I will, most probably, enter into my grave with a dream, the dream of seeing the print- order of the Viewsweekly commensurate with the Muslim population of the country, which is about 160 million. Like you I also want to see the periodical at par with Time and Newsweek, print-order wise.
Some people are today, after 45 years of its uninterrupted publication, except the 19 months of Emergency, subscribe to Radiance with a view to getting rewards on the Day of Judgement. When these too-pious souls ask me about the number of copies we publish, I, as a matter of rule, talk off the point, and advise them never to ask a person about his salary or a girl about her age or an Editor about the number of copies he publishes. This puts the questioner off. If he feels bad, I tell him: Look! It is a matter dealt by the Circulation Manager, while I happen to be just a contributor of a column or two. If even then he insists upon exact figures, I take liberty to assume that at least 20 persons should be taking turns to read a copy of Radiance; therefore “our readership should be very large.
But once I forgot to use the usual ploy and inadvertently blurted out the Truth. When some of my bosom- friends came to know about it, they grilled me as a criminal is grilled. I submitted I have only, and in difficult circumstances, told the truth. True, they retorted back, adding “we are not advising you to tell lies. Our piece of advice is to immediately switch over to other equally important subjects, like fickle weather, the ever-rising price curve, ever spiraling prices of petrol or the fast dwindling population of tigers etc. etc.
To all the concerned, including myself, I beg to inform, just by the way, that before dreaming to see the Radiance at par with international magazines, they should have a glance at the paraphernalia of national magazines as well and then see it in its perspective.
The Week, besides having Managing Editor, Editor-in-Chief and Sr. Sub Editor one each, the Weekly has two Chief Subs; eight Subs, one Resident Editor, two Bureau Chiefs, one Asst. Editor, five Spl. Correspondents, seven Principal Correspondents, six Senior Correspondents, four Senior Photographers, two Photographers and one Picture Contributor, one Special Designer and one Chief Layout Artist.
The Outlook has an Editor-in-Chief, an Executive Editor, a Feature Editor, a Foreign Editor, two Business Editors, three Senior Editors, one Political Editor, one Deputy Foreign Editor, Four Assistant Editors, one Sr. Special Correspondent: three Special Correspondents, 10 Correspondents. Its copy-desk has four persons, 10 Photographers, and six Designers.
India Today, besides an Editor-in-Chief and Chief Executive Editor has two Associate Editors, four Assistant Editors, four Special Correspondents, three Principal Correspondents and one Senior Correspondent. There are six persons on copy-desk, 11 in the photo department, while its Art Department has seven and Production Department three. It has two Associate Publishers. Its Impact Team has five while the news-stand is looked after by seven.
And Radiance is being edited and managed by a very small team of dedicated workers. Of course it has a large circle of readers and admirers and clientele well beyond the confines of India.