by Kollengode S. Venkataraman, Written in October 2004
It is hard for me to realize that The Pittsburgh Patrika is entering its 10th year. And it is going strong. In a city which has churches over 200 years old, companies making profits for over 100 years, and with The Pittsburgh Courier, one of the oldest African-American newspapers in the country, and even with Indian temples and gurudwaras into their third decade, The Patrika’s trajectory may not seem a big deal. But consider this: The Pittsburgh Patrika has no political, social, or religious affiliation; and has not sought grants and other resources from any public or private organization, endowments, and foundations.
I say this only as a statement of fact. In a way, we wanted it like this simply because it is one sure way to have editorial independence in publishing this magazine in our spare hours. Of course, having a full-time job in Corporate America to bring food on the table also greatly helps!
And we’ve mailed the magazine all these nine years for free — at least till now — every three months. And mailed on time, whether it rained, shined, or snowed, even in Pittsburgh’s blinding blizzards.
Over the years, The Patrika’s writers have freely commented on many social, economic, political, and even religious (Hindu, Christian, and Islamic) topics of interest. Our readers have felt that some of our writings were uncomplimentary to some segments of our society, or even to Mainstream America. Some of the articles were quite frank, even blunt, and we’ve always welcomed reader feedback.
Through all this, our advertisers — large and small — continue to use The Patrika to reach their potential customers with their goods and services.
We are thankful to our advertisers for their trust.
We say this for this simple reason: In the absence of subscriptions, advertisers are the only reason we exist. Today we reach over 2000 homes, from the mere 400 people in our database when we started in 1995. With escalating costs and a growing mailing list, we are wondering if we can continue to mail the magazine for free.
At this juncture, I look back at what we said in our first issue. Here are the excerpts from the leading article under the caption, “Why This Newsletter?”:
“The Pittsburgh Patrika is an experimental newsletter… … for airing and sharing your views, ideas, and even frustrations on any matter of topical and not-so-topical interest…… People from the Indian subcontinent here have quite a diversified background, and yet, are so very alike…
We have opinions — strong opinions, we admit — on war and peace, societal issues, spousal abuse, dealing with recalcitrant children and old-fashioned parents, intercaste, interrace, interfaith marriages, (and with prenuptial agreements becoming common, we may also add no-faith marriages as well), divorce, reproductive rights, religion, spirituality and religiosity… … The Patrika’s intention is to entertain and inform people ……on all these topics”
On Indian Performing Arts: “Our rich artistic heritage is diverse, Hindustani and Karnatik music, Odissi, Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, and Kathakali dance traditions…… The panorama is fascinating… Artistes from India routinely entertain us [here]. Who can remain unmoved after listening to a brilliant music concert …… or after watching a scintillating dance recital? And one may parenthetically add, who can remain without groaning after suffering through pitiful performances of artistes promoted in exuberant terms in glossy multicolor pamphlets?”
We went on to say there is a need for a platform for discussing these and many other issues:
“The objective of The Patrika is to fulfil some of these motivations. It also wants to be a reasonably well-written and tightly edited newsletter.
In short, this newsletter is for expressing and critiquing ourselves. Obviously, it will last only as long as ……it serves some of these purposes.
The Patrika looks forward to an exciting time in interacting with the Indian Diaspora. It will greet you four times a year… …”
These excerpts are from the first issue in October 1995. Taking stock of what we declared and what we delivered in the last nine years, we are pleased.
The first issue had only twelve pages, including the cover page, and we did not even staple the pages to save cost. And it had no advertisements.
In the last nine years, it was an exciting journey for The Patrika, and for me personally. Honestly, I harbored the lurking doubt that this magazine would suffer infant mortality (maybe one or two years), if not a neonatal death (after the first issue).
Personally, I never knew that I had the temperament to run a micro-business seeking advertisements, working with writers, editing/finalizing stories, learning the rudiments of accounting, designing, and maintaining a database. And simultaneously learning several software — layout, creating artwork for advertisements, learning to incorporate graphics — for putting together this magazine. And working with printers (for whom we werea a small job), and learning bulk-mailing protocols following USPS guidelines. Most humbling for me was working with small businesses to fulfil their advertisement needs.
A few of you even gave us small contributions though we did not solicit them, to encourage us. This indicated to us that we were doing something right. Thank you very much for your encouragement.
The Patrika is entering its tenth year only because of its advertisers, contributing writers, well-wishers, and readers. We look forward to more exciting times in the years ahead..END