Laissez les bons temps rouler!
February 12, 2012 at 10:48 pm | Posted in Seen and Scene | Leave a commentThis slideshow requires JavaScript.
So it really is just all about the beads.
Going to my first Mardi Gras celebration in Louisiana, I was hoping to learn more about the celebration’s cultural significance than just talking to drunk people on the road side as they waited for the parade to start. Just as I wouldn’t want someone to jump to conclusions about my own culture’s traditions, I thought, let’s not walk away from this experience thinking it’s just about beads, drinking, eating and partying. I know there’s history and religious significance to it.
And surely, for a few, there is, and Monroe’s Mardi Gras celebrations are a lot tamer than what I imagine New Orleans’ would be (all the girls kept their shirts on … but maybe that had something to do with the 37-degree weather).
But hardly anyone I talked to brought up the festivities’ religious origins. Then again, I guess even within religious contexts, the purpose of Mardi Gras is to give people an opportunity to let their hair down.
Mardi Gras is the celebration that prefaces Catholics’ observance of Lent. Because many people give up a particular food, beverage or habit during Lent and it’s a period of stringency, Mardi Gras is everyone’s way to let out some steam before they buckle down with their fasting.
Essentially, it’s a big party.
The first Mardi Gras celebration in America took place in 1703 in Mobile, Ala. However, the tradition spread to New Orleans in the 1730s and 1740, with then-Gov. Marquis de Vaudreuil marking the event with elegant galas, according to New Orleans’ Mardi Gras website.
“For our region, for Louisiana, Mardi Gras has been part of our tradition. ‘Fat Tuesday.’ We celebrate from the 12th night til the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It’s just a time when people can get together and have a good time … before the fasting of Lent,” explained the 29th Queen Janus, Nannette White.
And there are always some in the crowd who have more fun than others.
Through the day in Monroe, The News-Star sent me and other staff out to capture the sights and sounds of Mardi Gras events, from children at the “Jungle Gym” parade in Pecanland Mall, to pets promenading through West Monroe’s Antique Alley in the afternoon, and revelers lining Louisiville Avenue to catch beads along the parade route. By nightfall, temperatures were well into the mid-thirties, and still, people were willing to wait on curb sides just to catch handfuls of these coveted beads.
If beads are the main attraction here, I thought, those babies better be made of gold for me to have to bear that.
Thankfully for me, two adorable little girls whom I’d interviewed earlier in the day were so excited to be asked questions for the newspaper, they spontaneously took their beads off and placed them around my neck while I was talking to them. Absolutely touched by the gesture, I wore those beads throughout the day as a memento of my first Mardi Gras.
Got swamp water runnin through my veins
October 25, 2011 at 4:15 pm | Posted in Ramblings, Seen and Scene, Travel Diaries | Leave a commentTags: comparison, experience, job, life, Louisiana, Monroe, swamp
Monroe-bound.
After two and half months of living at home with my parents while job hunting and freelancing for The Gainesville Sun, I finally got some good news. A Gannett paper in Monroe, Louisiana was interested in hiring me as a reporter to cover their city beat.
I didn’t really know what to expect. I’d never even been to Monroe or heard of it before I’d applied for the job. In fact, I’d never been to Louisiana or driven more than three hours anywhere, so the thought of driving more than 11 hours to get to the city I’d soon call my “home” sounded daunting. But Louisiana couldn’t be too much different than Florida in terms of climate, right? Maybe slightly colder in the winter. And from what I’d read of Monroe, it seemed like it might be somewhat like Gainesville too: large medical centers, a university, and a tight-knit community about the size of Gainesville, if you include the nearby towns that are grouped into the Monroe Statistical Area. Gainesville might have a much larger university— an enrollment of 50,000 compared to the University of Louisiana-Monroe’s 8,000— but it would suffice. (Before you ask) It’s about four hours from New Orleans.
What did I know about Louisiana? That perhaps the French I learned since fourth grade could finally come into use after living 21 years in Florida (Parfait!), and that Cajun food probably wouldn’t do me much good. Thankfully, I learned after getting to Monroe that being in Northeast Louisiana, they weren’t huge on Cajun cuisine (phew). To my dismay, no French was spoken either (quel dommage).
I decided to split the trip up, driving north to Atlanta first to visit some friends and to stop at the Hindu Temple to seek blessings before starting the new job. From there, I took I-20 West for…. well, hours, but that initial drive was far from boring. It was exhilarating because I’d never seen Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana. Something about driving that far on your own on the freeway is absolutely liberating.
