I am republishing hereunder my earlier post dated 1st October 2016 where I  lamented the difficulty when newspapers bring out their daily editions without ever thinking about the problems faced by the readers.  Things have only worsened since then. In the present festive season, there are more pages carrying advertisements for items ranging from designer watches to jewelry to shoes to pressure cookers.  Then there are of course full-page advertisements about the great advancements made by  States preparing for elections with beaming photos of  CMs and national leaders. There is no definite page carrying the crossword puzzle, it is on the last page some days or elsewhere on others. The most annoying thing is the one-third-width pages, two or three of them carrying even important news on Ukraine- Russia or Israel - Hamas war.

I even wonder if the newspaper owners are like the Raakhchashas of yore  deriving sadistic  pleasure from readers' difficulties

"I have been a newspaper reader since my teens. I was very particular in turning the pages properly along the central fold and keeping the page I was reading properly aligned. I would fold the page in the middle while reading the upper / lower section and even fold to a quarter-size page when doing crossword.

All this disciplined manner is now threatened ever since the newspapers have changed their page presentation. For instance, The Times of India, Mumbai increases the width of some pages by an inch or so which jets out like a dog's tongue after a brisk run. In some editions, the first page is entirely devoted to a full-page advertisement, and the page is slit in the middle vertically and opens like a two-door window. Worse is the single page in the central section which falls on the floor often.

All these are irritants to a septuagenarian newspaper addict like me. Will I see my newspaper presented like in the good old days before I fold and close myself and am not there to open it"