So...here I go...this post is titled so because of the sheer finality of the task of me starting a blog.
After days and months of having been told to do so, I decided its time I began. And the vigour I now begin with nothing will stop me from doing this, even the shit loads of work that remains piled and demands completion.
Not that I believe anyone would bother to drop by my blog for a glance, but for those some who incidently, accidently strayed by here is something about me.
I am a student though nothing can actually make you look at me and say so, I neither study nor will I be spotted loitering around college. Come to think of it, I barely ever get there.
The other big thing that I do, amongst many smaller ones is write for a paper and no amount of odds in life can keep me away from doing my work for it.
I like my work, the entire process of working for a story, meeting people and having myself heard. Isn't that what we all look for at the end of the day?
Coming back to the day, a simple paradox makes me get back to this blog after having abandoned it for quite a few hours post the beginning. On one side, I am thrilled about having a huge story published, tedious hours of work, all the running around, and bugging all those people involved beyond forgivness has finally paid off. A half page sweep, with my name in 'big bold red( literally) letters' and I am satisfied. I look at it and feel this sense of pride that I rarely get after the editors have laid their hands on my 'piece'.
With hope of some response, if not towards me towards the person who the story revolved around I get back to the day's work hunting, begging for quotes। While most people welcome me with open doors and awestruck looks (thanks to the big
brand name)
there are who fail to understand the sheer impact of written words.
An incident that happened just about a few hours ago both discouraged and strengthened my already strong resolve to get people to realise the
worth of the 'print media'.
Here's what happened, I sat like I usually do with my flatmates munching on dinner( if whatever I was eating can pass off as that or even close to it), brooding over how I was short of quotes for yet another story, threatning I'd use them as my guniea pigs if I
didn't find anyone who gave into my pleadings. Just then one of them uttered, what difference does it make, just take a picture off the net and make up a quote, how is it gonna affect anyone, no one would ever know. Looking back m surprised at my own reactions, but I was aghast, immovable, wordless for a moment untill I finally retorted with a how can I do that its gonna go into paper. To which she said, how would someone know, I can even come up with false names to help you. My reactions of how I never resorted to any such stuff and how journalism and ethics were more than just inseparable was taken with a hearty laugh and a blow to the sternness with which I held my gaze and opinion.
I walked out, with part dejection and part work beckoning me to my comp, and being honest an online friend who I had been ignoring for a while now hoping he feels my comp was abandoned.
This did not end with the mere trifling conversation. My thoughts had the better of me as I sat working. How and where people and their thoughts are headed? and how news dosent seem to matter to a person in the process of it being created or rather collected.
Suddenly, I seemed to realise the importance of local news, something I always cribbed about having to read in a paper, especially in the first few pages। Its true people do not realise the worth or the credibility of news
or a reporter until it hits them in the face। It is indeed true, the harder the blow the more you turn to your paper and realise how it is not just
an aid but a way of life. Ironically, it is the same people who get up and claim with examples right out of the book, of journalism losing credibility, of corruption embedding our very news making process. 'Making' thats what I call it, news aint quite the same until its collected, organized and 'made' palatable for the reader who is just about to consume it.
Having seen and heard the same from a million people around I enter an organization completely disillusioned and expecting every bit of wrong doing amongst people around. I hate to admit but it has made me half suspicious and I spend more time watching what people do while they work to catch a glimpse of the 'so-called' corruption in a media organization. frankly, I haven't incurred much. A 'little' would make me seem and feel too biased towards my industry of work. But really its not an easy job to work on something that might jus seem light to you when a million (literally in number) people might take what you write to be the final word and use it in conversations and examples for generations thereafter.
So, while my thoughts wander from this to loads of other things, and my eyes watch the clock strike 5......I end this post here....
Waiting for more to provoke me to continue blogging (I aint relying on people reading it)
I hit bed with fears of nightmares of yet another bright and sunny day (I hate them) and slight underlying hopes, that the clouds jus might be generous enough to show up early in the morning tomorrow.