Driving from Atlanta, I passed by Atlanta’s Six Flags theme park and Stone Mountain, past the Talladega Superspeedway, through downtown Birmingham, past Jackson University and Jackson Zoo and across the Mississippi River.
Finally seeing the first sign for Monroe, I got really excited.
It was in that moment that I didn’t care anymore that a few people back in Gainesville raised eyebrows when they learned I’d be moving to Louisiana. Why wasn’t I moving some place more hip like New York City, they asked. Or Boston or Philly? A couple even warned me not to come back with a southern accent (not kidding, though I wish I were).
But moving to what they considered the “deep south” turned out to have its benefits– southern hospitality. Since the moment I got here people have been nothing but welcoming and helpful. My bosses, coworkers, sources and absolute strangers have been so accommodating. All this time I thought Gainesville had been a really warm and friendly community, but I’m glad to learn that Monroe is just the same. I don’t think that’s something I’d get from living in a big, bustling city, but I’ll wait until I move to one to find out for sure.
For now, all I can say is that compared to the swamps of Florida, the bayous of Louisiana aren’t so far off. Some might call this job offer fate.
Crossing the Mississippi River into Louisiana. Vicksburg on one side. Village of Delta on the other.
Lan Kwai Fong – Last night in HK
September 6, 2011 at 3:26 am | Posted in Seen and Scene, Travel Diaries | Leave a commentTags: culture, Hong Kong, Lan Kwai Fong, leisure, nightlife, travel, vacation
I had worked up an appetite following my trip to Lantau island, so I wanted to find a place where I could grab a bite while also being able to mingle. Lan Kwai Fong seemed to be the perfect place to do that, so I walked there from Hong Kong Central Pier. Only occasionally missing a street or two and having to reorient myself by following a map, it took about 20 minutes to get there.
Walking to Lan Kwai Fong
Lan Kwai Fong is a street filled with bars, clubs and restaurants, essentially Hong Kong’s party central, located near the main part of the city where business executives and prominent financial players go to work each day.
Again, since I was traveling alone, I wasn’t about to go clubbing or bar hopping by myself, so I went to the Hard Rock Cafe. I needed to buy my sister a Hard Rock Cafe souvenir pin anyway. She has a collection of pins from cities around the world, so anytime anyone in my family goes somewhere, we try to stop by to add to her collection.
With all the exotic venues along the street within reach, some might say I went with too safe a choice, deciding to go to an all-American restaurant, but I figured this was a place that I could at least get decent vegetarian food while also meeting new people if I sat at the bar.
Sure enough, I did.
As I scarfed down a plate of nachos, I met two gentlemen who said they were in town visiting Hong Kong from Guangzhou. They’d made a day trip and would be taking the train back at the end of the night, they said. One of them worked for FedEx, and the other, for some kind of wine packaging and distribution business, if I remember correctly. The younger of the two was one of those people who can strike up a conversation with absolute strangers and talk to them as if he’d known them for years. The other man, Vin, was Indian, so as I told him about how I’d just been working in Guam for two years and would be on the job hunt once again, he asked me I’d ever work in India. We talked about modernization in India, and discussed the job market there and growth the country has enjoyed compared to other places.
“Even now, with its economy feeling the pressure from global inflation and higher interest rates, some economists predict that India will become the world’s third largest economy within 15 years and could much sooner supplant China as the fastest-growing major economy.” – NDTV, June 9, 2011
However, the debate over India’s rate of growth and when it will outpace China continues because India’s GDP estimates can’t be taken at face value.
We all decided to check out some of the other establishments along the street after finishing our food, but I told them I had to stop by the restaurant’s gift shop first to get the souvenir. To that, the younger of the two (his name has slipped me at the moment) turned to our waiter and squarely asked if he could spare some of his flair to give to me, since he was wearing so many buttons already.
With some reluctance, the bartender obliged. Boom. Just like that.
Me wearing my newly acquired Hard Rock pin courtesy of the restaurant's bartenders. Why pay for souvenirs when you can get them for free?
Strolling along Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong's entertainment and nightlife hotspot.
From Hard Rock we stopped at two places. The first was an 80′s/90′s bar that played music videos that didn’t match the music that the DJ was actually playing. It reminded me of the karaoke joints back in Guam, where a shoddily produced music video of some sappy love song would accompany the heavy metal rendition of what your friends would be singing. This bar didn’t even have new songs available when I requested it. No Ke$ha? Seriously? Bummer.
