Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Do You Know?

An interview at the Business Standard today, opened my eyes to stark realities. The farcical understanding of business news that I have obtained at a news channel stares at my face. The idea of being a part of such a big set-up often makes an individual forget his/her role being played in that gigantic workplace. Being at the ticker, considered to be crucial w.r.t. business viewers, I am trained to break news alerts and updates on the channel. The job involves swift execution of breaking news items that enable business honchos decide their next move in the market. For some viewers, policy-driven news items are also of great interest owing to increased awareness of what the Govt of India is really doing with the taxpayers’ money.


After having spent 3 years doing this fundamental job of breaking the news, I have come to a conclusion, rather late in my career, that Business Journalism in India is more of a sham. Young 'Journalists’ seldom know what is being discussed or debated on the channel by experienced journalists. Employees (barring reporters in most cases) are busy racing against time to bring the required news in place for a news-break or a bulletin. How ignorant they are gets highlighted the day these ‘journalists’ step out of their larger-than-life workplace to test as well as prove their mettle to the rest in business. It is a rarity to find some souls who take their work seriously and find it their utmost duty to be fully-educated of the piece of news they are packaging for the viewer.


Finding myself in a difficult position in explaining the tussle between Sahara & SEBI at the BS, I guessed how much my fellow young ‘journalists’ may know keeping in mind my own knowledge of business news. The victims of ignorance or less knowledge are those bright fellas who enter Broadcast Journalism with the aim of becoming a TV reporter or anchor while they perform other works such as production or packaging to be able to ‘make it on TV’. Proud parents continue to hold their heads high leading to the ‘journalists’ never realizing their inefficiency.


Are there really any solutions? Maybe for those who believe they cannot proceed to their next stage without much insight. Others just simply blame the organization for being biased to some other journalists or end up shifting jobs. Just a handful of them really work to make it to the top and those guys are usually referred to as the ‘Bosses'.

Disclaimer:- This post is not targeting any channel or its functioning. This post is purely based on the author's personal experience.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Manipal my sweet love…

There are just so many things I will miss manipal for, so many people so many places! This blog post is sure to be of nostalgia and carefree-ness. For writing in a blog is not journalism…No ethics involved, no tweaking! Let the thoughts flow and let them be random. For the right to thought and opinion is one’s own.

Four more days and il be gone to where I belong. The most exhilarating Rajasthan… these three years in this land of dreams has shaped me, made me who I am. I’ll miss lots of things…

The greenery: its breathtaking. I have never seen so much greenery before. Of course I am from Jaipur so it makes sense. But I love this greenery, it gives me a feeling of life.

The beach: the first beach I saw was when I came here. Though I am really bored of beaches, I guess il miss them when I wont see them….

The water: there is water everywhere you travel. Vast expanses of water. I love the Maravanthe water stretch out of all I have seen. Though it so much water and moisture here that one can get frustrated I still think il miss seeing water everywhere.

The cheap eating joints: these are not so cheap if you are associated with a member of the Greenply family but still…

Open bar: I don’t think I will visit an open bar in Jaipur or any where. Il miss this utmost freedom in Manipal.

Basil: I like that place. I love the present ambience. I wish we went together atleast once to dine in this new set up Basil has..its beautiful

13th Block: I guess I am in love with this hostel. Its clean, the akkas are good. The only fuck up is the perm time, it didn’t create too much problems…and even if it did, I just dealt with them.

The matrons: they are so irriatating. Now they are friends with me but once they called mum when I came late…gawd I wanted to kill them then…

Room No. 303: I have lived for three years in this room. Its like my little home..:(

Fresh and Honest: I will thoroughly miss fresh and honest. I have given them cool business for all these three years. I love coffee at any time of the day. These days I also socialize with the akkas occasionally. And I am in awe for most of them. About sixty percent of them are students like me, they work part time and keep reading their books.

The gossip sessions: dude, I love gossiping. But when it turns around its nasty. So I learnt a few rules and unlearnt some. Now I know when to say what and to whom, so not a major issue. Gossip sessions will still be on..:D

The peace: when you want to be with yourself you can be with yourself. Look at the sky at the night, take a walk around, go to the end point or the children’s park, take a cup of coffee and take off. Il miss this peace ….so much!

The noise: manipal is a noisy place. Go around and people will be shouting in the campuses. Our college has suddenly become an exception. Havent heard anyone shout in the recent months. There has been a lot of noise in these three years, about everything, every one, about me, about him, about her….i’ll miss these noises. They are deep inside me somewhere….will continue them to echo.

The freedom: the absolute freedom I got in the first year. I loved it. Then the concept of freedom changed but still I loved it. I will miss this freedom to do what I liked, the way I liked.

TMJ: I liked working for TMJ. It was a way of doing what I wanted to do but didn’t know how to do. Learnt a great deal. I liked the organization.

Nazlah: my first room mate who first met me and said “be at your own guard here baby, no one is your own in Manipal except your boyfriend, which I hope you don’t intend to have…haha….ridhi will kill me..” lol…I understood what she said on the last day of Manipal. Owe her so much….and I think she is the most beautiful woman I have seen. Muah..!

