Washington D.C, Oct 3:
I sit pinching myself and asking: "Is it true? Did I really spend six months in the United States?" It now seems so surreal.
Time flew fast. It's time to go back. Saludos U.S. Good morning India.
After saying goodbye to South Florida and to my new friends in Sun Sentinel, I flew to a small town called Salina in Kansas, where, guess what, I stayed in a motel owned by a desi. A Gujarati couple run the Americas Best Value Inn in the city of 50,000 people.
I went to Salina to attend the Land Institute's prairie festival from 24th to 27th, before flying to Washington D.C. for our final seminar.
The Land Institute is doing what is a very interesting research in agriculture. In that its scientists are breeding the grain into perennial forms by crossing the annual grains with their wild grass relatives. The prairie festival is their annual event attended by farmers, writers, scientists and all those who care for sustainable agriculture. It was a fruitful trip. I learned a lot.
Then in DC, we shared our experiences with the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships Board, enjoyed our farewell dinner and prepared to return home.
After spending six very eventful months of this sabbatical here, I return to resume my work, confident. Stories beckon me and I shall try and apply all the good lessons I learned on this program. To be a good writer. A reporter.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
TWO CITIES; TWO DIFFERENT PERSONALITIES
I wonder where do I begin this blog entry from.
There are many things I saw and I did this past fortnight. I wrote a few pieces for Sun Sentinel; visited new places and met new people.
Last week, I also took a bus-journey to and from New York-Boston. China's increasing presence in the U.S. life is not a secret. Well, the bus journey provided me a small insight into that. Besides, China Town buses are, as in other cases, in-expensive.
But my meeting particularly with two individuals was incredible. I went up north to New York and Boston, where I shared some of my field experiences with an energetic group of Indian professionals who volunteer for the Association for India's Development (AID). As always, it was more of an education for me to meet them.
But my interaction with Mark Kurlansky, well known writer and journalist whose 15 books are an example of best journalism and non-fiction literature, was exciting. I've read his latest book - Food of a young nation, and previous title, Salt.
Kurlansky is easily among the frontline writers of America with a strong narrative prowess. He writes on subjects that he thinks are "important"; that he could "spend a lot of time with" and have "a strong narrative". I took it as a great advice.
It was thanks to my mentor Doreen that I could meet Mark, who's her old friend. We met in a French restaurant in New York chatting on issues ranging from Gandhi to War. One of his books is titled Non-Violence, and Doreen tells me it's a must-read. In the world ravaged with conflicts, this one's a book that delves into Gandhi's political doctrine of non-violence with which he achieved India's independence.
For any journalist, who at some point, wants to write a book, Kurlansky's advice is as powerfully simple as the man himself.
The second soul who inspired me greatly on this trip: Jonathan Fine, a retired physician in Boston and an important member of the AID chapter. At 78, he is un-relenting in whatever he does. His strong point: humor.
Jonathan came straight from the emergency room of a hospital where he underwent several checks for stroke (he's had mild ones in this past week or so), to my talk in the MIT campus; back to his witty best. To the concerned AID youngsters who advised him to take rest, he replied: "Is that the last joke of the day?"
Then of course, the other things that were equally absorbing. Visiting Ground Zero; plying in the New York sub-way train; walking through the vast stretches of Central Park; watching the fast-moving New Yorkers; the big museums; the financial district of what could best be described as the global town; or the Ellis Island to trace the history of the droves of immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th century - it was fun, education and refreshing contrast to my newsroom and journalism experience.
Doreen and I also visited the newsroom of Pro-Publica (www.propublica.org), thanks to a former Sun Sentinel and LA Times staffer, Robin Fields, who now works for this organization that is funded by a non-profit to keep alive investigative journalism in the era of lay-offs and media meltdown. Some of the top investigative journalists of the United States work in this newsroom that provides an amazing view of downtown New York from its office in a high-rise building in Manhattan.
I also walked through the campuses of some of the famous universities - Columbia in New York; Harvard, MIT and Tufts in Boston. The rich academic ambiance of these prestigious academic institutions are benchmarks for global education standards. No wonder they attract some of the best brainy migratory birds from all over the world.
The trip undoubtedly provided me a new picture of the United States, radically different from the one I got in Florida. Unlike South Florida, New York is a busy and bustling city that like Mumbai never sleeps.
In New York, I discovered humor in public life in public places - it could be the 9/11 effect that people care to stop and help you if you are lost. "Take this alley and then turn right, walk two blocks and destination will be to your left!" Fast-moving passers-by will stop and tell you, if they find you stuck somewhere.
Manhattan's high-rise buildings - particularly at the Time Square - attract tourists by hordes. It's eye-catching. As a friend chuckles: "Capitalism is seductive".
I also saw a critically acclaimed musical on the Broadway. 'Hair', the musical that made a rocking comeback earlier this year, was controversial in the 1960s post-Vietnam war. I had no idea that the hippie movement had roots in anti-war movement of that era. India witnessed floods of hippies in the early 1970s with the Hare Rama Hare Krishna movement. The musical in its new avatar makes the same points that it made in the late 60s. Ironically nothing has changed. War hysteria is still alive and in pretty much the same garb - democracy, freedom and liberty! Wow!
Hair - a metaphor for expressing protest against war mongering - is still relevant.
A week earlier I visited for a day the dreamland of Key West - driving through a chain of islands south of Miami.
It was not just fun or picnicking that I was seeking to achieve but a peep into a very diverse picture of this land - a diversity that is fast becoming a relic of the past as more mono-culturistic doctrines emerge to hold an economic sway.
The Alfred Friendly fellowship, I think, is not only about the insights into media operations or learning the new skills, but also develop a better worldview and also understanding of the global issues. The past fortnight my journeys in this distant land aimed at achieving exactly that - a view from the top and the bottom of this world, of the people in different trappings, of diversity that's endangered.
On a more professional side, I did two more pieces - a story on how communities are now supporting local farmers to re-invigorate local food systems. And an essay for the Sunday Outlook of September 20 that takes a dig at Thomas Friedman's flat-view of the oval world. My mentor loved the essay, which means I did learn some lessons in good writing. Hope the trend continues for a long term.
With that story, I am saying good bye to my host newspaper, the Sun Sentinel, and my host city, Fort Lauderdale, the Venice of America.
There are many things I saw and I did this past fortnight. I wrote a few pieces for Sun Sentinel; visited new places and met new people.
Last week, I also took a bus-journey to and from New York-Boston. China's increasing presence in the U.S. life is not a secret. Well, the bus journey provided me a small insight into that. Besides, China Town buses are, as in other cases, in-expensive.
But my meeting particularly with two individuals was incredible. I went up north to New York and Boston, where I shared some of my field experiences with an energetic group of Indian professionals who volunteer for the Association for India's Development (AID). As always, it was more of an education for me to meet them.
But my interaction with Mark Kurlansky, well known writer and journalist whose 15 books are an example of best journalism and non-fiction literature, was exciting. I've read his latest book - Food of a young nation, and previous title, Salt.
Kurlansky is easily among the frontline writers of America with a strong narrative prowess. He writes on subjects that he thinks are "important"; that he could "spend a lot of time with" and have "a strong narrative". I took it as a great advice.
It was thanks to my mentor Doreen that I could meet Mark, who's her old friend. We met in a French restaurant in New York chatting on issues ranging from Gandhi to War. One of his books is titled Non-Violence, and Doreen tells me it's a must-read. In the world ravaged with conflicts, this one's a book that delves into Gandhi's political doctrine of non-violence with which he achieved India's independence.
For any journalist, who at some point, wants to write a book, Kurlansky's advice is as powerfully simple as the man himself.
The second soul who inspired me greatly on this trip: Jonathan Fine, a retired physician in Boston and an important member of the AID chapter. At 78, he is un-relenting in whatever he does. His strong point: humor.
Jonathan came straight from the emergency room of a hospital where he underwent several checks for stroke (he's had mild ones in this past week or so), to my talk in the MIT campus; back to his witty best. To the concerned AID youngsters who advised him to take rest, he replied: "Is that the last joke of the day?"
Then of course, the other things that were equally absorbing. Visiting Ground Zero; plying in the New York sub-way train; walking through the vast stretches of Central Park; watching the fast-moving New Yorkers; the big museums; the financial district of what could best be described as the global town; or the Ellis Island to trace the history of the droves of immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th century - it was fun, education and refreshing contrast to my newsroom and journalism experience.
Doreen and I also visited the newsroom of Pro-Publica (www.propublica.org), thanks to a former Sun Sentinel and LA Times staffer, Robin Fields, who now works for this organization that is funded by a non-profit to keep alive investigative journalism in the era of lay-offs and media meltdown. Some of the top investigative journalists of the United States work in this newsroom that provides an amazing view of downtown New York from its office in a high-rise building in Manhattan.
I also walked through the campuses of some of the famous universities - Columbia in New York; Harvard, MIT and Tufts in Boston. The rich academic ambiance of these prestigious academic institutions are benchmarks for global education standards. No wonder they attract some of the best brainy migratory birds from all over the world.
The trip undoubtedly provided me a new picture of the United States, radically different from the one I got in Florida. Unlike South Florida, New York is a busy and bustling city that like Mumbai never sleeps.
In New York, I discovered humor in public life in public places - it could be the 9/11 effect that people care to stop and help you if you are lost. "Take this alley and then turn right, walk two blocks and destination will be to your left!" Fast-moving passers-by will stop and tell you, if they find you stuck somewhere.
Manhattan's high-rise buildings - particularly at the Time Square - attract tourists by hordes. It's eye-catching. As a friend chuckles: "Capitalism is seductive".
I also saw a critically acclaimed musical on the Broadway. 'Hair', the musical that made a rocking comeback earlier this year, was controversial in the 1960s post-Vietnam war. I had no idea that the hippie movement had roots in anti-war movement of that era. India witnessed floods of hippies in the early 1970s with the Hare Rama Hare Krishna movement. The musical in its new avatar makes the same points that it made in the late 60s. Ironically nothing has changed. War hysteria is still alive and in pretty much the same garb - democracy, freedom and liberty! Wow!
Hair - a metaphor for expressing protest against war mongering - is still relevant.
A week earlier I visited for a day the dreamland of Key West - driving through a chain of islands south of Miami.
It was not just fun or picnicking that I was seeking to achieve but a peep into a very diverse picture of this land - a diversity that is fast becoming a relic of the past as more mono-culturistic doctrines emerge to hold an economic sway.
The Alfred Friendly fellowship, I think, is not only about the insights into media operations or learning the new skills, but also develop a better worldview and also understanding of the global issues. The past fortnight my journeys in this distant land aimed at achieving exactly that - a view from the top and the bottom of this world, of the people in different trappings, of diversity that's endangered.
On a more professional side, I did two more pieces - a story on how communities are now supporting local farmers to re-invigorate local food systems. And an essay for the Sunday Outlook of September 20 that takes a dig at Thomas Friedman's flat-view of the oval world. My mentor loved the essay, which means I did learn some lessons in good writing. Hope the trend continues for a long term.
With that story, I am saying good bye to my host newspaper, the Sun Sentinel, and my host city, Fort Lauderdale, the Venice of America.
Monday, August 31, 2009
THE FARMERS AMONG US
IN a month’s time, it’ll be time for us to fly back.
Even before we realized, the fellowship program is coming to an end. As we welcome September, I am in a mood to look back.
This Sunday marked the culmination of the project I worked for all of summer in South Florida – the story ‘farmers among us’ finally hit the covers of Outlook section.
Read what my mentor and Editorial Page editor Antonio Fins said (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/columnists/sfl-afcol-intro-outlook-083009sbaug30,0,358803.column) in his intro to the Sun Sentinel’s Sunday Outlook section that he and his team of editorial writers produce with distinction.
Last 15 days – I worked, re-worked and re-re-worked the content of this story, as I approached the finish-line. From the initially written piece of 5000 words, the final story stood at a little over 1400 words, inclusive of tag-lines, credit lines etc. We finished off with the sound-slides and tightening up the loose ends by the weekend of 23rd. The layout was done by August 26th and pages were ready by Thursday, the 27th.
How it all was put together, I will explain it in a while.
What did it mean to me? Fulfillment of several of my program goals – writing tight, learning multi-media tricks and, above all, focusing on agriculture.
I did a quick joint byline story last Friday with a colleague on how the expatriate community from my home state of Maharashtra celebrates the annual Ganesh festival in South Florida. (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/sfl-elephant-god-b082709,0,2978036.story).
Saturday, August 29, I attended the festival with my friends Thomas Swick and his wife Hania. Check his blog for more:(http://www.thomasswick.com/blogs/tswick.php)
Meanwhile, Doreen and I got a bio-fuels story published on August 23rd,
(http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/sfl-biofuel-update-082309,0,4243854.story).
On August 15, I went to Maryland to talk to the volunteers of the Association for India’s Development (AID), Baltimore chapter, on farm crisis in Vidarbha. It was heartening to see young friends taking interest in what’s going on with agriculture back home.
What else! Yes, I cooked Indian food at Paradise farms on Sunday, August 30, for 20 people – all my new farmer friends. The menu: Bhujiya, Kashmiri rice, Masala rice, Chapati, Jackfruit curry and much more. My friend Hani Khouri brought his home made goat-cheese, yogurt and a variety of his home-made tasty ice-cream.
I will later post pictures to lend credence to this story and the fact that I did incredibly well with cooking. No one complained, which means everything was alright.
And a young female food writer at the luncheon wanted from me some of those recipes. God, I pray, my mom’s not listening!
Here’s how the small farms story came alive:
Tapping into the trend -
I came to Florida early May with one intention: See farms, meet farmers and learn how they are doing when their counterparts are killing themselves in India.
The corporate food businesses have taken over agriculture in the United States in the last 30 years driving family farms out of business.
As P Sainath, my mentor and India’s frontline journalist wrote in one of his dispatches from the U.S. two years ago: There are more prisoners in America than farmers.
