Of Wiry Bodies and Tennis Workouts

Sumit Upadhyaya's secret is out. This Dow Jones guy's wiry frame had many wondering if he had given up on food. No more speculation. The secret is his weekly tennis workout. Sumit and a couple of friends use a nearby court to hone their tennis skills.

So do we have a Somdev Devvarman in the making? Not really, says Sumit. He doesn't seem to have any pro tennis ambitions but it's still working out for him on the fitness front.

After a few unpleasant gym experiences -- aches and sprains -- it seems this journo has found his calling. Now, if only he could inspire his heavier peers to follow suit.

Of Homemade Sundaes and Licking Lips

It's not easy living up to Hot Chocolate Fudge standards. But methinks Swaty has mastered the art of this perfect sinful delight. Hmmmm, if only it didn't have so many calories.

Lest we have hordes of people rushing to Swaty's place and trying to get their hands on these scrumptious treats, let me remind you that icecream-eating sessions at her home are invite-only events.

Did I hear any groans out there?

Of Cute Toddlers and Nirupa Roy

Swaty's little kid Dhaani is nearly a year old and the cute toddler is spending time going through newspapers and magazines.

Methinks it bodes well for her debut as a journalist in 2030. Swaty was happy too, not least when Dhaani pointed at a glossy photo of Sushmita Sen and said "Mama".

But the happy feeling didn't last very long.

This week, Dhaani found a photo of veteran actress Nirupa Roy and promptly said -- "Mama".

Now I wonder if Swaty keeps her newspapers locked up.

Of Newborn Babies and Wedding Bells

You will always be reminded of a song by the Pakistani band Strings when you meet Swaty's little kid. Well, that's because the newborn is named Dhaani. Is it because hubby Manas is a Strings fan or did the little angel sport a greenish tint. We'll have to ask Swaty to find out.

In any case, Dhaani was born on the evening of December 14, a good ten days ahead of schedule. Looks like she didn't really want to share her birthday with Jesus.

Bride-to-be Sheelpa Kothari also missed Christmas by a few days, scheduling the wedding on December 29 in her hometown of Indore.

And pray what does the groom do? Well, Mihir works in a multinational bank. That makes the couple an interesting combo of sports journo and banker.

Of Neck Braces and Natural Icecreams

You would have thought wearing a neck brace for chronic spondylitis would be literally a pain in the neck but Sukanya Mohapatra seems to be coping well.

The Oriya lass is raving about the "Natural" brand of icecream she tasted in Mumbai. And this is a big deal coming from someone who hates icecream.

Her only complaint - "Natural" icecream is only available in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Ahmedabad so there's no chance of her getting some in good ol' Delhi.

Wonder what is so great about this brand. Go to Mumbai and see.

Of Good Tidings and Wet Nappies

Few things in life arrive right on time - like Misha's newborn daughter.

Sana breathed her first gulp of air on September 26 this year, on the expected date of delivery.

But I wonder what her name means.

Perhaps Misha can throw some light on this - after all she was named after a cute little Russian teddy bear.

Of Cynical Reporters and Beatific Smiles

There are few rewards in journalism but the biggest one of them is when your work inspires society to do something.

The usually cynical Ambika Pendharkar was pleasantly surprised when a reader rang up her paper and spoke to her about a piece she had done about an NGO for mentally-handicapped children in Pune.

Turns out the benevolent gentleman had been inspired to help out at the NGO and do his bit for society.

Well, now if you spot one particularly beaming specimen with a beatific smile wandering the streets of Pune, it might just be Ambika.

Of Busy Crossings and Speeding Vehicles

Last month, Chennai-based Sangeetha was walking back home one evening when a Tavera SUV backed into her at a busy crossing.

Sangeetha wasn't seriously injured but as she said later - the experience of lying down on the road with vehicles whizzing past a few inches from her wasn't a pleasant one.

The incident ended happily - the driver and some passers-by took Sangeetha to a nearby hospital where she was treated for minor bruises and discharged.

Of Tenants and Houses without Windows

By Mriganka Dadwal

Prologue: They say a life sans books is like a room without windows

I could never have imagined the former but that the latter exists came quite as a shocker to me.

