Skip to main content

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)!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pleasures & Perils of WhatsApp group

Initiating a WhatsApp group and then adding members with a message to a contact “I’ll add you to the group” is easy. But maintaining the group and making it productive has become a challenge. I felt honored when invited by my immediate senior in school to join  a WhatsApp group of Schoolmates in March-April, 2020. The group has a senior Banker, an Aero-Scientist, a Dentist, a senior Public Sector Administrator, a distinguished Poet, 2 medical practitioners, a Chartered Accountant, a horticulture scientist apart from me, a Pharma Sales Person. Interestingly, the group was put together by the daughter of the  Senior Banker. She wanted to present her father with a facility to recall and reminisce school days with his schoolmates. I am ever grateful to her for giving me a wonderful gift of connecting with old friends after decades of leaving the school. This is the latest WhatsApp group of which I became a member. I am also a participant in 2 groups of my relatives and have scores...
1 comment
Read more

Famed Dosa from Proddatur

Proddatur draws it's name and fame through an act of Lord Sri Rama who installed a saikata linga (linga made of sand) to mitigate the Brahma hatya dosham from killing of Ravana. While this mythological connect remained with the town, it is famous for Gold trade. It is considered as Second Mumbai due to the volume of gold business. For over a century, gold trade is predominantly in the hands of a large entrepreneurial Vysya population living here. While the very affluent and well to do vysyas are into gold trade, women in not so rich families supplementing their family income by making leaf plates using leaves of bastard teak (flame-of-the-forest tree or  Butea monosperma) These leaf plates were commonly used those days in Rayalaseema region. The leaves have astringent, depurate, diuretic and aphrodisiac properties, stimulate and promote diuresis. Make shift eateries on the pials (scaffold or  raised platform) on either side of the main entrance of their homes making dosas was ...
1 comment
Read more

Name & what it means to you

"A person's name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language”  said Dale Carnegie who was an American writer and author of many self development books. He explains the importance of a person's name in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People. He explains that a person's name is the sweetest sound they can hear. In other words, people love to hear their own name. My name is Madhva muni and I am named after my maternal grandfather, Sri Madhvachar who while being very orthodox, was a highly successful lawyer of his time. I always felt proud of my name since it also is associated with one among the trinity of great Indian philosopher theologians, Sankara Ramanuja & Madhva, the chief proponent of the Dvaita school of Vedanta. Since the time I can remember, I have been facing a peculiar problem with my uncommon name.  When someone has to write or make a data entry of my name, invariably  made it as MADHAVA MUNI by inserting an A after M...
2 comments
Read more