The first thing I did was to do an online research. I found the 2007 Agriculture census report, a wealth of information that needed to be deciphered. It hides more than what it reveals. Some glorified statistics are really a veil to cover the darkest chapter of the U.S. farming – collapse of sustainable family farm operations all over the country.
In South Florida, it hasn’t been any different. Most of the land is now controlled by two or three major sugar conglomerates. Housing developments and real estate consumed the family farms in the coastal belt, so as I began my assignment with Sun Sentinel, my biggest worry was: Will I get to meet and visit any family farms at all?
I took to what I think works the best: get on to the field.
As I began researching for some local farms, new nascent trends surfaced.
I found Nancy Roe, a 10-acre farmer in Boynton Beach, 15 miles north of Fort Lauderdale. That was in May end. One morning, I drove down to her farm and it opened up the whole new world.
It’s a farm that exists in the midst of plush housing complex. My interactions with a 60-plus Nancy, a Ph.D. in horticulture, showed me the direction.
At her farm, I met Henry Williams, a 78-year-old black farmer. Then I met some more members of their tribe, and more.
All of them shared great concern for small farms on the planet. Many of them had read about the tragedy besieging the Indian farmers and wanted to know more.
Who were they? They were all small, very small farmers, tilling small acres in the urban sphere. Many of them turned out first-generation farmers, growing food for their neighborhoods. They told me some of their neighbors want to eat fresh and local. But why did they take to farming? And are they into it as a hobby? No. Many of them are in the profession by choice and driven by a commitment to build local food systems.
This is South Florida, I said. And it isn’t a farming ground any more.
My new friends told me to look around and look through the housing developments. I found small farms – conventional and non-conventional – sprouting all around. From Vero Beach north of Fort Lauderdale to Homestead the belt of 150 miles or so has tens of new small farms, re-invigorating local food system with a strong consumer support. I pitched the story, and my mentor immediately said: go for it. We thought the best way to tell this trend is through vignettes, each symbolic of some regional or national trend.
Field trips and working with a photo-journalist:
Early on, we decided this has to be a multi-media project. Along with tons of pictures, we needed to record sound for sound-slides – where pictures are accompanied by the sound-bytes. It was a great education to work with one of Sun Sentinel’s gifted photo-journalists, Sarah Dussault. Sarah and I visited all the farms that I had zeroed in on for my story. But before our field visits, I had visited all the farms at least once. So I knew what we needed to shoot and ask each one of them. Post our mid-term seminar at Poynter in mid-July we did most of our field visits for pictures and interviews.
For Sound Slides project, you need to ask pointed questions for pointed answers, which is what I did as we drove to those farms several times. It was fun.
Putting it all together:
I first wrote it long, and then cut it deep.
It was time for visualizing how to put the story on the pages: The photo editor selected 25-30 pictures for each vignette. Graphic designer did the rest.
The best of them were then picked up in a detailed meeting where we discussed the story’s forward-looking appeal, uniqueness of each farmer, etc.
The graphic designer and photo-editor decided the story need a strong visual appeal –which is why the vertical film-like approach for the front page and horizontal approach for vignettes on Page3. To me, it was like learning the ABC of graphics.
Show me, don’t tell me:
When I finished with my edits, it was time for Tony (Mr Antonio Fins) and Sunday editor, Gail DeGeorge, to take a look at my job. They did and came up with strong suggestions and edits. My work had only just begun, and I thought it was over.
The last week, finally, it all worked out well. I had written the story for some 20 times.
The most invaluable lesson learned? Don’t tell in as many words; show it to readers.
(http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-jhcol-small-farms-outlook-08sbaug30,0,4458836.story)
Thursday, August 13, 2009
FARMS, FARMERS AND FOOD...
Fort Lauderdale (update July 20-August 14):
"Something," said Bob Hochmuth of the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agriculture Science, "is happening". It's so far under the radar.
Trends do not surface on their own. They have to be sensed and analyzed. Hochmuth had just nicely summed up to me the story.
Good that I attended on August 1 and 2 the first ever small farms and enterprises conference at Kissimmee, near Orlando, in Floria, and to everyone's surprise, the attendance at the two-day event that was marked by the food extravaganza underlined that the story I am working on, is bang on target. On time.
Small farms are indeed bouncing back across the United States: watch out for my next story, and you'd know what all I'd been doing this past three weeks.
For the records though - lest I shall lose some 33 bucks a day - I had been doing the field visits, as any good journalist must, for my story, South Florida's humid summer notwithstanding. I've been shooting videos, recording sound and writing.
I'm after all a living creature of the multi-media age.
But writing this story has been fun. I've re-written and edited it for at least five times. The editor takes a look at it, now.
It was, however, satisfying to attend the conference and to our surprise, we were the only journalists at the event.
My story on small farms fulfils three of my goals - study U.S. agriculture, tight and narrative writing and multi-media.
Last Sunday, I also wrote my first editorial column in the op-ed section of the Sun Sentinel. My friend from China may perhaps not like it, but it was on the Indo-China tensions building in the continent, even as the two countries held talks last week.
Editorial columns are not easy, I realized that. Speaking is one thing. Putting it down quite another. But my mentor, Antonio Fins, gave it a read and said: "actually you've hidden your lead in the last para." I agreed and turned it on its head.
The piece came out well and met my fourth goal - writing opinion pieces.
Doreen Hemlock, one of my mentors, and I have finished writing a story for business section, and two more are work in progress.
In between, I finally caught up with some sound sleep last weekend.
On the social front, this past couple of weeks, I connected with the Indians living here. And found, some of them are more Americanized than the Americans!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
KNOW THY NEIGHBOR, STUPID!
Two events made headlines in the second fortnight of July: The 40th anniversary of America’s first manned moon mission, Apollo 11. Two days later, the world’s superpower was debating whether or not the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was a racial discrimination issue.
One channel even went on to conduct a public poll: Is race still a reality?
Even an astute president like Obama got carried away by the issue, when he castigated the local police for acting “stupidly”, a statement he resented the very next day by admitting that he should have been more careful about his choice of words. Good for the police officer; he got up, close and personal with the President over the last weekend on the widely publicized 'beer summit'. The media and people are still acidly split on the issue. The debate is far from over.
What amused me was not the police action or the racial overtones to the issue, but the fact that neither the caller nor the professor knew of each other as neighbors! The issue would be non-existent if they knew each other. It’s as simple.
To me, the problem is with the phone call itself. I imagine if it were India and if my neighbor would lose his key, he would knock on my door even in the middle of the night, have a cup of coffee chatting about the problem and then, both of us would wake up other neighbors in trying to break his lock so that he would get into his house. Once in, he would make coffee for all of us. We go to bed happy.
We would call the police and alert the neighbors only when we are sure the one breaking into the neighbor’s house is not the owner himself/herself.
In India, believe me, the police would arrest the caller for wasting their time if they discovered that his/her neighbor had had to break his lock to enter his own house because he/she had lost the key. If you don’t know your neighbors, the neighbors would take you as a terrorist and inform the police of your suspicious behavior. Believe me, the police would come and interrogate you to their satisfaction.
The trend of neighbors not being acquainted with each other in some big metropolitan cities in India is for the government and common people a matter of grave concern.
The police in my hometown of Nagpur run a program where they ask citizens to alert them if they found someone with suspicious behavior living in their neighborhood.
We are on the other extreme of ‘neighborhood dharma’!
I feel a tad sad to see that people don’t know or talk to each other in the neighborhood here, exceptions apart. For, if they knew each other, I bet, economic recession wouldn’t be this hard to take on.
When I first arrived in Fort Lauderdale, I felt like living in a no-man's land. I'd hardly see my neighbors. I didn't know if they existed, until on one day, I decided enough is enough and brandished my Indianness by knocking on their doors to say "Hi, I'm your next door neighbor; just so you knew I live here."
I wasn't doing any big favor to them, but to myself. I needed to know who lived around me. To my surprise, I found my neighbors surprisingly welcoming. They wanted to talk and connect as well. It took me exactly a week to discover that each of my neighbors had pets. Dogs never barked. Cats never crossed their line!
I am still unsure of what these pets do inside, when their owners leave for work!
It may sound cynical, but I see a distinct link between the two headlines. It shows the state of American society. The country unites in its flight to moon or mars or in its supposed fight against an unseen evil, but goes back to its individualism when it comes to personal and emotional relations up close.
I hope my nascent impression is wrong.
One channel even went on to conduct a public poll: Is race still a reality?
Even an astute president like Obama got carried away by the issue, when he castigated the local police for acting “stupidly”, a statement he resented the very next day by admitting that he should have been more careful about his choice of words. Good for the police officer; he got up, close and personal with the President over the last weekend on the widely publicized 'beer summit'. The media and people are still acidly split on the issue. The debate is far from over.
What amused me was not the police action or the racial overtones to the issue, but the fact that neither the caller nor the professor knew of each other as neighbors! The issue would be non-existent if they knew each other. It’s as simple.
To me, the problem is with the phone call itself. I imagine if it were India and if my neighbor would lose his key, he would knock on my door even in the middle of the night, have a cup of coffee chatting about the problem and then, both of us would wake up other neighbors in trying to break his lock so that he would get into his house. Once in, he would make coffee for all of us. We go to bed happy.
We would call the police and alert the neighbors only when we are sure the one breaking into the neighbor’s house is not the owner himself/herself.
In India, believe me, the police would arrest the caller for wasting their time if they discovered that his/her neighbor had had to break his lock to enter his own house because he/she had lost the key. If you don’t know your neighbors, the neighbors would take you as a terrorist and inform the police of your suspicious behavior. Believe me, the police would come and interrogate you to their satisfaction.
The trend of neighbors not being acquainted with each other in some big metropolitan cities in India is for the government and common people a matter of grave concern.
The police in my hometown of Nagpur run a program where they ask citizens to alert them if they found someone with suspicious behavior living in their neighborhood.
We are on the other extreme of ‘neighborhood dharma’!
I feel a tad sad to see that people don’t know or talk to each other in the neighborhood here, exceptions apart. For, if they knew each other, I bet, economic recession wouldn’t be this hard to take on.
When I first arrived in Fort Lauderdale, I felt like living in a no-man's land. I'd hardly see my neighbors. I didn't know if they existed, until on one day, I decided enough is enough and brandished my Indianness by knocking on their doors to say "Hi, I'm your next door neighbor; just so you knew I live here."
I wasn't doing any big favor to them, but to myself. I needed to know who lived around me. To my surprise, I found my neighbors surprisingly welcoming. They wanted to talk and connect as well. It took me exactly a week to discover that each of my neighbors had pets. Dogs never barked. Cats never crossed their line!
I am still unsure of what these pets do inside, when their owners leave for work!
It may sound cynical, but I see a distinct link between the two headlines. It shows the state of American society. The country unites in its flight to moon or mars or in its supposed fight against an unseen evil, but goes back to its individualism when it comes to personal and emotional relations up close.
I hope my nascent impression is wrong.
Monday, July 20, 2009
GOING GLOBAL WITH LOCAL
I see an attitude problem with some big town journos. Exceptions apart!
They fly to small and slow towns wearing arrogant and almost repulsive vibe, groaning why the heck their editors dispatched them out of their cushy metropolitan cocoons to cover a local story. And so their stories will capture the pain they had had to suffer on the way to cover a story on, say, a farmer's suicide.
The story therefore turns out a journalist's painful journey rather than one about economic or social realities surrounding the subjects or stakeholders.
Mark Tully, the legendary BBC journalist, had an advice for us at the National Foundation of India's awards function in 2002.
"You are not the story", he reminded us, "you are the story-teller."
You can see the stereotypes when you read the stories from rural India in the national and international press: '...dusty countryside'; '...parched land'; '...no power, no road, no water.' Yet stronger metaphors: 'Hungry land'; 'Suicide country'.
The white man is slightly better, but not always.
Both these creatures para trooping to small towns to cover a global story are in some ways similar: They come to cover a story, and often, leave without one.
They tell a global story without even touching on local realities and invariably miss out on the threads that make a story worthy.
I sense a window of opportunities for small town journalists, like me.
The geographical and economic disadvantages that big town guys face provide us new opportunities. That drove the shift in my training plan at our mid-term seminar at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersberg earlier this month. How do you tell a local story to a global audience? Personal coaching sessions there helped immensely.
My new theme: Going global with local or vice versa. I had earlier taken a web-course on the Poynter's News-U: Covering global stories locally.
We can effectively tell local story globally by joining the dots, and a global story locally by studying the impact of global processes. Nothing new in there, except the way the faculties dealt with the subject.
The week at Poynter was undoubtedly stimulating. I learned as much from the faculty as I did from my re-charged co fellows.
The session on "how to teach" was real surprise. I look forward to using some of those tools to share whatever good I've learned on this program with the willing-to-learn fellow journalists. Thankfully, we have so few that sharing will be easier.
But this update is for the entire month:
So here's what I did through the month that saw some of my stories getting published in the Sun Sentinel. I did a couple of editorial blog entries too.
I spent the first week of July with metro-desk, covering courts. I did one story on a death sentence to a homicide convict, which was in line with one of my goals: how to write tight and crisp. The story was pruned to 250 words from 600 that I penned. That's how much could fit in the available space. Online version was slightly long.
That weekend, I attended a conference of the Florida Press Association at the historic Breaker Hotel in West Palm Beach with my mentor and editorial page editor of Sun Sentinel, Mr Antonio Fins. There was one session on multi-media that was of some professional interest to me, but it was an occasion to connect with media persons from across the sunshine state.
I returned to the business desk to finish two of my stories with Doreen Hemlock, and we did it before I headed for Poynter. Both the stories got published while I was at the Poynter. They got good displays and had multi-media presentation online.
One of the two stories was profiling a bagasse power plant against the backdrop of new energy bill passed by the Congress earlier this month; helped me understand the process of tight writing. It gave me an insight into the massive sugar sector.
