Live and Xclusive ..

one fine day we went for the first field trip from our college.. hands-on experience of Live reporting.. the journalist in me got a mission as if.. so.. how is it going to be.. ideas ideas and more ideas.. the class was booming with innovative and exclusive ideas.. and then the Prof speaks - "let's go to some station and report on some blast".. her million dollar idea seemed as the most dumbest idea ever proposed by any homosapien..

the other alternative was to report on any

existing bomb-blasted spot..

thus came the name - German Bakery.. but 48 students, one location and that too the most high-alert area in the whole city.. isn't it kinda impractical thing to do.. but the master takes the call and the followers just listen..

location done, conveyance confirmed..

next morning started with aloo parantha and dahi.. at sharp 9am we left for the first-ever live reporting practice session of our life..

folks started the trip with antakshari.. a lot of noise and excitement was in the air.. I was jumping around in my purple converse shoes.. it was the inaugural day for my favorite pair..

the 48 were broken into three groups.. and I was the leader of one.. sounds so great.. leader.. not exactly.. it meant, if anything goes wrong, the authority will kick my a**..

destination German Bakery reached..

like the army-in-action, we got down from the bus.. located places for discussions and shooting..

and then came the most important question : permission?

public place - permission - police.. panga..

master went to police station with two followers..

second Saturday, no guard on duty.. no permission..

great.. tried taking permission from local guards..

they almost ran after us.. why?

well, one of the police men asked our master for permission letter.. ideally the master should

have said that we do not have a letter and further request.. but guess what the master said,

"who are you to ask for permission? do you have permission to patrol here?"

it triggered into a chaos.. from chaos rose confusion and confusion ultimately resulted into commotion..

plan b in action.. lets go near our college and shoot.. there we are the boss and don't need any permission.. I said, okie..

on the way, came a bike chasing us.. so filmy na? on the bike, two constables.. one of them ran onto our bus and sat in the cabin to have a little chit-chat about our trip..

next destination : Police Chowki..

what better can happen now?

luxury bus in a wrong lane.. wow.. that was the first new information of the day..

after a negotiation of about 44 minutes, we had no more doubt about the fact that it's not our day and none of the brightest ideas can work.. our glorious plan failed as that of mission Chandrayan I..

but we were not going to sing the song "khali haath aye the hum, khali haath jayenge....".. so we got down at a under-construction two-storied building near our college.. now comes the scene of imagination..

imagine this is German Bakery..

imagine you are on Ground Zero..

imagine the blast has just taken place..

imagine you're live-on-air reporting to the whole world..

and just like John Lennon's song, we kept on imagining..

Live reporting done..

after all this I just remembered Pablo Picasso's

famous line..

"Everything you can imagine is real"..

so, in that way, we successfully completed the first real Live reporting of our journalistic career.

back to school

after for about 5 long years, I felt like I was sitting in a school classroom today..

the feeling was kinda irritating but very enjoyable..

so.. why irritating?

well, the prof went on dictating, at every point, what to do and what not to do.. the endless list of do's and don'ts..

instructions like - look into your own copy, write 30 answers in 15 minutes, raise your hand up straight if you wish to answer, took me back to school..

on the other hand, it was thoroughly enjoyable.. we were listening to him without making a single sound audible to human eardrum..

probably today was the first time (out of school) when taking dictation seemed so much fun..

we were given exercises on nouns, pronouns, verbs, etc.. but it was such a relief for me as solving them is so easy now unlike it was in class 3..

the best part was identifying slang and vogue words..

I had no idea that words like slug, timeline, dateline, bottom line, guys, streamers can fall under the category of slangs..

It was all the more fun as before the class ended, he actually made us give a test saying that "attending Mr. *****'s class is not a game"..

Just like the Vicky of Small Wonder or the Tia of Remix, he says anything and everything about himself taking his own name..

any answer you say will be definitely wrong but he will still say "Good"..

Good does not mean you're correct but it means that he appreciates the initiative and the thought behind your answer..

the three things that you will have to have in his class - attention, interest and discipline..

he speaks like an army-man.. he uses words those are well-selected and hardly any that are wasted..

but nothing can beat the best that I ever heard from him..

"Mr ***** has a photographic memory.. Mr ***** will remember you even after 15 years as his eyes will click click click while panning and looking at all your faces.."

at the end of it, all that he will say is,

"I thoroughly enjoyed this session with you and I hope you did too.."

and this is what makes him loved by all.. his encouragement to the students and engagement with the subject..

such is his presence that even learning something like Style Sheet becomes so grand..

DARKLY, DEEPLY, BEAUTIFULLY BLUE..

SOMEWHERE, SOMEONE SINGS ABOUT THE SKY..