Recently stumbled upon a new venture, a Feature Tabloid for Chennai, Vivartha and it gave me another opportunity to don my (dusty) critic cap.
Apparently Vivartha in sanskrit means transformation. 'Be the change', they proudly extol. What change? Change from what? To what? I wonder. I mean that tag would work for a Political organisation, say , an off-shoot of Lok Paritran, bringing about social transformation and all. But for a tabloid. Seriously???
I mean what is this with obscure sanskrit names. And there was something about Krishna and Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita (enlightening with words of wisdom, no less) and Gandhi in their website that I couldn't make the heads or tails of.
Do we infer that they aspire to change the existing journalistic traditions? Of sensationalism, biased reporting and 'Page-3 obsession' of the media. I couldn't make out from their website. Still, we are talking a Tabloid here or did I miss something.
And from the looks of it, I imagine they focus on a niché youth market, what with Pink Floyd, 'togetherness' and bikes. So who is Pink Floyd?
So, what was that about 'Being the change'. There is enough change in Chennai without 'Vivartha', thank you. Do you know a cup of coffee costs 50 bucks? And an evening out a couple of hundred? Youngsters are aping the 'West' leading to a caricature of 'Pizza-munching, Brand-touting, accent-flaunting' delinquents who have no idea about the value of money or regard for their parents' hardships.
Perhaps, all we need is change, but in this direction!!!???
While I support any new venture, I would like to know in KISS terms (no construing this transformation or permeading like the morning sunshine), what they hope to achieve with their tabloid. I am not judging...so if they are going to say cheap thrills, debate on Nike or Adidas, mobile phone reviews, exclusive snaps of Brad Pitt and Jolie's kid and other Gen X stuff for the urban youth, I'll say Atta! boy! and maintain a distance.
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Update: One of the writers of Vivartha has responded to my criticism. I have put it in the comments section.
Time whizzes by and I, I write of glimpses I steal
6 comments:
egad, maybe they have a point, but the sheer unreadablity of their writing made me miss it.
as for 'be the change' i think it's just another pop-culture term, much like 'im feelin grooovy'.
same here. i am not against a new youthful tabloid per se. All i want is something more understandable.
and i bemoan the passing of 'Be the change' to a, what was it, pop-culture term. tht makes it so hollow, i think .
Vivartha's reply:
" be the change"
We want to provide an alternative to mainstream media ie a space for the people who dont get a chance to voice their opinions aloud . We plan to feature book reviews , interviews and opinions which might be anti status quo and not so well known. it might not change journalistic traditions (god forbid) but we will be doing our own thing . it will take time for this to gain ground but we realize that..
So i dont know about social transformation etc. those r words politicans use and meant for headline grabbing material but its rarely that simple to transform. people who have such lofty ideas often fade away soon . we r here to stay
And just because its a tabloid does not mean it has to be paparazzi shit filled with provacative images. the paper is in the form of a tabloid. thats all .
About the market : its youth focussed and na to cheap thrills for GEN X
Vi in Sanskrit can mean different, and denote excellence. Maybe they are using it in that sense.
The link you gave says site under construction, and I wasn't going to comment without reading the tabloid, but their reply goaded me into this post.
What a cliche-ridden justification! Add bad spelling and scatalogical references, I don't need to know more.
Whooooo Hooooo!!!
This post got linked in a blog aggregator. (gilli.in). Isn't that great???
Lalitha! Thanks for bringing my attention to it.
The new vivartha website is up now. Please take a look at www.vivartha.com and post your comments there.
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