Next, we hopped over to what seemed like an English pub. It was one of those places that has a gazillion different types of expensive and unique beers and hundreds of boiled peanut shells scattered all over the floor. Repulsed —and tired— I decided it was time to head back to Kowloon since I had an early flight to catch anyway. I grabbed one of many taxis parked at the corner of Lan Kwai Fong and D’Aguilar Street, and nodded off the moment driver started his meter.
Tai O Fishing Village – Day 3
September 1, 2011 at 4:00 am | Posted in Seen and Scene, Travel Diaries | Leave a commentTags: culture, Hong Kong, Lantau, leisure, Tai O, Taoism, travel, vacation
From the Po Lin Monastery, our tour bus took us to Tai O, which, for more than a century has remained a fishing village built on stilts by the Tanka people, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
The floating village reminded me of similar villages I’ve seen in Phang Nga Bay, Phuket in Thailand, where entire families live in structures hovering in the middle of the Andaman Sea. It never ceases to amaze me how these people feel secure living in houses that stand up only on wooden sticks, especially when China is prone to cyclones.
Those with weak stomachs may want to pass on visiting this site. But seafood aficionados, you’re in luck! One can find all sorts of freshly-caught or dried fare here, including fish bladders, which my tour guide said is a Chinese delicacy. You see, the Chinese don’t like to waste any part of the fish, he said. As a vegetarian, I had a valid excuse not to indulge.
Our tour guide holds up a fish bladder among the many items for sale at the Tai O Fishing Village. YUM!
At the heart of the fishing village is a Taoist temple. Taoism is the ancient religion of China, before even Buddhism was introduced, and it’s based on the idea of oneness, that is, opposite manifestations of the same concept are not separate from each other. For example, the yin-yang charm I once wore around my neck in fifth grade because I thought it looked cool actually had Taoist roots. As I learned in 9th grade world history, it was a Taoist symbol depicting the duality of everything around us, like the seasons or life and death. Of course, this is an entirely simplistic articulation of this religion, but it’s because the Taoist path or way, the tao, isn’t something you can define in words.
“Those who know don’t say, those who say don’t know.”
It seemed to me the Chinese practice a little bit of all of these ancient Eastern religions — Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. According to an account by Confucius after he met Lao Tzu, the father of Taoism was a complete puzzle to him:
“Creatures that run can be caught in nets; those that swim can be caught in wicker traps; those that fly can be hit by arrows. But the dragon is beyond my knowledge; it ascends into heaven on the clouds and the wind. Today I have seen Lao Tzu and he is like the dragon!” – Confucius’ impression of Lao Tzu, as taken from The World’s Religions, by Houston Smith
Taoism was founded by Lao Tzu
Our tour guide said people usually come to this temple seeking answers to specific questions. Like throwing dice in the game of life, faithful visitors cup two rock-like objects in their hands, throw them into the air and see how they fall on the ground. The orientation of the incongruous rocks provide an affirmative or negative answer to their question, the guide explained. In some sense, it’s like a Magic 8 ball too, because if the two rocks fall in a certain way, you have to roll again.
Ask away!
Just as the sun started to hint at its own departure, our tour wrapped up, bringing us to Lantau’s Silvermine Bay from where we took a ferry back to Hong Kong’s Central Pier just in time for the city to light up.
Tai O Fishing Village, Lantau
Po Lin Monastery – Day 3
August 30, 2011 at 9:10 pm | Posted in Seen and Scene, Travel Diaries | Leave a commentTags: Buddhism, Christianity, comparison, culture, faith, Hinduism, leisure, travel, vacation
Just below the Tian Tan Buddha sits the Po Lin Monastery, originally established by three monks in 1924. Po Lin refers to “precious lotus.” The lotus is significant in both Hinduism and Buddhism, as it represents “spontaneous generation” such as in divine birth or spiritual development, according to the Buddha Dharma Education Association.
My tour guide said at one time, the monastery was thriving with activity, but now it is seeking more Buddhists to join, as its membership has dwindled in recent years to about 20 to 25 monks.
One Buddhist monk, Shravasti Dhammika of Singapore, attributes the decline of interest in Buddhism to “commercialized spirituality,” a dissolution in the actual Dhamma teachings of the Buddha as opposed to temple rituals being carried out instead, and a fragmented network of Buddhist groups around the world.
