I have been reading a newspaper every single day ever since I was able to do so. The habit became the second nature and I would read it even before going for an exam.
Much later in life, I had to read 13 newspapers every day as a part of my job. The disappointing part was that I still did not feel that I was fully informed about what was happening in my own country, not to speak of the world beyond.
Having realized that different newspapers did not have much different news, I reduced the number of newspapers until I was left with just one – Jang.
My choice was not a satisfactory one but it was somewhat better than its ri-vals, as it covered more significant news. It also had more ads. Ads? Well, I always read ads because they balance the bad news by giving me only good news, also tell me about new things.
As time passed, Jang became less and less desirable.
a) Price would rise from time to time, without even informing the readers, as if it was not important. (Only the bill at the end of the month would disclose the unpleasant news.) To my horror, I found that Jang cost much more than the monthly bill of the cable television service that gives me the whole gamut!
b) The number of pages started shrinking, coming down to just 12, but without any reduction in price.
c) The advertisement volume kept on increasing, while the space for the news was shrinking. (Who wants to see more tender notices at the cost of news?)
d) Unable to adjust to 24-hour news cycle of television channels, the news-paper’s front page has stale news the next morning.
It was difficult to accept the deterioration but there was no alternative. Then the type size of text was reduced to the point that it became very difficult even to read whatever news was given. To read a story, I literally had to use a magnifying glass! That was the last straw.
No English daily appeared to be an acceptable alternative. With so many pages, they are buckets in which stories are thrown indiscriminately. The subedi-tors, asked to fill the huge allotted space, simply dump stories, unedited. The recent trend is to have bright layout but the newspaper is to read, not to just look at. However, the small type size makes it very difficult.
Meanwhile, television news channels have become good alternative sources of news, at least of the major stories. And Internet takes care of the rest. So, after six decades, I finally made the jump. I never imagined it would come to this.
Meanwhile, my wife is unhappy. She will no longer have raddi to sell!
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