Its Mangalvaar people!

I was talking to the new kid in office yesterday, he has joined us from Asian College of Journalism in Chennai where he must have been given a heavy dose of developmental (ie: socialist) teachings by the man with the bump on his head. No, I never went to ACJ, and I have no, zero, nil formal training in journalism. But, given that I have spent the greater part of my life (since I was five years old) surrounded by journalists, I think I know the profession rather well. After all, I doubt too many people can claim that both their single and double daddies are senior journos.
Anyway, the kid was telling me about how he wanted to be a journalist ever since his tenth exams, and I realised something. I never wanted to be a journalist. I sort of accidentally walked into journalism, and have done a fairly decent job ever since. Somehow, journalism seems to become me.
It shouldn’t have been this way, I always wanted to join the Air Force and fly MiG’s, yet my eyesight ruled that out and regrettably I did not want to join the civilian air corps, if I did I would have very rich by now. After college, I gave the standard MBA exams, like many people do and got two calls the first time round and three the next. I blew all five interviews. And then sort of wandered into HT, as a sort of stop-gap, before I went abroad for studying an MBA or something. And since the paper sent me on quite a few junkets, I liked the job. It paid jackshit, but I travelled more, worked less and ate better food than my peers from school or college. The food took its toll on my waistline, something I desperately trying to correct and the travel has dried up while the workload has increased in my new (well two year old now) job. But, I still love it. I still love the access I have to corporates, government and for that matter politicos. So, the foreign education plan got a bit screwed up, not that I regret it today, I know I might later in life, but not today. And life is all about Carpe Diem, baby, so now is now and tomorrow is tomorrow. I know this makes no sense whatsoever, but its fun.
Anyway, I was a bit surprised that former employers carried a picture of dead people on the front page. I always thought that dead people, rather pictures of people killed in a violent incident is a no-no for a major daily, but the News Editor, must have made the call. Not as bad as the Indian Express carrying a picture of charred bodies when a mental asylum burned to the ground in Nad land, but a tad tasteless.
The papers were quite boring today morning, going on and on about Advani’s statement that Jinnah was a secular man. I’m no Hindutva activist, but how can you call the man who espoused the two-nation theory secular? I mean Jinnah wasn’t a model Mozzie by any stretch, the man liked his scotch, but god, even thr Congress thinks Advani has gone a tad batty here. I think all old BJP leaders go batty after a certain point of time. Of course, the RSS Chief Sudarshan is battier and then we have our (bad) poet former PM who looks stoned all the time, in fact some people close to him say that is he IS stoned all the time. If true, along with the man with mane’s affliction for liking young (Pahari) boys, this is mindboggling. Wow, for some time in 2003-04 we had an otherwise-inclined President and a stoner PM. This country never ceases to amaze me, how can even think of leaving it!