Monday 19 March 2012

Lost and found


I have been missing him for quite a while...I have actually grown up with him...a major part of my week was spent thinking of what he would write on this Sunday. Karan Thapar's Sunday Sentiments in Hindustan Times has been one of the first things I loved to read ever since I picked up a newspaper to read. It continued untill 2005 in IIMC when I subscribed to the Indian Express...being utterly fed up of the severely non-real stories in Hindustan Times...being a student of Advertising I normally used to find out the real motive behind writing a real article or coverage of news. One of our favorite pass-times in the hostel was taking out any newspaper and tearing it apart with arguments on who has paid for what article and if actually the editor was biased.

It wasn't as much a time of change but in that age I was perhaps looking for something better...Indian Express had a survey conducted in IIMC and a simple message was conveyed...of sunshine stories...everyday in the newspaper there would be one positive news on the front page. I realise that's what I was sold out on...the one positive story. It made me shift from my newspaper of childhood...my comfort...my favorite columnists...turned over all. While in IIMC I normally always read the sunday paper in the library...but then projects caught up...and then exams and then the hunt for a job...and then the actual job...then a boyfriend who did not read hindustan times...et al.

I could never get my hands on Hindustan Times again...I hate Times of India so much that for the 6 months after  my marriage that I was in my joint family sasural I stopped reading the newspaper altogether. I shifted to Bangalore and the first thing I did in my home was ask the paperwala to get two newspapers...TOI for kunal and IE for myself. I still was missing Karan Thapar.

And after a long period of missing him...I had almost forgot his name...day before yesterday it started to haunt me again...all I remembered was his white haired photo that came along with his article and that hint of a smile...the nice good natured gentleman I loved to read about. This time I keeled in...I looked it up on the internet and after years of procrastinating about not reading my favorite writers on the internet and only on real paper...I finally read an article by Karan Thapar today.

No comments: