Tuesday, July 28, 2009

83 Days of Media Encounter


A Short But Eternal one...

I was nervous a bit, but managed to hide my nervousness behind my sweet smile. Jolting all my confidence from here and there, I entered the room. Good morning sir was all I could say to Mr. Hussain Zaidi, obviously the editor of The Asian Age newspaper. He greeted me and gradually his questions began to mount in response to my answers. He said me something which impressed me a lot. He said, “In this three month internship, either I will make you a journalist or will through the journalism fever out of your mind.” And forcing his two lips to come together he continues, “I will make you work like a slave and there will be no pay.” I agreed and joined from the very next day (20th March’08)

First few days were very a blend of excitement and fear whether I would be able to cope up with so much responsibility or not? People at the editorial desk were not very friendly with interns, but succeeded in finding one. Her name was Seema. I was given my 1st assignment by Edlyn. All faces were same and everyone’s target was me. So I began my journey as a journalist. My 1st article was about colourful festival Holi. I interviewed the concerned person and started to pen down to frame it in a structured way. The girl next to me said, “Not to write it on paper. Straight away on word document” and explained me, were to save the files with what date as well as the in house chat system.

It all was amazing. After few days, my three friends came in for interview out of which only one got selected. I was happy on that day because I had a company of someone whom I know. But the very next day, she left with a migraine to never come back. I had to survive and win over my introvert nature. Days started passing by and even the responsibilities started multiplying. I was assigned to daily replace the knick knacks on the listing column, which constituted the movie timings, different events, delicious food and helpline. And then I headed for attending events and exhibitions. Seeing the faces those beyond the television screen or big cinema theaters in my real life was like a dream come true. The reporters including me and the photographers always try to pounce on them to get their quotes on any particular events. I even covered three crime beat stories. And that was the wonderful part of my life. Trust me on this.

My experience was very good with a pinch of bitter one. I use to get calls from different PR’s about the upcoming events and it was an amazing feeling to get such a honour by someone. Once my senior roared at me like anything as I had incurred a serious mistake of writing Bollywood ‘B’ in small letter instead of capital while she proof read it. And also she warned me to concentrate on my work and get rid of my phone for work hours. I cried that day a bit, but after that day, I never attended anyone’s call when I was in a mid of something important. But apart from these firings, some of the stars were also not lagging behind. Some were actually rude to me. And one fine day I fortunate to even attend an official meet in my office about the new pages to be introduced.

While I was interning, few of my colleagues left our publication for one or the other reasons. So there was a farewell party too for the same. Working in The Asian Age was a wonderful experience for me. Every department was independently working. But if there was breaking news, or cricket match or something worth, majority of us were glued in front of a big TV in our office. Those days were really special for me. You might be thinking life as a reporter is just reporting and filing stories and satisfy the editor with the relevant and heart hitting content for his paper. But it has all the enjoyment one would like to have in their life too. It was like an alternate family for me. On the last day of my internship (June10’08) I distributed Cadbury Dairy milk to almost everyone from my editor to the watch man of the office. I just wanted to thank all of them for supporting and co-operating with me one of the wonderful journeys of my life.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

1st Day as a Post Graduate Student.


We need to move on..

24th July’09, yes this was the very first day of my new college i.e. KC college where I decided to continue a post graduation course in advertising and public relation. But thank God, Anisha, suvarna, Nidhi and Nikhil opted for the same course with me. We had our orientation. Suvarna and I were excited to go to college. We both left at around 4.15 pm. Anisha met us on Dadar station and we reached KC.

At the college gate, we were waiting for Nikhil to come. By the time he came, we were busy gazing everyone who was entering into the premises. Some were walking in as if they were attending some party, while others were too busy chatting with their friends. Finally he came. We fixed ourselves at our respective chairs and set our eyes to rotate at 360degree angle.

All faces had a question mark which was a common one. Who are my classmates? And for that we had to check the list displayed on the first floor of the college building. But we had to unfortunately hold our breath as we were lectured for an hour about what are the rules to follow and the teaching pattern. Later we checked the list. We could not control our happiness because I, Anisha, suvarna and nikhil were one list. But unfortunately Nidhi was in other class.

Next day we had our very first lecture of public relation. The professor was good but was trying to get rid of her wavy hair throughout the lecture. Anisha even commented ‘Somebody please tie her hair, she is finding it difficult.’ We could not control our laugh. She was telling us to be interactive and speak up, but what to tell she was distracting us by playing with her hair. Classmates were ok and we gave our introduction to our mam. I so hate these introductions. She was teaching us the basics, but we were missing Somaiya. Those memories surrounded us and we didn’t enjoy that lecture.

