BEING HEARD

I waited at the Dhabha impatiently for my order to be heard. ‘Ajay bhaiyya, ek plate roti’I shouted. No reply! Noticing that he did not take heed of what I said, I shouted again! Again no response. I grew impatient and restless... I wanted to be heard!

‘Being heard’ is the new game that everybody wants to win. Every person, be it in class or in an everyday situation, wants to be heard. But, what’s the big deal if you are not? Does it matter? Unfortunately it does. It matters because if you aren’t heard you aren’t noticed. And in the media industry, if you aren’t noticed, you don’t exist. You like it or not, it’s an inconvenient truth that we end up accepting.

For instance, what is it that we do during our guest lectures and newspaper sessions? We vie with one another to put forth our questions and opinions. We do it for two reasons, firstly for the obvious reason that we want to stand above the rest and secondly because we want to be heard and noticed.

Can one be ‘heard’ and ‘noticed’ by having an opinion about every other thing? Why is it that some people have extremely strong reactions which makes them heard? As a journalist is it good to be intensely opinionated? These questions popped up in my mind during one of our newspaper sessions. A mention about Tibetans in India resulted in a heated discussion with exchange of strong opinions and emotions. I questioned myself; Am I strongly opinionated? I was unsure of the answer. Does taking a stance on every issue play a role in being heard and noticed? I hope it does not!

Does this happen only within classrooms? Definitely not! Look around, you will find it happening even in our news stories. From Ayodhya verdict to appointing of Kashmir interlocutors- the idea of ‘being heard’ is a part of news. Why were the interlocutors appointed to resolve the Kashmir issue? So that the opinion of every cross section of the Kashmir society could be heard. To resolve an issue every side of the story should come to the fore.

So, the question is, is it important for us to be heard and noticed by everyone? Not necessarily. We just want the prominent one’s to hear and keep a notice of us. For instance, When Dr Roy came to class, each of one of us wanted to put forth our questions. We wanted to be heard and noticed by Dr Roy. Unfortunately, when most of us couldn’t get a chance to ask our question, we felt it was unfair. When even one party is left out, the concept of being unnoticed and unfair comes in.

Talking about fairness, all of us at some point during these three months of our course have felt that we were treated unfairly. During our dope sheets most of us were unhappy with what we got. We try to find meaning behind the prejudices that some people have which makes us feel that we have been judged wrongly. There is a possibility that people do judge you wrongly when you are actually right. This happens not only in class, it happens in the media as well. For instance, when Barkha Dutt was questioned by four journalists for her role in the Nira Radia tapes, she mentioned that it was wrong and unfair to judge her as corrupt without giving a chance to put forth her side of story. Is it unfair? Yes definitely, because her side of the story was not heard.

In these four months, I have realised that if you want to be noticed and heard you have to be loud and clear. It’s important to make your presence felt. When you are noticed people form an opinion about you. But then, I question myself again, does it really matter what others think of you? It doesn’t. But guess what, as I step into office every day, the other part of me does feel that you are only noticed on the basis of what others think of you.

Being twenty one!

Confused yet focussed, lonely yet surrounded by people, confident yet unsure!

Contradictory phrases aren’t they? I believe, that’s how every individual between the age range of 20 and 23 feels. When I discussed the same with a close associate of mine, he forwarded a mail which described this whole feeling of insecurity as quarter life crisis.

This is the period where we get to know ourselves better. We realise that in spite of enjoying people’s company, at times we really want to be left alone to ponder about questions that are unanswered. We like the freedom away from home but still crave for family. We want to feel independent but don’t want to be left alone.

Change is an inevitable part during this period. It becomes difficult to handle it because there is no way we can avoid the change. We desperately want to rewind and re live lives that we had a few years back. We want to go back to our comfortable cocoons than face the realities of life. But unfortunately there is no way that we can go back; we are left without an option other than moving on! We face the change, we accept it (without a choice) and we learn to move on.

The whole transition from that of a lazy college going student to a person with a certain amount of seriousness towards life is quite challenging. We start becoming more concerned and serious about how life would be after the next two years. We start thinking more in terms of what exactly we want from our career. We start questioning some of the strongest beliefs that we’ve had for years now. Acting immature no longer seems fun. We want to make a space where we can place ourselves and feel good about it. In short, the journey to make an identity for oneself begins.

It’s definitely the most crucial and difficult phase in life. But these ups and downs make life more interesting and challenging.
So, this post is dedicated to all those people who are going through ‘quarter life crisis’. Laugh and live through it! Everything will fall in place someday 

TV journalism is not all about TV.

‘When can we see you on TV’? ‘Can we see you as an anchor on TV’?

These are the questions that I get from people every time I introduce myself as a student of journalism. Now that I am an apprentice with NDTV, questions like these have become more frequent. Initially I used to casually push the question away by giving a callous answer. But guess what? I no longer want to do it.

