Feature and opinion

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Different kinds of newspapers
You may have heard the terms "broadsheet" and "tabloid" being thrown around to describe different kinds of newspapers. So what's the difference?
Broadsheets
Broadsheet refers to the most common newspaper format, which is typically 11 to 12 inches wide and 20 or more inches long. Many of the nation's most respected newspapers – TOI, DNA, INDIAN EXPRESS, HINDU, HT- are broadsheet papers. Broadsheet papers are usually six columns across.
Beyond their size, broadsheet papers tend to employ a traditional approach to news that emphasizes in-depth coverage and a sober tone in articles and editorials. Broadsheet readers often tend to be fairly affluent and educated, with many of them living in the suburbs.
Tabloids
In the technical sense, tabloid refers to a type of newspaper that typically measures 11 X 17 inches and is five columns across, narrower than a broadsheet newspaper. Since tabloids are smaller, their stories tend to be shorter than those found in broadsheets.
And while broadsheet readers tend to be upscale suburbanites, tabloid readers are often working class residents of big cities. Indeed, many city dwellers prefer tabloids because they are easy to carry and read on the subway or bus.
Tabloids also tend to be more irreverent and slangy in their writing style than their more serious broadsheet brothers. In a crime story, a broadsheet refers to a police officer, while the tabloid calls him a cop. And while a broadsheet might spend dozens of column inches on "serious" news - say, a major bill being debated in Congress - a tabloid is more likely to zero in on a heinous sensational crime story or celebrity gossip.
In fact, the word tabloid has come to be associated with the kind of supermarket checkout aisle papers - such as the National Enquirer - that focus exclusively on splashy, lurid stories about celebrities.
But there's an important distinction to be made here. True, there are the over-the-top tabloids like the Enquirer, but there are also the so-called respectable tabloids - such as the New York Daily News, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Boston Herald and so on - that do serious, hard-hitting journalism. In fact, the New York Daily News has won 10 Pulitzer Prizes, print journalism's highest honor.
So You Want to Be a Critic?
Tips for Writing Great Reviews of Movies, Books, TV Shows and More
So you want to be a critic? Does a career spent reviewing movies, music, books, TV shows or restaurants seem like Nirvana to you? Then you’re a born critic. But writing great reviews is a real art, one that many have tried but only a few have mastered.
Here then are some tips on how you can write great reviews.
Know Your Subject
Too many beginning critics are eager to write but know painfully little about their chosen topic. If you want to write reviews that carry some authority, then you need to learn everything you can. Want to be the next Roger Ebert? Take college courses on the history of film, read as many books as you can and of course, watch lots of movies. The same goes for any topic.
Some people carry this idea too far. They believe that in order to be a truly good film critic you must have worked as a director, or that in order to review music you must have been a professional musician. Certainly that kind of experience wouldn’t hurt, but it’s more important that the critic be a well-informed layman.
Read Other Critics
This goes along with knowing your subject. Just as an aspiring novelist reads the great writers who came before her, a good critic should read accomplished and respected reviewers, whether it’s the aforementioned Ebert or Pauline Kael on film, Ruth Reichl on food or Michiko Kakutani on books. Read their reviews, analyze what they do and learn from them.
Don’t Be Afraid to Have Strong Opinions
Read great critics and you’ll notice something they all have in common – strong opinions. But newbies who aren’t quite confident in their opinions often write wishy-washy reviews. They write sentences like “I sort of enjoyed this” or “that was okay, though not great.” They’re afraid to take a strong stand for fear of being challenged
But there’s nothing more boring than a hemming-and-hawing review. So decide what you think, and don’t be afraid to state it in no uncertain terms.
Avoid “I” and “In My Opinion”
Too many critics pepper reviews with phrases like “I think” or “In my opinion.” Again, this is often done by novice critics afraid of writing declarative sentences. But such phrases are unnecessary; your reader understands that it’s your opinion you’re writing about, not someone else’s. So leave out the “I.”
Give Background
The critic’s analysis is the centerpiece of any review, but that’s not much use to readers if he doesn’t provide enough background information.
So if you’re reviewing a movie, that means not just outlining the plot but also discussing the director and his previous films, the actors and perhaps even the screenwriter. Critiquing a restaurant? When did it open, who owns it and who’s the head chef? An art exhibit? Tell us a little about the artist, her influences and her previous works.
Don’t Spoil the Ending
There’s nothing readers hate more than a film critic who gives away the ending to the latest blockbuster. So yes, give plenty of background information, but not - I repeat not – the ending of the story.
Know Your Audience
Whether you’re writing for a magazine aimed at intellectuals or a mass-market publication meant for average folks, you need to keep your target audience in mind. So if you’re reviewing a film for a publication aimed at cineastes, you can wax rhapsodic about things like the Italian neo-realists and the French New Wave. But if you’re writing for a wider audience, such references might not mean much.
That’s not to say you can’t educate your readers in the course of a review. But remember – even the most knowledgeable critic won’t succeed if he bores his readers to tears.
http://scottberkun.com/essays/35-how...ive-criticism/


Dated November 18, 1953:Noted journalist Sadanand Dead
Acclaimed national journalist S. Sadanand, Managing Editor of the Free Press Journal, Bombay died at 2-45 p.m. on the 17th at St. Isabel's Hospital and Nursing Home, Oliver Road, Mylapore, where he had been admitted ten days earlier. Eldest son of the late Mr. C. V. Swaminatha Aiyar, Editor of the well-known former Tamil WeeklyVivekachintamani, Sadanand was educated in Madras City and entered journalism in 1917. A keen student of public affairs, habitually clad in spotless Khadi, he was in the thick of politics right from the start of his career, was a signatory to the pledge against the Rowlatt Act, and joined the Civil Disobedience Movement. On Reuter's staff in 1920, he later became Assistant Editor of The Independent, Allahabad.
As Publicity Officer for the Indian National Congress for a while, he looked after Khadi and Village Industries. In October 1930, he promoted the Free Press of India News Agency, and later, the Free Press Journal, and continued to be its Managing Editor. Prosecuted by the British Indian Government under Press Laws and convicted in 1930, on appeal he was acquitted. On a number of occasions, monetary securities were demanded of him making him forfeit more than Rs. 50,000.
Sadanand took over the Indian Express in 1932 from Dr. P. Varadarajulu Naidu and conducted it as a newspaper of the Free Press Journal group. In 1937, he founded theBharata Devi. Sadanand covered the Second Round Table Conference in London in 1931 attended by Mahatma Gandhi, and also the Third Round Table Conference in 1933. He went to the Imperial Press Conference in 1946, and was a member of the Indian Newspaper Society delegation to London in 1948. He was in the All-India Newspaper Editors' Conference from inception, and a member of its Standing Committee.
Swaminathan Sadanand (1900-1953) was an Indian journalist. He was founder editor of the English-language The Free Press Journal in 1930. According to A. R. Desai, The Free Press Journalwas a strong supporter of the Indian National Congress's "demand and struggle for independence" from Great Britain.[1] He never went to college and was a self-taught journalist. J. K. Singh calls him a great journalist but a poor business manager and a "sad failure".[2] Rangaswami Parthasarathy calls him an able editor, an innovator and a fearless patriot.[3] In 1927 he started the Free Press of India Agency,[4] which was the first news agency owned and managed by Indians.[5] Sadanand was one of the seven initial shareholders of the Press Trust of India[6] He bought The Indian Express, (Chennai), from Congressman Varadarajulu Naidu, who had founded it in 1934. The closure of The Free Press Journal caused The Indian Express to pass into the control ofRamnath Goenka.[7]

R.K. Karanjia: Living through the Blitz
P. Sainath
________________________________________
An editor with an unrivalled instinct for what would make news, Karanjia also gave some of the greatest names in Indian journalism their first break.
________________________________________


