Print industry ke achche din kab aayenge?
Sriraam Selvam talks about the tale of two tragic print stories.
03 Jun 2015 | 2472 Views | By Sriraam Selvam
Tale One in Chennai
He is a former foreman of a government printing press. He is 88. He suffers from memory loss. His name is C G Ramakrishnan. On 17 May, he was missing in Tiruvallur.
For three days, he was untraceable.
Question: Where does a man who had ink flow through his veins go?
Answer: The printing press where he worked.
That’s right, he boarded a bus to the printing press where he worked till the 1980s.
He wanted to talk and walk print.
This form of amnesia cannot be halted. Perhaps the octogenarian knew this. But rather than resigning to his disease and letting it slowly drain his will, he decided to spend time at the printing press. And talk a bit about print.
Unfortunately, none of the workers at the press recognised Ramakrishnan. Due to his speech impairment nobody grasped his sign language.
All he wanted to do was talk about good old ink on paper.
Finally, at Chennai Central, Ramakrishnan wrote on a piece of paper that he wanted to get to Avadi.
Which is how he returned home in a gray colour T-shirt and a lungi along with his red checked shawl.
In his exploration, Ramakrishnan’s love and reverence for the print art shine through.
PrintWeek India wishes him well.
Tale Two in Hyderabad
Leakage of questions papers. The exam in question: Entrance Test by Vijayawada-based University of Health Sciences. More than 52 persons, including 18 brokers and 23 students were arrested in the "scam".
A CID traced the leakage into the shopfloor of a top print firm. There is a probe which may implicate the press management and higher NTRUHS authorities.
Finally, the state government cancelled the scam-ridden PG medical entrance test.
Question: And the victims?
Answer: 15,000 students who had appeared for the examinations held for the 2,240 odd medical seats.
Another print foreman (from Hyderabad) has unleashed a fraud on a loan scam scheme using fake stamp papers.
He has deployed his expertise as a printer to produce the best of loan papers.
The frauds came to light when officials looked into the details of the loans. Some of the loanees were not eligible.
Now, a list of duped persons is being prepared.
Meanwhile the scamster-cum-printer has vanished into thin air with more than a crore of rupees in his pocket.
PS: The Supreme Court has directed troubled newspaper publisher Deccan Chronicle Holdings to find a buyer for its Banjara Hills properties in Hyderabad.
PRINT KE ACHCHE DIN KAB AAYENGE?
If we wish to know about a man, we ask 'what is his story - his inmost story?. That is to say, the biography, or autobiography of the man.
If you ask a similar question about the print industry; something depressing emerges in the newspapers.
From the look of things, the singular narrative, which is constructed in the news is “doom and gloom”.
Shouldn’t we change the print narrative? To a happy one?