Most people from a non-media background are under a misconception that broadcast journalism is all about anchoring and reporting. But do people even for a moment think about the amount of work that happens behind the camera? However, I do agree that it is wrong to blame people for their partial knowledge about television news.

A news anchor and a reporter might articulate a story and sometimes do more than that, but the muscle to the story is given by a million other people working behind the camera. Three weeks as an apprentice in NDTV has given me a basic insight into the tactics, efforts and chaos inside a newsroom. Everything that is shown on television looks glamorous and rosy, but it takes a whole bunch of people to make ‘our’ news screens look beautiful. So if any of you think that television journalism is a glamorous field- forget it! It’s definitely not. It has lot more dimensions to it than just glamour.

It takes years and years of experience to become an anchor or even a reporter for that matter. (In a good news channel that is). So to be in front of the camera it involves a whole process of learning, building contacts, getting on to the field and experience everything first hand.

Lastly a sincere request to all- Please Stop assuming that television journalism is all about anchoring and reporting! By doing so you are disregarding the effort of a lot of other people who actually put 'news' together.

Experience

WEEK1: Delhi

Adjustment is no longer just a word for me. It has a lot more meaning than it had before. I never imagined that shifting to a new place would drain me out mentally and physically. I was trying to push myself to adjust to every new thing that came my way- new city, new kind of food, new people and an absolutely new hostel experience. The challenging part of this phase is that it is never easy and it is of course foolish to expect to wade through this phase easily. Every day of this week started with a bitter feeling of missing home. Every new morning came with a new set of challenges. I had almost given up the hope of getting back to my old self. I desperately wanted my mind to get accustomed to ‘DELHI LIFE’. I wanted to be happy and cheerful. I wanted myself back. Throughout the week I kept thinking about the weekend. The very fact that I would be alone over the weekend made me feel sick. The first thought on my mind on Saturday morning was about how to spend the entire day alone. I was clueless.
However, Life always takes unexpected turns. As I was sitting in my room thinking about home, I got a call from a friend who stays in Delhi. As soon I answered her call she knew I wasn’t the old girl. She realised that I was going through home sickness even before I mentioned it. She just said one thing ‘Shut up and come home, NOW’. I did not hesitate to say a yes. As I entered her apartment I got what I desperately needed at that moment- A HOMELY ATMOSPHERE. I spent the entire day roaming around with her family. I got everything that I wanted. At the end of the day I realised that I have a family in Delhi now. I have MY people here. That’s all I craved for. Thank you to that friend for making me feel better.

Childhood.

I want to go back to the time when every evening PLAYING was the only important activity.

I want to go back to the time when WORRIES were never a part of life.

I want to go back to the time when RUNNING around was only for fun.

I want to go back to the time when DECIDING what to play was the most important decision to make.

In short, I want to go back to my CHILDHOOD!

As I sat in my terrace trying to decide which chapter to study, I suddenly heard a loud laughter. In the ever calm terrace where only a few septuagenarians and people like me spend time enjoying the breeze and sunset, this sudden noise (I can’t call it noise), made the whole atmosphere in the terrace more lively and positive.
I looked behind and saw a bunch of eight kids between the ages of three and seven talking, randomly laughing and playing a game which they called the JUMPING game.

Looking at their enthusiasm, one lady asked them- ‘what is this game all about?’ The kid, who apparently looked like the head of the group, replied back saying, that the game was all about jumping around saying 'Yayyee Yayyee'.

As they continued playing, an involuntary smile slid across my face. I could not stop myself from enjoying their little activity of joy. Trust me; all of them looked unbelievably happy and enthusiastic. They looked as though no tension or sorrow could ever touch them.

I could not help but, be jealous of them. What a stage of LIFE they were in! Play, sleep, eat, and run around.  I wanted to be one among them. I wanted to go back to my childhood.

So, this post is dedicated to those eight kids who made my evening!

Innocence lost!

"Dad asked me to remove all the photos from my album, Ughh, I hate him"- This was the status message of my kid cousin on facebook. My only respone was ' What are kids upto these days?' What do you say when you see a ten year old being addicted to a social networking site? As i was going through her profile I realized that I am far less active on facebook when compared to my kid cousin. I was pretty shocked and surprised to find a few random communities in my cousins profile the meaning of which she might not even know.

The other day my brother and I were discussing about how kids today are so fascinated about technology, internet,mobile phones etc at a very young age.Its sad that most of them seem more interested in creating an orkut or facebook profile than going out and playing some outdoor game! A few days back when a cousin of my age exclaimed that kids today are much more lucky when compared to us, I reacted to her comment with a complete look of disagreement on my face. I would rather prefer spending my childhood playing games and painting than spending hours in front of the internet doing nothing worthwhile!

So here are my questions! ( I might sound like a 50 year old asking all this)Why are kids today so fascinated about these networking sites? What makes them lie about their age just for the sake of joining these sites? Is it peer pressure which forces them to conform to a norm?

Would be glad to receive a few responses!