Confusing first impressions
I was one of the unsuccessful ones who could not get hold of The Hindu in Tamil, when it was launched on September 16. The news stands in a few localities including mine did not get the paper as the issue involving agents’ demand for more commission had not been resolved. Though I had texted to a number in the promotional advertisement prior to the launch, those who were supposed to get in touch didn’t. Not that it would have mattered since my neighbour who had subscribed didn’t get it too. All efforts to get a copy failed. The next day, though the customer relations department at The Hindu office promised to keep a copy of Tuesday’s as well as Monday’s paper, I got only Tuesday’s.
So the second day’s paper was what I got to see first. As is my habit, I looked at the last page first. There was a film review, a news item about Vijay Mallya, a small write-up about Britney Spears and another about the Tamil schools in Karnataka being shut down. But what caught my attention was an article about the problems plaguing Tiruppur railway station. The entire write-up was a first person account of the railway station, lamenting its woes in colloquial Tamil! I had to turn to the first page to make sure that I was reading The Hindu in Tamil and not some other paper.
Indeed it was The Hindu. The page looked clean as there were just three index leads to stories in the other pages and no advertisements below the flag. The font was bigger and there was more white space, thus making it easy on the eye.
With an ad below the fold, there were only three news reports. The lead story was about Manmohan Singh, and Sonia Gandhi’s visit to UP. The report about the increase in rupee value had a headline that was quite lyrical. So it was disappointing to see English and colloquial words in other stories.
The second page, which carries the Tamil word for ‘bouquet’, had features. Interestingly, a reader in his letter wondered if he was reading a news report or a feature.
There was an article with a ‘The Hindu Impact’ tag. It was obvious that the previous day (inaugural), the daily had published an article about prisoners in Vellore having access to forbidden items such as mobile phones. A warder was quoted as saying that the prisoner who was seen using the official walkie-talkie in a photo had been transferred to another jail a few days back. Therefore it could not have been a step taken as a result of the previous day’s story. Though it was mentioned as an impact story, the only reference to the impact was the ‘covert raid that is said to have taken place’.
The centre’s rejection of Pachauri report on Sethusamudram project did not find a place, though Karunanidhi’s response to the news did!
Similarly, the news of 19 fishermen – 16 of them from Tamil Nadu – released from a jail in Iran, reported on September 17 in the English paper did not find a place in the Tamil paper. It however found a place in the paper the next day. But one could not understand why the news in The Hindu in Tamil mentioned that 16 fishermen had been released from jail. Didn’t the three from the neighbouring state count at all? One could to some extent understand if the report was about the 16 fishermen arriving in Chennai. But the report mentioned that they had arrived in Mumbai and all the 19 had come together. (The news prior to their release did mention 19 fishermen in the September 16 Tamil paper, I discovered when I finally got to see it).
The September 17 lead story said ‘Begins War’, the accompanying picture clearly indicating who was being referred to. The story was about the special report submitted by Revenue Secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi and Chief Minister Jayalalitha’s order to suspend mining operations of minerals and investigate irregularities. The story ended with, ‘Official circles describe this as CM Jayalalitha beginning a war against illegal sand mining’. So, there lies the clue to the headline!
After a bit of running around, visits to libraries and finally phone calls to The Hindu, I managed to get hold of the inaugural copy of the paper. The front page story was Jayalalitha inaugurating the sale of ‘amma mineral water’ at long distance bus terminals. Well, we are certainly trying to be in amma’s good books.
The number of articles and features, compared to news reports, is relatively high for a daily. There is a page each for State, National, Business, International and Sports news. The three ‘ City Tour’ pages (the Tamil word oor in oor valam for City Tour means ‘place’) carry many Chennai-centric news and a few stories from suburbs and other towns. Two ‘State’ pages cover news from the rest of Tamil Nadu. But with news from places such as Thiruvallur, Erode and Kanchipuram finding place in either the City or State pages, it is difficult to tell the two apart. Similar to a popular page in Tamil magazines, one of the State pages has a ‘Bosskey Newskey’ corner, a funny take on headlines by television personality Bosskey. The page called ‘Relax’ has film news and a quarter of a page for readers’ contributions of humour and micro stories. The positive stories of many a common man is a welcome feature in the poochendu (bouquet) page. A couple of the features such as those on desalination and Comet ISON are informative.
The ideas for the cartoon in the edit page are given by readers. The op-ed page carries the translation of an article from the The New York Times or The Guardian every day.
On Saturdays, the centre page is dedicated to literature. Page 11 has special sections on spirituality on Friday, Maya Bazaar for children on Wednesday and one on environment on Tuesday. A 4-page supplement ‘Hindu Talkies’ is a Friday addition. Friday also features full page stories similar to the Sunday Story in the English paper. The 4-page magazine on Saturdays has articles on natural history, culture and the like in two pages and articles on housing and realty in the sondha veedu (Own House) section in the other two pages. The Sunday supplement for women titled penn indru (Woman Today) featured women achievers, an agony aunt Q&A and an analysis of the verdict on the Delhi sexual assault case. Some of the special pages and supplements fared better than the main pages.
An op-ed on 17 September, surprisingly had a typical Chennai slang in its headline. It’s doubtful that it was the headline given by the author, if one could go by the content and language of his article.
Some articles have a sprinkling of colloquial and English words. Rural readers may be familiar with English words such as green tea, missing and cell phone tower; but I am not sure if they will understand transcribed English words such as count down, substitute, jammer, visual information, ego, sponsor and the like. A column in the international page is named Globe-jamun! The funny thing is, one sentence had ‘bejar level’ in it - a highly colloquial word (meaning bothersome) and an English word next to each other. On 26 September, in the news about George Orwell’s scarf that is to be auctioned, the title of his book was translated! It was good that transcribed names and words such as ‘Equentis Capital’ and ‘origami’ had the English words in brackets, as it would help with the pronunciation, given that in Tamil there is no differentiating between ‘t’ and ‘d’, k’ and ‘g’ and the like. But English words and phrases such as ‘E-courts Mission Mode Project’, ‘broccoli’ and ‘Facial Recognition System’ were mentioned in the copy, without transcriptions or translations. It is interesting and ironical that the op-ed page has a column on the correct use of Tamil words!
There were other articles that had used only Tamil words, even while referring to latest technology. The cricket news had youth lingo in its headlines. The contrast threw up two observations. Who is the target reader of The Hindu in Tamil? The urban professional, the urban commoner or the rural reader? The youth? Or is it a case of catering to everybody’s interests? Well, the astute ones might end up learning many English words, by reading The Hindu in Tamil. Secondly, with consistency lacking, there does not seem to be a style guide.
Proofing too was found to be wanting in certain places.
Two weeks on, I would say that, overall The Hindu in Tamil is like a cross between a magazine and a newspaper, sans a style guide. And a bit of a disappointment.