Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2003 21:59:20 -0500 (EST) From: Mahim Mishra To: toieditorial@timesgroup.com Cc: Mahim Mishra Subject: Tale of a love affair Dear Sir/Madam, I have been in love with the Times of India since I was 10 years old. Many are the hours I have spent poring over your pages, from front to back. I learned about the world through them, I dreamt dreams of shaping the world through the pen like your writers seemed to be doing. I grew up, started dreaming different dreams, but the love for your paper continued. I moved to the US a couple of years ago, but the habit stayed: visiting your website was one of the first things I did every morning. However, the affair started souring a little while ago. News and views started moving off your front page, to be replaced by cricket, movies and half-naked women. The quality of the reporting declined, the views became shallower and shallower. For a newspaper that claims to be the "No. 1 English Daily" in the world, the usage of the language on your pages amounted to nothing short of murder. Science and technology issues, topics which are close to my heart, were reported in so cavalier a fashion as to make a grown man weep. You also started giving more and more prominence to clowns like Chidanand Rajghatta, but I shall reserve my vexation with him for some other day. I used to think this was an affliction that plagued Indian newspapers in general. That I was pegging my expectations too high if I wanted you to match the quality of a New York Times, a Times of London or even a Dawn of Karachi. To my delight, I have realized in the last couple of weeks how wrong I had been. I have discovered the Indian Express, and fallen in love all over again. They have all that I want, and that ToI doesn't have: depth, seriousness, integrity, commitment to journalism, and above all, very, very good writing. And they don't peddle soft-core porn and still pretend to be a respectable newspaper. So, this is the end of the road for us. I have decided never to read the ToI again. However, it is hard to kick an old habit all at once. And, in some corner of my heart, I still have hope that ToI will stop and even reverse its decline. To help in that effort, I have resolved to make my own token contribution: every day, once in the morning, I shall tabulate the articles that appear on the front page of the ToI's website according to which category they belong to: "cricket", "movies and half-naked women", "economic issues that the ToI mistakenly thinks the world cares for", "Rajghatta's ravings", "news", and "etcetera". Sometimes, I shall include another category, "shameless self-promotion", though I have seen less of this in the recent past that I used to earlier. And I shall list important issues that should have made it to your front page, but didn't. Perhaps someone will read this and decide to make a change. And perhaps pigs will sprout wings and fly. Hope springs eternal in the heart of the romantic. And old flames deserve at least this much. So, without further ado, here is today's list: 1. Rain delays start of play at Brisbane cricket 2. 'I am nervous, the rest is on God' movies and half-naked women 3. Ganguly faces one-Test ban cricket 4. UK group pokes fun at Indians economic issues that the ToI mistakenly thinks the world cares for 5. Hrithik brawniest, SRK's brainy movies and half-naked women 6. Cheating case against Priyanka movies and half-naked women 7. Travel tips in Punjabi, Bengali etcetera 8. 'Karisma my surrogate daughter' movies and half-naked women 9. Howzat! Vajpayee stumps Howard etcetera Number of articles worth caring for on the front page: zero. Issues that should have made it to the front page but didn't: 1. The Prime Miniter's trip to the Commonwealth summit. Who did he meet? What issues were discussed? 2. Aftermath of the state assembly elections. Why were the results the way they were? What is going to be the likely shape of the new governemnts? 3. The Satyendra Dubey murder case. Do you even know what is going on here? 4. The suicude bombing in Russia. Thanks, Mahim -- Mahim Mishra Graduate Student, CS Dept, 8203 Wean Hall, CMU School of Computer Science, +1-412-268-3562 Carnegie Mellon University. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mahim