Review by R Bharathiraja-2

Mr. R. Bharathiraja, a fellow blogger and a good friend has reviewed the first 13 chapters of my novel Journalist in his site Archive of An Unknown. Writing fiction is new to me. When I received positive comments, I felt elated that my writing is being appreciated by readers. Now this review is the biggest recognition I can think of. You can read the second part of the review titled Journalist - A Blog Novel by Mr. Hariharan Valady (2/3) here.


Thanks Bharathiraja for sparing time in your busy schedule and writing this review.

Review by R Bharathiraja-1

Mr. R. Bharathiraja, a fellow blogger and a good friend has reviewed the first 13 chapters of my novel Journalist in his site Archive of An Unknown. Writing fiction is new to me. When I received positive comments, I felt elated that my writing is being appreciated by readers. Now this review is the biggest recognition I can think of. You can read the first part of the review titled Journalist - A Blog Novel by Mr. Hariharan Valady (1/3) here.


Thanks Bharathiraja for sparing time in your busy schedule and writing this review.

Journalist Chapter-3

 

Vidya woke up early the next morning and got ready. She called up Senthil, the channel’s senior cameraman in Chennai and asked him to be ready for travel.

She was pacing up and down the hall when Anand was getting ready to leave for the hospital. Looking at her restlessness, he felt pity.

He had already explained to her that politicians would be starting their day very late. Further it was election time. Durai would have concluded his campaign very late the previous night. He would not be meeting his personal assistant before 11 am. She had no option but to wait.

Anand said he would call the PA after 11 and let her know of Durai’s decision.

11 am. Anand called her and said that Durai had not yet met the PA.

Uma was going to Spencers to buy provisions. Whether Vidya would like to go with her? Vidya declined.

12 noon. Durai was meeting alliance partners and discussing the election strategy. PA could not disturb him.

Uma returned. Dhobi came in to collect the clothes.

1.30 pm. Durai was having lunch with his father, mother and sister. Again 

PA should not disturb him.

Gautham Shah, editor-in-chief of her channel called to find out the progress, if any.

2.30 pm. Durai was leaving for the Election Commission office to lodge a complaint against the malpractices of TDK.

Anand returned from hospital for lunch. All three of them had lunch.

4.00 pm. Rathinam and Durai were holding a press meet.

Senthil called her to find out when they would be travelling.

Anand slept for half an hour. He left for the hospital at 5.30 pm.

6.00 pm. Durai was leaving for addressing a public meeting in Saidapet.

Vidya was losing hope. Possibility of failure again loomed large in front of her. The whole evening would go in public meeting. ‘What kind of PA he is! He is not able to meet his boss even once since morning. Is he going to get her the permission?’

Senthil called her again.

Her cell phone rang at 9.00 pm. It was not Anand’s number. She was not in a mood to talk to anyone else. She did not pick up.

It rang again. She did not pick up.

Again…She was irritated. She picked up. “Hello…” She barked.

“Hello….This is Durai Rathinam. Is it Vidya?”

Vidya and Senthil took the first flight to Trichy the next morning. When Durai called her the previous night at 9 o’clock, he more than made up for the wait. His PA had told him in the afternoon that she would like to accompany him during the campaign. Other politicians in the state were reluctant to take her with them. When his PA reminded him a couple of times in the evening, Durai asked him to get her number from Anand so that he could talk to her directly.

Durai was seated in the first row in Business Class along with Manimaran, the Trichy MLA.

The flight landed at Trichy at 7 am.  There were about 1,000 party workers outside the airport to welcome him.

Go back to Chapter 2          Read all chapters          Take me to Chapter 4 




(The above is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.)                    

Journalist Chapter-2

Elections to the Tamilnadu State Assembly had been announced. Vidya flew down to Chennai in the last week of March, 2011 to cover the campaign trail of senior politicians.

However TN politicians were a different lot compared to the Delhi ones- members of opposing parties do not see eye to eye; participating in TV debates is simply not done.

Every party in Tamilnadu had its own TV channel which showered undiluted praise on its leaders. When their own channels could reach the people in rural areas in Tamil with positive news about them, why would they want a journalist from a national TV sitting on their neck throughout the day and asking uncomfortable questions?  Also most of the leaders were not comfortable with English. So her request to cover their campaign was turned down by virtually all parties and all leaders.

India Times’ Chennai reporter tried through all his contacts, but could not manage to get permission for Vidya to accompany any politician worth the name in his campaign trip. Her other contacts in Chennai’s journalistic circles were also not of much use.  

She had always stunned the media with unbelievable interviews. When other reporters were satisfied with Musharraf and Zardari, she surprised the Indian media with an interview with General Kayani. She was the first reporter from India to interview the late Colonel Gaddafi. She had interviewed Prabhakaran a few days prior to his death! And here in TN, she is unable to get any politician.

“Egoistic idiots!” Vidya was pouring out her frustration to Uma, her childhood friend.

Vidya and Uma studied together in Mumbai. After graduation when Vidya went to US to pursue journalism, Uma married Dr. Anand and settled in Chennai. Anand was the head of nephrology department in Apollo Hospital.

They were sitting in the balcony of Uma’s R.A. Puram flat facing Greenways Road and having their evening tea. Across the road were the bungalows of Ministers of the ruling TDK-Tamizh Desiya Kazhagam  (Tamil National Party). Elections on April 13 would decide whether they would continue to occupy those government quarters or they would have to vacate.

Anand was sipping his tea and listening to Vidya’s grouse for the past half an hour. She was planning to return to Mumbai the next day as her trip had flopped. Her first and major failure in the past 5 years and she could not stand that!

