Neighbourhood newspapers across town past and present help raise levels of local awareness among residents sometimes even driving up voting numbers during local elections
Editor Sharad Kumar at the Wadala press printing Mumbai Meri Jaan. Below its masthead, the tabloid tagline reads: Forward this to all and all forward together. The paper came on the heels of eight issues of The Voice of Wadala which, too, Kumar published.
Absurdly confusing in fusing one extremity of Bombay with another, this question did get asked. Leaving SoBo-ites aghast to think their elegant Edwardian business district could be so casually transplanted north. "That-s the most shocking enquiry I-ve heard," says Anita Garware, chairperson of the Indian Heritage Society, Mumbai, who had to answer that unfortunate question. "People should take interest in the city before airing such ignorance and grumbling about what the authorities have or have not done."
To repair the despair in some measure, Garware writes the lead piece of The Voice of Malabar Hills. "Many people, here all their lives, aren-t aware of anything beyond their doorstep. I am no historian but respect what we have inherited. We are mere guardians of culture passed on to us, which it-s our duty to preserve for the future."
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Dnyanesh Chandekar, metallurgist turned editor-publisher of Aamhi Parlekar, holds up his paper at a news stand. The Marathi monthly reporting on the culturally rich suburb has initiated many firsts, such as creating the first ever season cricket training centre in Vile Parle in 1995-96, a facility earlier only at Shivaji Park.
This SoBo publication ought to be thicker with articles than columns of commercials announcing math tuitions, insurance agents, and where to buy moringa powder or asli ghee. Editor Tushar Prabhoo points out the paper-s public interest face: "Our editorial committee of neighbourhood members meets monthly to decide on content. Politicians should update residents periodically, our information about infrastructure projects comes from newspapers. There are responses from civic authorities to queries but no long-term solutions."
Ahead of private television or the Internet, area-specific publications naturally assumed importance. The Activist Bandra-Khar-Santa Cruz, Suburbia Bandra-Andheri, Up the Hill Altamont Road, Pasta Patrika Colaba, Voice of D Ward and Voice of Wadala paved the path for Bandra Buzz, Aamhi Parlekar, Planet Powai, Mumbai Meri Jaan and The Voice of Malabar Hills. Barely any of these recent papers come close to matching prototypes from the 1970s to the -90s.
Capt Prasoon Kumar in the Navi Mumbai office of Planet Powai, which he publishes weekly to offer a pulse of the precinct-s civic and community issues. Pics/Datta KumbhaR AND Atul Kamble
Voice of D Ward had the distinction of featuring districts as diverse as central D Ward Opera House-Tardeo and eastern D Ward Bombay Central-Lamington Road-sections of Kamathipura. "We hoped to connect disparate localities not even considered belonging to the same ward as those in its west division of Malabar Hill, Pedder Road and Breach Candy," says Indrani Malkani who helmed Voice of D Ward from 2003.
"D Ward is uniquely multi-faceted, it-s a miniature Mumbai. That newsletter covered posh hillside homes, beach stretches, lower middle-class localities, VIP zones and red-light gullies."
Pic/Mallikarjun Katakol
The founding editor of Suburbia, veteran journalist Ammu Joseph produced engrossing issues of the paper week after week from April 1986, the Bandra edition followed by Andheri. "Not a Bandra girl, I was new to the neighbourhood but lucky to tap into the goodwill, knowledge and contacts of friends like Darryl D-Monte for a sense of local history and people," Joseph recalls. "Freelancing wasn-t what it is now. We worked with amateur writers, editing quite a bit to ensure quality."
A finance crunch looming, the first casualty was editorial integrity, of course. "Perhaps the idea of these publications was then ahead of its time," says Joseph. "Media managers, unwilling to pressure the sales team to improve, have no problem putting pressure on the editorial team to dilute content to save money. The focus is purely on extracting from localities without contributing to them in any meaningful way."
Exceptionally written and designed, Suburbia, edited by Ammu Joseph in the 1980s, offered Bandra and Andheri residents a mix of nostalgia, civic issues, profiles of micro neighbourhoods retaining their character despite being surrounded by urban "development", reviews of restaurants and events. Pic/Mallikarjun Katakol
To buck the belief that text is simply stuff filling space between ads in papers that exploit local markets, The Activist was circulated by the H West Citizens- Trust. Accessed at ALM Advanced Locality Management gatherings, in churches and housing societies, the quarterly newsletter grew into an all-colour monthly tying up with St Paul-s Institute of Communication Education. Articulate students were at the forefront investigating conservation measures, vehicle-congested spots and potholed pavements. "This was a one-of-its-kind collaboration where a mass communications college got involved with local news," says Vidya Vaidya, then honorary secretary of the H West Ward Citizens Trust and Federation.
Currently distributing 10,000 copies in and around the Queen of the Suburbs, Bandra Buzz partially plugs the gap left by Suburbia and The Activist. Pertinent editorial picks discover the century-old fish market is minus proper sanitation, honour grande dames like Purerose Baptista on striking a century, cheer local lads at international throwball tourneys and showcase exhibitions like Western Railway-s 164-year journey at Bandra Station
last month.
