Have you ever cared about the newspaper that gets thrown at your doorstep everyday?
By care, I do not mean you picking it up and reading it. By care I mean, opening it with love, feeling the fresh print smell that comes out of it – like the fresh smell that you would have experienced when you got those new books when in school.
Quite a few of you might think that newspaper has lost its relevance in this world of advancing technology. News is now a button’s click away if you use the remote or the mouse.
Like an ever flowing river or an unclosed water tap, news is flowing all over us; when we are awake and when we sleep – on the television, from the FM radio, on the internet, through that forwarded email you received from your friend, in your mobile through an SMS pushed by the telecom company.
With all these things, the news carried by the newspaper is no longer new, even if it is NEWS (from North East West and South). Still, I love reading the Newspaper everyday in the morning. You might think it is bit traditional. But I just love it. I love its freshness. When I get up and move to my doorstep, with my half open eyes still feeling sleepy, it is the sight of that day’s paper that energizes me. I pick it up with lots of excitement and enthusiasm.
The moment I pick it up, my eyes open wide and as if someone poured ice-cold water over my face, my sleepiness goes and my day springs to life. A cup of hot tea in my hand and the brand new newspaper on my lap, I inhale the freshness of the morning.
How much ever you see the visuals, debates and the reporters shouting at the top of their voices, in my opinion, none of these can equal the joy of reading the news and analysis that is in the newspaper.
The newspaper means a lot to me. It reminds me of the teamwork that goes to bring the newspaper to my lap. The team that collects the news, the team that punches the articles in, all those proof readers who work against time to see that everything is completed on time, the layout artistes, the editorial team that stands on its toes to move around the news when something more important has to be pushed to the headline, the people who work in the press, the bloodless hi-tech machines that synchronize with the full of flesh and blood human beings, the packing staff, the van drivers, newspaper vendors and finally that newspaper boy who might be doing it for earning that extra bit of money for his family or for his higher studies.
The best thing about a newspaper is that it has several sections whereby it caters to the interests of different age groups and different people from different walks of life with differing interests. I like to read the headlines and then quickly flip to the sports page. I spend maximum time on the sports page and then if I still have time I look into world affairs. Some days if I am really very lucky to spare some more time for the newspaper, I turn to the pages on politics.
There are occasions when I am just not satisfied with reading one newspaper. I go out and grab many newspapers on some special occasions, newspapers in English and Tamil to read and re-live the moments of glory such as, the Indian cricket team’s till date unparalleled cricket world cup victory in 1983, the T20 world cup victory, the breathtaking bowling performance of Kapil Dev in Melbourne to pull off an unlikely victory for India against Australia, the first ever successful chase of a 400+ score by the Indian team in West Indies (aided by the super batting performances of Gavasakar, Viswanath and Co.), the twin Oscar award win of A R Rahman and so on. I just love to read the narratives of these glorious moments by different authors and columnists. My happiness grows unbound when this happens.
And there are days when I do not get enough time to go through even one newspaper I get in the morning. On those days, when I reach back home after a long day’s work I eagerly look for the newspaper I missed only to realize that it is difficult to find that paper even in a small house of less than 1000 square feet.
Finally, when I locate it, I can only see a part of it – some sections missing and strewn around in various corners of the house. I notice with sorrow that in less than 12 hours, what was fresh and neat has become a waste paper, as none who have read the paper during the day bothered to even fold it nicely and stack it in the shelf! I notice it having lost its sheen and with it the excitement, value and importance.
It appears no longer needed except may be as something fit for packing. When I see its status in the evening, my mind once again wanders back to think about the team that made that paper possible and about all those people who, even today, cannot afford to buy a newspaper at home and take a glimpse – borrowing it on their way to office in the trains, buses and at the office.
It is so precious and valuable in the first hour of the day (the first 60 minutes from the time you wake up) and has so little value if you had not spared that time earlier. It has absolutely no value once the newspaper of the next day arrives at your door step. Oh yes, the old newspaper does retain some value. Those who keep it stacked nicely can refer back to it for that job advertisement or that discount sale offer that they missed out in the first read and were reminded of the same by their neighbours or friends. It also keeps the residual value that (in countries like India
Thinking about it, many of us start the day with the newspaper and so get into a mindset of using everything and everybody like a newspaper.
Like I feel that I have been used like a newspaper by others in my life, there will be several others who have interacted with me and feel that I have treated them like a newspaper: use & throw or stack-in-the-corner.
Whilst there are a host of things in the world that are immortal, in real life we do deal with quite a few of them that have a very short life, like my lovely newspaper.
T.P.Anand, Dubai
6th April 2009
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