The editor returned that story at least four times with questions and more questions to be clarified. Frustrating it was. But in the end, it was for the good.
Editors in the U.S. newsrooms will in seconds crush any ego you might have. They are unassumingly brutal.
Honestly, it's not easy to get your story through the several lines of editors here. All my friends in Nagpur, I must suggest, value your words and integrity. Facts come first. And they are paramount. Read your stories again and ask yourselves: "Is that true?" Writing a news story is not a piece of imagination or fiction. Editors back home too need to be more careful. For, their writings shape future journalists. Ergo sorry! I can't be preaching those who already are self-proclaimed intellectuals!
Post Poynter, I am working on a big project for the Outlook section slotted for the August 23rd edition. It's a comprehensive story on small farms in South Florida. And I am currently doing my field visits: a lots of them. I am taking the video too. The story will have sound slides, a glimpse of which we saw at Poynter. I am working with a photo-journalist on the project that would hopefully be my major take-home!
This story will meet all my goals: It will allow me to study the farm issue; write a narrative story, and learn multi-media skills (aka sound slides etc).
I plan to attend a small farms conference in Kissimmee, Florida, on August 1 and 2. That's when I meet small farmers, scientists and policy makers from Florida.
I spent the entire last week visiting farms. We are half way through. We will finish the visits this week. I plan to finish the writing as soon as possible to then work with the photo-editors on sound slides and possibly the video.
Next couple of weeks, while I work on this story, I would also do a couple of serious editorial pieces to meet my last goal: to write opinion pieces.
That's all about work and goals. Now beyond the work.
I explored new things in Florida. New sites and cuisine.
I was hosted by former travel editor of Sun Sentinel, Thomas Swick, and his wife, Hania, for dinner on the eve of my Poynter visit. Tom, an avid traveler, loves India. A visiting faculty at many journalism schools, he has much to share, particularly about travel writing.
After our Poynter seminar, I traveled with one of my mentors, editorial cartoonist Chaning Lowe, to Cape Canaverel, the Kennedy Space Center.
Kalpana Chawla's name is etched in the memory of every Indian. I saw her name etched on the memorial glowing bright in the Sun light.
I stood silent, paying homage to the woman, who chased her dream and left her legacy for millions of young Indians: To dream and chase it to fulfillment.
Last Saturday I went snorkeling with my main mentor Antonio Fins and his son Anthony. It was a thrilling experience to see colorful fish in its home.
Blue green waters in Key Largo hide fascinating coral reefs. I wasn't sure of swimming in the ocean. But as I buried myself deep into the waves, the world of reefs and marine life came to me in all its tranquility. I loved it.
There are many other tit bits. For now, I keep them to myself.
Monday, July 6, 2009
NO LUCK, WHEN IT COMES TO GAMBLING
Coconut Creek:
It could have made a superb souvenir: I, photographed right in front of a machine in the huge casino. But they won't allow me to take a picture inside!
I lost a dollar though. Click click click....two sevens rolling in; the third could have doled a jackpot for me! So close but not so close!
Florida has a ban on casinos; this one's not a Las Vegas. But native Americans can run casinos in their reservation. This one - in the Coconut Creek city that is home to the retired people - has one run by the Seminoles in their reservations.
The Seminole tribe pays significant revenues to the city from the casino in return of services such as water and security. The casino revenue is shared equally among the tribal clan. Each individual, even a new born, gets the share from the earnings.
We don't have casinos in my part of the world. We have other ways of gambling. And we are old gamblers. With no offense to anyone, it dates back to Mahabharata age!
So it was naturally an attraction for me to visit a casino.
Wow! That's what I said, when I opened the door to enter what seemed like a peaceful and simple plaza from outside. I expected it to be crowded going simply by the cars parked in its acres and acres of land with boards saying, pictures not allowed. It indeed was a crowded place, a reason, I felt, why the rest of the city is so quiet.
It was a noisy dimly-lit room, spread over easily a few acres, filled with smoke (because it's a reservation you can smoke here, while smoking is banned in public places in the city), with red and attractive carpet and equally dazzling ceiling, hundreds of people seated on the machines waiting for the lady luck to smile on them.
Average age of the gamblers -- by a cursory glace -- seemed between 60 and 70.
I saw almost a bed-ridden grand-ma painstakingly walk with the box-crutches, oxygen pipes running into both her nostrils, and a cigarette tucked between her middle and second finger (easily into her early eighties), desperate for a machine to play with for her luck. Another grey-haired, in his 70s, was catching nine winks while still at the machine, drained by the thrills of gambling. After some time I found him back to his game. Click click click....no luck! Click click click....try again!
The casino interiors are designed specially so that you stay put. It's a trap that customers easily walk into. Usually, a casino has no window or door that reveals the outside views. So that you won't know what time it is! If it's a day or night!
Casinos don't have wall-clocks. It's brightly decorated. Bright colors are to pump up your adrenaline. Young girls, with bare clothes, walk around with water and other beverages for you to drink free of cost, so that you stay hydrated and playful.
A big cafe offers loads and loads of buffet at cheap price so that there's a drive. The evenings are peppered with live bands, jazz, and live shows, adding elements of entertainment. Chances are if you've walked in to throw away 20 bucks; you'll spend 100.
I lost a dollar as a charming young girl explained how the machines work.
Pleasantly though, an Indian expatriate from Tamil Nadu, who works at the casino as its software programmer, was more than willing to show me the different programs in the gambling den. He said to me in Hindi, 'sirf dekho, khelo mat'. And I replied to him with a smile: "Koi nahi! Main apna purse gaadi mein hi chod aaya hun. Jeb mein sirf ek dollar hi laya tha, woh chala gaya hai, aab sirf dekh hi sakta hun!"
He smiled, and then showed me around.
The casino brought back to me one of the special moments from my college years. Each one of us treasure some moments from the past. This one matters so much to me!
Sometime during my graduation (I think it was the year that I lost while doing my B.Sc.), I was left with one rupee (two cents) and a week to go before my father would send me my monthly pocket money. I was studying at Nagpur and living in a small room. My parents had allowed me to study away from my home town of Chandrapur despite tight finances, for, it would give me a better exposure to life. They would pay directly for my food and lodgings, and give me a monthly stipend for my daily expenses. It used to be moderate, but good by our financial standings.
Idea, as I see reflecting back, was to provide me with a better life, but one that has to be lived within the means. Looking at the hardships they had to negotiate in their early lives, my parents gave me far more luxuries than most kids in India get.
My mother would ask me to save little bit every month from my pocket money for any eventuality. And I never ever did it. I could never save. It was a tough ask for me. It remains so even now. You can say I am very intemperate when it comes to saving.
But that month had been extravagant on many fronts. Left with only one rupee and a week still to go, I woke up nervous that day, and walked up to my tea stall: Sitaram chaywalla. I visit him even today for a cup of tea and some nostalgia.
I weighed two options on how to spend that last penny: Should I go for a cup of tea or should I buy a one-digit lottery from the vendor right opposite the tea stall and try my luck. Just in case it clicked, I'd have some money to go for the week!
I sat there for about two hours but did not drink tea. Sitaram could sense something was wrong with me that day.
After about two hours, I asked him to give me a full, hot cup of ginger tea. And I felt morally relieved! That tea, believe me, was the best I've had so far in my life.
It was the right and moral way of spending that rupee, I felt, as I resisted the temptation to gamble.
It's one thing to take a calculated risk, and quite another to gamble. At any given time, I would rather take a calculate risk than gamble.
Secondly it was a hard earned penny of my father, and I felt I had no right to spill it over like that. I was suddenly penniless, but my nervousness had gone.
Re-energized with a cup of tea, my mind was back to its senses.
Sitaram, who was like a friend, asked me what the matter was, and I told him frankly that I had run out of my monthly stipend a week before the month ended. I shared with him the dilemma that I faced for two hours, with a hearty laugh.
No sooner did I share with him the story, Sitaram took out from his pocket a bill of Rs 100, and said, you can borrow it from me and return in installments.
"Try to save every month as your mother says, and repay it to me," he said.
I do not know if was proper on my part to take money from him at that point. I could have asked my parents to send me money immediately and they would have done so, even if grudgingly. But I had no second thoughts about it. I took that note from him, and paid him in two equal instalments earnestly.
Sitaram 'chaywalla' is special to me. To him, I remain an equally valued customer to this date, except that he doesn't accept money from me for a cup of tea.
"You've paid your money," is his usual answer. We chat about the changing times, the good and the bad.
Losing a dollar bill at the casino here in the distant land however rekindled that nostalgic moment. It was fun to spend time at the casino, but painful to lose a hard-earned dollar.
I was happy that 16 years ago I had made the right decision.
It could have made a superb souvenir: I, photographed right in front of a machine in the huge casino. But they won't allow me to take a picture inside!
I lost a dollar though. Click click click....two sevens rolling in; the third could have doled a jackpot for me! So close but not so close!
Florida has a ban on casinos; this one's not a Las Vegas. But native Americans can run casinos in their reservation. This one - in the Coconut Creek city that is home to the retired people - has one run by the Seminoles in their reservations.
The Seminole tribe pays significant revenues to the city from the casino in return of services such as water and security. The casino revenue is shared equally among the tribal clan. Each individual, even a new born, gets the share from the earnings.
We don't have casinos in my part of the world. We have other ways of gambling. And we are old gamblers. With no offense to anyone, it dates back to Mahabharata age!
So it was naturally an attraction for me to visit a casino.
Wow! That's what I said, when I opened the door to enter what seemed like a peaceful and simple plaza from outside. I expected it to be crowded going simply by the cars parked in its acres and acres of land with boards saying, pictures not allowed. It indeed was a crowded place, a reason, I felt, why the rest of the city is so quiet.
It was a noisy dimly-lit room, spread over easily a few acres, filled with smoke (because it's a reservation you can smoke here, while smoking is banned in public places in the city), with red and attractive carpet and equally dazzling ceiling, hundreds of people seated on the machines waiting for the lady luck to smile on them.
Average age of the gamblers -- by a cursory glace -- seemed between 60 and 70.
I saw almost a bed-ridden grand-ma painstakingly walk with the box-crutches, oxygen pipes running into both her nostrils, and a cigarette tucked between her middle and second finger (easily into her early eighties), desperate for a machine to play with for her luck. Another grey-haired, in his 70s, was catching nine winks while still at the machine, drained by the thrills of gambling. After some time I found him back to his game. Click click click....no luck! Click click click....try again!
The casino interiors are designed specially so that you stay put. It's a trap that customers easily walk into. Usually, a casino has no window or door that reveals the outside views. So that you won't know what time it is! If it's a day or night!
Casinos don't have wall-clocks. It's brightly decorated. Bright colors are to pump up your adrenaline. Young girls, with bare clothes, walk around with water and other beverages for you to drink free of cost, so that you stay hydrated and playful.
A big cafe offers loads and loads of buffet at cheap price so that there's a drive. The evenings are peppered with live bands, jazz, and live shows, adding elements of entertainment. Chances are if you've walked in to throw away 20 bucks; you'll spend 100.
I lost a dollar as a charming young girl explained how the machines work.
Pleasantly though, an Indian expatriate from Tamil Nadu, who works at the casino as its software programmer, was more than willing to show me the different programs in the gambling den. He said to me in Hindi, 'sirf dekho, khelo mat'. And I replied to him with a smile: "Koi nahi! Main apna purse gaadi mein hi chod aaya hun. Jeb mein sirf ek dollar hi laya tha, woh chala gaya hai, aab sirf dekh hi sakta hun!"
He smiled, and then showed me around.
The casino brought back to me one of the special moments from my college years. Each one of us treasure some moments from the past. This one matters so much to me!
Sometime during my graduation (I think it was the year that I lost while doing my B.Sc.), I was left with one rupee (two cents) and a week to go before my father would send me my monthly pocket money. I was studying at Nagpur and living in a small room. My parents had allowed me to study away from my home town of Chandrapur despite tight finances, for, it would give me a better exposure to life. They would pay directly for my food and lodgings, and give me a monthly stipend for my daily expenses. It used to be moderate, but good by our financial standings.
Idea, as I see reflecting back, was to provide me with a better life, but one that has to be lived within the means. Looking at the hardships they had to negotiate in their early lives, my parents gave me far more luxuries than most kids in India get.
My mother would ask me to save little bit every month from my pocket money for any eventuality. And I never ever did it. I could never save. It was a tough ask for me. It remains so even now. You can say I am very intemperate when it comes to saving.
But that month had been extravagant on many fronts. Left with only one rupee and a week still to go, I woke up nervous that day, and walked up to my tea stall: Sitaram chaywalla. I visit him even today for a cup of tea and some nostalgia.
I weighed two options on how to spend that last penny: Should I go for a cup of tea or should I buy a one-digit lottery from the vendor right opposite the tea stall and try my luck. Just in case it clicked, I'd have some money to go for the week!
I sat there for about two hours but did not drink tea. Sitaram could sense something was wrong with me that day.
After about two hours, I asked him to give me a full, hot cup of ginger tea. And I felt morally relieved! That tea, believe me, was the best I've had so far in my life.
It was the right and moral way of spending that rupee, I felt, as I resisted the temptation to gamble.
It's one thing to take a calculated risk, and quite another to gamble. At any given time, I would rather take a calculate risk than gamble.
Secondly it was a hard earned penny of my father, and I felt I had no right to spill it over like that. I was suddenly penniless, but my nervousness had gone.
Re-energized with a cup of tea, my mind was back to its senses.
Sitaram, who was like a friend, asked me what the matter was, and I told him frankly that I had run out of my monthly stipend a week before the month ended. I shared with him the dilemma that I faced for two hours, with a hearty laugh.
No sooner did I share with him the story, Sitaram took out from his pocket a bill of Rs 100, and said, you can borrow it from me and return in installments.
"Try to save every month as your mother says, and repay it to me," he said.