Davina: has taught me that if a person can learn to live with him/herself then nothing can break him/her. She sings beautifully.

Joanne: Different. I like.

Raj: the Best and the Worst. My little “powerful” baby..:P

Anadi: he is Thee man. I like him

Raga: She has changed a lot of me. Its unconscious, sub-conscious. Its just between her and me. Don’t think she knows abt it though.

Prasanna: I got him jaipuri chappals and he never wore them The next time you meet me in life il buy you new ones ok..

Ami: The bestest. And my favourite.

Roshan: she likes rajasthan and I will see her soon in jaipur. Our thoughts are opposite and i enjoy talking to her.

Surbhi: I will miss her so much…not funny.

Ram: I hate him. And he owes me an apology. I love him. And I don’t want to lose him ever.


To be continued……….

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Relationships!!......are beautiful:)

I believe relationships are pious. And when they are like love relations the sanctity becomes four folds. There are beautiful feelings, feelings which can just not be put in words and which are realized at different stages in life. The world seems like a wonderful place to live in when these realizations are realized. I have recently realized the importance of one such association in my life. This was written a while back but it has a lot to do with my present frame of mind (this term is plagiarised….:P):-Today mum and I went for shopping. She was quite enthusiastic to buy me all that I wanted. From Cute clips to colourful bands and minty suparis to khatta aam papad. I had a nice time. and I remembered time spent with mum before. You know mothers are so important. They teach what no one can tell and they preach that their children generally can’t comprehend. There have been so many occasions when mum and I have gone shopping and have had a race. She always told me how she walked so fast when she was as young as me and then we would both try to walk faster than each other consciously and behave like its all normal speed for us. Today, I noticed that she has developed some problem in her legs. She just mentioned she was having some minor pain but I never thought it was serious. It was difficult for her to climb the stairs and she was so exhausted after an easy one floor shopping that I was amazed. Age is the worst and the best enemy of man. When I think of Ma I know she’s ageing. She does everything with such vigour and passion that I fall in love with her even more. So caring and so compassionate, I wish god gives her a beautiful old age. So much pain and not a word of the feeling is something only a woman can do. She is a great woman and the greatest mum. On the way back in the car she explained to me how girls need to be so careful of going alone to dark places. And how all places are not Bombay like. She kept quoting examples from her life to make it look like this conversation just came out of the blue and she had no intention of making a point. She kept asking me my views and very carefully studied them. Mothers are so important. This love relationship with her is becoming stronger with each realization. My strength, my courage, my identity and my very being lies in her existence. I miss her so much.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Bye bye Manipal...

This post is written in the bus…:)
I am on my way back home from manipal, the land of dreams and ambitions, the land where students come sane and become insane…some lose their identity and some learn to live as hypocrites…they start believing in the concept of ‘its just for these three-four years and then I’ll be back to my original self’…in the name of three years they try every possible thing in this land of dreams….its all about being cool for some, they think owning an ipod, dolby speakers, a flat and a mobile worth a middle class clerks salary is cool….still in this pool of fakers are some who are focused, who toil hard each day in the hope of becoming some1 one day…and in this they struggle between these two lives. ..both the lives are good and happy. Ignorance is bliss and some people live like that forever..its aweird world….u think u want something and u end up getting something else…..in all this I learnt a few things in manipal
• Never crib about others and their habits, u never know why a person does a particular thing, what is his agenda in life and how confused he is …….i don’t think a drunkard in manipal student crowd can be blamed for being spoiled. How would I know what his previous lifestyle has been, his bringing up, what has he seen in life and what all mess is he involved in.. maybe there are so many questions in his life and that he wants to run away and never face realities.
• Nothing remains in the close realms of one person’s thought in manipal. anything about any1 is known to the entire world. i don’t seem to like a person;s ways and the entire college knows that I hate the person. U see whatever gets transported from one person’s mouth to another’s ear has some new interesting and spicy elemant added to it.
• There are very few people in this world who are transparent and are straight on the face. These people don’t have any grudges and live a peaceful life because they compel others to know how they feel or think about others. The lifestyle they live is better than the rest of course. But its hard to be like that u know. And besides keeping this as a virtue forever is another difficulty.
• One should learn to be happy in how much you have, coz you have so much more than some others.
• Each individual has a problem of a different nature. No1 is more happy or less happy. There are problems with every1 and each one has to learn to deal with them. Nobody will deal them for you, not every 1 can be guided or say guided well or even have good ppl to guide them. Never think your own problems are the biggest and only you don’t have a solution. Life is difficult and its our responsibility to make it easy.
• Also that close friends are precious. They can be irritating and overpowering sometimes but they are your saviours. They love you and take care of you always in every situation. Never lose those who are genuine.
• As long as you are doing the right thing be happy. Don’t get judgemental on others.
• A person’s nature and character are two different things. They can never be equated. A guy could be a womaniser but a very helping one at the same time.
I have realized some of the most important virtues in manipal. it has helped me to understand myself to a greater extent and come in terms with my inner fears.
I am now fearless, boundless and happy. I know the world is a nasty place and I have to remain sane to sail through unlike many others around me. Also that I dread only one year is left in manipal. I love this land of dreams so much that It will be painful to leave it one day...

