The scared Little Girl

The little girl could not sleep. She did not know why. Everyone in the house was fast asleep. The dogs' howling did not scare her. In fact the sounds calmed her as she knew they were dogs. Even during day, when many of her friends screamed or stood in fright on seeing a dog, she calmly walked past as if knowing by instinct that keeping calm was the best thing to do. But tonight like many nights; she slept still as, if shifting even slightly would bring the focus of the face at the window on her. She slyly squinted one eye and tried to focus into the darkness through the windows. Now she was sure no one was there, but then again there was a doubt. So she quickly shut her eyes and sometime must have fallen asleep as she heard her mother shout out from the kitchen to wake up and get ready for school. Some days she mustered the courage to close the window but it did not help much. She still could see a man. Sometimes with a moustache and sometimes not. The glass distorted the face and it looked disgusting. For some periods during the year, a mosquito net was draped over the bed in protection against mosquitoes obviously, but the little girl was not free from the man at the window. The net only made her squint harder to check if the monster man was there. Sounds of leaves, wind or rain did not chase this obstinate man away. Sometimes she shivered in fright under the blanket. Going to the bathroom required a great deal of courage and her eyes would be fixed on the tiny windows all the time. But she thought she was lucky as the face never appeared in her bathroom window. As she grew, she started assuring herself that the face was imagination after all. She sometimes rebuked herself for having been such a stupid. Once in a way, she would bravely go to the window and look out nervously daring the man to appear. This helped and she could read novels into the night. But there were still times, of the frightening lurch in her heart as she looked at the window. When the lights were out, she would suddenly wake up from sleep with a lingering sense that the man had appeared and had stared at her again.....

BEING INDIAN WITH CHANGING TIMES

Residing in the south of India, we were exposed to a new entrant two years ago in the form of a newspaper. We were soon lured and anticipating novelty combined with low price into subscribing to this age old, established paper. After that, our days changed. We seemed to have a lot to 'debate', as our television hosts love to say.

First of all, an English paper, whether an answer paper for an exam or the daily diet of news, will lose a lot of marks for wrong spelling. So when every page has horrible errors, I leniently cut only 25 marks.

Now let's see from where this paper reaches us. The paper states that it is Coimbatore edition, the exact city where I reside in. What does that mean? I want to hear more about my city and state. But what do I get to read.? Only a rape, murder, accident or chain snatching and an occasional genuine researched article. Unfortunately their ads to promote this new paper turned out to be more creative than the content. Now I have to cut marks for poor choice of content. Maybe 30, as at least the state of Tamilnadu gets a better mention.

There are certain things that I abhor in this daily.

The first one being, the only major headlines(at an eye-catching, top spot with a font size 14 !) in 'global' page will invariably be the love life of some famous or sometimes obscure person from film or television media in a globe which usually has only America in it. It sometimes carries disgusting quotes like 'some lame x would like to sleep with some y, an lmn singer is back with her xyz boyfriend'. Is being obsessive about boyfriends and girlfriends called 'being in tune with the times'?

Then to grind this sort of 'being modern' into the reader, there is another boxed section with a lot more of global private life. For this trash in the main paper, I would give negative marks but that is not usually permitted. So let's leave marking out for this.

There is serious political stuff in its insides if you love to read totally subjective views written  in the name of reporting. For example, During poll campaign for Gujarat elections, the editorial frantically turned into an advisory board  for the Congress party on how to counter the Modi juggernaut. They seem to have taken the 'scion' under their wing, protecting him when he is criticized. Another thing is that, sometimes reporters use vile language to address people who they do not like, which I see as being arrogant.  For all the above issues I will deduct 25.

The paper conveniently sources articles from the Internet and fills in its supplements and Sunday pages. Never mind if it is not relevant or is culturally irrelevant to us ordinary Indians. There are porn actors quotes, diet advice which has fruits like grapefruit,(how many people know what this is? ), kiwis in it.  Is this a paper brought out in India, for Indians you wonder. All through the 2 years, I may have  seen only a countable number of authentic advice given by indigenous professionals, as if there is a dearth of such people in our country. For this 'easy way out' attitude, I will have to cut remaining 20 marks.

To this null score,  I have to add a positive and that is peace of mind I now have after switching to another daily which thankfully is by indians and for Indians like me. I do not even miss the debates, in fact we begin the day with a clear head!