My experience in DNA
The DNA, Indore, scored the first goal by default on the launching day. The paper started off humbly: no pomp and show, no big hoardings, no tall claims and no shouting from the roof top. Just a few days of dummy-run and the paper was out on June 26.
Yet, its launch frightened an established rival enough to mess up with the fundamentals of journalism, little realizing in its fevered mind that the boys will be boys and girls, girls.
While the rival on its front page sought to portray Indore doctors out-divining the God in transforming girls into boys, the DNA gently tickled the Indore’s memories of erstwhile ruler Yashwant Rao resemblance with whose face led an Arab Sheikh to believe himself a reincarnate of the Holkar King. Well begun is half done.
Seeing the inaugural issue on the DNA website, a senior journalist friend in Bhopal congratulated me on phone. “Bade Bhaiya (it’s me), your paper is greaaaat. I think it can reach 50,000 circulation in a few months.”
Having been in this profession for three decades, I knew better than to share his optimism, but didn’t dampen his spirit.
The friend, who had worked in Indore long back, genuinely felt that proliferation of English education in the 15th fastest growing city in India will enable DNA to capture the reader’s imagination fast. His opinion rang a sense of deja vu in me.
I said you understand the status of English papers in a Hindi-speaking state like Madhya Pradesh and still saying so. He kept mum.
Since then I have heard many otherwise knowledgeable people in Indore wonder aloud why English newspapers are nowhere near their Hindi counterparts with so many public schools, professional colleges, an IIT, an IIM, not to
speak of a host of big industries being in existence in the commercial capital of MP.
The co-relation between English education and English papers does not land to an easy explanation. It is like a candidate in an election counting on all the votes of his community in his favour. That does not work. The candidate needs much more than just the caste to cast a
charm on his fellow caste people.
That is precisely one of the big challenges for the DNA, my 14th employer. It has a long way to go to become a voice of the reader.
Aspirations of Indore have yet to find adequate expression in the paper. The paper is still in infancy. A large chunk of the potential readers is still beyond us.
Of course, we can’t boast to have a most desirable team in DNA. Reporters with all their hard works are yet to come to grips with issues that fascinate (not just interest) an upward mobile populace. Desk people have a lot to work on style and content to make the paper look snazzier. Various departments have yet to evolve as a core team
to take the paper to a newer height.
But the most remarkable thing about the paper is that willingness to surmount all these obstacles is
there in the staff.
Indore was not an altogether unknown place for me. I know many journalists from this city, though I have had no opportunity to work here before. I have great respect for Indore’s journalism, not the least because the city produced two of the finest editors in India- Rajendra Mathur and Prabhash Joshi. But that’s in Hindi.
English journalism in Indore, frankly, is far behind the metros, notwithstanding the fact that one English new paper is in existence since 1982 and, another, bigger paper, had been supplying daily four-page pull out since 2000 till it started full-fledged Indore edition a year ago. Language is a big issue and, we in DNA are facing this acutely.
Lack of good deskmen has, however, become a national crisis. Even metro papers wail about acute dearth of good hands to handle the desk.
People not so well-versed with the dynamics of the English newspaper in India are amazed at this crisis. They facilely point out to amazing proliferation of public schools.
“When there are so many good English schools and English papers offer such a good salary, why is this
crisis of good deskmen?” they wonder. This same glib belief is a cause for their wonderment about poor circulation of English newspapers in cities such as Indore and Bhopal. It is hard to explain.
Even at the risk of sounding cynical, I try to temper the glee of the staffers over laudatory comments on their stories.
Yes, we have broken many outstanding stories. True, our presentation of even some seemingly ordinary stories (the suicide attempt by a convict of death sentence, for example) has made DNA look apart.
But, the DNA is still far away from the goal when it will be read as a single complete newspaper, without the reader having to feel the need for any Hindi paper for local coverage.
No English newspaper could achieve this cherished goal in MP so far. English newspapers remain a supplementary reading for those who can afford more than one newspapers.
The DNA has a task cut out for it to make itself a complete newspaper.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Indore, an outsider perspective
Indore evokes a grudging admiration in rest of Madhya Pradesh. Its opulence makes people rate their own city (Jabalpur, Bhopal and Gwalior) as ‘different’ in comparison.
By ‘different’ they often mean inferior in most parameters of progress but would not admit so. Instead, they would indefensibly extol their respective city’s ‘virtue’ of ‘not running crazy after money’ unlike Indore. In the same
vein, however, they might blurt out praise for Indore’s historical advantages in promoting entrepreneurship in business, politics, media, etc vis-à-vis the city they belong.
I have come across very few people in Bhopal and Jabalpur (the cities where I spent most of my life so far) who don’t have an opinion about Indore. And most opinions betray a sense of personal misfortune for inability to partake a bit of Indore’s fabulous riche. Slightly jealous of Indore’s prosperity, they seem to wallow in the vicarious pleasure of denigrating the Indoreran.
The sneer manifests itself in countless jokes about Indore’s insatiable lust for money, ‘gluttony’ for Poha-Jalebi and the 56- shops, racketeering of media people and funny anecdotes about its politicians.
One 24-year-old hilarious incident has endured while a lot many are forgotten.
A student leader-turned- MLA from Indore led a delegation of nurses to then chief minister Motilal Vora in 1987.
“ Babuji, ( as Vora used to be reverentially addressed) these nurses have been running from pillar to post for years. Please pregnant them.” Vora, a humourless septuagenarian, was appalled. The MLA insisted that CM immediately make them pregnant. Others in the delegation were shocked.
