20-20 (hind)sight

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I think I cheated Sepoy Shukla on my very first assignment for CNN-IBN.

One wintry, early December morning, while I was trying to work up some heat into my veins by stomping around and blowing on my hands, Sepoy K K Shukla walked up to me with scars on his face. I was at Vijay Chowk, across Parliament house, where in a couple of hours from now the Volcker storm would rage again. My orders were simple - once an hour I was to do a live 'chat' with the studio in Delhi. Stand in front of the camera gripping the mic and churn out something reasonably intelligent - "Our correspondent H R Venkatesh is at the Parliament even as we speak. Venkatesh, what can we expect from the opposition today?" You know, that sort of thing, you've seen it enough times on TV.

Sepoy K K Shukla must have seen me do that live chat, and as soon as I was done he crept up to me. At first I thought I'd done something illegal (having never done the Parliament beat before), but it was apparent that Shukla was a man on slightly different mission. Before long he was showing me his three-day-old scars - on his face, hands and wrists. The story was shocking, but not exactly surprising. Shukla, frustrated at not being alloted living quarters, had dared to question his superiors, who were allegedly sub-letting their own quarters to civilians to make that extra buck. For his troubles, Shukla was beaten up and charge-sheeted. He was also given temporary transfer orders to Jammu & Kashmir.

Shukla said he wasn't even allowed to complain to his superiors' superiors and had been ordered not to leave the company HQ. Determined to do something, Sepoy Shukla jumped the wall at 6 am in the morning and started walking towards Rashtrapathi Bhawan, with the vague intention of asking a 'higher-up' to listen to his woes.

That's how he found me. Before long he was weeping, asking me to rake up the issue on TV. Trouble was, CNN IBN hadn't yet launched. I told him to catch an Aaj Tak or NDTV reporter - it turned out that I was the only reporter around. I then tried telling Shukla that if I did interview him, he would be deep, deep trouble. This was his response: "Sir I can't even complain to the big bosses. But you can tell even the General. I don't care if I lose my job, at least they will know what's going on if you report my case. God will take care of me."

I did take his sound-bite (TVspeak for getting a quick reaction on camera) and a few shots. But in the end, nothing came out it. In my eagerness to do something for him, I called up the army spokesperson. He took down Sepoy Shukla's details, and promised to look into the matter. Shukla may have received justice. But just as easily, he may have lost his job. If only we'd been on air then...

P.S. I did think of calling up the Aaj Tak defence correspondent and giving him the tape, but something stopped me. It could have been my fear of dishonouring my contract. I don't know, but I wish I'd done that.