The neighbourhood supplement — Downtown — that accompanies The Hindu on Sundays, is celebrating its 14 anniversary. The Hindu Downtown’s main focus is on civic issues at the ground-level.
Spilt into six editions, Downtown captures Chennai’s flavours, festive mood, revelry and the robust spirit of her dear citizens. Be it residents’ association meeting, literary or spiritual meetings, voluntary organisations helping the underprivileged children and any other act of charity and humanity, Downtown has never failed to acknowledge them. Human interest stories are the backbone of the success of this weekly tabloid. One can recall that the series about doll-makers from Villianur near Pondicherry, highlighting about their lifestyle, work and achievements, received wide acclaim. The extensive coverage on board exams under the new Samacheer Kalvi syllabus, which standard X students faced for the first time in 2012, was highly informative and well received.
Articles on civic issues, attention to even the slightest of problems faced by residents and important given to art, culture and sports among others have brought many people closer to each other, thanks to The Hindu Downtown.
Readers look forward to Sunday mornings to make note of developments in their localities. Local bodies coming up with new projects or news reports of children excelling in State and national or international tournaments have been brought to light through the supplement. Maintaining a fine balance between reporting about people’s aspirations and what the local bodies have done for the taxpayers has been Downtown’ s strength and reason for its success.
Reader's view
The Hindu Downtown spoke to some of its valued readers about the eventful journey till date and here are some of their views… Padmaraj Jain, Managing Trustee and President, Lotus Blind Welfare Trust of India, says: “We are extremely grateful for the support that has been extended to us by The Hindu Downtown . In the past nine years, the article titled ‘Service amongst constraints’ was the only news item about the trust featured by an English daily. We have received positive feed back from many who have read the article and enquires from philanthropists who have expressed their desire to read out to the visually challenged girls. Many have volunteered to donate as well. The article has created an awareness and awakening in the minds of readers and philanthropists alike about the welfare of the visually challenged.”
E. Muralidharan writes to say, “Based on the report of area meeting published in The Hindu Downtown titled ‘Officials of Ward 123 get an earful,’ the traffic police on orders from higher officials are working to address the issues faced by residents of Alwarpet and Mylapore at the earliest. Problems such as rash driving, vendors encroaching platforms, need for speed breakers, etc, were discussed during the meeting. Traffic officials gave assurance on addressing the issues immediately. A meeting with higher police officials is also on cards. The article in your paper has helped make our problems public and forced the authorities to act.”
Overwhelmed with the response generated by the article, ‘Formulae for success in sales,’ Hariharaputhran, a marketing consultant and trainer-cum-director, Pride Academy for Selling Excellence, says: “After the publication of the article in your paper, I continuously received calls from people looking for solutions for their business problems. Four people came to my residence for personal discussion. To me, it was a soul-filling experience. It gave me satisfaction of having done something for others. People who were with me in my school and my former colleagues also contacted me. The article took me to my younger days.” The Hindu Downtown Young Entrepreneurs School, a forum for young, enthusiastic entrepreneurs, contacted and requested Mr. Hariharaputhran to address its members and share his insights with them. Eurocon Tiles also asked him to address their marketing team so that they can gain from his experience.
Orion Health Centre, jointly started by Dr. Sheela Vishwanath and S. Lakshmanan, a physiotherapist, caters to the medical needs of the elderly. A report on the centre titled ‘Geriatric care at your doorstep’ generated immense response from the public. “We received around 50 calls from across the city including, Porur, Kilpauk and Anna Nagar. As the report was published by The Hindu Downtown , people’s confidence in our service was also augmented. With repeated calls for extending our services, we had to increase the manpower to cater to the needs. Thanks to the article, Orion has been able to help elderly people who have no one to escort them to clinic.”
Ashok Kumar Goel, Managing Trustee of Geetha Bhavan Trust, Goplalapuram, which works for the cause of differently abled, writes to say that the organisation has received more than 200 responses towards the article, ‘Mass wedding for differently abled’ published in these columns.
Stating that the response was tremendous, he says, “Some approached the trust to provide financial aid. There were enquiries about marriage counselling also. Some even felt sad for having missed the opportunity and asked to enrol them for next year.
