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“In this city,it seems television news channels just whet the appetite of people and the craving for a detailed news and its analysis gets intense. In due course of my research,I have found out that the city has a really strong and vibrant newspaper reading culture,especially when it comes to Marathi newspapers,” says Rosen.

Rosen,who was awarded the scholarship for the academic year 2008-09 by the prestigious Fulbright US Student Program,zeroed in on the Marathi press and the politics of reading in Maharashtra after doing extensive research on Marathi speakers. “I found it intriguing that in Mumbai only 17 per cent of the population can read write and speak Marathi. But then,I also found out that Pune,a city merely 160 km from Mumbai boasts of 15 Marathi newspapers,” he says.

“Pune is smaller in terms of both its area and population and at such at a comparatively small place,15 Marathi dailies are being published making for an impressive readership. In the US,people switch from one news channel to another and that is it,there is no craving for a detailed analysis for news. So the thought of a place where the situation is just the opposite always intrigued me. All the 15 Marathi dailies in Pune are doing business,while in the US even The New York Times is striving hard to keep itself afloat,” says Rosen.

“In Pune,the circulation of Marathi newspapers grew in leaps and bounds in consonance with parameters like the per capita income,literacy rate and population and is currently the highest among all places in Maharashtra. For Marathi speaking readers in Pune,reading newspapers is so much a part of their routine that the activity has become as important as eating,sleeping or drinking water,” says Rosen.