After a many embarrassing moments, it dawned
on the chief minister that the MLA was, in fact, demanding that he order to make these temporary nurses permanent. These are other equally funny jokes about English of the politician.
When you mention Indore, a Jabalpurean would first curse Mahakoshal politicians from DP Mishra to Kamal Nath to his heart content for doing nothing for the region and add admiringly “Indore Ke Neta Aese
Nahi Hai.” By this, he means Indore politicians might be as venal (even more) as theirs, but, “Woh Apne Logon Aur Kshetra Ka Poora Khayal Rakhate Hain.”
Though without a demonstrable basis, the belief about Indore politicians being more caring for their people and region has made a deep impression on collective psyche of rest of Madhya Pradesh.
Anecdotes, often exaggerated and apocryphal, about ‘Indore-first’ politicians from PC Sethi to Kailash Vijayvargiya are animatedly mentioned to drive home the point why Indore has progressed so fast and other MP cities have lagged behind.
When you talk Indore with bureaucrats (IAS, IPS officers) in Bhopal, many would instantly feign disdain for a government servant’s political connection to stress why they won’t be posted in Indore.
Without needing a push, they would reel out names of successive collectors in Indore and ask, “Haven’t they all been there because of proximity to the chief minister of the day?”
To buttress this point they would mention four former Indore collectors whose next posting was commissioner, public relations, in Bhopal.
This post is considered not only an interlocutor between the
government and media but also of a ‘wise mole’ of the chief minister to keep the master updated about goings- on in the rival political camps within and outside the ruling party.
Former commissioner, public relations, Dr Bhagirath Prasad, SR Mohanti, Manoj Shrivastava and incumbent commissioner Rakesh Shrivastava have been Indore collector. Ajit Jogi’s long jump from Indore collector’s post to Rajya Sabha in 1986 was a trendsetter in bureaucrats joining politics.
No need to go that deep into history. Two predecessors of incumbent Indore collector – Vivek Aggrawal and Rakesh Shrivastava-- are among chief minister’s most trusted bureaucrats. The first is in the CM secretariat and the second commissioner, public relations.
No other collector is more in the media scan than Indore’s for good or bad reasons in Madhya Pradesh. It is a widely held assumption in the corridors of powers that Indore has an uncanny capacity to corrupt its collectors and SPs. Bhagirath Prasad was considered clean when he was
collector in Jabalpur in mid eighties. A couple of years after he was shifted to Indore, people’s perception about his incorruptibility changed. People in MP were awestruck by myriad stories of retired IPS officer Panna Lal’s honesty and terror. But a few years as SP in Indore and the ‘honest terror’ was seen as a “mellowed” man.
No SP or collector in MP’s remaining 49 districts makes as strong a wave in state powerhouse as Indore’s does. It is because the Indore collector’s actions are seen as an extension of the chief minister’s political strategies.
When Manoj Shrivastava ordered demolition of Raj
Towers during Digvijay Singh’s regime, the message implicit in it was that powerful Sanghvis, who had raised the illegal building, were no longer in the good books of the CM.
The recent drive against builders, most prominently Bobby Chhabra by the district administration, was, in fact, a political move of the chief minister to silence the opposition about his government’s alleged complicity with the builder mafia.
Two decades ago the then chief minister Sundar Lal Patwa had also sent across a strong political message by ordering annihilation of notorious don Bala Baig’s ‘evil empire’ in Indore’s Mambai Bazaar that housed all sorts of illegal activities from gambling to prostitution.
Indore has come handy for successive chief ministers to dip into its vast resources for furthering their political ambitions too.
In Bhopal’s political-bureaucratic-media circles, stories about Indore politicians’ inexhaustible resources for event managements are a legion. As chief minister, Digvijay Singh banked on his Indore connection, particularly his Man Friday Mahesh Joshi, to organize historic AICC convention in Pachmarhi in 1998.
Four-vehicles bearing MP- 09 of varying sizes and models lugged paraphernalia in astonishing number –from cooks and tents to fridges and ACs—to Pachmarhi.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi was pleased with Digvijay for successful conclave and Digvijay, in turn, smugly reassured himself that his political investment in Indore was worth it.
Likewise, when newly nominated BJP president Nitin Gadkari needed his formal coronation to be remembered for long, he chose Indore for that. The BJP national executive in April , 2010 was in the news less for
the deliberations held there and more for the ‘white tent city’ erected in the outskirt of Indore.
The delegates returned marveling at the vast array of workers thrown in to make the event a huge success
by industry minister Kailash Vijayvargiya.
Both Vijayvargiya and chief minister Shivraj Singh earned praise from the BJP high command. Indore provided a big boost to Chouhan’s ambition to emerge as a national leader, thanks to the conclave.
In fact, carting workers in thousands in long fleets of garish cutout-bedecked vehicles to parade individual strength is a long tradition in Indore. Other cities too have adopted this tradition but Indore remains unmatched in terms of razzmatazz and resources.
One remarkable aspect of political life of Indore is that moneybags generously finance politicians of all hues but don’t take a direct plunge in party politics. They stay away from being identified with one particular party for obvious reason.
Arjun Singh faced allegations of extending political patronage to Ruchi Soya’s Kailash Shahra. Digvijay Singh’s only brush with the law after he was ousted was due to his government’s alleged favour to industrialist Subhash Gupta and builder Manish Kalani of Treasure Island. The EOW, however, could not gather any substantial evidence to prosecute Digvijay Singh in the two
cases.
Remarkably, none of the big politicians from Indore is from rich and elite class. The Holkars and their descendants studiously remained apolitical, unlike Scindias, though the Indore rulers have been extremely popular as philanthropists.
