Godman dreams of seeing news item in Times of India; sparks frenzy in Mumbai

Mumbaikars went to sleep on Thursday night in anticipation of the big day that lay ahead. A big time godman had dreamt of reading a newsitem in India’s own page 3 spreadsheet Times of India. It seems the godman Slipper Sarkar had dreamt on Wednesday night that the Times of India will publish a news item among the myriad ads it publishes, on Friday.

It maybe recollected that rumors of Times of India publishing news items has been around since quite sometime. Sources familiar with the print media sector opine that after Times of India stopped publishing news items about a decade ago, many from across India claim to have seen genuine news articles in the newspaper, every now and then. The reports are however far and few and categorized alongside UFO sighting reports.

“I am not too sure about the whole thing. It might turn out to be another futile gold chase. Times of India is not a newspaper anymore it is instead a giant advertising platform. There are ads everywhere and inbetween ads there are pieces of absolute vapour waste written by certified clowns like Shobha De and Chetan Bhagat and page 3 mediocrity. There is no space for news items of any sort to appear. So if you ask me, I would rather dig for gold in a god forsaken place based on someone’s dream rather than search for a news item in the Times of India,” said Phulka Kumar, a senior media analyst.

But that didn't stop many Mumbaikars from waking early on Friday to search for the newsitem. However, by noon many gave up, unable to find even a single headline related to a newsitem. Times of India Group MD Vineet Jain says “I am currently busy with a beauty pageant in Somalia and will get back to you on this soon”.