Hindustan Times
We went late
Everyone was a little tired of Pakistan. Our foreign editor left for home every day praying for a quiet night. But he was back on his BlackBerry within 30 minutes or thereabouts.
One more suicide bombing, one more statement from their home office or one more twist in the Swat story. It just didn’t stop. Tuesday night our Mumbai crime reporters came back with some more.Indian intelligence agencies helped a European country - you will know shortly which one - arrest a man suspected of enabling 26/11 with payments abroad and for buying an engine for the dingy used by the attackers.
The story had huge implications. India could now piece together parts of the puzzle that Kasab, the lone attacker arrested, couldn’t help with. He was only a foot soldier, trained to go kill and get killed.
The conspirators were elsewhere. Some of them were in custody of Pakistan’s security agencies but India will never get an unadulterated account of who planned the attack and how.
Shahid Jamil Riaz can now help India go around those roadblocks. Let’s see. He was not exactly Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, described as the principle architect of 9/11, but he was a big catch.
There was no way we could have let Pakistan fatigue impact our decision on this one. It had to go big and we did go big with it - lead story despite everything else happening on the political front (Manmohan singh and L K Advani not talking, for instance).
And here is how this story landed on Page One.
It was not on anyone’s list till 6:00 pm. And then it popped up on our mails: an alert from our chief of crime bureau in Mumbai. It had a postscript explaining the importance of the story. He needn’t have bothered.
Editors all over - in Delhi and Mumbai - jumped in excitement. The Edition had looked a little weak (as described by Ze Boss). And there it was: the solution of all problems.
This happens at newspapers a lot. Things may look excruciatingly dull - so dull you can actually hear people complain “nothing is happening”. Ominous words according to me; I never use that phrase.’
Sometimes, stories begin popping up as soon as someone uttered that phrase. Boom. A bomb may go off someplace, or a note/letter/document may surface turning everything upside down.
Late one evening, when the paper had looked completely settled, every story had been slotted and accounted for and senior editors had begun packing their laptops, Assam blew up.
Three explosions too place one after the other. Page One changed entirely, and so did inside pages. Very quickly. So what was going on Page One and what was going inside, and how much space do we give the story inside.
Decisions, decisions and decisions.
Next morning, it looked all so easy. The paper showed no signs of the madness that went with it all, hectic pace of developments, activities and everything else that goes into producing a good paper.
The reporter was under pressure to produce the best story possible - all angles covered (an impossible task nowadays with new channels Breaking News every second). Yet, the reporter had to deliver.
The sub-editors/rewriters had to run through the copy at the speed of light. The designer couldn’t afford to get too finicky about the way the artwork looked, even if it was less than perfect. Everyone had to rush.
We did, of course, get late. And a certain Mr X did send everyone a log of release time that reflected neither the effort of the reporter, nor of the sub-editor nor the designer.
Metro went at 11:55, almost an hour behind time.
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Mr. yashvant rai U have got it all wrong on the arrest of rizvi . Read the Pakistani media which is flooded with news of his arrest in Pakistan than in Europe as your newspaper suggested.
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yashwant raj Reply:
April 17th, 2009 at 9:38 am
the jury is still out on this one. we are following it very closely and will keep you posted.
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“Nothing is happening “sounds that the doctor crying, “isnt anyone getting ill!”
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yashwant raj Reply:
April 17th, 2009 at 9:39 am
yes, it does sound quite grim
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grt peace , especially for us who do not know how newspapers decide what goes where and how. and crushing presure as the world goes..
i dnt knw still if you got it rightly on wednesday though.
acc to the indian government as well as the pakistani govt, this terorists riyaz(of Let) is in pakistani detaintion since December last! though I am retired currently, i still folow nws closely.
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yashwant raj Reply:
April 17th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
we are on the story, and will keep everyone posted.
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Many journalists die young due to all this stress.
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yashwant raj Reply:
April 18th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
there is stress in every profession
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What is the update on this story? What is the truth? Pls let us know.
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yashwant raj Reply:
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:09 pm
i will, of course; i promised. but we haven’t heard anything yet, either way
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Namaskar Yashwant ji, I am doing what I have been avoiding for the last couple of days for no reason. I really wanted to congratulate for writing wonderful pieces in HT Blogs. Your blogs are both lovely and lively. ‘We went late’ was the best. It transported me to those years when I was working as a humble desk journalist. Plz write more frequently.
Vivek Shukla
Ex-Hindustan
ND
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