Venkat Raman
Auckland, November 15, 2020
Indian Newslink marks its 21st Anniversary today, November 15, 2020.
While our Anniversary Special will be published next month, we dedicate this day to our Founder-Publisher, the late Ravin Lal, to our readers, advertisers, sponsors and thousands of patrons all over the world. We also pledge to continue our tradition of courage, commitment and editorial integrity.
We also salute our contributors and well-wishers who have guided us on our journey that began on November 15, 1999.
It has been a journey of challenges and opportunities, threats and gratifications, bouquets and brickbats and more but we have reached this milestone solely because of you.
But let us first look back at George Orwell and his prophecies.
Journalism is no longer the domain of a few, who, through qualifications and tough training, get their first by-line after a year or two of cub-reporting.
In a fast-changing socio-economic landscape, almost everyone is a scribe, thanks to social media such Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, people can report people, events and opinions. The world thrives on instant posts- messages, reports, pictures and even love and hate.
Some milestones on our journey
The Big Brother in 1984
My first reading of ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four,’ a classic novel in content, plot and style by George Orwell, was one of petrification. I read it as a teenager (the book was actually published in 1949) and did not think of it as a literary political fiction and dystopian science-fiction as many others did at that time.
I was astounded because it was beyond human imagination of a time when everyone would ‘feel naked’ even when fully clothed in public or even private. I did not perceive then that there would the Internet of Things that will carry our words instantly from one corner of the earth to the other, crossing time-zones, seasons and political territories. Life was simple; we read books and newspapers, holding them in our hands or occasionally placing them on little stands. We never thought that the world itself would be in the palm of our hand, waiting to be tapped and clicked.
Orwellian Concepts
Many of the concepts propounded by Orwell, startling then, are reality today.
Many of his terms, such as ‘Big Brother, ‘ ‘Double Think,’ ‘Thoughtcrime,’ ‘Newspeak,’ ‘Room 101,’ ‘Telescreen,’ ‘2+2=5 and ‘Memory Hole,’ have entered common usage.
‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ popularised the adjective ‘Orwellian,’ which connotes official deception, secret surveillance, brazenly misleading terminology and manipulation of recorded history by a totalitarian or authoritarian State.
In 2005, ‘Time’ chose ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ as one of the Best English-Language novels from 1923. It was awarded a place in both Lists of ‘Modern Library 100 Best Novels,’ reaching Number 13 on the Editor’s List and Number 6 on the Readers’ List.
In 2003, the Novel was listed as Number 8 on ‘The Big Read,’ the BBC Survey.
Change and Constancy
While lifestyle of people has changed dramatically, information gathering, and analytical reporting fortunately has a place even in today’s rushed world.
That is where Indian Newslink has retained its steadfast beliefs in quality and investigative journalism, becoming a forthright fortnightly. As it is often said, it is relevance and not frequency that matters.
However, our presence among our people has been strong and pronounced. We reach them several times a day through new posts on our website, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, twice a week through our Newsletter that reaches several thousand people on our select list and every fortnight through our print edition.
The 21st Milestone
We have just completed 21 years of publication and stepped into our 22nd Year, strengthened by your patronage, care and oftentimes, constructive criticism.
Twenty-one years may be a wink in the vast canvas of time, but it becomes a milestone in the history of a newspaper.
Twenty-one years have brought with them challenges, hardships, struggle, mishaps and a mixed bag of bouquets and brickbats.
Twenty-one years of constant battle with the ends, to make them meet, so that a publication keeps ticking in its attempts to reach it readers.
Twenty-one years of anxiety coupled by excitement and despair, accompanied by hope.
Twenty-one years of professional pursuit to reach up to the expectations of its audience.
These short twenty-one years seem like a millennium for a small community newspaper that ventured out of the mind of a sole individual whose penchant for the media industry played with a passion for marketing.
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