The certificate from the UN in New York, that set me off on Sustainability and Climate Change
As soon as the boys were in their final years of school I decided to go work full time in the Deccan Herald. For years I had just had my articles published freelance, but now I wanted to feel the experience of working in a newspaper, full time.
So I applied and in a few days got the welcome from Shanth Kumar, the youngest of the three brothers who owned the newspaper. “ Welcome into the Deccan Herald,” said Shanth, “and I am sure we will gain from your expertise.”
Barely had I joined as Chief Sub, when the Editorial decided to start what they had been planning for a while -- a City daily supplement called Metro Life. Stories all about the city was the idea behind it and that was right up my alley. While I worked there for two years I covered heaps of fashion shows, restaurants, local events and even big time musicians who came in from abroad to perform. Sting and Mark Knopfler, Elton John and heaps of others and I flew around the country covering them in different states with different venues. It was exciting and I hob nobbed with the hoi-poloi of the city on first name basis. I remember Anushka Sharma, Deepika Padukone and Diganth Manchale so well when they were just ramp models for Prasad Bidappa, the man who made so many film stars and Miss India’s.
Then I was tiring as I am not a party popper and even my boys were fed up of accompanying me to eat at all the restaurants which I had to review. That’s when a fellow journalist sent me a link and told me to apply for the Erasmus Mundus Masters in Journalism. Ok, I already had a Masters in History from Bangalore University, but my dream was always to go abroad and study, but neither my parents nor I could afford it.
At a UNEP event in Nairobi or Bonn
I left the DH and promised to return after the course. I am a loyalist and so while I was in each of the three countries I was studying in, I would write Art and travel articles for the DH supplements almost weekly. By the time I returned Tilak Kumar the older brother had taken over as Editor of the paper. He was so pleased at my loyalty that he raised me to Assistant Editor immediately on seeing the results of my Erasmus Mundus Masters.
In Nairobi
However I was a woman and that immediately( with my colleagues in high places), went against me. I was relegated to being a figurehead by the men in charge, but I took it in my stride and learned a lot from the experience. Since I had won a fellowship to cover the UN Climate Change Conference in New York while doing the Mundus, my interests changed and I began to apply for fellowships to go to cover Climate Change events. This irked the bosses and they felt I was using my position to go on junkets which was untrue, but one cannot change mindsets.
In the DH Aarti, Rashmi and me
I resigned after two years and carried on covering Climate Change for many UN arms on the strength of my writing -- like UNEP, UNFCCC, UCTAD, UN Water and the IUCN. In fact my PhD thesis was supported by the IUCN. So whoever says I left the DH under a cloud, is just plain suffering from the green-eyed monster. In fact till just recently my articles have been published in the Op Ed pages of the DH. But then I don't have to explain myself to anyone, least of all anyone who is ignorant.
As Assistant Ed in the DH
I still write for Reuters, Terra Green, The Hindu and several other online outlets, but my focus now has changed to writing novels which I enjoy more than being bound down to a deadline.
In Poznan Poland
I enjoyed every minute of my years in the DH. It was a wonderful learning curve for me and to be thrown in the maelstrom of cutting edge journalism, was an experience I will never forget. It was with the DH that my byline was recognised and I was grabbed by the Hindu, once I quit DH, to write columns on the flora and fauna of the city. And Tilak, Shanth and I are still friends and my husbands classmates.
Then of course the rest is history -- with my Masters in Journalism I started the Media Section in St. Joseph’s College under the guidance of Fr Ambrose. I have taught hundreds of young journalists, who will never forget getting catapulted into the world of journalism, with the foundation of the classes I gave them.
