Flashback Detour

Let’s take a detour today and go 10 steps back to where this whole thing started. It all started in 2000 when i was a print journalist. The Chevening scholarship (for young broadcast journalists sponsored by British Council ) was always on my mind but my office could not afford to grant a leave for more than 10 days and this scholarship sadly required 90 days. Seven years later lady luck smiled on me and July 6, 2007 - I was aboard an Emirates flight on my way to London to attend the course.

Heathrow airport was not new to me as I have been here on a couple of occasions but this time as a student I could feel chills run down my spine. Anyways, the fresh and cold air did me good and drained away all the tension that I had knotted during the flight from Hyderabad. Excess baggage made me shell out 11k and I had no time to argue for i would have missed my flight and to add to my misery a severe bout of acidity only worsened the situation. A 2 Hour halt at the Dubai airport came as a relief and things finally hit normalcy.

I stayed with a very close friend in Harrow in London for the night and the very next day took the National Express to Bournemouth University with Neha as the other four other girls had taken an earlier bus from London Central.

This year 10 broadcast journalists were selected for the Chevening Scholarship course - Afreen Kidwai (Anchor/ correspondent- Times Now), Chayan Kundu (Principal Correspondent - Zee News Kolkata ), Deepa Chaturvedi ( Senior Producer - Times Now), Deborshi Chaki ( Principal Correspondent - CNN IBN , Assam), Pawan Bali (Special Correspondent - CNN IBN Jammu), Maha Siddiqui )Anchor/Correspondent- Doordarshan), Neha Bhatnagar (anchor/correspondent - Aaj Tak), Jajati Karan (Special Correspondent - CNN IBN, Orissa), Veera Raghav (Bureau Chief- CNN IBN Chennai) and myself (Star News – Hyderabad).

Sharan Lewis - who manages administration and finance at the Media School in Bournemouth University was waiting for us at the bus stop and escorted us to the house. The girls were already settled in their accommodation. I was the first guy to arrive so had the privilege to select the bigger room out of the five in the House no. 29 which was just opposite to the girls house. It was only after 11 pm - Veera popularly known as Vicky arrived and for the first time we both had a conversation which lasted 20 minutes in spite of us having met earlier on 3 occasions briefly in India.

David Bradshaw; the project director of the Media School escorted by Sandy and Ed of the Media School took us on a tour of the Bournemouth city the next day and we followed it up with an English lunch which was changed to suit our Indian palate. A walk around the beautiful beach changed our concept of Bournemouth being a sleepy town.

The sad part of it all was that three guys who were supposed to fly from Kolkata were stranded as their Air India flight was cancelled and it took them over 2 days to reach Bournemouth. However, Veera Raghav’s cooking style eventually followed by Jajatis' made me breathe a sigh a relief as all my worries about missing home cooked food took a back seat.

That brings me to the 9th of July - The first day of the course which began at 9.30 am. Gail Foley - a former BBC journalist and the course instructor took off from where David Bradshaw left off and initiated us into the course with some interesting classes on media. The course seems to be really interesting as it is packed with loads of activities and Gail is really an interesting and articulate person who knows her stuff pretty well. Despite of me having a huge amount of experience - learning is a process and surprisingly I can pack in more knowledge and experience after this whole trip concludes, Be rest assured!