R.K. Karanjia … “chronicler of revolutions.”
“You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps.” So read the sign outside Russy Karanjia’s office in Blitz. He passed away on February 1, exactly 67 years after he founded one of India’s most powerful publications. He was 95. The tabloid died a few years before him. Karanjia the man would have been touched by the obituaries in the press. Karanjia the editor would have rejected most of them as unfit for publication. “Too reverential,” he would have grumbled. “Where’s the spice?”
He was the last of the buccaneer editors. “Free, Frank & Fearless,” roared our masthead. We were not always fearless. We were sometimes too free for our own good. And we were often obnoxiously frank. But Blitz was always readable, thanks to an editor with an unrivalled instinct for what would make news to an incredibly diverse readership, from a jawan on the Chinese border to striking textile workers in Mumbai. A genius who gave some of Indian journalism’s greatest names their first break, or a platform to build from. That includes R.K. Laxman. Blitz was also the paper where K.A. Abbas ran his legendary Last Page column unbroken for more than 40 years. Though the English tabloid was the oldest, Blitz also appeared in Hindi, Urdu, and Marathi. Karanjia also founded and ran a morning tabloid called The Dailyfor some years. His daughter Rita ran the high-circulation Cine Blitz.
Blitz was an anarchist’s parliament. And we had two of everything. What we did not have on staff, we had in equally eccentric contributors. We had the world’s least successful astrologer, for instance. Karanjia, who pioneered the political astrology beat, would bully him into making predictions (which Karanjia favoured) on who would sweep the elections. When these bombed, he would chew him out: “What sort of astrologer are you? Can’t you get anything right?” The shaken oracle would totter off seeking what we at Blitz called Spirit-ual solace.
Great storyteller
Blitz had its own style. Embedded journalism, never. Embellished journalism, ah well, every now and then. Karanjia was above all a great storyteller. He spoke even better than he wrote — and he was an excellent writer. He had a wicked sense of humour, too. He once sent me — underlined and with exclamation marks — an aphorism from Richard Ingrams, editor of Private Eye: “Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.”
Yet Blitz carried more racket-busting reports and giant political scoops than anyone else. Chief Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, and Governors were laid low by a paper that had amazing access to everything. Investigations, stings, exposes, almost anything the press now celebrates, first happened with Karanjia. He was also the first editor who took photographs and visuals seriously. Look at their quality in Blitz at a time when most papers ran blotched images where it was impossible to tell Khrushchev from his wife.
He also stood by us when the powerful complained, though sometimes in outrageous fashion. Once a politician, now big at the Centre, called to complain about a damaging — and true — story on his land fraud, run as a “Blitz Exclusive.” I walked into Karanjia’s cabin in time to hear him tell the man on the phone: “I was away, you know, that story was run by my hot-headed deputy, I must discipline him.” I raged at him: “How could you do that? It was your story, not mine. The man will now hate me forever.” He was unruffled. “He hates you, anyway, dear fellow, and you don’t love him either. I’ve known him since he was a lad and must maintain some equation with him. I don’t see what you’re complaining about.”
Gambling instinct
He was an instinctive gambler on big issues: Which way to go on technology? Who would win the elections? What was the Big Idea to back? What could we get Parliament fighting about? Some of his gambles succeeded beyond belief. Some left us gasping in a quagmire. He never sought scapegoats for failures, though (except with the astrologer), always taking personal responsibility for things going wrong. I should know. It never happened during the 10 years I was his deputy chief.
Karanjia brought the April Fool hoax to the Indian press. His biggest April 1 coup came when The Daily’s front page announced the sale of The Indian Express to A.R. Antulay. At a time when the Express was, in fact, running a campaign against him. Amidst a chaos of jangling phone lines, furious denials and total bewilderment in the city, an incensed Ramnath Goenka warned he would sue us. Karanjia loved that threat. And he did not mind taking on both powerful and dangerous people. As he told me of one, “Oh I say, if you call him a crook, do put a question mark to it. That helps with the libel stuff, you know.”
There were periods when I fought with him every morning, but he always made me laugh by the end of the day. Like when I stopped the practice of the pin-up girl on the Last Page. A handwritten note from Karanjia to me ran: “Dear Sainath, now that we are emulating the Vatican Gazette, do you have any further ideas to perk up the paper?”
Fan of Castro
Like its editor, Blitz was internationalist. Countless Indians followed the wars of liberation in Vietnam, Africa and Latin America, through Blitz. His great hero was Fidel Castro (whose photo remained on his desk till the last day he went to office.) The Americans hated him and denounced him as a Soviet stooge.
At the height of the Sino-Soviet hostility, Karanjia managed exclusive interviews with the leaders of both the USSR and China (including a rare meeting with Zhou en Lai.) He also had one with the Pope in the same period. His early interview with Mr. Castro, though, was very Blitz. Landing in the confusion of revolutionary Cuba, Karanjia was mistaken for the Indian envoy, an error he did little to correct. Mr. Castro held up his hand and waved to the crowds at meetings. “Oh, I was in the doghouse a bit when it came apart,” he told me. But Mr. Castro’s own sense of humour triumphed and Karanjia returned with one of the most important interviews of his life.
Blitz had some superb small town correspondents who, unlike the astrologer, were pretty good at calling elections. For years, it had lakhs of readers, and more of them writing to the editor than in any other paper. Readers who would raise lakhs of rupees for causes ranging from poor children needing costly surgery to funds for Vietnamese freedom fighters. Karanjia, who knew giants and was once called a “chronicler of revolutions, a biographer of revolutionaries,” never lost sight of little people. It was he who taught a generation how to make a big story of little people.
Accessible editor
No editor was more accessible. Anyone could walk into Blitz — and they often did. From levitating ascetics to poor municipal cleaners complaining about working in the sewers — all could meet the editor directly. No vast security apparatus. Even policemen turning up to serve him with summons would have tea with him and return pretending he was untraceable.
Karanjia’s unfailing look at the funny side of everything rubbed off on the rest of us. Blitz never lost its sense of fun even when threatened or attacked physically. This was an office where crank callers were welcome entertainment and those hurling death threats were baffled by the response they got. As my late colleague Habib Joosab told one caller: “No, you cannot kill us Mondays or Tuesdays. Those are our press days, don’t you know we’re busy?”
The staff were his extended family. As patriarch, he could yell at us. Those yelling back were generously tolerated. No one was victimised. To know this man was to love him.
In the mid-1990s, long after I had left the job, he had an accident that damaged his memory. At the hospital I was told he was not recognising anyone. In his room he greeted me with: “Good evening, Sainath. Have you put the paper to bed? You know I hate going late.” I hadn’t the heart to remind him I had left Blitz ages ago. I assured him all had been done. Here was a man who, when he had forgotten almost everything, remembered he was a journalist and an editor. Nothing could erase that identity.
Rustom Khurshedji Karanjia (September 15, 1912 – February 1, 2008) was an Indian journalist and editor. He typically signed his reports as "R. K. Karanjia".
Karanjia was born in Quetta now in Pakistan; Quetta is also the birthplace of Ardeshir Cowasjee, a Dawn columnist.[1]
Karanjia began writing while still in college,[2] and during the 1930s Karanjia was employed an assistant editor at The Times of India.[3][4] He left The Times in 1941 to launch Blitz, a weeklytabloid with a focus on investigative journalism.[3][4] Karanji served as a war correspondent during the Japanese Burma offensive in World War II, reporting on the action in Burma and Assam.[2]Blitz during the mid-1990s and Karanjia retired from public life.[4]
Karanjia died at his home, a seafront flat along Marine Drive, in Mumbai at the age of 95 on 1 February 2008.[1][3] In a "departure from Parsi tradition, as per his wishes,"[2] his funeral was held in Chandanvadi crematorium, in south Mumbai.[3] Karanjia was survived by one daughter, Rita Mehta,[3] the founder and first Editor-in-chief of Cine Blitz magazine. His brother, Burjor, was also a journalist, albeit in the film industry.[3]
Contents
[hide]
1 Owner editor of Blitz
2 Devotee of Satya Saibaba
3 Books
4 References
Owner editor of Blitz[edit]
Karanjia was founder and owner editor of Blitz a tabloid weekly published from Mumbai. Kulkarni narrates that the decision to launch Blitz was taken over a cup of tea, by three patriotic journalists B. V. Nadkarni, Benjamin Horniman and Karanjia at Wayside Inn, a restaurant near Kala Ghoda, in Mumbai.The first issue of Blitz was published on 1 February 1941. The same day that Karanjia died in 2008. Kulkarni calls his journalism irreverent, investigative, courageous and a little titillating. Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, writer and film maker, and P. Sainath, Magsaysay award winning journalist, were associated with Blitz. Blitz was radical and idealist, left leaning and pro-Soviet. Karanjia attacked the Congress party, and yet was friendly with Congress leaders Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Karanjia became disillusioned with communism and its anti-Hindu secularism. He became a strong sympathiser of BJP and the Ayodhya movement. Kulkarni claims that thus P. Sainath as deputy editor was replaced with him by Karanjia.[1]
Devotee of Satya Saibaba[edit]
In 1976 Karanjia became a devotee of Satya Sai Baba, a Hindu swami.[1]
Books[edit]
Dr.Karanjia wrote a book on yoga.[1] Dr.Karanjia also wrote a book about Satya Sai Baba, called "God Lives In India".
M. J. Akbar
Mobashar Jawed "M.J." Akbar (born 11 January 1951) is a leading Indian journalist and author. He was the Editorial Director of India Today, India's leading weekly English news magazine published by the Living Media group till his resignation in October 2012. He also had an additional responsibility of overseeing the media conglomerate's English news channel, Headlines Today.
He launched "The Sunday Guardian", a weekly newspaper in 2010, and continues to serve as Editor-in-Chief. He is also the founder and former editor-in-chief and managing director of The Asian Age, a daily multi-edition Indian newspaper with a global perspective.
He has written several non-fiction books, including Byline (New Delhi: Chronicle Books, 2003), a biography of Jawaharlal Nehru titled Nehru: The Making of India, a book on Kashmir titled Kashmir: Behind the Vale, Riot After Riot and India: The Siege Within. He also authored The Shade of Swords, a cohesive history of jihad. Akbar's recent published book is Blood Brothers, a skillfully crafted family saga covering three generations and packed with information of events in India and the world, particularly the changing Hindu-Muslim relations.
His book Blood Brothers has been translated into Italian as Fratelli di Sangue. It was released in Rome at the headquarters of Adnkronos on 15 January 2008.
He published his latest book "Tinderbox: The past and future of Pakistan" in January 2012 discussing the themes of identity crisis and class struggles in Pakistan.
Akbar was also the editor-in-chief of The Deccan Chronicle, a Hyderabad-based news daily.
As per semi-fictional book written by M. J. Akbar, Blood Brothers – A Family Saga, he suggested that his grandfather was a Hindu named Prayag, who converted into Islam in Telinipura, a small jute-mill town north of Calcutta, acquired the name Rehmatullah and married a Muslim girl.[1] Akbar attended Calcutta Boys' School and later Presidency College, Calcutta where he attained a BA(Hons) in English between 1967 - 1970.[2]
Career[edit]
Akbar joined The Times of India in 1971 as a trainee. Within a few months moved to the The Illustrated Weekly of India, then India’s largest selling magazine, as sub-editor and feature writer, and contributed a prolific number of stories. In the weekly till 1973, when he was named editor of the news fortnightly, Onlooker, owned by The Free Press Journal Group in Mumbai. In 1976, he moved to Calcutta to join the Ananda Bazar Patrika Group as editor of SUNDAY, a political weekly.[3] Within just three years of its launch, the investigative reporting pioneered by the magazine established its national circulation and number one position. The magazine took an uncompromising stand against the Emergency and fought press censorship and dictatorship. SUNDAY not only established major trends in journalism but also spawned a new generation of journalists in the country.
In 1982, after the success of The Sunday, Akbar launched what is considered by some to be India’s first modern newspaper. He conceived, designed and edited the daily newspaper, The Telegraph, which had a major impact on newspaper journalism in India.
In 1989, he took a brief detour into politics with his election to the Indian Parliament in November 1989 from Kishanganj in Bihar on a Congress(I) ticket. He lost the seat in the 1991 Lok Sabha elections.[4][5] He served as late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's official spokesman.[6]
In 1991, Akbar joined the Government as an advisor in the Ministry of Human Resources, and helped policy planning in key areas of education, the National Literacy Mission and in the protection of heritage. He resigning from the post and quit politics in December 1992 and returned to journalism and full-time writing. In 1993, M J Akbar started a new media company with the aim ofcreating India’s first newspaper that would not only include an international focus within its editorial range, but also be the first Indian daily with an international edition. This newspaper appeared in February 1994. The Asian Age, India’s first global newspaper, was launched with initial editions in Delhi, Bombay, and London, and by 2008 had grown, in collaboration with the Deccan Chronicle, to eight editions, into a major media presence nationally and internationally. In 2004, the group began publishing The International Herald Tribune in India, and became a publishing partner of TheNew York Times.[7]
In March 2006, Akbar Joined The Brookings Institution, Washington, as a Visiting Fellow in the Brookings Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Islamic World. During the late 90s, he diluted his stake in the Asian Age, eventually selling of a major part of it to the Reddys, the owners of the Deccan Chronicle group.
In March 2008, M J Akbar was removed from The Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle due to differences with the owners over editorial policy, as some newspapers have reported it.
M J Akbar Launched a Fortnightly Political Magazine named 'Covert' on 13 May 2008 in Delhi with the first issue on Stands on 14 May. Simultaneously, the Covert website[8] was launched two days later. Later this website got discontinued.
M J Akbar launched a new Sunday newspaper from 31 January 2010."The Sunday Guardian" is published from Delhi and simultaneously from London with M J Akbar as the Editor of the Weekly Newspaper.[9]
In September 2010, he joined the Living Media as Editorial Director of the leading weekly English news magazine India Today and the English news channel Headlines Today.
Kumar Ketkar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kumar Ketkar
Born 7 January 1946 (age 67)
Occupation News Editor, Chief Editor of Dainik Divya Marathi of Dainik Bhaskar Group
Years active 1973 – present
Kumar Ketkar is an Indian journalist and Chief Editor of Dainik Divya Marathi. He has also been the editor in chief of Marathi newspaperLoksatta.[1][2] He has also worked for The Economic Times and the Maharashtra Times.
Contents
[hide]
1 Career
1.1 Press Coverage
1.2 Teaching
2 Awards
3 References
Career[edit source]
Kumar Ketkar, born on January 7, 1946, is currently the Chief Editor of Dainik Divya Marathi of Dainik Bhaskar Group. He was an observer of the Reliance Group and was a correspondent with The Economic Times for nearly 17 years. He was earlier Chief Editor of Loksatta, the leading Marathi Daily, of the Indian Express Group, also contributing to the Indian and Financial Express. He has been the Chief Editor of the Maharashtra Times of the Times of India Group for 7 years. He was also the Editor-in-Chief of Lokmat Group of Publications for one year.
Press Coverage[edit source]
In his thirty-year long career as Special Correspondent, Resident Editor and Editor of the Economic Times, The Observer and Maharashtra Times he had covered four US presidential elections and two British elections. He also covered the collapse of the Soviet Union from Moscow, Hong Kong's reintegration with the Mainland China from Hong Kong and reported on unification of Germany from Bonn and Berlin.He had also served as a delegate at the NGO Peace Conference in Geneva. He had also covered the economic transformation of China and reporting from Beijing, Shanghaiand Guongdong. The government of Israel had invited him for a lecture assignment on their fiftieth anniversary.
International events covered:
Changing USSR: During Glasnost and Perestroika
Disintegration of Soviet Union
Elections in UK
Integration of two Germanys
Five US presidential elections
Hong Kong integration with China
Israel’s fiftieth anniversary events#
Transforming of China’s economy
The emerging New Vietnam
Visited Pakistan, Bangla Desh, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Nepal for various conferences.
Peace Conference in Geneva, European Union Conference in Brussels.
Teaching[edit source]
He also taught the Global Challenge course at FDU in the Fall 2001 which includes lecturing at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Pune andUniversity of Bombay in India. He is a visiting faculty in the Faireigh Dickinson University, New jersey. He was also the coordinator of South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA).
Awards[edit source]
He has been bestowed with prestigious awards such as Padma Shree, Giants International Award for covering global events and Rajiv Gandhi Award for excellence in Journalism.
Govind Shripad Talwalkar (b 1925, also known honorifically as Govindrao Talwalkar) is a journalist, former editor of Maharashtra Times, and author of 25 books. He received the Lokmanya Tilak Award from the Government of Maharashtra, India and also the B. D. Goenka Award and Durga Ratan Award for excellence in journalism, and Ramshastri award for social justice..
Contents
[hide]
1 Early life
2 Career
2.1 Editing Loksatta
2.2 Editor of the Maharashtra Times
3 Author of books on modern Indian history and the world
4 Freethinker, writer on the Soviet empire, China and communism
5 Journalist
6 Bibliography
7 References
8 External links
Early life[edit]
Talwalkar was born on July 22, 1925 in Dombivali, in the Indian state of Maharashtra.[1]
Coming from a family with limited means, Talwalkar graduated from the university of Mumbai while doing odd jobs at the same time to pay for his fees. Talwalkar's family has a special place in Maharashtra. Talwalkar's uncle Gopinath Talwalkar was a well-known poet and writer.[2] His other uncle Sharad Talwalkar was a famous actor in Marathi films and on stage.
Career[edit]
Editing Loksatta[edit]
After getting a degree, Talwalkar joined an intellectual magazine. After that, he was invited by Mr. H.R. Mahajani, the then editor of Loksatta, a Marathi daily of the Indian Express Group, to join as a sub-editor.[1] The work was not clearly defined. Talwalkar started writing editorials in the daily and the weekly edition of the paper. In fact, he wrote an editorial the first day he joined Loksatta at the age 23. He was greatly influenced by the writings of Lokmanya Tilak, M.N. Roy, and other intellectuals. From 1950 to 1962 he served as assistant editor of Loksatta.[1]
Editor of the Maharashtra Times[edit]
Talwalkar worked as assistant editor of the Maharashtra Times, a new Marathi daily launched by the Times of India group for almost six years. He become chief editor in 1968, remaining in that role for 27 years until he retired in 1996.[1] He also established a record as the longest serving editor in Bennett Coleman and Co. which owns the Times of India Group. The company is more than 150 years old.
Talwalkar is best known for his editorials and articles. According to Raj Thackeray, "Talwalkar justified being recognized as Agralekhancha Badshah (the emperor of editorials)".[1] Late famous Marathi writer, journalist and intellectual, S. M. Mate.[3] admiringly remarked that Talwalkar had a felicity of pen, while poet G. D. Madgulkar used to call him "DnyanGunSagar".[4] In the tradition of Lokmanya Tilak & the Maharashtra saint Samarth Ramdas, he used simple Marathi to make difficult subjects easily understandable to ordinary readers, while at the same time making all salient points with notable gravitas. Several of his editorials and articles are collected in his books, includingAgralekh, Bahar, Pushpanjali, Lal gulag ('Red Gulag'), Niyatishi karar.
Shri Govind Talwalkar has been a Guiding Light for two generations of Maharashtrians. He has had the greatest influence over the literary, political, educational, social, cultural and intellectual fabric of post-independence Maharashtra over forty years. As an editor, he made his mark as an intellectual, interested in diverse subjects. He educated his readers. He has become an institution.
He is best known for his editorials, which appealed to the reason. His hard-hitting editorials were feared but respected by the politicians and people in powerful places; and immensely admired by the masses and the scholars. In this he followed the tradition of Lokmanya Tilak and Ramdas. He did so selflessly. He exposed corruption in politics, universities, hospitals, social and public matters. It is said that some politicians have blocked giving him PadmaVibhushan award, while honoring many undeserving people.[citation needed]
Though proud of his mother-tongue, Marathi, Talwalkar thought that his readers should know whatever best was produced in the literature in various languages. He started a popular column introducing books in English, writing under the pseudonym Vachaspati. His articles on books have been published as collections - Vachta vachta, 1& 2.
On his retirement in 1996, Talwalkar settled with his daughters in the USA, but continues to write critical articles and essays in Marathi and English on world politics, economics, history, social issues and books.
Author of books on modern Indian history and the world[edit]
Talwalkar has written several books on modern history. His book on the transfer of power in India ( Sattantar - 3 volumes) is now in its third edition.
Many of Talwalkar's books are on the leaders of India's freedom movement: Naoroji, Nehru, Justice Ranade, Tilak, Gopal Krishna Gokhale. The books Naoroji te Nehru, Virat dnyani - Nyaymurti Ranade, Tilak darshan, Bal Gangadhar Tilak were awarded various prizes. He translated his Marathi book Nek Namdar Gokhale into English, entitled, Gopal Krishna Gokhale: Life and Times, published by Rupa and Co. The Tribune's review of Gopal Krishna Gokhale: Life and Times praises Talwalkar as "a versatile journalist", and describes the book as a "comprehensive study" with a "lucid and straightforward" narrative.[5]
Talwalkar's recent book Bharat Ani Jag [6] is a scholarly analysis of India's foreign policy and economic and political situation in the post-independence era (i.e. since 1947). It is a valuable reference book.
Talwalkar is the author of books on the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan -- Iraqdahan, Agnikand.
His books have been well received for their wealth of information, insight, scholarship and style. He writes fluently in Marathi as well as English. He always wrote & still continues to write in beautiful, cultured, decent Marathi in the tradition of Lokmanya Tilak & Ramdas Swami, making even very difficult and scholarly topics easy for the common people to understand. His books are a treasure trove of scholarship and a great joy to read.
Freethinker, writer on the Soviet empire, China and communism[edit]
From the 1950s, India sought economic and technological help from the Soviet Union. When it was fashionable to be a communist, Talwalkar remained an independent and wrote against the totalitarianism of the Right as well as the Left. He was steeped in the humanist thoughts of M. N. Roy, George Orwell, Karl Pauper, Arthur Koestler, and Kolakowsky.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Talwalkar toured Eastern Europe and wrote journalistic essays on the changing scene. These are collected in his book -- Badalta Europe.[7] He is a scholar of Russian studies. He wrote a four volume book in Marathi on the rise and fall of the Soviet empire: Soviet Samrajyacha Uday Ani Asta in 4 volumes, winning the Kelkar prize.[6] His book Lal Gulag is a collection of his articles on communist Russia and China.[8]
Journalist[edit]
Talwalkar contributed articles in English to newspapers including The Times of India,[9] The Telegraph (of Calcutta), The Illustrated Weekly of India, Frontline magazine, The Mainstream and theDeccan Herald and Asian Age.[10]
He regularly wrote articles in Marathi for a literary magazine Lalit. After retirement he wrote a regular column - Saurabh - in Lalit each month on books & other topics such as 400 th anniversary of saint Ramdas Swami. These articles are published by Majestic prakashan under the title Sourabh, vol. 1 & 2. Grantha Sangati is another collection of his book reviews published by Popular Prakashan.
He has received the Durga Ratan and B.D. Goenka Awards for excellence in journalism, and the Ramshatri Award for social justice.[citation needed]
Now retired, Talwalkar still writes regularly for the daily, Divya Marathi and weekly Sadhana and occasionally for Maharashtra Times and other Marathi newspapers, and in English forrediff.india.[citation needed]
Shekhar Gupta
Shekhar Gupta (born 26 August 1957) is the editor-in-chief of The Indian Express.[1] Shekhar has a weekly column called National Interest. It covers a range of issues and is the subject of his forthcoming book. He also hosts an interview-based programme Walk the Talk on NDTV 24x7. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan for the year 2009 for his contribution to the field of journalism.[2]
Awards[edit]
Shekhar has received assorted awards: the 1985 Inlaks award for young journalist of the year,[3] G K Reddy Award for Journalism,[4] the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Memorial Award for National Integration.[5][6] He was awarded Padma Bhushan by the Govt of India in 2009.[2][7]
Under his leadership, The Indian Express has won the Vienna-based International Press Institute’s Award for Outstanding Journalism in the Public Interest thrice- the first time for its coverage of the Gujarat riots of 2002, the second time for uncovering the Bihar flood relief scam in 2005 and the third time for its sustained investigation into the Malegaon and Modasa blasts of 2008 and the alleged role of Hindu extremists and organisations.[8]
Sham Lal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sham Lal (1912-23 February 2007 Delhi) was an Indian literary critic and journalist, who served as the editor of The Times of India. He wrote a column Life and Letters for several years forHindustan Times and later The Times of India.[1] Rudrangshu Mukherjee has described him as the most erudite newspaper editor in India.[2]
Sham worked with The Hindustan Times in Delhi from 1934 to 1948. He joined The Times of India in 1950, as Assistant Editor. He later served as the editor from 1967 to 1978. After his retirement, he continued as a columnist for The Times of India. In 1994, he moved his column to The Telegraph.[3]
Bookshelves reached from floor to ceiling in every room, their contents neatly ordered, spanning several centuries of human thought and creativity.[4] He had original issues of The Paris Review,Criterion, and of defunct but once-great Indian literary magazines, vast collections of poetry and drama, and what appeared to be every important work ever published in the fields of history,criticism and the humanities.[4] It was one of the best private libraries.[4] There is a possibly apocryphal story about thieves who broke into his Delhi house and were disgusted that there was nothing but books from floor to ceiling in virtually every room.

Quotes[edit]
On eminent Historian, R.S. Sharma, "R.S. Sharma, a perceptive Historian of Ancient India, has too great a regard for the truth about the social evolution in India over a period of two thousand years, stretching from 1500 BC to 500 AD, to take refuge in a world of make-believe.[5]
On Octavio Paz, Poetic activity is born of desperation in the face of the impotence of the word and ends in the recognition of the omnipotence of silence
"At a time when political rag chewing, hack writing, mass media banalities and high pressure sales talk do as much to corrupt the language as industrial wastes to pollute air and water, it is the poet’s job to preserve the integrity of the written word."[4]

Obituaries[edit]
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, in a condolence message, remembered Mr. Sham Lal as a "great editor, a thoughtful writer and a voice of reason, liberal values and patriotism."[6] Describing him as a "media icon of my generation," Dr. Singh said: "Generations of his readers looked forward to reading his columns for his wit and wisdom and his erudition. I hope his inspiring example will continue to guide Indian journalism."[6] The former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, remembered Mr. Sham Lal as an intellectual giant who was passionate about all aspects of life, particularly art, films and books. "He was an institution in himself. His death has left a void difficult to fill and his contributions to Indian journalism will continue to educate and inspire generations of media persons."[6]
ham Lal - A Himalayan Journalist
by V. Sundaram

His life was gentle and the elements so mixed in him
that Nature might stand up and say:
'This was a man' - Shakespeare.
Sham Lal, the veteran journalist and literary critic, who passed away in New Delhi on 23 February 2007 at the age of 95 indeed belonged to the classical age of classic Indian journalism. Sham Lal was born in 1912 in Ferozepur in the undivided Punjab and did his MA in English in 1933. His distinguished career as a journalist spanned over six decades. He joined The Hindustan Times in Delhi in 1934 and worked there for 12 years before moving to The Times of India in Bombay in 1950. During his tenure in The Hindustan Times, he became a great friend and admirer of Devadas Gandhi who was its Chief Editor. He joined the Times of India as Assistant Editor in 1950. Sham Lal was the Editor of the Times of India from 1967 to 1978. After his retirement, he continued as a columnist for The Times of India. In 1994, Sham Lal decided to stop writing for The Times of India and moved his column to the editorial page of The Telegraph. His relationship with The Telegraph lasted till his death.

As a fearless and outstanding journalist, he belonged to the tradition of C Y Chinthamani, G A Natesan, Pothen Joseph, Krishan Das Kohli, J N Sahni, Devadas Gandhi, Frank Moraes, Khasa Subba Rao, Chalapathy Rao and many other luminaries who adorned the firmament of Indian journalism from 1915 to 1975. After joining The Times of India in 1950, Sham Lal started writing a very popular weekly literary column called 'Life and Letters'. Through this weekly column, Sham Lal became internationally known not only as a brilliant reviewer of books but also as a great scholar. To quote the appropriate words of Manish Chand, a journalist of today, in this context: 'An evening with Sham Lal, if you were lucky to have met this frail, benign bibliophile, will always burn bright in your memory. Not because he had a charismatic personality or that he had dramatic things to say. But because of his sheer pleasure in who he was: a rare solitude-loving creature who lived for books and the bliss of reading. 'Who imparted a new resonance to the post-modernist notion of the reader as the writer and creator of texts. Neither time nor age could stale his passion for books. Till very recently, he read for anything from six to eight hours a stunning variety of books which could range from stringent sociological analyses to most abstruse poetry'.

When Octavio Paz, later a Nobel Laureate, was Mexican Ambassador in India, he became a close friend and admirer of Sham Lal. He referred to Sham Lal as -The brilliant Sham Lal... as deeply read in modern Western thought as in the philosophical traditions of India. When Octavio Paz passed away in 1998, Sham Lal wrote in The Telegraph: 'Now that Paz's life journey and poetic venture have come to an end, all that his friends among whom I am lucky to count myself, can do is to cherish the memories of their many encounters with him and explore further the meanings that can be read into the vast body of his work as a poet, a thinker and critic who used words as a tool in his life-long search for the word. His quest for the word with a capital W is not a matter of personal caprice. Poetic activity as he once wrote, 'is born of desperation in the face of the impotence of the word and ends in the recognition of the omnipotence of silence'. But, this is only a part of the truth. The raison d'etre of poetry, as of other forms of literature, is ending this dictatorship. 'It is man's only recourse against both meaningless noise and silence. That is why poetry which is the perfection of speech - language speaking to itself - is the invitation to enjoy the whole of life'.

