|
Time waits for no man. Especially not journalists working in
a weekly newsmagazine. As events unfold, we discuss, debate, chew on ideas, spit some out.
Eventually though we have to decide, for we are constantly stalked by that one word:
deadline. This week stands as a perfect example.
At the Saturday editorial meeting, a bunch of cover ideas were thrown around. The
deportation of Bangladeshi immigrants seemed the most interesting. Discussed too was the
dissension in the judiciary and the first talks between Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee and
his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. Coincidentally, confrontation was the common theme
to each story. Yet, even as Associate Editor Harinder Baweja flew to Colombo and Senior
Editor Sumit Mitra tracked the judiciary story, we were undecided. Finally, on Tuesday, as
the immigrant problem flared in Parliament, the story got the go-ahead.
A team of 14 correspondents and photographers across India met immigrants,
interviewed politicians, and filed hundreds of photographs and 70,000 words of copy. By
Thursday night Deputy Editor Swapan Dasgupta distilled all that into a 6,000 word cover
story. All done? Not quite.
Early Friday morning news filtered in that the Colombo talks had failed. Clearly as
a story it had precedence over the immigrant problem. The talks had been the subject of
much hype and hope. Diplomats from the US had visited both India and Pakistan recently.
And the world was wondering whether two hostile neighbours could effect a breakthrough in
this post-nuclear scenario. Instead, there was an abrupt end to the talks with Sharif
saying, "We were wasting each other's time." We had no time to waste. Senior
Editor Ravi Shankar designed a fresh cover. Senior Editor Manoj Joshi, back from the ASEAN
Regional Forum in Manila, called his sources in the diplomatic corps. And Deputy Editor
Raj Chengappa contacted Baweja in Colombo to file a more detailed story, and by 10 p.m.
had put together a fresh cover story on where Indo-Pak relations were headed. Our issue
was closed in time, but this is certainly not the end of the story.
(Aroon Purie) |
|
