Walkies

There was an interesting story in yesterday's Times of India (India's most dreadful daily), which I'll transcribe here in full. It was interesting from a couple of angles: first because it showed, yet again, why the ToI is India's most dreadful newspaper, and second because it revealed just what people really think about Bangalore as a place to live.

"Marching for a cleaner city" ran the headline on Page 3, and then the body copy:

With the motto of creating a city free of garbage and pollution, members of [the] BTM Layout Welfare Association, along with XXX [company name witheld here, they've had enough free publicity already], a group of IT professionals, staged a march in BTM II Stage on Saturday.

Over 40 people participated in the march, calling on citizens to work towards a better Bangalore. They were joined by BTM Layout MLA [ie, local MP] Ramalinga Reddy, who flagged off the march, and cricketer Akil Balachandra. The march started on Saturday evening at [the] Ganesha temple, 27th Main, BTM 2nd Stage, and ended at [the] BTM Park.

The Times didn't go on to say whether the marchers had blocked roads, caused disturbances or been lathi charged by over-zealous policemen, so I'm assuming it was an altogether quieter affair. Chai and biscuits were possibly called upon, photos of the MLA and cricketer snapped on antique Kodaks for the neighbourhood newsletter, and then that gentle stroll to the park. I wonder if there was even a banner raised.

But apart from really showing what people think about maintaining cleanliness in the city I found it interesting that The Times hack used the phrase "over 40 people." I always think you have to be careful with the use of that word "over". Describing a crowd of, I would say, anything in excess of three thousand, I'd suggest it's perfectly reasonably to try and arrive at a close approximate figure by using the word "over". It becomes less convincing though, if the numbers are lower and particularly if they can be numbered in tens.

So, for example, the sentence "over seven million people attended a rally in Bangalore protesting their right to drop litter, discard industrial waste, spit, blow their noses into their hands, and urinate against walls" is perfectly acceptable because it gives a good idea of the size of the rally whilst not imposing the requirement on the journalist to arrive at a precise figure. On the other hand, use of the word "over' when used with a really small number, shows that that journalist must have counted participants in order to be confident enough to put the figure at less than, in this case, fifty but above forty. So why not state the exact figure then?

I may be going out on a limb here but I'd say that the figure for Saturday's protest was probably 42: 39 BTM Layout residents and IT professionals, one politician, one cricketer and a Times of India hack with an abacus.

Originally published on Blogger on 16th June 2008.