new delhi the times of india became a talking point on tuesday quite literally lakhs of readers across six cities reacted with surprise wonder and even shock when they discovered sound coming out of their morning paper just as they unfolded it the worlds first speaking newspaper a creation of toi and volkswagen came with a speaking device that started playing a prerecorded message on the new volkswagen vento the moment readers opened the four special pages of content that the paper was wrapped in while the innovation startled most readers many found it interesting and arresting but it had some unintended consequences as well at many places calls were made to the police with people suspecting the device was a bomb mahim in mumbai witnessed a scare after a pedestrian heard a beeping sound coming from a garbage bin and alerted the police a bomb squad reached the spot near s l raheja hospital and found that it was the audioad someone had thrown the black audio device into the bin an officer said we took it as part of our readinessandalert drills an alert went out from the office of mumbai police commissioner sanjeev dayal asking people not to get scared in delhi too the police were kept busy we got several calls regarding the product a few claimed they were shocked and that the aged people in their house underwent stress but the innovative idea caught on with many said a senior pcr officerapocryphal tales surrounding the ad did the rounds of toi offices across the country according to one a maid thought there was a ghost in the newspaper at one centre a carton of the speaking devices overturned leading to hundreds of them babbling togetheraraktim saikia a manager in a private company said it definitely was something new i was first wondering where the sound was coming as the device was attached to the last page it was a pleasant surprisethe device became an object of prank for some jatin sreshtha an executive with gurgaonbased tergus technology was in for a shock as soon as he woke up my friend left the paper near my pillow and i happily opened it but was startled at the sound i got more scared when i detected the device then i saw my friend laughing at the door once readers figured out what the ad was all about the paper quickly became a collectors item of sorts said santanu bhattacharjee of group m gurgaon by the time i left for work my calling bell rang twice both times kids of my neighbours had come to get hold of my copy well the first kid was luckybhaskar das executive president of bccl called the talking ad a huge leap for newspapers he said it was another feather in the cap of the toi group and enhanced the groups relevance quotient in this new age of dynamic medialutz kothe head of marketing and pr volkswagen was equally upbeat the advertisement