
We need a new English phonics alphabet
When I was a young sub-editor in Indian English dailies, my news editors would simply bin the newsprint on which I’d draft headlines if I used any cryptic abbreviations.
When I was a young sub-editor in Indian English dailies, my news editors would simply bin the newsprint on which I’d draft headlines if I used any cryptic abbreviations.
The other day I got talking to a friend in India. He asked me what are my plans and when I mentioned that sooner or later I’d like to return to my homeland, he had a few words of advice, tongue solidly in cheek, listing why it would be a bad idea. Knowing my tendency for vacillation between jobs and professions, he imagined I was looking to go back to working in a TV channel (where I spent a substantial time in the past, with not much regret). So he set out on painting the picture of today’s TV media in India. This probably applies to the media in general – whether in India or much of elsewhere in the world – so after our long dialogue I asked him to pen his views down for me. The piece is in Hindi, so sorry if you cannot read Hindi or your PC doesn’t display the script properly.