Sunday, December 31, 2006

how to write a NYTimes editorial or article about india

dec 31, 2006

good one.

this reminded me of the Dada Engine software that automatically produces the idiocy that is passed off by romila thapar and k n pannikar as history. see:

http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2005/04/how-r-thapar-and-k-n-pannikar-write.html



=====

In this piece, blogger neelakantan comes uncannily close to unraveling the NYT
editorial policy on writing about India. Someone sould keep building on this as
there is no dearth of new material, although mostly old wine in a new bottle.
Maybe we can come up with a "Write about India for Dummies" bestseller.

Sanjay

Thursday, December 28, 2006
How to write about India?

Or how to be successful/popular/sought after as a journalist/writer/author
especially abroad. Here are the rule(s) of thumb when writing about India for a
Western audience...

Heres how you go about it.

Your piece has to start well. Therefore you first create, with good
vocabulary, a nice paragraph on the social inequities. Keywords to be used are
caste, poverty, illiteracy. Statistics like 80% of India lives on farms or 50%
of India is illiterate or 70% of India do not use soap can be very handy. Other
than percentages, use population figures. 4,32, 1235 houses do not have more
than 12 volts of electricity for 3 days of the week would make a great sentence.
Include a few names like Vidharba, Madurai if you want greater impact other than
the usual outskirts of Bangalore or Hyderabad or slums of Mumbai.

If you want to become particularly rabid mention child marriage. A comparison
with Pakistan and Bangladesh at this juncture would make great reading
especially from a literacy rates or the great strides those two nations have
made. If you have to mention China, mention that they are simply a great nation
or that they will overtake India in the next 3 minutes. Never, not even once,
create an impression that overall India is moving in the right direction.

The second paragraph should be about India's growth in the last few years.
Dont forget to add a sentence in the end of this para to denounce the growth.
Keep this para as short as possible. Keywords are myth, haves vs have nots,
elitist bias. So, a sentence in this paragraph should read, even though Indias
IT and BPO sector has grown, farmers commit suicides. Do not, repeat, do not
make a connection that reforms have never really happened in the farm sector and
that it is because reforms have not reached them that this happens. Insist, by
repeated assertion, that it is IT and its success at the expense of the farm
sector that causes this to happen.

In the third para or thereabouts, compare to death. Example: Compare the life
of an educated professional with a gardener and say that the gardener earns
about 1/10th of what the professional earns. The other good comparison is the
number of hutments outside the balcony of your hotel room or the number of
beggars in trains. Wonder aloud why reforms have not reached beggars travelling
on trains. In the same trend close your eyes to the number of people cellphones
have reached, also close your eyes to how individuals are pulling themselves out
of poverty using these very things.

Over the next few paras, whine and whine. Now that you already know how to
write, just continue in the same vein. For every one sentence of Indias growth,
three sentence have to denounce it in the strongest terms. Mention two murders
which took place recently.

Somewhere just before the end, mention that Indias progress has not benefitted
anybody. Do not talk about people who have gotten out of poverty thanks to this
progress. Try to ignore gardeners who maintain lawns in the IT campuses, also
ignore cab drivers who are cab owners today. Preferably avoid talking to maids
and security guards who would not have had a job if it were not for this level
of growth. Try not to talk to people who are working hard so that their children
are educated and their next generation gets out of poverty. Also, if you have to
mention that the BPO sector attracts fresh graduates, mention that these jobs
are bad for their gall bladder at the very least. Ignore the fact that jobs are
available for the asking in India at almost all levels. Cooks to caterers to
security guards to courier boys to shop assistants to technology architects to
structural engineers. Also never once, ask the question to the man on the street
- has their life changed for the
better over the last 10 years. (Believe me, the resounding answer, except in
dark corners will be a resounding yes.)

Your last paragraph has to sound a warning to all those who read your article.
Mention about how people and companies and the government has to take more
responsibility for poverty and paint it with a broad brush of "private public
partnership to make a significant impact".

And oh, the headline of your article should read something quite apocalyptic.
"Social inequality threatens Indias Economic growth"

Btw, India really is about contrasts. While not getting carried away by the
growth and saying all is well here, let us also not go to the other extreme of
saying that the reforms have done nothing and that all is wrong here. Neither
will reforms take away inequity all of a sudden nor will inequity take away
reforms. Both these arguments miss the wood for the trees.
http://ecophilo.blogspot.com/2006/12/how-to-write-about-india.html

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