Reporter's Diary: This journalist was ‘trained’ not to break rules

But, there are those occasions when one cannot practise what he or she preaches. Recently, when this reporter was rushing for an assignment in a congested locality in north Chennai, an unmanned railway crossing stood between her and her appointment. 

Not too many tracks but just four of them that seem to emerge out of nowhere. For a person who has grown up hearing horror stories of people mowed down by speeding locomotives and who has repeatedly warned the public to not venture into such an adventure in her reports and articles, jumping  over those half a dozen railway tracks was one of those ‘should I or should I not’ moments. She desperately looked for a way to get around those tracks but there seemed to be not much of choice. 

A few local women who live close to the tracks were watching her hesitate and couldn’t understand the dilemma. “Madam,” said one of the women in the area, “The  train from Andhra would have passed the line, please don’t be scared. You can cross safely now. We do it all the time.” The reassurance helped, and as she was getting late for an assignment, this reporter decided to just dart across the tracks without pondering over ethics. Perhaps, rules could be set aside at times. 

— Janani Sampath, Chennai