Journalism in India is 230 years old. Still, many don\u2019t understand the profession. Very few seem to know that the newspaper they buy for Rs 2 or 3 requires effort of over a thousand persons daily. Reporters often take pains in explaining the wide difference between them and an Editor. Still, invitation letters address them as Editor, Auditor, District Auditor Saheb, Main Editor, Chief Editor and some even as Editorial Saab. <\/p>\n
More hurting is to see your name spelt awfully wrong on the invitation cards despite the byline appearing in the news columns. I still get invitations in the name of Japinder, Jubinder, Jupendra and, weirdly, Jupiter Singh. Journalists also live under the illusion that everyone reads their byline. When I got my first byline in a newspaper, I left home, chin up, thinking everyone \u2014 right up to the chief minister \u2014 knew me now.<\/p>\n
It took me only a few hours to return to the ground. A person called up at the office seeking to talk to my predecessor. He had read the news and wanted to congratulate him. I pulled my hair, \u201cHow can he miss reading my name.\u201d <\/p>\n
Then, nearly six months after I had switched over to another newspaper, a Punjabi University Professor left no congratulatory adjective unused while hailing my news stories appearing in my previous newspaper in the last few months. The expression on his face should have been preserved when I told him I had left that newspaper half a year ago. The guffaws of his colleagues still ring in my ears.<\/p>\n
An aged uncle of mine was not amused when I told him I was working as a journalist. He had brought a marriage proposal of a girl working as a Bank Probationary Officer in Patiala. \u201cPatarkarta taan theek hai, changa shaunk hai, par roti khan layi ki kam karda hein?\u201d (journalism is fine, but what do you do for a living?) <\/p>\n
A couple of days after my marriage, performed in a simple ceremony, an aged woman confronted my mother-in-law on why they were not invited and what the jawayi puttar does? \u201cHe is a patarkar. Akhbaar vich naukri hai,\u201d my mother-in-law tried to explain.<\/p>\n
\u201cHai hai\u2026you have married your well-educated daughter to an akhbaar wala,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery morning he would rush out to distribute newspapers. No wonder, he had no money for a good ceremony and invite us.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Taken aback, my mother-in-law told her I was a reporter. \u201cHe does the same work as my daughter. Both are in the same office. They gather news and send it to Chandigarh where it is printed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my God. He gets up to distribute newspaper and gather news all day. And your daughter too? No wonder you also did not organise a ceremony!\u201dn <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Journalism in India is 230 years old. Still, many don\u2019t understand the profession. Very few seem to know that the newspaper they buy for Rs 2 or 3 requires effort of over a thousand persons daily. Reporters often take pains in explaining the wide difference between them and an Editor. Still, invitation letters address them as Editor, Auditor, District Auditor Saheb, Main Editor, Chief Editor and some even as Editorial Saab. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-manthan","tag-jupinderjit-singh"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/vichar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/vichar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/vichar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/vichar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/vichar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/vichar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/vichar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/vichar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bhadas4media.com\/vichar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}