“Buddhism is failing to speak to young, well-educated, modern people…. Trying to find out about Dhamma from the average Buddhist rarely works because they rarely know any. Temples and societies emphasize ritual activities rather than solid Dhamma education.” – Shravasti Dhammika, spiritual adviser to the Buddha Dhamma Mandala Society in Singapore
Dhammika suggests today’s young people in Singapore, Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong are gravitating more toward Christianity because of its dynamic, socially engaging, and well-organized structure, but I don’t think that’s the case.
Even while on Guam, I remember hearing that the Guam archdiocese— quite organized and structured— was also seeking young recruits to join its ranks, as its seminarian enrollment had dropped. And the Catholic News Agency recently reported the Washington Theological Union would cease to operate after 2013, due in part to low enrollment.
Therefore, I don’t think it’s so much a disinterest in Buddhism than it is an overall lack of enthusiasm for investing time into higher religious education or leading an ascetic life in a world where Asia’s economies are poised for growth thanks to the productivity and drive of its young people.
After all, I’ve heard several young people in the U.S., often turned off by the structure of some Western religions, say that if they had to choose a religion, they would prefer to choose something more spiritual like Buddhism. But that doesn’t mean they’re willing to don the saffron robes either.
Seeking the Buddha’s blessings on Day 3
August 30, 2011 at 2:10 am | Posted in Seen and Scene, Travel Diaries | 1 CommentTags: Buddhism, comparison, culture, faith, Hinduism, Hong Kong, leisure, travel, vacation
Since the guided tour on Day 2 proved to be so informative and productive, I opted for a tour on Day 3 as well, this time to Lantau island, the largest of the islands that comprise Hong Kong.
I was keen on visiting Lantau because it plays home to the Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin Monastery, and normally, when I visit a place and I know there’s a Hindu temple there, I like to go visit. Hindus anyway believe you can pray and worship anywhere since god is omnipresent, but there’s a nice feeling I get when I make a special visit to a temple that’s not in Chennai or near Gainesville, more so when I make the trip on my own. Because Buddhism stemmed from Hinduism and some Hindus consider Buddha an incarnation of Vishnu, I thought as both a tourist and a Hindu, this was worth seeing.
Driving from Kowloon to Lantau, we passed numerous container vessels strewn across Hong Kong’s port. My tour guide said it’s the third busiest port in terms of container traffic, with Singapore and Shanghai being the first two.
Once in Lantau, to get to the Tian Tan Buddha, very devout followers or nature enthusiasts can hike a long, paved trail over several rolling hills and up 268 steps to the statue. But for those of us looking for a less arduous and more picturesque experience the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car is worth standing in line for (Although, if you book a tour in advance, you can avoid the long line).
Looks like many people weren't up for trekking by foot to the Buddha!
The cable car ride spans more then 5 kilometers and takes about 20 minutes or so. You get a great view of some of Lantau’s hillsides and the South China Sea.
You can see the Buddha in the distance, to the left the cable.
The Tian Tan Buddha, at 34 meters, is currently the largest seated bronze Buddha in the world. However, my tour guide said an even larger seated Buddha is expected to be built in Kushinagar, India, and it will be Buddha in the Maitreya form, or Buddha of the future. The Buddha displayed in Lantau is the Gautama version, said to be of this lifetime.
I was intrigued by the idea of a “future” Buddha, because it’s similar to the Kalki avatar in Hinduism, the tenth major avatar of Vishnu. It’s believed that this avatar has yet to take shape but will descend on earth when there’s just too much evil in the world. The name “Maitreya” sounded familiar to me, too, because I’ve heard the Sanskrit word “maitrim” in a patriotic Indian song about world peace. As I found out later, just as the Sanskit word hints, the Maitreya form of Buddha then is the embodiment of loving kindness, according to the Maitreya Project, which aims to provide a social service to the impoverished communities around the world by providing them education, health-care and employment opportunities.
“The Maitreya Buddha statue will provide the world with a much-needed and enduring 21st century monument to universal spiritual and humanitarian values. According to Buddhist tradition, sacred objects such as statues provide a uniquely powerful means by which we can bring to mind the positive attitudes that are essential to the development of loving-kindness.” – The Maitreya Project
I made a mental note to one day visit the Maitreya Buddha when it’s finally completed, hopefully with my family. But for the time being, I focused on the Buddha displayed in front of me, the Gautama version.
