Going places

Letters to the editor and occasional articles for magazines as a student of Fergusson College in the city was an activity born more out of interest for Veena Rao more than two decades back.

Veena Rao becomes the first non resident Indian woman to edit and publish,NRI Pulse a newspaper outside India

Letters to the editor and occasional articles for magazines as a student of Fergusson College in the city was an activity born more out of interest for Veena Rao more than two decades back. And as that interest translated into a career,life,now,has come a full circle for Rao as she has been recognised by the Limca Book of Records as the first Non Resident Indian woman to edit and publish a newspaper outside India. US based Rao,heads NRI Pulse a free publication that is fast catching up in Atlanta and Southeast USA.

With a diploma in journalism and communication from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication,Rao has also worked at The Indian Express Pune. Started in 2006 it focuses on news that cannot be readily found on the Internet,local community news from around the US along with a segment devoted to India. I saw the need for a news-oriented publication in the southeast region of the US. The market then was full of feature magazines. Some of them were,and continue to do a good job. But I felt that Indian-Americans were not being represented strongly enough. There was not one publication that ‘made news’ out of the latest developments within the community and not one effective way for organisations and individuals to get the word out, adds Rao for whom the biggest challenge has been to keep the paper afloat through recession when every week there were news of a major newspaper or magazine winding up.

Along with being popular with the NRIs,the newspaper is also distributed at key mainstream American stores and public libraries. Its business news page being a popular section,NRI Pulse also has Bollywood news,opinions and fashion columns,along with a spiritual feature by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,which is hugely popular amongst Americans.

Ive had Americans call in to tell me how much they love reading about Indian culture,food and fashion. When I first started the paper in 2006,it was challenging to fill my SUV up to the roof with copies,and go from point to point with a map in my hand,trying to set up distribution points for the paper. It took me ages to find some of the spots,and several days each month to distribute. But overall,it has been a richly rewarding experience. To start something from scratch and see it become a recognisable name in the region is a big high in itself. Being recognised by the Limca Book of Records has motivated me to take the paper to the next level, she concludes.

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