Blame it on the weatherman

Sir — When the India Meteorological Department predicted monsoon rains, they refused to arrive. Perhaps the IMD should just report the previous day’s weather. Now the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and the Union agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, are talking about the rains. Ahluwalia should attend to the parlous state of the economy. Pawar has weak agricultural growth to deal with. These people should concentrate on their jobs instead of pondering the monsoon’s progress.

Yours faithfully,
M.M. Kale, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh

Long live

Sir — On the morning of July 7, I opened The Telegraph and stared at the front page for more than a few minutes. It took me some time to realize that the front page was that of The Telegraph as published 30 years ago. This was an opportunity to have a feel of the newspaper as it was in those days, when I was only four years old. As I started reading about the The Telegraph’s journey down the years, I got completely hooked. The July 7 edition of the newspaper was indeed “unputdownable”.

The photograph of The Telegraph office in 1983 was a treat for our generation of readers, who have no idea of how newsrooms looked like at that time. The column on the 30 changes the newspaper has been witness to, from 1982 to 2012, was brilliantly conceptualized. The special issue also made my father nostalgic. He told me that he had been a proud reader of the first issue and has been an ardent reader since then.

Happy birthday to The Telegraph and heartiest thanks for the unforgettable anniversary issue. We hope to witness such celebrations every year on July 7 in the future.

Yours faithfully,
Mitali Sen, Dhanbad

Sir — The special pull-out we received with the July 7 edition of The Telegraph was a lovingly crafted product. A lot of thought had obviously gone into it. I intend to preserve it for posterity. After all, I doubt whether the people of my generation (born in 1939) would be here for The Telegraph’s 50th birthday bash. My late father, a well-known ophthalmologist of his time, had a penchant for good English. He also wanted to make sure that I, his only child, spoke and wrote reasonably good English. I do not know whether I have succeeded in fulfilling my father’s wish but his insistence certainly made me develop the habit of the reading the paper inside out in the morning. Thanking The Telegraph, may I suggest that the newspaper ventures to publish editions from Delhi and Mumbai as well? If the other leading daily of Calcutta can do it, why not The Telegraph?

Yours faithfully,
Dipak Banerjee, Calcutta

Sir — I have enjoyed reading The Telegraph for 30 years, but of late, I have been dissatisfied with the contents of the first page. Some of the recent front-page reports do not seem to merit that place. Moreover, the “In brief” column contains very few snippets.

Yours faithfully,
Raj Bagri, Calcutta

Sir — I have been an avid reader of The Telegraph from the first day of its publication and I consider it my paper. The careers of newspapers go through ups and downs. But the journey of The Telegraph has been upwards all the way, excepting the small setback of the fire at the office in 1999. While wishing the paper well, I suggest that it considers introducing a weekly column for senior citizens like us.

Yours faithfully,
Tarun Kumar Sarkar, Bokaro