The statue is made up of 202 bronze pieces. The Buddha’s raised right hands showers blessings of fearlessness, while his downward-facing left hand spreads virtue. Inside the Buddha is a gallery of artwork by Sri Lankan monks, depicting the different phases of the Gautama Buddha’s life. The statue also contains a relic fragment of bone, allegedly from the Buddha’s neck. The relic, about the size of a grain of rice, is encased in multiple glass cases, several feet away from where visitors can stand, so those who can actually make out the shape of the relic are said to be quite lucky.
I’m not such a firm believer in luck than I am in karma, and I had a feeling the Buddha would agree.
Celebrating the Goddess on Navarathri
September 27, 2009 at 10:39 pm | Posted in Seen and Scene | 3 CommentsTags: celebration, culture, Guam, Hinduism, holiday, Navarathri
Back in Gainesville my friends and family are doing their rounds—both in seeing house kolus at friends’ homes and dancing around the Goddess on the garba floor.
Alladi house kolu in Gainesville. (Photo courtesy of Jis Joseph)
Here on Guam, no such event took place, to my disappointment.
I was however able to meet several members of the community through a dinner hosted at the Indian Temple of Guam to celebrate Mata Amritanandamayi Devi’s (“Ammachi’s”) birthday…something I never saw myself doing, but I was starved for some Indian company, and Ammachi is considered a “Goddess” in her own right. I’ll just have to consider this an alternative way to celebrate Navarathri on an island where Hindu human resources may be limited.
I saw a lot of new faces and even got some people interested in putting together a small program for Diwali.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it materializes soon, since time is running.
Hafa Adai, from where America’s day begins
September 4, 2009 at 9:46 pm | Posted in Seen and Scene | 1 CommentTags: blogging, difference, experience, Guam, intro, Pacific Daily News, politics
The verdict is in, and I am guilty. Guilty for not e-mailing people back home. Guilty for not blogging. And guilty for not bringing you along with me to this marvelous speck of an island at the edge of the world.
I’m sorry. I’ve been enjoying myself too much, but now that the excitement of the first month has died down, I’m ready to share it with you.
Guam is an island that’s about 30 miles long and 4 miles across at its narrowest point. It is made up of villages, not cities. There are about 19 total across the island, and for the first month I was living in Tumon, in the central part of the island which is known as the hot tourist spot. Tumon Bay is lined with hotels, restaurants, all the major designer stores like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Tiffany’s, which are all part of the Duty Free Shopping plaza.
But now I live in Agana Heights, smack-dab in the middle of the island, and if I roll out of bed and trip over I’ll be at my workplace. Pretty convenient. (Hagåtña and Agana are the same thing, except when the Spanish colonized the island, they couldn’t pronounce Hagåtña. Now it has switched back to Hagatna).
That’s the nice thing about the island. Most of the time, anywhere you need to go is only about 15 minutes away anyway, unless you’re going very far south to Inarajan or Merizo, or very far north to Yigo or the Andersen Air Force Base.
I cannot stress enough just how friendly the people are. When I was on the plane flying from Tokyo to Guam, I met one Chamorro family who told me about the island’s weekly fiestas and how people are always willing to help you. Now I see what they mean.
Before I got here, I imagined there would a heavy Japanese presence, but now I see it’s mainly Filipinos and locals—Chamorro. I’ve had the chance to meet so many different people it’s insane. I made friends here within just the first two days because people are so open and my friend from work took me to a barbecue the day that I landed. They’re REALLY big on barbecues here (sucks for me as a vegetarian). The couple who hosted the barbecue invited me to their wedding which was two weeks ago. I believe they’d put me on their guest list as “that Indian girl.”
….I’ve only known them about three weeks, but I guess that’s ok since they’d only been dating for four months—
—Things move fast here, because people are so used to just coming here a short while and leaving again, due to the widespread military presence. Friendships happen immediately. The locals get married and have children sooner than would be expected on the mainland, at least from what I’ve noticed. But after living in a college town all of my life, it’s refreshing to finally ask the people I meet “What do you do?” instead of “What is your major?”
One gripe I have here is that no no one understands the importance of customer service. Guam is just one of those places where people take their own sweet time. If they don’t have the ingredients for something at a restaurant, oh well. So while they are friendly—they are laid back. Must just be the island culture. No one goes out of their way when it comes to customer service, which is interesting, since recruiters from hotels at last week’s island job fair said that’s what they look for in employees, especially since more openings are in food and beverage services.
It drives me nuts, but I’m slowly getting used to it.
