My mother is 67. She reads news in Hindi every morning. I asked her: “Don’t you get scared?” She smiled. “News ka kaam hai darana. Mera kaam hai jeena.” (News’s job is to scare. My job is to live.)
“Maharashtra news hindi” is everywhere in my mother’s generation. Hindi newspapers. Hindi news channels. Hindi YouTube videos.
I always thought she was being brainwashed by fear. Then I sat with her for a week and watched how she actually consumes news.
I was wrong about her. I was right about the news.
My mother’s filter
My mother reads 3 newspapers every morning. She watches 2 news channels in the evening. She scrolls news on her phone before sleep.
But here’s the thing: She doesn’t believe half of it.
I asked: “How do you decide what to believe?”
She said: “Simple. If the news makes me angry or scared, I put it in the ‘maybe fake’ box. If the news gives me information I can use, I put it in the ‘maybe true’ box.”
“Then I wait 2 days. Most angry news disappears. Most useful news stays.”
What she taught me about Hindi news
She said: “Hindi news is more emotional than English news. They use bigger words. ‘तबाही’ (destruction). ‘हड़कंप’ (panic). ‘खतरा’ (danger).”
“English news says ‘accident’. Hindi news says ‘भीषण हादसा’ (horrific accident). Same accident. Different words.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because emotional words get more clicks. My generation clicks more when we are scared. They know this. So they scare us.”
The one story she believed
I asked: “Tell me one news story from last month that you actually believed.”
She thought for a minute. “The petrol price increase. Because I saw it at the pump. That was real.”
“Everything else? A politician said something. A celebrity did something. A crime happened somewhere. None of it affected my life.”
“So I read it. I nod. I move on. I don’t carry it with me.”
What she ignores completely
My mother has a list of things she ignores in “maharashtra news hindi”:
Any story with “BREAKING” in red – 100% ignore
Any story that says “ये काम आएगा” (this will work) – she waits for proof
Any story about a celebrity – she doesn’t know them
Any story about a crime in a city she doesn’t visit
Any story that asks her to forward to 10 people – she deletes
What she pays attention to:
Weather warnings (she calls me to carry an umbrella)
Government scheme updates (she helps a neighbor apply)
Local news about her city (traffic, water, electricity)
That’s it. 20 minutes a day. Then she moves on.
The difference between reading and believing