KOCHI: The young and chirpy journalist-turned-writer Shweta Ganesh Kumar is excited over the release of her new book. The book, ‘Between The Headlines: The Travails of a TV Reporter’ unveils protagonist Satyabhama’s journeys as a television reporter for N.E.W.S India.Speaking about the book, she says her new book is about the ground realities any journalist faces while entering the mainstream media. “It is a realistic story woven through a fictional plot and it sheds light on the invisible side of journalism. Many a times people enter this field having the fancy to change the social structure. But in reality one cannot change the condition of the society and miseries hit people because of the set media policies,” says Shweta, who worked as a correspondent with CNN-IBN for two years.Shweta’s first novel ‘The Travails of a News Trainee’ released in May 2011 became a sensation as soon as it hit the bookstores. It was listed a bestseller in two months after its release. Asked whether both her books are an account of her own life story, she says, “Of course not. They are not autobiographies. Though it has some personal elements, it also talks about the experiences of many of my friends in the media.”While in her first book she talked about the hardships faced by Satyabhama, a news trainee, in the second, the author talks about how Satyabhama chases stories with a vengeance, all set to get into the league of India’s best reporters.When asked whether her book is a reflection of her own inner desires that she wished to do as a journalist, she says, “It is for the aspiring journalists. In journalism schools we are taught only the best part of the media but nobody teaches how it is at the grass-root levels. We can understand that only when we start a job afresh. As news trainees, one is often given all the odd jobs such as doing the ticker to fetching coffee for the boss. So in my book I have talked mostly about behind the scenes of the media profession. Many times I too felt disappointed for not following up many good stories because a news organisation’s priorities are different. Hence we could not always do stories that we wish to do,” says Shweta who did her masters in journalism from the Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication, Pune.As any upcoming writer, Shweta also had to struggle a lot to get her books published. “I was very confident with my manuscript but for any first time author, I too got some 22 rejections for my first book. But luckily Shristi publishers who supported lot of new writers agreed to publish my book,” says Shweta. “Now the publishing industry is also witnessing a boom. Many new gen writers are coming up. People have also started liking Indian writers,”adds this mother of a four-month-old.Shweta, a hardcore traveller and adventurist observes that her writing style is expressive. “I believe that people should understand what we are writing. One should express the self and not impress with the language.”The book ‘Between The Headlines: The Travails of a TV Reporter’ is priced at Rs 125 and is available in all the leading bookstores and online. Meanwhile the 27-year-old is also planning to have a third book in the series. “In the third, the protagonist Satyabhama will enter into activism.”
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