changing 'times'?

When I went home for my sem hols,my dad had a surpise in store for me. Guess what??He had started subscribing for "times of india" which meant we were getting 4 newspapers everyday!!!(times, hindu, economic times(for my dad ,of course),indian express(i seldom read this)). Sounds Crazy?? Yeah, me and my Dad are crazy about newspapers.

Earlier our day used to start with "hindu".Not that I am a fan of "hindu",in fact , me and my Dad hate it.One of the prime reasons for our antagonist feelings is that "hindu" is a highly left-ist paper while both of us are extreme right-ist( ok, atleast i am).The reporting in "hindu" is also highly biased(if you are as ardent a reader of the sports page and the cricket comments as i am ,you would be nodding vigourously in agreement).Several important news items do not find an appropriate place and end up stowed in some small corner in the company of news that is much less significant.Some of the news are highly outdated and would have been covered by some other newspaper a couple of days ago.Hence,I hoped the entry of "times" would be a welcome change.

Now,after having read "times" everyday for several months I have a few words about it. While the volume of news in "times" is much more than in its competitor the quality of news is highly substandard(as my mom puts it).One of the "best" articles I have come across in chennai times is tittled"Hrithik Roshan has nothing to say" which goes about saying that Hrithik has no comments about Harman being his look alike!!!! And this is called news which is what chennai times is filled with!!! ("hindu's" supplements are so much better).One thing Ive noticed after having read the paper for several days is that once you read the title of the article and go on to the piece you find its got nothing more than the heading rewritten in more words.

Now that Ive spoken about some of the despicable aspects , let me come to those that I appreiciate.The reporting of several cases of public interest (like bomb blast)is highly praiseworthy as the final reports fill up the reader on the earlier phases of the case.The reporting is a highly balanced one(if the reporter has personal views ,it is seperately given as times view).The "times view and counter-view" is one of the best sections which elaborates on the pros and cons of a topic instead of just putting down a highly opiniated view of it.

After balancing the good and the bad points, I feel "times" is way better than its counter-part though all my hopes about it haven't come true.Actually ,nowadays ,after reading "times" I no longer feel like reading "hindu".

P.S: One of the articles in "times" that takes a dig at "hindu" for its biased reporting ,titled "Paper tigers , Tiger Papers" is an amazing read.