The political arena is left for middle and lower middle class politicians to rule. Almost all Indore politicians hail from middle and lower middle class.
They are quintessential Hindi-speaking, down-to-earth men and women whose primary capital is workers’ support.
Early politicians too were either trade union leaders or freedom fighters. Most notable among them was comrade Homi Daji, who surprised the nation by entering Lok Sabha from this conservative city on CPI ticket in 1962 election. Later PC Sethi, a clerk-turned-politician dominated the Indore politics for well over three decades till he was
defeated in 1989 by the then homemaker from middle class Maharashtrian family Sumitra Mahajan in Lok Sabha election.
Suresh Seth, Chandra Prabhash Shekhar, Mahesh Joshi, Lalit Jain, Yagya Dutt Sharma were also Indore faces in Bhopal as powerful ministers.
Each had his own peculiar image. Seth was known as an outspoken leader whose ride on elephant to the state assembly during the Janata Party rule is a part of MP’s political folklore. He has bounced back in the
news after two decades for taking on Kailash Vijayvargiya in the Sugni Devi land scam.
Mahesh Joshi’s influence lasted longest among Indore’s politicians , primarily because this one-time Sanjay Gandhi acolyte had been afforded all the freedom to rule the city as an uncrowned king by Digvijay Singh in the latter’s 10 years as chief minister.
Joshi largely basked in Digvijay’s reflected glory even as the four-decade- old Congress citadel had begun to crack in 1989.
Journalists in Bhopal got to see a new crop of Indore politicians in the state assembly after the 1990 assembly elections. Like the previous ones, all these BJP politicians were from lower and middle classes.
They rode piggyback on the massive Ayodhya wave to the state assembly. They were street-smart and fiercely pro-Hindutva.
Kailash Vijayvargiya emerged as the most vocal and popular among them. He easily befriended journalists in Bhopal and made a splash in the house by his earthy humour-tinged oratorical skills. He sings well
too, particularly bhajans. The singing has also helped Kailash rise. Now he has filled the space which Mahesh Joshi occupied once.
Post Ayodhya and post-liberalisation, Indore has begun to resemble more and more like Mumbai. The co-existence of dormant virulence of communal politics with proliferating malls has redefined Indore. This undesirable wedding of the money and communalism has also given rest
of MP one more reason to crack crude jokes at Indore’s expense. But, again, like Mumbai, Indore’s resilience is phenomenal.
Despite communal divide, its entrepreneurship is redoubtable.
During childhood, we used to play an indoor game
‘Vyapar’ during summer vacations. The play had various big cities valued in terms of money. Premium on Indore used to be the lowest. But we, the children in Jabalpur, used to take pride in the fact that at least one city from Madhya Pradesh figures among top business cities of India.
It is only when I grew older that opinion about Indore changed. Now that I am working here, I hope to have my views changed by vibrant Indore about itself.
By ‘different’ they often mean inferior in most parameters of progress but would not admit so. Instead, they would indefensibly extol their respective city’s ‘virtue’ of ‘not running crazy after money’ unlike Indore. In the same
vein, however, they might blurt out praise for Indore’s historical advantages in promoting entrepreneurship in business, politics, media, etc vis-à-vis the city they belong.
I have come across very few people in Bhopal and Jabalpur (the cities where I spent most of my life so far) who don’t have an opinion about Indore. And most opinions betray a sense of personal misfortune for inability to partake a bit of Indore’s fabulous riche. Slightly jealous of Indore’s prosperity, they seem to wallow in the vicarious pleasure of denigrating the Indoreran.
The sneer manifests itself in countless jokes about Indore’s insatiable lust for money, ‘gluttony’ for Poha-Jalebi and the 56- shops, racketeering of media people and funny anecdotes about its politicians.
One 24-year-old hilarious incident has endured while a lot many are forgotten.
A student leader-turned- MLA from Indore led a delegation of nurses to then chief minister Motilal Vora in 1987.
“ Babuji, ( as Vora used to be reverentially addressed) these nurses have been running from pillar to post for years. Please pregnant them.” Vora, a humourless septuagenarian, was appalled. The MLA insisted that CM immediately make them pregnant. Others in the delegation were shocked.
After a many embarrassing moments, it dawned
on the chief minister that the MLA was, in fact, demanding that he order to make these temporary nurses permanent. These are other equally funny jokes about English of the politician.
When you mention Indore, a Jabalpurean would first curse Mahakoshal politicians from DP Mishra to Kamal Nath to his heart content for doing nothing for the region and add admiringly “Indore Ke Neta Aese
Nahi Hai.” By this, he means Indore politicians might be as venal (even more) as theirs, but, “Woh Apne Logon Aur Kshetra Ka Poora Khayal Rakhate Hain.”
Though without a demonstrable basis, the belief about Indore politicians being more caring for their people and region has made a deep impression on collective psyche of rest of Madhya Pradesh.
Anecdotes, often exaggerated and apocryphal, about ‘Indore-first’ politicians from PC Sethi to Kailash Vijayvargiya are animatedly mentioned to drive home the point why Indore has progressed so fast and other MP cities have lagged behind.
When you talk Indore with bureaucrats (IAS, IPS officers) in Bhopal, many would instantly feign disdain for a government servant’s political connection to stress why they won’t be posted in Indore.
Without needing a push, they would reel out names of successive collectors in Indore and ask, “Haven’t they all been there because of proximity to the chief minister of the day?”
To buttress this point they would mention four former Indore collectors whose next posting was commissioner, public relations, in Bhopal.
