A Day at HT Office!!!!!!!!

Ok I promise I'll start at the start and will surely end at the end.
I have absolutely no intentions to start in the middle and end somewhere else.
Since I'm blabbering now, I think I should start my story.
Well, here goes, yesterday I went to the Hindustan Times office to show them an interview I took.
Naturally, when I entered I was clueless about where to go so I asked the security guard sitting there the way to the editor's office.
He was a simple man and did tell me the way to the editor's office. Except that he pointed me towards the Hindi editor's cabin instead of the English one.
Unaware of this, I knocked, entered and stated my position. He took a look at my article and told me I'd brought an English piece to a Hindi newspaper.
Puzzled and befuddled, I was just about to head back home when he told me to wait coz the English editor would be arriving in a short while if I was ready to wait. I could have kissed the man there and then.
Looking back, he was a pretty nice man and the people sitting there were very supportive too. Then, he called one of the English journalists from outside and told him to look at my piece and get it published if possible!
He told me to keep up the good work and come to him if any help was required. Genuine nice guy.
Well, then I went with the reporter from English he had called and explained my situation to him. He read the piece and really advised me well as to what my career path should be if I wanted to join the news industry.
He pointed out the flaws but also added that I write well and should keep on doing this.
Okzzzzz, now we come to the part where the editor from English enters.
Mr. Haider Naqvi, first thing that came to my mind when I saw him was "Now I"m intimidated!". But then as I started talking to him and showed him what I had written, I realised how wrong a first impression can be.
He's nothing what he looks like, the guy's friendly, funny and helpful in every way that one can imagine. I shouldn't be saying this but I think he was impressed with the piece.
He told me that they could and they would publish it but after it had been edited.
Hm, edit a 1600 word piece to a 500 word one?
Sounds easy but actually took more time than I had actually taken in writing it!
Enter journalists Priyanka and Kratika.
Starting with Priyanka di, a very focussed woman who could, like, edit an elephant to fit the size of a mouse, if you get what I mean!!
Working with her, I learnt the ways and the tricks that could be used to separate the important things from the unimportant ones and the different ways in which a story can be presented.
We spent nearly 2 - 3 hours deleting words and adding new ones. Finally we reached 600 words. We just couldn't delete more!
Showed our work to Mr Naqvi and he brought down 25 words in just 5 minutes of looking at the piece!
Guess that's why he's editor.
He then told us that we don't really need to keep the original sentences as long as we can preserve the essence of what is being said.
Using that tip, we brought down almost a 100 words in 10 minutes. Piece of cake!
During all that work and editing, there was fun loving and talkative reporter sitting next to us and constantly coming up with new topics to start conversations.
I liked her instantly (partly coz of the fact that she kept referring to me as Bhagawan!)
All in all, I got a first hand experience to what a journalist's life is like. The constant buzz as latest pieces of news are being discussed and the non stop jokes and comments being passed around.
Didn't really feel like leaving but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. So, with a heavy heart and a lot of goodbyes later, I was back on the streets, heading home as my feet itched to go back.
Will always remember Saturday, 30th of January 2010 as the day when I took the first step towards the kind of life I've always dreamt about.
This is Neil, signing off.
Sayonara folks!!

New Blog

Hey everyone viewing this
Have started another blog with my poems on it
It's url is woatm.blogspot.com
Do visit it
Gotta go now
Bye:)

Birds n Bees

From the day I was born, I had a certain and unfound aversion to bees.
Don't know why but the yellow and black creatures scared me to death.
Every time there was a bee around, I was always found running in the opposite direction. But now when I look back on those days, I laugh at my naivety and my unawareness.
Even now, as I'm writing this blog, I see a couple of these harmless winged creatures enjoying the nectar of the flowers on my terrace.
Wow! Nature really makes you wonder at its beauty.
These bees will now take the pollen from these flowers to produce more such flowers, making the world a more beautiful place to live in.
What a beautiful thought!!!!
And silly me, I always thought these bees were nothing but a nuisance.
Ah, finally I am at peace with all the creatures of the world.
Now, I'm gazing at these bees sucking nectar peacefully,
one of them seems to have had enough and is flying towards the flowers behind me.
Wait, there are no flowers behind me...
So, it's probably flying towards me..
No big deal.
Bees fly towards people all the time. Not necessary they stiiiiiiAAAAHHHHHH.
IT STUNG ME!!!!!!!!!!
F*** THESE D*** CREATURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click

Photos, pictures, portraits....

By now, everyone should know what i'm talking about

Yup, this one is about photos,

black and white ones

coloured ones

passport sized

the list is endless

but still it makes one wonder if all of these are really necessary. Nowadays, wherever you happen to be, there's always a camera around to capture you. Be it a library or a school. And the most irritating part of this is that they're being used by the most dimwitted of people.

Ok, so they're just using to capture the beautiful moments of life, as many would describe it but let's face it, there is not one person on this earth who would like to see endless photos of the pundit when he's looking through the photos of a puja you attended!

It's probably in the list of treatable diseases of psychiatrists by now. Camera - craze.

People truly go berserk when they get their hands on a camera. They wanna click everything. From the historical monument they're visiting to the dog peeing outside it.

And guess what, they even photograph themselves photographing people. Real sophisticated, that.

On this note, this is another angry young man signing off.

Tata, happy clicking!!!!!!!!

Bye Bye 2000's

Ok
I know i'm a bit late doing this (15 days to be exact) but what the heck
This last decade has been the most defining one of my life (has to be coz i still am not old enough to say i've seen many of 'em ;) ).
To start with, I tried out new things, failed at some but excelled at others. I perfected some areas of my personality that were already good enough but not too much so.
I fell in love and out again more times than i can remember.
I made and broke friendships like sand castles.
But when I was doing all the above, I never realised that it would be making me the person that I am today and would probably remain this way for the rest of my life.
So for the good, bad or worse, Neil has changed in the 2000's and will always remember those 10 years as the time which shaped his life, his career, his being........