"Always focus on hard work....Like in every walk of life, what you give comes back to you," -- respected Ravi sir had told me once !
Ravi sir was a gem. Lovely headline writer. I can recall -- On Nov 9, 2019 after the Supreme Court judgement came ...his winner headline was 'RamLalla gets back home' !! My homage to a great soul.
And a fine gentleman Ravi Prakash, our senior colleague and guide in UNI is no more !!
------ With profound grief and sorrow, we regret to inform Ravi sir has left for his heavenly abode 10th April 2023.
On this occasion, it is also worth pondering what's happening to Indian journalism.
What we do to journalism is maybe....what society does to us or we do to ourselves
Collapse of certain esteemed news organisations remains a tragedy with a lasting impact.
My piece should be read in the spirit some people might have read what Jug Suraiya, a former 'The Statesman' staffer, had penned such a nice but moving piece .....He called it an obit. And the melancholy is understood.
We are in a new era of Journalism. Hardly a journalist in Delhi, Nagaland or elsewhere in India -- who is happy today .... just doing journalism.
One common refrain from certain people have been to blame the government and the so called corporatisation of the media. These could be and certainly are partly responsible; but the grim tale sounds grimmer when one closes eyes and thinks for a while -- 'what we have done to ourselves'.
Another former senior colleague (of The Statesman) and quite respected Keith Florry, also deceased, used to say, "The collapse of Indian journalism started when Editors became more concerned about getting into the Rajya Sabha".
My humble observation used to be 'TV or the idiot box' might have promoted some idiots and the idiotic style, mannerism and shouting brigade . They were/are also impolite and thus we have landed into where we are today. Little knowledge is always a dangerous thing, it is worse when there is some license to scream unreasonably and say whatever one likes.
The unethical chapter of Indian journalism was an off-shoot of Sickularism school and if anyone thinks I am being dramatic, remember what all happened and came to the fore during Nira Radia tapes stories.
'Obit' written for 'The Statesman' could be written and will be written for many other newspapers. Then the copy paste era....all vernacular journos including Hindi journos now think it's kids' play to write in English.
The English reporting style has gone for a toss for a plethora of reasons. One reason of course is Delhi's jugadu culture coupled with Lala giri. There was a time in smaller towns ....in the backyards of Nagaland we nurtured dreams of working in Delhi .... to cover various ministries and major political parties etc.
But when I landed in Delhi in 1998 --- things were still not so bad....but the bad phase was to commence soon.
In a premier news agency office (not UNI) -- I had to run from one corner to another asking if anybody had a National Commission for Minorities chairperson's number. I was pulled up for interviewing Mark Tully.... the jealousy and 'average intellectual' crowds thought Mark will get me a job -- and give me 'liberty' out that Parliament Street prison.
Inside the office, general discussions used to be 'kya rumour hae'....-- office politics.
Then everywhere you found people including male and female colleagues with the right contacts landing for 'good assignments'... including Bill Clinton's visit to Jaipur.
Things were not confined to one or two news organisations. I said 'goodbye' to an organisation wherein clerks could become your boss. Mumbai had a joker...used to say 'I will give you food for thought'. A man with below average understanding and who did not walk beyond D N Road to High Court ...once said about a female colleague, "she should come out of her marital bliss".
I have struggled dictating stories to him over phone, .... he could not know Union Ministers. Mumbai is generally good -- but some organisations have 'extended culture' borrowed from another metro.
It happened with The Statesman in Delhi too. By luck, co incidence and help of senior friend R C Rajamani I did get a berth among Special Representatives (equivalent to Spl Correspondents) in Delhi bureau and soon realised things will be difficult to go on.
Of course, there were a few good assignments like the 2010 -- Ayodhya trip -- during the Allahabad High Court order on the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid dispute. But there were 'huge problems' from a few huge donkeys around.
The fellow did not have the guts to face his own colleagues and so the only good option was the intra-office politics. That was the period the paper was passing through a bad phase financially. We were living witnesses to the collapse ! And it came despite hard work by a few selfless journos. Slowly and one by one -- all such hard working jokers were subjected to 'delete' command.
The system failure was inevitable. A pretender of a 'secular character' was singularly responsible for the demise at certain levels. No names yet.... such things will happen in more detail in a book form. The day is not far off.
How long can one 'survive' with the tag 'journalist' remains a puzzle one does not want to solve.
Elsewhere about journalism....so much is the so-called credibility and so much is the objectivity that if you name a paper or a TV channel .... you know which side the political story will tilt.
If interviewing Sushant Singh Rajput's 'girlfriend' was one episode; there were many elsewhere.
If you read a Kolkata paper .. both English and Bangla, one may get a feeling that Narendra Modi is incapable of winning even a municipal polls. The English edition called Smriti Irani 'aunty' and Delhi's sickular club apparently approved. Why?
Because they all hate Smriti and her boss Narendra Modi !
There are editors and columnists and experts who still believe Rahul Gandhi's absence from Gujarat was a strategic and well thought of smart move; only the voters did not understand the good intent of the virtuous crown prince.
Coming back to Ravi sir. Well, he was a gentleman and was sensitive to human emotion. The office atmosphere in 2019-2020 turned horrible for me within days I lost my mother. It talks of people's cheapness. Ravi Sir was different. He had even called me at our Siliguri residence and expressed condolences on my mother's passing away.
Journalism remains a love, it remains in one's blood. But the moment a generation next young boy or girl or even their parents seek my advice on journalism/media industry --- my advice is PLEASE STAY AWAY !
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