Born as a journalist

Born as a journalist

I had been visiting the newspaper office in Panaji in Goa for nearly two months, pestering the news editor there for a part-time or a fulltime time. I had just appeared for the BA final examination of the Bombay University and wanted some job to continue post-graduation studies. I was aspiring for a college teacher's post after securing the MA degree in philosophy.

The news editor had no hesitation in giving a job, the only issue was that I was inclined to accept a proof-reader's post which would have permitted me to attend my PG classes while the news editor M M Mudaliar wanted me to take up a reporter's post. I was too naïve to know the functioning of various posts in a newspaper.

Mudaliar was a thorough gentleman who gave a patient hearing to his numerous visitors. This was in stark contrast to the newspaper editor who was young, impatient to hear others and ever restless but very dynamic with his ideas. But the young editor had high regard for the middle-aged news editor and would not normally veto his decisions. I had gained these insights during my numerous visits to the newspaper located in an old one-storeyed building with a wooden stairs and floor and a typically Goan tiled roof.

During one of such visits, the young editor once sent me to a school in Ribandar where the headmistress had beat up a student with a wooden scale. The news editor also asked to write an article on the furniture sale that was going on on the banks of the nearby Mandovi river. Incidentally, both the stories got published in the same issue of the newspaper, one with a byline and the other with a tag of 'By a Staff Reporter'.

The next morning, I was in the news editor's cabin, beaming with joy of publication of my byline in the newspaper. “Sir, what about my job...?” I asked him again.

“But you have already been hired...” he said as he lit his pipe.

“Since when?” I asked, astonished.

“From yesterday, August 18..Those two news stories were your first assignment,” he replied as a matter of fact.

August 18 was my birthday. His reply meant that was also the day I was born as a journalist. I recalled this today as this incident had taken place exactly 32 years ago.