Believe me, being a journalist is quite a high! I should know! During my Ph. D. days, I free-lanced with major newspapers which include "The New Indian Express", "The Hindu" and the "Newstime" of the Eenadu group.
Well, to begin with, i got all these assignments absolutely on my sheer merit. As for the "New Indian Express", with whom my experiments with journalism began, I just walked in to their office in Hyderguda. I did not know a soul there. I was asked to write a film review.
Beginning with the title "Amrika to Jana hi tha," my fresh approach to film criticism, which consisted of analysing the 'film', and beyond mere story telling, was so much appreciated that I became part n parcel of the Features' Desk there n then. My very first book review was hugely appreciated by the author, who, I did not know it, turned out to be the Regional Editor's best buddy.
Literally, there was no looking back after that. Despite being a freelancer, I used to write at least four articles per week. The themes were as varied as psychiatry and women, palliative therapy, cancer in children, the newly emerging IVF therapy and its impact on women's (emotional) health, for instance. My bylines were varied, but always liked.
They were often syndicated in Orissa and the four Southern states. It was quite a humbling experience when while reading up research material in the ASRC, some scholar(s) from Orissa, Kerala or Tamilnadu would walk up to me to tell me how much he/she liked some xyz article of mine.
I wrote fun pieces, conducted interviews, wrote reviews of all the fine arts related events, covered all sorts of festivals which made even the Chief Minister admire the coverage. I could practice how to write well, poetically yet precisely, given the deadline and the word limit. My articles were rarely edited, and were admired because there never was any fluff, but truly good content.
It got me a break in to two portals. Of these two, the fullhyd.com chief editor/owner himself came down to the NIE office to invite me to write for them. Articles therein were praised a lot, too. I wrote some ten articles for The Hindu. That intro was through the NIE contact, too. Often Asra of the "Newstime" and I used to cover events together. Thus i got in to the "Newstime" where I even wrote front page leads, and my articles were weekly earmarked by Ramoji Rao garu himself, which was a huge high for the Features' Desk.
As a sincere, committed journalist, I got to see the good, the bad and the ugly of a cross section of society. Petty academics giving themselves huge airs while the rest of the society knew their non-existing worth used to hurt me a lot, as I was after all from and into academics.
Child stars to big directors, famous authors, nascent artists, one met and interacted with most interesting people. It was quite satisfying that my film review thumbnails used to be quoted in the newspaper film ads, and along with Subhash Jha's!
Social media, which started dominating especially since the COVID days, was non-existent then. Truth value, authenticity, sincerity were the key-words. Commitment mattered, and as for partisanship, it was not so very open n blatant! Fake news as of today was not even heard of, forget reels, et al.
Yet, yes, I even got to know the 'inside stories' such as how a group could run a newspaper to save on the (income) tax. Hence, though I got a free hand to write on varied themes, I understood the pain of my seniors, mid-career journalists with nowhere to go, when the newspaper was closed suddenly one day!
Now, the world over, newspapers are surely dying a not so slow death. Nobody believes journalists who are often openly canvassing a certain political party, an ideology, while investigative journalism is more for the Youtubers, and to media houses owned t.v. to some extent. Sad but true! Times they are always a-changing, and yet the memories of those days remain forever fresh, even when the pages are slowly yellowing!
Pratima@ Ah, to be a freelancer in those happy days! Hence this journey down the memory lane as January 6 gets celebrated as the journalists' day.
Quote of the day: "Write what should not be forgotten," said Isabel Allende. One of the high's of being a freelancer is that each and every author one has admired has always been a journalist, a correspondent, a reporter in his/her early years!
Word of the day: Media Media refers to the main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the internet) regarded collectively. Incidentally, 'media' is the plural of 'medium', and should be used accordingly.
Let us learn grammar: At times, adjectives can be used as nouns, and such usage requires the definite article. Let us look at a few examples. 1) The rich do not understand the poor. 2) The young find the old boring. 3) The unusual makes life interesting.
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