Sham Lal paid this magnificent tribute to his friend Octavio Paz,: 'In his death, the world, with large parts of it under the sway of moral cretins, has lost a sane voice sensitive to the ignominy of a modernity gone berserk.'

Though I had read and enjoyed some of his pieces on literature and men of letters in the Times of India from 1958 to 1963 during my days as a student in St. Stephen's College, Delhi, yet I never had the opportunity or good luck of meeting Sham Lal in person even once. About six years ago I was delighted to see a volume of his collected writings on 'Modern Thinkers, Poets, Playwrights and Novelists' under the title 'A Hundred Encounters' in the Higginbotham's Book Shop on Mount Road, Chennai and I bought that book and gulped it whole. This book falls into two sections. The first section deals with the works of great social scientists and historians who have had a significant impact on the political, cultural and intellectual landscape in the post-Second World War world. This section of the book grapples with modernity and discontent - a master theme that runs as leitmotif in his critical essays.

Sham Lal refers to the 11 September attack on World Trade Centre in New York in these words: 'It is ironical that while America was planning to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in building a missile defence system, it did not realize that any of the thousands of airliners flying over its cities every day could be turned into such a weapon by a suicidal maniac with a pilot's license and armed with nothing more lethal than a box cutter'. What confronts the world today despite all the outward glitz and glitter of the products of new technology, is a far more inequitable order spurred by the globalization process, disrupted and hybridized local cultures, increased alienation of elite groups in the poorer societies from their own people and a menacing growth in fundamentalist terrorism. 'According to Sham Lal, the Soviet system created by Lenin, Stalin and his successors crashed because it could not cope with the on-going technological revolution.

The new affluent society being created by the globalization process may come to grief because of its dizzy success in adjusting to it too well and its hubris.

The second section relates to modern poets, playwrights and novelists. As a lover of poetry and literature I found this section to be absolutely beautiful and elevating. Lal's brilliant reviews of the literary productions of Samuel Beckett, W B Yeats, T S Eliot, Louis MacNeice, W H Auden, Ted Hughes, Bernard Shaw, D H Lawrence, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, Bertolt Breckt, Jean-Paul Sartre, Arthur Rimbaud, Boris Pasternak, Octavio Paz and many others clearly bring out the meaningful message of how to appreciate beauty in great literature with informed pity and generosity of spirit. For a man like Sham Lal with unquenchable passion for literature, literature, real literature, should not be gulped down like some potion which may be good for the heart or good for the brain - the brain, that stomach of the soul. Literature must be taken and broken into bits and parts, pulled apart, squashed - then only its lovely reek will be smelt in the hollow of the palm. It must be munched and rolled upon the tongue with relish. Only then, its rare flavor will be appreciated at its true worth and the broken and crushed parts will again come together in your mind and disclose the beauty of a unity to which you have contributed something of your flesh and blood.

Talking of these great thinkers, poets, playwrights and novelists, Sham Lal says: 'It is they, in contrast to social scientists, who are primarily concerned with existential problems and seek answers to questions which bug the more sensitive today, who wonder why, even in affluent societies, people look so distraught, personal reactions get so skewed and so many are afflicted by ennui, and a sense of loneliness or of loss of meaning.'

In 2003, a Second Volume of Sham Lal's collected writings was released. It carried the title 'Indian Realities - in Bits & Pieces'. His total understanding of the benevolent and malevolent forces at work in India today is indeed amazing.
I have heard from many of his friends that Sham Lal was the centre, the life and soul of a circle of eager and delighted human beings, exuberant, endlessly appreciative, delighting in every manifestation of intelligence, imagination or life. He was life-enhancing in the highest degree. No wonder that even the most frozen monsters in our midst responded to him and, in spite of themselves, found themselves on terms of both respect and affection with him. Courage, candor, honesty, intelligence, love of intelligence in others, passionate interest in ideas, lack of pretension, tremendous vitality, warmth of heart, generosity - intellectual as well as emotional - contempt for the pompous, the bogus and the self-important these great qualities of head and heart marked him out as a fearless journalist for more than six decades.

Though he lost his eye-sight for reading books, yet he retained his enthusiasm for literature, men of letters and things of the mind, heart and soul till the last breath of his life. Perhaps T S Eliot had exceptional men like Sham Lal in mind when he wrote the following lines of beautiful poetry which mock at time:
'Age and decrepitude can have no terrors for me
Loss and vicissitude cannot appall me
Not even death can dismay or amaze me
Fixed in the certainty of love unchanging'.
- See more at: http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=C...07.dpufGirilal Jain, journalist: born Sonepat, north India 1922; editor-in-chief Times of India 1978-88; died New Delhi 19 July 1993.
GIRILAL JAIN was a well-known, albeit controversial, Indian newspaper editor who espoused a strong, almost Fascist-like federal authority in India to help maintain its standing as the world's largest democracy.
As leader writer and later editor-in-chief from 1978 to 1988 of the influential and widely circulated Times of India, Jain firmly believed a weak central government was responsible for India's diminishing international status and saw the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, as its preserver.
Towards this he vehemently supported Mrs Gandhi when, faced with a countrywide uprising against her misrule, she imposed an internal emergency in the mid-Seventies during which all civil liberties were suspended. After the emergency, opposition leaders, hounded and persecuted by Mrs Gandhi during the 21 months it lasted, criticised the Times of India's editorial policy for 'choosing to crawl' even though Mrs Gandhi had merely ordered them to 'bend'.
Jain, often accused of confusing between the state and the government of the day due to his fascination with power equations, was an ardent and unashamed admirer of Mrs Gandhi's power politics. And, in a front-page editorial, went to the extent of condoning the pogrom against Sikhs in New Delhi after she was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.
Jain's support for Rajiv Gandhi, Mrs Gandhi's son and successor, however, waned after Rajiv Gandhi was allegedly implicated in a defence kickback scandal and his political fortunes seemed to be on the decline. Jain then turned his pen to supporting Gandhi's detractors. And, more recently, realising the increasing popularity of the Hindu fundamentalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Jain became an ardent supporter of Hindutva or Hindu hegemony in his avidly read and, as always, well-argued syndicated columns.
But political opportunism apart, Jain was the only editor of his generation who rose from an underprivileged and rural background to the top of his profession. He was also one of the few senior Indian journalists who understood the realities and moods of rural India, the country's largest vote bank. His political judgements were sound even though he tended to favour the winning side, cleverly justifying it by portraying India as an ancient state in the throes of evolving into a modern nation state.
Jain's underlying passion for a strong centre led him actively to promote the controversial idea of an Indo-Iranian tie-up in the early Seventies, combining India's technical skills with the Shah's wealth. Sadly for him the dream was shattered soon after with the fall of the Shah.
Jain was born in 1922 in a village in Sonepat district in Haryana state, some 50 miles from New Delhi, and was schooled locally. After graduating in history from Hindu College in Delhi he briefly engaged in politics during the Quit India movement led by Mahatma Gandhi against the British in 1942 and was even jailed for a short period.
After his release he became a Royist, a disciple of MN Roy, a leading Indian socialist of the day. He joined Vanguard, a Royist newspaper, in 1945 but left soon after for a career in business and teaching, neither of which he found exciting. In 1950 he joined the Delhi edition of the Times of India, then Bombay's leading newspaper, as a sub-editor. He was a competent sub-editor who, with a few strokes of his blue pencil, could transform a garbled news story or feature into something eminently readable. After holding a series of posts - including a stint as correspondent in Karachi, then Pakistan's capital, and London - he became editor-in-chief in 1978. He retired a decade later.
N. Ram is a Director of Kasturi & Sons Ltd. He is former Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of The Hindu, Frontline, Business Line, and Sportstar of The Hindu group of publications, and has been in the media field since 1966.
N. Ram did his schooling at the Madras Christian College, Chennai, took his B.A. in History from Loyola College, Chennai and his M.A. in History (with a First) at the Presidency College, Chennai. He has an M.S. in Comparative Journalism, with Honors, from the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University.
His areas of special journalistic interest include Indian politics; aspects of India’s foreign policy and nuclear policy; external pressures on India’s economic and political sovereignty; issues of corruption and abuse of power; the challenge of communalism and fundamentalism in India; the Sri Lankan ethnic crisis and India’s interaction with it; freedom of expression issues, and the role of media in society.
N. Ram led The Hindu’s investigation into the Bofors arms deal corruption scandal. His investigation, in association with Chitra Subramaniam and others in The Hindu, was recognized by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism during its centennial celebrations in 2012 as one of ‘50 Great Stories reported, investigated, produced, filmed, edited, photographed, anchored, and/or tweeted by Columbia journalists’ over the century (http://centennial.journalism.columbi...great-stories/).
In 1980-81, he did an extended investigation and analysis of the conditionalities of India’s controversial SDR 5 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement with the International Monetary Fund.
Honours and awards include the Padma Bhushan (for journalism), 1990; the Asian Investigative Journalist of the Year Award from the Press Foundation of Asia (1990); the B.D. Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism (1989); the National Citizen’s Award (1995); XLRI’s First JRD Tata Award for Business Ethics (2002); and Sri Lanka Ratna, Sri Lanka’s highest National Honour conferred on non-nationals (2005).
N. Ram is co-author with Susan Ram of the biography, R.K. Narayan: The Early Years, 1906-1945, Penguin India, New Delhi, 1996; and the author of Riding the Nuclear Tiger, a Signpost publication, LeftWord Books, New Delhi, 1999. His research publications include studies of “The Nuclear Dispute: An Indian Perspective” and “An Independent Press and Anti-Hunger Strategies: The Indian Experience,” the latter published in a book, The Political Economy of Hunger, Volume-1: Entitlements and Well-being, ed. Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1990. A 15,000-word essay, “The Great Indian Media Bazaar: Emerging Trends and Issues for the Future,” has been published in India: Another Millennium? edited by Romila Thapar, Viking, Penguin India, New Delhi, 2000.
He was elected President of the Contemporary India Section of the 72nd session of the Indian History Congress, which was held in Patiala during December 10-13, 2011, and gave an address on “The Changing Role of the News Media in Contemporary India” (http://www.thehindu.com/news/resourc...cle2714061.ece)
He is closely associated, as a founding trustee of the Media Development Foundation (MDF), with the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai, which is India’s, and South Asia’s, premier post-graduate journalism education institution. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University, New York.
N. Ram is a former member of the National Integration Council and of the India-China Eminent Persons Group. He is the president of Harmony India, Chennai, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of communal harmony and secularism.

Writing an Editorial
CHARACTERISTICS OF EDITORIAL WRITING

An editorial is an article that presents the newspaper's opinion on an issue. It reflects the majority vote of the editorial board, the governing body of the newspaper made up of editors and business managers. It is usually unsigned. Much in the same manner of a lawyer, editorial writers build on an argument and try to persuade readers to think the same way they do. Editorials are meant to influence public opinion, promote critical thinking, and sometimes cause people to take action on an issue. In essence, an editorial is an opinionated news story.
Editorials have:

1. Introduction, body and conclusion like other news stories
2. An objective explanation of the issue, especially complex issues
3. A timely news angle
4. Opinions from the opposing viewpoint that refute directly the same issues the writer addresses
5. The opinions of the writer delivered in a professional manner. Good editorials engage issues, not personalities and refrain from name-calling or other petty tactics of persuasion.
6. Alternative solutions to the problem or issue being criticized. Anyone can gripe about a problem, but a good editorial should take a pro-active approach to making the situation better by using constructive criticism and giving solutions.
7. A solid and concise conclusion that powerfully summarizes the writer's opinion. Give it some punch.
Parts of an Editorial
-In the first paragraph you introduce the PROBLEM or a controversial situation. At the end of the first paragraph you write your POSITION STATEMENT(clear expression of which side of the issue you support).

-The second and third paragraphs are similar in the fact that you must SUPPORT your position about the problem/situation with factual information. These paragraphs cannot contain far-fetched speculation or uneducated opinions, but must portray that the writer has some background knowledge about the situation/problem.

-The fourth paragraph must contain a statement about the OPPOSING VIEWPOINT or counterpoints to your position and a REBUTTLE(persuasive, factual proof that your position is the right position).

-The final paragraph must contain a CALL TO ACTION. This is a very specific request for someone(reader, policy maker, decision-maker) to take action on the situation/problem.

Four Types of Editorials Will:

1. Explain or interpret: Editors often use these editorials to explain the way the newspaper covered a sensitive or controversial subject. School newspapers may explain new school rules or a particular student-body effort like a food drive.
2. Criticize: These editorials constructively criticize actions, decisions or situations while providing solutions to the problem identified. Immediate purpose is to get readers to see the problem, not the solution.
3. Persuade: Editorials of persuasion aim to immediately see the solution, not the problem. From the first paragraph, readers will be encouraged to take a specific, positive action. Political endorsements are good examples of editorials of persuasion.
4. Praise: These editorials commend people and organizations for something done well. They are not as common as the other three.
Writing an Editorial

1. Pick a significant topic that has a current news angle and would interest readers.
2. Collect information and facts; include objective reporting; do research
3. State your opinion briefly in the fashion of a thesis statement
4. Explain the issue objectively as a reporter would and tell why this situation is important
5. Give opposing viewpoint first with its quotations and facts
6. Refute (reject) the other side and develop your case using facts, details, figures, quotations. Pick apart the other side's logic.
7. Concede a point of the opposition — they must have some good points you can acknowledge that would make you look rational.
8. Repeat key phrases to reinforce an idea into the reader's minds.
9. Give a realistic solution(s) to the problem that goes beyond common knowledge. Encourage critical thinking and pro-active reaction.
10. Wrap it up in a concluding punch that restates your opening remark (thesis statement).
11. Keep it to 500 words; make every work count; never use "I"
A Sample Structure

I. Lead with an Objective Explanation of the Issue/Controversy.

Include the five W's and the H. (Members of Congress, in effort to reduce the budget, are looking to cut funding from public television. Hearings were held …)
Pull in facts and quotations from the sources which are relevant.
Additional research may be necessary.
II. Present Your Opposition First.

As the writer you disagree with these viewpoints. Identify the people (specifically who oppose you. (Republicans feel that these cuts are necessary; other cable stations can pick them; only the rich watch public television.)
Use facts and quotations to state objectively their opinions.
Give a strong position of the opposition. You gain nothing in refuting a weak position.

III. Directly Refute The Opposition's Beliefs.
You can begin your article with transition. (Republicans believe public televison is a "sandbox for the rich." However, statistics show most people who watch public television make less than $40,000 per year.)
Pull in other facts and quotations from people who support your position.
Concede a valid point of the opposition which will make you appear rational, one who has considered all the options (fiscal times are tough, and we can cut some of the funding for the arts; however, …).
IV. Give Other, Original Reasons/Analogies
In defense of your position, give reasons from strong to strongest order. (Taking money away from public television is robbing children of their education …)
Use a literary or cultural allusion that lends to your credibility and perceived intelligence (We should render unto Caesar that which belongs to him …)
V. Conclude With Some Punch.
Give solutions to the problem or challenge the reader to be informed. (Congress should look to where real wastes exist — perhaps in defense and entitlements — to find ways to save money. Digging into public television's pocket hurts us all.)
A quotation can be effective, especially if from a respected source
A rhetorical question can be an effective concluder as well (If the government doesn't defend the interests of children, who will?)
Go to the library or any computer lab and complete the “webquest” located at