This post is considered not only an interlocutor between the
government and media but also of a ‘wise mole’ of the chief minister to keep the master updated about goings- on in the rival political camps within and outside the ruling party.
Former commissioner, public relations, Dr Bhagirath Prasad, SR Mohanti, Manoj Shrivastava and incumbent commissioner Rakesh Shrivastava have been Indore collector. Ajit Jogi’s long jump from Indore collector’s post to Rajya Sabha in 1986 was a trendsetter in bureaucrats joining politics.
No need to go that deep into history. Two predecessors of incumbent Indore collector – Vivek Aggrawal and Rakesh Shrivastava-- are among chief minister’s most trusted bureaucrats. The first is in the CM secretariat and the second commissioner, public relations.
No other collector is more in the media scan than Indore’s for good or bad reasons in Madhya Pradesh. It is a widely held assumption in the corridors of powers that Indore has an uncanny capacity to corrupt its collectors and SPs. Bhagirath Prasad was considered clean when he was
collector in Jabalpur in mid eighties. A couple of years after he was shifted to Indore, people’s perception about his incorruptibility changed. People in MP were awestruck by myriad stories of retired IPS officer Panna Lal’s honesty and terror. But a few years as SP in Indore and the ‘honest terror’ was seen as a “mellowed” man.
No SP or collector in MP’s remaining 49 districts makes as strong a wave in state powerhouse as Indore’s does. It is because the Indore collector’s actions are seen as an extension of the chief minister’s political strategies.
When Manoj Shrivastava ordered demolition of Raj
Towers during Digvijay Singh’s regime, the message implicit in it was that powerful Sanghvis, who had raised the illegal building, were no longer in the good books of the CM.
The recent drive against builders, most prominently Bobby Chhabra by the district administration, was, in fact, a political move of the chief minister to silence the opposition about his government’s alleged complicity with the builder mafia.
Two decades ago the then chief minister Sundar Lal Patwa had also sent across a strong political message by ordering annihilation of notorious don Bala Baig’s ‘evil empire’ in Indore’s Mambai Bazaar that housed all sorts of illegal activities from gambling to prostitution.
Indore has come handy for successive chief ministers to dip into its vast resources for furthering their political ambitions too.
In Bhopal’s political-bureaucratic-media circles, stories about Indore politicians’ inexhaustible resources for event managements are a legion. As chief minister, Digvijay Singh banked on his Indore connection, particularly his Man Friday Mahesh Joshi, to organize historic AICC convention in Pachmarhi in 1998.
Four-vehicles bearing MP- 09 of varying sizes and models lugged paraphernalia in astonishing number –from cooks and tents to fridges and ACs—to Pachmarhi.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi was pleased with Digvijay for successful conclave and Digvijay, in turn, smugly reassured himself that his political investment in Indore was worth it.
Likewise, when newly nominated BJP president Nitin Gadkari needed his formal coronation to be remembered for long, he chose Indore for that. The BJP national executive in April , 2010 was in the news less for
the deliberations held there and more for the ‘white tent city’ erected in the outskirt of Indore.
The delegates returned marveling at the vast array of workers thrown in to make the event a huge success
by industry minister Kailash Vijayvargiya.
Both Vijayvargiya and chief minister Shivraj Singh earned praise from the BJP high command. Indore provided a big boost to Chouhan’s ambition to emerge as a national leader, thanks to the conclave.
In fact, carting workers in thousands in long fleets of garish cutout-bedecked vehicles to parade individual strength is a long tradition in Indore. Other cities too have adopted this tradition but Indore remains unmatched in terms of razzmatazz and resources.
One remarkable aspect of political life of Indore is that moneybags generously finance politicians of all hues but don’t take a direct plunge in party politics. They stay away from being identified with one particular party for obvious reason.
Arjun Singh faced allegations of extending political patronage to Ruchi Soya’s Kailash Shahra. Digvijay Singh’s only brush with the law after he was ousted was due to his government’s alleged favour to industrialist Subhash Gupta and builder Manish Kalani of Treasure Island. The EOW, however, could not gather any substantial evidence to prosecute Digvijay Singh in the two
cases.
Remarkably, none of the big politicians from Indore is from rich and elite class. The Holkars and their descendants studiously remained apolitical, unlike Scindias, though the Indore rulers have been extremely popular as philanthropists.
The political arena is left for middle and lower middle class politicians to rule. Almost all Indore politicians hail from middle and lower middle class.
They are quintessential Hindi-speaking, down-to-earth men and women whose primary capital is workers’ support.
Early politicians too were either trade union leaders or freedom fighters. Most notable among them was comrade Homi Daji, who surprised the nation by entering Lok Sabha from this conservative city on CPI ticket in 1962 election. Later PC Sethi, a clerk-turned-politician dominated the Indore politics for well over three decades till he was
defeated in 1989 by the then homemaker from middle class Maharashtrian family Sumitra Mahajan in Lok Sabha election.
Suresh Seth, Chandra Prabhash Shekhar, Mahesh Joshi, Lalit Jain, Yagya Dutt Sharma were also Indore faces in Bhopal as powerful ministers.
Each had his own peculiar image. Seth was known as an outspoken leader whose ride on elephant to the state assembly during the Janata Party rule is a part of MP’s political folklore. He has bounced back in the
news after two decades for taking on Kailash Vijayvargiya in the Sugni Devi land scam.
Mahesh Joshi’s influence lasted longest among Indore’s politicians , primarily because this one-time Sanjay Gandhi acolyte had been afforded all the freedom to rule the city as an uncrowned king by Digvijay Singh in the latter’s 10 years as chief minister.
