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Net Gains (May 08, 96)
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Last Wednesday, on Maharashtra Day, some news vendors in different pockets in Mumbai city went on a flash strike, which left people in placces like Dadar high & dry without their daily dose of news and entertainment. In this neglected condition, I decided to catch up on what was happening in the big bad world of Indian politics. Instead of browsing through older papers-soon-to-turn-into-ruddi, weighing 14.5 kgs. (trust me on this one - I had just bundled and weighed the whole lot), I turned to the Net instead.
The Times Of India election web site was a pleasant surprise on the Net. Elections '96 as it had been appropriately titled, was a recent addition to the millions of Web sites on the net. The first thing that struck me at this site, was the fact that there were no long waiting periods before the links were followed. A click anywhere led to a new screen, with relevant data within less than 10 seconds, which is a blessing for anyone surfing the net - specially those from India, who end up paying Rs. 20 per hour (at bare minimum) plus an additional amount from their phone bill that runs up too. The TOI Elections '96 home page is also very easy on the eyes. All links are in the form of graphic bitmaps or pictures. The link to the cartoon section for example has a picture of R.K. Laxman's ubiquitous common man staring you in the face. This makes for very easy jumping from section to section.
Just below the masthead, and the Elections '96 logo, are the links to a whole lot of election related information. From Opinion Polls, News, Campaigning, and Schedule, to the Editorial, Interviews, and Cartoons, this page has links to them all. I took a quick trip down each of these links, starting with the last link which somehow attracted me the most - the Cartoon link , by clicking on the accompanying "common man's" nose. There were two cartoons there - the funnier one showing a thoroughly bandaged up polling officer, saying that the elections at his booth were "peaceful by & large" ! The top of the page has a bold link to the advertising tariff for TOI on the net. Besides advertising on their election special, they also have tariffs for their online editions of the Times Of India, The Economic Times, Femina and Filmfare, all of which are soon gonna be available to a worldwide audience via the Internet. An advertiser has the option of being a main advertiser ( who nabs the banner under the masthead), or a catagory advertiser under the 'real estate', 'matrimonial', 'business', or 'appointments' categories on the net versions of the publications @ $215 /category per week. They also offer to create home pages at competitive prices ranging from US$30 for a simple text only home page, to US $ 185 for 3 screens with graphics et al. A customised home page comes at rates depending on the design and features.
The Opinion Polls section started off with a sequences of pictures of contenders for the post of Prime Minister of India, and their predicted chances of getting that much-desired- and-much-hated seat. Laloo Yadav's 4% and L.K Advani's 5% stood side- by-side with Vajpayee's 23% and P.V. Narasimha's 31%. A map of India followed with a state by state bar graph projection of the performances of parties in each state. Detailed yet simple at the same time.
The News section has 31 election headlines linked to their respective articles - right from "Vajpayee says Rao will be tried in hawala case, Decries EC's" and "Chandraswami factor may harm Cong., says Pilot" to "Rao assures Dalit Christians on quota". This made my catching up with election news a piece of cake. All reports were from TOINS centres spread all over the country.
The Interview link curerntly has 3 interviews (the page is still under construction) : Interviews with Nirmala Prabhavalkar, MadhavRao Scindia ('People want Rao to go'), and the late chief minister of Assam Hiteshwar Saikia on corruption, and how it has to go. The Schedules page has a table listing each of the states and on which of the four election dates (Apr 27, May 2, 7, and 21), how many constituiencies went to polls. The Editorial page has editorials taken from the Times Of India, most of them being serious first editorials, with a couple of second and third edits thrown in too, making reading not all that heavy on those poor grey cells in the upper storey.
If you voted with your mind yesterday, you won't be held responsible for all the hullah gullah (if any) that we may experience in the next five years, even as we enter the 21st century. God save our country !
What stuff in computerese really means :
cache memory: remembering how much you spent
DAT: the opposite of DIS
ink jet: a plane used for sky writing