Author Interview: Life of a TV journalist brought to the fore

A voice from the Delhi Input Desk shrieked, “Sanjay, tsunami warning! We need you live right now!” There was a massive earthquake in Northern Sumatra measuring more than 8 on the Richter scale, triggering a tsunami warning to 28 countries. India was somewhere on top of the list. It revived memories of the killer waves that had ravaged coastal Tamil Nadu in 2004.

Somewhere in the midst of this excerpt, NDTV journalist Sanjay Pinto, his cameraperson and 75 other news crew members crammed into the top of the lighthouse on Marina Beach, in anticipation of what was to happen next.

All of a sudden, we looked at each other. “Did you feel that?” I asked cameraperson Edwin. “Macha, run da…” There were quake aftershocks and we felt as if the lighthouse was swaying!

Sanjay’s latest novel, My NDTV Days, is nothing short of a roller coaster ride. From throwing a contentious question to the then (late) Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to having the state’s former (late) Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa stopping her convoy in the middle of the road to greet him, anecdotes of what transpired in his stint with the TV channel make for great read. Here are excerpts from the interview — one journalist to another.

My published Letters To The Editor and articles in the Indian Express during my school and college years, my National Debating Champion title and my legal qualification gave me an edge over other applicants. The fact that I knew the then Bureau Chief Jennifer Arul since my kindergarten years at Don Bosco, where her son was my classmate and my mother’s student, also tilted the scales in my favour.

My maiden story was aired on the Good Morning India breakfast show on Star News in February, 1998. It was a soft story on an IAS officer who combined his passion for painting with his profession. The late Mr. Bhujanga Rao also happened to be my close friend’s dad. Over the next 14 and a half years, I graduated to hard hitting, analytical news stories and anchoring news and audience based debate shows. 

This just has to be ‘My First Vote’! Nothing can come close to that on-field romance that has changed my life. Vidya is God’s gift to me. If I have to mention another chapter though, it would be the last on my deputation with NDTV Hindu as its Executive Editor. These pages reveal how live anchoring of flagship shows was my real forte. 

National TV journalism gives a youngster — I was 24 when I first joined — a captive audience of a few million viewers. When your face and name are recognised, it can be heady stuff. But a 24x7 news schedule can be quite punishing. When the vagaries of news dictate your life, that’s when the glamour evaporates! In almost 15 years, I had never switched off my mobile phone. It was a part of my anatomy. I have tried to highlight the challenges of news gathering in a 24x7 breaking news environment through real news stories.

For Prime Time news to go back to Dr. Prannoy Roy’s old format of edited news stories from across the country instead of the slanging matches that pass for debates at 9 pm today.

I have made many friends among IPS and IAS officers. Most of them have been the same even after I shed the NDTV tag. That’s a blessing. But my wife Vidya remains my best all weather buddy.

As the legal profession has a long gestation period with all the challenges of a lateral entry, the temptation to go back to the media that gave me all the recognition has been very strong over the last 7 years since I made that switch from journalism to law. Hypothetically, at 45, I would never want to go back to field reporting, which is what life in a bureau is all about. Your job title will change but the job description will be the same. I am open to doing a weekly show on TV in addition to my columns in newspapers. I believe that my career move was God’s will and it will always be ‘My Lord’! 

Speed, at the pace of breaking news! In my current profession, that can be a drawback. Patience is just not one of my virtues. I remember arguing a PIL before a division bench of the Madras High Court. When the then Assistant Solicitor General sought a month’s time to file the Union Govt’s Counter, I exclaimed, “What? One month!” Justice Chitra Venkatraman commented with a smile: “Mr. Counsel, the government does not work as fast as the media!” NDTV taught me to multi task, which explains my many avatars today.