Reporter’s Notebook

Anna Impact

*The agitation led by activist Anna Hazare has brought people of all ages together in demanding a strong anti-corruption Bill. Citizens on streets are seen flaunting Gandhi caps saying ‘Me Pan Anna Hazare’ to support the movement. The movement is making an impact in government offices as the staff is addressing the grievances immediately. A citizen,who went to PMC to get his work done,was surprised to see the civic staff attending on him immediately. However,he realised it was the Gandhi cap with ‘I am Anna’ written on it that made all the difference.

Pav Fast

*Recently when a group supporting Anna Hazare’s campaign called a press meet to announce plans to support the social activist and observe a relay hunger strike,the first question asked to mediapersons was,whether they care to have some wada pav. With the number of programmes lined up by them,none of the reporters wanted to say yes as they patiently went about jotting down details of the press meet with just the mandatory chai doing the rounds. The Anna campaign has hit journalists hard too!

Pricey Executive

*It’s not very often that reporters come across cases where PR executives act as pricey as the celebrity he or she is promoting. But all through the week,this reporter had to deal with tantrums and false ‘I’ll call you back’ promises of the PR executive related to an event. At first,she promptly answered her phone and enthusiastically asked for a questionnaire to be emailed to her to interview a British singer. The mail was sent in an hour,but following this the executive went missing. Calls weren’t answered,text messages weren’t replied for a day. The next day,a message saying ‘He is very busy’ beeped on the phone. The day after,she was back to not answering calls which prompted the reporter to get a colleague call her from a different number. The call was promptly answered,but ‘with he is still very busy,this time for a personal reason!’

On the day of singer’s performance,when a decision to drop the story was taken,the executive called saying she will sending the mail with the singer’s response. Of course,the mail never came,nor did the performance take place. And the executive went missing again. But this time,we at least knew why!

(Contributed by Pupul Chatterjee,Ajay Khape,Nisha Nambiar and Nupur Chaudhari)