Weak foundation of English journalism ( 3)

The launching of the HT

The launch of Hindustan Times was preceded by almost a decade- long rumours about this or that national English daily coming to the MP’s capital soon. The rumours kept the hopefuls for change hopeful.

Finally, the HT started in March 2000. It lived up to the euphoria among the small band of young English journalists of Bhopal to a great extent. They were hired on almost double the salary they were getting in the previous papers. The HT, Bhopal, at the time of launching turned out to be the biggest paymaster in all Bhopal newspapers. Even the best of Hindi newspapers were not offering better than the HT.

It started off on promising note. Askari Zaidi, the resident editor, had pucca credentials as someone with proven track record and cosmopolitan outlook.

Abhilash Khandekar’s elevation in the HT as bureau chief was only to be expected. The paper hired a good number of reporters and deskmen and women not only from Bhopal but across India.

Some of them were good, some lethargic and still some utter mediocre. But, none of them could be described as bad apples, as far as my assessment went.   

The HT brought dynamism in reporting events targeted at the so-called English readership. Circulation began to shoot up. Other English newspapers faced existential crisis. It looked as though the HT would swallow all other small English dailies and might come up to compete with big mainstream Hindi newspapers of Bhopal.

It was the time when HT had grand plans to expand across India under leadership of India’s one of the best editors Vir Sanghvi. Vir had the carte blanche of his proprietor Shobhna Bhartiya. Bhopal had the desk for HT’s Raipur and Nagpur editions too.

Bhopal was envisioned as the hub of Central India. But this dream was too grand to last.

I’m no media pundit and you didn’t need to be one to see that HT’s downfall began primarily due to poverty of English language. The reader, who lapped up the paper, by and by, realized that the reporters did not have much of journalistic tricks up their sleeves to impress him any more. They had run out of good story ideas soon enough. More importantly, they had lost the zeal to take initiative. Three- year contractual system spawned a killing complacency. Job security made them both insolent and slothful to a great extent. Money, of course, was a big factor.  

The reader also sensed that the desk lacked requisite professional acumen to pad up, forget polish and embellish stories. The paper as a product did not seem attractive any more. Its circulation stagnated.

Since enough advertisers couldn’t be wooed to keep the economics of rising circulation on the positive side, the Bhopal edition started fading in the HT’s grand scheme of things in the headquarters.

Raipur edition became the first casualty. It was wound up and whatever team stayed back was shifted to Bhopal. Nagpur edition followed suit.

It became more than apparent that the Bhopal is a neglected child for the Delhi management. Those at the helm of affairs in Bhopal did not do much to dispel this disillusion in Delhi and despondency in Bhopal.

I am deliberately not naming the individuals whose active or passive contributions brought the paper to a sorry pass. Two developments in quick succession dealt a severe blow to the paper. First HT’s general manager Mr Fahmi resigned , paving way for downgrading the unit head’s post to that of DGM. Not too long after that Askari Zaidi quit.

Zaidi with all his laidback attitude had the ability to get things going at Delhi end. Fahmi’s successor was an unmitigated disaster.

He had cut his marketing teeth in Nav Bharat as a junior errand boy of the owner and never grew up. His mentality didn’t grow out of a Mufassil paper’s salesman.   

In order to show profit in the edition, he drastically cut overhead expenditures and also strived hard to ensure that the staff are underpaid. He succeeded in the plan. In fact, he brazenly boasted about the plan, much to the discomfiture of the staffers.

The HT did come in profit on papers at the expense of the staffers. This has had disastrous impact on the morale of the team though.

Zaidi’s exit paved the way for an upstart racketeer’s entry as successor three months later in 2007. Mercifully, the successor did not last for more than three months, thanks largely to vocal protests by the staffers. (Will write a separate blog on this interesting episode) .Then another editor came. His arrival raised high hopes. But before too long, the HT men and women came to realise that they had shouted out a tweedledum to be replaced by tweedledee.

