A curious Nayaki peered into the newspaper over the shoulder of Chandru.Admiringly she looked at him and wondered " Well !!!!Why is this uncle of mine walking up and down early in the morning for a few sheets of papyrus? My dear uncle seems to be knowing everything.He is a walking Brittanica.....with a brain packed with grey cells.....and yet he needs the paper too, to further recharge the hyperactive cells."
The newspaper man was a few seconds late that day...and Chandru was restless.A frail looking young boy on a bicycle hurled the newspaper into the balcony of the second floor.By the time Chandru could open his mouth to give the fellow a piece of his mind,the boy had vanished.The daily newspaper was a bundle of joy and each member of the Iyer family waited for his/her turn.Each page was given due importance.There were no breaking news and the headlines were the news for the day, The black and white printed newsprint was a treasure and was handled with care.
Newspaper reading is an art and has to be cultivated.It is a dying art now and in the face of competition from the visual media, newspaper companies vie with one another to increase their customer base by making the contents more colourful and commercially acceptable in tune with the changing tastes.With online versions and E- readers available the present generation of ardent book/newspaper lover has the added advantage of dependence on virtual reality as well..
It was during the seventys that Nayaki had the first taste of the papyrus that left her addicted for life.The smell of the fresh paper fascinated her and when the world was not entangled in a web she was connected with reality........and it also marked the beginning of yet another association.....of wordy duels and a daily date at her favourite corner with the grids.......
