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.
