We the JOURNOS

Journalists are the most underpaid people in India or so it seems looking at them in any late evening press conference (I wonder how many people have the same opinion about me!). I usually avoid late evening press conferences cos you rarely find anything worthwhile in any such events. Most people (and I'm talking about my very own journalist fraternity here) attend late evening conferences only because they know they'll get some free drinks (or daaru).

Looking at the gathering at the HP product launch today, I was surprised to see that its not only me who makes the mistake of reaching on time. The conference hall had at least 20-25 people when I entered bang on time. While the reporters seem to be sitting at the tables, the cameramen (from the TV channels) were busy drinking while setting up their cameras for the launch at the same time.

As I sat at one of the tables, some senior journalist (I'm not too sure if he was senior in terms of experience or just his age) joined the same table. He looked like those typical journos seen on in Bollywood movies, with long Grey beard, khaadi shirt and stoned eyes with dark circles. The only thing that seemed to be missing was a jhola. He was doing something weird. I couldn't really understand what he wanted to do. He seemed to have been drinking a lot even before I walked in. For some reason, he found the table cloth very appealing. He was caressing it, touching and feeling it, trying to adjust it in some way that only he knew better about.

After observing his interesting behavior for almost an hour, the conference began. As the presentations went on, our senior journalist was oblivious to the environment with a few more pegs of the golden drink.

After the presentations, a new product was launched and one could feel the heat in the room. The Television cameramen were too drunk by this time to realize that they were (supposed to be) civilized. As the photographers flocked the stage with their cameras, the Television cameramen were shouting on top of their voice, asking the photographers to leave the stage so that they could also shoot. Well, I wondered what kind of pictures they would've clicked without the tripod stand!!

Meanwhile, our special guest (yes, the same Bolloywood ishtyle journo) was still in his trance. The Q&A session began, starting with a few questions from some kind of fake journalist who seemed to have been planted by the company itself in order to ask questions that go in the company's favor. It was followed by many other questions from other journos. Just when the session was about to end, our bearded friend woke up from his trance, and raised his hand for a question. He popped his question with great enthusiasm, "I like it...who are competitor and if you no competitor then how long will you enjoy the market." Well those were the only words he spoke. I guess with the golden drink running down his throat, no one wanted him to repeat his golden words!