“Yes. Then what happened, What did Beckit say?” The old man sitting on the other side of the\u00a0 table in the posh five star hotel asked with a smile in Hindi. I fumbled. “The last temptation is the\u00a0 biggest treason, to do the right thing for the wrong reason”, I murmured. “Right”. He\u00a0 laughed. Becket was a friend of the king and he revolted against him when the king had tried\u00a0 to challenge the authority of the Church. The man in spectacles was talking about the plot\u00a0 of T.S. Eliot’s ‘Murder In The Cathedral’ and I was caught napping. I was not prepared for\u00a0 this question. <\/p>\n
This was the last week of September of 1991 and I was facing interview for “Jansatta”, Kolkata\u00a0 edition. The weather was not very humid and I was sitting in a centrally airconditioned\u00a0 room, but I was sweating and feeling thirsty. In fact, I was nervous. I was talking to the\u00a0 man whom I had read hundreds of times and become an admirer. He was the legendary Prabhash\u00a0 Joshi. I had applied for the post of a trainee journalist, thinking that even if I was not\u00a0 selected, at least I would be able to meet Prabhash Joshi. Not a bad bargain, I told myself. <\/p>\n
But the nature conspired to give me a life-time opportunity. After a gruelling one hour\u00a0 interview, he said, ” So pundit, you will get only Rs. 1,600 for a month for one year, is it\u00a0 ok?’ I said, “It is more than enough. I am ready to work for free”, I tried to conceal my\u00a0 nervousness and controlled my breath. “Ok. Write down the address and reach there tomorrow\u00a0 to get your appointment letter.” I was shocked. I could not believe my years, I was not\u00a0 ready to accept that I would get an opportunity to work under the leadership of Prabhas jee.\u00a0 Was he asking it to someone else?. But there was no one except we two and Amit jee, who\u00a0 became our News Editor later. I pressed my nail into my palm to get it confirmed whether it\u00a0 was a reality or a dream.\u00a0 By then he extended his hand to shake mine. I do not remember\u00a0 what I did. I came out, some of the aspirants sitting their tried to consult me, I evaded\u00a0 every one and rushed out to catch a bus so that I could inform my father of the development.\u00a0 I do not remember how I reached my hostel. I could not sleep that night and blamed it on the\u00a0 humidity and the loadshedding, though there was no loadshedding that night. I got the\u00a0 hand-written appointmet letter next day. I still have that as one my most valuable\u00a0 possesions. <\/p>\n
Much water has flown down the Ganges since then. I became such a journalist, who could not\u00a0 fit anywhere outside the mould. I could not make compromise on news and independence of the\u00a0 authority of the editor. I lost my job in a news television channel only because I had\u00a0 protested against the interference of the manager. As long as I am here, only editorial\u00a0\u00a0 will decide what should go on air, I said bluntly. I refused to buckle under the pressure of\u00a0 the management. I kept the independence of editorial at the top as Prabhas jee had taught us\u00a0 in many of his editorial meetings. I remeber Prabhash ji who told us after the interview, “Be like the bishop friend of the king. No compromise on values and principle and stand firm even if you have to oppose your friend.”<\/p>\n
In spite of working for the business page, I could not do any favour to any business house or\u00a0 any seth jee in Kolkata. I could not adopt flattery for personal development, I could not\u00a0 work with biases, I did not think of crushing the opponents for keeping myself safe. Such\u00a0 were the teachings of Prabhas jee, my idol, my hero. My juniors find it difficult to accept\u00a0 when I tell them about him. “Common, its past”, they shrug their shoulders with\u00a0 indifference. I do not blame them. Journalism has changed like never before. <\/p>\n
I am a product of Prabhas school of journalism and adore him like Eklavya. I will tell the\u00a0 journalists of future generations with pride that I have seen Prabhash Joshi. What else\u00a0 should I demand!.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Pramode Mallik<\/strong> is working as an Editor with a Cyprus-based e-paper. He started journalism with Jansatta, when Prabhash jee was at the helm of the affairs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Yes. Then what happened, What did Beckit say?” The old man sitting on the other side of the\u00a0 table in the posh five star hotel asked with a smile in Hindi. I fumbled. “The last temptation is the\u00a0 biggest treason, to do the right thing for the wrong reason”, I murmured. “Right”. He\u00a0 laughed. Becket was a friend of the king and he revolted against him when the king had tried\u00a0 to challenge the authority of the Church. The man in spectacles was talking about the plot\u00a0 of T.S. Eliot’s ‘Murder In The Cathedral’ and I was caught napping. I was not prepared for\u00a0 this question. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[866],"class_list":["post-3075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-comment","tag-prabhash-death"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}