My picture My
Experience
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I |
ventured into journalism quite by chance.
During my first year in graduation, a stage when one prepares for all kinds of
competitions; I saw this small advertisement in THE PIONEER, one of the oldest
English dailies, for two-year training in journalism. When I appeared in the
written test, my only interest was to get some kind of a certificate, which
might come in handy for my career elsewhere. The profession always fascinated
me but I never really fancied it as my career.
Just a few months in the
newsroom were enough to change my life. I chose journalism with such passion
that I never bothered to look back. The profession has now become an
inseparable part of my personality. I was just 20 when I started my
apprenticeship with THE PIONEER in September 1978. THE PIONEER absorbed me in
its staff in May 1979; much before my apprenticeship was over, acknowledging my
abilities to handle anything and everything thoroughly and professionally. This
is my 30th year in journalism. I have had the opportunity to work with some of
the best editors of India like Aroon Purie, Girilal Jain, Inder
Malhotra, Suman Dubey, T.N. Ninan, Inderjit Badhwar, SN Ghosh to name
a few.
I
am probably one of very few journalists in
Currently I am News
Editor with THE TIMES OF
I joined
As the Deputy Resident Editor of The Pioneer, I
was involved in planning and execution of news coverage in one of the premier
dailies of
Till June 2000 I was
working as the Assistant Resident Editor for ZEE NEWS for two years handling
co-ordination operations for Uttar Pradesh,
I
had been looking after the Uttar Pradesh bureau of
I have earlier worked as
a Senior Staff Correspondent with THE TIMES OF
I
have had the opportunity of covering electoral constituencies and campaigns of
some of the top politicians of the country like Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, VP Singh, Chandrashekhar, Atal Behari
Vajpai, Narayan Datt Tiwari, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kanshi Ram, Mayawati, Kalyan
Singh and so many others. I have done some outstanding research, used
by INDIA TODAY time and again, on the communal and caste politics - which has
come to stay as a phenomenon in the country’s politics. I have covered the Ayodhya tangle, which eventually plunged
the whole country in a communal hysteria, right from the day the problem began
in 1984. In fact I did one of the first stories on Ayodhya in the TIMES OF
INDIA in 1984. I have also developed special computer software, with the help
of a local software programmer, which provides psychological database on
election results of U.P. INDIA TODAY
also used charts, graphs and analysis of election situations from this very
software. The organization commended my efforts in developing this computer
capsule. The magazine also circulated some of the boilerplate charts to other
state correspondents as a guideline.
I
have covered in depth the dacoits of the Chambal valley when I was with THE
PIONEER. In fact I have a commendatory letter from the newspaper for my
coverage on Bandit Queen Phoolan Devi. I would probably be one of the few
journalists who have covered a live police encounter with the Chambal dacoits.
If politics has given me bread, investigations on corrupt politicians, their
criminal antecedents, have proved to be the butter for me.
Apart
from around 20 cover stories of INDIA TODAY on U.P. issues, some of the
stories, which excelled even by the magazines standards, include a 57-page
special package (December 31, 1992 issue) titled The National Shame on the demolition of the Babari mosque. In addition
to the lead write-up, I was given multiple bylines in this package, a deviation
that INDIA TODAY makes only very rarely. The magazine again bent its stringent
norms for my ‘Jail Break’ story
appearing in September 30, 1992 issue. I managed to break into two of the U.P.
jails with a forged identity and managed to dupe the security by smuggling in a
tape recorder and a camera for interviewing inmates. The Editor, Mr. Aroon Purie asked me to write a first person account,
which the magazine seldom allows. Another incentive proved to be my photograph
appearing in the magazine, which India Today rarely allowed, inside the jail
while interviewing an inmate charged with multiple murders.
I would certainly like to
add that journalism has given me the opportunity to take a closer look on
various facets of life and how to handle it in different situations. Currently
I am heading the news operations of The Times of India newspaper, planning and
coordinating news for the Uttar Pradesh Editions. This briefly rounds off my 30
years in journalism. My experience? Absolutely stimulating !!!
Dilip Awasthi
M 1/55, Sector-B,Aliganj
Housing Scheme,
Mobiles : (0) 98399 04455, (0)
94150 22244
