Nasir unemployability

Nasir’s unemployablity
Those of you who avidly read Sunday column ‘Time Machine” (earlier Then and Now) in the Hindustan Times, Bhopal Live must have been impressed by the column writer’s lucidity of expression and intimate knowledge of Bhopal. His name is-- need I tell? --- Nasir Kamaal.
Till six months ago, he was HT’s deputy news editor. He quit as he felt his health was not permitting him to endure work pressure. He suffers from slip disk. Nasir took up a 9 to 5 assignment with an NGO working for the gas victims. Work pressure has lessened on him but his worries have increased, primarily financial. He is sole bread earner of the family with a wife and two sons- one grown- up and the other growing.
Nasir expressed the desire to return to the newspaper. We in the HT were delighted that Nasir Bhai will be back soon. It was, however, not to be. We were told that Nasir (54) is too old to be reemployed. I was more anguished than shocked. Why must 54 be an age of unemployablity? I ask myself. This is preposterous. Let me explain why.
Till three and half years ago, Nasir and me used to work together on the HT’s desk. Both were chief sub editors. Our routine was to come around 5 pm in the office and stay till 1.30 am. We would edit nearly 90 percent of all the stories from Bhopal and other centres’ correspondents. I would rewrite stories too -- mostly political and administrative ones. The routine went on for more than three years. Nasir’s diligence, punctuality, neat copyediting and, above all, a little avuncular charm won over every one in the paper. At times, of course, he would lose tempter but the duration would be rather short and absolutely devoid of rancour or malice. I can safely claim Nasir used to perform work of at least four sub editors. By the time many others (10 to 15 years younger to Nasir) on the desk could edit two copies, Nasir would be through with a dozen. More than quantity, Nasir excelled in quality in editing. So, where was the age problem?
It is all about attitude to work. You can be young and chronic shirker; and quite old and still be hard worker. Nasir’s is one glorious example.
I feel so sad for Nasir but can’t express lest he should take it as pity. Life has not been kind to him. He has every quality of an illustrious journalist and yet he is nowhere in the media scene. He is an MA in Urdu literature from prestigious JNU.
On the other hand, we have a bunch of racketeers masquerading as “ Varishtha Patrakar” who are thoroughly enjoying all the benefits that the profession accrued them- by means less fair than foul.
I came to know Nasir in 1991 when he was with the Free Press, Bhopal bureau. His innate goodness was inescapable. Later I too joined him in the bureau. We could have stayed in the FP but for Kalpesh Yagnik. He was sent as bureau chief six months after I joined the paper. Kalpesh was (at least in those days) a rank hypocrite. His English was atrocious and his news sense pathetic. He showed qualms about drinking tea or having dinner in CM’s or ministers’ press conference but secretly lobbied for mining lease to his relatives in the corridors of power. Some other racketeering escapades of Kalpesh also surfaced later.
Both Nasir and me couldn’t suffer Kalpesh for long. I quit first. Nasir followed a few months later. We joined at different times the National Mail, which had been revived under Dr Suresh Mehrotra’s editor ship. Dr Mehrotra is hardly a journalist. He can’t write. He claim to fame was his ability to befriend bureaucrats and politicians. He was known as Arjun Singh’s man and Dr Mehrotra quite enjoyed this identity.
Having said this, I must admit the editor was good to us in initial four years. He virtually left the paper to our joint responsibility. The National Mail did remarkably well under Nasir and me. Gradually, however, Dr Mehrotra’s visionlessness and mediocrity overwhelmed him as well as the paper. The National Mail started sinking. We tried hard to retain professionalism and were sidelined as a result. Nasir again left the paper in disgust and decided to move to Bangalore. I sulked but stayed on, completely marginalized.
A few months later Nasir returned from Bangalore. The magazine he was to launch there was not taking off because of some problems. Doors of the National Mail were closed to him. He reluctantly joined the Central Chronicle as just a copy editor. A year or so later, I too finally decided enough was enough in the National Mail and joined the Central Chronicle. It was in 2000.
We were in Chronicle for just a couple of months when HT’s Bhopal edition was launched. Nasir was called and appointed sports reporter. For some one who was out of reporting for over a decade, Nasir did reasonably well as a sports reporter. The then RE Askari Zaidi recognised Nasir’s abilities and absorbed him in the desk as chief copy editor.
I had to quit Central Chronicle in 2002. Reasons behind the decision were many but I don’t want to discuss them here. Once again I was jobless with two children and no savings. It was the worst time for me. I approached Mr Zaidi. He was receptive to my request and assured to do some thing. Nasir lobbied for me. His soothing words were much-needed consolation for me in that troubled time. Two months later, I got into the HT. Once again—it was fourth paper -- Nasir and me were together.
It is not easy to remain friends if you have worked together in four papers for over one and half decades with some one. But we have never had any differences, much less quarrel between us. He is such a fine human being.
I pray Nasir Bhai’s financial problems are solved soon even if he doesn’t have to work in any newspaper any more.
Rakesh