After lecture, we all headed towards CST, sharing about the first day. You won’t be surprised to hear that we all had the same line on the tip of our tongues — “Somaiya was better man….” May be we are feeling lonely because they are starting days, but really miss you all guys..

GOD and I


A secret of mine….

“Do you believe in God?” is the question I am often encountered with. My answer is always a positive one when it comes to God. I believe that God exists and is always around me. I know there should be no favourite one at least in God and Goddess, but I strongly believe in Bhole Nath Bhagwan. He is my best friend.

I have felt the presence of Bholenath ji around me. There are few incidents in my life to say how he gave me strength to combat difficult situations in my life. I have already noted all the details of my life in my personal dairy but as technology has developed, I wish to pen down God and I in my electronic dairy.

My trust in Bhagwanji was strengthening when I was taught a special subject called — Geeta Ethics in my junior college. It dealt with how you should talk to your God and ask for strength. I don’t remember her name but she always use to stress on how to get answers for our questions we ask to the almighty.

She had said, “Jab tumlogo ko Bhagwan se kuch puchna hota hai, aaraam se pucho. Aur Bhagwan ke hi saamne us prashna ka uttar aapko kis tarah se chahiye yeh bhi bataiye. Samjo ki aapne prashna raat ko pucha aur uttar paneke liye kaha ki subah jab aap darshan kare tab phool agar Bhagwan ke charno mein gir jaye toh samajna ki aapko uttar mila. Bhagwan kisi na kisi roop mein aapko jawab jarur dete hai.”

I was amazed by the thought that God actually answers without talking. One day came when I got an opportunity to test what our mam taught us. But I didn’t want to beg for something without working hard for that. So I tried in a different way. It was a very personal problem related to my family. I apologized to Bhagwanji for our mistakes and pleaded for strength to fight back to that bad phase of our life. And believe me guys, HE EXISTS. I am stressing on this because there are many who don’t believe in him. From that time till today he has always been with me. Whenever I had any fight with my sister or my good friends or parents, I would always go to teres (roof) and use to talk to my Bholenath. (Warning: Don’t laugh at me).

I just wanted to share with you that, he really has the power to let the stone melt. It’s just that you need to trust him and have loads of patience because he is going to test you on various parameters throughout your life. But he is there. This is my own experience. I am very happy that he is always with me.

If you think you don’t need him, ask yourself, “Am I happiest person in this world?”

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Hey Lal Laiyo, Haiyo Haiyo !!!


Those five wonderful days...

Hey Lal Laiyo, Haiyo Haiyo!!! we cried aloud, ‘Hey, Bye…Cya..tc..’ everywhere the same echo , ‘Hope To Meet You Soon’ was on everyone’s lip, I Am Gona Miss You a Lot’ we said to each other, ‘ Abe Saale, Upset Mat Ho…Abhi Life Mein Bahut Ghumna Hai Saathmein’ we hugged each other, ‘BMM Rocks’ Smile on everyone’s face… and a click….

Well, I hope you digested all these things in your big fat tummy. This was the scenario when we came back from our so called industrial visit to Bangalore-Mysore (Feb1’09 – Feb 5’09) at seven hours at Kalyan station. Students from all the streams got down, but we BMM’ites were the striking ones amidst those lost faces. Let’s rewind the whole sequence.

Feb 1 arrived and one by one we greeted each other at Shivaji Chatrapati Terminus to board our train. Positive vibrations like excitement, enthusiasm, smiles, and happiness were on our face. Our train left station at 8 am for a journey never before in our lives. Some of us already formed group and chatted. Some were gathered around one berth and were discussing about what to do and what not. On any outing, antakshari is the favourite of all. Thus we played antakshari. Later we had Chole Bhature for our lunch and after eating such oily food, half of us fell asleep. Slowly majority of us gave up excitement and went off to sleep.

We all were fond of photography…I mean not much interested in nature’s photographs, but our own snaps. At two or three stations when train halted, we got down and caught our happiness. Owls began to peep here and there, and we played few games. Around 11 pm our professors were on rounds and made sure that we were on our respective berths. But aatish, aakash and nikhil had some other plans. They came to each of us when we were already asleep and asked us what we will have in breakfast — veg or non-veg. The most irritated was Krupa. Some actually answered they will have non-veg. Hehehehhe…

We reached our destination. .i.e. Bangalore. Everyone got into their respective hotel rooms and queued to have shower. We were 12 of us in one room. The most amazing part of this hotel was that there was no water in the tap. This made us to take long time to get ready and leave for a studio visit. That was not much interesting. Later we saw the Asia’s widest Banyan tree and then had our lunch. After relaxing for sometime, we left for ISKON temple and took God’s blessings. The temple was beautiful. At night we had get together and we played fish pond. This was the greatest fun we had. There were dogs left around the hotel so that we all sleep in our respective rooms.

