Indian Newspapers

One really nice thing about India is that English language TV and
newspapers are quite common for a country where English is not the
main language.

The highlight of this is the Indian English language newspapers that
are very common, at least in Delhi. Several observations:

- A lot of the news in them is very sad, and makes you realize how
many people there are here, and how many bad things happen. For
instance, in Delhi at least 2 or 3 people get run over by bus a day.
When you see the state of the roads this makes a lot of sense, but you
know that in a western country it would be considered totally
unacceptable, here it is a fact of life.

- They also have a lot of really bizarre news stories that are
absolutely hilarious. Yesterday we were reading about a female circus
elephant who fell in love with a wild male elephant, and has become an
attraction for villagers as her and her mate frolic in the ponds
around the village. The story became quite dramatic when they talk
about how she no longer responds to her mahout (elephant driver), who
nurtured her like a father since birth.

- Reading a lot of the opinion pieces, etc., India seems to feel that
it is on the cusp of finally becoming a first class world power.
There seems to be a lot of nationalism and pride about the military
and India's increasing role in the world. In a lot of ways it is more
like the US then a lot of other places, because so much attention is
focused on the role of the country internationally, as a player and
not an observer.

- The trash celebrity culture has really taken off here similar to in
the US. There are many pages every day in the paper of just celebrity
gossip and pictures. They even have their own version of the Paris
Hilton jail story which involves the brother of a famous actor named
Sanjay Dutt, who is evidently in the slammer for illegal hunting of
all things.

- Despite the fact that India is a stable democracy, a lot of stuff is
settled by angry mobs. When they cover a incident of someone getting
hit by a bus, it seems that usually the driver heads for the hills, as
his bus if often taken over by an angry mob. Also there has been a
running story about a teacher who was accused in a TV expose for
pushing a student into prostitution. This resulted quickly in the
local police station being sacked by an angry mob. However, it has
come out in later days that although he was involved in prostitution,
it is not likely that his students were involved. No apology from the
angry mob has been forthcoming.