December 16th, 2007
On leaving Ahmedabad
It was not a sleepless night I spent the day after my interview for the Indian Express. But the three times I woke up on that hard hotel bed, I murmured to myself…’Indian Express, Ahmedabad’. That’s how much I wanted this job. That’s how much I wanted to be here, of all papers, of all bureaus. Ahmedabad kicked off my career. All this city meant to me before I came here was the ‘suspended-in-the-air-tap’ fountain I had seen in a photograph in India Today years ago. And of course, it also meant I wouldn’t have to depend on my parents for my monthly (ahem) extravagances.
And then I came here. To work, finally. Done with studying for a bit. Time to do something I loved doing. Letting my curiosity loose. Sniffing out stories by the wayside, in anesthetized hospital corridors, in flooded villages and barren ones.
Recently, someone said