The Not-So-Secret Sadness of Times of India

 

I happened to catch up with Times of India print newspaper on Diwali day. I thought to give its edit page a full read, since I was at leisure. I was shocked to see a disturbing pattern on its edit page. I shall describe why I say this.

The first piece of editorial on the left was titled “For A Happier Diwali”, giving away hint as if Diwali was not already happy enough. Its subtitle said, “Tinkering with IT and GST rates is paying off, but won’t push GDP into higher orbit without deeper reforms”. Fair enough. But why call the income tax and GST “reforms” as mere “tinkering”? And what an occasion to worry about GDP growth: Diwali? It is a known fact that the festive season gives big boost to the nation’s GDP! The following paragraphs did not point at any direction but just filled up the lines, and it ended with, “…needs doing to make next Diwali even brighter and happier.” Once again, the piece gave the feeling as if “this Diwali” is not bright and happy enough.

The second edit was titled, “Burning Question” (again a negative one) and talked about the incident in a pub in Bangalore where a woman suffered burn injury from a drink set on fire by a staff for amusement. The edit piece said that “hospitals in India are equipped to handle burn cases because of high incidents of bride burning”; how sick and twisted is the editor of Times of India!

The last piece, which is supposed to be a funny one, was written by a man with last name “Abraham” who made fun of Diwali sweets, calling India a diabetes capital of the world and discouraging people from eating sweets on Diwali and other festivals around this time of the year! What a “funny” occasion to bring such a piece on print: Diwali day.

The top most article by a guest, which is supposed to be most intellectual and best feature on the page, was titled, “Mumbai and Secret Sadness of Diwali”. Sadness of Diwali? The article basically said that Diwali in a big city like Mumbai has become defunct. This was clearly part of the “pattern”.

Second article in the middle basically asserted that Malayalam Film Industry was much better than Hindi Film Industry Bollywood. Again a “negative theme”, but at least it did not take direct potshots at Diwali.

Below that, the page brought “Calvin and Hobbes” cartoon, showing a “car accident”. Ok.

The bottom piece was under section “The Speaking Tree” and I had high hopes that at least this piece on spiritualism would speak something positive about Diwali. But the article started with a quote from “Jalaluddin Rumi”, a Muslim mystic, and second para spoke about “Shakeel Badayuni”. Third paragraph started with “Urdu poet Niyaz Sherwani”. Fourth paragraph spoke about “There is a beautiful word for Deepawali in Persian”. The fourth paragraph started with line saying, “No festival is Hindu, Christian or Muslim.”. What? Next line said, “The festive spirit and ethos can never be confined to the narrow walls of religion”. I could not tolerate this nonsense any longer.

I am not a regular reader of ‘Times of India’ newspaper, and I wonder what sickness its editor is suffering from! On the day of Diwali, the biggest Hindu festival of a year, why is TOI edit page full of negative, sarcastic, defamatory and dehumanising content?

What do you think?

- Rahul