I dreamt of becoming a news writer as early as in 2002, thanks to my
grandfather who taught me the art of newspaper reading. Even when I
couldn’t understand all the news, I was so captivated by its depth and
admired the way it had been written. Grandfather passed away when I
was thirteen and he was seventy, but that however didn’t put an end to
my growing fascination for news! In high school, I took pride in
calling myself a ‘news-junkie’. My grandmother was kind enough to buy
me 2 newspapers and I also browsed through the online versions of the
Washington Post and Times. A day seemed incomplete without doing this.
Last month however, few weeks prior to the graduation ceremony, I was
thinking about the things I wanted to do the most and how I would
prioritize them. I wanted to do theater, travel across the country,
meet some long lost friends, vote in an election and finish reading
some of the books on my cupboard. After some amount of ranting, I was
surprised and delighted to find that perhaps the best thing that I
could do this year was enroll for a news writing course. Of course,
writing news stories sound less wonderful than say, trying to find a
medicine for aids. But there is something intensely satisfying about
doing it. It inspires you to be artistic, to be shrewd and sometimes
drives you mad. And that’s what it is all about. Therefore here I am,
trying to learn something lusciously new and be good at it.
I’ve been told, there used to be a time when reporting news or writing an article was a revolutionary act; A time when real journalist, and not content writers, roamed upon the earth; A time when people loved to read what was really happening instead of the masala filled, hyped up version of it; A time of Watergate or The Paranoid Style in American Politics; A time long gone.
ReplyDeleteDon’t know if it’s true or I‘ve been lied to, for all I hear is more page views, more copies sold, more ad revenue!!! If it were true, those guys would’ve felt like they created a cure for an incurable disease, am sure!!!