Joshi largely basked in Digvijay’s reflected glory even as the four-decade- old Congress citadel had begun to crack in 1989.
Journalists in Bhopal got to see a new crop of Indore politicians in the state assembly after the 1990 assembly elections. Like the previous ones, all these BJP politicians were from lower and middle classes.
They rode piggyback on the massive Ayodhya wave to the state assembly. They were street-smart and fiercely pro-Hindutva.
Kailash Vijayvargiya emerged as the most vocal and popular among them. He easily befriended journalists in Bhopal and made a splash in the house by his earthy humour-tinged oratorical skills. He sings well
too, particularly bhajans. The singing has also helped Kailash rise. Now he has filled the space which Mahesh Joshi occupied once.
Post Ayodhya and post-liberalisation, Indore has begun to resemble more and more like Mumbai. The co-existence of dormant virulence of communal politics with proliferating malls has redefined Indore. This undesirable wedding of the money and communalism has also given rest
of MP one more reason to crack crude jokes at Indore’s expense. But, again, like Mumbai, Indore’s resilience is phenomenal.
Despite communal divide, its entrepreneurship is redoubtable.
During childhood, we used to play an indoor game
‘Vyapar’ during summer vacations. The play had various big cities valued in terms of money. Premium on Indore used to be the lowest. But we, the children in Jabalpur, used to take pride in the fact that at least one city from Madhya Pradesh figures among top business cities of India.
It is only when I grew older that opinion about Indore changed. Now that I am working here, I hope to have my views changed by vibrant Indore about itself.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Macabre joke on Nasir’s death
Macabre joke on Nasir’s death
I didn’t want to write this piece but my conscience has kept torturing me ever since I learnt this macabre joke about my dear friend Nasir Kamaal, who is no more. Nasir died of cardiac arrest last month in Mumbai where he was under training at Times of India for the paper’s soon-to-be-launched Bhopal edition. He was one of the finest human beings I had (have) ever known. And my circle of friends, relatives, acquaintances is no small, if not exactly a legion.
Forget friends, even those who have had a nodding acquaintance with Nasir were shocked to learn his untimely death. Fate had done great injustice to this talented and honest journalist. There was an absolute consensus among his friends that Nasir deserved much more than he got- career-wise and otherwise. It was only in the twilight zone of his career that he landed a job in Times of India and we felt that Mamu has, albeit belatedly, got a position he always richly deserved.
Only one man probably differed and he betrayed his anathema to Nasir’s respectable rehabilitation in a manner beyond belief. He was a Nasir’s and mine ex-editor.
Nasir died in the afternoon on August 6. The shocking news circulated fast through mobile and SMSes. Every one who got this news was shocked. This ex-editor was amused though. He had got the news on his mobile through a SMS from a common friend who is also a prominent citizen of Bhopal and known for frequent SMSing.
I can only visualise his expression on reading the SMS but sadness was definitely not on the ex-editor’s face. He called up a friend (who is my friend too) to ask, “Where is Nasir?” The tone had a bemused quizzing ring about it. The friend on the other side said Nasir is in Mumbai in Times of India. “No, No, just find out”, the ex-editor sought to deepen the mystery and switched off the mobile. The friend was baffled.
In the meantime the friend too had got the SMS about Nasir’s death but since he was busy talking to some one, he had not read it.
Soon after the ex-editor’s guess-where-is-Nasir call, the friend got a call from another common friend. He broke the sad news. They shared the sorrow genuinely. And then it dawned on the friend what the ex-editor had wanted to convey. What a way to convey the message! The friend was shocked. Can there be a more insensitive -- I’d dare call barbaric- way to break the sad news about the death of a person who never antagonised any one wittingly or otherwise? Who was known as an Ajat Shatru in Bhopal media?
I was appalled when I learnt about the entire episode. This has kept haunting me ever since. Now that I have written this piece, I feel a little light but the insensitivity of human nature will remain an unforgettable memory for me forever.
I didn’t want to write this piece but my conscience has kept torturing me ever since I learnt this macabre joke about my dear friend Nasir Kamaal, who is no more. Nasir died of cardiac arrest last month in Mumbai where he was under training at Times of India for the paper’s soon-to-be-launched Bhopal edition. He was one of the finest human beings I had (have) ever known. And my circle of friends, relatives, acquaintances is no small, if not exactly a legion.
Forget friends, even those who have had a nodding acquaintance with Nasir were shocked to learn his untimely death. Fate had done great injustice to this talented and honest journalist. There was an absolute consensus among his friends that Nasir deserved much more than he got- career-wise and otherwise. It was only in the twilight zone of his career that he landed a job in Times of India and we felt that Mamu has, albeit belatedly, got a position he always richly deserved.
Only one man probably differed and he betrayed his anathema to Nasir’s respectable rehabilitation in a manner beyond belief. He was a Nasir’s and mine ex-editor.
Nasir died in the afternoon on August 6. The shocking news circulated fast through mobile and SMSes. Every one who got this news was shocked. This ex-editor was amused though. He had got the news on his mobile through a SMS from a common friend who is also a prominent citizen of Bhopal and known for frequent SMSing.
I can only visualise his expression on reading the SMS but sadness was definitely not on the ex-editor’s face. He called up a friend (who is my friend too) to ask, “Where is Nasir?” The tone had a bemused quizzing ring about it. The friend on the other side said Nasir is in Mumbai in Times of India. “No, No, just find out”, the ex-editor sought to deepen the mystery and switched off the mobile. The friend was baffled.