Regional language locals seem to thrive on suburban soil rather than the island city. "On Fridays, Voice of Ghatkopar highlights the wrongs happening among us as well as good work done," says Jatin Kothari who conceived this Gujarati weekly in 2008 when he was just 19. For nearly 10 years, he reported for Gurjarmat, an every-Wednesday paper still popular in Mulund since its establishment in 1998 by Jayant Chheda.
The Marathi monthly Aamhi Parlekar offers over 25,000 Vile Parle residents a bumper December special too. Editor-publisher Dnyanesh Chandekar defines the paper he launched in 1991 as equidistant from all political parties while being a force that connects this ethnic suburb with a tradition of culturally rich, close-knit families. "With everybody talking of globalisation, I argued that local news is more important," says Chandekar. "Our readers are mostly middle aged. Youngsters don-t have that bond with their mother tongue itself."
Why do the midtown Maharashtrian strongholds of Dadar, Shivaji Park and Prabhadevi lack these friendly little publications? Author Shanta Gokhale feels this is because the mainstream Marathi press is already inclusive of news about smaller neighbourhood segments, right from the days of Acharya Atre-s daily Maratha, evening paper Sanjh Maratha and weekly Navyug. Gokhale gives the example of Alaknanda Samarth surprised by a critique in the universal-yet-local Maratha, of an Alkazi play she acted in. Chandekar, on the other hand, cites geography as a demarcating reason. "Vile Parle is physically tighter, less fragmented than sprawling Dadar-Shivaji Park," he explains. "At least three generations of Marathi families continue to occupy the same home here."
Neighbourhood newspapers have trailed communities within communities. Margaret daCosta edited a pair of bi-monthlies, defunct today - Pasta Patrika, which addressed denizens of 3rd and 4th Pasta Lane in Colaba, and Coming Together, for the precinct-s Catholics.
"Coming Together was born at the Pasta Lane level to spread information on church affairs among our Parish members," she says. "It brought interaction between families living in the Pasta Lanes, five counting what is called Lane "0", technically the Brady-s Flats lane."
Pasta Patrika was modelled on the lines of Coming Together. Residents of the last two lanes literally joined at the hip because you enter from the 4th and exit from the 3rd grouped on Sunday mornings over grievances to take to the BMC. Someone suggested a newsletter to keep abreast of the goings-on. "Our homes in the 3rd and 4th lanes are the pugree type. Most in 1st and 2nd Pasta Lane are ownership, so their residents communicated through building meetings and managing committees," daCosta says.
Mid-towners of a certain vintage also sorely miss Top of the Hill, published by Shirish Shah for the Altamont Road Area Citizens Committee. "This was sent free to a thousand doors," he says.
"It enabled great communication between citizens and the committee." Top of the Hill discussed a Revitalisation Plan floated by residents like architect Ratan Batliboi, which, with municipal sanctions, tried to streamline utilities, regulate parking and allocate children-s playgrounds. Anand Akerkar was among the editors of the newsletter. Years prior to the trio of towers pockmarking this sylvan street, his wife Jinx fell in love with the airy mile enveloping their Chitrakoot flat - "We looked over gorgeous Flame of the Forest trees to the sea."
Vigilant about their scenic end of the city, Powai residents greet Sunday mornings with fresh issues of Planet Powai - "the cherry on the beautiful pie of Powai", a loyalist extolled. Thousands of other readers learn facts ranging from the oxygen-consuming weed threat to Powai Lake to the success of one-way traffic flowing along arterial roads. Says former Army officer, Capt Prasoon Kumar, who introduced the weekly 17 years ago: "Planet Powai is a habit our residents are hooked on. We-ve published without skipping a single Sunday in 17 years, except for the July 2005 rain which flooded the press itself and we printed on Tuesday." Priced at Rs 10, the paper sold at R2 in the early 2000s when people came to settle in better affordable Powai from different parts of the city.
Papers can cast their crusading net farther. Mumbai Meri Jaan, edited by AGNI Action for good Governance and Networking in India trustee Sharad Kumar, is a feisty successor to eight editions of Voice of Wadala, published in 1988 on cyclostyled foolscap sheets, till it turned a citywide tabloid. "We struggle with expenses, but good Samaritans sponsor us," Kumar says. Among the proactive monthly-s victories is a considerably upped voter turnout in the 2017 BMC elections. "Voting increased by 20 after we reached out to 300 schools averaging 2,000 students. That-s six lakh students with double the figure of 12 lakh parent voters."
daCosta says, "These papers unite a neighbourhood on one platform, raise residents- awareness of what is happening and invite their participation in relevant matters." And, might we add, avoid random re-mapping of the city to place Ballard Estate in Malad.
Author-publisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay. You can reach her at mehermarfatia@gmail.com/ www.mehermarfatia.com
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