THE FIRST POST

Today, when I start my career as a serious blogger, my mind goes back to the year 1983, when I started my career as a journalist. As a humble trainee with the famed ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY OF INDIA (or just WEEKLY). 

The WEEKLY was hallowed grounds. My Dad used to bring home copies of it every week from the circulating library in his office. Edited at that time by none other than the jovial, yet venerable Sardar, Khuswant Singh with his naughty sense of humour, the WEEKLY was my favourite reading as a little boy. I loved the articles. I loved the photographs. I lapped up Khushwant's naughty but pertinent point of view on a wide variety of subjects ranging from bottom-pinching on the busy thoroughfares of Mumbai (then Bombay) to his penniless sojourn in the costliest of metropolises -- Tokyo. I loved to read his thoroughly enjoyable, tongue-in-cheek weekly editorial column "With Malice Towards One And All".  Sitting inside a bulb (a caricature created by Mario Miranda), he mocked at the world. I loved the comic sections with Dennis the Menace, Phantom, Hubert and Flash Gordan strips. I diligently worked on the Weekly Crossword. I even loved the classified ads that appeared on the last two pages -- ads for products and services that were not seen anywhere else, like realistic-looking airguns with plastic bullets for self defence, hypnotism courses, X-ray glasses and much more... 

Long before the Frontlines and the India Todays were born, the WEEKLY existed. It was undoubtedly the most popular English publication of the time. I still vividly remember the special cricket issue in 1971 featuring Sir Garfield Sobers and our very own Sunil Gavaskar on the cover. Gavaskar was fresh from his magical debut in the West Indies and had been selected to play for a dream World Team under Sobers against Australia. This was the issue that sold more than 4 lakh copies -- simultaneously establishing the WEEKLY as the number one publication and Cricket as the most popular sport in India. The cover story was written by Raju Bharathan, one of the best cricket writers of the time. 

And then I remember an issue which was devoted to the Nairs of Kerala. I still vividly recollect my Dad and Mom poring through the pages with excitement. Hailing as we did from the Nair community, the issue was of special interest to them as it chronicled Nair traditions and customs and also listed out prominent members of the community, many of whom were known to them or related to us. Featuring Usha Chettur on the cover, this issue remains in my library long after both my parents died...

The WEEKLY, for me, was the ultimate in journalism. To work for the WEEKLY was a dream I nourished right from my school days. A dream that I never thought would become a reality. 

But then, the impossible happened. 

I was working as a Preventive Officer in the Madras Customs (Chennai was called Madras in those days). Though a respectable uniformed job, the ambiance was nauseating. I was wallowing in a sea of corruption, trying to swim against the currents. But the going was getting increasingly tougher by the day. So I took the only sensible route I could think of. I quit. And then I took the entrance test for the position of Trainee Journalist in the Times of India group and got selected. 

After three weeks of initiation, I found myself in the office of Pritish Nandy, who was now the Editor of the WEEKLY. It was meant to be a three week training stint and I started work with trepidation. Nandy had only just taken over the top job. Still in his thirties, he was facing a lot of opposition from others in the staff, most of whom had been part of the Old Lady of Boribunder (the nickname for the Times Group) for donkey's years. A sort of a work-to-rule pattern was being followed with all the senior staffs striding in at the stroke of 10, twiddling their thumbs during the whole day and stalking out at the stroke of 5! The advent of a trainee into this scheme of things came as a Godsend. I used to reach office at 9 in the morning and work right through till 9 at night, virtually handling the content of the entire issue single-handedly. 

The first issue I handled featured actress Rekha on the cover. Sailesh Kottary, who as Deputy Editor was my immediate boss, had done the interview. The cover was designed by M G Moinuddin, a creative genius, albeit hearing-impaired. When the magazine hit the stands, I was thrilled. Though I had seen the issue at various stages before and after it went to the press, seeing it on the stands and leafing through a copy bought off the shelf gave me an extra thrill. The feeling was akin that of a young mother holding her newborn in her hands and looking into the eyes. Even more gratifying was watching the reactions of others looking at the magazine, leafing through it, making an observation to those with them and ultimately buying a copy.

I knew I had come home!! The WEEKLY was my home. I dreaded the prospect of being transferred to some other department of the vast Times Group at the end of the mandated 3 week period. But my fears were ill founded. When my transfer letter came, Pritish Nandy tore it to pieces. "No more transfers for Sunil", he yelled at PC Sethi, the Training Head of TOI. "He will continue to work for the WEEKLY!"

And continue I did, for the next 10 years, shifting to Chennai a year later, on completion of my training period, as the first ever Regional Correspondent of the over-a-century old publication.

More than three decades have passed since I took my first hesitant steps in the highly combative and challenging field of journalism. More than 1000 articles in the WEEKLY, Filmfare, The Observer of Business & Politics and Sunday Observer... More than 2500 hours of entertainment programming as the head of Telly Zoom. More than 10,000 hours of news bulletins on Raj TV and Jaya TV... Three decades of agony and ecstasy, highs and lows, achievement and rejection, happiness and sorrow... It is these and much more that will feature in the THIRD EYE. Some of the stuff that appear here may have already been published, but are being reproduced because they are still relevant. Much more will relate to issues and happenings Behind the Byline. I may be appreciated. I may be riled. I may even be crucified. But on this blog, please remember, TRUTH ALONE MATTERS.