INDIATIMES AND THE TIMES OF INDIA. Review on Indiatimes

''With great power comes great responsibility'' this is something I learnt from my Spiderman comics. And then over and over again as a journalist. The reason for writing this review..or whatever you want to call it is the lop-sided, biased, and personal ''reviews'' that I came across on this website, particularly that on Indiatimes and the Times of India group.

I wish mouthshut.com had a charter for all their members as well as a crash course on writing reviews. To be a good reviewer one has to be objective, unbiased, and not let personal prejudices and emotional outbursts come in the way.

In case one may have had a bad experience with one or two employees or maybe a few employees it doesn't mean that all of them are incompetent, useless and bad. To quote Gandhi, ''if there is a fault with a car, doesn't mean that all cars are faulty or that the principle of the combustion engine is flawed''. (I don't remember the exact words, but this is from Gandhi's My Experiments with Truth). One more quote this one from the Bible, judge not so that thou may not be judged.

Now coming to Times of India and Indiatimes.com. I know that the Times of India group makes blatant and vulgar use of their tremendous brand image, brand power and reach. But what the hell.. they are a business. And they are not doing it with your money. I mean come on.. you pay a piddly amount for the newspaper. And if you don't like it don't read it, don't buy it. What I am trying to say is that look at the brighter side. Look at the good things in life. For all those who have trashed the Times of India and indiatimes, here are a few eye openers..

• even today the Times of India has some of the most intellectual people and some of the best journalists and writers in the country.

  
  




• Indiatimes is the only email (in India) that gives you 10 MB of space (its now 6 MB, but event that is more than anyone else)

  
  




• while my friend Amrita had a bad experience while contacting some of their customer service people, let me tell you that I have had a totally different experience. I have always got prompt replies to all my queries.

  
  




• The standards of journalism, the quality of the copy, the reporting style at the Times of India is still better than most of the other national newspapers.

  
  




• If they use a woman (or lust as Amrita points out) that is because lust sells. And the Times of India is here to sell its products and services. That doesn't mean that all those who buy their products are services are only buying it for that single picture. I remember there was a time I only bought Mid-day for its mate. But that doesn't mean that 1.5 (or is it 2.5 Tariq) lakh people in Mumbai only buy it for the mates.

  
  




• Loading of a web page or quick or email response by itself just doesn't mean that the website or mail service is faulty. There are a hell lot of variables and issues involved. It's not the servers or your bandwidth or their bandwidth.. belive me there are over a hundred variables involved.

  
  

-Also, if a email service is slow or a web page doesn't load fast enough, it could also mean that there are so many people requesting for that page.

-While I wouldnt want to deride any service provider (all of them are free) but lets say if Rediff is faster, it could just mean that at that point of time there are much lesser people accessing the site.

• If Indiatimes was such a bad service, it wouldn't be overflowing with users. Face it folks, Indiatimes has the maximum hits (or page impressions or whatever you call it) today. It's not only for the women, or for their crappy service. They do have some meat in their biryani guys.

I could go on an on... please understand readers I am not plugging the Times of India, neither is this a paid advertorial for Times Response. In the interest of complete disclosure, I would like to state that I am a former TOI employee. And I am proud of that. Because the TOI went out of its way to help me at all stages of my association with them. Some of the reviews in my opinion are one-sided and personal.. what one would call hitting below the belt.

I am only trying to make some of my fellow reviewers see the light. For every night there is a day that follows fellows.

If some of you may have had bad experiences with certain customer service people, not just at Indiatimes but anywhere else, please remember that you can get more flies with a drop of honey than with a bottle of vinegar. Please be polite and kind when you ask for help. It goes a long way. Please don't throw attitude - everyone (me included) likes to think that he or she is God's gift to mankind. Avoid that.

And I am sure your views (and reviews) will change accordingly.