Reporter's Diary: Hunt for story turns into frantic search for missing pen

Recently, when this reporter was at the Adambakkam police station to collect details for a story, she settled down to talk with a police official and take notes. Incidentally, her pen slipped off her hand and disappeared from sight. As this scribe began searching frantically for the pen, as it was the only one with her at the time, three constables who were on duty at the station joined in to help.

After searching under the tables and chairs, two of the constables gave up their search and even wondered openly if the pen ever fell in the first place and asked this scribe to check inside her handbag once again. But, the third policeman claimed to have seen it roll under a large table and even bent down, straining himself, to fish it out.

He returned it with a witty remark, “You journalists only write about the times when things go wrong and do not highlight situations when the men in khakhi lend a helping hand.” Suggesting a headline for a possible story, he said, ‘Why don’t you write an article on ‘how a police helped a scribe find her missing pen’? Now was that a harmless comment or did it come with a ‘pun intended’ tag?