http://library.thinkquest.org/50084/index.shtml
http://library.thinkquest.org/50084/...als/index.html
Journalism genres
The term "journalism genres" refers to various journalism styles, fields or separate genres, in writing accounts of events.
Newspapers and periodicals often contain features (see Feature style) written by journalists, many of whom specialize in this form of in-depth journalistic writing.
Feature articles are usually longer forms of writing; more attention is paid to style than in straight news reports. They are often combined with photographs, drawings or other "art." They may also be highlighted by typographic effects or colors.
Writing features can be more demanding than writing straight news stories, because while a journalist must apply the same amount of effort to accurately gather and report the facts of the story, he or she must also find a creative and interesting way to write it. The lead (or first two paragraphs of the story; see Nut graph) must grab the reader's attention and yet accurately embody the ideas of the article.
In the last half of the 20th Century, the line between straight news reporting and feature writing became blurred. Journalists and publications today experiment with different approaches to writing.Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Hunter S. Thompson are some of these examples. Urban and alternative weekly newspapers go even further in blurring the distinction, and many magazines include more features than straight news.
Some television news shows experimented with alternative formats, and many TV shows that claimed to be news shows were not considered as such by traditional critics, because their content and methods do not adhere to accepted journalistic standards. National Public Radio, on the other hand, is considered a good example of mixing straight news reporting, features, and combinations of the two, usually meeting standards of high quality. Other US public radio news organizations have achieved similar results. A majority of newspapers still maintain a clear distinction between news and features, as do most television and radio news organizations.
Ambush journalism[edit]
Ambush journalism refers to aggressive tactics practiced by journalists to suddenly confront and question people who otherwise do not wish to speak to a journalist. The practice has particularly been applied by television journalists, on news shows like The O'Reilly Factor [1] and 60 Minutes[citation needed] and by Geraldo Rivera and other local television reporters conducting investigations.
The practice has been sharply criticized by journalists and others as being highly unethical and sensational, while others defend it as the only way to attempt to provide those subject to it an opportunity to comment for a report. This can usually be discerned by the level of physical aggression the journalist displays and in the time allowed for an uninterrupted answer.
Celebrity or people journalism[edit]
Another area of journalism that grew in stature in the 20th Century is 'celebrity' or 'people' journalism, which focuses on the personal lives of people, primarily celebrities, including movie and stage actors, musical artists, models and photographers, other notable people in the entertainment industry, as well as people who seek attention, such as politicians, and people thrust into the attention of the public, such as people who do something newsworthy.
Once the province of newspaper gossip columnists and gossip magazines, celebrity journalism has become the focus of national tabloid newspapers like the National Enquirer, magazines likePeople and Us Weekly, syndicated television shows like Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, The Insider, Access Hollywood, and Extra, cable networks like E!, A&E Network and The Biography Channel, and numerous other television productions and thousands of websites. Most other news media provide some coverage of celebrities and people.
In recent years, members of various Royal Families have been reported on in much the same way as celebrities are, though not always by the same token as actors or politicians. News coverage of Royalty has been more focused on a glimpse of the lives of members of Royal Families. Examples of sources that report on Royalty in this manner include The Telegraph, The Daily Mail and those which report exclusively on royalty such as Royal Central.
Celebrity journalism differs from feature writing in that it focuses on people who are either already famous or are especially attractive, and in that it often covers celebrities obsessively, to the point of these journalists behaving unethically in order to provide coverage. Paparazzi, photographers who would follow celebrities incessantly to obtain potentially embarrassing photographs, have come to characterize celebrity journalism.
Churnalism[edit]
Main article: Churnalism
Churnalism is the creation of articles from press releases, wire stories and other unoriginal material.
Convergence journalism[edit]
An emerging form of journalism, which combines different forms of journalism, such as print, photographic and video, into one piece or group of pieces. Convergence journalism can be found in the likes of CNN and many other news sites.
Gonzo journalism[edit]
Main article: Gonzo journalism
Gonzo journalism is a type of journalism popularized by the American writer Hunter S. Thompson, author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 and The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved, among other stories and books. Gonzo journalism is characterized by its punchy style, rough language, and ostensible disregard for conventional journalistic writing forms and customs. More importantly, the traditional objectivity of the journalist is given up through immersion into the story itself, as in New Journalism, and the reportage is taken from a first-hand, participatory perspective, sometimes using an author surrogate such as Thompson's Raoul Duke. Gonzo journalism attempts to present a multi-disciplinary perspective on a particular story, drawing from popular culture, sports, political, philosophical and literary sources. Gonzo journalism has been styled eclectic or untraditional. It remains a feature of popular magazines such as Rolling Stone magazine. It has a good deal in common with new journalism and on-line journalism (see above). A modern example of gonzo journalism would be Robert Young Pelton in his "The World's Most Dangerous Places" series for ABCNews.com or Kevin Sites in the Yahoo sponsored series on war zones called "In The Hot Zone"
Investigative journalism[edit]
Main article: Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a primary source of information.[2][3][4][5] Investigative journalism often focuses on investigating and exposing unethical, immoral, and illegal behavior by individuals, businesses and government agencies, can be complicated, time-consuming and expensive—requiring teams of journalists, months of research, interviews (sometimes repeated interviews) with numerous people, long-distance travel, computers to analyze public-record databases, or use of the company's legal staff to secure documents under freedom of information laws.
Because of its high costs and inherently confrontational nature, this kind of reporting is often the first to suffer from budget cutbacks or interference from outside the news department. Investigative reporting done poorly can also expose journalists and media organizations to negative reaction from the subjects of investigations and the public, and accusations of gotcha journalism. When conducted correctly it can bring the attention of the public and government to problems and conditions that the public deem need to be addressed, and can win awards and recognition to the journalists involved and the media outlet that did the reporting.
New journalism[edit]
Main article: New Journalism
New Journalism was the name given to a style of 1960s and 1970s news writing and journalism which used literary techniques deemed unconventional at the time. The term was codified with its current meaning by Tom Wolfe in a 1973 collection of journalism articles.
It is typified by using certain devices of literary fiction, such as conversational speech, first-person point of view, recording everyday details and telling the story using scenes. Though it seems undisciplined at first, new journalism maintains elements of reporting including strict adherence to factual accuracy and the writer being the primary source. To get "inside the head" of a character, the journalist asks the subject what they were thinking or how they felt.
Because of its unorthodox style, new journalism is typically employed in feature writing or book-length reporting projects.
Many new journalists are also writers of fiction and prose. In addition to Wolfe, writers whose work has fallen under the title "new journalism" include Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, Joan Didion, Truman Capote, George Plimpton and Gay Talese.
Science journalism[edit]
Main article: Science journalism
Science journalists must understand and interpret very detailed, technical and sometimes jargon-laden information and render it into interesting reports that are comprehensible to consumers of news media.
Scientific journalists also must choose which developments in science merit news coverage, as well as cover disputes within the scientific community with a balance of fairness to both sides but also with a devotion to the facts. Science journalism has frequently been criticized for exaggerating the degree of dissent within the scientific community on topics such as global warming,[6] and for conveying speculation as fact.[7]
Sports journalism[edit]
Main article: Sports journalism
Sports covers many aspects of human athletic competition, and is an integral part of most journalism products, including newspapers, magazines, and radio and television news broadcasts. While some critics don't consider sports journalism to be true journalism, the prominence of sports in Western culture has justified the attention of journalists to not just the competitive events in sports, but also to athletes and the business of sports.
Sports journalism in the United States has traditionally been written in a looser, more creative and more opinionated tone than traditional journalistic writing; the emphasis on accuracy and underlying fairness is still a part of sports journalism. An emphasis on the accurate description of the statistical performances of athletes is also an important part of sports journalism.
Chapter 2: What is a journalist?
Here we will discuss: who journalists are and what they do; why people become journalists; and what qualities you need to be a good journalist.
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Journalists work in many areas of life, finding and presenting information. However, for the purposes of this manual we define journalists principally as men and women who present that information as news to the audiences of newspapers, magazines, radio or television stations or the Internet.
What do journalists do?
Within these different media, there are specialist tasks for journalists. In large organisations, the journalists may specialise in only one task. In small organisations, each journalist may have to do many different tasks. Here are some of the jobs journalists do:
Reporters gather information and present it in a written or spoken form in news stories, feature articles or documentaries. Reporters may work on the staff of news organisations, but may also work freelance, writing stories for whoever pays them.
General reporters cover all sorts of news stories, but some journalists specialise in certain areas such as reporting sport, politics or agriculture.
Sub-editors take the stories written by reporters and put them into a form which suits the special needs of their particular newspaper, magazine, bulletin or web page. Sub-editors do not usually gather information themselves. Their job is to concentrate on how the story can best be presented to their audience. They are often called subs. The person in charge of them is called the chief sub-editor, usually shortened to chief sub.
Photojournalists use photographs to tell the news. .i.photojournalists;They either cover events with a reporter, taking photographs to illustrate the written story, or attend news events on their own, presenting both the pictures and a story or caption.
The editor is usually the person who makes the final decision about what is included in the newspaper, magazine or news bulletins. He or she is responsible for all the content and all the journalists. Editors may have deputies and assistants to help them.
The news editor is the person in charge of the news journalists. In small organisations, the news editor may make all the decisions about what stories to cover and who will do the work. In larger organisations, the news editor may have a deputy, often called the chief of staff, whose special job is to assign reporters to the stories selected.
Feature writers work for newspapers and magazines, writing longer stories which usually give background to the news. In small organisations the reporters themselves will write feature articles. The person in charge of features is usually called thefeatures editor. Larger radio or television stations may have specialist staff producing current affairs programs - the broadcasting equivalent of the feature article. The person in charge of producing a particular current affairs program is usually called theproducer and the person in charge of all the programs in that series is called theexecutive producer or EP.
Specialist writers may be employed to produce personal commentary columns or reviews of things such as books, films, art or performances. They are usually selected for their knowledge about certain subjects or their ability to write well. Again, small organisations may use general reporters for some or all of these tasks.
Why be a journalist?
People enter journalism for a variety of reasons but, money apart, there are four main motives:
The desire to write
Journalists are the major group of people in most developing countries who make their living from writing. Many young people who see themselves as future novelists choose journalism as a way of earning a living while developing their writing skills. Although writing for newspapers and writing for books require different qualities, the aspiration to be a great writer is not one to be discouraged in a would-be journalist.
The desire to be known
Most people want their work to be recognised by others. This helps to give it value. Some people also want to be recognised themselves, so that they have status in the eyes of society. It is not a bad motive to wish to be famous, but this must never become your main reason for being a journalist. You will not be a good journalist if you care more for impressing your audience than for serving their needs.
The desire to influence for good
Knowing the power of the printed or spoken word or image, especially in rural areas, some people enter journalism for the power it will give them to influence people. In many countries, a large number of politicians have backgrounds as journalists. It is open to question whether they are journalists who moved into politics or natural politicians who used journalism as a stepping stone.
There is a strong belief that journalists control the mass media but the best journalists recognise their role as servants of the people. They are the channels through which information flows and they are the interpreters of events. This recognition, paired with the desire to influence, can produce good campaigning journalists who see themselves as watchdogs for the ordinary man or woman. They are ready to champion the cause of the underdog and expose corruption and abuses of office. This is a vital role in any democratic process and should be equally valuable and welcome in countries where a non-democratic government guides or controls the press.
There is a difference between the desire to influence events for your own sake, and the desire to do it for other people. You should never use journalism for selfish ends, but you can use it to improve the life of other people - remembering that they may not always agree with you on what those improvements should be.
There is a strong tradition in western societies of the media being the so-called “Fourth Estate”. Traditionally the other three estates were the church, the aristocracy and the rest of society but nowadays the idea of the four estates is often defined as government, courts, clergy and the media, with the media – the “Fourth Estate” – acting as a balance and an advocate for ordinary citizens against possible abuses from the power and authority of the other three estates. This idea of journalists defending the rights of ordinary people is a common reason for young people entering the profession.
The desire for knowledge
Curiosity is a natural part of most people's characters and a vital ingredient for any journalist. Lots of young men and women enter the profession with the desire to know more about the world about them without needing to specialise in limited fields of study. Many critics accuse journalists of being shallow when in fact journalism, by its very nature, attracts people who are inquisitive about everything. Most journalists tend to know a little bit about a lot of things, rather than a lot about one subject.
Knowledge has many uses. It can simply help to make you a fuller and more interesting person. It can also give you power over people, especially people who do not possess that particular knowledge. Always bear in mind that power can be used in a positive way, to improve people's lives, or in a selfish way to advance yourself.
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What does it take?
Most young men and women accepted into the profession possess at least one of the above desires from the start. But desires alone will not make a successful journalist. You need to cultivate certain special qualities and skills.
An interest in life
You must be interested in the world around you. You must want to find things out and share your discoveries with your readers or listeners - so you should have a broad range of interests. It will help if you already have a wide range of knowledge to build upon and are always prepared to learn something new.
Love of language
You cannot be a truly great journalist without having a deep love of language, written or spoken. You must understand the meaning and flow of words and take delight in using them. The difference between an ordinary news story and a great one is often not just the facts you include, but the way in which you tell those facts.
Journalists often have an important role in developing the language of a country, especially in countries which do not have a long history of written language. This places a special responsibility on you, because you may be setting the standards of language use in your country for future generations.
If you love language, you will take care of it and protect it from harm. You will not abuse grammar, you will always check spellings you are not sure of, and you will take every opportunity to develop your vocabulary.
The news story - the basic building block of journalism - requires a simple, uncomplicated writing style. This need for simplicity can frustrate new journalists, even though it is often more challenging to write simply than to be wordy. Once you have mastered the basic news story format, you can venture beyond its limits and start to develop a style of your own.
Do not be discouraged by a slow start. If you grow with your language you will love it all the more.
An alert and ordered mind
People trust journalists with facts, either the ones they give or the ones they receive. You must not be careless with them. All journalists must aim for accuracy. Without it you will lose trust, readers and ultimately your job.
The best way of ensuring accuracy is to develop a system of ordering facts in your mind. You should always have a notebook handy to record facts and comments, but your mind is the main tool. Keep it orderly.
You should also keep it alert. Never stop thinking - and use your imagination. This is not to say you should make things up: that is never permissible. But you should use your imagination to build up a mental picture of what people tell you. You must visualise the story. If you take care in structuring that picture and do not let go until it is clear, you will have ordered your facts in such a way that they can be easily retrieved when the time comes to write your story.
With plenty of experience and practice, you will develop a special awareness of what makes news. Sometimes called news sense, it is the ability to recognise information which will interest your audience or which provides clues to other stories. It is also the ability to sort through a mass of facts and opinions, recognising which are most important or interesting to your audience.
For example, a young reporter was sent to cover the wedding of a government minister. When he returned to the office, his chief of staff asked him for the story. "Sorry, chief," he replied. "There isn't a story - the bride never arrived." As his chief of staff quickly pointed out, when a bride does not turn up for a wedding, that is the news story. The young reporter had not thought about the relative importance of all the facts in this incident; he had no news sense.
A suspicious mind
People will give you information for all sorts of reasons, some justified, others not. You must be able to recognise occasions when people are not telling the truth. Sometimes people do it unknowingly, but you will still mislead your readers or listeners if you report them, whatever their motives. You must develop the ability to recognise when you are being given false information.
If you suspect you are being given inaccurate information or being told deliberate lies, do not let the matter rest there. Ask your informant more questions so that you can either satisfy yourself that the information is accurate or reveal the information for the lie that it is.
Determination
Some people call it aggressiveness, but we prefer the word determination. It is the ability to go out, find a story and hang on to it until you are satisfied you have it in full. Be like a dog with a bone - do not let go until you have got all the meat off, even if people try to pull it out of your mouth.
This means you often have to ask hard questions and risk upsetting people who do not want to co-operate. It may be painful but in the end you will gain their respect. So always be polite, however rude people may be. The rule is simple: be polite but persistent.
While you are hunting for your story, you may drive it away by being too aggressive. Sometimes you may have to approach a story with caution and cunning, until you are sure you have hold of it. Then you can start to chew on it.
Friendliness
You need to be able to get on well with all sorts of people. You cannot pick and choose who to interview in the same way as you choose who to have as a friend. You must be friendly to all, even those people you dislike. You can, of course, be friendly to someone without being their friend. If you are friendly to everyone, you will also be fair with everyone.
Reliability
This is a quality admired in any profession, but is especially valued in journalism where both your employer and your audience rely on you to do your job. If you are sent on an interview but fail to turn up you offend a number of people: the person who is waiting to be interviewed; your editor who is waiting to put the interview in his paper or program; your readers, listeners or viewers, who are robbed of news.
Even if you are late for an appointment, you will upset the schedules of both your interviewee and your newsroom and risk being refused next time you want a story. In a busy news organisation, punctuality is a necessity. Without it there would be chaos.
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To summarise
There are many reason for becoming a journalist and many type of journalists to become. It is a career with many challenges and rewards.
Journalists must:
Have an interest in the world around them.
Love language.
Have an alert and ordered mind.
Be able to approach and question people.
Be polite but persistent.
Be friendly and reliable.

A Brief History of Column Writing

The newspaper column has been used throughout history as a defence strategy against technological challenges to print media

(The Grey River Argus, New Zealand)

Our modern notion of the opinion column – as a forum for argument, analysis and explanation – was born out of the global-political fallout of the First World War. Publishers and editors at the time felt that the post-war climate was uniquely complex and warranted more analytical, opinion-based and explanatory journalism, which was a philosophical departure from the industry’s existing mandate that emphasized a detached recounting of facts.

Columns had existed prior to the 1920’s but dealt mainly with humorous topics, literature or local issues, or in many cases overt partisanship, as papers from before the First World War were commonly controlled by political parties.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, letters to the editor acted as pseudo-columns as it was common to regularly run letters from readers who were especially eloquent, engaging or representative of a constituency of interest. “A lot of the early copy that bore the marks of column writing was in the form of letters,” wrote historian Sam Riley in his book, The American Newspaper Columnist.

By the late 1800’s, some papers were paying for these submissions, a subtle foreshadowing of the ostensibly modern notion of the ‘citizen journalist.’ Many of these early ‘letter writers’ were women, like Fannie Fern, who appeared regularly in The New York Ledger and Mary Clemmer Ames whose “A Woman’s Letter from Washington” ran in The New York Independent from 1866-1884.

Leading up to World War I, the journalism industry had resolutely espoused the principle of objectivity, or as French novelist Honore de Balzac put it, “veneration of the fact.” The job of reporters was to uncover and recount facts with impartiality, while opinions were left to politicians and editorial pages. News was considered “an independent substance, composed of facts; opinion as something else entirely, something slightly disreputable,” wrote academic Mitchell Stephens in A History of News. But as the industry began to acknowledge the subjective nature of journalism and the importance of accompanying analysis and explanation, the column grew in popularity.

“The political column was, among other things, journalism’s most important institutional acknowledgement that there were no longer facts, only individually constructed interpretations,” wrote historian Michael Schudson in his book Discovering the News: A Social History of America Newspapers.

After its initial acceptance, the opinion column grew in popularity throughout the 1930’s. “The political column was the newspaper sensation of the thirties,” argued Schudson, as early columnists like Walter Lippmann were being syndicated in hundreds of papers and new publications like Time magazine were making waves with a style that blended fact and opinion.

Time co-founder Henry Luce famously said, “Show me a man who thinks he’s objective and I’ll show you a man who’s deceiving himself.”

With the arrival of television in the late 1940's and early 1950's, print publications had to rethink their approach in an effort to remain relevant in view of television’s superior news-breaking ability and entertainment value. Out of necessity, journalism became more analytical and opinionated. “With broadcast newscasts now routinely beating them to breaking news, newspapers increasingly are emphasizing news features and more analytical approaches,” wrote Stephens.

While the technological advances of the 1950's forced an emphasis on column writing out of a concern for survival, the civic unrest and increasingly press-savvy politicians of the 1960's demanded a more adversarial and critical style of journalism, as citizens grew suspicious of the professional class.

Critics argued that “urban planning created slums, that schools made people stupid, that medicine caused disease, that psychiatry invented mental illness and that the courts promoted injustice,” wrote Schudson, and an emerging “adversary culture” confronted government and professionals with a degree of scrutiny previously not experienced. Newspaper columns provided an outlet for this distrust, a sentiment also evidenced by the advent of investigative journalism television programs.

The arrival of the internet has been the most salient event of the past few decades and continues to shape the practice and relevance of column writing. Publications have been undercut yet again in their ability to break news, and are confronted with a torrent of new competition from blogs and websites. As with the advent of television, many of the changes seem driven by survival instead of self-improvement, but the end result may very well be the same; an increased emphasis on opinion-based journalism.

