Two dreams, two magazines

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">Causes are known to drive the media. Occasionally the cause overrides considerations like commercial return on, say, a periodical or even its commercial viability. Mumbai is witness to at least two such visionary publications, One India One People and Humanscape. Everybody, even the dullest, ‘has a dream’.A few of us make the dream a reality. Very few are able to make the reality last and effect real change, in sustained fashion, as Sadanand Shetty, founder, trustee and editor of One India One People and Jayesh Shah, editor and publisher of Humanscape are doing.<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">For a united India</span><br />India is the major concern of One India One People, a monthly launched along with the One India One People Foundation in August 1997, the fiftieth anniversary of India’s independence. Sadanand A Shetty, founder, trustee and editor, declares that the foundation is committed “to the twin goals of galvanising our nation on to the path of becoming united, strong and great�. For nearly five years, One India One People has appeared without fail every month, against all odds, and there have been a few. The magazine is not a profit-making venture. In fact, it is still to turn a profit. Its current circulation is well below break-even. Yet Shetty persists.<br />He spares no pains in the content, presentation and production of One India One People. Its name declares what the periodical is about. In detail, it emphasizes population control, poverty alleviation, spreading education and nation building. Serious issues are analysed by experts. Every month, there’s a 10-page colour section, ‘Know India Better’. Where once the monthly sold no space, it is now open to advertising. Sadanand Shetty started out as a Lohia socialist. He attended night school in Mumbai, worked during the day and was still able to send money home. He was then able to study at Stanford University in the US. Today, Shetty heads a successful engineering firm. He finances One India One People from his after-tax income.<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Humanscape —100 not out</span><br />Humanscape, the monthly “with the human being as the central value� was born here in November 1993. It has just celebrated the publication of its 100th issue. “When it started,� says Jayesh Shah, its editor and publisher, “the space for journals tackling serious issues from the human standpoint in the mainstream media had already begun to shrink�. Humanscape has tried to raise the public profile of burning issues of the day that may not have hit the headlines. It has covered subjects ranging from economics to cinema and politics to art and the environment.<br />The 100th issue features, for instance, tribals in Koraput, Orissa, who are chased by development. Evicted for the third time, Pammia Das says in despair, “Wherever we go, some project will come up and we will have to move again�. Makarand Paranjape in “India: at the Crossroads� refuses to despair when faced with the ugliness of our politics. Let’s look not at institutions, he says, but into ourselves. The monthly is a voice of the Foundation for Humanization which, among other things, believes that “India can be different if you are not indifferent�.<br />bombaytimes@timesgroup.com</div> </div>