It all started the day my current landlady said those three dreaded words to me - U MUST VACATE!!!

Life has never been the same.

My quest for a house turned into urgency, urgency into desperation and desperation into do-or-die thou must.

It's been two months. By now I'm Google personified for all practical purposes. But still gotta meet accurate search results.

Not that I have not undergone the usual rigmarole of meeting a broker, negotiating the price, checking out endless buildings. Even stooped down to questioning local vendors, and asking chattering auntyjis if the locality can accommodate a harmless single occupant.

Not that I have not been shown something which has some semblance to a house.

I say some semblance to a house coz they all have four walls, one door blah blah - so architecturally speaking they qualify to be a house - but that's where the buck stops.

And that's where the phrase "a house sans windows" comes to my mind.

Architecturally it's a shortcoming, aesthetically a sin.

To build a house without windows.

To erect four walls without sparing a thought about who will occupy it.

More importantly will the occupant feel at home in the house???

Does this phenomenon limit itself to aesthetic felony on part of our society? Well, to imagine that a tenant is a tenant is a tenant ... nothing less, nothing more?

Or does it boil down deeper. Our tendency to shut out anything which might lighten our soul and brighten our life?

Are we becoming so accustomed to shutting out what comes naturally to us that we create barriers where we need to create channels?

Or is it plain simple that anything which shows us ourselves too clearly must be made a social taboo? Coz we are afraid that the reality won't be flattering?

I don't know the answer but I know one thing for sure and I speak figuratively as well. Someone has to put their foot down and let in the light. I refuse to put up in a house sans windows.

Of Meal Freebies and Dead Roaches

Zee Business anchor Mriganka Dadwal is having a bit of luck these days. Turns out when she was out lunching at Pizza Hut, one of her pasta treats was served with a dead roach in it.

Mriganka didn't say a word. She just threw the waiter a frosty look and pointed to the baked pest. Minutes later, the dude reappeared and said the entire meal (pizza, garlic bread, iced pesticide) sans roach was complimentary. Pizza Hut made amends and Mriganka walked out with a free meal.

The same thing happened with Sunandita. There was no roach involved this time. But Pizza Hut did screw up her order and Sunandita got the full benefit.

Of Rare Sightings and Celebratory Treats

Talking of roaches, Sumathi Chandrasekharan was in town for a few days. The blue-blooded Keralite was reminiscing about her experiences in Singapore, where she is currently studying.

The place is spotlessly clean and Sumathi kinda missed the mess back home in India. So she was understandably delighted when she spotted a roach in Singapore. She celebrated the rare sighting with a trip to her favourite Indian restaurant there. Obviously, Sumathi remains a desi at heart.

Of Orkutian Fans and Tech Gimmicks

By Anonymous

A month or two ago, Parul Sharma found an Orkut fan who visited her profile every now and then. But this passive soul never wrote a scrap nor sent a teaser to her.

Parul, known as Miss No Malice for her humanitarian views, failed to guess who the mysterious fan was as his profile didn't give her any clues.

Flummoxed at reading this stranger's name in the list of visitors to her Orkut profile, the sassy Delhiite sought advice from a friend who had gone through a similar experience. This tech-savvy correspondent asked Parul to make some changes in her profile. And Voila! Henceforth the alien name never appeared in her visitors' list.

Analysis by our research bureau showed that after Parul made those changes, the number of her fans doubled and she got almost a hundred scraps praising her newly uploaded photo album.

Of Holidays and Nature's Oxymoron

Foreign Desk in-charge Vandana Ramnani recently took a well-deserved break from her usual work routine. She travelled via Uttarkashi to a little-known tourist spot called Raithal, 182 km from the holy city of Rishikesh.

And from what she had to say about the "awesome" trip, we can only imagine how fulfilling Vandana's tryst with Nature was.

The river Bhagirathi is so very pure and beautiful and as you come down and see the Tehri dam it gives you the sense of danger ahead. What if it would break. I'll call it nature's oxymoron. On the one hand you have beauty and on the other the sense of destruction which may befall... the magnitude of destruction.