Monday, March 17, 2008

And the inner beauty....

When you kill a person you kill a dream or maybe dreams of all those you are connected to him. isnt it a blasphemous thing to do? Asked samavartha sir in class….now the thought struck me and I did some thinking. Like it happens in evry other class of his. He says something which is food for thought and I think about it always.
I read a couple of weeks back about transsexuality, about hw gunjal turned to gazal. I found the idea a revolution in the field of science. I even liked the piece, the basic reason being I thought it was great information. The reasons are at least ‘the week’ didn’t do into deep medical aspects which would be beyond my comprehension nor did they make it melodramatic by adding too much of human touch(this reminds me of the series of articles I read about manjunath, the computer engineer who got paralysed working in the US and how they took care of him for five years and now he is back to India and how TOI is collecting funds for him…)u know sometimes newspapers don’t realize how they make someone’s agony look fake by making it sooo melodramatic…and what I couldn’t believe was that manjunath covered page 1, page 2, page 3 and also page 5 in just an issue!!…trust me ive never seen so many articles of the same story in a newspaper…..the truth is that I have been an avid fan of newspapers since I was a child. Earlier we didn’t get English newspaper at home wen I was small. Then as I grew up I started reading English newspapers. A point came when I read papers only to improve my vocabulary and now finally I read them for information. I also like to criticize the way other high profiled reporters have written in big papers coz I think they don’t remember the basics and maybe I could write the same piece in a much better way……’I could write in a much better way’ is an important statement to me you know…the reasons are clear. I have grown up to believe im better than others. Even when I didn’t do very well in school ppl said I was very bright, even when I debated like a coward they said I was great and even when my writing sucked they said I am one of the best. Now when an individual grows up like this he believes that he is superior to others, and well, likes to ignore the fact that he sucks even when he can see others are brilliant and he has no choice but to accept it…but I still don’t regret the fact that I grew like that. when I joined college it all came as a blow on my face. I realized there is a world that exists beyond mine. People are more intelligent, more artistic and much much better than I can be…it took me a long time to recover my injuries caused due to the truth I was facing..even now sometimes I doubt myself, let me say only very occasionally, coz a long time has passed. I have realized, felt miserable and disgusted with myself, overcome the trauma and now regained my confidence. I don’t care how better others are than me coz that the natural feeling of being superior is still somewhere within me. I think I can manage my emotions pretty well. I am a little more tolerant than many can be. And since my EQ is higher than the normal beings, I feel like a champion. (atleast I think it is!!)
Now returning back to what I was saying I liked the story of gunjal to gazal unlike many of my friends who thot the piece was nothing great. For me reading a magazine has also become a fantasy. Im trying to watch movies these days. Just to improve my knowledge about things. Now I kno that’s a the crappiest reason to watch a film but ya its like that with me.

The outer beauty...

There are so many things which I think are of so much of a significance when others think it is a total waste of time. Like painting my nails. I guess its an important thing coz I think only nail paint can make my hands look beautiful. As far as my beauty goes I am always very particular you know. I apply all the make up in the world every day!!..(this is one of the reason y I come late to college every day!!) well, the truth is that I have always felt that im not beautiful.. I have my reasons to believe so…I have a dark complexion. Since my childhood I have a fantasy for fair skin. A woman with a fair skin looks good even without make up on. Everything suits her complexion. People admire her more and morever she feels good about herself u know..but with me things have been different..ive always wanted fair skin…I like big eyes and that’s the reason I think I have small ones. And I have a fat nose…it not as fat as it is sounding actually!! But u kno I like a sharp nose and thin lips but mine are broad. Even my cheeks are so plump..and my hair….oh I like long thick hair but mine are thin and short and bad..!!so basically I think I need make up to make myself look the way I like to look. Even though from childhood I have heard ‘you kno black is beauty’…n …’my baby is looking so beautiful’…but all these beautiful words always reflect back from my ears. I don’t believe in everyone’s words. I listen to evry one who says im beautiful and charming but believe in none..(this reminds me of a beautician who told me ‘you are so beautiful…why do u tie your hair’ tat day for a brief moment I felt on top of the world….only a brief moment….it all came to an end the moment I saw other girls at the food court)...you see every one wants to make me feel happy and loved...but wat I fail to explain each one is that I don’t feel miserable for the way im nor do I have complex with those who are beautiful ….i just wish I looked better than I do..it means a lot to me!!...i sometimes wonder how I turn out to be like this when all my family members are so beautiful..both my sisters look beautiful and mom’s like a doll, then wat has gone wrong with me?
When all these thoughts come to my mind I suddenly come to think of how trivial my grievances are….i always think of the society and its problems. I think I am a contradiction within myself. When I can think of my own beauty so intensely how will I ever be able to imagine the woman’s agony whose face has been an acid attacked?