Types of Columns in Journalism
Most newspapers have columnists.
Many seasoned journalists dream of their opportunity to express their opinions and show their voices from a platform called a column. Columns usually deal with provocative subjects. Some popular columns include humor, gossip, advice, editorial, food, sports and business. Columnists have a great deal of expertise on their subject and have often been reporting on the subject for years. Columns most often appear in newspapers and magazines.
Advice Columns
Advice columns date to the 18th century, when American newspapers published letters written by spurned lovers and offered relationship advice. Advice columns today generally give suggestions on relationships, sexuality, ethics and office etiquette. Perhaps two of the most famous American advice column were the syndicated Dear Abby column and the Ann Landers column, which both offered relationship advice.
Humor Columns
Humor columnists write regular essays about funny topics or serious matters that they parody. Humor columnists often use hyperbole, rants and exaggeration as writing techniques. Arguably the most famous humor columnist is Dave Barry, who wrote a nationally syndicated column at The Miami Herald.
Editorial Columns
Editorial columns provide platforms for journalists to express their opinions on a variety of topics. Each newspaper usually has an editorial board, which steers opinion and debate on current events.
Food Columns
Food columnists present their views on food-related topics. This can consist of restaurant reviews, their opinions on major developments in the food industry or their views on home cooking. Food columnists often have reported on food issues for years and are plugged into the food industry.
Gossip Columns
Gossip columns often are found in newspapers and celebrity magazines. Most gossip columns focus on celebrities' relationships, families and personal scandals. Gossip columnists are limited to what they can print by the threat of libel suits from the victims of their gossip. Gossip columns were in their heyday during the golden age of Hollywood, in the 1930s and '40s, when movie studios used them as a way of promoting their film stars. Famous gossip columnists include Hedda Hopper, who was an actress and developed her career as a gossip columnist from her exposure to film stars.
Sports Columns
Sports columnists present their opinions on games, developments and controversies in the sports world. These columns occasionally are written by former star athletes or coaches as well as by journalists. Sports columns are common in most newspapers.
Business Columns
Business columns are included in many newspapers and discuss such issues as corporate developments, stock-market trends, investments and economic transitions. Business columns are a helpful resource for those entering business or new investors.
Metro Columns
Metro columnists write about local issues that can include urban and regional planning, local government issues, crime, legal affairs and controversial news, among many others. This type of column often encourages citizens to get involved in their communities.
Types of Columns in Journalism
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An Old Clip From the Bin

An old (partial) clip from NH Union Leader, circa 2005
Source: Photo By J.Donati
Release Your Inner Columnist
A columnist is any writer who endeavors to advise, analyze, critique or editorialize. They give you the gossip, make you hungry with a good recipe or restaurant tip or tell you why they think your favorite sports team stinks. There are some columnists you will love and others you will love to hate, but they keep you coming back for more. There are specific types of columns in standard print media, however, the advent of new media broadens the possibilities exponentially.
Contrary to standard journalism column writing allows for the use of first-person grammar and opinion, whereas the other does not or in rare circumstances. It allows for the writer to show a bit more of their voice and personality. Some may characterize a persona for sensational purposes. Most writers in this field have some degree of professional expertise in the subjects they write about. After all, one of the best ways to write successfully is to go-with-what-you-know.

Back in the Day
Some years ago as a freelancer I had a weekly local sports column in the NH Union Leader, Merrimack Edition. It was headlined as “4-Villages Sports.” It was fun, though nothing comparable to a nationally syndicated column. It made for a spotlight for local athletes and their achievements, and included plenty of photography of go along with it. I was given a bit of literary leeway, but remained cautious to stay away from sensationalism and controversy.
This style of journalism is well suited for blogging and HubPages. It allows for the writer to showcase themselves while presenting useful information. This is what advertiser look for, with a go-anywhere type story for a marketing platform. It can also lead to product branding as is plainly visible with some columnists. The Phantom Gourmet comes to mind.
Written Media Evolution
Electronic media, or New Media as it is often called, has opened the door for this type of writing. Bird watchers and nature lovers can display the fruits of their adventures on their own websites, while professionals in other career fields other than writing can present factual information to help people apply buyer-beware approaches to areas they are not familiar with.
Some columns and blogs are purposefully inflammatory and controversial to gain their audience. It plays upon human cognitive dissonance, pushes people’s buttons and draws upon some of the worst aspects of human discourse. People are offended on purpose to draw commentary. The commentary can get heated and may push the limits of legality. Good advice in this area would be if you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, then don’t put it in your comments. If it would be illegal to say to a person, as in the case of hate speech, inciting violence or criminal threatening you may be in for more than just angry comments. Personally, the less we see of this the better we all are.
It’s a big world out there and lots of interesting experiences to share. Call it as you see it. Be truthful as a fact-check is only a PDA click away these days. A good description of an actual occurrence, event, interaction or eyewitness account can be as credible a source as getting an official on the record or professional validation. It’s all in how you see it and how you write it.
Different Types of Journalism
By EN Jio
Journalism helps to explain the events that impact our lives and is developed in a number of forms and styles. Each journalistic form and style uses different techniques and writes for different purposes and audiences. There are five principal types of journalism: investigative, news, reviews, columns and feature writing.
What form of journalism are you interested in?
- Investigative. Investigative journalism aims to uncover the truth about a particular subject, person, or event. While investigative journalism is based on the basic principle underlying all journalism-verification and accurate presentation of facts-investigative reporters must often work with uncooperative or recalcitrant sources who do not wish to divulge information. Renowned investigative journalism, such as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's uncovering of the Watergate scandal, can upend major institutions significantly influence public life.
- News. News journalism is straightforward. Facts are relayed without flourishes or interpretation. A typical news story often constitutes a headline with just enough explanation to orient the reader. News stories lack the depth of a feature story, or the questioning approach of an investigative story. Rather, they relay facts, events and information to society in a straightforward, accurate and unbiased manner.
- Reviews. Reviews are partly opinion and partly fact based. The review needs to accomplish two things: one, accurately describe or identify the subject being reviewed, and two, provide an intelligent and informed opinion of the subject, based on research and experience.
- Columns. Columns are based primarily on the personality of the author, allowing him or her to write about subjects in a personal style. Column writers can take a humorous approach, or specialise in a particular subject area or topic. It's important for columnists to develop their own voice that is recognisable by their readership. Columnists can interpret events or issues or write about their own personal experiences or thoughts. Columns are usually published weekly.
- Feature Writing. Feature writing provides scope, depth, and interpretation of trends, events, topics or people. Features aim not only to thoroughly explore a topic by conducting interviews with numerous experts or the key people involved, but to offer a previously unseen perspective on an event, issue, or person. Feature writing commonly wins prestigious awards when it manages to achieve this goal. Features usually have the highest word count of all journalism types.
If you're interested in pursuing any of these different forms of journalism, there are a number of journalism courses available. Journalism courses teach a wide variety of journalistic, ethical and research skills which form the foundation of all journalism. Writing courses will also help budding journalists improve their grasp of the written word. If you have a love of words, and a keen interest in the world around you, then journalism could be the career for you.
A syndicated columnist is a writer who produces regular short articles, typically on a specific theme or subject, and sells them to a service that distributes them for her. The distribution normally spans many publications. Newspaper syndicated services normally distribute the material over a wide geographic regions. Online syndication services typically provide feeds of the column to many Internet sites, including newspapers, magazines and blog sites.
Although a syndicated columnist is normally perceived to have started her column-writing career at a small local newspaper, this is not necessarily a prerequisite to syndication. Some columnists submit their work to individual newspapers and syndication services before being published anywhere else. If a newspaper or service decides to publish the column and it is well received, that is often the key to the columnist’s success.
Bloggers sometimes become syndicated columnists through the Internet. A writer may write a blog for a Web site that an online newspaper or magazine decides to publish. In this case, ablogger may have to edit their work, as columnists are traditionally limited to 600 words, a relatively low word count for a blogger. Groups known as print syndicates will distribute a writer’s column for a fee. Other sites offer free feeds to regularly updated online publications.
The word blogger refers to someone who posts articles, pictures, or videos on his own personal online site. It was derived from the word blog, which in turn was contracted from the term web log. Web log is a form of online journal or diary where a blogger effectively puts his thoughts, ideas, and stories online via a personal web account. He can either focus on his own personal experiences or concentrate on a single topic that may be of interest to other people.
A blogger posts regularly on his blog, often providing commentary on a wide array of topics such as politics, religion, current events, sports, and art. Other areas of interest include technology, the Internet, celebrities, gadgets, and many more. His blog entries are usually a combination of text, pictures, links, and videos. Some bloggers use free blogging services, while others purchase their own domain name and host their blogs on a paid hosting service. Anybody who has access to the Internet and has something to say about a chosen topic can be a blogger if he wants to.
Most bloggers do not just post entries on their websites. They also encourage the readers to post comments on their entries and engage them in discussions, which can range from civilized and polite to intense and downright nasty. A blogger also engages and socializes with other bloggers in many blogger community sites or social networking sites to get and share new ideas and information. Being a blogger is not just about producing content. It is also about learning, experiencing, and reading other bloggers' entries.
Sometimes, several bloggers work together to maintain a single blog. This gives the blog several voices and keeps the website alive and fresh. Some bloggers choose to join a network of individual blogs to talk about the same topic or a common theme. This collaborative nature in group blogs and blog networks gives blogging a sense of community that fosters new ideas and fresh blog contents. Fresh ideas also come from alternative ways of blogging such as mobile blogging, photoblogging, videoblogging, and podcasting.
Many people depend on trustworthy and reliable bloggers for their daily fix of world and local news. Most old-school media outlets occasionally mention blogs and bloggers as sources for the news that they deliver. Experts on different fields have started to become bloggers themselves to provide information on their expertise to a new burgeoning online audience. Initially seen as individuals who have too much time on their hands talking about their mundane lives, bloggers are slowly turning into prominent and reliable sources of information about a wide spectrum of topics.
Qualities of a Good Editorial Writer

The mark of a skilled editorialist is immediately apparent.
A good writer approaches an editorial like an audition. He carefully composes and arranges sentences, paying close attention to the lyrical nature of his words. A good writer discovers and develops his own ideas. He searches for offbeat topics and avoids conventional assignments that prove tedious. He is an excellent researcher, taking note of everything that improves the quality of his information. A good writer spends his energy perfecting the lead of his story, weaving intricate connections throughout the whole of his piece to maintain reader interest. He understands his audience is judging him and uses his fear to his advantage.
Honesty as Basic Premise
A good editorial writer bases her views on a true premise. Everything stemming from that premise is rooted in facts and truth. A bad editorialist cherry-picks the facts convenient to the case she's tying to make. A good writer uses all the facts and may even change her opinion on the editorial accordingly. Editorialists worth their salt must be willing to leave the editorial with a completely different view than they brought into it if that's what the facts support.
Integrity
Good editorialists give their opinion while keeping in mind they are representing their organization. Upholding the journalistic integrity of their publishers is just as important as their own integrity. This means meeting their deadlines and delivering consistent quality. Because they are representative of their organization, good editorialists use their public voice sensibly and with consideration of the consequences that may arise from saying the "wrong" thing.
Synthesizing Information
While the information presented on the premise of an editorial should be rooted in fact, the point of an editorial is to synthesize the information to present a new view. Think of the facts as the ingredients and the editorial as the mixing with their author's signature style to create the main course. The editorial may become the basis of new facts for other writers. Good editorialists present their opinion in a balanced way while being mindful of the facts.
Style and Voice
Good editorial writers develop a voice all their own. The voice informs the context of the article as well as the author. People know when they read a piece by a certain author or when an author is merely mimicking another writer's voice. This voice is the author's personal style, composed with a delicate consideration of word choice, sentence arrangement, figurative language and formulaic devices. The language the writer uses must not overshadow the content. That is, the writer should keep himself in the background. He must do this while still presenting a voice that is recognizably his own. As such, editorialists are masters of subtlety; able to weave intricate sentences when necessary and cut back when the facts speak for themselves. They are also masters of brevity; stating their opinion, explaining the issue objectively and refuting opposing views all in usually less than 500 words.
Qualities of a Good Editorial Writer ?
A good editorial writer uses tools of education, strong ideas, accuracy and honesty in each opinion piece.
As explained by the National Conference of Editorial Writers, the role of an editorial writer is to create pieces that match the opinions of his news organization. Since editorials aim to generate critical thinking from readership and even inspire changes from governing powers, a good editorial writer must possess a number of important professional qualities.
Strong Education
A strong presence as an editorial writer begins with a quality education. The National Conference of Editorial Writers suggests that a college curriculum offers the tools to communicate effectively through writing and work under deadlines, while also letting prospective editorial writers gain industry experience at school newspapers and broadcast outlets. Aspiring editorial writers are also encouraged to enrich their overall knowledge through courses covering a variety of subjects outside of writing.
Write with One Idea in Mind
Less is more in editorial writing. A strong editorial writer should stick to one well-constructed argument in every editorial piece. In the 2001 publication "Beyond Argument: A Handbook for Editorial Writers," Pulitzer Prize winner and editorial writer Richard Aregood validates this approach by stating, "The basic idea that all of us ought to have tattooed on some visible appendage is that the best editorials focus on a single idea." (See Reference 3)
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Maintain Accuracy and Curiosity
Accuracy and curiosity are two center points of a good editorial writer, according to The National Conference of Editorial Writers. Quality research and fact-checking are expected to be part of an editorial writer's workload, with the willingness to investigate a story whenever necessary. An additional driving force is curiosity, which helps an editorial writer use a column to explain the finer points of a situation, rather than offering a general description.
Combine Honesty and Flair
As pointed out by The National Conference of Editorial Writers, being an editorial writer differs from other areas of professional writing, since a column has the potential to bring about public policy change and social awareness. Therefore, a true editorial writer always needs to stay honest. This doesn't mean the writing needs to be dry, however, as an editorial writer should aim to use attention-grabbing words and dynamic visuals to hold the attention of her audience
The newspaper business is one place that employs copy editors.
Copy editors work primarily in publishing in many different settings. Among the usual places where copy editors find work are newspapers, magazines, websites and in broadcasting. These publishing professionals are not merely proofreaders. They insure the quality and accuracy of the content and make it suitable for publication, posting or broadcast according to the policies and standards of the organization they work for. Copy editors require several skills that are utilized over the course of their day.
Mark-Up
Especially in newspapers and magazines where traditional copyediting takes place, the copy editor must know the standardized way to mark up a page when reading it. Although the use of computers has eliminated the hard-copy mark-up in some cases, the copy editor has traditionally been responsible for using a set of ink marks that identify problems,questions or changes in the copy before sending it back to a writer. Since the writers and editors are all familiar with this standard mark-up procedure, the instructions for changing the piece are clear and can be done quickly.
Style Knowledge
A copy editor must know the style of writing that is acceptable by the publication or website he or she works for. Many newspapers, for example, use the Associated Press Stylebook as the official guide, while others such as the New York Daily News have their own particular stylebook. Websites often use style guidelines based on search engine optimization so that web searches will bring their pages more hits.
Regardless of the style used by a particular publication, the copy editor must know it thoroughly and be ready to make changes based on inconsistencies in style from the writers he or she reads for.
Improve Content or Structure
Copy editors have the skills to quickly assess a piece of writing and see how it might be enhanced through structural or content changes. The copy editor may be able to make simple changes himself and push the content through to the next step, or she may return it to the writer with instructions on how to restructure the copy.
Fact-Checking
An important skill for a copy editor is to be able to spot questionable content that may not be true. If important information within a news story is not directly attributed to a source, then the copy editor may have to check the facts. With some particularly sensitive information, it may be necessary to double-check with the writer or the source to verify comments in a quote. This fact-checking helps uphold the reputation of a publication and can provide protection against lawsuits involving libel or character defamation.
Fitting It on the Page
Sometimes a copy editor must trim a story to make it fit in a specific space on a page. The copy editor is skilled at removing the information that is not essential to the message of the story in order to make it work in the space provided. He or she may also add small amounts of content to fill space, or ask the writer to do so.
Grammar
Copy editors must have a firm grasp on proper grammar and spelling. Misspelled words and improper grammar in print publications or websites makes them look incompetent and unprofessional.
Cleverness And Creativity
A copy editor for a newspaper is often the person who writes the headlines for the stories he or she edits. These headlines should convey the essence of the story, grab the attention of readers and sometimes be cleverly worded to enhance the impact of the page layout.


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Shobhaa De was born in Girgaon, Mumbai, India, in a Goud Saraswat Brahmin family. She completed her schooling from Queen Mary School, Mumbai, and graduated from the St. Xavier's College of Mumbai with a degree in psychology. She worked as a model for few years.
Career[edit]
After making her name as a model, she began a career in journalism in 1970, during the course of which she founded and edited three magazines—Stardust, Society, and Celebrity.[2] Stardust magazine, published by Mumbai-based Magna Publishing Co. Ltd., was started by Nari Hira in 1971 and became popular under the editorship of Shobhaa De. In the 1980s, she contributed to the Sunday magazine section of The Times of India. In her columns, she used to explore the socialite life in Mumbai lifestyles of the celebrities. At present, she is a freelance writer and columnist for several newspapers and magazines.
Shobhaa De runs four weekly columns in mainstream newspapers, including the The Times of India and Asian Age. She has been the writer of several popular soaps on television, including India's second daily serial, Swabhimaan (first is Shanti).
De has participated in several literary festivals, including the Writers' Festival in Melbourne.
Personal life[edit]
In her autobiography, De said that in her late teens she started having friends of the opposite gender and boyfriends, whom she stated as "fine chaps". But Shobhaa De met her present husband, shipping tycoon, and business magnate Dilip De in 1981. He was a widower with two children, Radhika and Ranadip. Shobhaa (then Shobhaa Kilachand) was divorced with two children, Aditya and Avantika. The pair got married in 1984. She and Dilip De later had two more children, Arundhati and Anandita.Her son from first marriage Aditya Kilachand runs a club named Privé in Mumbai's Colaba area.
Shobha De is among eminent novelist in India and she is recognized asJackie Collins for India as well. Her birth took place in saraswat family of Brahmin who lived in the state of Maharashtra. Shobha de biography is very interesting. Her real name is shobha rajadhyaksha. She took her graduation degree in the subject psychology from Mumbai College named St. Xavier. During starting years of her professional career she initially worked for profession of model and created a unique identity for herself. Afterward, she changed her profession to journalism. Through her brilliant writing skills and innovative ideas she was able to mark the difference from other Indian writers. She got credit for writing 3 magazines which were names ad celebrity, society as well as stardust. In the present scenario she works as freelancer writers in many newspapers furthermore magazines. In her personal life she has given new start with Dilip de who is her second husband. Now she lives in posh area of Mumbai city with husband and her children. Much of writing work is based on the various aspects that are related to urban lifestyle of India. Her erotic matter which she wrote in recent past was surrounded by many controversies as well. She has adapted the profession of communist in “the week” magazine. For this magazine she writes about various issues that happen in society and that are part of concern for everyone. She presents her thinking and mind thoughts through her writing. She also worked as script writer for many popular Indian television shows that are broadcasted daily including swabhimaan. Her dissatisfaction for the behavior shown by young generation of India is clearly visible in her novels and articles. She was found responsible for conveying sexual revolution as well as speeding up the pace by her write ups that are published in the magazine which is named as “the week” under the column heading “THE Sexes”. Shobha de career is full of ups and downs. Shobha De acquired many controversies due to her outspoken as well as fortnight comments on many famous personalities and on issues that are very much related to the modern society. She is regularrecognized for writing articles in daily newspaper or highly published magazine but she was in controversies because of her written novel. She reached to the status of celebrity in an overnight. She was also found accused as porn writer. She is now credited with many novels that are famous and in controversies. Her novels are always named with alphabets “s”. She was able to gain good position on “fifty most powerful women in india” which was a publication by the newspaper named as DNA in the year 2010. Her reviews about the film industry and bollywood films put her into most controversial image. She made negative remarks for the movie “dabaang” which was produced and directed by arbaaz khan. In the reply, arbaaz khan also made some of the most negative comments against her.
Then she commented on the soonam kapoor who is daughter of anil kapoor about her film which was named as “I Hate Love Story”. Her remarks were “i hate dummped stories”. Soonam kapoor reacted to this comment by saying her “fossil” on twitter. Her realistic approach toward Indian cinema has unrevealed the sour truth aboutit. Many actor as well as actress who have crystal clear image in public was not able to escape from the eyes of this author. Making use of her pen and writing skills she portrayed completely real image of such people in front of all world. There was news about her predictions on movie “dirty picture”. She appreciated the acting skills of vidhya ballan and made the remark infornt of media that she would be winning award for her wonderful performance.
Apart from her comments on bollywood, her novels are always in discussion for one or the other thing. ‘Starry nights’ become most controversial novel in her entire career. Though she chooses to write very common topics and subjects but people of this hi-fi society are very far away from the reality. They do not want to accept it at any cost. She has glorified her writing skills. She is very intrepid in commenting on such topics which are not liked by her. In spite of her controversies, she has well managed to reach top and incredible position in Indian novelists
Shobha De




Shobha De is an eminent Indian novelist, who is often known as India's Jackie Collins. She was born as Shobha Rajadhyaksha to the Saraswat Brahmin family of Maharashtra on the January 7, 1947. She completed her graduation from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai and obtained degree in Psychology. In this article, we will present you with the biography of Shobha De, a well known Indian writer.

