Journalism in Goa: May 2006

On a Friday at Mapusa...

It was a summer Friday evening and, having some time to spare, one ventured into the crowded and colourful Mapusa marketn. After taking a look at cursory look at all the many plants for sale (some vendors even speak fluent English!), the next stop was the earthernware section. There, they nowadays sell the earthernware 'cock-shaped' drinking-water pot in sizes tiny enough to hold just a glassful of water. An interesting toy for the kids; maybe more innovation could take our age-old pottery skills ahead....

After a while, one ran into a familiar face. It was Olga Martins, the lady who served a lifetime (or so I think) in the Goa government's Department of Information which many of us rub shoulders with as journos.

Ms Martins and her husband were near the section selling traditionally-grown (not the high-yielding IR8s and Jayas) rice.

After exchanging a few pleasantaries, she mentioned that her son was running Mum's Kitchen, the new restaurant focussing on Goan food in the Taleigao-Caranzalem (if I got it right) area. Her daughter-in-law was into designing. Another son ran the Lemon Tree school, which some of us might have passed by en route to the Goa University or the International Centre.

Nice to catch up with old times. As I realised later, she was scouting around for Goa-grown traditional rice for the family restaurant.

It was nice to meet up after these years. She wanted to know where all the old-time journalists were and what they were doing. G R Singbal, Flaviano Dias, Jagdish Wagh... When the topic veered around to Africa, Ms Martins mentioned that she had grown up in Tanzania (or Tanganika, as it was then called) including at Arusha.

Just thought of sharing this as a link to all those whom we tend to forget when they go out of the world of work which we too have been associated with. Unfortunately, Ms Martins is not email otherwise we could have invited her to join the Goajourno mailing list.

Goa press accreditation committee meets...

Goa's press accreditation committee met on May 11, 2006 -- exactly ten months after its earlier meet held on July 11, 2005.

It may be recalled that the issue of accreditations was raised at the recent Goa Union of Journalists general body meeting, with special debate on the accreditations granted to representatives of the electronic media and the contentious issue of 'provisional accreditations' being given out by the government even while meetings were not being regularly held to take a formal decision on the same.

Deccan Herald's special correspondent in Goa Devika Sequeira was elected chair of the press accreditation committee.

GUJ is represented on the PAC by Devika Sequeira, Umesh Mahambre (2006-07 president), Ashley do Rosario (past president of GUJ) and Sandesh Prabhudesai.

According to unofficial accounts of decisions taken, accreditations were approved for Flaviano Dias (former PTI bureau chief), Mario Cabral e Sa, Pushpa Iyengar (back in Goa and working for the DNA), Prakash Kamat (who recently changed over from the ET to the Hindu), Bagli, Mayuresh Pawar, Rupesh Samant (who recently moved to UNI, from Sunaparant), and S Shanbhag of Navhind Times.

Further details were sought from (or accreditation was turned down) in the case of Shareen, Sanjay Sinha, Ms Yadav, Devidas Gawde, Preetu Nair (GT), Nilesh Naik (Pudhari), Jyoti Dhond, Tara Narayan (Goan Observer) and Nandesh Kambli.

For a confirmed version of the list above, details may be obtained from the information department itself. Or talk to someone who attended the meeting; I didn't.

Viewing Indian journalism, as seen from the metros?

Its jacket terms it an "exciting collection of original essays", and to add weight to the claim this books has some big names contributing to it. But surely an understanding of Indian journalism needs to go beyond the metros and big newspaper editors; for a country the size and diversity of India, what we see of Indian journalism obviously depends on where we stand.

That said, this is an interesting publication. Some 26 contributors discuss a range of thems, from media laws (including the often-neglected in India right to privacy against media intrusion) to the social role of journalists; gender, caste and communal issues in journalism; journalistic practice in war and peace; censorship and repression by the state; the role of media technology and future trends; sports journalism; urban reporting; and alternative media such as community radio.

Editor Nalini Rajan is associate professor at the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai. She says the book "is not envisaged strictly as a textbook for a journalism school" but more as a general collection reflecting trends and visions within the profession. Her fifteen-page introduction gives a fair idea of what the book is about.

