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It is strange what your 40th birthday does to you. Suddenly, you realise that you aren't a thirty something young urban professional (emphasise on the youth factor, please). The twenty somethings in the office call you sir, snigger at your old-fashioned bush shirt, and the growing crop of grey hair and balding pate becomes the stuff of much mirth.
So, what do you do? Some of us simply shrug it off as destiny, others vigorously fight it by attempting to rediscover fading memories: listening to Indi-pop, going pub crawling and wearing colourful clothes. I must confess to having done neither: instead of luxuriating in the comfort zone of an office environment I was so wonderfully familiar with, I thought of taking the slightly more difficult road. Try something different, a voice inside me said.
I listened to the voice, decided that I would try my hand at setting up a journalist-driven channel. Eight months later, the pregnant idea is finally out. CNN-IBN is work in progress, still in an embryonic state, waiting to achieve fulfilment. Its birth is the result of several minds coming together, of several talented people expressing a desire to be part of a dream.
There have been several moments of self-doubt in this period -- hey, which 40-year-old Maharashtrian was ever successful at a start up? (the few who probably are reside in Silicon Valley). But there have been the fun moments -- from choosing the office site to deciding on names for programmes. Sure, I miss the lazy afternoons in Parliament's central hall, talking politics over endless cups of chai with 'sources', knowing there was always someone in office who would hold the fort.
Have I missed the journalistic action? Yes, maybe twice in the last eight months. The first time was the day LK Advani said he was resigning from the BJP presidentship. I am a journalist of the mandal-mandir era. Covering LK Advani's rath yatra was one of the first assignments of my career as a journalist. So, watching the symbol of mandir politics being devoured by the very forces he had unleashed seemed to be a particularly poignant story.
The other occasion was a week ago when Tendulkar scored his 35th century. It was a moment to celebrate, a moment to wax lyrical on the joys of watching a master play a game one has loved so dearly. My connection with these stories has been to write about them. There is something about the written word that little else can match.
But yes, I have missed the buzz of a newsroom every time a story breaks. With the launch of the channel, the buzz is back. There is no greater joy as a professional than watching young journalists running about, a smile on their face, a tripod around their shoulders, ready to be in the heart of the action.
Am I sounding old, jaded? Hell, I'm 40 guys, and remember, television journalism is at the end of the day a young man's medium. Most of the young journalists at CNN-IBN have a fire in the belly, a passion for the news. That is what will sustain them. That is what sustains all of us here. That is what we hope will make us different in a cluttered market. We want to be robust and intelligent, we want to have the dash of a Virender Sehwag but also the muscle of a Tendulkar and Dravid. Enjoy the news.
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