In the meantime the friend too had got the SMS about Nasir’s death but since he was busy talking to some one, he had not read it.
Soon after the ex-editor’s guess-where-is-Nasir call, the friend got a call from another common friend. He broke the sad news. They shared the sorrow genuinely. And then it dawned on the friend what the ex-editor had wanted to convey. What a way to convey the message! The friend was shocked. Can there be a more insensitive -- I’d dare call barbaric- way to break the sad news about the death of a person who never antagonised any one wittingly or otherwise? Who was known as an Ajat Shatru in Bhopal media?
I was appalled when I learnt about the entire episode. This has kept haunting me ever since. Now that I have written this piece, I feel a little light but the insensitivity of human nature will remain an unforgettable memory for me forever.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Homage to Badal Sircar
Homage to Badal Sircar
Amid Mamata Banerjee’s tumultuous victory celebrations in West Bengal, playwright Badal Sircar’s death on Saturday went virtually unnoticed. The octogenarian theatre-personality was the pioneer of the ‘Third Theatre’ and a strong torch-bearer of street play movement.
I knew him through his immensely popular plays, particularly ‘Juloos’, ‘Pagala Ghoda’ and ‘Evam Indrajeet’. I was part of ‘Juloos’ team in Vivechana ( Jabalpur) and was thrilled to watch Prashant Khirwarkar-directed “ Pagala Ghoda’ that featured stalwarts of then Bhopal theatre such as Rajiv Verma, Papiya Dasgupta, Vijay Dindorkar.
‘Evam Indrajit’ is, arguably, Badal Da’s most popular and controversial play that captured the angst of the urban youth in the sixties and seventies , not only in West Bengal but entire India.
Badal Da’s death has freshened my memories of early eighties when we in ‘Vivechana’ enacted ( to say staged would be to confuse, as we would, more often than not, act out the play without proper stage ).
That was our first play without proper director after director Alakhnandan and three of our actors including Ganga Mishra, Rajendra Kamale and Alok Chaterjee had left to join Bharat Bhawan repertory in Bhopal. The responsibility of direction fell on senior actor Arun Pandey.
We were lucky to have had chosen “Juloos” as the first play for Arun to direct. Honestly speaking, Arun’s directorial skill was doubtful. A difficult realistic or complex social play may have doomed Arun’s debut in direction as well as Vivechana’s future as theatre group.
Juloos has great potential for an energetic team of actors to exhibit its talent. The play is sans the protagonist and the antagonist. The crowd is the lead actor; the actors are in supporting cast.
With breathtaking swiftness, the crowd transforms itself into a train, a bus, a music concert, a funeral , a procession and much more. The supporting actors enliven the scenes by assuming various characters.
For instance, I would play five roles in the ‘Juloos’ the play whose duration was barely one hour. The roles were as diverse as toothpowder vender in a train, pop-singer (of Amitabh Bachchan vintage in Yarana) in a music concern and a street Romeo in a running bus. We had a cast of eight characters and each had different roles. Now you can imagine the rapidity with which scenes changed and kinetic energy of the characters that propelled the play.
The play was hugely popular. We staged it across Madhya Pradesh between 1982 and 85.
Incidentally, the play was staged in Bhopal when the city was under the grip of tension duo to communal strife over installation of goddess statue at Peer Gte which was later to be christened as “ Curfew Wali Mata”. Nav Bharat, then the most popular newspaper in Bhopal, carried the news about staging Juloos in box with headline” Curfew Mein Juloos”.
In the hindsight I am tempted to say Juloos had a major role in survival of Vivechana as a thriving theatre group in its days of existential crisis. Therefore, on behalf of all those who acted in the play, I sincerely offer my homage to Badal Sircar.
Amid Mamata Banerjee’s tumultuous victory celebrations in West Bengal, playwright Badal Sircar’s death on Saturday went virtually unnoticed. The octogenarian theatre-personality was the pioneer of the ‘Third Theatre’ and a strong torch-bearer of street play movement.
I knew him through his immensely popular plays, particularly ‘Juloos’, ‘Pagala Ghoda’ and ‘Evam Indrajeet’. I was part of ‘Juloos’ team in Vivechana ( Jabalpur) and was thrilled to watch Prashant Khirwarkar-directed “ Pagala Ghoda’ that featured stalwarts of then Bhopal theatre such as Rajiv Verma, Papiya Dasgupta, Vijay Dindorkar.
‘Evam Indrajit’ is, arguably, Badal Da’s most popular and controversial play that captured the angst of the urban youth in the sixties and seventies , not only in West Bengal but entire India.
Badal Da’s death has freshened my memories of early eighties when we in ‘Vivechana’ enacted ( to say staged would be to confuse, as we would, more often than not, act out the play without proper stage ).
That was our first play without proper director after director Alakhnandan and three of our actors including Ganga Mishra, Rajendra Kamale and Alok Chaterjee had left to join Bharat Bhawan repertory in Bhopal. The responsibility of direction fell on senior actor Arun Pandey.
We were lucky to have had chosen “Juloos” as the first play for Arun to direct. Honestly speaking, Arun’s directorial skill was doubtful. A difficult realistic or complex social play may have doomed Arun’s debut in direction as well as Vivechana’s future as theatre group.
Juloos has great potential for an energetic team of actors to exhibit its talent. The play is sans the protagonist and the antagonist. The crowd is the lead actor; the actors are in supporting cast.
With breathtaking swiftness, the crowd transforms itself into a train, a bus, a music concert, a funeral , a procession and much more. The supporting actors enliven the scenes by assuming various characters.
