The most enduring, and I must add endearing, quality about Outlook is that it's an infuriating magazine. I have often wondered how a mild-mannered, level-headed man like Vinod Mehta manages to get so many people's goat all the time and gets away with it. One just has to glance through the Letters pages of the weekly to sense the fury of most readers. For every writer who applauds, at least three are hopping mad! In fact, I spend more time going through the letters than some of the other stuff. Without doubt, Outlook has the liveliest letters section among all Indian publications; it is always a treat to read the diverse viewpoints, usually targeting the editor's opinions. But then, that's something Vinod has perfected over the years. In every publication he has edited, letters have received full play, the more critical the better. It reveals a democratic temperament worthy of admiration at a time when intolerance has become the dominant philosophy of the times.
Looking back, I think Outlook worked because it evolved a formula centred on getting people agitated. Its very first issue, if I remember right, carried an opinion poll conducted in Jammu and Kashmir in which a whopping majority was revealed to prefer azadi to either Indian or Pakistani control. Remember, that was 12 years ago, long before the term cross-border (terrorism or people-to-people) became fashionable in Delhi's living rooms and watering holes. Nor had costly but dubious opinion polls become the hallmark of contemporary journalism. As a reader I took that opinion poll with a bucket of salt, but others didn't. Furious Shiv Sainiks went on the rampage and made bonfires of Outlook's first edition. At any rate, they had an old score to settle with its editor. In the process, the magazine grabbed all the attention it needed to make it a success.
Outlook broke the established format of magazine journalism with its chatty style. It talked with you rather than talked at you. It took up unconventional subjects, liberally peppered with failsafe stuff like sex and the city, and went on to differentiate itself from its contemporaries. That was quite a challenge. Outlook has continuously innovated and kept reinventing itself to stay relevant and readable despite the advent of 24-hour TV and the ongoing information overload.
Its secret weapon continues to be the editor's passion for instigation. Many readers of the journal, I am sure, will agree with this. I am an unabashed admirer of Mehta's prose and an equally trenchant critic of his political views. But then, he never makes any bones about them and I love his plainspeaking style even if I find it naive on occasion. His wide-eyed admiration for Sonia Gandhi and equally visceral hatred for the BJP makes it clear that balance is not an attribute held in esteem in the editorial corridors of the magazine.
Of course, every publication has to carry some space fillers and I suppose that explains Outlook's selection of columnists, some of whom excel in spouting profound banalities. Most infuriatingly, there is the editor's blue-eyed girl who believes brevity is for the nerds and flies off the handle in feigned, incandescent rage over dams, bombs and every cause remotely available for hire. Who would give her such quarter, but for Outlook?
Much as I am iffy about the quality of Outlook's political content, I acknowledge its role in breaking several big stories, including the sustained investigation of the match-fixing scandal that rocked Indian cricket. It is a fact that very often Outlook comes up with stories that simply cannot be ignored. Away from hard news, Outlook has produced some spectacular special issues too. For instance, I have preserved a copy of its year-end issue last year on small-town cuisine, which covered some extraordinary culinary delights from across the country. However, for me, Outlook is like an Urdu magazine. I invariably start reading from the back because of the splendid diary, commissioned with meticulous care and superbly crafted to make each item delightful reading. Here again, I must confess my soft corner for Vinod's lucid prose; whenever he writes the diary it is simply unputdownable. Maybe I am stretching the limit of his tolerance, but I think he should pen the diary every week and preferably refrain from writing purportedly serious pieces praising Sonia Gandhi and her family at the drop of a hat!
(The author is Editor, The Pioneer, and a Rajya Sabha MP)
