My career in journalism started out with an internship at India's prestigious Indian Express newspaper in New Delhi. The office, which took me well over an hour to commute to, was even then, a formidable force in journalism in India. Still an wide-eyed undergraduate with a theoretical grasp of the field, my first and only project over 2 weeks for the organisation, left a huge impact on my career.
The idea of going into journalism came from my English teacher, Mrs Moss. One day, close to the completion of my 12th grade, she was suggesting career options for some of us to explore. She looked at me and said, "Given your love for talking, you should consider a career path in law or in media." To put this into context, I was a student with good grades in an English medium school in one of the most backward states of India, Bihar. Any further educational aspirations would take me outside the town that I had grown up in, as was the case for all my classmates. Most of my peers would leave to start a new life in another city in the country and the rest would take up a basic college degree in the infamous colleges of the city, find jobs to sustain their family's income, or get married.
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| My School (Courtesy: Facebook) |
I was already an observer of some note by this time. Having lost my father at the age of 9, I had observed - quite extensively - the manner in which society changed in its attitude towards my family. Men of different shapes, sizes and statures, felt the need to weigh in on my mother's financial decisions (my father's close group of 4-5 friends were the only true support to us). There was simply nothing that she would do that would not be criticised or meaninglessly attacked. My introduction to social injustice was from learning to keep my mouth shut as 'good girls are seen, not heard' and other such social conventions. My solidarity extended to every girl and woman who society tarnished for the sake of it's morality. This didn't make me a feminist, that's a bad word in India. It just made me angry. So when Mr Moss suggested that either a career in law or media would suit me, I decided it would be the best to change the laws of the land. "Get me a copy of the 'Introduction to Law' from the library," Mrs Moss instructed me from the third floor classroom where we convened. I promptly head to the library, found and carried the tome to the third floor. "this is just one of the very many books you will have to memorise and pore through for a degree in law," she advised. And just like that, I was set on the path of journalism.
My first boss at The Indian Express, was an oddball. A short, balding man filled with a certain nervous energy of an eager puppy. He managed the pool of reporters, assigned new work and no story was ready to print until he cleared it. Yet, he was never intimidating. He didn't waste any time on making his stand clear and argued with the greatest energy to convince reporters to agree with him. He was, of course, very intelligent and an excellent task master. He got things done. I was assigned to "a pathbreaking story" (every new story that no reporter wanted to do was pitched as such) of corruption in government finances at a national children's centre. And so, that very afternoon, I set off for the centre, armed with my notebook and my reliable pen. A 2 hour journey by bus later, I was at the giant gate of the centre. The guard at the gate asked me if I had an appointment, to which I replied that I was a journalist looking to speak with an official. He asked again, "Do you have an appointment?" And just like that, I was turned away from my first 'pathbreaking story.'
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| reference image: Iron gates |
Looking back, I chuckle at the seven consecutive times I returned those giant gates before giving up and deciding never to return to the office that somehow convinced me to metaphorically bang my head at those giant gates. I learnt my very first and most important lessons from this experience: do everything you can to avoid a management assigned 'path-breaking story' and journalism is almost always about how to get past the gate, without actually writing about it.
In a future post, I shall share about my advent into the career journey, finding my specialisation, and finally, the buzz of the newsroom, and finally, the pathways beyond journalism.
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