She (The Hindu) stoops to conquer. Review on The Hindu

''AISHWARYA RAI INJURED''. With war clouds looming large in the horizon and some already bursting and showering acid rain in the tragic land called Iraq, this was the news clipping that caught my eye. As soon as I read this I thought, ''man, this is news''. Then as I proceeded to read the whole article it suddenly hit me. Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss.World who has nothing to her credit except a few hit movies and her affair with the 'hulk' oops.... the hunk, Salman Khan (infamous in a his very own way), being hit by a runaway vehicle on a set for some film in which she is starring, and which by the way resulted in a very minor fracture, has found her way into the Digest column in the first page of a respected and noteworthy daily, as though other issues in other parts of India, have suddenly sorted themselves out and were not worthy enough to be mentioned, and the reporter was jobless enough to report this as a major news item.There it lay for the whole world to see, heading the column in which supreme court decisions and encounters with terrorists take second place to this all important issue of Aishwarya Rai hurting her hand in a mishap, which particular object is of importance and use to none but herself, however pretty and shapely it might be. I should think that the editor of 'India's National Newspaper' would have had better judgement. I do not certainly object to having this piece of news somewhere in the later pages. It will not be as shocking then. I would have read it and then pushed it away from my mind with at the most a sneer, but this is something I need to talk about and I hope a lot of you felt this way when you read the article I'm talking about, for your sakes. Has the media deteriorated thus far? Have people taken to the glitz and glamour of the tinsel world to such an extent that an important and famous newspaper which is read by thousands of people and which is believed to recognize the needs of the people has felt that this particular titbit accompanied by a smiling picture of the obliging beauty is what the people of our country would like and prefer to read first. I sure hope not and I decided to write this article so that people who read it might know that I for one, do not prefer to read about sustained scratches and petty gossip about all the actors in Bollywood and Hollywood put together in the first column in the first page of a daily of such good reputation as The Hindu.

I condemn this because the end of journalism... the goal of journalism is to inform the people and an informed people is the linchpin of democracy. However, if the newspaper feels that in order to increase the number of its subscribers, it should stoop so low as to let a beautiful face and just a beautiful face with nothing else and nothing less added to it campaign for its popularity, then I think it is time for The Hindu to get up and get its priorities right, and to hell with the people who need news such as these to renew their subscription the next time. They can always buy ''STARDUST'' or something akin to it to satisfy their curiosity and keep themselves updated on what perfume Shah Rukh Khan is enveloped with at the moment.