Even the darkest of clouds have silver linings. In the case of The Chindu the writings of the venerable Shashi Tharoor was the pick of the litter. Now he announces that his column comes to a close after several years.
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/04/27/stories/2008042750050300.htm
This is truly a great loss for readers in general as well as The Chindu for whom this column was one of the last slivers of objectivity. Now we are left with the poor stable of writers. Let me ask you this question, who is your favorite writer on the Chindu currently? (This includes the Chief)
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/04/27/stories/2008042750050300.htm
This is truly a great loss for readers in general as well as The Chindu for whom this column was one of the last slivers of objectivity. Now we are left with the poor stable of writers. Let me ask you this question, who is your favorite writer on the Chindu currently? (This includes the Chief)
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15 comments:
The Hindu has been literally hemorrhaging talent for the last few years. It lost Raja Mohan and now it is losing Shashi Tharoor. The stable is being filled by an assortment of mediocrities, hypocritical lefties (Siddharth Varadarajan) and old fossils (Krishna Iyer) mouthing cliches and inanities. At this rate, the paper will so go from 'serious and thoughtful' to only serious lacking both wit and wisdom.
People used to read Hindu to improve their English. I read Pilid's posts on this blog for the same reason.
Thanks for the complement anonymous!
The entry of the free market into the media means loyalty of writers to newspapers is also quite limited.
Unfortunately Chindu appears bent on holding on to second rate talent than displaying some top notch writers.
If only Chief could convince Raja and Shashi to write paeans on the growth of China!
A favorite in Hindu is like an oxymoron! If one still insists, I would say, S.Dinakar, who is their Cricket correspondent.He is not given to sermonizing, generally sticks to facts and most importantly does not hide inconvenient facts. Does not also claim that China is the most superior team in the Sport no matter that they can hardly spell cricket
Thyagarajan.
It was obvious to many that an authentic liberal like Shashi Tharoor, who began writing for the Hindu under its previous editorial management, would find himself increasingly uncomfortable in the Marxist-dominated pro-Chinese publication that the Hindu has become under N. Ram. Chennai readers can at least still read him in the Times of India, now available there, but it's a great loss.
I always found Tharoor a little predictable and boring. My current roster of Hindu faves is:
Politics: Harish Khare (the STATECRAFT column)
Terrorism: Praveen Swamy
Foreign affairs: Siddharth Varadarajan (the REALITY CHECK column and other dispatches)
Cricket: Nirmal Shekhar (excellent COMMENTS on sports pages)
History: Ramachandra Guha
Rural issues: P. Sainath
Literature: Shelley Walia, Navtej Sarna
Pakisthan: Nirupama Subramaniam
Science and Tech: Anand Parthasarathy
It is a sad fact that no other newspaper has so many talented and famous inhouse writers. Others have usually only one or two talented staffers (eg. Times of India has Swaminathan Swaminomics and Jug Suraiya, HT has brilliant Vir Sanghvi).
Thyagarajan,
Thanks for pointing that out.
I'm sure Dinakar would be glad to hear your support :)
Sports has been a strong suit for the Chindu going back to pre-Independence days when they had correspondents covering foreign cricket tours.
Anon,
Thanks for your insight. Your theory is probably one of the leading reasons leading to the loss of Shashi.
Jiva,
Thanks for your comments. While I do agree with you that Chindu has got allotted writers for specified areas, the writers on this blog would disagree about the quality they produce.
Do keep posting your thoughts.
Chindu bashing is one thing but lets not lose our sense of perspective here. Taroor is banal at best, you only have see his Times of India column to realise that. Whenever he stop out of ideas, which is often, he does a kind of highly hackneyed Indian alphabet soup - you know, A is for Amitabh, D is for Dowry, etc. I for one will not miss him in the Chindu. And Jiva, while I generally concur with your list, I would add Sevanti Ninan on media issues. And I would subtract Praveen Swami.
Shashi Tharoor is clearly one of the finest writers to be found in any Indian newspaper -- check out his recent articles on China and Tibet in the Times of India, which I am sure the CURRENT "HINDU" LEADERSHIP WOULD NEVER HAVE PUBLISHED. I for one am cancelling my subscription to the Hindu on Sunday and switching to the Times so I can raed my favourite columnist.
methinks the last anonymous comment is by none other than Shashi Tharoor himself. Note that he is careful to blame CURRENT REGIME in the Chindu. This is not a distinction a lay reader will make and quite frankly, even under the pseudo secular dictatorship of Comrade Malini P, it was as much of a Commie rag as it is today.
Amen!
Charge of banality against Shashi Tharoor, exhibit number 1:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Shashi_Tharoor_Can_the_Elephant_dance_with_the_Dragon/rssarticleshow/2964538.cms
Elephant, dragon, puhleese, can we get a less cliche ridden article and headline next time...
My lord, the prosecution rests its case.
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