In the beginning of her career, she worked as a model and made a name for herself. Thereafter, she thought of changing her profession. Then, she pursued her career in Journalism. She brought out three magazines namely Stardust, Society, and Celebrity. Presently, she is working as a freelance writer for a couple of newspapers and magazines. To know the complete life history of Shobha Dey, read on.

These days, she is staying with her second husband Dilip De along with their children in one of the posh colonies of Mumbai. Most of her writings focus on different aspects of urban India. The erotic matter that she has written in the past has become the subject of controversy. She has also been actively involved in writing scripts for various TV soaps like Swabhimaan.

At present, she is working as a columnist and writes for a fortnight magazine "The Week". In this periodical, she writes on varied issues concerning the society. She speaks her mind in her writings. She often expresses her dissatisfaction with respect to the behavior exhibited by the present day generation. Many a times, she has been held responsible for accelerating the pace and bringing about a sexual revolution through her writings in the column "The Sexes" of the magazine "The Week". She has also written a couple of erotic novels.

Notable Works of Shobha De
Starry Nights
Socialite Evenings
Sultry Days
Sisters
Small betrayals
Second Thoughts
Surviving Men
Spouse
Snapshots
Selective Memory

Chetan Bhagat pronunciation (help•info) (born 22 April 1974), is an Indian author, columnist, and speaker. Bhagat is the author of bestselling novels, Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Center (2005), The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008), 2 States (2009), Revolution 2020 (2011), and What Young India Wants (2012). All the books have remained bestsellers since their release and three have inspired Bollywood films (including the hit films 3 Idiots and Kai Po Che!). In 2008, The New York Times called Bhagat "the biggest selling English language novelist in India's history".[1][2] Bhagat, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, is seen more as a youth icon than as an author.[3] Time magazine named him as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.[4] Bhagat writes op-ed columns for popular English and Hindi newspapers, including the The Times of India and Dainik Bhaskar, focusing on youth, career[5] and issues based on national development.[6][7] Bhagat voices his opinion frequently at leading events.[8][9][10] He quit his investment banking career in 2009, to focus on writing.
Contents

Early days[edit]
Bhagat was born in New Delhi to a middle-class family. His father was an officer in the army (Lt Col) and his mother was a government employee in the agricultural department.
Bhagat's education was mostly in Delhi. He attended an Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi (1978–1991).[11] He studied Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT-D) (1991–1995). He graduated from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (1995–1997). After graduation he worked as an investment banker in Hong Kong. He had been working in Hong Kong for 11 years before shifting to Mumbai to pursue his passion for writing. He has written six books, all of which are bestsellers. His two novels were written during his tenure as an investment banker.
List of works[edit]
Columns[edit]
Bhagat has his columns in The Times of India and in the Hindustan.
Television[edit]
Bhagat was a judge on the Voice of India Star Anchor Hunt.[12]
Speeches[edit]
"SPARK" speech given at the orientation program for the new group of BBA students at Symbiosis, Pune.[13]
"Becoming One With the World" speech given at the HT Leadership Summit Delhi.[14]
Speaker[edit]
Among his other activities, Bhagat is known to deliver speeches at programs organised by newspapers and media houses like Dainik Bhaskar, The Times of India and at other conclaves apart from writing columns for the same.[15]
Controversies
Rahul shocks and awes his party
October 5, 2013 (The Times of India)
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The kings in our minds
September 8, 2013 (The Times of India)
read more →
Can India’s backward polity ever provide a pro-growth economic environment?
September 6, 2013 (The Times of India)
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Time to polish those very rough edges
August 25, 2013 (The Times of India)
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The Telangana effect
August 9, 2013 (The Times of India)

Chetan Bhagat


Born On: 22nd April, 1974
Born In: New Delhi, India
Career: Novelist, columnist, script writer, motivational speaker

Chetan Bhagat is a famous Indian author who penned down novels that hit the market with great success. All of them were bestsellers since their release and have been filmed by famous Bollywood directors. Chetan Bhagat is considered a youth icon rather than as just an author. With his vivid and humorous way of depicting stories, he has inspired reading habits in many young Indians. He is also a good columnist and writes columns for many leading newspapers. According to him, novels are entertainment tools through which he expresses his views and opinion about society and the youth. Development issues and national issues are addressed through columns. Chetan's columns are written in a way that directly points out the issues within our country and in many times it has even triggered discussions in the parliament. He is not only a good writer but also a motivational speaker and has given many motivational speeches at many colleges, organizations and companies.

Personal Life
Chetan Bhagat was born in New Delhi in a middle class Punjabi Family on the 22nd day of April, 1974. His father was an Army man and his mother, a government employee. The major part of his education was done at Delhi. He studied in the Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi during the years 1978 to 199 after which he chose to do Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. After pursuing engineering he took up a management program offered at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. Being an outstanding student, it was no wonder when he was recognized as the "Best Outgoing Student" of his batch by IIM Ahmadabad. He later got married to Anusha Suryanarayanan in 1998; she was his fellow student at IIM-A. Chetan then went to Hong Kong along with his family and worked as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs. He worked in Hong Kong for eleven years and then shifted to Mumbai and started writing. It was his passion. He has four novels against his name: Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ The Call Center (2005), The Three Mistakes Of My Life (2008) & Two States (2009). By chance or by choice, titles of all his novels had numbers associated with them. He now leads a happy life with his wife and twin sons Ishaan and Shyam. Chetan loves to live a simple life watching cartoons with his children who wish to become super heroes. He is a health conscious person and practices yoga regularly.

Career
Chetan Bhagat published his first novel first novel 'Five Point Someone' in 2004 and this very first venture took him to the peaks of fame and popularity. The book depicted the story of an IIT student who considers himself to be below average than all the other students in IIT. This book won the Society Young Achiever's Award and Publisher's Recognition Award. The story was adopted into a film directed by Rajkumar Hirani and starred famous Bollywood stars like Aamir Khan, Madhavan, Sharman Joshi and Kareena Kapoor. His second book was 'One Night At A Call Center' and this too was a great success. This book was made into a movie and was named 'Hello' and Chetan himself wrote the script. The movie was noted by the special appearance of Bollywood star Salman Khan and was an average hit. His next novel has cricket as the major theme. It is named 'Three Mistakes of My Life'. His fourth book is named 'Two States'.

Contribution
Chetan Bhagat's contribution to the field of entertainment is noticeable. He never confined his literary talents to just writing novels. As a responsible social person, he also writes columns in newspapers, citing and dwelling on various social and national issues. Many of his columns were noticed by parliamentarians and triggered serious discussions in the Indian Parliament. He has addressed issues like corruption by sending an opening letter to Sonia Gandhi and also has spoken about the political issues that revolved around Baba Ramdev.

Awards and Accolades
He won the Society Young Achiever's Award in 2000 and the Publisher's Recognition Award in 2005. Chetan Bhagat also a found himself place in the Time magazine's list of "World's 100 Most Influential People" in the year 2010.

Timeline
1974: Chetan Bhagat was Born in Delhi
1991: Enrolled in IIT
1995: Enrolled in IIM Ahmadabad
1997: recognized by IIM Ahmadabad as "The best outgoing student"
1998: Got married to AnushaSuryanarayanan
2004: published his first book "Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT!"
2005: Published his second book "One Night @ the Call Center"
2008: Published his third book "The 3 Mistakes of My Life"
2009: Published his fourth book "2 States: The Story of My Marriage"


Narendra Modi Biography
Biography of Narendra Modi Gujarat Chief Minister and 2002 killing of Muslims related to Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid Case
DECEMBER 23, 2007
Narendra Modi's Biography
Narendra Modi's biography, the official one has been written for three years now but not being published because among others it has inadequacies.Modi has been a much loathed Indian Politician from the Indian state of Gujarat.He has been in power since the year 2001.He was re-elected as the Chief Minister in 2007 riding on the wave of a campaign where he justified the fake encounter of a presuned Muslim gangster by his state police.Sohrabuddin, the man killed in the fake encounter was taken out of a bus along with his wife and butchered by the Gujarat police.His wife was also killed and her body burnt without the remains being found.A Hindu friend and eyewitness to the episode was also killed a few years later.

Personal Details:
Narendra Dāmodardās Modī was born on September 17, 1950, Gujarat, India.He was born in Vadnagar, a town in the northern Mehsana district of Gujarat.Narendra Modi completed his schooling in Vadnagar and did his masters degree in Political Science from Gujarat University.
Modi started as a Tea-Seller on Ahmedabad Bus Station and by utilising his adversity to his benefits a trait that has become a hallmark of his political career too, achieved something many Indians at his social level could not.While it is claimed in the official biography that he is bachelor, a woman called Jashodaben has been referred to as his wife. Recently, an interview was published on Youtube from her.The video says, “I Jashodaben Modi, am the wife of Narendra Kumar Modi the son of Damodar Mulchanddas Modi, a resident of Kalavasudev Chachar, Vadnagar.
I am working in Rajosana primary school. We were married in 1968. I am still keeping the book gifted by him, Sangharsh Ma Gujarat, and also have a picture of his.
He was 22 to 25 years old when that picture was taken. By possessing that book I feel that my husband is still with me even if he is far away. He tore away all the pictures of our marriage because he never wanted even a single photo to remain with me.”
It is speculated that Modi was married as a Child and walked off one fine day.
For this man from north Gujarat, life began from running a tea canteen at Ahmedabad''s teeming bus terminus.
Once he joined the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), Modi worked as a ''pracharak'' in the Kangra region of Himachal Pradesh where people remember him as a docile and humble man, an image contrary to his present one.
During Modi''s tenure in New Delhi as the BJP''s national spokesman in the late 1990s, he went to the US for a three-month course on public relations and image management. This apparently now helps him to get the publicity he desires.
Narendra Modi's abilities and leadership qualities were seen in the early days of his student life when he became the student leader of Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (All India Students Council). He played a prominent role in the anticorruption movement in 1974 in Gujarat.
He entered politics in 1987 by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party. Within a year, he was elevated to the level of General Secretary of the Gujarat unit of the party. In 1995 he was made the National Secretary of the party in-charge of five major states in India – a rare distinction. He traveled extensively through out the world, which helped him to develop a global perspective.

After carving a niche for himself in the national politics as a master strategist, he took over as the Chief Minister of Gujarat on 7th October 2001.

Narendra Modi, who is ever capable of turning an adversity into an opportunity made use of his inexperience to start afresh, on a clean slate without the burden of the past. His beginner mind was a blessing in disguise for him to learn things without any bias and without the need to unlearn the dead past. Though he was a wandering type of Sangh Pracharak he had a wealth of national and international exposure with him. Immediately after the swearing in ceremony he swung into action. His administrative acumen, clear vision and integrity brought him a landslide victory in the general elections held in December 2002 and he was sworn in as the Chief Minister for the second term on 22nd December 2002.

Presiding over the killing of Muslims
In 2002, Narendra Modi's party, the BJP, which has been on the forefront of a fundamentalist Hindu mobilisation for the construction of a temple dedicated to Mythical God Rama at a site held by the Muslims in a small town of India called Ayodhya, organised one of the many mobilisations of its cadres and interested masses to the city.The event was called "Chetavani Yatra" or "Rally for Warning", a warning that was meant for the Central government to expedite the handover of the muslim site so that a fitting monument to the hindu god could be constructed.There is a court case still pending since the 1949's to decide the title deed of the land and whether the claim that the mosque was constructed in the 1500's by the general of the then Mughal ruler Babar over a Hindu shrine.
The Hindu extremists, otherwise, also known as Kar Sevaks engaged in Anti Muslim sloganeering and rowdiness over the entire stretch of the Rail Network that led to retaliatory attacks on a train in the town of Godhra in Gujarat.A fire resulted in the carriages of the train and some 56 people were killed burnt most likely due to fire from stoves carried in the train by some of the extremist activists than due to the arson from outside from a group of Muslims living in the vicinity of the station who had come to protest the manhandling of a Muslim girl vendor by the Kar Sevaks in the train who also sloganeered Anti-Muslim slogans.
Cancellation of US Tourist Visa
Modi masterminded the communal violence in Gujarat that killed over 2000 Muslims in February-March 2002 besides destroying millions of dollars worth of properties and personal belongings of the minority community and rendering thousands of them homeless. Ignoring the criticism made by human rights organizations and individuals, groups and parties representing secular opinions and sentiments in the country, Modi provocatively allowed in the first week of July 2002 a traditional Hindu procession to take place through the streets of Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat State including some of the city’s Muslim neighbourhoods. This was in keeping with the usual practice of the Hindu bigots to exploit the chariot procession to incite anti-Muslim pogroms. Modi used the occasion as the pretext for a massive police operation involving 30,000 police officers and other security personnel, including members of the Rapid Action Force, the Border Security Force and the Central Reserve Police Force. Police lined the streets along the 14km route, while marksmen were placed on neighbouring rooftops and hundreds of plainclothes police mingled with onlookers. The heavy police presence did not reassure the local Muslim population, many of whom fled to relief camps set up at Ahmedabad.

Narendra Modi signs Apco Worldwide as Lobbying Firm
Narendra Modi was invited to take part in the WEF Davos deliberations and an invitation accorded by its Chairman as a part of the campaign by the American Lobbying firm Apco Worldwide.An international outcry followed with protests from Indophile academics which an Indian Scholar summed as:
"For months, the WEF did not bother to respond to the academics and activists’ demand. It neither confirmed the invitation nor denied it. Finally in late November, Mark Adams, communications officer at World Economic Forum, bowing to the international outcry, told me that Modi is not invited to the summit, and the Gujarat officials making such claims were wrong. Those officials were simply, if recklessly, cooking up stories to whiten their boss’ black record. Their doings are part of the move Modi made to hire a Washington-based firm, Apco Worldwide, an American firm for public relations purposes."

Narendra Modi walks out of Interview
Showing a common trend evident in the right wing Hindu party - the BJP, Modi showed a complete disregard to an eminent interviewer Karan Thapar by walking out of the Interview in just five minutes.
Modi's Biography according to the UK Newspaper "The Guardian"

Anti-Muslim and Anti-Christian Election propaganda
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its associated organisations create Muslim and Christian phobia among the gullible masses and talk of how to show the Muslims and Christians their right place in India.


Recent Sworning Ceremonies of BJP governments
Weapons and Religion are omnipresent in the sworning in ceremonies.The image below shows Himachal BJP chief minister after taking oath.


Quotes from Narendra Modi
At a function promoting rural sanitation, Mr. Modi is reported to have said, "There is one community which insists on `burqa' for their women in public. But to respond to nature's call, the same women are forced to go to jungles in the absence of sanitary facilities at home ..."

This level of bigotry from a politician who has distinguished himself by remaining completely unremorseful, despite universal condemnation for the horrific events that took place in Gujarat in 2002 and thereafter is hardly surprising. But instead of taking cheap swipes at Muslims, the Gujarat Chief Minister should hang his head in shame that despite all his talk of Gujarat Gaurav (Gujarat Pride), millions of poor women in the State — not just Muslim but Hindu, Adivasi, of every caste and creed — are deprived of basic facilities like water and sanitation.

Narendra Modi and BJP role in Gujarat Riots 2002: The BJP and the Sangh Parivar family would like us to forget the crimes against humanity committed in full world view under a democratic garb and there is no dearth of literature flooded on the worldwideweb that speaks lies and tries to project the violence as a reciprocal one when it was entirely one sided post Godhra train burning incident - even for which the rowdy Sangh Parivar activists were responsible for inciting the Muslim railway station vendors.