The paper started nose-diving fast both in terms of credibility and quality. By the time the tweedledee exited, vast damage had been done to not only the paper but also to English journalism as a whole, for the HT had held high hopes.      

When the paper got off, it was the highest paymaster in Bhopal. Ten years down the line, it lagged far behind other newspapers on this count.

This is a general outline of the paper’s rise and fall. If I give insider account of what went wrong, picture will be more realistic and clearer. But this will be unethical. I have had good and bad times in the HT. And I have grown well past the time. Good luck and good wishes to all my former colleagues

Weak foundation of English journalism in MP ( 2)

Weak foundation of English journalism in MP ( 2)  

In the previous blog I briefly attempted to put across the point as to how weak foundation put paid to future of English journalism in MP. I am picking up the thread where I left.

By eighties, Hindi newspapers had started transforming themselves- both in content and form. Offset technology coupled with the advent of computer brought about huge technological revolution. Nai Dunia (Indore) and Bhaskar (Bhopal) were the frontrunners in adopting the new technologies. They also improved contents.

Nav Bharat, on the other hand, remained smugly slow in adapting itself to the changes sweeping the brave new world. But brand equity of Nav Bharat was still strong enough to keep it ahead of others, notwithstanding the paper’s slow progress.

At national level, the English newspapers were vying with one another in leveraging the technologies to increase their circulations.

In contrast, the two English newspapers –MP Chronicle and Hitavada—remained insular to the changes. They lost out fast to Hindi newspapers in production quality. They also deteriorated in contents.

VC Shukla’s fluctuating political fortunes had an adverse bearing on Hitavada. A paper founded by Servant of India Society of Gopal Krishna Gokhle was sold to an upstart Sardarji with dubious financial antecedents.

Paper’s downhill journey didn’t stop here. As the paper was in the doldrums, a feisty public relation department officer bought its title. A tragi-comic series of events ensued. The staff would neither quit nor work. As salaries were hard to come by, the PRO-turned- owner faced the humiliation of his house being gheraoed and filthy slogans being raised against him.

Many a time he was literally reduced to tears. His misadventure cost him dear both in reputation and in finance. The paper finally sunk without trace.

The MP Chronicle continued to live up to its notoriety of being a badly produced and howler-packed newspaper. Since Nav Bharat group’s flagship itself was on the decline, MP Chronicle, the poor cousin, could not have expected any kind attention from the owners. 

Meanwhile, Free Press Journal, Bombay, launched its edition from Indore in 1982. An apocryphal story about its launch from Indore suggests that the paper owed its birth in Indore to an injured ego of a rich man. The story goes like this.

A close relative of JK Karnani, owner of the Free Press Journal, had gone to meet the then Indore collector. He was made to wait for a long time while in the meantime owner of a big Hindi newspaper was respectfully ushered in the collector’s cabin.

The relative was stung by his perceived humiliation and thought that owning a newspaper is an easy way to win a collector’s respect. He persuaded Karnani to launch Free Press Journal from Indore.

I am not sure about veracity of the story but this much is sure that Free Press Journal in its initial days was much superior to the Hitavada and MP Chronicle. It had professional and qualified editors, though they too did not take much interest in improving language in the paper.

However, the Free Press Journal’s fearless and no-holds-barred presentation of reports endeared it to the readers who had not seen such courage in the older English papers. But the Free Press too started losing credibility, owing largely to its two Bihari managers’ obsession with hiring and firing journalists.  

In mid-eighties, Bhaskar group launched Daily Bhaskar. The launch was impressive and held promise for welcome change in the English journalism scenario.

It hired well respected N Rajan to edit the paper from Hitavada. Late Rajan sir was diligent, sharp and intellectually well –equipped. But, unfortunately, he had an insipid team. Some brilliant reporters like Bharat Desai joined and quit the paper but the deadwoods stayed put and stymied any prospects of the paper making a difference in the scenario.