For instance, I would play five roles in the ‘Juloos’ the play whose duration was barely one hour. The roles were as diverse as toothpowder vender in a train, pop-singer (of Amitabh Bachchan vintage in Yarana) in a music concern and a street Romeo in a running bus. We had a cast of eight characters and each had different roles. Now you can imagine the rapidity with which scenes changed and kinetic energy of the characters that propelled the play.
The play was hugely popular. We staged it across Madhya Pradesh between 1982 and 85.
Incidentally, the play was staged in Bhopal when the city was under the grip of tension duo to communal strife over installation of goddess statue at Peer Gte which was later to be christened as “ Curfew Wali Mata”. Nav Bharat, then the most popular newspaper in Bhopal, carried the news about staging Juloos in box with headline” Curfew Mein Juloos”.
In the hindsight I am tempted to say Juloos had a major role in survival of Vivechana as a thriving theatre group in its days of existential crisis. Therefore, on behalf of all those who acted in the play, I sincerely offer my homage to Badal Sircar.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Binayak Sen and Rakesh Dixit
A public meeting was organized on January 1 to express solidarity with jailed human right activist Dr Binayak Sen at Yaadgar-E-Shahjehani, the public park in Bhopal made famous by Abdul Jabbar’s indomitable organization of gas tragedy victims-- the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangthan-- through its regular meetings over the last two decades.
I was standing at the main entrance of the park trying to figure out fiery speech by a tribal activist in his West Nimar dialect. Abdul Jabbar and senior journalist LS Herdenia saw me from near the dais and beckoned to come. I reached there and quietly sat on a chair.
As I looked around, a strange sensation ran through me. I found myself surrounded by activists of various peoples’ organizations with banners and posters, condemning life term to Binayak Sen by a judge in Raipur. The case is too well known to reiterate here.
Some of the activists present there such as Madhuri, Silvi, Sathyu and Sunil are well known. But most others were very ordinary, poor people fighting against governments to ensure a dignified life for themselves and their communities. I felt myself small before them.
Overwhelmed by empathy for the gathered activists, I imagined myself being asked by Abdul Jabbar to make a speech. How will I begin? I started framing sentences in mind. The speech began with “Dear comrades” though suddenly it occurred that this form of address is rather clichéd. Never mind, I told myself and proceeded. “My name is Rakesh Dixit. I am a journalist by profession and a leftist ideologically”.
Beyond that, the mind got clogged with too many ideas. And then the mind shifted to the tribal speaker who was still on the mike, undaunted by the fact that hardly two percent among the people gathered might be following his speech.
The tribal’s courage was inspiring and made me recall Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh’s famous poetry—O Mere Adarshwadi Man, O Mere Siddhantvadi Man….. .
The poetry is a loud but genuine self-pity of the poet over the hypocrisy of having to genuflect before the rotting, anti-people system with all the boasting about living with scruples and idealism. This is a quintessential bourgeois feeling of helplessness in the face of dehumanizing but mighty system.
Now I understood what that strange sensation was that had run through me when I saw the crowd while sitting on the chair barely five minutes ago. Now I realized why too many ideas had clogged my mind when I was imagining a speech.
Such occasions jolt me to ponder what I had intended to do in life when young and what have I become.
Of course, I am honest to my family, to my profession, to my ideology and, most important, to my conscience. But is that enough? Is it too late to join the peoples’ movement upfront ?
On that day I felt Binayak Sen’s incarceration for ridiculously flimsy charges should make every conscientious person to think where the democracy in India is headed. Legislature, executives, judiciary and the press—all four pillars of democracy seem to have combined to conspire against the peoples fighting for the rights of the dispossessed.
I was standing at the main entrance of the park trying to figure out fiery speech by a tribal activist in his West Nimar dialect. Abdul Jabbar and senior journalist LS Herdenia saw me from near the dais and beckoned to come. I reached there and quietly sat on a chair.
As I looked around, a strange sensation ran through me. I found myself surrounded by activists of various peoples’ organizations with banners and posters, condemning life term to Binayak Sen by a judge in Raipur. The case is too well known to reiterate here.
Some of the activists present there such as Madhuri, Silvi, Sathyu and Sunil are well known. But most others were very ordinary, poor people fighting against governments to ensure a dignified life for themselves and their communities. I felt myself small before them.
Overwhelmed by empathy for the gathered activists, I imagined myself being asked by Abdul Jabbar to make a speech. How will I begin? I started framing sentences in mind. The speech began with “Dear comrades” though suddenly it occurred that this form of address is rather clichéd. Never mind, I told myself and proceeded. “My name is Rakesh Dixit. I am a journalist by profession and a leftist ideologically”.
Beyond that, the mind got clogged with too many ideas. And then the mind shifted to the tribal speaker who was still on the mike, undaunted by the fact that hardly two percent among the people gathered might be following his speech.
The tribal’s courage was inspiring and made me recall Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh’s famous poetry—O Mere Adarshwadi Man, O Mere Siddhantvadi Man….. .
The poetry is a loud but genuine self-pity of the poet over the hypocrisy of having to genuflect before the rotting, anti-people system with all the boasting about living with scruples and idealism. This is a quintessential bourgeois feeling of helplessness in the face of dehumanizing but mighty system.
Now I understood what that strange sensation was that had run through me when I saw the crowd while sitting on the chair barely five minutes ago. Now I realized why too many ideas had clogged my mind when I was imagining a speech.
Such occasions jolt me to ponder what I had intended to do in life when young and what have I become.
