MY TRYST WITH THE NEWSPAPER :

 

 THE TRIBUNE, a prominent daily of Northern India completed 140 years yesterday . Befitting the occasion, the Paper carried 2-3 articles , one of which I also shared on my Facebook wall.

The occasion made me somewhat nostalgic too.

My tryst with the English Newspaper started  more than fifty years back in the  mid- sixties. In the beginning THE TRIBUNE was subscribed to occasionally, during the days when University Examination results were expected, as these were published in the Newspaper. The Newspaper during that period was something to wait for eagerly and anxiously. These days offered an opportunity to glance through the paper though we had no nose for the news whatever.

I became a regular reader of The Tribune in 1970 when I went to college. Back from college , I would read the paper back to back daily and underline the difficult words to look up the meaning in the dictionary. The language appeared somewhat difficult at that time.  The Editorials written by R. Madhavan Nair were not easy to understand and follow. There was a change  in the format when  Prem Bhatia took over as the Editor. The English language became easier and simpler and the style was quite appealing.

Post studies I wrote a few letters to the Editor that got published . Apart from this , my desire to see my name in print remained an unfulfilled dream , even though, my name did appear for not good enough reason as it would be there when I got transferred to some remote place.

Anyways, I learnt to write English from browsing through the Newspaper , particularly The Tribune. The initial preference for the TRIBUNE  was also the reason that this was the only paper that had a City Edition, being published from Ambala and subsequently  from Chandigarh.Other papers like Times of India &. The Hindustan Times , being published from Delhi those days were late with the news, besides coverage of Himachal news was not enough. It is amusing to be told that post independence, The Tribune was published for sometime from Shimla too.

My preference for The Tribune continues to this day as the paper does not profess any political ideology.