BRP Bhaskar, formerly with the United News of India and many Indian English-language newspapers -- including the Deccan Herald, during this reviewer's longish stint there -- takes a large over-view of the growth of India's press and the law. Coming from a veteran, this is clearly an essay worth a close reading, specially by anyone who has entered journalism in the last decade or two.

>From the British control of the Indian media, to its takeover by industrialists, and the lack of any mention of a free press in the Indian Constitution... these are some of the issues that get touched on. Then we move over to various laws passed by the government -- the Press (Objectionable Matters) Act of 1951, the press commission headed by Justice G S Rajadhyaksha, the attempt at a Daily Newspaper (Price and Page) Act in 1956, the second press commission under Justice K K Mathew in 1977, and more.

Bhaskar also looks at the growth of the regional and 'national' media in India. As an aside, one could perhaps ask: do we really have a paper that really reflects the diversity of the country, or are these just overgrown editions of Mumbai and Delhi newspapers, pretending to do so?

N Ram, the blunt-speaking editor-owner of The Hindu and, in a way, the Friedrich Engels of Indian journalism, has a reprint of an earlier editorial titled here as 'Defining the Principles of Ethical Journalism'. He explains what his family-owned newspaper stands for.

His unequivocally-described "five principles" stand as inspiration both for its clarity and vision. These are: truth telling, freedom and independence, the principle of justice, humaneness, and contributing to the social good. But how do these play themselves out in the day-to-day operations of his influential Chennai-headquartered daily? Maybe we'll have to ask someone from his staff.

Harivansh is the editor of the editor of the Jharkhand-based Prabhat Khabar for a decade-and-half, and makes the case that a commercially-run newspaper can also play a sharp role in development journalism. He claims his publication has been doing just this by way of giving people "information on science, information technology, economics and the comparitive financial progress of different states". Interestingly, his paper has conducted "readers' courts", where readers could interact with journalists, and discuss ways of improving the product. In days when the advertisers-rupee-is-all logic tends to predominate, such perspectives come as a breath of fresh air.

"From the most backward region of Bihar, Ranchi -- which is now the capital of Jharkhand state -- the almost defunct 'Prabhat Khabar' forged ahead and is today published from five centres in three states," Harivansh writes with percpetible pride. He reminds us that being a journalist in metros like Mumbai or Kolkata "is very different from being one in Ranchi". You bet! His narration of experiences in turning-around a near-defunct paper have a lot of lessons for anyone in journalism.

Engineer-turned-journalist, the Mumbai-based Dilip D'Souza tells the story of what happens to those who dare to dabble in investigative journalism.

Corruption and crime flourish in our societies because the media pay too little attention, dig too infrequently and rarely deep enough, he argues. (That the recent hidden-camera sting operations have shown it hugely profitable, in viewership figures too, to expose grand-scale corruption is an issue which emerged only after this essay was penned.)

Besides, as D'Souza points out, stories are hardly followed beyond initial reports. Crimes and scandals come at us at a "fearful rate" too. More importantly, nobody of consequence -- in India's nearly six decades of Independence -- has been punsihed for their crimes. Crimes themselves prosper despite being exposed. (Bal Thackeray, named for instigating several riots, rode to power in riots after 1995. Sukh Ram commands adulation in his home state. Harshad Mehta, the prime figure in the stocks scam, was not just never punished but became a sought-after speaker and columnist in several publications, as we are reminded.)

Investigators also themselves face vicious reprisals, notes D'Souza. Just take the case of what happened to the Tehelka after its dramatic pointing out of corruption when the BJP was at the helm.

Mukund Padmanabhan, associate editor with The Hindu, focuses on the right to privacy against media intrusion. He has another take on the Tehelka investigation and says it stands out "not very well". He argues: "Even call girls (deployed by Tehelka) have privacy rights and the contracts to hire them for sex did not include permission to secretly film them in the act."

