I was a regular
contributor to DH and Women’s era, a very popular magazine
for which I wrote short stories. My writing was not a result of great
inspirational surges or flashes of genius. It was just a reflection of what I
saw and felt. Writing is a skill I
acquired like cooking, with a lot of practice, discipline and commitment. Many
women tell me they want to write but don’t know where to start. I tell them to
sit down take a paper and pen and start, like I did. It is that simple. If I
can write, so can you. I am sure there are many women who have more interesting
things to share, but I have got down to it while they have not. That is the
only difference.
I wanted to expand my horizon and got
into other magazines. The opportunity came when I attended a talk by Mrs.Vimla
Patil, then editor of Femina, in
Bangalore. She invited budding writers to send their work and promised to
consider them provided they were good. A year after this, Srivatsa was transferred
to Mumbai and I met Mrs Vimla. There was a three month leave vacancy in the
office and she offered me the sub-editor’s job. I learnt professionalism under
her and also the nitty gritties of publishing a magazine. She put me on
interesting assignments and accompanying me on some, was Jitendra Arya, the
well known photographer. Satya Saran, her successor, taught me the art of
writing catchy captions.
The Femina office was always buzzing with
celebrities. Sangeeta Bijlani (now wife of Azharuddin the cricketer) was
getting ready to represent India
at the Miss Universe contest. The young singing sensation, Nazia Hasssan, the
bold and beautiful Parvati Khan fabulously ‘rich’ Shanaz Hussain…there was
never a dull moment. But I preferred not to continue as a full time staffer
because I wanted to go back to teaching. My initiation into freelance journalism
was complete. There was no looking back. Mumbai offers ample opportunity with
its floods of tabloids, dailies and periodicals. There is also so much
happening that anyone willing to work hard, can file stories. I remember getting
a call from Mrs Patil one evening to do a piece on discos and she wanted it the
next morning. My brother-in-law, who was visiting us, agreed to accompany me
and we went disco hopping till early morning after which I typed out the
article and handed it in well before the deadline.
Deadlines are
sacred in journalism. To deliver in time is the secret of success of a
freelancer. The other is coming up with good story ideas. Mrs Gulshan Ewing was
the editor of Eve’s Weekly (now
defunct), another popular magazine. She encouraged me with many
assignments.Ammu Joseph, Shola Rajachandran and Pamela Philipose, helped me
refine them. Dilip Thakore who was editing Business
India, gave me a break in business journalism. It was the most hectic phase
of my writing career. I had a weekly column, in Bulletin, Evening News and Indian
Post, a monthly column on short story writing and etiquette in Mirror, Features and interviews for Society, Savvy, Indian express, Times of India, Sunday Observer, The Hindu,
Filmfare, Stardust, Industrial times,Mid-day and a host of publications which
came and went!. All the while, I was juggling two jobs, home and busy social
life. Srivatsa advised me to maintain a register of where I sent which article,
when it appeared and date of payment and amount received. I was bad at
organizing these things and he made me do it just like he made me write! My son
Arjun, when he came home from Medical school on holidays, filed and indexed the
clippings, and earned his pocket money.
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