Tag Archives: newspapers

She sells papers on the pavement in Ahmedabad

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WE HAVE VISITED AHMEDABAD (Amdavad) at least five times since our first visit in 2018. We have always stayed at a small friendly hotel close to the House of MG. This former mill owner’s mansion is now a luxury hotel, which tries to create the kind of India that most foreigners have as an imagined preconception. It achieves that, but is rather too precious for my liking. On the road immediately outside this Disney like themed hotel is the ‘real’ rather than the sanitised India, which can be experienced within the House of MG.

Ever since we first stayed in Ahmedabad, we have seen a lady who sits on the pavement outside the compound of the House of MG. When we first met her, she used to sit beside her overweight husband. Sadly, he died during the covid19 pandemic. On our recent trip in November 2023, she could not be seen, and we were worried that she had also passed away. However, she appeared after several days of the Diwali holiday, and greeted us as old friends.

The reason for her temporary disappearance was that during the Diwali holidays newspapers are not printed. And she sits outside the House of MG for a good reason. She sells newspapers. When her husband was around she and he used to be surrounded by untidy piles of newspapers. We used to buy “The Hindu” from her every day. I noticed on our recent trip that her stock of newspapers was smaller and more tidily arranged than in the past. As “The Hindu” is no longer delivered to newspaper sellers in Ahmedabad, we have had to make do with “The Times of India”.

‘Our’ newspaper lady, the friendly autorickshaw drivers who hang around near her, the man who sells screwdrivers from his simple barrow, the faithful in the Sidi Saiyedd mosque opposite the luxury hotel, and the elderly Moslem gentleman watching the world go past his wheelchair are in my mind the real India and what makes it so endlessly fascinating for me.

The FREEdom of the press

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EVE STAND

 

In my youth, there were no free newspapers in London. There were, and still are, daily newspapers that were available to buy every morning. In the evening, there was a choice of the Evening Standard and the Evening News. Both were available to buy for a few pennies.

The Evening News disappeared some years ago. The Evening Standard remained on sale. Then, a few years ago (in 2009), the Standard became available free of charge. In my opinion, its quality decreased a bit after it became free. Shortly before the Standard became free of charge, a morning paper, the Metro, came into existence in 1999. It was free of charge.

The Metro is a perfect read for a bus or train journey lasting 15 to 25 minutes. It covers much news and contains plenty of other interesting features. As free newspapers go, I would far rather have a copy of the Metro than the Standard.

Time Out is a weekly which provides fairly thorough information about what is happening on the London leisure scene and includes often useful reviews of films, restaurants, bars, theatres, etc. Founded in 1968, it provided a far more intelligent and edgy account of the London scene than its rivals. Until 2012, Time Out was sold to readers for a fee, which was well worth paying. Since September 2012, it has been handed out free of charge each week. For sveral years, I thought that the free version was not as interesting as the former paid version, but of late the quality of Time Out‘s contents has been improving.

These various free periodicals are great but in these days of worrying about the planet, should we not be minimising the amount of paper being used just as we are trying with plastics? Although I am not so keen about using on-line versions of newspapers, they do not involve sacrificing trees or rubbish creation.

Facts and opinions

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NEWS

 

The title of this brief blog article was inspired by the name of a Russian magazine  Аргументы и факты (‘Arguments and Facts’).

When I was a PhD student back in the 1970s, I did my experimental research in a laboratory.  For a while, the maintenance of this lab was supervised by a technician, ‘H’ by name. H was left-wing in his political views and made no attempt to keep his views to himself.

One day while I was working, H and I started talking about the newspapers we read. In my case, it was simple. I hardly ever read them. H said to me:

“I read two papers every day.”

“Which?” I asked.

“Oh,” he replied, ” I read the Times for the facts and the Morning Star for the opinion.”

For those who do not know, the Times used to be Britain’s most authoritative newspaper and the Morning Star is published by British Communists.

So, for H, the Times provided the facts which he coud use in arguments inspired by the Morning Star.