वेगळी वाट: मुलाखत - संतृप्ती राजनकर

' वेगळ्या वाटेने ' या सदरात या वेळी आपण संतृप्ती राजनकर हिची माहिती करून घेणार आहोत. मित्र मंडळाचे आधारस्तंभ श्री. राजनकर आणि सौ. कुमुदताई यांची ती मुलगी. तिने पत्रकारिता हे क्षेत्र निवडले. गेली वीस-बावीस वर्षे या क्षेत्रांत ती काम करत आहे. संगणकीकरणाच्या आधीचा आणि नंतरचा ही काळ तिने अनुभवला. या सर्व दृष्टीने बदलत्या क्षेत्रातले तिचे अनुभव आज ती सांगत आहे.

Was Journalism my childhood craze?
As a child the one subject I did not like was maths, so that more or less decided the course of my life. Basically, I knew from the very beginning that I did not want to take up science, and so engineering or medicine was ruled out. Back in the 80s, it wasn’t such a craze, but these two fields were definitely catching up. Luckily for me, my grasp of the English language was decent, and that opened up a lot of options for me.  I was one of those who spoke at least 5 languages with quite some ease as a child, just like my sister and brother did.

Thinking back, I think I could have leveraged that aspect to get into the diplomatic service, translations or other such lucrative professions. But the information highway had not yet opened up, and we depended more on those around us to pick professions. But no regrets on that count.

I think some casual conversations with various people eventually led me to journalism.  After completing my BA from Jyoti Nivas College,I did my journalism from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

I then did a short stint with an NGO in documentation, worked on a technical newsletter, and an evening newspaper, before eventually joining The Times of India in 1993. This is a rather long time, but the organization has always provided me with a lot of opportunities to learn and grow.

Newspaper's changing Scenario

In the early days, we would manually edit reports and then send them for typesetting. One would then have to stand around these glass tables and literally be at the mercy of the paste up man to finish your page on time. You gave him the layout and he would cut and paste your matter as you directed him. If he did not feel like working, he would take his own sweet time, unmindful of the fact that you are watching the clock every minute to ensure your page is done within the deadline.

Of course as you grew in the organization, you would reach a point when you could just hand over a set of printouts to the man, tell him what to do and get on with other important stuff yourself. From then to today, when everything is done on computers, it has been a journey of constant change, of constantly learning and unlearning to adapt to changing technologies and environments.  Starting as a copy-editor, one would struggle to fill a page within the set deadline. But over the years, one learns to not just edit matter but also take charge of an entire edition and mentor other people and help them grow professionally.

Change is constant in this field

For about 3 years, I moved to Hyderabad, continuing to work with The Times of India. That stint too proved to be a huge learning experience, given that the set up was not as professional and smooth-sailing as it was in Bangalore. I would like to believe that it was here that I truly discovered my leadership qualities and realized that I could take charge of things, and carry an edition on my shoulder. It gave me the confidence to plod on. This stay at Hyderabad also made me realize that Bangalore is truly the best city to work in and live in.

For the past 10 years, I have been handling the Times of India’s student edition in Bangalore. 

A part of the Newspaper in Education programme The Times NIE student edition is a special edition that is custom made for students and goes directly to schools.  Moving to NIE gave me the advantage of finishing work early in the date, by newspaper standards. I still only get to leave office at around 9 pm every day, but it is definitely much better than 2 am, which was the norm till then.

Today, I deal with hundreds of students across schools in the city. What we write and design reaches students in 11 cities across India. And that is a feeling of accomplishment that is most satisfying.

Journalism keeps you informed about new happenings.
Late work hours, no concept of weekends, no holidays on festivals or national holidays … these are some of the challenges one faces regularly working in a newspaper office. But what makes it exciting is that every day one deals with a totally new set of reports. You are constantly in the middle of action, be it sports, politics, crime or other happenings in the city. Reporters are physically there, but as copy editors we are the ones giving it the final touch and deciding how it should be presented. It does give you a false sense of power, but as in any organization, the decision is governed by rules.

With the advent of electronic media, the importance of a newspaper may have diminished. That has made our job that much more challenging.  Then one has to deal with the various other modes of communication that has captured the fancy of not just the youth of today, but even the middle-aged, tech-savvy citizens of the country.  You Tube, twitter, the internet as a whole, have posed a huge challenge to the print media. With time, we have had to look beyond just conveying news, and making it more relevant to the reader.

Did my profession change me as a person?

Well, definitely. It has hardened me and at the same time made me immensely sensitive to information. It has sharpened my ability to spot mistakes, so much so, that even when I read a letter or a brochure, I end up only seeing the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. This can be very irritating sometimes. It’s like a food critic, who becomes one because he loves food, but then is never able to enjoy a good meal without dissecting it and finding fault with it.

I think the biggest reward from my recent years is that when students write to me a few years into college or when they

start working. As students we bug them to write, to give responses to questions we ask, to send us photos, articles and so on. Of course they enjoy seeing their name and photo in the paper, but they realize the true worth of that when they get on to bigger things. That is when they reconnect, come over to meet me or send me mails. That is truly gratifying.