For almost 4 years, we went without newspapers. Flipboard & Feedly were the primary source of daily news (link to an older post YES to News, NO to Paper). Business news from Business Standard, global news from BBC, local news from Deccan Herald, editorial & opinions from The Hindu — it was the best of many worlds. And there were no stacks old newspaper to take care of.
Then came the diktat from our housing society that only newspapers are to be used to line the wet garbage bins. There was no way out of this, but to start buying newspapers again.
The local delivery boy defaulted to The Times Of India. Unfortunately nothing had changed with this publication over the years. It was as trashy. Focus on sensationalism rather than news. It has its pluses, but the negatives far outweigh. Even though we started it for the garbage bins, where the ToI rightly belonged, it seemed so wrong that we were contributing to its circulation. We changed over to The Hindu.
The Hindu has been a revelation. It has positively changed over the years. More pictures, but in moderation. More importantly, pictures are relevant to the news. Without worries, we let the kids read it. It even runs Calvin & Hobbes.
It does as good a job as any with lining the bins too. It has helped that I’ve discovered a cool way of making bin liners with newspapers from The Alternative.
Picture courtesy: http://www.thealternative.in/