'Free' Press

When I wrote in my last post that the FIRSTs of my life don’t give me a break, I was serious. Every day is a First something. Yep, today is the first of April but you brainy; I am not referring to that. Today again was something special and that is giving me the impetus to write my second post of this day. Operating out of the assumption that you don’t find the tales of my happening life too boring!

I started off with my summer internship today with a newspaper. With peoples’ growing appetite for news, the decline of the newspaper industry comes to me as a shock! Possibly, the hunger for sensationalism is giving the news channels an edge. Not that I am particularly concerned about it, but the sad state of affairs in newspaper offices looms over my head as potential threat to my career. The simple reason being that I see myself as the sweaty journalist (in Mumbai’s heat) slogging her ass off and not sitting debating in air conditioned studios. There must be some serious problem with my vision that seems to be incorrigible. Anyway, the situation was so bad that I had to swing from one computer to the other before I could find one which would not throw its tantrums at me. As I sighed with relief, one of my colleagues said- “Welcome to the paper. This is the way we work EVERYDAY.” Her words turned in my head as I politely replied-“ And I better get used to it.”

But things weren’t so bad either. My sweet colleagues made up for all the technical inconveniences. Not to mention, the really cute guys who I share my working space with! Trust me, it’s fun working with so many cute and warm (mind you, I am restraining from saying HOT) people around, all sailing in the same boat and sharing laughter as well as grievances. I didn’t find one person in the office who wasn’t lovable, right from the editor to the computer guy.

Well, on the job front, I have started learning right from Day 1. I learnt what it is like when someone bangs the phone in your face saying “No Comments” when I had to call some big shots for a story on the very first day. I learnt many more things that are too journalistic to describe here. And I re-learnt that journalism, for God’s sake is not a cakewalk! Don’t think I am grumbling. I am just trying to assert that When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going!