The Gujarat Riots reports on preventgenocide international website are sourced from the established Indian and International media and gives a day by day account of the riots.
Pran obituary: The beloved bad man of Bollywood
With his dashing mannerisms and intensity, veteran actor Pran, who died at a hospital here this evening at the age of 93, came to be known as the most fearsome villain that Hindi cinema ever had before breaking the mould to play iconic character roles in films like 'Zanjeer' and 'Upkaar' in a career spanning six-decades.
Ironically, while he was feared as a villain on screen, he was a gentleman in real life.
Picture gallery: Pran Krishan Sikand
Related: Pran was an icon, says PM Manmohan Singh
Pran Krishan Sikand was born on February 12, 1920, to a civil engineer in Delhi. Pran wanted to be a photographer but a chance meeting with writer Wali Mohammad Wali, who was writing Punjabi film 'Yamala Jat', brought him to the world of cinema.
He played the hero in the film opposite Noorjehan. The film became a hit and the pair starred together in their first Hindi film 'Khandaan'.
After Partition, he tried his luck in Mumbai without much success. With the help of Saadat Hasan Manto and actor Shyam, Pran landed a role in Dev Anand-Kamini Kaushal starrer 'Ziddi'. With the success of the film, Pran never looked back playing negative roles in 'Madhumati', 'Ram Aur Shyam', 'Munimji' and 'Kashmir Ki Kali'.
With a string of powerful performances, Pran had at one stage commanded almost the same prize and sometimes more than onscreen hero and his name would appear alongside the name of the lead actor.
Recalling the magic of Pran, Amitabh Bachchan in a foreword to Pran's biography 'And Pran', wrote, "Onscreen villainy is a thankless job which Pran saab accepted and carried out with such a degree of perfection that he became the actor the entire nation loved to hate.
"That indeed was the measure of his extraordinary success. Parents did not want their children to meet him. Occasionally, he would even be feared and dreaded at public gatherings. Evidently, he came to terms with that, bemused with the power of cinema to influence the audience in a way that sketches only a thin line between the real and the reel."
Pran will be forever remembered for bringing villains on par with the heroes, ruling the industry from 1969 to 1982. He commanded equal money and respect for his negative characters in 'Madhumati', 'Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai', 'Ram Aur Shyam' and 'Devdas'.
The actor's baritone and good looks helped him bring charm to his villainy which was very unique to Pran.
His chameleon-like ability helped Pran transform himself from one of the most hated onscreen villains to one of the most beloved character actors -- be it the 'Mangal chacha' in 'Upkar', Sher Khan of opposite Amitabh Bachchan in 'Zanjeer' or the discipline-loving but soft-hearted grandfather in Gulzar's 'Parichay'.
Pran, the good bad man of Bollywood, dies
•
PTIVeteran actor Pran during a function in Mumbai in this 2004 picture.
Veteran Bollywood actor Pran, whose menacing eyes and powerful screen presence intimidated heroes and heroines for decades, passed away on Friday night at Lilavati Hospital here. He was 93.
The ailing thespian, who acted in more than 300 films in a five-decade career, was recently honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
Born Pran Kishan Sikand into a Punjabi family in Delhi, Pran was credited with enhancing the importance of the villain in Bollywood at a time when the bad guy was very much one-dimensional.
Pran worked in a number of films before partition. But his real break came when his friend and legendary Pakistani author Saadat Hasan Manto helped him get a villain’s role in Shaheed Latif’s Ziddi (1948).
Throughout the 1950s, he solidified his reign as Bollywood’s leading villain, culminating in Bimal Roy’s 1958 ‘gothic’ classic Madhumati, which had Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala in the lead.
Pran effortlessly pulled off this coldly efficient menace throughout the 1960s in mega box-office favourites such as Ram Aur Shyam (1967), Half-Ticket (1962) and in Johnny Mera Naam as Dev Anand’s long-separated brother (1970).
He was especially memorable in two films penned by Salim-Javed in the 1970s — as Sher Khan, an outlaw with the proverbial heart of gold, opposite Amitabh Bachchan in Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer(1973) and as ‘Michael D’ Souza’ in Majboor (again as Mr. Bachchan’s providential saviour).
But he also demonstrated his versatility with roles as a disabled veteran in Upkaar (1967) and as a stern, but loving patriarch in the family-oriented Parichay (1972).
Such was his stature that he was said to be paid even higher than some of the leading men in films — an event that producers carefully kept under wraps over the course of Mr. Pran’s long career.
In 2001, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian award. According to his family members, his last rites will be performed on Saturday noon at Shivaji Park in Dadar.
Obituary: Yash Chopra redefined romance, drama on screen
IANS NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 22, 2012 | UPDATED 17:18 IST
He worked with Ashok Kumar to Shah Rukh Khan and Mala Sinha to Anushka Sharma in his over five-decade glorious cinematic journey, and the title of Yash Chopra's new film, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, summed up the ace filmmaker's philosophy - making path-breaking movies till he could.

His death Sunday came weeks before the release of Jab Tak Hai Jaan, which he had announced would be his last directorial venture. The romantic saga is coming out Nov 13, but he will not be around to see it.

Chopra, who turned 80 Sep 27, was born in Lahore in 1932 and eventually came to Mumbai after Partition. In an interview some days before he was hospitalised with dengue, Chopra told Shah Rukh: "My mother said do what your heart says. She gave me Rs.200 and said my blessings are with you. Go ahead and don't worry."

He also said whatever he was because of his late brother and filmmaker B.R. Chopra, whom he assisted at the beginning of his Bollywood career. "I'm sitting here just because of B.R. Chopra and no one else. I wanted to fly on my own wings," he said in that interview.

He admitted that it was not easy to start Yash Raj Films, his production house that has been delivering blockbuster hits, in 1971. Yet, Chopra was one of the few directors to make two superhit films simultaneously - action drama Deewar (1975) and cross-generational romance Kabhi Kabhie (1976) - both proved his versatility and his hold on the pulse of audiences.

But, like all legendary directors, no one or two films can sum up Chopra's achievements. To the world, Chopra was known as the 'King of Romance', a well-deserved title after he created memorable love stories in Daag, Kabhi Kabhie, Silsila, Chandni, Dil To Pagal Hai, and Veer Zaara. To keep up with evolving audiences, he adapted new trends in each era and made most glamorous and trendy romances.

Like others, he too went through a bad patch after two of his films- Faasle (1985) and Vijay (1988)- bombed one after the other at the box office.

But after facing the setbacks, Chopra triumphed again at the box office with Chandni. "When I was making 'Vijay', I was making films just to be successful and not from my heart and I knew I was making the wrong kind of films. I decided to make a hardcore romantic film with nine songs and this is how I thought of 'Chandni' (1989)," he had said in an interview once.

He went on to create a new-age romance for Gen Y with Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), a sleek, urban, musical romantic saga that reaped gold at the box office. Then he made the cross-border romantic flick Veer Zara(2004) and was planing to hang up his boots after Jab Tak Hai Jaan.

In his career, he won many awards, including the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2001, six National Awards, 11 Filmfare Awards and was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 2005. Many of Chopra's romances used the beautiful alpine landscape of Switzerland. Chopra shot so many times in Switzerland that a lake in the Alpenrausch, a favourite shooting spot of his, has been christened Chopra Lake.

Not only that, he became the first recipient of the title of Ambassador of Interlaken, and a special Yash Chopra Suite and Yash Chopra Train were inaugurated in his honour in Interlaken in 2011.

But Chopra's oeuvre was not limited to just romance and relationships. In his five decade-long career, he experimented with all genres. His first film Dhool Ka Phool in 1959 was the story of an illegitimate Hindu child being brought up by a Muslim.

His next project, Dharamputra (1961) was another hard-hitting film on communal conflict, and was one of the first films to depict the Partition and Hindu fundamentalism. The film marked the debut of Shashi Kapoor in a full-fledged role and won the National Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.

A precedent-setter, Chopra's 1965 critically successful drama Waqt pioneered the concept of multi-starters in Bollywood, while Ittefaq (1969) was a taut thriller, being the first Hindi films which did not have any songs or an interval.

Proving his versatility, Chopra on one hand directed intense dramas Deewar, Trishul, and Mashaal, while on the other he made family sagas like Parampara and thrillers- Kala Patthar and Darr.

His movies were sometimes based on real life tragedies. The Dec 27, 1975, accident in a coal mine in Chasnala near Dhanbad inspired the multi-starrer intense drama, Kaala Patthar starring Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha and Shashi Kapoor.

Chopra was one of the few filmmakers who created a cult following for his actors- Amitabh Bachchan, Sridevi and Shah Rukh Khan- and gave audiences evergreen songs.


Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/y.../1/225722.html
Diwali: A festival for the taste buds
The Indian celebration for Diwali features rich savoury and sweet dishes. Enjoli Liston gets ready for the feast


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Diwali is my food highlight of the year. Celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs, the festival of light falls on 26 October this year and is a wonderfully chaotic event filled with family, friends, prayers, loads of fireworks and – my favourite bit – a huge amount of feasting.
Just as each faith has its own reasons for celebrating Diwali, each family has its own traditional Diwali foods. The universal turkey-and-sprouts fare traditionally served for Christmas dinner has no equivalent in the five days of Diwali festivities. But celebrations do have at least one thing in common – plates brimming with delicious treats are never far. Leicester and London host some of the largest Diwali celebrations outside the Indian subcontinent, making this the perfect time to sample a huge variety of Indian cuisine at its best, whether you celebrate Diwali or not.
"As in most Indian homes, food is at the centre of our culture and family get-togethers, and as such, it forms the focal point for Diwali celebrations," says Karam Sethi, co-owner and head chef of Trishna, an upmarket London Indian restaurant linked to the eponymous seafood specialists in Mumbai.
In previous years, Sethi's Diwali specialty at the restaurant has been raan – a leg of lamb marinated overnight using whole spices, Kashmiri chillies, yoghurt, ginger and garlic that is initially cooked over coal "to give it a smokier flavour", then finished off in a low oven for around six hours. Sethi, who grew up in Britain, describes this dish as a northern specialty inspired by the cuisine favoured in Delhi, where his parents are from and where much of his extended family remains.
But as new generations of Indian families grow up in the UK, Western tastes are increasingly reflected in the changing landscapes of Diwali food. This year, Sethi has decided to add a new twist to his fare by incorporating autumnal British ingredients into his menu, achieving unusual dishes such as tandoori red leg partridge, guinea fowl tikka and peri peri grouse (Goan food has a strong Portuguese influence). "As winter draws in and nights get darker in the UK, these kinds of food have a warming and celebratory feel about them which is perfect for Diwali," he says.
Although eating out is popular during Diwali, families mostly prepare food at home ready for guests to pop in to chat, exchange gifts, play cards and watch colourful firework displays. At Sethi's parents' home in Finchley, lamb is also a favourite ingredient in his other signature Diwali dish – biryani. "Biryani is considered to be a very lavish dish when it's done right," he says. "In India, cooks would normally put a whole goat in with the rice, but a leg of lamb is good enough for us.
"When we cook the biryani we seal the top of the pot with dough to keep the rice moist. It comes out of the oven looking like a huge balloon and when you cut that open, the smell is unbelievable. There will literally be a jostling queue at the table for it."
In testament to the diversity of Diwali celebrations, Sethi's meaty meals are completely different to the sumptuous vegetarian fare on offer at my parents' house, where my mum – who is Gujarati, Hindu, originally from Mumbai and a strict vegetarian – is head honcho in the kitchen.
After the pooja ritual in the morning, huge saucepans are filled with steaming toor dal, garam masala-spiced aubergines, cauliflower saak (fried with mustard seeds and chilli powder) and plenty more. Simple to make in large quantities and easy to keep warm, these are perfect for providing a steady stream of food for the always-indefinite numbers of guests and they easily succeed in pleasing the carnivores of the family, my brother and my British-born dad.
One restaurant that knows how to achieve delicious food on an enormous scale is Shayona, which specialises in a wide range of regional Indian cuisine. It is located opposite the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, an elaborate Hindu temple in Neasden in north London, which is expecting more than 60,000 visitors over two Diwali days this year. In Hindu households, specially prepared food (Prasad) is always offered to the deities first and this year the Neasden temple will be serving a world-record breaking 1,200 vegetarian dishes for the gods, making the elaborate darshan (display of the deities) a breathtaking sight.
Shayona is mainly frequented by Hindu devotees and Diwali is its busiest time of the year. "We expect to serve nearly 30,000 people in one-and-a-half days of celebrations at the temple," the head chef Sunil Kumar says. Although the restaurant itself will be shut for the holiday, it will provide Mumbai-style street food from stalls outside the temple, including more than 3,000 dhabelis (veggie burgers) and 3,000 portions of pau bhaji (a Gujarati dish of thick vegetable curry garnished with raw onion and coriander eaten in a bread roll – one of my mum's favourites).
But the ultimate pièce de résistance of all Diwali cuisine has to be the towering arrays of neon-coloured sweets. In the three weeks leading up to Diwali, Shayona estimates that it will have sold around 25 tonnes of handmade sweets, from year-round favourites such as barfi (made from condensed milk and sugar, it comes in hundreds of different varieties) and jalebi (deep-fried batter soaked in sugary syrup) to Diwali specialties such as suterfeni (sweet shredded dough topped with pistachios) and ghoogra (crescent moon-shaped dumplings with a sweet cardamom-spiced filling). With so many delicious dishes to try, it's a good job Diwali goes on for five days.
New Year - a time to celebrate

New Year marks the beginning of a new Gregorian calendar year. Celebrated universally every year on January 1 in various innovative ways, the trend to observe this date as an important day in the calendar has spread globally. People at midnight hold special events, entertaining activities and grand celebrations to welcome the New Year. In many regions of the world, it is celebrated as a public holiday and the offices, institutions and commercial activities remain closed to observe Happy New Year. The New Year 2013 falls on Tuesday and is approaching and people are busy with their plans to celebrate the advent of the day with their own unique ideas.

Although the time zones of New Year festivity vary but celebrations for New Year festival kick off in advance. The enthusiasm of people could be witnessed at market areas, hotels, pubs and other community centres as these places remain crowded before and on the day of celebration. Most people consider New Year as the right time to adopt a resolution for the forthcoming year.

As a tradition to welcome the New Year, major incidents of the passing year are recalled on television, newspapers and radio which usually kicks off in early December.

Sending New Year cards carrying beautiful quotes is relatively a modern practice which is much popular. People exchange New Year Greeting cards to send warm New Year wishes that are easily available both in stores. Many prefer to scour for innovative and lovely New Year gifts and cards to send warm New Year greetings to their family members and friends. Apart from sending sending cards and gfifts the event is also celebrated by arranging luscious feast that includes various delicious handmade items.

But with the advancement of technology, the trend of sending New Year wishes is gradually shifting to mobile platform. The reason, its user friendly features of New Year SMS allow the sender to send text messages to another mobile number within the shortest span of time. Moreover, options are also made available to make the messages more personalised or simply say 'Happy New Year 2012' by adding icons or smileys.

The New Year in India is also celebrated with great excitement by following the Gregorian calendar which was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. In Europe, the observance of New Year symbolizes as Baby New Year in which a baby boy is dressed in a hat, diaper and sash believed that he grows up along with passing of each day.

In the Europe New Year is marked with bursting firecrackers and making bonfires of the discarded Christmas trees.
427 words short essay on The Rainy Season
by Shekar Kumar
Free sample essay on The Rainy Season. The rainy season comes after the summer. It brings rains after the heat of the sun. The season gives respite from the scorching heat of the summer. It brings life to the plants and trees. Ponds, rivers and streams are filled to the full.
Greenery returns to the garden. The season holds particular importance for the agriculturists. It is a blessing for them, as they depend on rain for farming. They are happy to see the cloud-laden sky. They take their plough and oxen and go out of their houses. All these present an enchanting sight.
The rainy season adds to the scenic beauty. There is greenery all around. New leaves come out in the plants and trees. They begin flowering. Fields become lush green. When the peacock dances to see the cloudy sky, it presents a beautiful sight. The appearance of the rainbow in the clear sky looks very beautiful. Children especially enjoy seeing the rainbow. During the rainy season, there is croaking of frogs at night. The cluttering of the cricket destroys the silence of night. Insects of different kinds come out in the silence of night.
In India, people enjoy this season very much. They organise picnic in this season. Children enjoy moving in orchards where there are mangoes laden trees. They enjoy this season by floating paper boats and splashing water on one another. They like to drench in rain water and take a dip in rain water. They feel fresh after the rain bath. Women have their own way to enjoy this season. They gather at a place and enjoy a swing to the accompaniment of songs of folklores. In drizzling, singing songs have their own pleasure.
The rainy season is a mixed blessing. It sometimes presents a horrible picture. The floods become a common phenomenon in different parts of the country. They cause heavy loss to life and property. Standing crops are washed away in floods. Houses collapse taking away many lives of the inmates. Communication network is disrupted. Roads are washed away. Traffic is disrupted. One part of the country is cut off from the other. Due to damage to crops, there is the problem of food crisis. In the aftermath of floods, there is the outbreak of diseases of different kinds. All these present a grim situation. Despite these, the rainy season is very useful. It brings respite from the heat. It helps in the production of foodstuff and fodder for the animal. It cleans our surroundings. This season is a gift of God. We should welcome this season.
Bright, bold and beautiful—neons are the hottest thing on the fashion circuit right now. From hot pink to fluorescent yellow, electric blue and lime green, neons are making their presence felt—and how! Yes, the fashion carousel has brought back the neon trend of the 1980s, albeit with a contemporary face and feel. Hollywood divas and fashionistas, right from Victoria Beckham to Kim Kardashian, have been spotted flaunting their brightest best. Whether it is a handbag, a pair of heels, a simple top or lipstick, fabulous neon will make all these come alive.

Interestingly, the idea of eye-popping colours is closely interwoven with traditional Indian dressing. Explains Sonu Bohra, “The idea of using bright, eye-catching colours isn’t new in India. Our heritage is infused with bright colours—take a look at Rajasthani men with their turban or Punjabi women with their phulkari dupattas.”

Make a Statement
If you love making a statement, go the neon way. It will guarantee that you stand out from the crowd, looking fashionably flamboyant and vibrant. With neon, there’s never a dull moment. Explains Komal Goel, Chief Creative Officer, Pipa & Bella Accessories, "Neon is a series of playful pop colours. It does the dual job of adding a light and bright look. Often, a splash of neon and a basic black tank or shorts are all you need for a timeless result! Neon works on western as well as traditional wear. We never hesitate to add a pinch of neon on our pieces. Accessorizing with pop colours not only looks aesthetic but also enhances the monochromes on your outfits!"

Agrees Hitesh Ahuja director at Kudos, “Neon fashion is definitely eye-catching. It is for people who are confident and like to experiment with their look. As the neon palette is very vibrant, the trick lies in carrying it with ease.”

Wear it Right
Fashionably speaking, neon is a double-edged sword. Done right, it can make a fabulous statement—but worn wrongly, it can be a real eyesore. Advices Bohra, “If you are a conservative dresser, pick accessories to add a pop to a monochrome outfit. If you are willing to experiment you can go all out with an interesting mix of neons. Neon greens with pinks, bright orange with electric blue are some of my personal favourites. You can also try your hand at neon makeup—neon eyelids, fuchsia lips and the like.

Similar rules of thumb hold good for flaunting neon jewelry. According to Musskan Agarwaal, the jewellery designer behind Kiwi by Musskan, “Neon jewellery never goes out of fashion, but one must wear it with great care, as it should not shout. Team it with pastel or contrasting colours for a striking effect. The interplay of colours also plays a major role.
The neon in my accessories is blended to work well with both Indian and Western attire.”
Bring out the neons, bring on the colour—get with the hottest fashion trend of the season, if you haven’t already!