I do not know if was proper on my part to take money from him at that point. I could have asked my parents to send me money immediately and they would have done so, even if grudgingly. But I had no second thoughts about it. I took that note from him, and paid him in two equal instalments earnestly.
Sitaram 'chaywalla' is special to me. To him, I remain an equally valued customer to this date, except that he doesn't accept money from me for a cup of tea.
"You've paid your money," is his usual answer. We chat about the changing times, the good and the bad.
Losing a dollar bill at the casino here in the distant land however rekindled that nostalgic moment. It was fun to spend time at the casino, but painful to lose a hard-earned dollar.
I was happy that 16 years ago I had made the right decision.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
MY FIRST PEACH...
Amazing, how super chains keep you blind to what's in and out of season.
You'll get mangoes almost round the season in a super-market. Frozen foods - ergo proteins and carbohydrates as food is commonly called here in the distant land - don't tell you what's in season and what's not. Last two weeks, hitting the road to see farms and countryside reaffirmed my belief: We mostly eat trash everyday.
Eating a packed peach from super store doesn't come anywhere close to eating a fresh and juicy peach or freshly plucked mango.
I had never tasted a peach. Last week I did. And thanks to the last remaining small road side fruit seller in Vero Beach, who travels all over Florida and Georgia to bring to his age-old customers, juicy peaches, or whatever is in season.
Willis, the only road-side fruit vendor in the whole of South Florida was out in the field, but his adopted daughter was more than happy to offer me a free peach.
I bought a basket to bring home the delicacy of this part. Peaches are in season now. In super stores, they'll be in season just when trees won't have the fruit.
I just ate my first star fruit. Don't know the name of two other fruits that I ate on the way straight from the trees. They were tasty. That's what I care about.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
UPDATE: JUNE 15 TO 30
So here I am, with an update on what I did in the last two weeks on professional front to advance my fellowship goals at the Sun Sentinel.
The past two weeks were as eventful as the previous weeks had been, both in and off the newsroom.
As I wrote in my previous update, I worked with the metro team and got to spend one week with the courts and crime reporter, which brought alive the memories to me of reporting crime and courts at The Hitavada: The Akku Yadav case, (My Indian friends know about that case. A goon and alleged rapist was lynched dramatically in the courtroom in Nagpur by an angry mob in 2004) and the Khairlanji dalit massacre.
I sat through the wrap-up arguments in a homicide case for two days, with the jury awarding death penalty to a 50-year-old man convicted in February of killing a 72-year-old man in Palm Beach County in 2005. It was my first experience with the Jury system. We don't have a jury system in India. The criminal jurisprudence is much the same. Unlike fierce competition from at least 15 journalists from other newspapers back home, this one's an easy walk: you are alone in the courtroom reporting it.
May be, a colleague from the television could keep company to you in the court-room recording the proceedings.
Nonetheless, I could interact with the crime investigators, lawyers and people who make the court corridors such livelier and interesting always.
However, surprising to me was the fact that the story got less than 250 words, since it wasn't a high profile case. It ran as a joint byline, and I had to write it real tight. The courts reporter wrote the background. I wrote the lead and proceedings. The story appeared on the inside pages, but was up online first.
Suffice to say, it advanced one of my priorities: Learning to write tight.
The same week, I could tag along with the investigations team that is working on two monster projects. From the stage of conception of a story through the investigations and writing, it takes ages (really months) for it to hit the pages.
I spent two days with John Maines, senior journalist who is sort of backbone of this team, given his expertise in the computer assisted reporting. It's addictive, to say the least. He gave me basic tips to decipher piles and piles of data.
That helped me sift through a mass of agriculture census reports (I'm still immersed in it). Next in line: massive data on farm payments (subsidies).
Two reporters in the team shared with me their approach to writing stories; clues they explored to dig into a story and checklists they follow meticulously.
The editor explained to me the process of editing the investigative stories into parts that run as a series of expose!
As much as I would like, I won't be able to do an investigative story, given their pressing priorities and tight schedule, and my own schedule.
But it helped me learn the process of writing a narrative story: one of my goals. I might be able to apply those tips to a narrative story I'll do for outlook later. Plus it's so much more fun to learn how to do stories that delve beneath the skin.
With the metro team, I learnt about the Sentinel's internal day-to-day decision making and the guiding factors in prioritizing the news. It's changed over the years and it continues to change, for good and bad, both.
The second week, I came back to the editorial team to do a write-up for the Sunday Outlook magazine (July 12) on the Everglades after a tour on Wednesday.
I had to finish off a pending story: a profile of bagasse power plant, against the backdrop of climate change bill debate. Hope everyone's following the bill, for it's a major policy decision that would impact the world like never before.
In two weeks, I wrote four stories. One appeared on business front page on a Sunday (the story was about the partnership between local farmers and local hotels as part of local food movement). Three are to be published subsequently.
But I enjoyed learning about the process of writing tight; doing background research to add value to a story; and different reporters' approach to writing a story.
The weekend was a great fun. I could escape into a more rural landscape of Florida, driving up north to Jacksonville through the historic city of St Augustine, where I attended the Greek Landing Day festival (I'll blog about it separately), saw citrus groves on the way, and spent some homely time with the family of a friend's sister eating Maharashtrian food and watching (finally!) some cricket.
I had a brown bag last week with summer interns, who wanted to know about the tribe of Indian journalists and generally, journalism. Well...good luck to them.
Then, I could attend the editorial discussion with two guests: a former policy maker who is now vice chancellor of south Florida university and a lobbyist for the climate change bill that was passed late last week by the senate.
What's more, last Wednesday I wrote an editorial too, my first. The editorial board gave me the frame and the newspaper's position on President Obama's restraint on Iran. I think this is perhaps the most difficult part of print journalism. Writing a newspaper's position on an issue in just about 250-300 words with context is not easy. It's a serious business and needs hours of background research.
Honestly, it wasn't easy for me to write an editorial and express the newspaper's stand that might not always be your personal opinion. But it was worth it. I learnt the ABC (argument, background and circling back to argument) of editorial writing.
It meets my third goal: Write opinion and comment pieces.
I'm now also the Sun Sentinel's editorial blogger, where I am writing my experiences and observations about American life, from an eastern standpoint! It's all about learning to engage with readers in a conversational tone.
All of that, as my friends in the editorial board tell me, will help me figure out what not to write than what to. That is key to writing crisp, clear and clean.
I'm not there yet. But I'm on the course.
The past two weeks were as eventful as the previous weeks had been, both in and off the newsroom.
As I wrote in my previous update, I worked with the metro team and got to spend one week with the courts and crime reporter, which brought alive the memories to me of reporting crime and courts at The Hitavada: The Akku Yadav case, (My Indian friends know about that case. A goon and alleged rapist was lynched dramatically in the courtroom in Nagpur by an angry mob in 2004) and the Khairlanji dalit massacre.
I sat through the wrap-up arguments in a homicide case for two days, with the jury awarding death penalty to a 50-year-old man convicted in February of killing a 72-year-old man in Palm Beach County in 2005. It was my first experience with the Jury system. We don't have a jury system in India. The criminal jurisprudence is much the same. Unlike fierce competition from at least 15 journalists from other newspapers back home, this one's an easy walk: you are alone in the courtroom reporting it.
May be, a colleague from the television could keep company to you in the court-room recording the proceedings.
Nonetheless, I could interact with the crime investigators, lawyers and people who make the court corridors such livelier and interesting always.
However, surprising to me was the fact that the story got less than 250 words, since it wasn't a high profile case. It ran as a joint byline, and I had to write it real tight. The courts reporter wrote the background. I wrote the lead and proceedings. The story appeared on the inside pages, but was up online first.
Suffice to say, it advanced one of my priorities: Learning to write tight.
The same week, I could tag along with the investigations team that is working on two monster projects. From the stage of conception of a story through the investigations and writing, it takes ages (really months) for it to hit the pages.
I spent two days with John Maines, senior journalist who is sort of backbone of this team, given his expertise in the computer assisted reporting. It's addictive, to say the least. He gave me basic tips to decipher piles and piles of data.
That helped me sift through a mass of agriculture census reports (I'm still immersed in it). Next in line: massive data on farm payments (subsidies).
Two reporters in the team shared with me their approach to writing stories; clues they explored to dig into a story and checklists they follow meticulously.
The editor explained to me the process of editing the investigative stories into parts that run as a series of expose!
As much as I would like, I won't be able to do an investigative story, given their pressing priorities and tight schedule, and my own schedule.
But it helped me learn the process of writing a narrative story: one of my goals. I might be able to apply those tips to a narrative story I'll do for outlook later. Plus it's so much more fun to learn how to do stories that delve beneath the skin.
With the metro team, I learnt about the Sentinel's internal day-to-day decision making and the guiding factors in prioritizing the news. It's changed over the years and it continues to change, for good and bad, both.
The second week, I came back to the editorial team to do a write-up for the Sunday Outlook magazine (July 12) on the Everglades after a tour on Wednesday.
I had to finish off a pending story: a profile of bagasse power plant, against the backdrop of climate change bill debate. Hope everyone's following the bill, for it's a major policy decision that would impact the world like never before.
In two weeks, I wrote four stories. One appeared on business front page on a Sunday (the story was about the partnership between local farmers and local hotels as part of local food movement). Three are to be published subsequently.
But I enjoyed learning about the process of writing tight; doing background research to add value to a story; and different reporters' approach to writing a story.
The weekend was a great fun. I could escape into a more rural landscape of Florida, driving up north to Jacksonville through the historic city of St Augustine, where I attended the Greek Landing Day festival (I'll blog about it separately), saw citrus groves on the way, and spent some homely time with the family of a friend's sister eating Maharashtrian food and watching (finally!) some cricket.
I had a brown bag last week with summer interns, who wanted to know about the tribe of Indian journalists and generally, journalism. Well...good luck to them.
Then, I could attend the editorial discussion with two guests: a former policy maker who is now vice chancellor of south Florida university and a lobbyist for the climate change bill that was passed late last week by the senate.
What's more, last Wednesday I wrote an editorial too, my first. The editorial board gave me the frame and the newspaper's position on President Obama's restraint on Iran. I think this is perhaps the most difficult part of print journalism. Writing a newspaper's position on an issue in just about 250-300 words with context is not easy. It's a serious business and needs hours of background research.
Honestly, it wasn't easy for me to write an editorial and express the newspaper's stand that might not always be your personal opinion. But it was worth it. I learnt the ABC (argument, background and circling back to argument) of editorial writing.
It meets my third goal: Write opinion and comment pieces.
I'm now also the Sun Sentinel's editorial blogger, where I am writing my experiences and observations about American life, from an eastern standpoint! It's all about learning to engage with readers in a conversational tone.
All of that, as my friends in the editorial board tell me, will help me figure out what not to write than what to. That is key to writing crisp, clear and clean.
I'm not there yet. But I'm on the course.
Friday, June 19, 2009
DEMOCRACY, WHAT'S IT?
Iran's in the news. In the United States.
Hypothetically, if Mahmoud Ahmedinejad were to sing paens to the United States even if he were at war with his neighbors, he won't make news. But that's hypothetical.
Two years ago, I attended a workshop of Asian film-makers on "Why Democracy?" in the beautiful town of Shillong in north-east India.
For centuries since its birth as a concept, a particular shade of democracy has been the driver of the global geo-politics.
Fascinating though is the question, what's democracy, than why democracy.
As I see the U.S. media almost overtly likening the street protests in Iran - and as shown by the cameras - as counter-revolution of unprecedented nature (the re-elected president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad being the villain of course), I am reminded of that gripping brainstorming on the notion of democracy at that workshop.
My notion of democracy could be totally different than yours. We talk about it. We fret about it. And yet we can't really explain what is democracy.
The British empire went on enslaving the world in the 18th and 19th centuries while claiming itself to be a democracy.
Others European nations owned, until very recently, tiny island nations, some in the Caribbeans, and yet were called democracies.
Some of the founding fathers of the United States owned slaves and even had racial prejudices. That's part of the history. But they were "democratic".
The two world wars had nations fighting each other despite being "democracies."
So when the ebullient media - and the TV hosts in particular - jump on their seats on what is perceived by the west as a counter-revolution in Iran, I wonder if those on the streets in the Muslim nation are really championing democracy that I see as my notion. Would the Ahmedinejad rivals, who by now are openly tip-toeing the line that United States want them to, be in any way promoting democracy in that nation?
Fundamental issue is what makes the west see Iran undemocratic. And will that change if Ahmedinejad were to be toppled in a coup!
China, for ages, remains undemocratic electorally and socially. And it funds North Korea too.
But the US won't preach democracy to China the way it does to some of those smaller nations in the middle-east.
For, the Asian behemoth remains the big super market on the street that you can't mess with.
It's easier to preach it to Iran, as to Iraq, the small road-side shops.
Modern day geo-political situation is complex enough to be shaped by the principles of democracy. It remains alas a garb. Merely.
At the core of nuclear proliferation, military build up and religious fundamentalism around the world remains the notion of autocracy.
Some of the so-called democracies today have highly undemocratic principles driving its economies and social structures.
India, for instance, is called as the world's largest democracy. But we hardly have any social or economic democracy.
As the architect of Indian constitution Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar said in the early fifties: "We are an electoral democracy, but we aren't yet a social and economic democracy." Poverty, illiteracy and communal violence are symptops of that.
How can any form of violence - physical or verbal- or war be the driver of democracy that fundamentally espouses the principle of non-violence and inequality.
Globally, which includes of the United States as well, social and economic democracy remains far from a dream.
Some nations may at best have electoral democracy, which is driven by the concept of a majority and not pursuasive unanimity or concensus.
Some are better than others. But they still remain only electoral democracies.
Mahatma Gandhi once described the western form of democracy as "a diluted form of fascism." Stress is on "The Western Dominion Form of Democracy."
Why? because he saw the British empire go about conquering the world while calling itself the mother of all parliaments.
