Making a news item out of another news feature is usually a bad idea. It is worse still if the story itself does not stand. And that is what it was with the Press Trust of India (PTI) item of March 26 which told us about Time magazine commending the work of Sunita Narain and Bhure Lal. "And it was largely due to their fight that the last diesel bus had left Delhi by December 2002 and 10,000 taxis, 12,000 buses and 80,000 rickshaws were powered by CNG" is what the report said. So far, so good.
But what's the big deal, if Time carried an article in which two Indians were mentioned? Do we have to jump in joy? Are we supposed to shriek in ecstasy? The PTI correspondent in New York (we are not sure if there is indeed a correspondent in NY) certainly thought so. As did the newspapers and portals which carried the story. It was just an article, for heaven's sake!
So what was this actually about, in the first place?
Well, the cover theme of the April 3, 2006 issue of Time is about global warming (Be Worried. Be Very Worried). There are some 10 items/features in the cover package. And, one of those is about environmentalists. The Narain-Lal duo are one of the lot. Nothing great about it. But, the homesick PTI correspondent thought otherwise. Certainly, worth writing home about.
So you had a eulogistic copy about Time "commending" the work of Indians. Are we supposed to be overjoyed about a US magazine mentioning the work of two Indians? Is PTI going to file a story every time Time "commends" some Indian? Ask youself, is it a story in the first place? Some, needless to say, didn't.
The Indian Express gave its own headline to the story and said Time had "honoured" our eco-warriers. Huh. Was it an honour? A short article is an honour? I guess, someone needs to be told what "honouring" means. Hindustan Times went along the same line (err... headline), but used a different word – it said Time had feted Narain and Lal (the Web edition had a different headline, though). The HT desk must have felt awfully proud.
There's a major problem here. Do we always need to gloat over fact that some US magazine has written something about some Indian? Ok, it is Time magazine. But then, so what?