Of Glad Tidings and Good Wishes

It's the time to make merry - the sheer number of weddings, infants and new jobs over the past few months has been mind-boggling.

Legal eagle Krishnadas Rajagopal tied the knot with The Hindu lass Anima Balakrishnan. Another legal eagle R Balaji has also reportedly taken the plunge into married life. Setuka Mahajan will do so with a Bangalore-based engineer early next month. Also waiting in line are Hanit Kaur and Ratul Ray Chaudhuri. And I suppose you already know about Manash Pratim Bhuyan.

There were resignations galore too. Shambhu Jha took off for Aajtak. Sovi Vidyadharan found greener pastures in NDTV while Ratul did so in Reuters, Bangalore. Liji Ravindran's taken time off for research even as Prasant Kumar Sahoo and Shohini tried their luck in the pink papers. Ashutosh Joshi left for Business Standard, Mumbai.

On the plus side, there are plenty of interesting newbies too - including News Editor Rezaul Laskar's wife who joined the Desk recently. And the interesting case of Sumit Upadhyaya who gave up life as a reporter for the rewards of the Business Desk. And of course all our friends who were enjoying themselves abroad - Achinta Borah is back from France while Manoj C G and Sukanya Mohapatra just returned from assignments in Singapore.

And as for the storks who came visiting, it seems girls were more in demand this time around. Alok Sharma was blessed with a daughter (Jhanvi), Kiran with P... (she's reportedly mulling over names beginning with P) and Richa with ??? (Yep, her little one hasn't been named yet) And we hear Jitesh Wadhawan's infant son Kabir is looking more and more like him. So, don't be too surprised if he grows up to be a journalist.

Anyhow, we offer everyone (and others whose names were inadvertently missed) our heartiest congratulations.

Update 1 Parul Sharma's gone right ahead and joined The Hindu. And as for Kiran's newborn - the two-month old has been named Paridhi

Of Good Samaritans and Mobile Phones

Chandigarh damsel Misha Pillai has quite a reputation of being a Good Samaritan. But even Misha was taken aback by what two youths in this bustling Punjabi metropoils did for her.

Our story begins with hubby Jasbir presenting Misha with a swanky new mobile phone. On November 3, Misha was commuting to office in a rickshaw - yapping away to glory to her dear husband.

Suddenly, two guys on a motorcycle slowed down near the rickshaw, snatched the phone from her and zipped away leaving behind a tearful and shocked Misha. Two other youths (also on a bike) witnessed the incident and sped off in pursuit.

As for Misha, she informed the police but was told there was little hope of getting it back since she could not provide any details on the phone-snatchers.

Back at her office, she found two youths waiting for her. Wonder of wonders, they had her phone with them. It turned out that the youths had followed the snatchers to another city, had an altercation (one of them sported a black eye), got the handset back and searched the phone's contact list to get in touch with Misha.

Well, Misha dubbed them Good Samaritans but we prefer to stick to this 20th-century idiom - What goes around comes around.

Of the TV Journo and the Sea

Zee Business anchor Mriganka Dadwal got her first glimpse of the sea recently. It seems Miss Dadwal was covering a fashion shoot in Pondicherry and was returning to her quarters when she spied the blue waters of the Bay of Bengal. She screamed so loudly that the driver of the car is said to have lost his hearing.

Anyhow, the poor guy immediately applied the brakes and watched as Miss Dadwal ran down to the water's edge and started splashing around in obvious delight. Well, we all know how much fun being on the beach is. After all, it was Mriganka's first tryst with the sea. We wish her many more such wondrous experiences.

Of Humble Pie and Mention Nots

The 2006 Osian's Cinefan film festival had drawn to a close with the screening of the Iranian film Offside and anchor Rajit Kapoor heaved a sigh of relief. As he left the stage, he spotted a woman running towards him with notepad in hand.

"Ah! A journalist," Kapoor smiled and awaited her arrival, rehearsing a few stock quotes for reproduction in the next day's newspaper.

