A Response on Outlook News Weekly's January 2010 Special Issue.

                                               Cover Page

The Chief Editor
Outlook Weekly
New Delhi

Dear,
Mr. Mehta, this issue the double issue is no doubt a Special New Year gift to your readers. Your selection this year for the feast is really praiseworthy. Though as you said nothing much has happened as bad mews as expected. It is good you brought a sumptuous feast to your readers in this form interestingly avoiding the chicken tikka, chilli etc stuff, but had given importance to the Nadan (local) Dosa like south Indian stuffs. I am happy to make a note of Paul Zachariaariah’s ‘Once Upon An Erissery’ the Kerala's own sadya and appam (coconut milk special) and other food items, yes, gone are the days, now everything available in a ready made mix in packets is the sorry state of the high-tech India. Yes, the traditional taste is gone forever; altogether this double issue no doubts a double feast on the eve of New Year 2010.

But very unfortunate to note that this time you very ceremoniously pushed out your readers from the pages for airing their views through letters. This is really surprising that only one weekly do this type of editing in the news weekly category I don’t know why you followed their step. Very unfortunate indeed.

Anyways, Thanks Mehta and others for this sumptuous feast you provided this year. Keep it up Mr. Mehta the dog editor. LOL
philip verghese ariel
Secunderabad, India

Mr. Mehta


No Butter Chicken
For the absence of really bad news, one must sincerely thank 2009.
Vinod Mehta


No Butter Chicken (The Editorial)

For the absence of really bad news, one must sincerely thank 2009.


Special Issue: 2009 The Year That Was 2009 The Year That Was
I’ve been performing the year-end review ritual for more years than I care to remember. Not only am I fatigued, the ritual too is fatigued. The fixed format consists of compiling a laundry list of the good, the bad and the ugly. Add to this combustible cocktail the defining event/s of the preceding year, and you have the requisite 900 words. There is a catch, though. Supposing the defining events of the aforementioned 12 months turn out to be duds, false alarms?

Take 2009. We thought that the Satyam scandal would seriously shake international confidence in our prestigious and profitable software industry. (Our software industry continues to be a cash cow and is still universally admired.) We thought Varun Gandhi’s hate speeches would communalise the general election. (Nothing of that sort happened, no communal incidents took place.) We thought the stockmarket, having crashed, would never recover, leading scores of investors to suicide and the country to financial ruin. (The Sensex is currently buoyant and might soon hit 20000). We thought that the world’s first pandemic this century, swine flu, would result in mass fatalities. (The pandemic has blown away, less than 200 people in India died.) We thought the expulsion of Jaswant Singh for writing a provocative but boring book would mean disaster for the bjp and its extinction as a serious political formation. (After some hiccups, a fresh, young, eager team is in place; Mr Advani is very much around, and wonder of wonders, there is talk of Mr Jaswant Singh going “home”). We thought the entry of Barack Obama into the White House would usher in a brave, new world with the United States mending its ways. (President Obama is doing terribly and Uncle Sam, as visible in Copenhagen, has not changed his stripes.)…. Read more @ http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263512">@ http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263512 ">http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263512

PS: Part of this letter you can read it at these links:

Source: http://www.outlookindia.com/content.aspx