THE
DAILY GRIND OF INDIA
There was this huge advertisement spread across the full
front page of this news paper ‘THE
DAILY GRIND OF INDIA’ – and there was a picture of cup of tea, folded
news paper in the back ground and huge caption reading ‘DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU
MISS WITH YOUR MORNING TEA?’ May it’s an ad for some branded milk or perhaps
some biscuits to go with your tea, I thought.
So I turned the front page and lo! No, it wasn’t for any milk or it
wasn’t any biscuit ad either. It was for the launch of some real estate. The
next 3 pages also covered advertisements, followed by the regular coverage of
that news paper. THE DAILY GRIND had done this for the first time.
Everybody liked the new concept. It was their prerogative to take care of their
commercial interests. It was okay with the readers. What started as a new style soon became a
trend. All the dailies, English ones, the Marathi – and Hindi ones too picked
up the trend. It gets damn irritating to
read.
Take for instance, the other day, in one of leading dailies, which shows 74 pages – may be with two papers put together, with The Daily Grind of India having 36 pages and its Bombay Grind having 38 pages. Out of these 36 pages, the first three leaves ( not numbered, front and back of each of them, have ads and then begin the regular features – pages numbered from 1 to 36, the first page is 1½ page, the half page has news on the front and its back. Oops the third is again full page ad. Again the 11th is full page ad and the page has extended width and it juts out on the right and one can’t keep the news paper folded neatly in a pile. Then my wife says, “Why don’t you keep the papers neatly? It looks so ugly.” It’s no fault of mine, she doesn’t understand. As we unfold the paper further we realize, 12th, 14th , 15th full page ads plus there are those regular ads of ¼ , ½ , one column. Bombay Grind is no different. It has 3 leaves (unnumbered) followed by 3-half pages having ads on their front and back. Then we have the numbered pages, where one gets confused to count them serially in chronological order. And Bombay Grind has 64 pages (I could count only56), and the first three leaves (not numbered) have full page ads on the front and back. Then we have the regular features on the numbered pages – news stories and more ads.
Take for instance, the other day, in one of leading dailies, which shows 74 pages – may be with two papers put together, with The Daily Grind of India having 36 pages and its Bombay Grind having 38 pages. Out of these 36 pages, the first three leaves ( not numbered, front and back of each of them, have ads and then begin the regular features – pages numbered from 1 to 36, the first page is 1½ page, the half page has news on the front and its back. Oops the third is again full page ad. Again the 11th is full page ad and the page has extended width and it juts out on the right and one can’t keep the news paper folded neatly in a pile. Then my wife says, “Why don’t you keep the papers neatly? It looks so ugly.” It’s no fault of mine, she doesn’t understand. As we unfold the paper further we realize, 12th, 14th , 15th full page ads plus there are those regular ads of ¼ , ½ , one column. Bombay Grind is no different. It has 3 leaves (unnumbered) followed by 3-half pages having ads on their front and back. Then we have the numbered pages, where one gets confused to count them serially in chronological order. And Bombay Grind has 64 pages (I could count only56), and the first three leaves (not numbered) have full page ads on the front and back. Then we have the regular features on the numbered pages – news stories and more ads.
During our schooling days, I remember, our teachers would insist on reading news papers, with the intention of improving our language and linguistic skills and our general knowledge. To test our knowledge and to find out whether we had actually read the papers, they would often ask us. “What is the front page news? What is today’s headline?” What would the children now say? Where is the front page? Hidden behind some ½ to 4 ½ leaves? And the headlines! Why the whole news stories are today full of Murders, Assaults (even on policemen and policewomen), Scams and frauds, Accidents (often involving celebrity kids of prominent families from the movie world, political field, fashion, business or sports), Terrorism, Intolerance , Warring Nations, Vandalizing of hospitals and clinics by patient’s kin and other melancholy stuff. In reality too there seems no respite from potholes, traffic jams, epidemics of diseases - malaria, dengue, lepto and what not, and even from the unseasonal rains these days, which dampens the very spirit of the nine night festivities. Wonder how Falguni Pathak is managing the open Air ‘Dandiya’ and ‘Garba’? May be it is rain dance! Come what we can always play on a sticky wicket, can’t we? Even the papers have gossip columns and some uninteresting stories of rendezvous between some Bollywood or Hollywood couple, or about some eloping couple with all the sickening exposure of their private life.
As I mentioned earlier this trend was picked up by other dailies as well. आम्ही मराठी सदैव पुढे असतो मग ह्या बाबतीत पाठी कसे काय राहणार ? So we had the Marathi daily मराठी ग्राइंड टाइम्स falling in line with this irritating trend of The Daily Grind of India, Bombay Grind and Mirror Grind .
Are you really comfortable with this newly adopted
style? Let’s see.
How would it suit you to open a page? The usual or
the very unusual one?
Would you like to read this paper?
Coming back to that caption :
‘DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU MISS WITH YOUR MORNING TEA?’
‘DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU MISS WITH YOUR MORNING TEA?’
Well, this is what we do miss: A little humour to lighten our daily भाग दौड़, a dose of sarcasm to bear the constant onslaught of corruption and satire to tolerate our politicians and leaders. We miss someone who would make us see the funny side of this topsy turvy world! We miss someone like Laxman Saheb, who would make the common man start his day with a nice smile on his face!
Do you agree?
Vinay Trilokekar
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