"Excuse me! Can you tell me where the film's scriptwriter is?" came the breathless query from the reporter.


powered by ODEO

His face ashen but hiding all traces of emotion, the star of Byomkesh Bakshi and The Making of the Mahatma pointed into the crowd. "There he is!" he mouthed in despair.

"Thanks!" said Sheelpa Kothari - hurrying away in her quest for a tete-a-tete with the writer of Offside.

"Mention not," replied Kapoor in a voice barely audible to bystanders, as he thumped his chest with a clenched fist - all prospects of an interview fading away into oblivion.

Of Mumbai blasts and narrow escapes

The Indian Express has been regularly carrying accounts of people who lost their lives in the recent Mumbai blasts. But what of our Mumbai-based colleagues who regularly travel by the local trains? Fortunately, not one of them was on the ill-fated trains. But it was a narrow escape for many. Here in their own words, our friends recount the evening of July 11, 2006.

Ashutosh Joshi

We were in the office on Terror Tuesday. I was supposed to attend an Air India press conference that evening. But I refused to do so. The person who went for it witnessed the blast at Mahim station. He was at the platform when the blast took place. Thankfully he did not suffer any injury.

Ambika Pendharkar

Was at home in Pune during the blasts. Sangeetha called me up when she heard the news on TV. We were desperately trying to locate a cousin in Mumbai who didn't reach home on time and could not be contacted on mobile. As for Zeeshan, he escaped death by a whisker. He had actually got down at one of the affected stations at 6.15 pm.

Kapil Kelkar

I was in the office and had just returned from the High Court. We first heard about the blasts when one of our clerks called from Mira Road station to tell us that there had been a explosion in the compartment next to the one he was travelling in. All the blasts happened on the route I use daily.

Shilpa Jamkhandikar

I was in office doing another mundane story when the blasts happened. Our Regional Manager Subimal Choudhary got a call from one of our staffers saying there was an "accident" in his train at Mira Road and he could see dead bodies everywhere. We decided to run a flash. Just as I was transmitting the story came another call from another staffer about another blast. After that it was mayhem. I don't remember much except stories, images on TV and numbness.

Abhijeet Kulkarni

I was having tea at the corner of my office. It is just a road away from the Mahim railway station. My colleague and I rushed there when we heard the blast.

Ashish Agashe

I was in the Delhi office then - looking at the ticker and the news channels as the number of dead (and the blasts) was shooting up. My mobile battery dried up due to unsuccessful attempts at reaching my dear ones back home in Mumbai.

Several months have passed since the fateful blasts. But life goes on for our colleagues and they continue travelling by the local trains. Ambika tells us that Zeeshan reported extensively on the recent Malegaon blasts and his work was much appreciated. In fact, he is now part of the HT bureau for Nashik and nearby areas.

As for Ambika herself, she gave up trains for good and switched to zipping around Pune streets in her brand new silver Honda Activa. To be honest, she did crash into an innocent schoolboy who wandered into her path but the kid escaped with minor bruises. Ambika stopped venturing out on the roads for a few days after the incident but it didn't deter her from driving. We are happy to report that the Maharashtrian lass and her Activa are now back on the streets of Pune.

Of Delayed Posts and New Podcasts

Yes, its been ages since this blog was updated but I promise to put up lots of new stuff by the end of this month. Until then, I am busy converting the archives into podcast format.

Click PLAY to listen to the latest podcast


powered by ODEO

Subscribe to the On The Job podcast here

Of Police Vans and Shaken Reporters

Dharna reporting can be quite a hair-raising experience. And David Lalmalsawma would certainly agree.

The dude was covering a Narmada Bachao Andolan protest march in the national capital when the cops arrived and started bundling agitators into the police van. Medha Patkar went in first followed by a couple of her supporters and then it was poor David's turn.

Paying no heed to the emphatic declaration that he was a mediaperson and not interested in getting arrested for the noble cause, one policeman pushed David into the van.

Things might have gotten worse but at this point our dude flashed his office I-card and thrust it into the cop's face. The 'Press' tag worked and the officer let David go.

The police van left with Patkar, supporters and all - leaving behind one-hell-of-a-shaken reporter.