Ironically, humanity has progressed very little on embracing a democracy that has no place for dominant one-upmanships and economic inequalities.
Modern day wars waged in the garb of promoting peace and democracy would continue to hold hostage the very notion it intends to propagate.
The argument that a nation needs to be invaded or toppled because it doesn't toe a dominant western line is also a sign of autocracy.
Mere electoral democracy isn't enough to play preacher to the world.
Hypothetically, if Mahmoud Ahmedinejad were to sing paens to the United States even if he were at war with his neighbors, he won't make news. But that's hypothetical.
Two years ago, I attended a workshop of Asian film-makers on "Why Democracy?" in the beautiful town of Shillong in north-east India.
For centuries since its birth as a concept, a particular shade of democracy has been the driver of the global geo-politics.
Fascinating though is the question, what's democracy, than why democracy.
As I see the U.S. media almost overtly likening the street protests in Iran - and as shown by the cameras - as counter-revolution of unprecedented nature (the re-elected president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad being the villain of course), I am reminded of that gripping brainstorming on the notion of democracy at that workshop.
My notion of democracy could be totally different than yours. We talk about it. We fret about it. And yet we can't really explain what is democracy.
The British empire went on enslaving the world in the 18th and 19th centuries while claiming itself to be a democracy.
Others European nations owned, until very recently, tiny island nations, some in the Caribbeans, and yet were called democracies.
Some of the founding fathers of the United States owned slaves and even had racial prejudices. That's part of the history. But they were "democratic".
The two world wars had nations fighting each other despite being "democracies."
So when the ebullient media - and the TV hosts in particular - jump on their seats on what is perceived by the west as a counter-revolution in Iran, I wonder if those on the streets in the Muslim nation are really championing democracy that I see as my notion. Would the Ahmedinejad rivals, who by now are openly tip-toeing the line that United States want them to, be in any way promoting democracy in that nation?
Fundamental issue is what makes the west see Iran undemocratic. And will that change if Ahmedinejad were to be toppled in a coup!
China, for ages, remains undemocratic electorally and socially. And it funds North Korea too.
But the US won't preach democracy to China the way it does to some of those smaller nations in the middle-east.
For, the Asian behemoth remains the big super market on the street that you can't mess with.
It's easier to preach it to Iran, as to Iraq, the small road-side shops.
Modern day geo-political situation is complex enough to be shaped by the principles of democracy. It remains alas a garb. Merely.
At the core of nuclear proliferation, military build up and religious fundamentalism around the world remains the notion of autocracy.
Some of the so-called democracies today have highly undemocratic principles driving its economies and social structures.
India, for instance, is called as the world's largest democracy. But we hardly have any social or economic democracy.
As the architect of Indian constitution Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar said in the early fifties: "We are an electoral democracy, but we aren't yet a social and economic democracy." Poverty, illiteracy and communal violence are symptops of that.
How can any form of violence - physical or verbal- or war be the driver of democracy that fundamentally espouses the principle of non-violence and inequality.
Globally, which includes of the United States as well, social and economic democracy remains far from a dream.
Some nations may at best have electoral democracy, which is driven by the concept of a majority and not pursuasive unanimity or concensus.
Some are better than others. But they still remain only electoral democracies.
Mahatma Gandhi once described the western form of democracy as "a diluted form of fascism." Stress is on "The Western Dominion Form of Democracy."
Why? because he saw the British empire go about conquering the world while calling itself the mother of all parliaments.
Ironically, humanity has progressed very little on embracing a democracy that has no place for dominant one-upmanships and economic inequalities.
Modern day wars waged in the garb of promoting peace and democracy would continue to hold hostage the very notion it intends to propagate.
The argument that a nation needs to be invaded or toppled because it doesn't toe a dominant western line is also a sign of autocracy.
Mere electoral democracy isn't enough to play preacher to the world.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
UPDATE: JUNE 1 TO JUNE 15
Fort Lauderdale:
The most difficult part of doing a story is conceiving it. Then, pitching it to the editor. And finally after working on it, writing what you had originally conceived.
The media overall are increasingly shying away from covering farmers' issues. I find that in India. I am discovering it here in the US too.
So, conceiving an idea that helps me understand farming systems in the US and at the same time interests my host newspaper has been the most challenging task for me so far. The last two weeks yielded some success for me though.
One, I was able to propose some story ideas that interests the newspaper, and two, using the online research tools, I was able to make some initial contacts needed for the story. But my mentor helped me fine tune the focus for the stories.
I drove down a few miles to meet and interview the last remaining small farmers of South Florida to know their transitions and strategies to stay afloat.
It was a small step toward achieving my first goal: Understanding the US farm system in general. The small farmer here is though a big farmers from an Indian view.
No way is our small and marginal farmers any way near them in terms of farm size, technology, capital and energy inputs, production and income. Yet by the local standards, I learnt from the two farmers I met, they too are finding it hard to remain in farming, given the rising urban pressures and production costs.
With the help of the Sun Sentinel's data analysts, I downloaded and sifted through truck-loads of data on agriculture. I am still sifting through it.
Last week I attended yet another writers group discussion in the Sun Sentinel. The group goes through a few old well-written stories and discusses the form individuals would have chosen if they were to write the same story today.
It helped me learn how reporters here are evolving ways to tighten a story to fit the shrinking spaces while keeping most details in keeping with journalism tenets.
Alongside, I managed to get some new tip sheets into the way stories could be penned effectively within tight deadlines.
Two stories (yet to be published) that I did along with my other mentor for the business pages proved the best way to gain in an insight into the way journalists here write their stories here. It advances my goal: writing tight and yet lucid.
The only upsetting thing was that I could not publish any story this past fortnight. Scaling down the pace of work is something of a cultural change.
For me, it is indeed difficult, and at times frustrating, not to see a byline in the print for that long a period. I am slowly coping with those fundamental differences in the way newspapers function in this distant land.
PS: I move on to the metro reporting team tomorrow (Monday, June 15) for the next fortnight, even as I continue to work on my long term story features on agriculture issues that have been slotted for August. Idea is to look at daily processes, news priorities, tight writing, investigation skills, copy editing, presentation etc. and also get to know some ongoing local issues. I start with courts to know the justice system. That's the best way to dig into the layers beneath the skin of a society. Hopefully, there will be a few bylines as "the evidence" along the way.
Friday, June 12, 2009
WHAT ARE YOU EATING TODAY?
The question sounds ridiculously out of focus for most Americans. In India, what did you eat today is kinda starter to many a conversation.
Food though, is increasingly going out of focus for most people.
It's not what you eat, but where and how you eat that is the matter of discussions today. Sort of status symbol. You might be eating junk most of the times, but eating junk in say a five star hotel would be a status statement than say, a stall.
But junk we eat, most of the times. At least I find it here in the US. Sorry, I say, to the proponents of the American culture (if there's one), but what you guys eat at the fast-food joints at a cheaper price is not food. It's trash.
That brings me to the point: A new documentary that, I feel, is a must-watch for all those who care about food, farming and farmers. www.foodincmovie.com.
Check out the synopsis: http://www.foodincmovie.com/img/downloads/Press_Materials.pdf
Food, not oil, is transforming the nations and thus the world. The way we eat. What we eat. How we eat, and when we eat. We are going through the most fundamental and historic of structural changes in our food systems. A few corporate sharks that are amassing unprecedented profits are feeding us trash at the altar of the new century. In fact, they are killing us with the slow doses of poison through our own food.
So much for the profits! Long live capitalism!
The film thankfully brings back the focus on the fundamental issue of living: food.
Food though, is increasingly going out of focus for most people.
It's not what you eat, but where and how you eat that is the matter of discussions today. Sort of status symbol. You might be eating junk most of the times, but eating junk in say a five star hotel would be a status statement than say, a stall.
But junk we eat, most of the times. At least I find it here in the US. Sorry, I say, to the proponents of the American culture (if there's one), but what you guys eat at the fast-food joints at a cheaper price is not food. It's trash.
That brings me to the point: A new documentary that, I feel, is a must-watch for all those who care about food, farming and farmers. www.foodincmovie.com.
Check out the synopsis: http://www.foodincmovie.com/img/downloads/Press_Materials.pdf
Food, not oil, is transforming the nations and thus the world. The way we eat. What we eat. How we eat, and when we eat. We are going through the most fundamental and historic of structural changes in our food systems. A few corporate sharks that are amassing unprecedented profits are feeding us trash at the altar of the new century. In fact, they are killing us with the slow doses of poison through our own food.
So much for the profits! Long live capitalism!
The film thankfully brings back the focus on the fundamental issue of living: food.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Cryslter down, GM down, what's up?
Fort Lauderdale:
Two behemoths are down: Chryster went down first. Now the GM. But the industry is saying: Hello! Nothing to worry, everything's fine.
For a super-power that prides itself with selling millions of cars every year, this is not a good time at all. Profits are shrinking. Thugs aren't walking away with the bounties as they did just a couple of years ago.
The other day, watching a TV discussion, you could sense the uncertainty that haunts the US economy. And yet the media, the industry champions, and politicians would like to guarantee you: Not to worry. The Wall Street's about to rebound!
They are the same in India too. In fact, they are more Americans than the Americans!
Well. Well. Well.
Not exactly. Unemployment rate is breaching 10 per cent in some states in the US. Foreclosures are rising every passing day. Layoffs aren't abetting. And I could hear reporters in my host newsroom discuss hunger stories!
Hunger? In America? You must be kidding. It's true though. Shelterless and homeless numbers are on the incline. So are individuals seeking federal food coupons.
And out on the streets, in the coffee shops and in the newspaper columns, a debate is surging: Long live capitalism! Long live socialism!
Between them, life oscillates like a pendulum! Isms be damned.
Meanwhile, those (you know it) who said the world's flat are writing on more important issues: climate change, for instance.
When the world turns flat, climate ought to change.
Gee! The climate's to blame for all the world's ills! Hunger? Climate change. Lay-offs? Climate change. Recession? Climate change.
May be there's some linkage between changing climate and terrorism too. Or could it be that the US economy burst due to changing climate!
Close to me, the fellowship program that brought me to the US is bleeding too. The AFPF will just have five fellows next year, exclusively from the newspapers that are partnering with the foundation. These are tough times for them too. And I just can't tell you how lucky we are to be the 25th class of the program this year!
The newspapers are bleeding too. From NYT to Washington Post!
Damn it! Climate Change!
Two behemoths are down: Chryster went down first. Now the GM. But the industry is saying: Hello! Nothing to worry, everything's fine.
For a super-power that prides itself with selling millions of cars every year, this is not a good time at all. Profits are shrinking. Thugs aren't walking away with the bounties as they did just a couple of years ago.
The other day, watching a TV discussion, you could sense the uncertainty that haunts the US economy. And yet the media, the industry champions, and politicians would like to guarantee you: Not to worry. The Wall Street's about to rebound!
They are the same in India too. In fact, they are more Americans than the Americans!
Well. Well. Well.
Not exactly. Unemployment rate is breaching 10 per cent in some states in the US. Foreclosures are rising every passing day. Layoffs aren't abetting. And I could hear reporters in my host newsroom discuss hunger stories!
Hunger? In America? You must be kidding. It's true though. Shelterless and homeless numbers are on the incline. So are individuals seeking federal food coupons.
And out on the streets, in the coffee shops and in the newspaper columns, a debate is surging: Long live capitalism! Long live socialism!
Between them, life oscillates like a pendulum! Isms be damned.
Meanwhile, those (you know it) who said the world's flat are writing on more important issues: climate change, for instance.
When the world turns flat, climate ought to change.
Gee! The climate's to blame for all the world's ills! Hunger? Climate change. Lay-offs? Climate change. Recession? Climate change.
May be there's some linkage between changing climate and terrorism too. Or could it be that the US economy burst due to changing climate!
Close to me, the fellowship program that brought me to the US is bleeding too. The AFPF will just have five fellows next year, exclusively from the newspapers that are partnering with the foundation. These are tough times for them too. And I just can't tell you how lucky we are to be the 25th class of the program this year!
The newspapers are bleeding too. From NYT to Washington Post!
Damn it! Climate Change!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
IN BLACK-n-WHITE, IN THE PRINT
Fort Lauderdale:
The difference between May 15 and now, is that I'm feeling more comfortable.
For, one, driving on the roads seems a trifle easier; I'm able to read roads better: the exits and entries on the web called highways!
Nothing could be more relieving than the bylines though. Other Alfred Friendly would agree with me on that. One of my former editors would always say, if you've to keep your editor happy and off your collar, file stories.
So what's really making the difference is the stories. I've got a few bylines going, opening a small window in to the world of readers and their concerns.
Afterall who do you write for? And why?
That's not all. I'm able to sight some of the things that I'm attempting to learn on this fellowship. Links to farm, farmers, renewable energy, subsidies, food, climate change etc are becoming ominous. Hopefully, some of it will be my take-home.
To observe the goings-on within the media is a bonus. Between May 15 and now, things have changed at my host publication. More changes - good and bad - are to follow.
It is a crucial process: The US newspapers - from the coveted New York Times and Washington Post to smaller like Sun Sentinel - are wrecked by the economic downturn. It's not as if they are in a limbo today because of the economy. The US media are in the storm for some time, because readership is bound south, with people relying on the online content for their daily or rather hourly dose of news and entertainment.
That's the side-effect of technology highways. In contrast to India people here have an easy and cheaper access to internet. Newspapers on the other hand are costly.
Only the last Sunday when I bought a copy of New York Times for $5 (approximately Rs 250), an African-American woman customer at Publix super shop raised her eye-brows to see me pay five bucks for the copy. "Fav bucks myan! Thet sucks!"
Readers would rather go online and read what NYT has to offer. I did not buy the NYT again today, 'cause I got my net connection this past week and now I can read the world online. That's another reason I'm more comfortable. I'm "connected"!