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Interview with ANI: Narendra Modi reveals secrets of social media success
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Author: admin
July 28, 2013#Interview#SocialMedia

I am happy to note that the BJP as an organization is looking to creatively harness Power of Social Media
Social media is a medium of equals. No single individual or organization can control it or manipulate it.
Our conduct at home, schools, offices based on mutual respect & dignity. Same should be conduct on Social Media
There is sentiment, aspiration to do something & make a difference, expressed on SocialMedia. We have to appreciate that emotion
New Delhi, July 28 (ANI): In an exclusive interview with Asian News International (ANI), Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has revealed the importance of social media in creating awareness among voters in the country.
Question: Modi-ji there has been a lot of buzz in recent days on the use of Social Media by you as well as by the BJP as an organization. What role do you see Social Media playing in this campaign?
If one would recall, during one of my recent speeches I had observed that this is the Age of Knowledge and Information. No single individual or organization enjoys a monopoly on possession and dissemination of knowledge and information. It is imperative to listen and learn as much as pronounce, in this Digital age. Thus it becomes requisite for every Indian Leader to be able to have a two-way communication with the people, especially our Youth. Social Media to me is the most powerful channel for accomplishing this. I was recently in Pune to meet with the students of Fergusson College. I was pleasantly surprised over the seriousness with which Youth responded to my request through Social Media for ideas and suggestions for that speech. I am happy to note that the BJP as an organization is looking to creatively harness Social Media to crowd source ideas on how we can change and transform India for the better.
Question:. Modi-ji could you share instances where you have been able to experience the power of Social Media the most?
It is important for us to expand our definition of what constitutes Social Media. To me it is not just about Twitter and Facebook. For instance, I am amazed at how YouTube as a medium of video sharing has made e-Learning accessible to so many people. Or when I look at an application like WhatsApp and how simple it is to use, one begins to appreciate the power of this medium. Often the first reports when a disaster strikes or an unfortunate incident happens, are received via one of these Social Media channels. I see the real power of Social Media come through, during such moments of crisis. Recently during the Uttarakhand disaster I was pleasantly surprised at the positive role played by Social Media in bringing home news of the missing to their loved ones.
Question: Modi-ji many of your critics allege that you have a massive PR machinery that manages your Social Media presence to carry out your propaganda. What would you say to them?
My humble request to everybody is to not insult and insinuate the common man, the youth of India, who have found a medium through which they are able to make their voice heard. It is important for us to understand the nature of this medium. It is a medium of equals. No single individual or organization can control it or manipulate it. We must respect this basic nature of this medium. Let me give you the example of a recent incident when a restaurant in Mumbai had to suffer due to rank intolerance of the Congress party. The Sales Receipt of that restaurant was shared on Social Media by some conscious citizens. It soon went viral. It came to the attention of one newspaper, which published a story on it. I merely added my voice to express solidarity on this issue, with all those venting their frustration and despair on it, through Social Media. This is the nature of the Medium. It is essentially about listening, sharing and dialoguing.
Question: Modi-ji one of the biggest complaints of Social Media is what many people call “trolling”. Abuse in Social Media has become a big problem. Recently there have been personal attacks on eminent people and their families. What is your suggestion on how to deal with this menace?
Our Culture is known for its long standing traditions of respecting our elders and our scholars. In the same vein, we worship and celebrate Women’s Power as Shakti. Expressing one’s opinion on Social Media, does not imply, that we abandon our Culture and value systems. Our conduct at home, offices and schools, is based on certain well appreciated norms of mutual respect and dignity. The same ought to apply to our conduct on Social Media as well.
This is what I mean by the need for Modernization, and not Westernization. We must embrace modern technology and harness its Power. But our use of modern technology must not come at the expense of us forgetting our values and ethics.
What was the word you mentioned just now … ah yes “trolling”. It reminds me of how disinformation would be used by Nations against each other, by planting false stories and creating havoc during Wars. It is unfortunate that some vested interests are misusing the power of Social Media to indulge in a similar effort. Recently I had come across an instance where a morphed digital image was circulated with a malicious and slanderous intention. Technology makes it quite easy to accomplish this. We however, have to guard against this sort of disinformation, peddled through fake sites and fictitious accounts. We have to use our judgement on Social Media on what sources to trust just as we would do in real life where we are able to differentiate between genuine news and rumours.
Quetion: Modi-ji there is a lot of debate on how representative Social Media is of India’s realities. How seriously should we take Social Media ? How many of these individuals on Social Media will actually vote?
You would recall in a recent speech I had alluded to the need for Electoral Reforms like Online Voting and the option to reject Candidates. We have to ensure our Youth stays engaged in our Democratic process. We have to make our Democratic process accessible to them through a medium, which they use and comprehend the most. Social Media in my opinion, is a tool that can help in this. I can tell you there are real voices, serious voices that want to be heard. For instance, my request for ideas and suggestions on the problems of our Education System elicited serious response. Similarly, solicitation of ideas towards my upcoming speech in Hyderabad has brought forth responses on the state of the economy, jobs, roadmap for Andhra Pradesh and much more. There is real sentiment out there, full of veritable emotions and legitimate aspirations to do something, to make a difference. We have to listen, appreciate and respect that sentiment, which is being expressed through Social Media. Today scores of Indians have mobile phones. Even a simple thought expressed through the mode of a SMS can travel far and wide, in a matter of minutes, through multiple sharing. We must harness all possibilities that are out there in the public domain.
Elections and campaigns will come and go, however, our mission to make our Democracy, more deliberative, and consequently purposeful should remain uncompromised. It should be responsive to our Youth, who today constitute a significant part of the population.
Interview with BJP leader Narendra Modi
By Reuters Staff

JULY 12, 2013
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BJP | ELECTION | GUJARAT | NARENDRA MODI
By Ross Colvin and Sruthi Gottipati
Narendra Modi is a polarising figure, evoking visceral reactions across the political spectrum. Critics call him a dictator while supporters believe he could make India an Asian superpower. (Read a special report on Modi here)
Reuters spoke to Modi at his official Gandhinagar residence in a rare interview, the first since he was appointed head of the BJP’s election campaign in June.
Here are edited excerpts from the interview. The questions are paraphrased and some of Modi’s replies have been translated from Hindi.
Is it frustrating that many people still define you by 2002?
People have a right to be critical. We are a democratic country. Everyone has their own view. I would feel guilty if I did something wrong. Frustration comes when you think “I got caught. I was stealing and I got caught.” That’s not my case.
Do you regret what happened?
I’ll tell you. India’s Supreme Court is considered a good court today in the world. The Supreme Court created a special investigative team (SIT) and top-most, very bright officers who overlookoversee the SIT. That report came. In that report, I was given a thoroughly clean chit, a thoroughly clean chit. Another thing, any person if we are driving a car, we are a driver, and someone else is driving a car and we’re sitting behind, even then if a puppy comes under the wheel, will it be painful or not? Of course it is. If I’m a chief minister or not, I’m a human being. If something bad happens anywhere, it is natural to be sad.
Should your government have responded differently?
Up till now, we feel that we used our full strength to set out to do the right thing.
But do you think you did the right thing in 2002?
Absolutely. However much brainpower the Supreme Being has given us, however much experience I’ve got, and whatever I had available in that situation and this is what the SIT had investigated.
Do you believe India should have a secular leader?
We do believe that … But what is the definition of secularism? For me, my secularism is, India first. I say, the philosophy of my party is ‘Justice to all. Appeasement to none.’ This is our secularism.
Critics say you are an authoritarian, supporters say you are a decisive leader. Who is the real Modi?
If you call yourself a leader, then you have to be decisive. If you’re decisive then you have the chance to be a leader. These are two sides to the same coin … People want him to make decisions. Only then they accept the person as a leader. That is a quality, it’s not a negative. The other thing is, if someone was an authoritarian then how would he be able to run a government for so many years? … Without a team effort how can you get success? And that’s why I say Gujarat’s success is not Modi’s success. This is the success of Team Gujarat.
What about the suggestion that you don’t take criticism?
I always say the strength of democracy lies in criticism. If there is no criticism that means there is no democracy. And if you want to grow, you must invite criticism. And I want to grow, I want to invite criticism. But I’m against allegations. There is a vast difference between criticism and allegations. For criticism, you have to research, you’ll have to compare things, you’ll have to come with data, factual information, then you can criticize. Now no one is ready to do the hard work. So the simple way is to make allegations. In a democracy, allegations will never improve situations. So, I’m against allegations but I always welcome criticism.
On his popularity in opinion polls
I can say that since 2003, in however many polls have been done, people have selected me as the best chief minister. And as best chief minister, it wasn’t just people from Gujarat who liked me, not like that. People outside of Gujarat have also voted like that for me. One time, I wrote a letter to the India Today Group’s Aroon Purie. I requested him – “Every time I’m a winner, so next time please drop Gujarat, so someone else gets a chance. Or else I’m just winning. Please keep me out of the competition. And besides me, give someone else a shot at it.”
Allies and people within the BJP say you are too polarizing a figure
If in America, if there’s no polarization between Democrats and Republicans, then how would democracy work? It’s bound (to happen). In a democracy there will be a polarization between Democrats and Republicans.
This is democracy’s basic nature. It’s the basic quality of democracy. If everyone moved in one direction, would you call that a democracy?

But allies and partners still find you controversial
Up till now, no one from my party or the people who are allied with us, I’ve never read nor heard any official statement (about this from them). It might have been written about in the media. They write in a democracy … and if you have any name that this person is there in the BJP who said this, then I can respond.
How will you persuade minorities including Muslims to vote for you?
First thing, to Hindustan’s citizens, to voters, Hindus and Muslims, I’m not in favour of dividing. I’m not in favour of dividing Hindus and Sikhs. I’m not in favour of dividing Hindus and Christians. All the citizens, all the voters, are my countrymen. So my basic philosophy is, I don’t address this issue like this. And that is a danger to democracy also. Religion should not be an instrument in your democratic process.
If you become PM, which leader would you emulate?
The first thing is, my life’s philosophy is and what I follow is: I never dream of becoming anything. I dream of doing something. So to be inspired by my role models, I don’t need to become anything. If I want to learn something from Vajpayee, then I can just implement that in Gujarat. For that, I don’t have to have dreams of (higher office in) Delhi. If I like something about Sardar Patel, then I can implement that in my state. If I like something about Gandhiji, then I can implement that. Without talking about the Prime Minister’s seat, we can still discuss, that yes, from each one we have to learn the good things.
On the goals the next government should achieve
Look, whichever new government comes to power, that government’s first goal will be to fix the confidence that is broken in people.
The government tries to push a policy. Will it continue that policy or not? In two months, if they face pressure, will they change it? Will they do something like — an event happens now and they’ll change a decision from 2000? If you change decisions from the past, you will bring the policy back-effects. Who in the world will come here?
So whichever government comes to power, it would need to give people confidence, it should build the trust in people, “yes, in policies there will be consistency”, if they promise people something, they will honor that promise, they will fulfil. Then you can position yourself globally.
People say economic development in Gujarat is hyped up
In a democracy, who is the final judge? The final judge is the voter. If this was just hype, if this was all noise, then the public would see it every day. “Modi said he would deliver water.” But then he would say “Modi is lying. The water hasn’t reached.” Then why would he like Modi? In India’s vibrant democracy system, and in the presence of vibrant political parties, if someone chooses him for the third time, and he gets close to a two-third majority then people feel what is being said is true. Yes, the road is being paved, yes, work is being done, children are being educated. There are new things coming for health. 108 (emergency number) service is available. They see it all. So that’s why someone might say hype or talk, but the public won’t believe them. The public will reject it. And the public has a lot of strength, a lot.
Should you be doing more for inclusive economic growth?
Gujarat is a state that people have a lot of expectations from. We’re doing a good job, that’s why the expectations are high. As they should be. Nothing is wrong.
On indicators like malnutrition, infant mortality
Infant mortality has improved tremendously in Gujarat, tremendously. Compared to every other state in Hindustan, we are a better performing state. Second thing, malnutrition, in Hindustan today, real-time data is not available. When you don’t have real time data, how are you going to analyse?
We do believe in inclusive growth, we do believe that the benefits of this development must reach to the last person and they must be the beneficiary. So this is what we’re doing.
People want to know who is the real Modi – Hindu nationalist leader or pro-business chief minister?
I’m nationalist. I’m patriotic. Nothing is wrong. I’m a born Hindu. Nothing is wrong. So, I’m a Hindu nationalist so yes, you can say I’m a Hindu nationalist because I’m a born Hindu. I’m patriotic so nothing is wrong in it. As far as progressive, development-oriented, workaholic, whatever they say, this is what they are saying. So there’s no contradiction between the two. It’s one and the same image.
On Brand Modi and people behind the PR strategy
The western world and India – there’s a huge difference between them. Here, India is such a country that a PR agency will not be able to make a person into anything. Media can’t make anything of a person. If someone tries to project a false face in India, then my country reacts badly to it. Here, people’s thinking is different. People won’t tolerate hypocrisy for very long. If you project yourself the way you actually are, then people will accept even your shortcomings. Man’s weaknesses are accepted. And they’ll say, yes, okay, he’s genuine, he works hard. So our country’s thinking is different. As far as a PR agency is concerned, I have never looked at or listened to or met a PR agency. Modi does not have a PR agency. Never have I kept one.
New Delhi, Aug 29: With each passing day, the self-styled Godman Asaram Bapu's troubles are haunting him. The 'controversial' Asaram is currently fighting against allegations of sexual assault on a16-year-old girl, who was reportedly staying in one of his ashrams at Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The girl's parents, who are said to be Asaram's followers for a long time, lodged a complaint against him at Kamla Market police station in Delhi, after their daughter reported the incident to them. Subsequently, the Delhi police handed over the case to Jodhpur police, where the incident took place on the night of August 15. While digging into his past, the Jodhpur police has come to know that the spiritual guru Asaram Bapu, as he is known to the world, was once a tea-seller Asumal! Born as Asumal Sirumalani on April 17, 1941, in Berani village of Pakistan, various criminal cases are pending against Asaram including illegal land acquisition, deaths of two boys in his ashram and the latest one is a sexual assault case. After the partition, Asumal's family shifted to Gujarat. After Asumal's father Thaumal Sirumalani passed away, the responsibility of financially supporting the family, came on his shoulders. Then, he shifted to Vijapur, a city in the Mehsana district of Gujarat. During investigation about his past life, a fact came to light that during 1958-59, Asaram used to be a tea-seller in front of the Majistrate's office. That tea stall is reportedly owned by one of the Asaram's relative Sevak Ram and is still in operation. People who know Asaram Bapu as 'Asumal' told that he worked there as a tea-seller for quite a long time. Ads by Google Colgate Maxfresh Fights Bad Breath & Freshens Your breath like Never Before! www.facebook.com/ColgateMaxFresh Find your true love here Free "Vip" for girls. New best relationships start here. wamba.com In Pics: Asaram Bapu's past-from a tea-seller to the spiritual guru1/6 Asaram Bapu's past-from a tea-seller to the spiritual guru While digging into his past, the Jodhpur police has come to know that the spiritual guru Asaram Bapu, as he is known to the world, was once a tea-seller Asumal! Show Thumbnail If these shocking disclosures are to be believed, then some people even said that Asaram has an old relationships with controversies. Local residents told that in 1959, there was an allegation of murder on Asumal and his relatives in the influence of alcohol. But due to lack of evidence, Asumal was bailed out of the case following which he left Vijapur and took refuge in Ahmedabad's Sardarnagar area. During 1960s, Asumal turned to liquor-seller from a tea-seller. He started liquor business with his four partners namely Jamarmal, Nathumal, Kishanmal and Lachrani. He made huge profits by selling alcohol. After this, Asumal also worked in a milk dairy where he used to earn Rs 300 per month. But, he left that job soon and disappeared from there. Then, after a long time, he came into limelight not as Asumal who did petty jobs to earn but as the spiritual guru Asaram Bapu, who has millions of followers today! Today, Asaram, the owner of properties worth millions, has around 425 ashrams across 12 countries and more than 50 gurukuls across India. Clad in a white dhoti-kurta and an equally matched white-long beard, the Asaram Bapu's character is not as 'white' as it should have been. Instead, it is painted with "shades of grey"....

Read more at: http://news.oneindia.in/2013/08/29/a...u-1294490.html

Critic's Rating:
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Sathyaraj
Direction: Rohit Shetty
Genre: Action
Duration: 2 hours 23 minutes
Avg Readers Rating:


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Story: A 40-year-old Punjabi man is on a mission to immerse his grandfather's ashes down South. Enroute he meets a young Tamilian girl who has eloped. Their lives entwine and his journey takes an altogether different route.

Review: In an ode to his own cinema—read Golmaal series, Bol Bachchan, Rohit Shetty ishstyle, the director, who has grossers in Bollywood's 100-crore club, ups the scale for his Eid offering.

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Chennai Express (CE) is a magnificently mounted film. Never having been strong in the story department, CE too has a guillible plot line. Rahul ( Shah Rukh Khan) is asked by his dadi (Kamini Kaushal) to drop his granddad's ashes in Rameswaram, the southern-most tip of India. He boards theChennai Express to hoodwink granny but has secretly planned a getaway with his guy friends to Goa. Alas, in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge fashion, a damsel in distress, Meena ( Deepika Padukone) asks for his outstretched hand as he stands on the footboard. And his Samaritan act changes his destiny.

He discovers she's the daughter of a Don from a South-side village and her accompanying cousins (hulks in pony tails) want her to return home. Her father wants Meena to marry another hulk (Niketan Dheer) from a nearby village, so he can then rule two villages. Meena resists and insists to her father (Sathyaraj) that it is Rahul who has her fancy. The father relents but the other hulks resist.

From here on, Rahul constantly tries to outsmart the South Indian mob. And as expected in Indian mainstream cinema, he breaks into song-and-dance, gets drunk, blows up jeeps and does a Jim Carryish over-the-top act to get guffaws from a captive audience.

For what is primarily a Hindi film, there's too much spoken Tamil. There are cleverly written lines that ask you not to underestimate the south because it even plays a crucial role in the coalition government, but for the rest of India, a lot of the dialogue is lost in translation. Subtitles would be in order.

After Cocktail and Yeh Jaawani Hai Deeewani, Deepika is once again in superlative form. Shah Rukh's attempts at comedy go from convincing to convoluted. But, for the most part, he lights up the screen with his effervescence.