Monday, May 16, 2016

'Na Pir Anzus, Na Pir Manzus'  


The supporters of Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq clashed with those of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah in downtown Srinagar on 'Martyrs' Day' (July 13). We, journalists, went to cover it and also the rally that was subsequently held beside the 'Mazaar-e-Shohda' at Khawaja Bazaar and addressed by the Mirwaiz. 

In the evening, a similar rally that of the National Conference (NC) was being held at the venue and was to be addressed by the Sheikh and others. On seeing us sitting in a corner of the dais, a NC activist yelled "Ye'em hehar (I beg a pardon) aeassi subus homiss seeth. Waen chhi yete'h balaye lagmith." Being young and new to the profession, I angrily looked towards him but senior journalist (Late) JN Sathu asked to ignore him. 'Ma sun ath, wot'ch bronth kun,' came the counselling. Smiles on the faces of the Sheikh and other NC leaders. That should sum up the role we scribes do play although there are exceptions there. You have good, honest and professional people here and you have bad, dishonest and unprofessional too. Even worse.

Friday, May 13, 2016

A Page From My Diary
Sardarji jokes
1974: I was a student at Srinagar’s Sri Pratap Higher Secondary School and had gone to Delhi on a combined study and pleasure trip. While returning home, I boarded a ‘chalo’ coach of a Jammu-bound train. On board and sitting next to me on a side lower berth was an elderly Sikh; his long white and unfastened beard hanging down his wrinkled face. Soon the coach became crowded and when it left Delhi’s old railway station it had already turned cramped. Seeing a lady standing near us, the old man gave up his seat to her. After stopping at a few of stations en route, the remaining passengers could have more legroom and feel less cramped. Sardarji got his seat back but soon surrendered it to a woman as the coach became crowded again at Panipat. He repeated the gesture of respect and courtesy twice more before getting down at a station in Punjab. On one such occasion, getting motivated rather feeling embarrassed, I offered up my seat to Sardarji as he got up to surrender his own to a woman. He, however, declined saying, “You may remain seated. It gives me pleasure.”
A few years after this inspirational experience, I had another one during a visit to Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk area. After returning from the main prayer hall, I found a Sikh gentleman polishing my shoes in the shoe-stand area. The reporter in me couldn’t resist asking him who he was. He turned out to be one of the top industrialists from Punjab (we continue to be in touch with each other since). He said cleaning shoes of the worshippers gives him “great pleasure” and “humbling experience” he can’t have any other way.
Post-September 2014 floods back home, I saw Sikh volunteers and philanthropists from Jammu, Punjab and some other parts of India deeply moved and intensely and whole-heartedly involved in relief work. I’ve the experiences of and am witness to the Sikhs being busy in charity and humanitarian works elsewhere.
When the situation demands, Sikhs are some of the most gracious, bighearted and gregarious people on the planet. They are also one of the hardest working prosperous and diversified communities in the world. And people still crack jokes to make fun of them. I hate this pastime.
P.S.: Societies throughout history have each had their share of bad, unlawful and out-of-control people.

Monday, May 9, 2016

Big hearts, small hearts
We were meeting face-to-face for the first time. As my editor emerged of the arrival lounge at the Srinagar airport, I offered to carry his bag. He responded by saying ‘Don’t be stupid. We are equals’. A year or so later, while I was sitting in the solitary guest chair in front of my news editor’s desk, the editor arrived to discuss some issue with him. I offered my chair to him but he declined asking ‘Didn’t I tell you we are equals?’
A colleague wanted to join a British newspaper as one of its India correspondents. Our editor rang up his counterpart in London, strongly recommending him for the assignment. I too wanted to earn a few extra bucks and asked my editor if he could suggest some foreign publication I may work for simultaneously. He gladly did it and even spoke to a friend in Jeddah asking him to help me.
In October 1993, I quit The Telegraph (Calcutta) to join The Asian Age. The parting was quiet and friendly. Not only that, my previous employer told me ‘you can come back any time if you wish to’. Not so long ago, a colleague quit the organization we were working at to join another newspaper as it offered him a better package. He, however, didn’t like his new job and returned in less than one month. He was received back only with open arms by the employers and his colleagues at the newspaper. There are several other such instances which I’ve come across and wherein editors showed benevolence towards their juniors and employers at news organizations too were but big-hearted. With present and past employees/ colleagues alike! However, we mostly lack such munificence back home.
All these anecdotes were called to mind after being to the release of the annual issue of Belaag Sahafat at a glittering ceremony held in Srinagar a day ago. Come-on! Ours is a different profession and we have to behave differently with one another-with love, caring, sharing, passionate benevolence and togetherness. The Creator has bestowed us with beautiful hearts. Let us make them as big as an ocean too.