All good things in life come to an end. Like your career. But when good things end, better things will rush in to fill the vacuum, I believe.
At sixty, I reflect:
Year 2000. Malls and multiplexes were distant dreams and words like fashion show, lounge bar, and discothèque, unsettling to a large section of Kochi city folks. Food festivals had not yet found favour with either the hotels or the public. Lifestyles were largely private affairs and eateries mainly catered to a loyal clientele, the general public sticking to their favourite haunts, hardly getting experimental. There were a few ‘Chinese’ places, which were considered the most adventurous gastronomical outings.
At the fag end of that year, The Hindu MetroPlus was launched, once a week, on Mondays. It was the first lifestyle supplement that came with a newspaper in Kerala.
Mothering this product was a challenge, nevertheless, a lonely battle, for, people, entertainment, books, movies, health, fashion and food were subjects that were thought to be inferior to politics and civic issues then. Reinventing myself in midlife, I hopped on from one stream of journalism to another.
The gawky kid that MetroPlus was, it promptly grew from strength to strength, becoming twice a week to thrice and now, a buxom beauty, four times a week, with the team also expanding proportionately. The format of the MetroPlus Weekend is its USP, with fixed slots for different types of news stories, making reading easy. There’s no stopping it now…
Exclusive journalistic experiences, from the mundane to the sublime, fill these 35 plus years, including pre- MetroPlus days in the field.
Lucky news breaks, faux pas, memorable moments, pain and pleasure…a package worth recording.
Scoop: News of the launching of ABCL, when The Big B came to Kerala in the early nineties, before Mumbai got wind of it.
Sorrow, as the exclusive interviews with Navodaya Appachan and Mammiyur Krishnankutty Nair, mural expert, could be published only after they passed away.
Amusement: There was this pig headed film personality who was bent upon being nasty to us even as we sat in his house, because we had not seen his latest film. Doing some plain speaking at the risk of us being thrown out, paid off, for we did get the story. I don’t know if he realised that personal feelings did not come in the way when the story was published.
Nostalgia: When Mammooty came to the office, seeking an interview (it was done), in his initial years and Suresh Kumar, a friend, requested that a photo of Mohanlal, (his film’s hero. It was never released) be published. (it was done too)
Memorable: Covering the last ‘human thookkam’ at Elavur temple, near Aluva, when a man hangs by his skin on his back on iron hooks and is taken round the temple. It was banned after that. Many more memories fly past as I clear my work station…
It’s hasta-la-vista to routine now and deadlines will no more glare at me….
No more challenges? Plenty. There’s this challenge of cleaning a patch on my backyard and planting annuals in it…watching them sprout leaves…flowering..and maybe giving them up to pests, maybe enjoying the first bloom with family and friends…..Of cooking three hot meals a day for the Mister…of trekking up a relatively unknown place, panting…
Ah…that cane armchair on the balcony, hemmed in by ivy and other creepers, is waiting to get its occupant, beside it lying the pile of unread books, a laptop and the list of all the things I wanted to do but never had the time.
Is something half empty? No, half full, waiting impatiently for the other half to be filled.
Au Revoir!
