HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AMAR
What is it with reminiscing? A bunch of senior journalists get together and they begin to discuss about circa 1990. Probably because they were in their prime and those days they did a lot including making phone calls on a regular rotary dial phone. They must have had small black books and a phenomenal memory too. Those were exciting days, filled with travel, meeting people on the spot, discussing stuff face-to-face.
And of course there was the Press Club. Then it was opposite the Nizam College, two floors above the Blue Diamond Hotel. That still remains one of my favorite Chinese joints. Is it still there? Is it still there?
The bar used to be one floor below and we would walk up to the terrace and sit on the edge of it fearlessly. We would be parked below huge posters, even as we were served our drinks and snacks, while the sporty ones would play table tennis in the tiny room there. Exciting times.
Once my boss called me to his room and told me to behave myself, for he had been told that in a tiff on the PC terrace I had actually picked up a chair and chucked it at someone, clearly missing him and the said chair falling down two floors on the road. No one was hurt for there was no lawsuit. But I have no memory of that momentous event. And I thought I only forgot faces and names.
Of course I continued my trips to the PC on my scooter and in total inebriation would drive other colleagues and drop them home and then reached home. Those were the days. No one stopped us.
But no one in this group asked me about my days and my excitements. It is alright. I am still sharing.
And so I listened to the 'boys' talking about the past, how each of them created a niche for himself in the history of regional journalism, this side of the Vindhyas.
We were loud even as snacks kept coming from the first floor, Amar being the birthday boy and also the host of the evening.
Then I was gifted with a book by Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao, chief PRO for the CM of Telangana. The book is called 'Genesis and evolution of Bharat Rashtra Samithi'. We actually took a photograph and I found that very endearing. The photo with the group also is so old worldly, in the sense of us posing for it. But we were quiet during that time.
.
And of course there was the Press Club. Then it was opposite the Nizam College, two floors above the Blue Diamond Hotel. That still remains one of my favorite Chinese joints. Is it still there? Is it still there?
The bar used to be one floor below and we would walk up to the terrace and sit on the edge of it fearlessly. We would be parked below huge posters, even as we were served our drinks and snacks, while the sporty ones would play table tennis in the tiny room there. Exciting times.
Once my boss called me to his room and told me to behave myself, for he had been told that in a tiff on the PC terrace I had actually picked up a chair and chucked it at someone, clearly missing him and the said chair falling down two floors on the road. No one was hurt for there was no lawsuit. But I have no memory of that momentous event. And I thought I only forgot faces and names.
Of course I continued my trips to the PC on my scooter and in total inebriation would drive other colleagues and drop them home and then reached home. Those were the days. No one stopped us.
But no one in this group asked me about my days and my excitements. It is alright. I am still sharing.
And so I listened to the 'boys' talking about the past, how each of them created a niche for himself in the history of regional journalism, this side of the Vindhyas.
We were loud even as snacks kept coming from the first floor, Amar being the birthday boy and also the host of the evening.
Then I was gifted with a book by Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao, chief PRO for the CM of Telangana. The book is called 'Genesis and evolution of Bharat Rashtra Samithi'. We actually took a photograph and I found that very endearing. The photo with the group also is so old worldly, in the sense of us posing for it. But we were quiet during that time.
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