N Rajan bore them along with unenviable patience. But how long could one man carry the paper on his frail shoulders? The paper started to fade.

After a while it was renamed National Mail. But the change proved only cosmetic. Dr Suresh Mehrotra succeeded N Rajan in 1993. Dr Sahab, with all his harmlessness and wide contacts, suffered from a basic flaw. Language was his Achilles Heel.

I and Mohammad Nasir joined the National Mail soon after Dr Mehrotra took over. The paper began to be noticed. We were euphoric. The management also got interested in promoting the paper.

However, the euphoria proved short-lived. Dr Sahab’s fundamental flaws in leading a team like a professional overwhelmed whatever fame or notoriety the paper had initially earned. I and Nasir got disillusioned.

He quit and I was sidelined. Mediocrity had the field day. In 1999, a few months after I quit National Mail, the paper was folded up.

In next blog, I will try to tell how the launch of first national daily –Hindustan Times-- rekindled hopes  of  putting Bhopal on national map of English journalism and how the hopes were dashed.

             

               

 

Weak foundation of English journalism in MP

As promised in previous blog, I am writing about editors of MP’s English newspapers. Unlike Hindi’s, English newspaper editors since inception of the state in 1956 can be counted on finger tips.

For over three decades, MP Chronicle and Hitavada (both published in Bhopal) largely catered to the English readership in the state capital. AD Mani in Hitavada and KP Narayanan in MP Chronicle were founder editors. They were considered illustrious too. I can’t comment on their glory because I have not worked under them. But this much I can say safely that they were not an institution unto themselves the way BG Varghese or M Chelapati Rao or Frank Moreas - to name just a few- have been.

I have seen the journalistic acumen and linguistic quality of the journalists who worked under AD Mani. They were  hardly inspiring, to put it mildly. Their training suggested  about the work of the editors they worked under. Name taking in this context makes no sense. Suffice would be to say that none of the English journalists in either Hitavada or MP Chronicle shone bright enough, at least till they served in the two papers.

Since Congress leader VC Shukla had the title of the paper, the Hitavada’s political inclination was not hard to understand. Its being anti-establishment was out of question when Congress behemoth ruled the country, including MP. The paper did not sell much, though its impact was more than those of HT or TOI today.

However, Hitavada with all its grand name and history was just okay. Its production quality was poor but that was not its minus point per se, for Hindi papers fared no better on this count either.    

KP Narayanan of MP Chronicle was, no doubt, a scholar of English and Sanskrit. He was, I learnt from Mayaram Surjan’s book , a gold medalist in English literature from Madras university.

Late Ram Gopal Maheshwari brought him to launch and head MP Chronicle. KP was well respected editor. He was allotted a big bungalow in Civil Lines in Bhopal. He was provided a car by the MP Chronicle management in the time when most journalists used to travel by bicycle.

But, the MP Chronicle hardly qualified as a good newspaper under him. Even during his time, the paper spawned a myriad jokes about its language. That said, it can not be gainsaid that MP Chronicle was pretty popular among Malayalee (and other south Indian, to some extent) population in the BHEL area, a legacy that endures even today, albeit weakened a great deal.  

KP Narayanan, I am given to understand, was keener to serve The Hindu of which he was a special correspondent in Bhopal than looking after the MP Chronicle. It is said that not only he was not averse to hearing jokes about the quality of MP Chronicle, he himself volunteered some of them.

None of the Narayanan’s junior colleagues is heard to have made a mark as a quality journalist. None, in fact, showed any interest in ridding the MP Chronicle of the ridicules the paper would incur for its substandard English. Perhaps KP Narayanan’s stature spared the MP Chronicle from being overshadowed by the Hindi Big Brother Nav Bharat for some years. But after his demise, the MP Chronicle (later Central Chronicle) turned out to be a poor carbon copy (literally) of Nav Bharat. The Nav Bharat reporters used to be asked (and are still asked I believe) to file stories for Central Chronicle as well.

