Break news, don’t break down

Broken News

Author: Amrita Tripathi

Publisher: Tranquebar

Price: Rs. 250

If you are a news junkie, you have probably seen her on TV almost every day. Journalist Amrita Tripathi is a familiar face on CNN-IBN. Her debut novel Broken News is an essence of what it means to be a television news anchor in the competitive and often ruthless world of TV news. This book gives an insider’s take on television news from a TV veteran herself.

Amrita gives us an insight into this world through her protagonist, an anchor at the peak of her career. M, as she is addressed throughout the book, is a TV veteran who spent all her twenties building up her career. Now as M admits, “it’s time I reaped the benefits”.

The book is divided into the pre-breakdown and post-breakdown stages of the protagonist. All the elements that make up chick-lit are thrown in: the demanding boss, the two all-weather friends, the girl pal at work, clubbing, office politics (and romance too, of course), and the ultimate nervous breakdown.

Sure, it is a work of fiction, and according to the author, there are no shades of her real-life career in the novel. However, the reader gets a sense of how a real newsroom functions and the lightning speed at which things happen here . After my internship at CNN-IBN, I felt that many incidents in the book were like a replay of the usual scenes in the newsroom. Breaking news, the entire newsroom folk getting excited at a certain news item, the DJs (Desk Jockeys), the run-downs, reporters doing lives, glamorous anchors sashaying with take-away coffee, and of course, the constant floating population of young interns. The language is peppy and reminds me of the author and her way of speaking. I found the novel engaging and lapped it up on a Sunday afternoon!

The story sets itself into a cynical note in many parts especially in the post-breakdown stage that shows the bitter truths in this field. However, this is no excuse for aspiring journalists to step out of the race in chasing their dreams.

Persian Ponderings

Persia never fails to intrigue me. Yes, Persia. I prefer that name instead of Iran.

My introduction to that country was through its films. During my undergrad days, there was this phase, where on lazy afternoons during the holidays, I’d feed on a steady diet of dubbed Iranian films.

In Not Without My Daughter, Sally Field plays the role of Betty Mehmoody, the American woman who married an Iranian doctor and visits Tehran on a holiday with her daughter and husband to meet his family. Little does Betty realise that the moment she set foot on the Iranian soil, she had jumped into a ring of fire.

One of my favourite Iranian movies is The Apple, the story of two sisters locked up in their house all their life by their ageing father and blind mother.

The film industry in Iran is a well established one. Film-makers like Jaffar Panahi have made Iranian films accessible and appealing to the global audience. Bumm Bumm Bole, the Bollywood version of the charming film Iranian film Children of Heaven, is no match compared to its mother version.

The simple yet powerful emotions of ordinary Iranians in these films are just what stole my heart, and are sure to steal yours too.

Now, with my growing fetish for Iranian films and of course Iranian novels, that country figures on my list of top five places to see before I die. It is not Iran that I want to visit. I want to go to Persia; the mystical land of old-world charms and culture. Such a place seems surreal today, with the tumultuous events that plague the country. May be I could use a magic carpet and go back in time. These carpets will be 'made in Persia', of course.