MY LIFE AS A HINDI JOURNALIST (Shweta Khandelwal, Class of 2014)

I began working at Focus News, a six-year-old Hindi news channel in New Delhi that is owned by the Jindal group. I am a package producer on the news desk, and I deal primarily with political news. Initially I thought that working at a Hindi news channel would pose no difficulties for me since my command over the language is pretty good. But the Hindi dialect used at Focus News is very different; I have realised now that it will take me some time to adapt to the channel’s house style but I am ready for the challenge.

I have produced 17 packages so far. Every day I am given news scripts by the senior producer and my role is to get the voiceovers done by the anchors or the journalists concerned and then choose visuals according to the script. Sometimes I have to download the raw footage and help the editors to shape the package as per the script. I have not yet been given the responsibility of scripting, but, yes, my capabilities have been recognised and I am now solely responsible for checking the package before it goes to the rundown department.

I remember how depressed I was when it came to writing a tight script for our group’s silk-farm documentary afters sir told us that the film could be no longer than five minutes. Prabhakar Sir, thank you so much for explaining to us how to choose visuals according to the script. I still remember the number of times you used to tell me to go out for more shots as my visuals were sometimes not good enough for the script. Thank you for pointing out what I should be doing if I wanted to be a good media professional.

I really want to thank Commits for teaching me how to multitask and handle work pressure. When I was at Commits I used to grumble about not getting holidays on Saturdays, but I have not taken a single day off since I joined Focus News and there is nary a whimper of complaint from me! Commits has transformed me a lot as an individual, too. I know I was not a very good student and I know I made a series of mistakes — but I have learnt from those mistakes, for which I am grateful. I promise I will try my best to do Commits proud.