Readership or Impact?

A typical situation: An all-India entrance examination is conducted sloppily, loading the results in favour of some. The rest write to the institute about the faulty invigilation and mismanagement of time by the exam centre but receive no response. Frustrated, they decide to approach the Media.

The Times of India is the obvious first choice. The logic being: since it is read the most, it will cause maximum embarrassment and hence result in corrective action.

My experience tells me something else.

There are two kinds of newspapers:

1- those that are read the most by people-at-large (Times of India, Hindustan Times)
2- those that are read the most by bureaucrats but hardly by anybody else (Free Press Journal, Indian Express, The Statesman, Asian Age)

In my opinion, it is a better idea to approach the second variety for help. If one can impact the right IAS officer in-charge of education, there is a higher chance of corrective action happening.

I recall the IIPM story here. Soon after Rashmi Bansal and Gaurav Sabnis were hounded by IIPM, there were hectic attempts across the spectrum to push the story into the 'MSM' (Main Stream Media). A week of PR by the people involved got the story published in a few top dailies, even if as only opinion columns.

That IIPM is still enjoying the ride on inaccurate claims in full-page ads is there for all to see. As a bigger indicator of the failure of the bloggers' campaign, absolutely NONE of the senior IAS officers in the Union Education Ministry know about the IIPM matter even today. Moreover, none in the Union IT Ministry have a whiff of who/what bloggers are. That is how weak the blogger campaign was.

The catch here is, it was always going to be futile trying to push a story into commercially successfuls newspaper that place advertisements on a sacred high pedestal.

Though JAM magazine did commendable work in the investigative piece on IIPM, it can hardly expect a difference, just like MAD magazine cannot expect to influence world opinion on Iran's nukes.

I think, had a lesser known paper like Free Press Journal or Indian Express in New Delhi been provided with this story first, they would have badgered IIPM more successfully than others because of two reasons:
1- since they don't get any ads anyway, there is no risk in taking on IIPM
2- they are religiously read and taken seriously by IAS officers

The media that is read most is not necessarily a vehicle of change.

Matheran Diary

My curiosity about Matheran, a resort 80 km east of Mumbai increased several times when I came to know it was India's only automobile-free hill station. Cars can come at most 3 kms of the town and are prohibited thereafter. A toy mountain train runs from Neral right into main Matheran town but has been out of business since July 2005's rain devastation. Taxis charge Rs 50 per seat to ferry the 6 kms steep climb from Neral to the last automobile point, whereafter one treks amidst a beautiful wooded path to the main market, the town center of Matheran.
About 800 ponies and 90 hand-pulled rickshaws operate atop the hill station. Matheran mein aa ke ghode pe nahi baitha to kya kiya. The place is overflowing with people, mostly from Mumbai and Pune on weekends. From the bustling market, hills paths lead to Echo Point, Charlotte Lake, Lord Point and a dozen other Points, or hill edges jutting out to face a sheer drop into deep valleys. Miniscule streets in this tiny town are named 'Ambedkar Marg', 'MG Road', 'Patel Marg' and other heavy tags. The weather is cool all year round and the entire hill is green and thickly wooded.

Suicide is the Point

A single traveller is officially banned in Matheran hotels. You don't get a room unless you are at least a group of two. Why? The official version goes that Matheran is a popular suicide destination, and depressed people
frustrated with urbanese come to Matheran to jump to death from one of its several Points. So a solitary tourist is automatically adjudged a Suicidee and refused accomodation. Khali peeli police ka chakkar nahi magta hai.

I check with the local police station and the figures are appalling. There is one suicide reported per fortnight in Matheran!

My own hotel owner describes the last case involving a rich Mumbaikar, who arrived one day in a Skoda (special emphasis on the automobile brand) and hired a hotel room near one of the cliff edges. In the morning, nobody answered his door when a bellboy knocked. Panicked, the hotel and the police launched a search operation and the rich Mumbaikar's body was found at the bottom of a Point.

Car o Bar

The last hill-station to experiment with vehicular ban was Mussourie.The ban was lifted around 2000 and the thing has become a mess now. The entire place bears the look of an endless parking lot and the market on The Mall is a replica of Karol Bagh during Diwali.

The vehicular ban at Matheran has preserved the town and its air really well. But after the train service stopped, the ban has turned into a bane. The train was a cheap method to transport essential goods like foodgrains, milk, vegetables and LPG cylinders to the top. Post-train, ferrying costs have gone up by 30 percent, largely because of the manual labour costs incurred in carrying cargo from the last vehicle point to the town centre.

A gas cylinder is 10 rupees dearer at Matheran and a shaving razor is 2 rupees more inflated. A band-aid, however, costs the same.

Jignesh goes to Matheran

Every other tourist in Matheran is a Gujju. He comes loaded with entire family, lock stock and barrel, and immediately books three rooms in the Shiv Ganesh Gujarati Lodge, or some such. While walking from Taxi stand to Hotel, the younger members of the troupe are instructed to keep a watch for restaurants offering the ubiquitous Gujarati Thali. Nothing else would do.

The Gujarati tourists are an animated lot. Time after time, Jignesh, the nephew of the family head (who is also called Jignesh) makes a fuss and is disciplined by Shantiben, his mother.

These specimens also have an unending appetite to talk about money. At the slightest provocation, two Gujaratis (both being most probably called Jignesh) enjoying the nature at Matheran will erupt into a heated discussion on Business. Abuses would fly abound for some common acquintance (also called Jignesh) who is reputed unprofessional and does not deliver the maal on time. The deep discussion will carry on over lunch, dinner and late into night even as other family members give up on them. Only a cricket match viewing Live on TV can end their raconteurships.

Echo Point

When you shout out loud from this place, the voice is supposed to echo back from the rocky cliffs on the opposite side of the valley. In reality, it is quite a dampener. The echo is overrated - all that comes back is but a whimper of your howls.

A more effective way to make Echo Point work for redeeming the 2 kms trek is to locate a soul atop the hills on the opposite side of the valley. Most likely, that sould will be equally disappointed with the echos, or the lack of it. You then make a pact. Whatever you shout, that person shouts back and an echo is created. You then shout out loud and hear the same thing being shouted back from across the valley. Voila, you have an echo!

But then, that's cheating no?

Write the writing off!

We print journalists have a strange habit of enumerating 'a flair for writing' as the prerequisite skill for journalism. 'If you have a flair for writing, journalism is the career for you' is a much milked line in our respective publications' weekly education supplements. I don't know why we do this.

The truth is, that unless you are the table journalist type, you realise two years into the profession that writing skills are only the third or fourth most essential in journalism. At best, it is only an added asset.

Out there on the field, especially on the cherished crime/court beats or panchayat beat, writing skills amount to zilch. What matters is street-smartness, awareness, alertness, persistence and ruthlessness. You can be a reporter, a good one at that, without writing skills. But you cannot be a reporter for nuts if you cannot extract a story out using this whole cocktail of people skills. If your story is good, the newsdesk will take care of mediocre writing.

The overrating of the flair for writing is why we have so many journalism dropouts. Kids with perfect backgrounds join the profession assuming that they would get to write beautiful pathbreaking pieces and become famous overnight. I see so many leaving within months because they could not take the shock of dealing with a foul-mouthed policemen, politicians and goons. The basis of journalism is not good writing, it is News. Good writing can only build on top of interesting facts.

If you don't have enough facts worthy of News, what really is the use of beautiful writing skills? If you want to earn money out of good writing skills, why not instead become an author of books?