Copyright@shravancharitymission
By Kamlesh Tripathi
By Kamlesh Tripathi
When
you calculate or plan the ‘capacity’ of a crowded place, in terms of a frolicking
crowd in a building or a mall you normally take an area of nine square feet per
person (3 x 3 feet). In Delhi Metro this painfully gets reduced to four square
feet per person (2 x 2) or even less because of the nagging crowd.
In big
cities and booming metros preference of real estate in terms of size has only
reduced because of the size of the pocket, so much so in very expensive areas
three bedrooms have become two and two have become one. And so, one or a small-size
or a compact unit is the-in-thing.
In
the auto industry also sedans have become compact sedans and compact sedans
have become hatchbacks. 350 CC bikes have reduced to 125 CC.
But even
with all the stinginess of shapes and sizes all around, the size of newspapers continues
to remain as generous as ever and the thickness has only increased because of
the advertisements and the complexity of the world at large that needs to be
covered.
Now,
let us for a moment run through the unwieldy size and spread of the newspaper. Take
for example the size of Times of India which is 32.9 cm in width x 52.5 cm
height = 13 x 21 inches respectively, which is around 210 square inches or 2.09
square feet and if you open the newspaper holding the two ends in your hands the
width increases to 2.2 feet and the area to approximately 4 square feet.
Today,
India has a literacy level of 74%. Most homes subscribe to a newspaper, be it
may in English, Hindi or any other local language. And with the rise in
population the density of people living per square kilometer has only
increased. Places have become crowded to overcrowded and people are unable to
read their newspaper in crowded places, when most of them are forced to spend a
majority of their time during the day in crowded places, because of its
unwieldy size, and time immemorial folds and pleats that is extremely inconvenient
to spread and read even with a swirling fan above you and this has led to:
-
Increase
in number of subscriptions but reduction in actual reading, as most subscribers
have only become ‘Head-Line’ viewers because they don’t get an opportunity to
read the newspaper during the day in crowded locations and while at work to
their hearts content, which over a period of time has become an onerous
exercise only because of its size and folds.
-
Most
office goers would love to read newspapers in the morning while travelling to
office to utilise their time effectively, in a public transport but the
unwieldy size of the newspaper doesn’t allow you that convenient privilege.
-
Once
you are in office you are on the grind and newspaper is soon forgotten as—RADDI.
SO
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE
-
The
size of the newspaper should be made more slim and precise so that one can open
and read it in crowded niches, in metros and in other modes of public transport
where even INTERNET doesn’t work, and so you can’t think of reading e-papers.
-
The
correct design could be a ‘newspaper’ that could be opened and read with a
single hand more like a book in crowded places.
-
One
can think of compartmentalizing the daily newspaper into various chapters that
can be sold separately if the subscriber doesn’t want the full newspaper, for
everyone doesn’t read everything in the newspaper, such as:
-
Only
Headlines
-
Politics
-
Sports
-
Current
affairs
-
Page
3
-
Movies
and entertainment
-
Spiritual
-
Medical
and Health
-
Corporate
and Industry
-
Crime
-
International
affairs
-
Education
-
Jobs
-
Children
I
understand the paper of the ‘newspaper’ is subsidized and the same can continue
irrespective of the size and compartmentalized contents as this is one of the
widest and most effective ways towards a literate India and even if GOI has to
spend extra it should not mind and the citizens and the newspaper lobby should
push for it.
***
