"Babu Boro Najja Korey" - says Print

Fellow Bongs will probably be able to relate to this better. In a culture that was dominated for years by endless rehashing of Tagore and Brecht, Banchram-er Bagan by Monoj Mitra came like a breath of fresh-air and caught the fancy of the Bengali theatre-goers in the ‘80s. Tapan Sinha later made it into an award winning film. The main protagonist was – Bancharam (played by Mitra himself in both the stage production and the film ) , a loyal farm retainer, who had been gifted a small patch of land for his subsistence by the old Zamindar in a momentary lapse of generosity. After the death of the patriarch, his son - the new Zamindar wanted to evict Bancharam from his gratuitous tenancy but was shy of using brute force in deference to the will of his late father. But, Bancharam – ever so genially assured him that it was just a matter of months before he died, when the land would automatically revert to the landlord since he had only living rights and no ownership over it.

So each year, the zamindar would return hoping to see Bancharam dead and gone – only to find him alive and thriving. And, Bancharam would tell him in all humility and a great deal of embarrassment - “Babu, boro najja korey “ ( My lord I feel deeply ashamed ) – I had given you my word that I would die within this year but I’m so thoroughly useless that I couldn’t keep even this simple promise. As years passed by, Bancha far from showing any signs of imminent departure found new reasons to keep him going for just a wee bit longer. First, it was to wait till his son grew up, then to get him married and after that a desire to see a grand-child…..

In many ways, I think this could well be the story of Print in India. How many times have soothsayers predicted the demise of print and experts have rushed to write its obituary. Each time Print has surprised its detractors not just by staying alive but actually scoring a come-back. The most recent was, perhaps, when Media experts had all but written off the growth in print-advertising following the heavy in-roads of Satellite TV, Print turned the table by garnering a higher share of the ad-pie and growing faster than TV over the last couple of years.

In an Annual Survey of Editors commissioned by the WORLD EDITORS FORUM and REUTERS - fifty six percent of editors surveyed believed the future would be free newspapers, And only 45 per cent thought journalism’s quality would improve. An annual survey of editors commissioned by the WORLD EDITORS FORUM and REUTERS ( Click here to read artcle in The Hoot )


But another article published not too long ago in Indian Knowledge at Wharton talks of why Print Still Makes Sense in India citing the example of a boom in Business Publications ( Read full article and comments at : Busines Publications are Booming in India )

So where' print really headed in India? Let's re-open the debate. It'd be great if we can get some friends from the Electronic Media to also join in....