I thought when I got here I would be the only Indian in Guam. Well, the e-mails and phone calls I’ve gotten from aunties and uncles on the island proves to me that there is an entire community that has lived here for decades before I landed. I had the chance to go to their “temple” two weeks ago. It’s not really a temple per se, but more like a cultural community center. Most of the major murthis are there: Shiva/Parvati, Vishnu/Lakshmi, Ram/Sita/Hanuman, Saraswati/Lakshmi/Parvati, Krishna/Radha…so basically there’s something to suit the needs of everyone, regardless of sect. But primarily the center has served as a hall for Sai Baba devotees, and outside, there is a small pavilion which houses a Shiva lingam.
When I took up the new position I was excited about the adventures Guam would bring, but naturally nervous about the distance away from home. The recent discovery of a Hindu temple here has made me see this differently:
Something has pulled me here for a reason. That same force will protect and propel me forward.
Lifestyles of the locals
August 12, 2009 at 9:56 am | Posted in At work, Seen and Scene | Leave a commentTags: Agat, fiesta, Guam, lifestyle, Pacific Daily News
As a lifestyle reporter, I was told by my editor that the best way to familiarize myself with the island’s local culture was to just attend the festivities as soon as possible. As in, “BOOM, you’re here, now go eat some keleguan.”
Just kidding. But in the first week of my arrival I was assigned to attend a traditional fiesta in one of the island’s southern villages (which did include keleguan).
We ended up turning it into a first-person account of what it’s like for a new person on Guam to experience his or her first fiesta.
Black and white and read all over
May 5, 2009 at 7:39 pm | Posted in Seen and Scene | Leave a commentTags: comparison, India, internship diary, journalism, journalism ethics, newspapers, trends
So everyone’s naturally been asking what’s different about journalism in India than here in America. Well, for the most part it’s the same. There are only some differences I noticed:
As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is a clear difference in the way photojournalism is approached. In fact, I don’t think I can even call it photojournalism, because many times, newspapers don’t care to tell a story or further it with a picture. A picture is simply a colorful space filler on the page. However, since that post, I think I’ve come to understand why so many of the events covered have such bland photos.
One thing I noticed while in India is that many people consider themselves important. This idea is accentuated through the felicitation ceremonies, at which guests are shown that they are, indeed important. Thus, when its time to capture the moment on film, photographers naturally crowd around what they believe to be the most important subjects, the people, and focus their shots accordingly….and the product is usually a grip-and-grin handshake photo with the dignitary.
Journalism ethics is also a bit different, not to say that one is wrong and the other isn’t. Two different cultures, two different codes of ethics. When it comes to direct quotes, Indians are more lax about the words put in between quotation marks. I think this also stems from the fact people speak a mix of Tamil and English, so flavorful parts are selected and translated accordingly. But what would normally be paraphrased in the U.S. could possibly be found in between quotes in an Indian paper, and it is not considered unethical because the person still “said it,” in effect.
In the same way, in television media, blood, guts, and scandals sell just like in the U.S., but there’s bit more “acting” done than “capturing.” From what I gathered, this doesn’t seem to be breaking any ethical code. In fact, to tell the subjects to “do” something rather than wait for the action is almost considered a standard.
Newspapers in India are still flourishing, or at least, facing only minor cuts, because there is still a certain part of the population that is starting to emerge as literate (which was not previously the case) and it will still take some time before these people start turning to online resources for their news. In contrast, I was very depressed when I arrived in L.A. Airport and purchased a much slimmer, narrower copy of the New York Times. I was even more depressed to find the Gainesville Sun, the local paper in my hometown had followed the same format (as it is affiliated with the Times) and was reduced to a mere few pages.
I know today people find it easier to surf the web for their news and have updates sent to their email and Smartphones, but you have to agree — the content in newspapers is juicier. You get a lot more details, background information than you can with little tidbit tweets or spots on t.v. You have the chance to mull the subject over, think about what you’re taking in. There’s a certain thrill I get when I feel the weight of the paper pull apart as I open the pages in the morning to find long editorials and articles….rather than ads that take up most of the space now.
While there were only some superficial differences that I noticed about journalism in India, one this is certain: the papers aren’t facing the same dismal fate as the papers here in the U.S. and I don’t think they will unless the “recession” worsens or is prolonged. Sure, there has been some consolidation and effort to not waste space, but there hasn’t been major chopping of material or of staff.
I came back to the U.S. because my internship ended and I plan to settle here, but if journalism continues down this path, I may just have to reconsider and head back to the heat of Chennai.
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