INDIA’S top television journalist was busy recording the sufferings of people at hospitals and cremation grounds during the second wave of the coronavirus when she received news of the death of her 80-year old father.
“I myself became a story and experienced all that I had been reporting about people. As if I was now on the other side of the camera,” said Barkha Dutt.
Like everyone, she had to fight for an ambulance, oxygen cylinder, beg for a bed at the hospital, despite all her connections, and then ultimately for a place to cremate her father.
“Three other families were jostling for that spot to pay last respects to their departed ones. I was reporting this day and out. The national mourning had become personal mourning,” she said.
Similarly, when Suhasini Raj, a journalist working with The New York Times office in New Delhi, was writing a story, she
You’ve reached your free article limit
Subscribe to enjoy unlimited access to trusted journalism. Cancel anytime.
Subscribe nowNeed help? molokom@insidepolitic.co.za
