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Seth & Karkaria

Why do people write in with their personal problems to the myriad agony aunt columns in newspapers? If I have a problem, wouldn't it be simpler to go to some one I trust, some one who would know more about my past - my case history so to say - and thus be better qualified to give me advice?

I have tremendous respect for Mr Suhel Seth... but if he thinks he is answering queries put in by actual people on his column Survival Strategies in the Graphiti (the Sunday Magazine supplement of Kolkata's leading English language newspaper, The Telegraph) I think he is mistaken... Read some of the questions and answers that appeared in last Sunday's (29th March 2009) edition. (see them on The Telegraph site here). You'll find
  1. Name and address have been withheld in all cases
  2. Nearly in all cases, the questions asked are leading ones
  3. The answers attributed to Mr Seth hardly seem like solutions... the nameless and homeless persons asking the questions would be liable to become more confused than ever before
Now take a look at the questions put to Ms Bachi Karkaria in her column, Giving Gyan on the Mumbai Mirror (click here to read the column on 1st April 2009 and here to read the first ever column). I again place on record my utmost respect for Ms Karkaria as a columnist.. One of the joys of my angst filled life used to be reading the double Sunday treat from Times of India Erratica & Jugular Vein. (Sadly though, Ms Karkaria's and Mr Suraiya's columns seem to have moved apart from each other of late, and get published on all sorts of inconvenient days.) But nevertheless, I do have an element of doubt with regard to the veracity of the column Giving Gyan. 

Now I have a few points to make:
  1. Whenever such a new column is started, who writes in with the first question?
  2. Given the cryptic nature of responses that Mr Seth provides why would people want to present their problems to him at all?
  3. And in general... the point I started out with...
In conclusion, I overheard Alec Smart say - May God bless all souls with the problems in their life that they may come out smarter and stronger for solving these problems on their own...

Comments

  1. Non31 May, 2009 19:17

    Like you mentioned earlier, most of those letters are hoaxes - I've seen this very phenomenon take place before my very eyes when my friend sent a prank letter and it got published. Neither the man nor his column should me taken too seriously.

    Still, that doesn't change the fact that Mr.Seth clearly doesn't know where to draw the line. Rude, snobbish and clearly overflowing with smite, I feel sorry for the few genuine contributors who expect a decent reply from this terrestrial Satan.

    ReplyDelete

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