Ei Samay: My verdict.

Here it goes.The verdict on the most awaited launch in recent times in Bengal. Ei Samay-the bengali daily
from the house of TOI. Waited for the 2nd edition of the paper to come out today before sharing my views.

The good
1.The Mamata cartoon by Ajit Ninan. Killer.To accompany her interview,and surely to be seen by her
majesty-a superb touch.
2.The article on Mary Kom on Day 1.Well researched.Beautifully written.And a super pic of Mary Kom in a
saree to go with the piece.
3.Sanjib Chattopadhyay-he is back..this time getting a little emotional talking about his connection with
the Ganges. If the TOI folks are listening,please-if you haven’t yet planned-make sure you make him write
a weekly article at least.
4.R K Laxman’s cartoons in bengali. Where is the superlike button on print when you really need one?

The bad
1.The ‘futuristic’ Bengal of 2032 supplement.Done to death formula.Big boring piece on Day 1.
2.Sports coverage on Day 1.Extremely weak.Marked improvement on Day 2 though.
3.Ads.At least 60% of the inventory dedicated to ads. But what else do you expect when it’s TOI you are talking about?
4.2032.Kolkata Premier League football.Royal Bengal Reds coached by Leo Messi. Mohun Bagan coached by Drogba.Cruz Beckham playing for Mohun Bagan. Someone in the TOI office loves his football and really was having a field day writing this.Apart from the spectator slang section at bottom right-nothing was funny in the piece.

The ugly
1.The first 4,yes FOUR pages on day 2 were full page ads.And TOI claims they will speak ‘new age lingo’
of Bengal with quality content. LOL.
2.Ok. This is the 3rd post on Cartoons.Henry,the iconic comic strip by Carl Thomas Anderson,which all
bongs have read as ‘Gabloo’ in the ‘Shuktaras’ and ‘Anandamelas’ has reappeared here.But-who gave TOI
the right to change it to “Gollu”!! That’s a sacrilege! As bad as ‘news pollution’/or Chowmein resulting in
rapes.
3.Dennis the Menace is NOT written by Hank “Ketchman”! Aarghh!! As if the ‘Sohobaag’ and the ‘Shochin’ -s of ABP were not bad enough. Our bong pronunciation is the object of ridicule for many-please don’t use such disgusting translation of proper nouns to rub it in further.
5.A futuristic Time magazine cover of Mamata as PM of India. The same day that the rapes owing to
freely mixing comment was made.Period.

A word about the Editor-Suman Chattapadhyay-one of the most respected senior journos in the country. Knows the state well.His debut on TV was nothing noteworthy-but this time around he seems to have a strong strategy in place. Very few could interview MB as frankly as he did in the Tuesday edition.

What did you think of Ei Samay?