Newspaper Reading

There was an interesting programme  today on a television channel about Newspaper reading and the discussions centered on the practices of reading Newspaper compulsorily every day, One of the panel members went on to say as to how it has become a fetish, that he used to collect the newspapers of the days when he was not in town and go through them, before dumping them for old paper sale.

This brought pleasant memories of one of the earliest advices of my father, when I was in school. "You must read THE HINDU newspaper from first to last page. Read the editorial carefully and note down all the words you find it difficult. Refer to a dictionary , grab the meaning and you must use that word within a week's time of your finding it". What a great piece of advice- this, one can give only from  experience. My dad was not a very highly educated person- i think he was only an old time SSLC, but had never failed to give the meaning of any word referred to him. We siblings always used to refer to him , until one day he said that we must also learn to use dictionary. Until then we never found the need for the two dictionaries we had at home- one from English to Tamil and the other English-English,  rather elaborately.

Towards his later years when his vision faded, he insisted me to read the news items for him and that was the opportunity for me to learn to pronounce the words properly. Being one of the most popular newspapers of the 1960s, we used to read through the pages of THE HINDU carefully and note down tough words- even now i remember looking for the meaning of words like "Opaque (I pronounced it as AAPAQUE" and the whole family had a field day) "and vicissitudes" . My scrap book had few pages allocated for new words and when i go through the dog eared pages of that book, I could still recall the day when i wrote them.

Newspaper has such a consolidated repository of happenings around the world that even in the current hi tech ages, I am unable to replace the hard copy pages with an Epaper. There were different starting  pages of reading for me- sometime Sports, sometimes first page, at times the third page, occasionally from the Bullion Market pages, some days from the Advertisement pages and this approach reflected my passing age at various times. I heard that there are people at advanced ages, who always look at the "Obituary " page first and heave a sigh of relief, when there are no known names ! When i read a Tweet "I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures", I couldn't help smiling and relate myself to this !

I also recall the days in school, when the class teacher order each student to write on a corner of the black board, some important headlines of the day. That day will dawn anxiously waiting for the paper, hurriedly collect the Headline points, as perceived by me and when I take it to my dad for his confirmation, he would insist on my knowing not only the Headline points but also the full story of it, as he said the teacher could ask some related question. This gave me a valuable lesson for later years at the IT Industry, on the preparation prior to meeting the boss with any report and every time, I used to think how my dad said these things without ever bragging about his experiences !

People have their own signature way of handling it- some insist on reading it from the first to last page, some on priorities or as per the mood, as explained above, some use it at the rest room and it is also said that some seem to have constipation without the daily newspaper! This habit is taken to such heights that people also insist on how to fold the newspaper after using it

Yes, Newspaper reading is a habit and this only forced me to look for my favorite papers of THE HINDU and Times of India, even while I was away from India. Fortunately, the Epaper available on internet saved the day to quench my Desi news thirst!

The participants also discussed, rather lamented about , how  the younger generation of the current era is not focusing on this. True , to an extent they rarely look at the newspaper except for the news about the wedding of their film heroes/heroines, Sports and occasionally about the exam dates and results ! When you have all the Newspapers of the world at the touch of the button and also  get the meaning of the words  with some extra mouse clicks, it is difficult to blame them too. So far as they keep themselves abreast of the happening around- irrespective of the media , whether it is hard copy or electronic , let us be happy about it.

 But, there is a need to be concerned if they show lack of interest in this most powerful fourth estate, which has the capability to make or mar a Government. It is such a powerful media that the neglect of the same is considered not in the interest of the country.  Jefferson from USA , when asked which will he choose- A newspaper without a Government or a Government without a Newspaper - replied instantly that he will choose the former. It is such a powerful weapon that it can behave as per its owner. We have leaders like Mahathma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhara Thilak, Nehru who used this weapon to bring down the imperial assertion. In the recent past, the writings of some of the authors forced an Internal Emergency in India that went on to change path of the government. Down south in India , the powerful writings of great writers have helped to reach the masses and helped them to change their leaders and destiny.

Such a mighty weapon, if not we use it to change the history, at least let us be aware of who is using it and be a watchdog, so that we chalk out our own future by deriving the benefits out of these pages