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.
