I am hooked to Time magazine ever since I started reading it by taking a sneak peak into my father’s bedroom as he allowed us to read it during weekends only, and I, being a pampered boy of the house, sometimes stealing my fathers’ copy of Time magazine.

Now, since December 2002, I am a proud subscriber of this truly remarkable weekly. It gives you an inside out coverage of the whole week passed by and their in-depth coverage is fascinating.

Why truly Asian? Because it has everything about Asia.

To start with, I would like to go through the detailed sections of the magazine, and let the readers decide and give judgment by rating on my review.

The TIME TRAVELER Section: In this section, as the name suggests, you would probably required some thought provocation, because every week, a different writer will take you to a journey full of euphoria and enthusiasm. In THE PERFECT SNORE ‘Cruising via Containership’, writer takes you from Java, across the Indian Ocean and through the Arabian Sea to Bombay on a freighter named M.V. Ingrid Oldendorff Or HOW WILL CHINA MANAGE ECOTOURISM? ‘Paradise or Parking Lots?’. The writer, Susan Jakes takes you to China to see how will Chinese manage tourism and help protect China’s natural wonders or destroy the places that visitors are bused in to admire?

The NOTEBOOK Section: Its about politics, terrorism, milestones everywhere in this section. Be it Cheney, Vajpayee or Musharraf, from Indonesia to Indo-Pak relations, Kim Jong II and his countrymen or detention of a Muslim cleric in Indonesia or When India and Pakistan are at each other’s throats, as they’ve been for………. In the Milestones, you take a note of who paid what price for their wrongdoings and who died next door. Its all here in this section.

The HEALTH Section: The outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in China, and the world watched closely throughout the outbreak to the subtle disappearance of SARS through media or everything else. I followed it with Time magazine.

The ASIA Section: Now comes the Asian section, which is what I always look for in a weekly Time magazine. Is it about Hong Kong? No, about Pakistan, no no, its about Indonesia, what, no way, who told you that? I know now that its totally different from the other every week in Time, this week its about “Is Pakistan a Friend or a Foe?” before that it was like “Know your rights – Hong Kongers are going to hold Beijing to its promise of full direct elections for the territory”.

Now this is what I call magnificently covering every nook and corner of a vast region, with integrity and loyalty.

The magazine does not end here, yes, its only in the middle and the other sections are like: GLOBAL AGENDA (mostly deep politics but closely linked with nature on the whole), THE ARENA, MIDDLE EAST, SPORTS, BUSINESS, CINEMA, SOCIETY, MOVIES, MUSIC, ART, BOOKS, YOUR TIME, PEOPLE, ESSAY etc.

etc. is for those who think that the world does not end here, but its only the beginning for their creativity.

The Time magazine is a real treat, sometimes it gives you bleak picture about life. But, after all, this is what life is all about.

Great magazine, full votes.