The factor — one either suffers or thrives on as a working journalist — include the meeting and interaction with people across socio-economic, cultural sections and getting to know varied factoids and opinions related to important issues and utterly mundane boring stuff. An average week for a journalist in the field can obviously not be generalised but, depending on individual priority and mentality, one may go through the ‘usual’ series of activities, stonewalled discussions and an occasional sprinkling of mirth amidst disappointments while receiving new information sifted out of stale nonsensical repetitive blabbering so often wrapped in synthetic expressions by politicians, public servants, the mainstream media and others.
One of the major aspects that causes bemusement, mirth or disappointment—depending on the situation and individual is to see the level to which the thought process has either developed or regressed in the persons one meets. learning experiences come from persons ranging from child and adult beggars, slum dwellers, farmers, transporters, policemen, scientists, academicians, malcontents, ‘intellectuals’, bureaucrats and public servants among others.
One such experience involved a couple of the child beggars ‘working’ barefoot in tattered clothes on the Rispana crossroad. I would occasionally share whichever fruit I was carrying to gobble during working hours. A couple of oranges and apples later, two of the boys happened to shed their ‘depressing’ impression with me and behaved like any other child of their age would- having no dearth of mischief and laughter. They even ‘befriended’ me with one of them telling his name and that he was a regular school goer during ‘non-working hours’ while the other partially lifted his apparel to show me a paper-bag full of namkeen he was chomping cleverly while begging for cash to feed himself. Harmless stuff one may say, but the day after this happened I noticed that those two boys had been replaced by other child beggars who remained wary of people like me who may offer them eatables with conversation instead of currency mixed with scorn and pity in alms. The apparently mundane instance reminded me of how beggary, littering and motley other ‘illegal’ activities thrive not just in front of the establishment (the nearby Vidhan Sabha in this instance) but also with the active or passive support of the society. The very society which is habituated to moaning and blaming the establishment for the problems they themselves create and sustain.
On another day while attending a Press Conference addressed by a senior bureaucrat, I experienced some irritation when two ‘confident journalists’ of the electronic media asked questions which mainly exposed their utter ignorance on the subject in question along with their lack of basic professionalism and etiquette. The seasoned bureaucrat and departmental officials appeared not in the least amused or irked by such silly questions and patiently answered sedately quoting data uploaded daily in the public domain. It appeared as if there are elements in various professions including bureaucracy and science, who dislike ‘wise guys’ with practicality and prefer to nurture ill-informed and influenced ‘professionals’ who make life easier for those in the establishment wanting to retain the status quo when it comes to personal gains and ulterior motives based on a colonial mindset damaging environmental, socio-cultural and economical aspects of society and State.
The concluding lesson of this working week was actually more of a re-affirmation than a new thing learnt. Even on the single lane road outside our office building, one regularly suffers when vehicle users evidently lacking civic or common sense honk
compulsively even in situations where there is no scope for clogged traffic to move an inch. These vehicle users are from varied sections, down from professional drivers to the affluent persons and those who may otherwise be intelligent persons had they not been exhibiting puerile behaviour while using a road. So, when a traffic cop signaled the traffic to halt at a traffic-light near the Secretariat, especially as the road ahead was packed with automobiles not even crawling ahead, an average ‘smart looking, educated and well off’ young man wearing sunglasses ignored the cop’s signal and drove straight ahead even though he could not proceed further ahead due to the traffic jam. This smart man ended up blocking the road to traffic coming from the direction of the Secretariat, making the traffic police man rue in frustration “inka kuch nahi ho sakta….ye aise hi rahenge”. Absorbing the knowledge imparted by the frustrated but sensible cop, one can at least attempt to keep ones temper under control and think logically for once in the face of painful buffoonery of people-majority of society-who seem to strongly believe in not acknowledging facts staring them in the face. While substance abuse trends fluctuate, many of us seem to remain high on ignorance or arrogance.