Of course, I am honest to my family, to my profession, to my ideology and, most important, to my conscience. But is that enough? Is it too late to join the peoples’ movement upfront ?
On that day I felt Binayak Sen’s incarceration for ridiculously flimsy charges should make every conscientious person to think where the democracy in India is headed. Legislature, executives, judiciary and the press—all four pillars of democracy seem to have combined to conspire against the peoples fighting for the rights of the dispossessed.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Pamphleteering and Bhopal press
Pamphleteering and Bhopal press
One more pamphlet about journalists got circulated last week in Bhopal, and, as always, I don’t figure in it. The anonymous sender of this one-page pamphlet did not consider me worthy enough for even his mailing list. I got to read the pamphlet at senior journalist ND Sharma’s place. Am I really sad about the omission? Here’s is dilemma. A part in me wishes that some pamphlets had mentioned me as honest and true professional. But the inner voice castigates me for cherishing such a wish. ‘You are not doing any favour to anyone if you are honest and professional,’ it reasons with my conscience. I must heed to my inner voice.
That said, I must confess, if ever any future pamphlet mentioned me in bright light—as truly me --, I will be immensely pleased. Another confession; I find the pamphlets a great entertainment. True, not all that is written in them about targeted journalists is correct. In fact, most pamphlets suffered from sweeping generalization. They say Mr so and so are touts/ middlemen/ powerbrokers without corroboration. They are a joyful reading nonetheless. Any way, most journalists don’t need any pamphlets to know about their corrupt and racketeer colleagues. The pamphlets only provide people like us an opportunity to gloat over imagined embarrassment or torment of the targeted ones. This is just a small reward for remaining a true professional.
Nearly a hundred pamphlets may have been circulated in the Bhopal media in the last and half decades but the memories of the first pamphlet still linger on. What a pamphlet it was! Its subtle humour, wit, irony and linguistic beauty had greatly charmed us all. The pamphlet had created such a huge sensation in the corridors of power that the then chief minister Digvijay Singh had to announce a sort of inquiry into the whole episode. The journalists who figured in it were all fire and brimstone and, the journalists who did not figure in it, bubbled with mirth. The righteous indignation of the targettted journalists was a great, if secret, source of joy for all of us. Not only journalists, the politicians and bureaucrats also thoroughly relished the pamphlet. Wild conspiracy theories abounded about writer of the pamphlet. Some speculated that it could be the handiwork of Digvijay Singh himself, as he wanted to expose some of the journalists for what they really are. Since the pamphlet was purported to be Digvijay Singh’s opinion about the journalists in first person, there were many takers for Digvijay’s behind-the-scene role. Of course, Digvijay Singh was never serious about the probe he had announced to find the truth behind the pamphlet. The then SP of Bhopal Mr Sanjiv Singh did go through the motion of quizzing some journalists about the source of the pamphlet but the probe, predictably, remained elusive.
The pamphlets that followed could maintain neither beauty nor dignity of the first one. Some of these pamphlets were outright vulgar, unfit for reading. They insinuated bizarre sexual link-ups among and about journalists.
One more pamphlet about journalists got circulated last week in Bhopal, and, as always, I don’t figure in it. The anonymous sender of this one-page pamphlet did not consider me worthy enough for even his mailing list. I got to read the pamphlet at senior journalist ND Sharma’s place. Am I really sad about the omission? Here’s is dilemma. A part in me wishes that some pamphlets had mentioned me as honest and true professional. But the inner voice castigates me for cherishing such a wish. ‘You are not doing any favour to anyone if you are honest and professional,’ it reasons with my conscience. I must heed to my inner voice.
That said, I must confess, if ever any future pamphlet mentioned me in bright light—as truly me --, I will be immensely pleased. Another confession; I find the pamphlets a great entertainment. True, not all that is written in them about targeted journalists is correct. In fact, most pamphlets suffered from sweeping generalization. They say Mr so and so are touts/ middlemen/ powerbrokers without corroboration. They are a joyful reading nonetheless. Any way, most journalists don’t need any pamphlets to know about their corrupt and racketeer colleagues. The pamphlets only provide people like us an opportunity to gloat over imagined embarrassment or torment of the targeted ones. This is just a small reward for remaining a true professional.
Nearly a hundred pamphlets may have been circulated in the Bhopal media in the last and half decades but the memories of the first pamphlet still linger on. What a pamphlet it was! Its subtle humour, wit, irony and linguistic beauty had greatly charmed us all. The pamphlet had created such a huge sensation in the corridors of power that the then chief minister Digvijay Singh had to announce a sort of inquiry into the whole episode. The journalists who figured in it were all fire and brimstone and, the journalists who did not figure in it, bubbled with mirth. The righteous indignation of the targettted journalists was a great, if secret, source of joy for all of us. Not only journalists, the politicians and bureaucrats also thoroughly relished the pamphlet. Wild conspiracy theories abounded about writer of the pamphlet. Some speculated that it could be the handiwork of Digvijay Singh himself, as he wanted to expose some of the journalists for what they really are. Since the pamphlet was purported to be Digvijay Singh’s opinion about the journalists in first person, there were many takers for Digvijay’s behind-the-scene role. Of course, Digvijay Singh was never serious about the probe he had announced to find the truth behind the pamphlet. The then SP of Bhopal Mr Sanjiv Singh did go through the motion of quizzing some journalists about the source of the pamphlet but the probe, predictably, remained elusive.
The pamphlets that followed could maintain neither beauty nor dignity of the first one. Some of these pamphlets were outright vulgar, unfit for reading. They insinuated bizarre sexual link-ups among and about journalists.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
