April warms the third floor newsroom of the Times in 1970s. A few chuckles, a few smokes. Journalists listless in chairs with and without arms and legs. Between the Sports and Business Desks, a lone one-legged rotating fan shares hot air. Phones never rang as land lines were always dead. On long tables, typewriters frogged. Smooth for some fingers, hard for others. A chaiwala places glasses of tea ahead of newsmen and newswomen. Dear old biblical Joseph Kurien, talked of times earlier to the 1970s and me, a journalist trainee heard. A Congressman in Travancore-Cochin exiled for shouting for Independence; landed in Goa and on to Bombay. When a young gentleman, suited in smiles, stood ahead of me, bent low and handed a press note. Me first press note, setting me on the way to press note journalism. 'Sir, a few lines in City Notes. We are working hard,' said the gentleman. Never again did a corporate stand in front of me; me always stood in front of them all my life. Me took it, read it, did not understand it. 'Sure,' said Kurien and the gentleman left. Me took the press note to the cabined, Financial Editor. He asked me to sit. Sat, edgy. Stared at the press note upside down, downside up, ran his fingers, shook it before applying his eyes to it. Associated Capsules is into production, read the press note or something equivalent to it. The Financial Editor trimmed a page of press note to two lines for an In brief item in City Notes. Me typed it as if it was an international scoop. Passed it on to Kurien. No byline, he said. About 60 words became some 30 words. Forgot it as evenings were meant for hooch with friends. Next day, the gentleman surfaced at the same time, looking as if he had just stepped out of a holy dip in the Ganges. Those days the river was surely cleaner than today. 'Thank you, Sir,' he said and me the Sir, fell off the chair. Did not know the In brief item had been carried, making many readers wiser. Today sitting under the peepal on Yogi Nagar Road, a medical van donated by Associated Capsules drove by with horns agog. Associated Capsules is still around. Claims to be a leading producer of empty, hard capsules.
Thursday, April 5, 2018
A press note
April warms the third floor newsroom of the Times in 1970s. A few chuckles, a few smokes. Journalists listless in chairs with and without arms and legs. Between the Sports and Business Desks, a lone one-legged rotating fan shares hot air. Phones never rang as land lines were always dead. On long tables, typewriters frogged. Smooth for some fingers, hard for others. A chaiwala places glasses of tea ahead of newsmen and newswomen. Dear old biblical Joseph Kurien, talked of times earlier to the 1970s and me, a journalist trainee heard. A Congressman in Travancore-Cochin exiled for shouting for Independence; landed in Goa and on to Bombay. When a young gentleman, suited in smiles, stood ahead of me, bent low and handed a press note. Me first press note, setting me on the way to press note journalism. 'Sir, a few lines in City Notes. We are working hard,' said the gentleman. Never again did a corporate stand in front of me; me always stood in front of them all my life. Me took it, read it, did not understand it. 'Sure,' said Kurien and the gentleman left. Me took the press note to the cabined, Financial Editor. He asked me to sit. Sat, edgy. Stared at the press note upside down, downside up, ran his fingers, shook it before applying his eyes to it. Associated Capsules is into production, read the press note or something equivalent to it. The Financial Editor trimmed a page of press note to two lines for an In brief item in City Notes. Me typed it as if it was an international scoop. Passed it on to Kurien. No byline, he said. About 60 words became some 30 words. Forgot it as evenings were meant for hooch with friends. Next day, the gentleman surfaced at the same time, looking as if he had just stepped out of a holy dip in the Ganges. Those days the river was surely cleaner than today. 'Thank you, Sir,' he said and me the Sir, fell off the chair. Did not know the In brief item had been carried, making many readers wiser. Today sitting under the peepal on Yogi Nagar Road, a medical van donated by Associated Capsules drove by with horns agog. Associated Capsules is still around. Claims to be a leading producer of empty, hard capsules.
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