Vets

Yusuf Jameel and Altaf Hussain are veteran journalists in Srinagar. Jameel reported for the BBC from the beginning of militancy here. Hussain is working for the BBC now. On Saturday morning they joined a few other people at a seminar aimed at young, budding journalists – all students of the Media Education and Research Centre of the Kashmir University.

So there I was sitting in the middle of all these young men and women, watching grown men fawn all over the local director of information. He was variously called esteemed director, honourable director, revered director, and a great son of the soil. My views about the difference between respect and reverence can wait for a while.

It was when Jameel started to talk about reporting in conflict zones that I got hooked. Now, here’s a guy who has seen the beginning of militancy, and through the course of his talk, I learnt he had lived through parcel bomb attacks, threats, pressure of the kind us cosy journalists in delhi can’t even begin to understand and enough stress to make him first grow bald, and then for the hair to regrow in a different colour.

It was a masterclass in war journalism from a master of the craft.

And it more than made up for the head of department’s speech … which was godawful crap of the worst kind. It was supposed to be a vote of thanks. It ended up being part-self glorification, part-kiss-everybody’s-ass.

Greater Kashmir’s executive editor was also there. GK is a local English daily, supposedly with a separatist bias, according to one of my reporters out here.

What was strange, atleast to my Hindu-majority city-bred sensibilities, was to see everyone of the speakers preface their speech with a little prayer – Bismillah ur Rehman …

Originally published on ] t h i n k [ (tootb.blogspot.com); recovered from the Wayback Machine.