Desperation blues
Desperate times call for desperate actions. And who knows this better than a reporter. Every week, a sense of déjà vu prevails over me, when I see myself frantically hunting for some ‘good’, ‘interesting’ and catering to ‘TA’ story ideas. While I am managing to understand the geography of the locality I have been assigned, I also have the added burden of creating contacts - people who would give me good story ideas. Again, at the end of every week, I rummage through my small list of people, I managed to contact in the hectic work schedule and try to extract whatever little or trivial they can give. My blood pressurise rises a few notches as the time for meeting comes near. I think, this is the day when I will be asked to put in my papers and shown the doors. And yet, another day passes, with my Ed remarking sarcastically on my capability or rather inability to generate good story ideas but brainstorming with me and adding something decent figure of story ideas on my list.
Not only do I have to file the stories in a record time within a not-humanely possible deadline, I also have to check myself from making grammatical blunders. However, this is a personal task I have taken upon myself, which I am afraid, is very difficult to watch over. Often, I end up ignoring the grammatical and sentence construction norms and just file in the story. I wonder whether this will affect my writing skills. But again, a journalist is told to keep track of deadlines as they are considered much more important than trying to improve the writing style.
*****
Though, I crib a lot about our job, sometimes, I do get to do some interesting stories. Couple of weeks back, I got the opportunity to interview a lady auto driver. Unlike the stereotype that only macho or matronly ladies try their hand in driving public transport vehicles, this auto lady was nothing like it. A simple woman, she has been ply commuters for the past three-four months. To give my article a bit more colour, I happened to meet some of her neighbourhood ladies – her friends. They felt inspired every time they saw her behind the three-wheeler. Even her eight year old son, shyly, said he felt proud seeing his mother drive an auto. I must say, I also felt awfully nice interviewing her. It proves that there is nothing a female cannot do, if she sets her mind to it. Of course, financial desperation is another cause for such women to break the patriarchal barriers and take up something which they otherwise wouldn’t even dream of venturing into.
Desperate times call for desperate actions. And who knows this better than a reporter. Every week, a sense of déjà vu prevails over me, when I see myself frantically hunting for some ‘good’, ‘interesting’ and catering to ‘TA’ story ideas. While I am managing to understand the geography of the locality I have been assigned, I also have the added burden of creating contacts - people who would give me good story ideas. Again, at the end of every week, I rummage through my small list of people, I managed to contact in the hectic work schedule and try to extract whatever little or trivial they can give. My blood pressurise rises a few notches as the time for meeting comes near. I think, this is the day when I will be asked to put in my papers and shown the doors. And yet, another day passes, with my Ed remarking sarcastically on my capability or rather inability to generate good story ideas but brainstorming with me and adding something decent figure of story ideas on my list.
Not only do I have to file the stories in a record time within a not-humanely possible deadline, I also have to check myself from making grammatical blunders. However, this is a personal task I have taken upon myself, which I am afraid, is very difficult to watch over. Often, I end up ignoring the grammatical and sentence construction norms and just file in the story. I wonder whether this will affect my writing skills. But again, a journalist is told to keep track of deadlines as they are considered much more important than trying to improve the writing style.
*****
Though, I crib a lot about our job, sometimes, I do get to do some interesting stories. Couple of weeks back, I got the opportunity to interview a lady auto driver. Unlike the stereotype that only macho or matronly ladies try their hand in driving public transport vehicles, this auto lady was nothing like it. A simple woman, she has been ply commuters for the past three-four months. To give my article a bit more colour, I happened to meet some of her neighbourhood ladies – her friends. They felt inspired every time they saw her behind the three-wheeler. Even her eight year old son, shyly, said he felt proud seeing his mother drive an auto. I must say, I also felt awfully nice interviewing her. It proves that there is nothing a female cannot do, if she sets her mind to it. Of course, financial desperation is another cause for such women to break the patriarchal barriers and take up something which they otherwise wouldn’t even dream of venturing into.