After KP Narayanan, Shrawan Garg was the only editor whose credentials as such were beyond questioning. But Garg’s English was atrocious. ( I will talk of more abject poverty of English editors of MP later).

Afterwards, the owner assumed the editorship and let the paper rot, and the rot was never stemmed. My brief attempt in 1992-93 and then 200-2002 to make a semblance of readable English in the paper proved a lonely furrow in the long sand dunes.                           

So, it is evident that very foundation of English journalism has been weak in MP. How could one expect a miracle?

At the rate English literacy has increased since its formation in 1956, Madhya Pradesh should have had combined circulation of English newspapers in Lakhs. The last 58 years saw rapid proliferation of English medium schools and colleges. The state’s main centres Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur and Gwalior have emerged as significant education hubs in India.

English has far outstripped Hindi as medium of instruction at all level. Yet, the transformation in no way translated into growth of English newspapers. A state with over six crore population has combined circulation of all English newspapers (published in MP and out of MP) at around 1.2 lakh.

Compare this with Mumbai and Delhi and the stark plight of English journalism in Madhya Pradesh becomes all too evident. Delhi with population of 1.2 crore has over 25 lakh English papers being sold with HT and TOI accounting for nearly 75% of the total circulation. The population and English reader ratio in Mumbai is even higher.

The shockingly dismal scenario in MP raises two questions: one, why people, who can read English, are averse to subscribing newspapers in this language? Two, do the MP’s English newspapers lack attraction to entice potential readers? In my humble view, answer to both the questions is YES. More on this topic later.

 

Enemy of English

Enemy of English

If it were not for a personal tragedy, I would have rewarded the warrior-reporters for the sheer tenacity with which they have been waging relentless war against English in English newspapers. So intense is their hatred for the language they write their story in that they don’t even look at their own edited/ rewritten stories in the paper next morning. And they make no bones about the aversion to the edited stories. Secure in the belief that they can easily get away with distorting the language any which way they can, reporters seem to take pride in their vicarious freedom struggle against English a good 65 years after the British quit India.

My age is possibly the only saving grace, otherwise I would have been a frequent object of open ridicule of the reporters for trying to serve the colonialists by rewriting their copies, an effort they believe is waste of time.

However, their valued opinions expressed behind my back about my love’s labour lost some times ricochet on my unsuspecting ears. Earlier, I used to be pained by such irreverence to my hard work. But, having done the futile job for over two decades, I’m inured to the sniggers.

Dard Ka Had Se Guzarana Hai Dawa Ho Jana.

I often wonder if my untimely baldness is linked to having to deal with reporters’ copies in the last two decades. Sure enough, I am fantastically athletic for my age, very agile. But the thinning hairline is a lone sour point.  I believe you don’t need to demonstrably (and physically)  tear your hair off to lose them fast. This might be an internal process, triggered by the everyday rage over rewriting reporters’ stories only to find they don’t care about this all.  

If I recapitulate here what horrible howlers I confront, an epic-size description would be needed. Besides, differentiating one reporter from another would be a grave injustice to their class. There are reporters whose copies are better than others. But, the ability to treat the edited stories with utter disdain is a common point. Barring a few like P Naveen ( Times of India), Shams Ur Rehman Alavi ( Hindustan Times), Devbrat Ghose (HT) , Archana Khare ( TOI)  or Avinash Dutt Garg ( BBC) , I have come across very few reporters all through my long career who cared to learn from the edited copies. I’m tempted to believe that P Naveen’s remarkable rise in journalism is due to his ability and willingness to correct himself. Today, his most stories are nearly flawless, needing very little editing. A vast change from where he had begun a decade ago.   

Why I’m what I’m and why reporters are what they are? I have clear explanation for my incorrigibility. The reporters’ characteristic insouciance is also, to a great extent, explainable to me. The reporters class has the instinctive protection of semiliterate editors (in terms of English language) that unfortunately we have had in English papers in MP. Late N Rajan, in my life, was an honourable exception. Will write more about it later.

