For people who grew up on Hindu and Indian Express ( especially down south ), reading TOI is a mental torchure. Headlines almost always are vague and irritating. More often than not a head line has little or no relevance to the text published under it. Bottom part of the newspaper is reserved for one of the following subjects : Viagra , Teenage Sex, Virginity or Men’s sexual abilities in a stressful environment.
It really makes me angry at the callousness at which this newspaper publishes stuff at will. Perhaps Benette and Colmenn company must be under the impression that any thing related to sex is sold fast in this country. Editorials, which are supposed to reflect the essence and maturity of a news reporting company look trivial , biased and most of the time absolute rubbish.
Readers who like reading market news and business news are at the mercy of TOI business reporters who are better trained to cover rave parties. Important issues of the nation - be it budget or BPO are always trivialized by this nonsensical newspaper under idiotic headlines and equally idiotic text. Reporters who are least qualified to report political news are often let lose to air their petty sentiments rather than reporting substantiated news after in-depth research and coverage of the subject.
Galore of typographical errors and grammatically incorrect english makes reading this newspaper a nightmare. But for us Mumbaiites, there is no option - for TOI is the only newspaper available on stands all-day. The online edition is perhaps the worst of any online newspaper I have seen so far. Pathetically slow, this online edition covers more sleazy stuff like ’Want to migrate to Australia? ..Be a Gay’ and catchy headlines ’Why Mumbai teenagers do not believe in virginity’ ( as expressed by a faceless teenage girl or a carefree socialite). When some professor of Jon Hopkins university hinted doubts about electronic voting machines, TOI went on to report ’US says EVMs are unreliable’ as if the professor speaks for the entire US. In a nut shell it is best to avoid this God forsaken newspaper in the morning lest it spoils rest of your day.