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Old News Papers

 


Today I saw a Face Book post which said "Changing Times or Changes in Governments don't change prices of agricultural products." Probably it was a cry from a farmer expressing his despair at prices of his produce not going up like other consumer products in the market place over years.

Farmer was right in saying that the prices of agricultural products didn't increase much over the years. But he didn't realise that another commodity price also remained without much increase over the years. To the consternation of a housewife, it was her dear OLD NEWS PAPERS. The good old stuff always added to her secret treasure box (the spice storing jar called పోపుల డబ్బా) in the Indian kitchen. Old Paper buyer's sleight of hand with the weighing balance added to her woes... She has been suffering this double whammy for too long.

Like flip through the good old family photo album, Old News Paper reading is a good pass time for the Oldies. You get an opportunity to reminisce pleasant old times in your life. The conventional old Camera is no more in use, with a multipurpose Smartphone replacing it. But it has brought a great relief. One is no more required to keep a very heavy album in the lap as the digitized New Album is tucked away in a memory card of a mobile. The digitised photography has also removed all constraints that existed with 'camera clicks' in the days of film rolls. Now one can merrily click as many pictures as one wants with a mobile.

Talking of the news papers, one column in them that excites me in it most is "This day That Year" (referring to news that appeared some 25 or 50 years ago) Past always is sweet to remember. Now, Internet and smartphone have made it much easier to browse old news papers. One can easily access old news papers in the virtual world through a mobile. You can again live through the exciting times that you went through reading the details of man landing on Moon or Prakash Padukone winning the All England Badminton Championship - even when your wife sold away the old news papers to get a few rupees without your knowledge. 

Tail Piece: My wife's college mate has a collection of Old News Papers of over 3 decades. All securely stacked in a room in their house. Her husband believes that selling the old news papers is like selling Godess Saraswathi (Godess of Learning) Mind-boggling number of news paper collection by an individual (about 12-15 thousands)!

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