“Vidya…wait…wait…I think I can help. One of my patients is a personal assistant to Durai Rathinam. He has been with Durai for the past 15 years and is really close to him…I can try through him…” Anand volunteered, though tentatively.

Her face lit up. Durai was the youth wing leader of the UTK- Uyarum Tamizhar Kazhagam (Rising Tamils’ Party) - the main opposition party. His father Rathinam was the President. Durai was being viewed as the future face of UTK. With a management degree from Harvard and engineering degree from IIT, people of Tamilnadu felt that he would be the best to lead the State in future.

UTK had brought all the opposition parties together and forged a strong electoral alliance. Durai was credited with forging that strong alliance. Most of the pre-election surveys had predicted that the UTK led alliance would sweep the polls, capturing 170-180 seats out of the total 234.

There were serious allegations of corruption and land grabbing against the ruling TDK’s leader and Chief Minister Ponnusamy, his family members and cabinet colleagues and the popular perception was that the party would face a rout.

It was not that UTK was a clean party. They faced corruption allegations five years back and lost the 2006 elections. In Tamilnadu politics recent corruption is more unpardonable than old corruption!

“Wow…that would be great…” Vidya was ecstatic.

She made Anand call his patient immediately. After some persuasion, the guy said he would talk to Durai and let them know the result the next day.

A night of restless wait...

Go back to Chapter 1                    Read all Chapters                            Take me Chapter 3                                  


 (This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.)

Journalist Chapter-1

“I need some more time….,” said a hesitant Vidya. The infinite rehearsals that she had been having over the past 2 days did not come to her rescue. Nervously she looked at his face.

She could see a flicker of disappointment swiftly passing through Durai Rathinam’s face. A trained politician that Durai was, he suppressed his disappointment in no time and regained his calm. He took a sip from the glass of water, before answering.

“I understand…Take your time. We can meet again…if you think it will help you take a decision….”

It was 9 o’clock on a Saturday night. They were sitting in an open air restaurant in ECR, Chennai. The restaurant had ensured absolute privacy for them. There was no one else in the pool side but the two of them.

After all, Durai was the Finance and Power Minister of Tamil Nadu and the son of the Chief Minister. Everyone was expecting that the CM would soon pass on the mantle to Durai. The restaurant would not like to lose a chance to please him, even if it meant foregoing the week end crowd.

Vidya rose abruptly from her seat indicating her desire to leave. A cool and composed Durai caught her by her hand and gently pushed her back to her seat.

“O..ho…Vidhu…we can finish the dessert and leave. It’s not that some coalition talks have failed and one party is walking out in protest…” He was smiling as if nothing had happened. She cursed herself. He was right. Why did she get up?

She viewed him from the corner of her eyes while tasting the ice cream. He must be around forty; 14-15 years elder to her; tall, dark, well built. For a change he was in T Shirt and jeans which showed him much younger. But for the thinning hair, one would easily put his age at 30.

After the dessert, he led her to the car. A pilot car was leading them and another one was following - the bare minimum security without which the DGP would not allow him to travel. He was driving the car himself. He started talking about his job, its pressures, and his party, frequently asking her views on certain issues. He was normal. She was not.

Durai had proposed to her two days earlier. She was supposed to give an answer that night. Everyone back home was waiting anxiously to hear her decision. Kaveri, her mother wanted her to reject the proposal outright while Chidhambaram, her father had left the decision to her. Younger sister Archana advised her to listen to her heart- a typical Hindi serial kind of advice. Uma, her friend was the vociferous of all; she had been advising Vidya for the past two days to say ‘no’.

Vidya has not been able to decide.

Vidya is a popular anchor in the Mumbai based national news channel, India Times TV. She was very good in academics and Chidambaram had given her the best education. When she wanted to do journalism, he sent her to the Graduate School of Journalism, Berkeley. After passing out from there, she joined the channel as a reporter in 2006. She worked her way up. At 26, she is one of the most watched anchors of electronic media. Her prime time debate, ‘My take’ is a TRP topper. Millions watched the programme to know her take on various issues plaguing the nation.

And here she is, unable to decide on the most important question of her life!

Read all chapters                                                                                       go to Chapter 2


(The above is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.)

Journalist

Introduction

My first novel! A few followers of my blog enquired why I had not been writing for a while. The answer is: I have been working on this novel for the past one month.

When I searched the net for Indian blogs devoted to novels, I did not find many. May be, a blog is not an appropriate medium for publishing novels.  Nevertheless I decided to experiment. I intend to publish this novel through my blog. The novel runs into 60 chapters of 600-700 words each. I plan to publish one chapter every alternate day.

Politics and media are the two fields that attract me. The novel obviously revolves around these two spheres.

Vidya is a young, popular anchor in an English News Channel. She falls in love with Durai Rathinam, the son of the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu and a 

minister in Tamilnadu’s cabinet.

Durai is 40+, married and has a son who is 14 years old.

How does Durai’s wife react to their love story? Do Durai’s parents agree to his marriage? What about Vidya’s parents? Do they agree? Does Vidya succeed in marrying him?

When Vidya notices instances of massive corruption in the Tamilnadu Government, is she able to investigate and report the same? Is any pressure brought on her? Does she succumb to the pressure?

Does this marriage compromise her position, her independence as a journalist?

Rahul Jain, a fellow anchor leaves the Channel and becomes the Editor-in-Chief of a rival channel. Rahul’s progress thereafter is phenomenal. Is Vidya able to take Rahul’s growth in the right spirit? Does the competition with Rahul influence some of her decisions?

As always my wife went through the first few chapters and encouraged me to write further.

Now I am looking for your views, comments and support.

See all Chapters                                                                                Take me to Chapter 1