Good or bad, readers always have an opinion

Feedback keeps everyone going, but for us journalists, it is a lifeline. Many of my articles have generated fervent interest amongst readers, a lot of it hate mail I confess, but I am not really ashamed of the fact.

Quite a few the angry responses have been a result of articles chiding right-wing fundamentalists, or those highlighting the plight of families of Tada detainees. Once, when I wrote about the security wall around Siddihvinayak Temple negatively impacting real estate prices in the area, it generated entertaining reactions from some devotees, who questioned my faith, and some thought I was now cursed.

Then there are the many Marathi manoos who felt betrayed when I questioned the politicisation of the Marathi language and identity. They attribute my examining the issue to my convent schooling in an English-medium ICSE school.

Then there are the suave Brahmins who have hurled choicest abuses at me for questioning the community’s fence-sitting attitude. Another lot has sent couplets from various scriptures hoping I will eventually be influenced into accepting that the politicians who beat poor North Indians to ‘protect’ Marathis are the true messiahs.

The readers often also tell me how the paper should be run. Like most Indians, who believe that had Sachin had done this or that he would’ve easily scored triple centuries, they insist that if the paper is run on their suggestions it will become number one in the country.

That said, whenever I have written about cooperative factories and agriculture, it has been heartening to learn how curious and open-minded readers are to new ideas and research. When I did a story on a private company’s research on paddy and other crops, many readers called and wrote in asking for details, quite a few of them from remote places. In this ephemeral email-driven world, there is something very charming about receiving feedback on inlands and postcards, many of which I have refused to junk.

A senior citizen, after reading my article on Alphonso mangoes, wrote in with a request that he wanted to taste one from each place I had mentioned, but since he was old and immobile, could I get them for him. I did seriously think of booking a seat for him on the Konkan Kanya train.