Reporter’s Notebook

A welcome suggestion

It does not take much time to give suggestions and when it is the media,suggestions are taken seriously. This was noticed at a recent press meet addressed by a senior government official. Talking about the poor response to a government initiative,he said the media should publicise it. Media professionals were quick to come up with suggestions. The usually defiant officer known for not taking suggestions from juniors was more than happy when media persons said a notice about the initiative should be put up at the counter. “This is a wonderful suggestion,’’ said the officer. Some media professionals felt it was just a normal suggestion. The officer took it quite seriously and made calls to subordinates asking them to follow the suggestion immediately. When it is the media,suggestions are always welcome,said the officer.

Ready for reporters

When an officer with the crime branch,who is the investigating officer in a crucial case,was called by a reporter,his reply was a surprise. As soon as he picked up the phone,he said,“The investigating officer for the case has said that they are yet to identify the suspect and have launched a comprehensive search operation.” He further said,“This is the ninth call from a press reporter. I have been answering calls for the last two hours. I am thinking of recording my quote and playing it as soon as a cell number of a reporter flashes on my phone.”

How they got Hazare

At 8.15 pm June 4,tired from a visit to Ahmednagar for his ear treatment,Anna Hazare who was back in Ralegan Siddhi was in no mood to air his opinion on national TV channels. Media representatives were getting calls from head offices in Delhi and Mumbai to bring him online for his comment on Baba Ramdev. “I am tired and have a flight at 4 am. I can give a common interview to all,” said Hazare. “But our editors want you to talk individually and show timings are different for different channels,” said media persons. Finally,one reporter convinced Hazare for a half-an-hour show scheduled at 8.30 pm. But after half-an-hour,instead of removing the microphones removed from Hazare,they just plugged it on to the camera of another channel. The mediapersons kept on doing that at 9 pm,9.30 pm,and 10 pm and Hazare,who was facing live questions was on air live for two hours.

Fishy figures

Health officials in Pimpri-Chinchwad this week were caught in a number game after fish were found dead in Pavana river at Ravet. While one official told a newspaper that lakhs of fish have been found dead,another told a reporter that thousands were dead. One more official came up with “hundreds of fish…” When PCMC health chief Dr Rajshekhar Iyer was asked,he said,”You know what….I will revisit the Pavana banks,walk into the river and count the dead fish to to the last count…” Refusing to put a figure to the dead fish,Dr Iyer said he had no intention of fishing in troubled waters.

(Contributed by Chandan Haygunde,Nisha Nambiar,Pranav Kulkarni,Sushant Kulkarni and Manoj More)