The stopover in Lahore in one word was audacious. The political world was rocked. The media was shell-shocked. Th stopover was a shocker, a historic moment, completely unprecedented.
The question in all newsrooms on Christmas day must have been: How do we capture this earth-shaking event in the headline? How do we communicate the hugeness of the moment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had unleashed upon India and Pakistan?
My prize goes to The Telegraph. It came up with an incredible headline: “Love in Lahore”. To make sure that the headline reflected the Christmas spirit two pairs of jingle bells were added to the headline.
Another newspaper that captured the Christmas spirit and the largeness of the occasion was Mail Today. It went to town with the headline “Father of all Christmas Surprises”.
The Times of India broke all traditional rules of headline writing. It literally went gaga. The headline was not a headline. It used three full sentences to explain how the stopover happened.
The Hindustan Times headline was clever, but more straight forward. “Lahore’s surprise guest makes history” is how the newspaper conveyed the historic moment.
Indian Express brought in Afghanistan also in the headline with a smart pun on Af. “India meets Pakistan, the Af way” is how the Express put it.
The Tribune too stressed on the word surprise. “Modi takes Pak, even India, by surprise”. The headline, like that of HT, was straightforward.
Hindu brought in both history and Christmas in the headline: “PM goes to Lahore, makes a Christmas date with history”.
The Statesman was very workmanlike. No clever turns. No hyperboles. No puns. A simple, straightforward headline: “Modi lands in Lahore to meet Sharif”.
The New Indian Express seemed to have missed the plot. Its headline did not convey the surprise or the historic moment. You had to read the story to decipher the headline: “Dateline Lahore: Modi signs off 2015”.
Note: Please add any other headline that caught your attention in the Comments section.