Our Journey

our experiences

Newspaper Special

Written By: ruchi - Sep• 03•12

Unlike bay area in California, reading physical newspaper is still in fashion in India. Surprisingly, the quality of the paper of the newspaper is much better in India than in US, which could be one of the reasons that people still like to read it. Look at the US newspaper below:

US Newspaper
And the Indian newspaper (its much glossier):
Indian Newspaper
The newspaper of course is filled with politics, crime reports and advertisements. I am surprised to see a vertical half page color ad for a soap featuring Karina Kapoor on the front page of the newspaper. I would have thought that the front page is too precious for an ad, especially above the half fold but I guess that’s one way the newspapers survive.

Delhi newspaper has a daily life style insert called Delhi Times, which is full of juicy news like what are the fashion trends, what’s the night life in Delhi, which movie is being shot in Delhi, what are the hot restaurants and so on. I love it. Look who is publishing a full page ad on the second page of Delhi Times:

Indian Newspaper
Armani for Juniors! There is market for Armani, that too for Juniors in India? Wow!

Reading newspaper over morning cup of tea is a standard routine for most people in India but Brahma Kumaris (Brahma Kumaris) suggest something very different. They say that after a good night’s sleep, one’s mind is silent so its absorption power is at its max in the morning. Whatever we feed it early in the morning stays with it for a long time. If we feed it good peaceful thoughts, it will stay peaceful the whole day. If we feed it negative or violent thoughts, it will tend to be negative the whole day. Considering that the newspaper is mostly filled with news items like crime reports, bad politics and natural calamities, Brahma Kumaris suggest to avoid reading newspaper first thing in the morning (this applies to watching television, reading emails and web surfing too). The morning time should be devoted to positive thinking, be it meditation, reading a good book, listening to some spiritual discourse or just planning for the day.
We have all experienced this phenomenon in one form or another. Remember, we used to get up early in the morning to revise the important chapters during exams because we felt that we retain morning studies much better. What about that pesky song you hear in the morning and you keep humming it the whole day? In fact we have a saying for this phenomenon in Hindi – “Aaj kiska munh dekh ke utha tha”, which fundamentally means that your day depends on your morning experience. If you have an unpleasant morning, the whole day will go bad and vice versa. Now we know why 😉
All these examples suggest that what one feeds to their mind early in the morning sticks. So why would anyone feed it negative thoughts knowingly? We don’t eat junk food early in the morning, we leave it for later in the day 😉 because we understand the need for good nutrition for our body. We need to apply the same principle for our minds. Start the day with good thoughts for a few minutes and avoid television, newspaper, emails, web for a couple of hours in the morning and your life will change, I guarantee that.