is ment for movie stars and news on them. Once a nation building Old Lady is today a nation killing zombie to speak the truth. Chennai was spared so long. But, since when Times came to get published from Chennai, the greedy and corrupt promoters of gambles played in cricket found a fine tool in the Times of India to degrade Chennai to the level of Mumbai with cricket and movie stuff on print. Sorry to say that the Times of India is taking Chennai to the dogs after thowing Mumbai and Delhi to the cricket shit-pit.


Chennai's "Mount Road Mahavishnu", the Hindu is still intact with its publishing virginity from getting spoiled even as the Chairman of the Selection Committee, Mr. Krishnamachari Srikkant and the India Cements Ltd (the "proud" owners of the Chennai Super Kings) were from Tamil Nadu. But, then, the Hindu is always a Hindu to not to blow too cold or too hot to any news-windmills unlike the money-crazy Old Lady of Boribunder from Mumbai.


The Times of India is giving over-doses on cricket stories to Chennai reading public. It dodges news of public and national importance. For two full days it dodges the arrest of Ketan Desai who is alleged to have hoarded 1500 kg of metal gold and 1800 cr rupees in hard cash. Such news are not important to the Times to let people know the blaker sides of India's public servants. What kind of a stake is attached to such news from being highlighted in the visual or print versions of the Times of India? Half the first page of Times of India published from Chennai is left out for cricket and players of it. 2 or 3 more pages are reserved in the name of sports relegating other sports news but promoting only the stale faces of cricketers in multicolor images.


Times of India has to change a lot. Chennai is no Mumbai. Not so much crazy with cricket. But, the Times of India is driving the younger people in this city to the dogs fighting for money doing as a practice to grow big in life. There is no more Dilip Padgaonkar or Malini Parthasarathy or economist Muthamma or MC Chagla living among us to write sensible articles to uplift people in intellectual propensity to emege or grow. But, they were the gems the Old Lady of Boribunder once adorned herself with that has now gone with the wind.