God, LK Joshi and elusive novel title

God, LK Joshi and elusive novel title

Title of the novel will forever elude me unless I bump into Lalil Kumar Joshi some day, some place in life. However, message of the novel will remain forever with me. It is not that LK Joshi is untraceable but to ask on email or phone what is title of the novel he had discussed with me two decades ago would be a sheer tomfoolery. Anyway, the message is more important than the title.  

As any senior journalist worth the salt in Bhopal will vouch, Lalit Kumar Joshi was one of the finest IAS officers Madhya Pradesh has ever had. As public relation commissioner he set certain high standards which none of his successors could match. He could talk to top most media baron and a cub reporter simultaneously without giving either a feeling of being discriminated against.

In an evening in 1992, I was chatting with LK Joshi in his office about literature. A voracious reader, Joshi used to read three books at a time (not simultaneously, of course). I mentioned during discussion about huge problem in rewriting reporters stories which besides being horrible English lack basic facts. He laughed consolingly and mentioned a novel he had read some time ago.

The novel’s protagonist is a sculptor. Passionate and eccentric, he chisels out from a rock a huge statue of a human figure on the cliff of a hillock. On the other side is a deep valley. Having completed the statue, he invites his friends to see his creation. They come and marvel at the artiste’s labour of love.

They observe that the artiste has taken equal pain in shapely carving out the back part of the statue as the front. “Why have you worked so hard on the back of the statue which no body will see because beyond the cliff is the valley. You are mad. Who will bother to see the back?” wondered one of the friends while admiring the statue.

The artiste paused for a while and looking skyward quietly replied, “The god will see.” The way Joshiji narrated the story touched the core of my heart.   

I had not realised how deeply the story influenced me until a reporter asked the same question that the artiste’s friend had asked. The context was, of course, different. For 20 years, I have been rewriting copies of the reporters, even though I was essentially a reporter myself and late bureau chief. Somehow, I can’t suffer bad English. Or, at least what I think is bad English.  

I had finished rewiring the reporter’s shabbily written story. There was some factual mistake in the last paragraph. I checked with him about the fact. He corrected it but not without adding rather blithely, “Arre Sir, who is going to read this till the last?” I instinctively blurted out, “The god will read”. I wondered what might have prompted this reply.  Then the LK Joshi’s story flashed on the mind. Since then, the narration often haunts me whenever I edit stories.

My aversion to let go badly written stories in the print has not been appreciated even by some of the reporters who should have been, in fact, grateful. I also sometime argue with myself whether is it not true that few, if any one, read stories in English newspapers beyond second para unless they are spellbinding. But such spellbinding stories are  mostly carried on page one. Inside page stories go mostly unread. Most readers even don’t take trouble of unfolding the paper.

But, LK Joshi’s novel makes me feel guilty if ever I let any story in hand go unedited till the last word. I am not fanatic. My inclination to religiosity is fairly recent. Yet, any half hearted attempt or disingenuous tricks in the paper flusters me. I have paid heavy price for being stubborn on this count. But what to do ? Ye Dil Hai Ki Manata Nahi.    

   

10 tips to become a successful English editor

Failed aspirants for a goal have been seen emerging as quite successful coaches for the goal. There are numerous IAS coaching institutes run by persons who could not make it to all India or even state administrative services.

Scores of mediocre journalists can be seen teaching in journalism institutes. Unsuccessful actors giving coaching in acting institutes for films, TV and theatres is not uncommon.

Quite a few flop litterateurs wisely switched to publishing literary magazines so that they could pontificate in their columns to budding writers what and how ought or not ought to write. The list does not end here but I have to stop it here.   

Given this scenario, I should be forgiven for offering tips (just ten for now) on how to become a successful editor of an English newspaper. My tips are, needless to say, based on own experience of working in the MP’s English newspapers for over three decades.

