To everyone who thinks, I bungled up with the headline, think again.

Indian media is as far from emerging from the stone age as it could possibly be. And I am not just talking about the quality of stories on India TV and Aaj Tak. Really, there’s very little the Indian media seems to be learning from the doom in the West. If I may proclaim so, the recession has hit the traditional media industry the hardest of all. It’s not mere budget cuts that are affecting media persons.

The media in the West is turning over and d.y.i.n.g. Newspapers, TV channels and radio are laying off journalists left, right and center. News spaces are shrinking as advertising disappears.

So what are the smarty pants up to? Hell, they’re moving operations online. Last week, Seattle Post-Intelligencer switched off its printers and moved all editorial to the web. With the PI gone, Seattle is on its way to becoming the first newspaper-less city in the world (of course there are the backyards of Africa and Asia where people have never seen newspapers but who cares about them anyway).

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1 Comment | In: India | tags: aaj tak, backyards, budget cuts, center news, doom, india tv, indian express, indian infrastructure, indian news, journalists, media persons, newspapers tv, pi, recession, seattle post intelligencer, smarty pants, stone age, swastik, tv channels, twitter. | #

The former Kerala nun who has published a harrowing account of harassment during her time in service raises the most serious questions in the history of sexuality. It’s a fact, whether ‘man’kind accepts it or not – Women are harassed, by Men, whether they are in convents (in Kerala), pubs (in Mangalore), or homes around the world.

From Indian Express:

In the Malayalam memoir called ‘Amen’, former Sister Jesme lifts the dark veil over sexual abuse, corruption and power struggles in the catacombs of convents where she lived for about 30 years.

The church is yet to officially respond to the tell-all reminiscences of the 52-year-old Jesme, holding they would react to it after studying the book.

An English professor and the Principal of a church-run college in Thrissur, Jesme quit the convent in 2008 after spending years of ‘sufferings and struggles’.

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No Comments | In: Feminism | tags: aspirant, catacombs, convent, convents, dark veil, english professor, fellow sisters, harassment, indian express, man kind, mangalore, memoir, nuns, power struggles, religious life, reminiscences, rude shock, sexual abuse, sufferings, trauma society. | #

It was not a sleepless night I spent the day after my interview for the Indian Express. But the three times I woke up on that hard hotel bed, I murmured to myself…’Indian Express, Ahmedabad’. That’s how much I wanted this job. That’s how much I wanted to be here, of all papers, of all bureaus. Ahmedabad kicked off my career. All this city meant to me before I came here was the ‘suspended-in-the-air-tap’ fountain I had seen in a photograph in India Today years ago. And of course, it also meant I wouldn’t have to depend on my parents for my monthly (ahem) extravagances.

And then I came here. To work, finally. Done with studying for a bit. Time to do something I loved doing. Letting my curiosity loose. Sniffing out stories by the wayside, in anesthetized hospital corridors, in flooded villages and barren ones.

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No Comments | In: India | tags: adrenaline, ahmedabad, air tap, apointment, curiosity, daily dose, evenings, footpath, hospital corridors, hotel bed, india today, indian express, kick ass job, onlookers, pothole, rainwater, scooty, sleepless night, three times, wayside. | #