Work life at one of the world’s largest newswires where breaking news is the order of the day, can be exciting and at times exasperating too.
There are the sublime highs when you’ve scooped the competition with exclusives and the story making headlines the world over. And of course, the ridiculous lows when you’ve missed a market moving story and desperately trying to salvage your respect with a quick matcher.
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The highs and lows notwithstanding, what makes the job fascinating are the epochal and edifying moments as well as the occasional spells of fun and frustration. Above all, the unexpected happenings, some amusing and some not so.
An awkward incident is still vivid in my mind. After an interview, I was on the 15th floor of the building when the elevator stopped, and the doors opened. It was packed, yet I squeezed myself in. As it descended, suddenly in the silence, a male voice began talking about his company’s expansion plans.
The nearly ten people in the lift, packed like sardines, wondered who was speaking as some looked hither and thither curiously. Sandwiched between people, I realised, much to my discomfiture that the play button of my voice recorder in my jacket got activated and my interview with the CEO blaring! Fortunately, the elevator stopped at the ninth floor; Sheepishly, I beat a hasty retreat!
Covering the all-important OPEC meetings is another ball game. Chasing the petroleum ministers from their arrival at the airport to the hotels, dodging security and discreetly taking positions at vantage points could seem straight out of an action movie. What takes the cake, however, is something called the ‘gang bang’.
Scores of journalists, recorders and phones in hand, wait with bated breath outside the hall where oil ministers have just concluded a crucial meeting. When the doors open, it is a free for all and might is right as reporters push, shove, shout and elbow their way to get sound bites from the ministers and break the news.
In the melee, recorders and phones slip out of hand, some get banged and some fall after being tripped; screams rent the air as
Talking of oil ministers, I recall another incident. We were following the newly appointed Saudi energy minister after his speech at a conference. Eager to get his comment on the oil price, I weaved my way among the VIPs and inadvertently stepped on his flowing outer cloak, impeding his movement. In a trice, a heavy hand came down on my shoulder and I was pulled aside roughly by security and ticked off!
Once we were invited to cover a press conference of two foreign ministers at 9 a.m and were kept waiting until 6 p.m. After a sumptuous lunch, most of us, tired of waiting, dozed off on the comfortable sofas in the palace. Imagine our surprise and embarrassment when the next day a local paper carried a picture of us with the caption: Reporters taking a nap while waiting for a ministerial presser!
Thankfully, the racy world of reporting headlines and meeting deadlines and indeed the unforeseen happenings are behind me as I retire into the slow lane of writing at a more genteel pace.