I have had the misfortune of failing to imbibe even a modicum of success Mantras of the editors I have worked with.  Whether I failed for my own good is a moot point. I leave the decision on my well wishers.

Each editor I worked under had some peculiar qualities. There were a couple of common points too such as insouciance for quality of language in the newspaper and irrepressible longing to be in the good books of the top bureaucratic fraternity at the cost of the paper’s credibility and prestige. 

The tips below are based on observations of one of the editors in my previous newspaper.   

Tip number one

Always keep a veneer of contrived seriousness on the face when in the office. Even if you want to laugh at some genuinely laughing matters, suppress your impulse. The editor must be seen brooding, lest his cheerfulness is misconstrued by the colleagues as a sign of frivolity and companionship.

The editor must keep reminding himself that he is crowned to rule over the lesser mortals and must not look like them. Also, don’t encourage them to be cheerful either by your actions or expressions. Never mind if the colleagues have seen through your sophistry. Let them sneer at you or call you a hypocrite behind your back.

When face to face, they will desist from opening up. And if they don’t open up, substantial discussion or planning on improving the paper can be avoided. This is an intelligent device to save yourself the avoidable embarrassment of blurting out some silly suggestions or betraying your ignorance about the newspaper functioning.

Tip number two

Always promote incompetent subordinates. They are useful tools to snoop at competent ones. Their sycophancy will keep your ego caressed and you will feel elevated. Incompetent subordinates can be trusted to carry out your ‘inspired’ ideas which conscientious colleagues might balk at, fearing adverse impact on the paper.

Mediocrity thrives on the unqualified blessings of the boss. Therefore, mediocre people should be relied upon to run down and discredit honest ones in the office. This way, you can rest assured about security of your job.

Tip number three

Make easy things in the paper look difficult by bureaucratizing functioning. Instead of straight talking to subordinates, take recourse to management parlance. Issue memos in official jargon, using words like ‘with reference to…. vitiating work culture…the management has not appreciated this or that …I am appalled to see…To the shock of my life… etc etc   

Tip number four

Keep ready some stock excuses to spike reports you don’t want published. For instance, if a reporter has filed a story about misdeeds of your politician/bureaucrat/ businessman friend and you obviously don’t want it carried, then frustrate the reporter by all means possible, without saying straight that you value friendship more than the paper.

You can say, there is no proper quote or the story is biased/ libelous. Instill fear of management’s wrath in the minds of reporters about the prospects of the paper being sued for the stories you don’t want published.   

Tip number five    

Have absolutely no qualms in appropriating credit for the hard and fine labour of your colleagues. If some honest and competent subordinate has planned and executed a big story package, don’t hesitate to flaunt it as your idea before your superiors—the chief editor or the owner, as the case may be.

The colleague could, at best, tear his hair out among the staffers or, at worst, try to subtly indicate that you did not give him the credit he deserved.

The editor must have enough thick skin to countenance such grouses with a dismissive air and bide his time to hit the complainant where it hurts most- namely the revision of the KRA.

Tip number six  

Be always willing to do the bidding of the public relation commissioner of the state government. It serves in many ways. For one, it facilitates good relations between the marketing head and the editor. For another, your hunger to expand friendship base in the government is satiated to a great extend. Government press releases ought to be treated with top priority, no matter howsoever falsehood  or stupidity they might bear.

Tip number seven

When you are writing on any subject, don’t give a second thought to placement. It must be on front page and that too on top with your nice photograph. Even if you are writing, say, a blatantly laudatory piece about some bogus government scheme or a minister’s lofty ‘brainchild’ or your bureaucrat friend’s idea to please the chief minister, it must get preference over all other news items on page one, never mind their news value. Don’t bother what reader might say about the paper. For change, you can write critical pieces against local municipal authority on garbage not being cleared in time. But the placement will remain the same.   

