Wednesday 24 / April / 2024
Muscat: He is not your regular reader. To Indian expatriate Ramachandran Nair, reading newspapers is more than a hobby – it’s a way of life.
You can almost feel the history of journalism in Oman when you see his collection of more than 7,000 published letters, written by him, and securely preserved in his living room.
His love affair with newspapers started in his early school days, and he published his first article in a local magazine in India when he was in grade 8. A quality manager by profession, a journalist by passion, the 49-year-old keeps thousands of clippings of his letters, neatly stacked in his apartment in Darsait. In his living room, Ramachandran proudly showed us copies of Times of Oman which were published in the 1990s, with a different design.
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He shared his articles and thoughts about many newspapers in Oman and UAE since he arrived in the Sultanate in 1990.
Most of his pieces were published in the Times of Oman and Gulf News. While counting the exact number of his published content is near to impossible, Ramachandran cherry-picked some of his articles and keeps them in albums, which were created and designed in India for about OMR60 per album.
Ramachandran said he is planning to launch an exhibition in his home town in India to display his collection of newspapers and articles, in a bid to encourage new generations to read and share their ideas in the digital era.
“A healthy reading habit is slowly shifting to a different angle because of the digital invasion, so reading perceptions of people, in general, have changed a lot,” he said. While Ramachandran admits that digital media is overshadowing traditional forms of news distribution, he notes, “Although print reading will still remain, I believe there should be more focus made to its existence, by way of creatively delivering stories so people can have a sigh of relief in this busy work-life environment.”
