English supper... Is this the end?

"Five, sikhs, seyvan..."! They say it's the North Indian way of pronouncing 'seven'. Like the "hole" in your house where you serve tea and "snakes" to your guests!!

Leave alone pronunciation, I wonder where the kids are heading these days. Even in school, they speak in Hindi most of the time. Not that we spoke only in English in the 128 year old Stewart School that is known for its Anglican ways. But at least, the Somalingams and Mr SP Das made sure we wrote proper grammar. 

When I was in school, my English teacher Mr Das always insisted that I read the daily newspaper to improve my English. As a school goer I hardly cared about those editorials in the Times of India, which is considered one of the most prestigious news dailies even to this day. I read them only because my teacher had asked me to. But I must admit I learnt a lot in the process. My English certainly improved. It became almost a habit. No morning tea for me! The first thing I do each morning is to sit down and read the Times of India. 

Several times I have considered asking my children to read the Times of India to improve their English. But today I wonder would that be a wise thing to do? 

This is the first page of today's edition of the Delhi Times. 

I looked at the three main headlines here and wondered, "Is this English?" "Teen ka tadka" is definitely not English. "Neta jamming" at least has one of its words in English. "Pls save FTII....". OMG... 'Pls' save the Times of India! 

The front page of the main section carried an article on an IAS officer's corrupt behavior. Here's the link to the story. When you read it, you will realize that the last paragraph has a sentence that does not seem to make sense. "Singh himself who sported five mobile phones." Is this a complete sentence that makes some sense? 

Move on to the Sports section and there is an article on Sania Mirza's "second comeback". The article is accompanied by a picture of Sania. Here's the picture with its caption. 

                                         Sania Mirza with gold-winner Peng Shuai on Tuesday

Did you see Peng Shuai in that picture? I did not. She is not there unless she is an alien that cannot be captured by India's low technology cameras. 

What's happening to my favorite newspaper? Is this the newspaper I should recommend to my children?