Innocence lost forever?

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Last night I was reading an article on victims of child labour and child abuse. I went to sleep with a very disturbed mind. I could not stop thinking about these children or so called 'victims' who had unfortunately seen the ugly side of life. This, at an age when life should have been a little easy and safe, if not colourful. Their stories can horrify you, make you cry, make you angry at the dark side of the human nature. I read the article not just as a regular reader but also as someone who has seen and met such children. This while covering stories on child labour and child abuse. Let me recall a few. Seema and Babli (names changed) were the two girls I first met while covering the issue. One extremely shy and soft spoken and the other vivacious and smart, both from very poor....

Memories that last forever

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Just yesterday I was looking at some Facebook pictures uploaded by one of my friends. The album was titled 'my first trip to a village'. At first I was amused. I thought how could someone not have visited a village all these years? But then reality quickly dawned on me. Most of my friends have never really seen village life or lived beyond the confines of the city they have grown up in. They don't have a so-called native place, which they could have visited during their vacations. As I was thinking these thoughts, my own childhood memories came flooding back and I was overcome with emotions. Growing up is fun and it only gets better when you have many cousins to join in. I had my own share of them scattered across different cities. Things were quite different when I was a kid, no life changing revolution....

No one spares even the poor

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Recently I got an opportunity to visit Chianttar and shoot a few corruption-related Citizen Journalist stories. Located around 45 km from Patna, Chianttar is a tiny village with a population of around 2000 people - mostly Mahadalits It all started with a phone call and after short listing a few stories I was good to go. The focus was corruption in key government schemes like MNREGA, PDS and Old Age Pension - schemes that are meant for the poor but which seldom reach them. Amid the excitement, a few doubts lingered on. I was going to Bihar after all. Despite its improved reputation, there were a few things I was unsure of. Like how would people there react to my 'probing and prodding'? Would I be able to shoot as and how I want? Will the villagers really speak up and more specifically speak on camera? I was....

Of media and media 'ethics'

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What will you do if you see a man on fire? Will you save him or will you just keep the camera rolling? I was reading this in a book on media ethics in my journalism school. The question was hard hitting and it made me wonder what I will do in a situation like this? My first instinct was the obvious: of course I will save him; no two ways about it Later I was to realize that your stand does tend to soften a bit once you enter the rugged world of journalism. Especially TV journalism where you want to be the first one to report the event. TRP is our nectar and we are the bees hovering over it. And why not? It's a competitive world after all. We are in the business of news gathering and news dissipation and like all businesses, we want to....

Will the new Delhi Govt bill end sarkari babugiri?

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Delhities are a happy lot these days. The Delhi government has recently passed a landmark Bill that penalizes government officials who fail to process applications within a stipulated time period. The fine will be deducted from their salary and paid to the applicant as compensation. The Bill, which is already in effect, is a slow yet significant step towards ensuring transparency and timely delivery of services. Corruption and inefficiency co-exist in almost every government department that we have to deal with - be it the municipal corporations, electricity board, registrar/passport/RTO/Post Office and other bigger departments which handle education, land, building construction etc. It's really rare to come out of these offices without doing the traditional running around or shelling out a few bucks. "Sarkari daftar hai maam... itni jaldi thodi kaam hoga," I get to hear this almost every time I cover a corruption/inefficiency-related story....

Delhi Blast: News reportage and moral dilemmas

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Is there any dignity in death? The question was haunting me while I was returning from a shoot in Dwarka in West Delhi. 5 hours before that the same one-hour drive to Dwarka wasn't an easy one either. I was nervous plain and simple. Nervous, because I was meeting the family of a blast victim. Nervous, because my questions would force the family to relive the tragic moments that changed their lives so abruptly. It was only 5 days since the blast. the wounds were still fresh. The blast at the Delhi High Court killed 14 innocent citizens and maimed many. Family members of the dead alleged that the hospital where the postmortem was conducted was ill equipped and ill prepared to handle the situation. Damini was one of those family members. Her father AK Sharma was one of the 14 blast victims. A PT....

Paschim Banga: What's in a name

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Many of my Bengali friends are a furious lot these days... they are now 'almost' officially from Paschim Banga. One of my friends facebook status even read 'I am now a Pashimbangowli.' I did not dare ask him if it was a happy or an angry expression. 'Happy' was good but it was the other emotion that I feared, given his well-known struggle with verbal diarrhoea. The main reason for the name change (besides the historical one) given by the Mamata Banerjee government is definitely a first of its kind. The reason did not go down well with many people who considered it to be rather absurd. Politicians felt that the 'W' in West Bengal was a disadvantage for the state for administrative reasons. Their argument was that they were almost last in line to make representations at various meetings. The state government might....

Anna Hazare and beyond

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Anna Hazare is literally rocking the country and how! It is amazing to see how something that started as a small campaign has turned into a revolution of sorts and has engulfed the entire nation in a matter of time. Despite many differences, the Anna revolution can be counted as one amongst the many uprisings happening all across the globe, especially in the Arab countries. Everywhere the common man has found a collective voice. The methodology used is however different. The one in India is soaked in the Gandhian philosophy of non-violence. Ramlila ground is the new Kurukshetra, all sorts of people have been converging here . some truly understand the cause they are supporting, some have a vague idea, some only interested in the word 'corruption' and many I am sure joining in just to be a part of the so called second freedom fight, but still they are....

Guilty pleasures of Bollywood surprises

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"How can one make such movies?" I overheard someone complaining. Everyone has his or her biases, only mine got shattered two days back. This was after I watched the movie Singham. Frankly I expected to come out of the movie hall with a headache. To my utter surprise I came out with a smile. Let me first explain my bias. In simple words I used to think movies like these where you have a superhero serenading you (including Chulbul Pandey's Dabangg ) were just noisy, meaningless display of audio and video, dispersed with generous does of South-Indian-movie-style action sequences. Singham though is slightly different and is not an out an out comedy. It has serious stuff in it too. But still a far cry from what we call 'meaningful' cinema. Those with a stronger opinion than mine would scream aloud saying Bollywood is hijacked by....

Medical mockery

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Life is cheap or so they say...if you want proof I think government hospitals are the best bet. The first time I did a medical negligence story was when a poor lady was forced to give birth to her baby in a moving car. This after a government hospital in Noida turned her away for not having enough money. The mother-baby duo could have died but it made no difference to the hospital staff. They were unapologetic. Recently I did a follow-up for another such story. This time at a government hospital in Delhi. 7-year-old Sakshi died after she was admitted for what was a simple stomach ache. The on-duty doctor had given her an injection without conducting any tests. Within minutes Sakshi started vomiting blood. Her kidney had ruptured and she had to be admitted to the ICU where she died four days later. No....