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Net Gains (Jun 05, 96)
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Called Rediff On The Net , it is one helluva magazine to spend your time on - fresh yet professional. The first "problem" you'll face here is that you have to be a subscriber to go through the magazine in all its glory. So I went to the subscription section to see what I would have to shell out to be a subscriber. Besides the usual personal details , you'll have to burn a Rs. 1600 or Rs. 4800 hole in your wallet per annum. Ooh ! Aah ! Ouch !! But the brains behind the netizine have an alternative for guests. You could go to the preview section for a free look around the place. At this point in time, if you're guest - logging in to Rediff on the Net using Microsoft's browser - Internet Explorer, you're supposed to hear Raag Piloo by Shivkumar Sharma on the Santoor. I logged in thrice to hear those strains, but my strained ears could only pick up sounds of silence. So much for Internet Explorer - it was back to Netscape for me !!
The free homepage of Rediff on the NeT gave top priority to the recently conducted elections with a special section dedicated to it. Their own opinion poll, issues, manifestos, issues, statistics, headlines and news articles - the site had them all ! But politics not being my cuppa tea, my browser navigated to more pleasant shores - to the general section, which definitely was more fun to go through. This is the site that separates the boys from the men, simply because here's where you choose to go through the Business & Personal Investment section, or make a dash for The Enchanted Kingdom (for kiddies) or Planet X (for the youth).
There even are sections of common interest, namely the News, Sports, Marquee, and Travel sections. The Sports section focussed on Cricket, Soccer, Tennis, Hockey, and the event of the year - the Atlanta Olympics. There's also a Sportpourri section that is just what its name suggests - a pot pourri of sports trivia and news, like Pele fathering twins at 55, and Bill Clinton golfing his daughters way into school, you know, that kinda stuff.
The Travel section took surfers to an Indian destination - Ladakh, and a foreign tourist attraction - London. London calling had a very easy reading format, while covering the area in great detail - the information being provided courtesy British Tourism Authority.
Computer buffs are put on hold as Silicon Alley - the computer section is still under construction. Marquee gives you the low down on going ons in Bollywood, what's hot and what's not in the theatre , movie, and music scenarios. Then there's the ineviable interview section featuring some star/ starlet - catering to the gossip mag fanatics.
Remember the part where, a few paragraphs ago, I told you about the palpitations I got on seeing the annual subscription rates ? The Rs. 3200 difference in the kinds of subscriptions were because of a special facility available called the Data Warehouse. The Data Warehouse is basically a site providing the user with a helluva lot of information at their fingertips. Details about domestic & international airlines, railway schedules, hotels, profiles of towns, districts, and companies abound here.
The kiddies section is called The Enchanted Kingdom and has a whole lot of things to keep them occupied - from Busy Buddies (a do-it-yourself section), Brain Strain (puzzles, riddles, crosswords), to an agony aunt page (Lynettes page) . One very interesting concept here is Chain Reaction - where kids from anywhere write a paragraph in continuation to an ongoing, incomplete story, and the pick of the week gets the young author credit on that page ! Cool no ?
Planet X is the youth section with place for love (Cupids Corner), problems (X-gratia), a description of interesting sites and links to them (surfboard), and even a swap shop (X-change - where someones currently offering an Eric Clapton CD, and an outdated PC for exchange !). The X-tramural link is the most informative page here, giving a list of educational courses in India, sorted alphabetically.
India's first net-only magazine. It's definitely worth a regular dekho !