Next morning we left for Mysore. Again we had to run here and there. We went to Mysore palace and were mesmerized in its beauty. We also lost ourselves in Vrindavan garden and witnessed fountains dancing on their own ethnic moves on the tap of the music. We took small umbrellas from there. They were pretty. We went shopping later on in a hurry. There was a DJ party that night in hotel. But we had already plans for our Great Bhaskar Awards (Far Away from Oscars). Myself and Aatish were jury and Aakash and Nikhil were the hosts of the awards night.
Our sponsors were initially Hide N Seek Biscuits. But unfortunately they were out of stock, so we had to accept Sun feast as our second half sponsors.

There was a mind blowing performance by Pooja Saliya. As we had silent claps as the audience response, we were not able to control applauding the superb performance by Pooja. Those awards were great. We had a blast. Following morning we went to Philomena Church. Then we were on the way to Bangalore to board the train to our normal life. Some of us had controversies in the bus and that was recorded. In the train, we all enjoyed a lot.

Though we had few fights, it was my life’s tinsel page. Whenever I will peep into my life’s diary, this page of my trip will always shine.

Miss you all.... Be in touch…

Our Country, Our proud, Our Mother...

"INDIA"

Welcome to the land of humanity, where democracy breathes, thousands of cultures dwell, sweets are disributed forevery ocassion,tradition is still alive, guests are treated as god and love and respect for humanity. India has 28 differentcountries, but they have one soul, lying in capital of India — New-Delhi. It is India where, multi-lingual and multireligious people reside and happily embrace each others festivals while celebrating every festival with pomp and reverence.

India has lot many things in its closet. Heritage buildings, flora and fauna, adventures, developing technology, differenttraditions and more. The lovely Taj Mahal is the witness of love Shahjahan had for Mumtaz.Kutubminar in Delhi,historicalforts in different parts of India form the core of India. Visiting India is not merely sight seeing, but it is coming across the diversity of the country. At every stage, you will find different eating habits, clothing fashion, thinking, rituals and traditions.

Norht, South, East and West, constitute one Nation. North includes Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Darjleeng and more. These places have cool climate and attract most tourists due to its mesmerizing beauty of nature and breath taking surrounding. Everyting in north is like God’s gift to mankind. West has meghalaya, Bihar, West Benagal, Arunachal Pradesh and more. The dominant language is Bengali over there. South has Kanya-Kumari, Kerela, Karantaka and more. This is also called as the ocean of knowledge, as the south Indians are perceived to be intelligent ones. Greenary and simplicity adds karizma to south. East has Gujarat and more.

People are active and enthusiastic. Here, festivals are celebrated with great zest. In all, India is a dish which is spicy, sweet, sour and bitter.

People are kind hearted and cuddled up within thier own ethnic groups. One can find all kind of food habits in India. The education system today has been taken on next level,where there is a run for marks and loads of competition. India has successfully built many education institutions who cater to many different courses and adapt booming courses amicably. India is incomplete without entertainment. It has Tollywood (South film industry), Bhojpuri idustry, and the bling -bling Bollywood industry. In Bollwood film industry, page3 and paprazzi are the main cards to play. Mumbai is the one of the main junction among Pune, Delhi, Nagpur, Bangalore to name few. Night life especially in Mumbai is very colourful. Parties, music and food are the course of the night life.

Bangalore is heart of Karnataka. It is trapped by its own culture. The colourful buildings, Chamunda Hills, and near by sighseeing places, the specialty food, all constitute to a wonderful city. Even Delhi is city of humanity. People are 24X7 working hard. The crowded streets, delicious and ghee loaded sweets, the taste of their culture and respectful laguage makes one feel satiated with life. Pune acts as a replica of Maharashtra. People out there irrespective of any language, get succumbed to Marathi language. The long running highways, beautiful climate, and different sight seeing places force you to visit Pune.

Pilgrimage places like Amarnath, Char dhaam yatra, Vasihnavdevi, Trambakeshwar, Shirdi to name few are visited by crores of people each year to take the blessings of the god. Hill stations like Matheran, Mahabaleshwar, Saputara, Kashmir, Shimla, to name few are in lime light for the honeymoon couples. India holds its flag even in cricket. Sports is also an integral part of it. In this global era, india is not lagging behind and participates in solving each and every issue of gloabl concern.

At the end i can proudly say, "India reflects a bizaare image to the rest of the world."