A lot can happen when you aren’t “looking”. That can be the tag line for the business of news-gathering. Meaningful stories routinely happen off the field. Delays set you up for the unexpected moment. What seems a dead-end at first often opens into a rabbit hole of new discoveries.
So, in time, news-gatherers learn to expect stories in unlikely places and situations, and try to perfect the art of seeing while not looking. The antenna is up all the time, even during exasperating delays.
Many summers ago, while returning from a satisfactory assignment at a remote coastal area of Tamil Nadu, I realised the best had been reserved for the last.
After what looked like an eon in getting a cab, I was well on my way back home, when, at Koovathur on East Coast Road, I chanced upon a young sloth bear being led by a leash. Getting the cab driver to stop, I had a chat with the animal’s “owner”. The bear had been trained in buffoonery to keep the begging bowl tinkling. The animal was being led from town to town. The teenager with the sloth bear in tow was from Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. Following the report about how the bear had been whisked away from the wild and forced to lead an unnatural life, I learnt that the animal was rescued by the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department. The delay in getting a cab had ensured I was at the right place when the unexpected arrived.
On another occasion, this time in Chennai, I made a serendipitous discovery of a ruthlessly abused raintree, against the backdrop of a broken-down car that had me cooling my heels in a space I would not have otherwise set foot on. In its lower trunk, the tree had a hole wide enough for an adult of moderate size to crawl through. Miscreants had set fire to the tree during midnight revelries involving purchased spirits. The issue had to see the daylight. Three cheers to cars that leave you stranded midway to an assignment!
In a news-gatherer’s life, serendipity knows no duty hours, and can knock on a door that is supposed to let only family in, and keep everything else out.
When my daughter was around two years old, I took her for a short drive on an off day. The two-year-old being demanding as only two-year-olds can be, it turned out to be a marathon drive. Significantly, it ended near a paddy field, an oasis of green in a “grey concrete desert”. The area had been sucked into a real estate boom, and the story was about how one farmer was sticking to his field and practising agriculture when all others had sold theirs.
On the downside, keeping the news-gathering antenna on overtime can make you look gauche. I learnt this the hard way. Once at a party, I looked beyond an exquisite pair of shoes at what appeared to me as a must-do story — an anachronistic but engaging floor design that looked earthier and more personal than the new ones.
“Nice!” I exclaimed.
A friend sitting next to me smiled approvingly.
“They don’t make such floors anymore, do they?” I added.
The next moment, I noticed her face change colour, from soft-pink to crimson-red. She was wearing a new and expensive pair of shoes, and was proud of the new purchase.
