news...

after umpteen reminders to my newspaper vendor to only drop my news paper every morning; and after giving-up any hope of his listening to me, i had to ask him to rethink his decision to retain me as his customer!

irritated and frustrated - hearing my early morning cries almost every day - he has stopped dropping any paper at my doorstep!

but i am happy.

it’s better not to have something which you don't want in the first place. there are things which i feel don't have a substitute... well, if i know i can live without it!!

but for the last three days i have been checking to see if in case the vendor has decided to earn some commission from me. NO. and i respect his decision :-)

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i think retired people, or the ones who enjoy reading newspaper, and spending hours reading papers, should subscribe to the following in order of their preference:

-times of india [metro edition]
-hindustan times [metro edition]
-others...

no offence meant and the following is my personal opinion.

i can talk about TOI in particular. this np carries lots of masala news for every kind of reader. a paper which has large pictures, less content, juicy details, and glossy supplements from time to time.

HT i think is a sober and toned-down np, which has good write-ups and updated information. it does have its share of glossy supplements, but appears more like a BTM version!

what TOI and HT have in common is the amount of handouts that come along with them. there was a time when i used to collect all the handouts to reuse them for writing letters - served dual purpose: impress the reader and genuine reuse of paper!

but over a period of time i observed the daily editions of these papers swell in size, with more handouts and supplements. the size i guess bothered me and I started simply ignoring the supplements. therefore, after subscribing to TOI and HT, in rotation, for nearly 15 years, I decided to switch.

people who know me well also know i am a die-hard adorer of everything south - but i chose to read The Hindu not because of its origin, but more for the content and the coverage.

16/18/24/32 whatever the number of pages, they have clean and to the point content. images and supplements where and when required. that's it! nothing much on cinema, surveys, metro-specific supplements. and absolutely NO trash in the form of handouts! or perhaps thankfully the advertisers have spared this paper with umpteen insertions fearing no ROI as the paper is not that widely read in the city!

just wondering if less masala news is not acceptable to aam janta here.

too simple; covers nothing; is more pro-south; is run by politicians; is expensive – are some of the comments i managed to gather from different people.

whatever, i have enjoyed reading it.

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current status: in the process of identifying a new vendor. Till then, no news!

finding: at workplace, out of 30 people i checked-with, just two subscribe to HT, all others read the TOI :-) 'masala market'!