Life of a journo in the times of CWG

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Surely it is not easy being a journalist in the times of Commonwealth Games. If you are a electronic journo then you will have to warm your seat at the main press center (MPC) because your cameras are barred from entering the venues. So all you can do is operate from the MPC and make reports taking the low-quality videos footages from Doordarsan, of course you have to keep the public entertained.

But if you are a print journalist, you can't have the luxury of seating at the MPC. Everyday you will have to walk miles just to enter the MPC and then hang like a hanger around the shuttle service which takes you inside, needless to say through a bumpy road, of course that too if you are lucky. Otherwise, you will have to again depend on your legs and bear the scorching sun till you reach the MPC.

However, your ordeal is not over. It is just the beginning. You have to go through the numerous check points where they will frisk till it doesn't border in the lines of manhandling and if you bump against a foul policeman, he might throw the stuffs which are not allowed, which ranges from cigarrates, matchbox, coins to as important a thing as a water bottle, rather rudely with a glare as if he has just nabbed a terrorist.

If you are a cameraman then things are worse as you have to open everything perceivable and lay them bare infront of them and that too after your bag has already gone through the checking system. After you complete all formalities, you would enter the MPC, a swanky work place where there are 100s of computers and an efficient bunch of young volunteers who will be very eagar to help you.

There is another thing. While all these time you were sweating like a dog under the sun, now you will suddenly enter the antarctic zone where you will shiver till your blood turns into ice crystals. Inside you have coffee, tea and britania biscuits -- all free of cost to keep you warm. There are sandwitches and pasteries which you can buy but if you want a meal in the afternoon, you will have to burn holes in your pocket and even after that the food might not be satisfactory. Also you might have a dog for company inside the foodcourt, which is outside the MPC.

But that's ok because jounalists don't have the luxury of staying inside the MPC for too long. So you too set off for the day to cover an event. You walk to the bus stand where you might end up waiting for hours if you are unlucky to get to the correct bus which takes you to the venue. Of course, if you can get into one of these buses things are cool, quite literally for it is an AC bus, which will run in Games lanes.

While you will have a chilly time inside the bus, which have tainted panes, the driver, although on the games lanes, will still have plenty of difficulty in maneovouring the vehicle, thanks to the Delhities who don't mind spilling over the lane every now and then , leaving the driver with no other option but to honk the horn all through out.

Once you reach the venue, you have to show your accreditation cards and have to go through the checking drill many times till you enter the venue. Now that was for those who can manage the bus.

But, suppose, if you are coming from your home straight to the venue, soon you will be transformed into a pedestrian journalist since even if you have a car or motorcycle, you can't take it inside so you will again have to depend on your legs and it is in such times that the music begins.

In many venues, the policemen also don't have a clue what is the route for the media. They perhaps not even given a lecture about how to read the passes. You will keep shuttling from one gate to the other as whosoever you ask, he will either ask you to go to the next gate or will bring out his guidebook to see if you should be allowed to enter through that gate as you burn under the sun at times.

There are Gates where you can travel in a vehicle but can't walk though them. The first day I went to the Siri Fort complex, My friend cameraman was stopped at the gates and told that he can't carry his cameras inside. After a lot of phone calls and after walking a mile, the volunteers helped us to enter the venue. But once we were inside, the cameraman was told you can't take pictures as it is not allowed.

Even though there is Doordarsan and BBC radio recording bytes of the players, if you want to record an interview in your cellphone, you would be stopped.

All these little things point fingeres to the inefficiency that plagues the working of the organisers. It is a classic example of too many cooks spoil the broth as here right hand doesnt know what left hand is doing. There is a huge communications gap among the various teams, who are engaged in organising the event. But that's ok because we are Indians and as the Sport Minister M S Gill once said in India, everything happens like an Indian marriage. Sir you couldn't have been more right!