A Letter to the Reader's Digest Editor and his reply.

A letter with much expectation posted to the editor of Readers Digest and the personal reply received from the Chief Editor, Mr. Mohan Sivanand



The Editor,
Reader’s Digest
New Delhi

Sir,

Your March issue made an informative reading. The timely subject ‘recession’ related articles are very informative and useful. Editor’s Bugs me anyway ‘Language’ column was an interesting read, The writer’s narration on the quite often used word in daily life ‘anyways’ is very educative. Thanks for the great tutorial here. The Facts about fat the cover story “13 things no one ever tells you about weight loss” is really astounding. Many things mentioned are really unknown especially the “Sleep Treatment”. Your interview with Maria Tippett the author of the master photographer Yosuf’s photographs were well captured, but it would have been better if you would have given one or two photographs apart from portraits. ‘The Air up there’ on women astronauts was a fitting tribute to the women astronauts on the occasion of international women’s day. Last but the least, about the visionary doctor Govindappa Venkataswamy’s enduring vision fulfilled through his family tree. You should have mentioned a word about this visionary doctor’s story (Bonus Read) on the cover page. The writer’s concluding paragraph said everything in short. “Though Dr. V’s strength waned his family continued “growing and developing a little of Dr. V in each of them. Ashok Mahadevan’s write-up is a great tribute to Dr. V and his institution ‘Aravind family’.


Philip Verghese ‘Ariel’,Secunderabad.


Dear Mr Ariel,
Thank you for your kind words on our March issue. It's always a pleasure to hear from our readers. You also asked a good question: Why was Dr V not mentioned on our cover? I have to explain that we have a lengthy and meticulous research process where every word written for RD is fact-checked independently by our Research Editor and a "research report" made, no matter who wrote it -- staff or outside writer, or me. Also, our covers have to be printed early. Before the March cover went to press, there were still several unfinished bits in the fact-checking process (in the Dr V article), and so I did not want to risk mentioning it on the cover, just in case it had to be rescheduled for the next month. Without a full research report, we don't publish anything. In fact I too would have been happy to have Dr V mentioned on our cover.

Best wishes,
Mohan

____________________
Mohan Sivanand
Editor
Reader's Digest India

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