It augurs bad for me in the long run, but it also shows how addictive the web is. In India, cell-phones are becoming more addictive than internet.
In any case, it's just another way to be hooked up to the same things.
So the past fortnight while getting on to the field I have been able to witness the changes sweeping the newsroom.
What do you as a publication do for survival and sustenance? No easy answers. What the managements do, affects journalists directly. Do you make a transition to online or broadcast media? Do you lay off your human resources to cut costs?
Currently a number of spirals are at work. Worse, they are still the experiments.
Indian print is doing okay for the time being. But it seems journalists around the world would do good with additional skills for broadcast and online. So that's one more goal that got added to the list of my "must-do": Convergence journalism.
And nothing better a place to learn that than Sun Sentinel. It's a newsroom that is fast moving toward an amalgamation of print, web and broadcast.
Take, for instance, my story on caregivers that got published in the Outlook section of Sunday: If you go online, you can see a virtual slide-show of pictures, read this story, and see and hear the protagonist through the audio-visual files.
Having said that, I could however gather some important tip-sheets on how to write a good feature story from the Sunday Editor. I learnt, minute observations do bring life in the story. Editors at Sun Sentinel ask questions; take a close look at the stories and come out with suggestions that only betters the outcome.
For the same story online, readers can hear while reading about his story. There are many questions in my mind though about the process and its futility. Like how do you make the revenues from online? There's no economic model in sight at least for now.
I keep the discussion on that for some other time.
Indian media may skip the online and move on to the platform of cell phones, with 3G technology already in the market. My hunch is we'll be faster than the Americans on that front. Plus, our media companies would evolve an economic model for it.
Coming back to the print: Understanding the process of production was great.
The caregiver story has a strong visual appeal (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/sfl-caregiver-hardikar-outlook-053109-copy,0,5407583.story). It was carried in black-and-white, because the director of photography department felt the subject needed to be given that sort of treatment. How do you use quotes to bring in more effect; you can see in there. I learn the key to make the quotes work.
It's therefore not only how and what you write, but also how you present the story that is crucial to its appeal in the print.
Despite the staff being pruned, the Sun Sentinel is trying to stick to its processes of editorial production. That I could become part of that through my first major piece for them was in itself an education.
Our third month starts Monday. I've got a few stories lined up. Most of them would be joint bylines.
Around the 10th, I'd move to other department, to work with my new mentor, Mr John Dahlburg, one of the most prolific journalists at the Sun Sentinel.
John has worked in India for the LA times; after his stint in Russia and in Europe. He's been to Nagpur as well. He's now leading the investigations team at the Sun Sentinel. I would get to train with him on several things; writing tight and writing narrative, investigating an issue and generally what's going on in the town.
So that's looking ahead.
Meanwhile, the Sun Sentinel Editor, Mr. Earl Maucker, sent me a mail after reading my first byline: a lighter opinion essay really that appeared last Sunday.
His mail, having "loved the piece", came as an encouragement. I'll treasure it for a long, long time.
Despite his extremely busy schedule, Mr Maucker made it a point to write to me and subtly let me know that he's watching! That he's there for any help I need.
Isn't that some distance I've scaled the past fortnight in this distant land?
Friday, May 22, 2009
EXPLORING NEW PASTURES
Fort Lauderdale:
Right at the entrance of this big complex, I feel there should be a signboard: "Win a prize if you come out buying nothing!"
Not for nothing is the Sawgrass Mills one of the top shopping destinations in South Florida, for the travelers and buoyant shoppers seeking exquisite things at one stop.
Last Saturday, I drove down to this complex, so vast in its expanse that you will stand the chance of losing your way out unless you consciously mark the signs up. I entered with a resolve not to spend a single dime; came out spending seventy bucks!
And I understand that the downturn has had an adverse impact on sales here too! Can't believe that! For if this is what they call a negative impact, what did I see there then! If I'm not wrong, I saw a shopping frenzy. And gee, that's still not the best, they say. Wow! I mean, you can see what buying means at Sawgrass!
If you are a shopping buzz, particularly a window shopper, check out the Sawgrass Mills website and you'll have your answers!
There was much to learn there: American Consumerism, for sure!
Next stop the same evening was Hollywood Beach Broadwalk, a few miles south of Fort Lauderdale. This was cool and soothing.
If you love ocean and beaches, this is the place to be in for Sunset. There are nice little coffee shops where you can sit hours reading books and enjoying breeze. The weekends also see some local bands playing their numbers for you, if you will!
I drove down to Miami last Monday to attend the International Pow-Wow, an event of the scale I'd never seen before.
Pow Wow is a native American synonym for spiritual gathering. Americans use it for consumer gatherings like these too. That's evolution for you!
You never know, you may have Pow Wow replaced by 'Vipashana' in the future if that concept flows out here and sells like a good brand!
The American Travel Association organizes it every year at different locations to showcase the country's travel spots and do business.
This year, obviously, there was a marked difference, in that the buyers, who are the wholesale travel operators and companies, were aggressive in bargaining while the sellers were trying to put their best foot forward to woo the buyers.
The US doesn't have a separate ministry or department for tourism. Each city or destination has its own department to sell its brand, or spots, to the potential tourists, giving the best value they can on each dollar committed.
2009 Pow Wow did a business of $4bn (roughly Rs 2000 crore) in two days. I did a lot of scanning, and collected info that could be useful in the future.
Apart from the expensive stuff, there are lots of destinations in the US that are offbeat and not so expensive, I learnt.
But tourism business is in for a major change. What's more sports tourism is on the rise. Sounds bizarre, but Golf Tourism is one of the big drivers in the segment.
A lot of Europeans travel to the US to play golf! So many of the big hotel chains are now buying lands or developing golf courses to enter that segment of the business. I met a buyer from the US who brings about 10,000 Europeans on his tour-packages only to play golf! That's a lot of business. He's developing a micro-website that would put on display for the potential tourists places they could visit while enjoying playing golf alongside. Matter of status!
It's very difficult to play golf in Europe: very expensive and a status symbol. So common people don't get to play the game since most clubs and golf courses are beyond their means. So they travel to the US on vacations and play golf! It's cheaper and easier. It's a business worth millions and millions of dollars!
Guess, our IPL is heading the same path! More money for Maratha Strongman!
Thursday, I went on a tour of a facility owned by Florida Crystals, one of the most powerful corporates in the US that controls half of the sugar trade here.
As we drove close to their ba-gas power plant in Okeelanta, an hour's drive from Fort Lauderdale, we could see only acres and acres of green sugar fields.
The company owns - hold your breath - 155,000 acres of land here and that's just one of their facilities. That was my first major tryst with agriculture in the US, and what shape it's taking with new policy shifts that are on the anvil in energy sector.
Meanwhile, in the newsroom, I could see the production process for my first story: A lot of planning goes into the process. I attended a meeting of respective section heads who finalize how a story needs to be presented in the newspaper. I was amazed by their close eye for minutest detail: color tone for photos, caption styles etc!
I am reading lots of new issues, meeting new people and heading on...
Coming weekend is longish: Three days. Monday, the US observes the Memorial Day, to honor and remember their war dead. Back in office on Tuesday.
I will in the mean time continue treading on some new roads in this distant land!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
ME, "THE NEW LUCIA OF SS"
Fort Lauderdale:
"He is this year's Lucia!"
Well...as I said in one of my previous entries, introductions could get interesting and funny. I never realized I could be the one at receiving end ever!
I loved it though. One of my four mentors here in Sun Sentinel, Doreen Hemlock, the 50-something ever-jovial kid-at-heart widely-traveled journalist, introduced me as the "Lucia of 2009" to some of her colleagues, to cut short the long introduction.
And almost invariably, everyone would great me: "Aha! How are ya! Nice to meet you!"
Lucia Baldomir was an Alfred Friend fellow from Uruguay hosted by the Sun Sentinel last year (2008), and Doreen, who played mentor to her, found it the easiest way to introduce me in this vast newsroom as I nervously trudged past the cubicles. She would almost instantly burst into giggles repeating it.
To that extent, I owe my gratitude to Lucia!
Then, an email notice circulated in the intra-net spread the word: I'm the new fella from the land of Slum-dog millionaire and cricket-frenzy world.
I'll write it some other time, but by the way, South Florida has cricket-playing people: The Caribbeans, Jamaicans, Indians et al. They have a cricket stadium too!
But Doreen's trick helped a great deal. I felt more connected! It was more important than any other thing, and she got it spot on.
Journalists in the US newsroom may not always be all that forthcoming or willing to meet you, we were told. And that did prove right. But with Doreen around, I found a connection and starting point. She brings up the common points, common interests in a way that helps me connect. Bob, her colleague on business desk, for instance loves music and covers health. Doreen got me hooked on to him on common ground. Music and my special interest in learning about persons with sickle cell anemia in the US.
Last evening, I handed him two CDs - Ustad Sultan Khan (Sarangi) and Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia (Flute), and he'll do me a favor by making a few copies of the albums so that I can gift them to all my mentors and new friends.
Bob's a good base guitarist himself and performs with a band at private concerts in this part. What's more, he's going to connect me to the right people for a subject I desire to explore as a personal interest other than the professional goals!
In the first couple of weeks that I have been in Sun Sentinel this has been the most critical triumphs for me: Personal connections.
Two weeks on, and I've begun to navigate my way through the newsroom on my own. The security personnel smile at and greet me. Which means I am now a familiar face. Two or three journalists stop by, smile and talk on their own. The cafe guys now know my brand of coffee so they don't wait to ask me what, but hand me the cup and bill.
One more thing that's a value to me: Learning to explore and research the vast pool or information on Sun Sentinel archives. It's a world unto itself, so deep that you can spend days digging into its depths, researching stories that you want to. That was thanks to Barbara Hijek, a News Researcher here, who gave me a lesson on it.
"Here we go!" as my mentor Antonio Fins says. Things are moving on.
Tony, as he is fondly known in the office, is astoundingly cool headed, especially when things are coming to a boil. He's there always to explain things to me.
In the newsroom, I can sense an uncharacteristic silence and dip in the morale. And understandably so. At least 30 journalists would no longer be in the newsroom coming week. It's a season of layoffs! The fear and uncertainty is all pervasive.
I spent my first week with the Editorial/Opinion team that Tony heads before getting on with Doreen to work some story ideas.
From daily buzz meetings to editorial discussion, I became part of the team that decides editorial position of the newspaper on the issues.
"The Buzz" is a popular section with online readers. The editorial writers throw a question connected with the people's lives here and one can see the feedback online. People write back, pro or against the question that makes a buzz in the town. It could be a national issue or a typically local issue of Broward county.
What may or may not buzz is discussed threadbare, before the team members freeze an issue for their serious editorials in op-ed pages. I was free to air, if I chose to, my opinion about an issue on the table, notwithstanding that I am a chance outsider. These are the only pages where you can freely air your opinion, pro or anti.
Last morning though, one of the team members gently informed during the daily morning meeting that she would no longer be with them from the coming week.
She's in the latest list of journalists being laid off.
I've never witnessed this before in my little-over-decade-long career, but the dignity with which this new friend communicated her feelings and gratitude to her colleagues and the sensitivity with which the team members responded was something that will remain deeply embedded in my memory for ever.
People here work as a team and if one gets laid off, it sucks every one else. I'll witness several hard moments in the days to come while I'm in this newsroom.
For me nothing could be more painful than to see people I am just beginning to know being fired, as the newspaper struggles to stay financially afloat and keep up its circulation figures in the new age media. US media is in for really hard times. But it is not the creation of those losing their jobs, and that's the irony of it!
Staying focused on my goals through the storm would therefore be tough.
I did come to this newsroom with a couple of goals: to learn first hand about the US agriculture and media. Given the economic times, there would be some obvious bonuses for me on the way. Among others, how are people coping with economic downturn, and how is a society transitioning through one of the worst economic meltdowns of modern times! Media, alas, is not living in isolation and so financial impacts on it could be felt from day one. I am realizing I would take home a lot more than I'd planned.
In the first weeks it was therefore important to figure out where and how to begin my pursuit.
Frankly, one can easily get lost in the new city, the new culture, the new newsroom. But with mentors around to take care, I can rest assured.
Important was also to get going with writing. I did a small piece on Indian election for an online blog; have written a small piece for op-ed page and finished writing a story that would go into a special Sunday section two weeks from now.
Few stories are "under progress."
That apart, I've met people from different sectors, some that are of my immediate interests and some that are totally new to me.
Then there have been some off-the-newsroom stuff: kayaking, boat-ride, shopping at grocery stuff, taking driving lessons and ensuring I don't piss off the Americans on the road, and much more than I can't divulge for obvious reasons!
What I could, for the sake of transparency though, is that I learnt how to operate the laundry at my condominium, operate the micro-wave without a blast and go shopping for groceries at the neighborhood super-chains.
Who else but one of my mentors could I resort to for guidance! So it was Chan - Chaning Lowe, senior journalist and one of acclaimed cartoonist of the newspaper - who had to do the honors. He did it uncomplainingly.
For most people here, it's hard to fathom an Indian journalist ignorant about using a coin-operated laundry and micro-wave. I had had tryst with none so far.
Chan was astounded to know that Nagpur goes without power for five to seven hours, and going by the way things are heading we are better off with hands and stove!
This afternoon, I met Mr. Kigsley Guy, former Editorial Page editor of Sun Sentinel and Tony's predecessor, over lunch. He's the new addition to my list of mentors!
With tasks cut out, I only hope my cup doesn't overflow with things I can't do!
"He is this year's Lucia!"
Well...as I said in one of my previous entries, introductions could get interesting and funny. I never realized I could be the one at receiving end ever!
I loved it though. One of my four mentors here in Sun Sentinel, Doreen Hemlock, the 50-something ever-jovial kid-at-heart widely-traveled journalist, introduced me as the "Lucia of 2009" to some of her colleagues, to cut short the long introduction.
