What regional dailies and magazines mean to migrants in Pune

Vijayalakshmi Somasundaram, who hails from Tiruchirappalli is an old customer of the post office. She is a subscriber of a new supplement of the Tamil magazine ‘Kumudam’ which she used to read as a college student back home.

“Snegithi is their new supplement, so I have started reading it,” says Somasundaram who moved to Pune 20 years ago with her husband from Chennai, who got a job in the Indian Railways.

“Snegithi means a lady friend,” Somasundaram explains. It’s a monthly magazine, whose target audience is core Tamil women readers. This magazine is delivered to Somasundaram’s Pune home through post.

Apart from its nostalgic value, she says she reads it to stay in touch with the language.

Somasundaram says she is drawn to ‘Snegithi’ for its stories on women who have moved towards “growth and success in life”. But apart from that she also claims to read every corner of the magazine which includes health tips, recipes, horoscopes, house tips, etc.

“The magazine organises district-level and state-level competitions and also gives prizes to those who win. But since we don’t live in Tamil Nadu, I can only read the magazine, not participate in the competitions,” she elaborates.

Somasundaram recalls that earlier she could only get Tamil books only at the railway stations. “This subscription has now made it easy to get the magazine delivered every month,” she smiles.

The post office, however, is not the only source of supplying newspapers and magazines. The Somasundarams buys Tamil newspaper ‘Dinakaran’ daily from the market to keep track of all the news from their native state.

So does Keralite B Madhu Nair, president of Poona Keraleeya Samaj, who has been a consistent reader of ‘Mathrubhumi’, a Malayalam newspaper, for the past 15 years.

West Bengal native Arun Chattopadhyay who moved to Pune in 2004 has been a reader of the Bengali magazine ‘Desh’ for around 50 years. “I have been reading ‘Desh’ since I was 15 or 16 years old. In Calcutta, it was delivered at our home on the day of its publication. In Pune, all these years, I have been getting it from the same shop, but it takes three to four days after publishing to get a copy.”

The Bengali sweet shop ‘Calcutta Sweets’, near Salunke Vihar Road, which doubles up as a magazine and periodical seller, has been the source of all the latest editions of ‘Desh’ for Chattopadhyay. Only eminent Bengali writers write for ‘Desh’, he remarks.

Chattopadhyay has also subscribed to ‘Anandabazar Patrika’, a Bengali daily.

“Getting news from West Bengal is not that important, as I am not in the same state. After living in Pune all these years, getting news from Maharashtra is more important for me. But this daily helps me to stay in touch with the language,” Chattopadhyay said.

When Chattopadhyay moved to Pune, an edition of Anandbazaar Patrika used to be published from Mumbai. So he could get it the same day. But since that has been shut, he receives the paper one day late from the same paper delivery boy, who delivers all the English dailies.

Chattopadhyay is keen on reading special editions released by Bengali magazines on the eve of Durga Pooja, called the Sharadiya editions. Sharadiya is a word that signifies that Durga pooja is round the corner.

Arnab Mukherjee, who moved to Pune in 2009, also shares the same feelings. He said, “During pooja time, we get special editions of ‘Desh’ and ‘Anandabazar’, I really like to read those, the environment is different, and reminds of childhood memories,” Mukherjee says.