OK, so first in between all our Adarsh netas we were told to send 100s of applications, fill 200 forms, send 10 photos to various agencies some overt some secret. All for Barack Obama’s coverage. This was immensely time consuming & frustrating.
When i gave the names of Juniors, i was well aware & in full senses that i did NOT want to be anywhere those venues where Prez’s events were to take place. I have been a sceptic, according to Bellur N Srikrishna sir, ‘lone dissent voice while others are going gaga.” Yes, i had foreseen the soap opera unfolding. Major drama. Also have gone thru’ it all far too often. I’m not excited & Kicked by such routine stories. Like on the 1st day at the airport-10 hours before that the chief minister & dy chief minister are asked for ID proof, despite letters acknowledging them as ‘Honourable CM & DCM” had been dispatched. We lower mortals had to send I-Card, photo, Passport, state accreditation cards proof, etc, etc. suddenly reminded me of my MHADA-Press Club housing application days.
Then reporters who are covering the event have been called just 5 hours before the slated time. Now i remember when Bill gates had come & the PR fella who overslept wt hangover had called me 8 hrs in advance, and i had given him a real dressing down. Simple – my funda being no one is above the President & PM of this country, even then we aren’t called more than 2 hrs in advance, cut this crap dude.. I did NOT want to get into another similar brawl situation. NOBODY is more important than oneself, i believe that IS the mantra for my survival today.
I decided to give gyan, do OB lives, though i DISLIKE it & do NOT think it is journalism. But yes if i can lend a perspective & try to give some analysis then yes, would like to do that. Especially the fact that South Mumbai was half barricaded. People’s movement, I mean residents’ lives were RESTRICTED. While on the other hand the Prez spoke of ‘freedom, democracy.’ Hope he saw & was told what arse holes his American security people along with our jack asses police made a mess of our lives.
Then our own journalist community. One real bunch of jokers. We are incestuous, plain bitchy & somehow don’t seem to grow up. One bunch of Bhaiyya journalists stood on the side gossiping galore. It didn’t require rocket science to know they were bitching abt me & another colleague. with heads turning that would’ve given them a sprain, it was evident they had little work and knowledge. It is good that there are so many journalists one can easily AVOID. More the merrier..
And like as if i’ve retired i had some of them telling me how “its amazing to see you’ve got back to tv!!” lol…ofcourse today’s tv is all about sharing, exchange of videos, news. That’s what we had to do.
Then our news channel. NewsX is rather not so well distributed or in no 1/2 ranking. So we weren’t called to most places. We believe in hand to mouth existence. So we have 5 reporters including me the head while most channels had 30 to 50 battalion of reporters, seniors, etc. We still did NOT miss anything. We still got Ratan Tata on tv. We still managed to get everything. Word of appreciation, none.
the funny part was also irritating trying to get toilets. I’ve crossed all boundaries of patience & holding back. i will NOT. I know there are some faggots on the loose who read my blog & leave nasty comments. But let me tell you i’d rather show my i-card & get into restaurants or residential houses requesting to use their toilets rather then damage my kidneys. I don’t want to put myself through any unnecessary problems.
I struck a rapport with a elite restaurant, today was bad. Sulabh & azad maidan. Pathetic. But the way the police had PREVENTED us to move around it was sad. Thankfully we captured on camera Vivek Vaswani arguing with the cops at Nariman Point junction. He kept asking them show the route to get home. Why have they done this. They stopped vehicles from plying normally, stopped public from moving on our roads. We pay tax for this. Hello have the politicians forgotten?
And our police. LEss said about them the better. We heard Obama talk of freedom, rights, democracy. All of it was curtailed by his secret service people & our bloody cops. The good part was the communists comrades put up a demo of protest. Mumbai police who otherwise wld’ve shoved them with batons, allowed them to put up protest they too were miffed to miss their diwali.
we were sama dukhi. NO diwali, out on the streets fm wee hours in morn. Oily, spicy, intestine burning food that units are given. I struck a rapport with restaurant, so finally ate a Lasagne. Yess…needed it, with some mushroom soup. THE only fine point in 2 days of sun-burn. Skin is in patches, looks like disease. My legs feel they are separate , disconnected from rest of my body. I need rest, oil, heat pad & a good foot massage!