If you ask me what is the most irritating sound in this world… my reply would be the sound of an alarm clock… can you believe, still, its me who puts the alarm of 7am on all weekdays :o(. And as soon as my alarm clock warn me to a sense of danger of getting late for office, I know if I laze even for a petite while I will be late (every minute is precious in the morning). So I get up (still my eyes closed) searching for my toothbrush and the toilets latch and then am busy in the kitchen. After some time I hear my hubby getting up always with the first question “Why didn’t u wake me?” as if he didn’t hear the frustrating sound of the alarm and I am the only person to hear that annoying sound Grrr!! “Happyz see this”, ”hey check this out”, that’s my hubby, reading newspaper lying on the bed, God only knows, how I wish I could take my own time, reading newspaper in the morning, but no the clock is ticking and my boss is waiting to see my sweet face at 9am sharp. (So now after marriage I know how most men are always aware of the latest news whether its politics or sports). Still it is usually me standing ready at the door, waiting for hubby dear to come… Tsk!! Tsk!! :o(
A few days back (in the evening)
Hubby: Did you check that epaper site of TOI?
Happyz: No, which site?
Hubby: what dear, you should be aware of all the latest news; today TOI launched the epaper site.
(Happyz just gave an angry look to hubby.)
Hubby (getting the news paper) see this, epaper.timesofindia.com, its fantastic, exactly like our daily newspaper.
(Happyz now even angrier, promised herself to have a look at this site first thing on reaching office.)
The next day morning, I typed https://epaper.timesofindia.com on my URL and hit enter.
And Lo!!
Got A cool Home Page, but what do I see, A login screen, only for Indiatimes user and hey what’s this a message reading “CURRENTLY FREE, future subscription charges, blah, blah…”” Anyways at least till its free let me be at pace with the latest news… Immediately I logged in with my indiatimes id.
Uff oo!!
Another Welcome Screen… epaper is the new way to read and experience your favorite Printed publication Online - from anywhere in the world over a simple browser. I almost shouted “Where is the latest news?”, still I read the complete page which gave the features of this site and believe me as I went on reading I was more stir up to get this news reading experience. Then there are some warnings oops!! Notes, below the feature list… I almost cried out “will I ever reach the news section?”, finally I clicked on “Dial-up connection” button…
OMG!!
What do I see… the entire TOI newspaper , as I see (whenever I get time) in the paper format. I somehow controlled my tears of joy and went on browsing. But what’s this I cant read anything, as the font is too small. On taking the cursor across the articles I saw the current article gets brown color and you can click on it to read. Not wasting any more time I clicked on one of the articles, and wow I see the news article popping up in style in a new window. Enjoyed reading a few articles on page one. Clicked on “”Next page”” and so on I went… getting bored to just click “”Next page”” every time I see pages not of my interest (share prices/classified and all)
Now that I have got the latest news read, I took time to look on the remaining links…
! Can read the edition of different cities by selecting City of your choice from the Choose City menu.
! Missed some news in the week? Don’t worry; just select any of the
last 6 days newspaper from Menu.
! Want to jump to a page number. Skip next 3 pages, no problem, add current page + 4 (should know your basic math’s properly) type the page number and click go.
! Click Contents just to check all the headlines on each page of the paper.
!Articles of your interest are just a few clicks away; try the Search option.
! No you wont miss on the Supplements (Bombay Times, Ascent, Classifieds, etc.) which comes along with your regular paper. On the left menu you will find links to all the papers.
After trying out all the links and options on the site, I remembered those good old days of lying on bed and reading the newspaper. Not that I used to read the latest news and all articles but reading comic strips, headlines and a few article of my interest. I was fully convinced that I have found my “old friend”. Without second thought I made this site my home page and now every morning I am in pace with the latest around the world, thank you “old pal”. :o)
P.S: The site is still under development and there are some changes almost daily. :o)
Statuary Warning: This site is only recommended to those who really miss reading the newspaper in the morning and still inquisitive to know what did the morning newspaper looked like today!! (added after reading the first few comments ;o))