One among a billion.
I could have been an accountant. Instead I choose to become a journalist.
I figured it was the only job where you are paid to read. But, who knew, what started of as a suit-yourself-job will become my life long passion...
The relentless TV coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks is an indication of both its success and failure. Over the last three or four days, I have received lots of email criticising TV coverage of the event. Among other things, TV reporters have been accused of giving away critical information to the terrorists by indicating the size of the NSG forces, etc, etc. In particular, Barkha Dutt seems to have become a particular hate target, with bloggers harshly critical of her breathless and emotional coverage of the Taj and other operations.
I am no fan of TV coverage. In the pursuit of TRPs, TV anchors tend to look for ways to hook the viewer, and often this means catering to low tastes (especially in the regional media), and sensationalism. I am particularly aggrieved, since relentless TV coverage of a triviality forces newspapers to follow suit - since TV often sets the news agenda.
If we want to reduce and eliminate communalism in India, the last people to seek answers from are the secularists themselves. I have read many articles on communalism, some written by vocal anti-communalists like Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, and others by literary figures like Arundhati Roy and even Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. They actually have no answers.
The real answers come from psychologists, for communalism is nothing but a kind of collective neurosis, brought on by a community’s hidden anxieties and fears. Politicians know this, and this is why they pander to a community’s insecurities for short-term electoral benefits. They fan communalism for their own ends.
Let me confess: I’m not the blogging type. But if, despite this, I have fought initial inhibitions to dive headlong into it, you have my website’s marketing people to thank. They believe that if senior editors share much of what they think and do, both on and off the job, more people may log into the site and liven things up.
Well, we’ll know soon enough. I have two reasons – one professional and one personal – why I am now looking forward to this experience. The first is that writing in the newspaper is often like a one-way broadcast. You do receive some letters – and some abuses – in the mail, but as a writer one misses regular feedback and interactivity. The internet is a better medium for that. I hope this blog brings forth readers who want to argue, criticise, congratulate, and score points on the issues I write about.
