Tags:
Journalism of Courage
At the Matunga college where I teach journalism, I sipped my coffee. As I put down the cup, the canteen boy announced 8220;Sir, aapko paisa dena padega8221;. One more bastion of faculty hospitality had crumbled.
This is galling for a journalist with nearly 40 years of professional experience. I was under the impression that we were entitled to a minimum hospitality wherever we went. And it began with a cup of coffee or tea.
Fortunately, there are still institutions which acknowledge that a visiting journalist needs a cup of coffee or tea to feel at home. A small, special faculty room located next to the canteen in a well-known women8217;s college on Warden Road offers the visiting faculty a hot beverage. One has to pay for the snacks, which is perfectly okay. At a Chembur college, the faculty peon instantly brings a small thermos flask which contains two cups of tea. And at a Churchgate college the ever-hospitable course co-ordinater readily orders coffee, the quality of which leaves much to be desired. But that is another matter. An electric kettle, milk powder and tea bags at a Bandra college help to relieve the strain of a three-hour academic session.
These colleges would not lose much with the simple gesture of offering limited hospitality once or twice a week to senior professionals who handle teaching assignments. Or perhaps I expect too much. The Matunga college may have saved Rs 40 a month by abandoning its hospitality, for instance. I hope the amount will be utilised for some noble academic purpose.
Meanwhile, I have decided to carry my thermos with me.
