The way I read news

papers……..

After 28 April, 29 June seems to be a long gap. In the meanwhile, I sometimes forgot about this diary or just like any other slave of habits, I ended up inking off my thoughts either on little pieces of papers, loose sheets or back of any and every register I could lay my hands on easily.

Today after reading one article in the newspaper I was thinking about it and the reason why I read newspaper, when suddenly this idea caught me to pen down my introspection about the same in my diary …THE GOLD DIARY….which now upgraded to a blog….my new fascination…

Generally when I read newspaper, I don’t read the first page of the main paper and when occasionally I do – the news are mostly non murderous, apolitical, more often they are immaterial. Some time back, it was about a finding that some baby got allergic reaction using Johnson & Johnson baby product and in researches it was found that company products are not baby products but adult products only in their mildest form.

Same way today I didn’t find any news on the first page except that one girl got neurotic disorder and became paralytic after facing criticism for her dance on some reality dance show on a Bangla channel.

The 2nd page of the newspaper was all smeared with Arushi murder case reports and its new findings, probabilities and possible courses of action. I tried to read it after brushing my eyes over the catchy subheading “THE MYSTERIOUS SMILE OF RAJKUMAR”, but I found myself skipping words to read fast, and then jumping lines and later paragraphs. This made me feel “let the soul rest in peace, I would read about this news when final conclusions would come up.”

There was another news about an 18 year old boy who looks like an 8 year old kid due to some hormonal disease and pleading for help for proper medication.

So far, none of the news made any impact on me. They failed to stay in my mind and I failed to stay stuck to them or to retrospect them or visualize anything. Thus, flapping of pages continued till I reached page 7. Here, a heading of probably font 24, style – NEW ROMAN appealed me as it says “CONFESSION OF A LIFT OPERATOR ….”

Well, the article was about a journalist who has fascination for elevators and after prior permission spends sometime as a lift operator and has spread his experience in today’s newspaper. The article has nothing fabulous in particular yet, I liked the line where the writer said, he liked lifts because as a child it helped him differentiating between vertical and horizontal. Further, the way he was randomly describing how people told him about their destination floors, about the noisy lift fan and specially his ending lines were funny, sarcastic and true.

While reading this literary piece I went to a motion-picture-mode where I have seen various men and women boarding the lift, their way of talking, carrying themselves, attitude, ways of dressing etc. And then someday me boarding a lift and giving a close look to the elevator operator who in return becomes surprised as why I am observing him! Or some day I might find an utter khadoos having airs of President of India who is obliging us by operating the lift and we should be head over heels grateful for that. Or…..God forbid…some real loafer grinning with his 32 all out as it’s the girl who paid attention to HIM or just a normal being giving pigeon looks as mentioned in the article.

Even some time back I have gone through a similar article about a private detective who was verifying character of a particular girl to be married soon, for her would be in laws. After reading this article too, I had vision of a chubby man following a pretty, unaware girl taking up smart tricks to dodge chances of getting caught and then the proud feeling of the amateur investigator on completion of his task at the end of the day!!!

But does this mean I like being on the rosy side of the life?? Life devoid of terrors, tortures, stress, comptetion brutalities??? Is it so preferable to me that I don’t let these things reach my imagination by avoiding on reading news that the world claims to big stories of the day. The stories from US, UK, Russia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or the winning and losing tales of the sport world , saga of brutal inhumanity, coverage of how someone someway getting victimized for being unaware and unexpecting to the ugly face of fate.

I failed to reach any conclusion for sometimes I do read news involoving hard realities of life having all the shades of terror, torture, and brutality and they leave me sad and remorseful about what I have put myself into. Irregularly I go through editorials of Barkha Dutt, Vir Sanghvi, Karan Thappar over various current issues, sensitive legal cases and I read non issues too like a traveler's experience when he recently visited RAMGARH (set of sholay) the difference he has seen, the life there, the people there and the changes that Sholay brought with it and left back and how can I forget mentioning the interview of Prasoon Joshi/Paulo Cohemo I have recently gone through. These news are not big stories or important effecting our lives yet they impress me, enlight me, inspire me to wait for the newspaper in the morning and search.

Yet, now when I think or rather analyze my reading pattern, I find it useless because I grew up listening to people saying we should read news papers because they help us grow our general knowledge and knowledge about foreign affairs, latest trends, gizmos and accessories and people who can speak on the basis of these facts and figures are considered respectable for they are considered as intelligent and of course “Knowledgeable” . Honestly, I am none of these because ….. my news paper reading is not contributing me to grow in the worldly ways. I read what I find interesting, envisioning, different from routine issues, pleasurable.

Though such thoughts have grabbed me hard and stirring my thoughts but they fail to convince me when I give myself a closer look because though in one hand I find myself just like the frog of a dark well who lives in her own world and unaware of the world existing outside, yet on the other hand I feel acutely reluctant in pushing myself to enter the ‘other’ world by developing an artificial interest about it. Such an endeavor may catapult me to become more acceptable, more recognizable and might make my surviving easier. But just like a stubborn toddler I find enthralling solace in overlooking them.

And the reason is, after a hard week, be it political mud slinging or brutal victimization, such news leave a slight tinge of insecurity, doubt, fear and loss of trust about the present and future times. These news don’t rejuvenate me, rather malign my thought process in such a filthy and murky way which is more uncomfortable than enlightening or vision widening. Such news prove themselves incapable in improving human values. So, now without framing my part, I can say that I am a traveler with my own mind, who has taken her road and walking over them in her own way, with due in-assurance that any and every suggestion would very simply get accepted. No wonder there are times when I stoop, I run, I get hurt, I limp, I glide, and I grin. Just like the way many nameless wild flowers do.

The flowers which we see every now and then, we don’t water them, we don’t pluck them for our prayers, for wooing, for decorating our home and offices not even for mourning yet these flowers bud, bloom and wave at us when the wind blows and touches all of us, they whisper in our ears that “after all life is all about making choices” and I have made this choice for myself to be me in the most unpreached way and my way of newspaper reading is just a part of it…..