And almost invariably, everyone would great me: "Aha! How are ya! Nice to meet you!"
Lucia Baldomir was an Alfred Friend fellow from Uruguay hosted by the Sun Sentinel last year (2008), and Doreen, who played mentor to her, found it the easiest way to introduce me in this vast newsroom as I nervously trudged past the cubicles. She would almost instantly burst into giggles repeating it.
To that extent, I owe my gratitude to Lucia!
Then, an email notice circulated in the intra-net spread the word: I'm the new fella from the land of Slum-dog millionaire and cricket-frenzy world.
I'll write it some other time, but by the way, South Florida has cricket-playing people: The Caribbeans, Jamaicans, Indians et al. They have a cricket stadium too!
But Doreen's trick helped a great deal. I felt more connected! It was more important than any other thing, and she got it spot on.
Journalists in the US newsroom may not always be all that forthcoming or willing to meet you, we were told. And that did prove right. But with Doreen around, I found a connection and starting point. She brings up the common points, common interests in a way that helps me connect. Bob, her colleague on business desk, for instance loves music and covers health. Doreen got me hooked on to him on common ground. Music and my special interest in learning about persons with sickle cell anemia in the US.
Last evening, I handed him two CDs - Ustad Sultan Khan (Sarangi) and Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia (Flute), and he'll do me a favor by making a few copies of the albums so that I can gift them to all my mentors and new friends.
Bob's a good base guitarist himself and performs with a band at private concerts in this part. What's more, he's going to connect me to the right people for a subject I desire to explore as a personal interest other than the professional goals!
In the first couple of weeks that I have been in Sun Sentinel this has been the most critical triumphs for me: Personal connections.
Two weeks on, and I've begun to navigate my way through the newsroom on my own. The security personnel smile at and greet me. Which means I am now a familiar face. Two or three journalists stop by, smile and talk on their own. The cafe guys now know my brand of coffee so they don't wait to ask me what, but hand me the cup and bill.
One more thing that's a value to me: Learning to explore and research the vast pool or information on Sun Sentinel archives. It's a world unto itself, so deep that you can spend days digging into its depths, researching stories that you want to. That was thanks to Barbara Hijek, a News Researcher here, who gave me a lesson on it.
"Here we go!" as my mentor Antonio Fins says. Things are moving on.
Tony, as he is fondly known in the office, is astoundingly cool headed, especially when things are coming to a boil. He's there always to explain things to me.
In the newsroom, I can sense an uncharacteristic silence and dip in the morale. And understandably so. At least 30 journalists would no longer be in the newsroom coming week. It's a season of layoffs! The fear and uncertainty is all pervasive.
I spent my first week with the Editorial/Opinion team that Tony heads before getting on with Doreen to work some story ideas.
From daily buzz meetings to editorial discussion, I became part of the team that decides editorial position of the newspaper on the issues.
"The Buzz" is a popular section with online readers. The editorial writers throw a question connected with the people's lives here and one can see the feedback online. People write back, pro or against the question that makes a buzz in the town. It could be a national issue or a typically local issue of Broward county.
What may or may not buzz is discussed threadbare, before the team members freeze an issue for their serious editorials in op-ed pages. I was free to air, if I chose to, my opinion about an issue on the table, notwithstanding that I am a chance outsider. These are the only pages where you can freely air your opinion, pro or anti.
Last morning though, one of the team members gently informed during the daily morning meeting that she would no longer be with them from the coming week.
She's in the latest list of journalists being laid off.
I've never witnessed this before in my little-over-decade-long career, but the dignity with which this new friend communicated her feelings and gratitude to her colleagues and the sensitivity with which the team members responded was something that will remain deeply embedded in my memory for ever.
People here work as a team and if one gets laid off, it sucks every one else. I'll witness several hard moments in the days to come while I'm in this newsroom.
For me nothing could be more painful than to see people I am just beginning to know being fired, as the newspaper struggles to stay financially afloat and keep up its circulation figures in the new age media. US media is in for really hard times. But it is not the creation of those losing their jobs, and that's the irony of it!
Staying focused on my goals through the storm would therefore be tough.
I did come to this newsroom with a couple of goals: to learn first hand about the US agriculture and media. Given the economic times, there would be some obvious bonuses for me on the way. Among others, how are people coping with economic downturn, and how is a society transitioning through one of the worst economic meltdowns of modern times! Media, alas, is not living in isolation and so financial impacts on it could be felt from day one. I am realizing I would take home a lot more than I'd planned.
In the first weeks it was therefore important to figure out where and how to begin my pursuit.
Frankly, one can easily get lost in the new city, the new culture, the new newsroom. But with mentors around to take care, I can rest assured.
Important was also to get going with writing. I did a small piece on Indian election for an online blog; have written a small piece for op-ed page and finished writing a story that would go into a special Sunday section two weeks from now.
Few stories are "under progress."
That apart, I've met people from different sectors, some that are of my immediate interests and some that are totally new to me.
Then there have been some off-the-newsroom stuff: kayaking, boat-ride, shopping at grocery stuff, taking driving lessons and ensuring I don't piss off the Americans on the road, and much more than I can't divulge for obvious reasons!
What I could, for the sake of transparency though, is that I learnt how to operate the laundry at my condominium, operate the micro-wave without a blast and go shopping for groceries at the neighborhood super-chains.
Who else but one of my mentors could I resort to for guidance! So it was Chan - Chaning Lowe, senior journalist and one of acclaimed cartoonist of the newspaper - who had to do the honors. He did it uncomplainingly.
For most people here, it's hard to fathom an Indian journalist ignorant about using a coin-operated laundry and micro-wave. I had had tryst with none so far.
Chan was astounded to know that Nagpur goes without power for five to seven hours, and going by the way things are heading we are better off with hands and stove!
This afternoon, I met Mr. Kigsley Guy, former Editorial Page editor of Sun Sentinel and Tony's predecessor, over lunch. He's the new addition to my list of mentors!
With tasks cut out, I only hope my cup doesn't overflow with things I can't do!
Monday, May 11, 2009
SAILING IN CHOPPY WATERS
Fort Lauderdale:
From a distance, it appears like a languid canal, with sexy boats dotting both the embankments in a free display of affluence. Now this is what I would call affluence on the sails. This ought to be filthy rich man's world, you'd bet. It indeed is.
Only thing is that it's 2009, and not 2007 or 2015. It's all about timing, a smart and shrewd hotelier I spoke to the other day said. "You got to have your timing right in life; 'cause that's what determines where and how ya'd be!"
Well... I am talking about palatial bungalows along the serpentine canals that run through the Fort Lauderdale town, making it the "Venice of America." I've never been to Venice, so I don't know if the adjective fits this town or not. But that's what they call it here. The Venice of America, because you've got these clean canals - part of backwater rivers pouring into the Atlantic ocean - running through the town.
Last Thursday, my mentor - Antonio Fins, who is the Editorial Page editor with my host newspaper the Sun Sentinel - took me for a boat ride; his brother-in-law owns one. It was fun. I could meet Tony's family - wife and two kids, and his brother-in-law's family. It was a kind of late evening family outing in the Venice of America.
As we sailed on the waters, we passed by these eye-catching bungalows that we get to see in those lucid family operas or Hollywood films. We literally could peep through the windows to see the big celluloid sized flat TVs, glittering chandeliers and stuff. Most houses are second home to some of the America's wealthiest, who escape summers from wherever they are to be along the coastline for relaxation.
Saturday, I went through the same experience, but with a difference.
Chan - Chaning Lowe, who's my other mentor and a well known writer-cartoonist with Sun Sentinel - came in the afternoon with a Canoe and we went paddling it all along those streams, only this time the waters were choppy. This was a more than close look at some other mansions in different part of the city. I am still soar with my back and arms. Chan brought his little dog to keep company and she hopped on to the canoe to accompany us on what was my first experience paddling our own boat.
I'll mount a picture when I can, but this description shall help: People get out in the waters for an evening sail after their work and enjoy a beer or so before they come back for dinner or supper. Isn't that fun? But maintaining that boat means a price. In recession, that has taken a hit. People still try and keep up with that though. That's American affluence. Sadly it sucks fuel that we badly crave for.
Sunday, I drove to Miami beach to get some driving practice. And gosh, some one help me with those highways. I'm still grappling with my geography. Did we go east, west south or North??? I have no idea. It was thanks to John Dahlburg, my third mentor with whom I will get to work in the month of June when I join the team of metro reporters in thee Sun, that I could drive to Miami and reached home safely.
You need to maintain a speed of 70 miles lest you shall piss off many of those on your sideways.
Coming back to the boats and canals. As we sailed past the houses on Thursday evening, you could see the notices of rentals and sales every alternate bungalow. "They are on sale or rentals, because most of them have run into bad mortgages," Tony's sister, who works in real estate sector, told me.
That was just small tip of the bad home mortgage iceberg, an issue that America is awfully concerned about. People are vanishing like thin air overnight from their homes, unable to pay their loans. Want to know where they are heading? Don't know. But what I learn is that the numbers turning up at shelter homes across this county and the whole of the country are rising every day. Reporters talk about it. Editors talk about it. Common people discuss it across the table. It's everywhere. And it's getting worse. It's no more just people losing jobs; they are looking for shelters.
Most of those boats may not be sailing for until the economic storm calms down. It may take years, who knows?
Those who are still able to enjoy their evenings with bottles of beer on the cruise are lucky. And a canoe trip could be worth to find out who's doing well along those canal streams and who's not. It may throw up some great inside story.
From India this ocean look good. Take this: don't always go on the calmness of those waters. Stay alert, for there's always a storm brewing up beyond those.
From a distance, it appears like a languid canal, with sexy boats dotting both the embankments in a free display of affluence. Now this is what I would call affluence on the sails. This ought to be filthy rich man's world, you'd bet. It indeed is.
Only thing is that it's 2009, and not 2007 or 2015. It's all about timing, a smart and shrewd hotelier I spoke to the other day said. "You got to have your timing right in life; 'cause that's what determines where and how ya'd be!"
Well... I am talking about palatial bungalows along the serpentine canals that run through the Fort Lauderdale town, making it the "Venice of America." I've never been to Venice, so I don't know if the adjective fits this town or not. But that's what they call it here. The Venice of America, because you've got these clean canals - part of backwater rivers pouring into the Atlantic ocean - running through the town.
Last Thursday, my mentor - Antonio Fins, who is the Editorial Page editor with my host newspaper the Sun Sentinel - took me for a boat ride; his brother-in-law owns one. It was fun. I could meet Tony's family - wife and two kids, and his brother-in-law's family. It was a kind of late evening family outing in the Venice of America.
As we sailed on the waters, we passed by these eye-catching bungalows that we get to see in those lucid family operas or Hollywood films. We literally could peep through the windows to see the big celluloid sized flat TVs, glittering chandeliers and stuff. Most houses are second home to some of the America's wealthiest, who escape summers from wherever they are to be along the coastline for relaxation.
Saturday, I went through the same experience, but with a difference.
Chan - Chaning Lowe, who's my other mentor and a well known writer-cartoonist with Sun Sentinel - came in the afternoon with a Canoe and we went paddling it all along those streams, only this time the waters were choppy. This was a more than close look at some other mansions in different part of the city. I am still soar with my back and arms. Chan brought his little dog to keep company and she hopped on to the canoe to accompany us on what was my first experience paddling our own boat.
I'll mount a picture when I can, but this description shall help: People get out in the waters for an evening sail after their work and enjoy a beer or so before they come back for dinner or supper. Isn't that fun? But maintaining that boat means a price. In recession, that has taken a hit. People still try and keep up with that though. That's American affluence. Sadly it sucks fuel that we badly crave for.
Sunday, I drove to Miami beach to get some driving practice. And gosh, some one help me with those highways. I'm still grappling with my geography. Did we go east, west south or North??? I have no idea. It was thanks to John Dahlburg, my third mentor with whom I will get to work in the month of June when I join the team of metro reporters in thee Sun, that I could drive to Miami and reached home safely.
You need to maintain a speed of 70 miles lest you shall piss off many of those on your sideways.
Coming back to the boats and canals. As we sailed past the houses on Thursday evening, you could see the notices of rentals and sales every alternate bungalow. "They are on sale or rentals, because most of them have run into bad mortgages," Tony's sister, who works in real estate sector, told me.
That was just small tip of the bad home mortgage iceberg, an issue that America is awfully concerned about. People are vanishing like thin air overnight from their homes, unable to pay their loans. Want to know where they are heading? Don't know. But what I learn is that the numbers turning up at shelter homes across this county and the whole of the country are rising every day. Reporters talk about it. Editors talk about it. Common people discuss it across the table. It's everywhere. And it's getting worse. It's no more just people losing jobs; they are looking for shelters.
Most of those boats may not be sailing for until the economic storm calms down. It may take years, who knows?
Those who are still able to enjoy their evenings with bottles of beer on the cruise are lucky. And a canoe trip could be worth to find out who's doing well along those canal streams and who's not. It may throw up some great inside story.
From India this ocean look good. Take this: don't always go on the calmness of those waters. Stay alert, for there's always a storm brewing up beyond those.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
A LOT HAPPENS IN THE NEWSROOM
Fort Lauderdale:
Five days into the new newsroom of Sun Sentinel -- by far still one of the biggest that I've seen -- I've begun to feel somewhat comfortable with the culture here.
The first small steps have yielded some exciting results and many new friends, but believe me it's one of the craziest times in the history of the US media, and a lot goes on in the newsroom today than the news per se.
Struggling to save their jobs journalists are putting in their best. But my host newspaper, the Sun Sentinel, may not have the same staff at the end of my program than what it has today. It makes me nervous and sad to be in the newsroom trying to learn my way through the work as an intern while several journalists get fired.
But that's the way it is, and it will be.
Notwithstanding the tough financial times out here, the newsroom is still trying to stick to some of its best practices. Journalism to many still remains a prayer.
