Today I was speaking to a friend, who recently shifted to this place and somehow we started discussing about news papers published from Chandigarh.. I was amazed to know Chandigarh has become a newspaper city of north with all newspaper having a Himachal editions.
Consider this, the news papers covering Himachal are:
Dainik Tribune / Dainik Bhaskar / Dainik Jagran / Amarujala / Divya Himachal / Punjab Kesri / Tribune / Indian Express / Times of India / Hindustan Times..
am I missing any names?? Did'nt knew Himachal generated so much news :-)) Going by the online editions the best coverage is no doubt by Tribune, Jagran and Amar Ujala. TOI and HT have completely blocked HP in the online editons though TOI have a Chandigarh portal but it basically covers Chandigarh and Punjab news only.
I am surprised why Indian Express have not bothered to put the Chandigarh edition online as it has been the oldest newspaper in the region and having credibility par excellence in the region!! Mr Kanwar Sandhu, then editor of IE did a splendid job and at one time the circulation surpassed Tribune.
After he left and suddenly IE came up with the brain wave of having been presented like a 'spread-sheet' which the others were quick to follow mainly TOI and the looks became more important than the content.. that these 'national' newspapers have been given a stiff competition by Tribune..
I have'nt seen the print edition of Tribune after national dailies became spread-sheets.. (whoever coined that phrase.. grrrrr) Can anyone please tell whether Tribune still has the older standard newspaper format or it has scumbed to the competition??? BTW Indian Express had a Shimla Newsline on its website long time back but then it was discontinued.. Its a pity that one of the finest editions of IE is not online!!!
Well in the good old early ninties.. there was nothing called 'online'.. it was a hep thing to be a member of the State Library next to the Church.. the libraray had some great collections..both in Hindi and English and the reading room upstairs was awesome.. the whole place had an aura of its own. Usually retired uncles and students preparing for HAS exams donned the place. My seat used to be on the far end upstairs facing the church.. two comfortable chairs were placed their. The reading room had all the regular newspaper, not many at that time.. and strangely Punjab Kesri was blocked out as it had a tiff with the then govt.. The library even had a 'Deccan Herald from Bangalore.. always a day late.. Vinod Mehta's Pioneer.. and the usual Delhi dailys. Hindi front was dominated by PK and Jansatta then. PK was the leader with the gossipy page one :)) for the serious types it was Jansatta. Jansatta was a great newspaper and unlike IE it never challanged govt and was a mature stuff. After all it was in the good hands of Om Thanvi..
Coming back to the State Libraray.. the place was a treasure of books. The membership was a princly 150/- and 5/- fine per day if you returned the book late after 14 days. i remember the fine precisely as it used to dent my pocket money seriously as I was pathetically late with returning books on time!
The best I remember was Chandrakanta Santiti, all six volumes finished in a month. I flunked in all class tests that month as my priorities were somewhere else.. Those red-lines on my score sheet caused a 'search' of my room at home.. and after that I was permitted just one visit per week to the library!! Years later on vacation in Shimla I found the place had been closed down and found the books stored in the godown of evening college without any care!! I was furious and shot a letter to the Municipal Comissoner which eventually got lost in files somewhere...
thats me at my nostalgic best.. do you have any memories... share with us!
Nitin
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