I don’t subscribe to any magazine anymore. It’s all about online reading now, and picking up links forwarded to me. Often, it is an Outlook story I browse through. When I did subscribe, Outlook was my only go-to magazine. I loved its elegance and liberal outlook and would trust the news it delivers more than any other magazine. While I might enjoy its left-wing liberalism, its antagonism towards other points of view is very evident and that compromises on the roundedness. As long as Vinod Mehta was working full-time, he was quite upfront about his likes and dislikes and stood always nakedly against the right-centre. Arundhati Roy’s long articles that featured every once in a while in the magazine had the Kumbaya element (a moralising impulse) which plagued the reader, though thankfully it wasn’t often, and one could live through it for the love of the magazine. Outlook always has good insights and the political stories have a reflective element. I never paid much attention to the cinema stories as I don’t base my preferences on reviews. And for other stories, as an insider, I always thought that I knew more. The magazine has failed to cover great ground in terms of cosmopolitanism. It started as a North Indian magazine and continues to remain so.
(Actor, writer and director)
Outlook invites readers to take part in its 20th anniversary celebrations. Send us your bouquets and, more importantly, your brickbats. E-mail your entry to editor [AT] outlookindia [DOT] com
