On E-Mail, T. Santhanam: It was a joy to go through your vicennial issue (The Magic of Magazines, Nov 2). I have been a magazine buff for the last 67 years and am still not tired of reading them. I have read all the magazines your contributors speak about, except the business ones. Wherever I was, in north India mostly, I would rush to book stalls to buy as many magazines as I could afford. The rest I’d read in libraries. The Petit library in Mumbai, of which I was a member till I left the city in 1989, used to have them all. We used to run a magazine library in the office as well. We still have several magazine libraries in Chennai, they are delivered twice or three times to our doorstep at very nominal charges. I read English, Tamil, Hindi and, if I get them, Urdu magazines. Unfortunately, the Hindi belt has lost all interest in magazines; there are hardly any in the open market. This is unlike in the South where even paanwallahs stock them, even though qualitatively there might be very few Tamil magazines worth talking about.
Delhi, Subir Sen: I hope I am wrong but I did not find any mention of the now defunct India Magazine in your commemorative issue. Edited by Malvika Singh in the 90s, with excellent articles and photographs on India's art and culture, it was one of India's finest magazines of all time. It certainly deserved a mention in your otherwise excellent issue.
Mumbai, K.P. Rajan: Being a voracious reader of English magazines (except film and sport) published from Kerala to Calcutta and Mumbai to Delhi, I was once subscribing to 15 magazines while serving a central PSE. Which is why I found your bumper issue on magazines a memorable treat.
Dharwad Shreekant, Malagi: Way back in 1976, I too planned to bring out the vicennial issue of Kasturi—then a Kannada digest—but could not succeed, mainly because the advertising department was not too sure of it. Moreover I did not have the kind of editorial talent the Outlook team clearly possesses. The issue was very good, definitely worth preserving a copy.