13 December, 2009

Times of India again..this time its web avatar

Earlier it was only Times of India- Now it has teamed up with its ugly brother http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/.

When Times of India was gaining notoriety for printing the most obscene of the printable in the news paper industry, how can its internet avatar be left behind? It’s been years since I posted my article on “Times of India” and I merely stopped reading it. 2 years later,bored at my office in Houston, I accidentally opened times of India.Just the articles on the main page was enough to make me squirm in my seat. As soon as I opened it I guiltily looked around to make sure that nobody saw me opening this. I couldn’t have possibly passed it as a news site to any of my American co-workers passing by. Wondered why the company’s web sense didn’t block the site in the first place.

First of all I felt embarrassed (though without any apparent fault of mine) that a sorry-dirty excuse of a newspaper/news site has the word “India” in it. Is it not disheveling and quite shocking that the newspaper that claims to be the largest selling English news paper in India and the most visited news website in the world is nothing but a mere attempt to titillate people to sell more sleaze..

Sample this. These are some of the front page articles of the times of India website of the same day (11th Dec-09).:-

TOI

Well, please opine whether is this what looks like the national news paper of a country which is accused of being overtly conservative and nauseatingly sentimental. May be this is just a reflection of our society and priorities. We give so much weightage on what an actor’s opinion on a river is, or what was it “Bombay” used instead of “Mumbai” or how he dare this or how she dare that, that we stop thinking for a moment that how much we are being pushed forward to be a dumber society. Here, this is the newspaper, that educates thousands of English speaking families in India, teaches young minds that dressing funny/funky is happening, how to satisfy your women in bed, who are the famous actresses who posed nude for a magazine (along with their photographs of course-sans the reproductive organs) etc. etc.

Take for example Delhi times or Dehradun times which will have photographs of wild parties and people who nobody knows except those in that party. But the photographs and captions (like Deepali Malhotra sizzles in blue polka dot top and zebra print skirts or Rahul Batra in his cool green shades) sound that they are ‘the people’ to know and it takes a dork not to know them. What the problem is that the people shown in the pic don’t even represent 1% of the society but do become role model and representation of so many of the Deepus,Bablus,Pinkys,Rajus, Guddis and Pappus who slog late hours studying/worrying/pretending/hoping for so many entrance exams, decent class marks or daily beating by Pitajis or masterjis. Sorry, that was a bad example but how good these party photographs and insightful articles (like where to keep your tongue while smooching) are for the people anyway?

And it is not a new trend that Times of India had started. The have slowly, deliberately, intelligently and continuously made the Indian public more tolerant and aware (so to say) over the years. Probably one of the foresighted marketing gurus in Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd realized that sex sells! No matter whether it is done openly or covertly. They have given us the small doses of obscenity over the years, raising the bar each time. We were shocked earlier but passed it on as a one time affair or interesting bit of information.We were amused later and were finally habituated.I would say that Times of India has much to contribute to what we call “Brash Delhi culture” that is today.

Well now it is upto our society to react to this and chalk out its priorities. How would they want their children to have a better understanding of the world? We can either let Times of India shape the thinking and point of view of the impressionable young minds. Or we can just switch the news paper and block http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/.

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