Tip number eight

When some one from the main publishing centre (headquarters) descends on your edition for some reason, immediately shed all the snobbery you are used to showing to the colleagues. It’s immaterial what the age or status of the man or woman from the headquarters is. You should leave no stone unturned to keep them in good humour.

Also, don’t forget to poison their ears about the honest and hardworking colleagues. You will be well advised to invite them on lunch or dinner even though you have never bothered to savour a single Samosa with colleagues you work with round the year. If the guests happen to belong to HR department, hospitality should be even grander.         

Tip number nine

You should be least concerned with language of the paper. If too many howlers occur to ignore, conveniently put the blame on the ‘poor desk’. But make sure that your chosen few don’t come to harm. Pick soft targets from the desk. If readers point out mistakes, tell them blithely that it is not humanly possible for you to take care of all the works in the paper where too many linguistically- challenged journalists are employed.

This will create an impression as though you are the most diligent man in the entire office. You can also argue that since the incompetent persons were appointed by your predecessor, you are not morally responsible for their stupidity.

Tip number 10

Never play with filed stories. If an impulse to rewrite a story surges in you, suppress it. You must realize that you were not appointed editor for being good in English language in the first place. Editing is a skilled job where your weakness will be exposed in no time.    

Aziz Naza and Khatik Mohalla of Jabalpur

A pleasant sensation ran though the whole body as the mellifluous, if nasal, voice of Qawwal Aziz Naza fell on my ears. It was coming from an auto rickshaw stationed at LIG square today.

I was coming to the office at 4 pm, my usual office time. The auto driver, a hennaed-hair, paan-chewing Bhai Jaan in mid-forties was humming with the qawwali. Immersed in the ‘Jhoom Barabar Jhoom Sharabi….” the man gave impression of a Sufi. His head was shaking variously to the rhythm of the qawwali. 

Suddenly I felt myself transported to Jabalpur-- the Khatik Mohalla of Jabalpur, to be more specific. Old memories fleshed on the mind. 

The Aziz Naza Qawwali could be heard from all loudspeakers in the Mohalla and there was no shortage of loud speakers then. Also, there was no restriction- moral, social or legal- on volume of the speakers. Even if there had been any, it would have had absolutely no meaning in the locality. I am talking about seventies of the previous century.

The Khatik Mohalla in Ghamapur area needed no particular occasion- auspicious or otherwise- to treat the people’s unsuspecting ears with Aziz Naza qawwali.

Birth of a pig’s litter was a good enough occasion for the owner to celebrate the new arrivals with the Qawwali. However, Aziz Naza would conspicuously abstain from assailing the ears when police raided the illicit liquor dens in the Mohalla.

The raids happened on an average once a month. When police chased the bootleggers, they would throw the raw materials for illicit liquor distillation like molasses, Nausadar etc into the nullah flowing in the midst of the Mohalla. The effluent would flow with dirty water and intoxicate the nullah. The inadvertent beneficiaries of the police raids would be pigs and their litters.

Completely sozzled pigs in the intoxicated Nullah water were a delight to watch. Since their owners would be on the run during the police raids, no one would disturb the pigs.

At times, Aziz Naza would be a source of group clashes in the Mohalla. The genesis of the fight would be competitive upping in volume of the loud speakers. The revelers celebrating different occasions in the Mohalla would quarrel on the justifiability of their reason to raise the pitch of Naza qawwali.

Good thing about such clashes was that neither side would target the passersby on the main road to Ghamapur. Armed with Suwarmaar bum (the crude bombs used to kill pigs), the warring parties would politely ask passersby to keep going. They would attack each other only when they felt the innocent people were out of the possible crossfire. Some times, their assessment would go wrong and pedestrians would be hit. But such collateral damages would be unintended. 

Alas, those days are now just a memory. The Ghamapur no longer has Aziz Naza quawali, nor the road remains abuzz with cycle-borne employees of the three defence production factories.