The ‘31st Dec, 08’ page of my diary – Esha Madhavan

It has been a little adventurous for me to migrate to the South of India and take up journalism here. It is definitely not as easy here as it is to get along in any other Indian city, and more so in media. I am based in Chennai now, and working as a journalist here, especially in a niche domain like ours, has been different, not difficult.

People here are very amiable, but only if they are at all speaking to you. Getting people in the Southern states to speak to the media is anything but easy. My colleagues in the North have shared time and again their experiences of the tough times they’ve had contacting and getting bytes from people down South. My dear friends from South, all of you whom I have tried to contact several times and am still trying, I have taken it upon myself to get the South talking the most this year!

Chennai is the place where I have seen the coolest of offices, met the craziest of talents and enjoyed the classiest of parties. I wouldn’t like the ‘31st Dec, 08’ page of my diary go waste, because I will perhaps never get the chance to publish this page of my diary ever again. So, trying to make it a little exciting, I will give my own ratings to the industry people, listing the ‘most happening people’ on top.

My first choice would be the radio people, who not only are a young talented lot with the most buzzing offices, they are the friendliest and most warm people I have come across. The only thing that I would like to say is that (whatever content might make the maximum business sense for the radio players): ‘Dear Chennai radiowallas, please try and go a little national – in plainspeak, play Hindi songs!!!’

Now when I say friendliest, I honestly confess that I mean people who give me exclusives, revert on time and help me meet my deadlines. The next best people in this category would be definitely the advertising fraternity, not just of Chennai, but other Southern states as well. But the creative people need to know that while I, too, agree to the fact that true talent definitely need not depend on media coverage, but what’s wrong in sharing with a journalist some good piece of work that you have done.

And I sincerely want my voice to reach the marketing people down South to understand the dynamics and importance of the niche format of ‘media journalism’ and accept the advantage of B2B journals. Believe me guys, which agency is handling your account does make news sense, so make it your priority to share it with me.

The television industry here, like everywhere else, is big and professional. Some players are too sunny and hot to even care about media coverage. As far as the OOH industry goes, I have hardly seen them do anything big ever since I came here. The big hoardings before going extinct have taken away along with them all the gorgeous looking ladies clad in the best of silks. The billboards of Rajnikanth looming large on the Chennai skyline wasn’t that bad a memory either. What say Chennaites? What say the environmentalists?

With most of the print players here being very deep rooted, with years of legacies behind, they don’t try and act cool, and those roots carrying the city’s culture and flavour might, to your own surprise, even start growing inside you one day. Chennai is a city where cosmopolitanism is in its ‘catching up’ stage, but it also is the place that doesn’t bother whether press parties are supposed to run till late or not, whether it should have those unnecessary props of glamour or not. It is a place where a journalist doesn’t have to look and dress the part. All one needs is to have the right talent to be out there.