Sun Sentinel has one of the best research and archive systems - this is one aspect that I would strongly recommend to my home newspaper. This is its spinal cord. And most journalists I spoke to about the online archive and research tool confer that the facility helps build context into a story at the click of the mouse. You can go back over decades to scan through the old issues if your story needs you to go that far in your research. Newspapers invest a lot on this critical department, and it pays off with the content in today's times as well.
I'm reading hundreds of stories on agriculture, particularly sugar, to build a sort of historic context for the issues that are in debate today. Had it not been for this insightful online internal tool, it would have been next to impossible for me to understand and learn so much in so little time. So that's my first take-home!
Then the freedom an individual gets to put his or her point of view or perspective during the daily meetings of the editorial board is very encouraging. You can beg to differ with your boss. And I believe we share this aspect pretty much as well.
But here's a difference: The informal luncheon discussion on writing stories that I attended today. A group of reporters and editors come together once a month and go back to some of the selected stories to critic the writing style and how it could still be better. The stories could be by in house writers/reporters or agency copies filed from any part of the world. It's the best way to brainstorm what you write.
How's the lead? The narrative? The context? The end?
We write words that create impressions among readers about the world that we live in. It's therefore pertinent on our part to use them selectively and judiciously. Friends back home in Nagpur, you've got to get your basics right, baby!
Some of the serious journalists, who sweat their day out researching and digging into their stories about policies and impact they have on commoners, are finding it hard to come to terms with an increasingly trivial stories about celebrities. And that's a similarity we share. The online content is slowly getting number one.
I wonder with the kind of staff and practises they have how could the US media still fail to signal the weaknesses the country's financial system had developed? How could the media collectively fail to report the process that would en snarl the entire world into its fold and hit so hard as to drive hundreds of thousands on the road overnight. Tens of thousands of homes here now bear the notices showing they are either for "sale" or "on rent". Many of them have gone broke with mortgages.
Media here and back home have some answering to do. If they dare do it!
Five days into the new newsroom of Sun Sentinel -- by far still one of the biggest that I've seen -- I've begun to feel somewhat comfortable with the culture here.
The first small steps have yielded some exciting results and many new friends, but believe me it's one of the craziest times in the history of the US media, and a lot goes on in the newsroom today than the news per se.
Struggling to save their jobs journalists are putting in their best. But my host newspaper, the Sun Sentinel, may not have the same staff at the end of my program than what it has today. It makes me nervous and sad to be in the newsroom trying to learn my way through the work as an intern while several journalists get fired.
But that's the way it is, and it will be.
Notwithstanding the tough financial times out here, the newsroom is still trying to stick to some of its best practices. Journalism to many still remains a prayer.
Sun Sentinel has one of the best research and archive systems - this is one aspect that I would strongly recommend to my home newspaper. This is its spinal cord. And most journalists I spoke to about the online archive and research tool confer that the facility helps build context into a story at the click of the mouse. You can go back over decades to scan through the old issues if your story needs you to go that far in your research. Newspapers invest a lot on this critical department, and it pays off with the content in today's times as well.
I'm reading hundreds of stories on agriculture, particularly sugar, to build a sort of historic context for the issues that are in debate today. Had it not been for this insightful online internal tool, it would have been next to impossible for me to understand and learn so much in so little time. So that's my first take-home!
Then the freedom an individual gets to put his or her point of view or perspective during the daily meetings of the editorial board is very encouraging. You can beg to differ with your boss. And I believe we share this aspect pretty much as well.
But here's a difference: The informal luncheon discussion on writing stories that I attended today. A group of reporters and editors come together once a month and go back to some of the selected stories to critic the writing style and how it could still be better. The stories could be by in house writers/reporters or agency copies filed from any part of the world. It's the best way to brainstorm what you write.
How's the lead? The narrative? The context? The end?
We write words that create impressions among readers about the world that we live in. It's therefore pertinent on our part to use them selectively and judiciously. Friends back home in Nagpur, you've got to get your basics right, baby!
Some of the serious journalists, who sweat their day out researching and digging into their stories about policies and impact they have on commoners, are finding it hard to come to terms with an increasingly trivial stories about celebrities. And that's a similarity we share. The online content is slowly getting number one.
I wonder with the kind of staff and practises they have how could the US media still fail to signal the weaknesses the country's financial system had developed? How could the media collectively fail to report the process that would en snarl the entire world into its fold and hit so hard as to drive hundreds of thousands on the road overnight. Tens of thousands of homes here now bear the notices showing they are either for "sale" or "on rent". Many of them have gone broke with mortgages.
Media here and back home have some answering to do. If they dare do it!
Monday, May 4, 2009
FIXING NUTS AND BOLTS IN NEW MICRO-CHIP
Fort Lauderdale:
From my window of the plane flying over the blue-green clean coastline of Florida Sunday afternoon, the cities down under appeared like complex micro-chips: rectangular boxes and a web of green micro-wires running all over.
What are really some of the most fascinating and eye-catching tourism destinations in this part of the world along a long coastline looked from the top like big computer motherboards, complex though neatly designed for big operations.
And then those small dots got bigger and bigger and developed into sky scrappers as we began our descend to finally touch the base at this beautiful county. The lines linking the dots evolved into the vast streets and avenues dotted with palm trees.
Welcome to the land of Americas! This one's indeed the microcosm of the world around the US. You have the Cubans, the Caribbeans, the Mexicans, the Asians, and a whole lot of other communities. NRIs too have their micro-India in one corner.
Just a day into what will be my little world for next five months, I'm thrilled to say the least.
This one's completely different than the landscape of the heartland of Missouri, where we spent the previous three weeks before fanning out to various newspapers all over the US for our five-month stint. We are in the business baby, as my friend and co-fellow Rodney Muhumuza from Uganda would love to say with a burst of giggles and breaking into an instant sort of tap-dancing. We are in the game, baby!
The last three days were hectic. Finishing administrative stuff, meeting our new mentors who came to receive us in the Kansas City, MO, and learning how to adapt to the new culture. A culture that we see making steady inroads back home as well!
We spent the entire Saturday discussing the aspects of cross-culture adaptation with professor Gary Weaver, and honestly, it scared a shit out of me (excuse me for the language, but that's that, it scared the shit out of me).
"Promise you, you'll all feel psychotic earlier on in the program; that's what you call the culture shock," the Prof told us. Gosh! "But then once that phase is over you'll settle down and work your way around; everything will fall in place."
Professor Weaver has been working with the visiting friendly fellows over the last two decades and what he explained to us made a lot of sense.
We don't realize it while we experience it, but cross cultural adaptation could take a toll on you, if you are unprepared or come with ill-conceived notions.
Living and working in a new socio-cultural and economic environment is not only difficult, it could some times be frustrating in the beginning. The professor's experience with the fellows was the base for the day-long seminar that prepared us for the triumphs and tribulations - the highs and lows awaiting us, ahead.
What was quite interesting and I felt more significant was what Weaver said: "You'll break down communication with your gestures and silence more than your words."
And then he went on to demonstrate and explain how gestures and signals are read and mis-interpreted differently in different countries.
In a country where individual freedom and material achievements are ingredients for identity formation, intrusion into personal space could snap communication in just a flicker. For Indians it's weird, but you can't go knocking the next door and say, "Hey! I'm your new next-door neighbor! Wanna go coffee with me!"
He'll go bunkers at you. He's also likely to feel: "Is this guy a nut?"
So Professor Weaver's class of dos and donts and what all could happen to all of us in a totally new world of people afflicted with recession and flu scares (as if this brings an end to the planet and they are the ones who'd bail us all out) helped. I'd rather take it as it comes. Remember what they say in cricket, take it as it comes. Or play on the merit. Ball by ball. This one's a similar situation.
There are many other interesting details of that seminar but I'm not gonna bore you with all that stuff. In nutshell, he tried putting in to context the differences between the two cultures and difficulties in getting hooked on to new life and work styles.
It's not who's right and who's wrong. Just that we are on two diametrically opposite poles. Yet, as I figure it out, basic spices in a curry called homo sapien sapiens remain the same, you go north, you go south, or east or west. People are people.
If I suffer some adjustment problems, I told my co-fellows before parting ways, I'm going to wake you up in the middle of the night and shout loudly: Man, I've gone nuts! But then there are new mentors from my host newspaper the Sun Sentinel with me to take care. I've got four of them, all welcoming, friendly and yes, journalists.
There are too many things in the hand: have to stack stuff in the fridge, explore the new neighborhood, take plunge into the pool that is right next to my entrance (and all my friends back in India, if you want to come visiting, bring your trunks), take driving lessons ('cause these nuts do just the opposite of us, and again, not to blame any one, they're just different,as prof Weaver told us, than the Brits who taught us all the crap they did before exiting our country), and if there's some time left in between working and wandering, grab some wine and multi-cultural food!
Exciting times ahead. Several things lined up.
I'm going slow first week plugging things, picking new tools, getting the nuts and bolts (read technical issues such as get cable connection going, enroll for driving lessons, and stuff) fixed, meeting new journalists in a vast new newsroom and remember their names. And get the hang of new culture. Which reminds me of the fact that I'm not gonna be nuts in going on and on by writing this piece as a fall back option for being unable to filing for my newspaper back home.
So far, there appears nothing wrong with me. Tomorrow, well...I can't say! But I was told somewhere down the line, tomorrow never comes!
From my window of the plane flying over the blue-green clean coastline of Florida Sunday afternoon, the cities down under appeared like complex micro-chips: rectangular boxes and a web of green micro-wires running all over.
What are really some of the most fascinating and eye-catching tourism destinations in this part of the world along a long coastline looked from the top like big computer motherboards, complex though neatly designed for big operations.
And then those small dots got bigger and bigger and developed into sky scrappers as we began our descend to finally touch the base at this beautiful county. The lines linking the dots evolved into the vast streets and avenues dotted with palm trees.
Welcome to the land of Americas! This one's indeed the microcosm of the world around the US. You have the Cubans, the Caribbeans, the Mexicans, the Asians, and a whole lot of other communities. NRIs too have their micro-India in one corner.
Just a day into what will be my little world for next five months, I'm thrilled to say the least.
This one's completely different than the landscape of the heartland of Missouri, where we spent the previous three weeks before fanning out to various newspapers all over the US for our five-month stint. We are in the business baby, as my friend and co-fellow Rodney Muhumuza from Uganda would love to say with a burst of giggles and breaking into an instant sort of tap-dancing. We are in the game, baby!
The last three days were hectic. Finishing administrative stuff, meeting our new mentors who came to receive us in the Kansas City, MO, and learning how to adapt to the new culture. A culture that we see making steady inroads back home as well!
We spent the entire Saturday discussing the aspects of cross-culture adaptation with professor Gary Weaver, and honestly, it scared a shit out of me (excuse me for the language, but that's that, it scared the shit out of me).
"Promise you, you'll all feel psychotic earlier on in the program; that's what you call the culture shock," the Prof told us. Gosh! "But then once that phase is over you'll settle down and work your way around; everything will fall in place."
Professor Weaver has been working with the visiting friendly fellows over the last two decades and what he explained to us made a lot of sense.
We don't realize it while we experience it, but cross cultural adaptation could take a toll on you, if you are unprepared or come with ill-conceived notions.
Living and working in a new socio-cultural and economic environment is not only difficult, it could some times be frustrating in the beginning. The professor's experience with the fellows was the base for the day-long seminar that prepared us for the triumphs and tribulations - the highs and lows awaiting us, ahead.
What was quite interesting and I felt more significant was what Weaver said: "You'll break down communication with your gestures and silence more than your words."
And then he went on to demonstrate and explain how gestures and signals are read and mis-interpreted differently in different countries.
In a country where individual freedom and material achievements are ingredients for identity formation, intrusion into personal space could snap communication in just a flicker. For Indians it's weird, but you can't go knocking the next door and say, "Hey! I'm your new next-door neighbor! Wanna go coffee with me!"
He'll go bunkers at you. He's also likely to feel: "Is this guy a nut?"
So Professor Weaver's class of dos and donts and what all could happen to all of us in a totally new world of people afflicted with recession and flu scares (as if this brings an end to the planet and they are the ones who'd bail us all out) helped. I'd rather take it as it comes. Remember what they say in cricket, take it as it comes. Or play on the merit. Ball by ball. This one's a similar situation.
There are many other interesting details of that seminar but I'm not gonna bore you with all that stuff. In nutshell, he tried putting in to context the differences between the two cultures and difficulties in getting hooked on to new life and work styles.
It's not who's right and who's wrong. Just that we are on two diametrically opposite poles. Yet, as I figure it out, basic spices in a curry called homo sapien sapiens remain the same, you go north, you go south, or east or west. People are people.
If I suffer some adjustment problems, I told my co-fellows before parting ways, I'm going to wake you up in the middle of the night and shout loudly: Man, I've gone nuts! But then there are new mentors from my host newspaper the Sun Sentinel with me to take care. I've got four of them, all welcoming, friendly and yes, journalists.
There are too many things in the hand: have to stack stuff in the fridge, explore the new neighborhood, take plunge into the pool that is right next to my entrance (and all my friends back in India, if you want to come visiting, bring your trunks), take driving lessons ('cause these nuts do just the opposite of us, and again, not to blame any one, they're just different,as prof Weaver told us, than the Brits who taught us all the crap they did before exiting our country), and if there's some time left in between working and wandering, grab some wine and multi-cultural food!
Exciting times ahead. Several things lined up.
I'm going slow first week plugging things, picking new tools, getting the nuts and bolts (read technical issues such as get cable connection going, enroll for driving lessons, and stuff) fixed, meeting new journalists in a vast new newsroom and remember their names. And get the hang of new culture. Which reminds me of the fact that I'm not gonna be nuts in going on and on by writing this piece as a fall back option for being unable to filing for my newspaper back home.
So far, there appears nothing wrong with me. Tomorrow, well...I can't say! But I was told somewhere down the line, tomorrow never comes!
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