Writing, editing and re-writing are different

My dear students, friends and colleagues,

Just when I thought newspaper reporters were becoming an “endangered species” having been swamped and run over by video journalists, my dear friend and colleague Vinita Deshmukh, the editor of one of India’s gutsiest “little weeklies” – the Intelligent Pune – has won the Chameli Devi Jain award for 2008-09.

One of India’s most honest reporters with a conscience, Vinita has fiercely been swimming “against the tide” of celebrity and page 3 journalism. She is known by an enormous body of work, along with the late Prakash Kardaley, while she was at the Indian Express in Pune during 1987-2006. Her editorial work at “Citizen’s Voice” is part of what is called “civic and development journalism” in the syllabi of journalism courses.

Along with the Maharashtra Herald of Pune (estd. 1963), where I started my full-time career in journalism as a sub-editor in 1983 and left in 1996 as an assistant editor, the Pune edition of the Indian Express took up civic issues and campaigns boldly and consistently. Vinita is part of that great tradition of local reporting that is on par with the finest national or international reportage.

Get in touch with Vinita Deshmukh on facebook or by email: vinitapune@gmail.com

*****

With this opening tribute to Vinita, let me proceed. This column consists of two posts. Heeding Gauri, Baruk, the Princess, and others I have arranged them as follows for your reading and commenting convenience:

1. An element of editing: This time on “The difference between writing and editing”.
2. A think-piece, elaborating upon the title of my blog, “Against the Tide”. The inaugural think-piece is entitled, “No no to Nano! Shun the Nano!” Ending with a tail-piece.

With this introduction, I continue with the next post of my column: