Headlines never mislead you… but those who generally make it there have the potential to. Pick up any daily and the headlines are literally hijacked by news that gives you the jitters and newsmakers hardly deserving to be there. Does this mean there is nothing good happening?

Our world is full of achievers and do-gooders, winners and learners, and people with a lot of josh to do something for the country. Despite newspaper headlines looking away, they keep doing their good work and the nation keeps moving forward and upwards.

Even Shrishti obviously agrees.

Who is Shrishti?

Shrishti is a school girl who did extremely well in her Class XII board exams and had this fervent wish to be featured in a newspaper. The team at HT decided that this deserved not just one headline but something more… and they also had a surprise ready for her.

A surprise for Shrishti? Isn’t being featured in a newspaper a big surprise?

Well, the HT team visualised that a helicopter ride was the right way to introduce the tenets of excellence which isn’t about fighting the world but racing with your perception of your own capabilities and zipping way ahead. So excellence isn’t the domain of a few but welcomes anyone who works hard for it… almost like a newspaper that decides to cut across what is mundane to bring to its readers what it is like to fly high!

The moment I was told of Shrishti’s story and the way HT interacted with her success, I knew the reason why I’d #SayThanks to people who succeed and to those dailies that talk about such successes.

Is Shrishti walking on the clouds?

I’m sure she is. I’m also sure it is the readers of HT will now know that great headlines are not necessarily gossip, nor are they meant to project a cause that has vested interests woven into them. Headlines are honest without being brutal… the sort that are possible for each of us.

Yes, you and I are just as capable to make it to the headlines… we just need to be a bit of an achiever like Shrishti. It is time that newspapers realised that even they need to proactively search for such stories than just the common man willing to approach them with their success stories. When this happens we’ll both #SayThanks to each other.

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The story of Shrishti and a headline in HT

The story of Shrishti and a headline in HT

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Arvind Passey
05 August 2015