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Showing posts from May, 2011

Drunken part of "Write drunk, edit sober -- Ernest Hemmingway"

Is osama dead? The man looked at me squinting. ‘They do say so,’ I tried to be a good reporter. ‘Says who?’ he retorted back. Erm … world Who is world, he snapped back. The question was innocuous enough, but as a journalist I am not trained to answer simple questions. I fumbled. US, Pakistan, I mean, they all,’ was my handiplasted definition of world. India? What is India saying on this? I tried to dig my reading on the subject. Did India say anything? I vaguely remembered they did. They welcomed end of terrorism, I guess. Don’t guess, please. Journalism is not guesswork, he chastised me. I was reminded of my editor. A variation of this is his favourite dialogue. I tried to remember India’s response. Did we respond? We are a non-confrontist nation. We believe in peace, I tried to make good of my shortfall in knowledge. And the only one who is wise, he was quite proud of his Indian-ness. Why do you say so? Is osama dead? He repeated. I don’t know! I had to surrender. Of course you kn