a couple of dayz back I saw the september 20 issue of the India Today in the common room of the hostel....I decided to go thru the magazine.....on the cover was a provocative picture of a lady drapped in a Sari.....and the heading saying "what men want"......well as I went thru the article I was surprised , shocked ,ashamed and disgusted.
All through my growing up years...since the time I remember my folks have subscribed "India Today" ...and they read every issue religiously...and I also started reading magazines starting with the India Today...starting with going through the pics....then graduating to reading articles on the back page.........going thru the sports section...cinema and slowly starting to read the whole of the magazine ...right from the editorial to the back page.....the whole transition took some 4-5 yrs.........I was reading the complete issue of india today by the time I was......17, I guess.
when I was going through the sept 20th issue of india today a thought struck my mind that ...what if this issue was published say 10 yrs back.....how would I have reacted back then? how my folks would have reacted to it? would they have left the magazine in the living room after reading it? and what thoughts would have gone to my mind then??? U know what....reading the cover story was so very embarrassing...even for me at the age of 23 and I was reading it in the boys hostel and not even in the company of my family.............the questions that the cover story had surveyed were straight out of some cosmo , debonair or maybe even playboy. Is there a shortage of porn magazines in this country that India Today took it upon themselves to fulfil the need. It was not that nothing eventful happened in the week gone by.....The indian hostages had just been freed from Iraq.The school seige in which innocent school children were killed in Russia , was a much bigger issue than discussing the sexual preferences of indian male.
I was imagining how a 15 yr old would have reacted after reading the article.......I am ashamed that a magazine as reputed as India Today will take such measures to boost the sales of their magazines. Is this journalism?
The sept 20 issue of "India Today" was truly a reflection of india today........double standards......... we condemn that kids in india have lost that childhood charm and the innocence...but is it truly their fault???? when they switch on the television they are bombarded with "kanta lagga" videos and now courtesy the high quality articles that the leading magazines come up with....we have to think twice before asking them to read magazines instead of watching television........ Rabb Rakh...
3 comments:
Good thought.. This seems to be the trend with most of other news magazines too.. But wait till you get your hands on Delhi Times.. India today would seem like a timid experiment.
good issue .............but we cannot really do anything aboutit while sitting here and just talking.............Navu
Very interesting. Last week(Nov2006) also India Today had something like desires of single men on its covers. Can't totally blame the magazine; its a business-
pornography has the most popular websites.
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