Everything about teenage tennis sensation Sania Mirza makes news nowadays. All with good reason. So, the one about the 18-year-old Hyderbad lass being featured on the cover of Time magazine made a splash well. Newspapers very faithfully gave the item prominence, some even on their front pages.
Sorry, but one must be a party pooper this time and take the fizz out of the champagne that has been flowing over this chunk of non-news.
The wire services that broke the story about Sania serving yet "another ace" provided only that much, and did not elaborate. For any elaboration would only show that the piece of news is not so much of news after all.
The fact is that there is not one, but as many as four other editions of Time magazine apart from the one published in the United States � Time Canada, Time Europe, Time Asia and Time Pacific. Time Europe has at least three local variations, and Time Asia has at least five such renditions. There goes exclusivity.
The cover story of the October 10 issue of Time in the US is about "The Battle over Gay Teens", as is that of the Canadian edition. The European editions are about "European Heroes", that of Asia about "Asia's Heroes", and the Pacific one has a "Deadly Game" about avian flu as the lead story.
The five localised editions of Time Asia have Park Ji Sung, Ken Watanabe, Aceh's women survivors and Li Yuchun on the covers apart from Sania Mirza. On the face of it, Sania Mirza is on the cover only for the editions sold in India, and probably neighbouring countries. That almost makes it sound as though she is on the cover of India Today, which anyway has a larger circulation than this version of Time.
So, is the hullabaloo about Sania being the first Indian sportswoman to "feature" on the cover of Time magazine worth making a splash about? She is there only on the cover of Time Asia (India), and with the world not really seeing her splashed over the exalted magazine's cover, this is not so much of an international recognition as Sania herself and her millions of fans have been deluded into believing.
Sania has done well for herself, doing her country proud as she has rocketed up the rankings in world tennis, and she has been featured on the covers of a number of magazines. So, what is the big deal about a localised version of Time?
Fans in her home town the following day were made to react about her "achievement". Apart from giving too much importance to Time magazine itself, is this really some feat? Her exploits on the green courts are her achievements. As Sania herself said from Tokyo, "Achieving something for the country is more important than appearing on the cover of a magazine as popular as Time."
Next time someone writes about a Time cover, just don't gulp it down.