Valerie Kaye -- journalist, TV researcher and producer -- has an unusual story about a two-week contract with the BBC while filming in Argentina. That just shows the difference between a media organisation's image from the outside, and the reality within. Darryl D'Monte, who could probably be called the poster boy of Indian environmental journalism, writes on "the greening of India's scribes". His chapter looks at the growth and erosion of green writing in India.

It is D'Monte's view -- and one you can't quite disagree with -- that since economic liberalisation of the 1990s, the Indian media has "been more preoccupied with economic than environmental issues, and there is no saying whether green scribes will continue to flourish in future". D'Monte has an interesting story about how Anil Agarwal's report on the Indian environment came to be, following a visit to Malaysia and the Consumers Association of Penang.

Indian Express associate editor Pamela Philipose looks at how women's activism prompted changes in news coverage in some cases. V Geetha, an author, looks at gender, identity and the Tamil "popular" press. One of the generes there is the telling of female victim tales. "Part-sensational, part-sincere and possessed of a will to 'tell the truth', 'to report the unreported', this mode of writing has come to stay in the Tamil media," Geetha writes.

The Hindu sports editor Nirmal Shekar says sports journalism can be "so different from" journalims. He sees it as "a hybrid and a maverick, an island that revels in its isolation, constantly celebrating its independence by skillfully violating all time-tested norms of sound journalism".

Agricultural scientist-turned-journalist Devinder Sharma finds agriculture to be a "missing dimension" in the media. He writes bluntly, "Politics is important, but perhaps more important is the role that the corporate houses play to woo the political powers in a desperate effort to bring in a genetically engineered food product or technology."

Mumbai-based veteran development journalism Kalpana Sharma has a chapter on urban reporting. She notes: "Cities are a reporter's dream. They represent the variety, the excitement, the drama and the complexity that can yield endless stories." As anyone who worked beyond India's four (or, at best, six) metros should know, if you don't work in a big city your copy could simply be dooomed into non-existance. But then, there is a challenge writing a good story away from the beaten track too.

Sharma goes on to the new trends such as 'celebrity journalism' and 'page 3 journalism'.

This text also contains a number of other interesting papers -- lawyer Lawrence Liang on issues related to the new media and so-called 'piracy'; S Anand squarely raising blunt issues of casteism in the newsroom (a rather insightful piece); M H Lakdawala on the Urdu-language media; Praveen Swami on the many flaws of defence reporting in India; Shyam Tekwani on the risks of "embedded journalism"; Bindu Bhaskar on the mainstream Indian media after the 1990s; Robert Brown on the need to be "earnest as well as entertaining"; Robin Jeffrey on "the public sphere of print journalism"; S Gautham on alternative spaces in the broadcast media; and KP Jayasankar and Anjali Monteiro in a almost-flippantly titled take on a serious issue 'Censorship ke peeche kya hai?' about film censorship.

Mahalakshami Jayaram writes on News in the Age of Instant Communications; Stephen S Ross on Teaching Computer-Assisted Reporting in South India; and Ashish Sen on Community Radio -- Luxury or Necessity? Anjali Kamat also has a text on 'Youth' and the Indian media. --Frederick Noronha, December 2005.

ABOUT THE BOOK: Practising Journalism: Values, Constraints, Implications. Nalini Rajan (ed). 2005.Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd. 81-7829-522-9 and ISBN 0-7619-3379-4. Paperback, pp 358, Rs 450.

Gova Doot, a year old...

Gova Doot, perceived as being close to the BJP if not propped up by it, completes a year of publication on May 22, 2006. It invites its readers to have their say on how the paper functioned over the past year.

Sunaparant... tabloid on the weekend

Sunaparant goes tabloid. The paper has come out in a new format on Sunday. Its new format announces a story -- or is it speculation -- that Margaret Alva could become the next governor of Goa.

Rashtramat's former editor Sitaram Tengse says readers are a must for any newspaper to gain stability. He was talking at a Sunaparant function, and called for the paper to target a growth in readership.

Goa accreditation rules 2002 (currently in force)

[ACCREDITATION RULES, published by the Department of Information Series I No 39 dated December 26, 2002. Notification DI/INF/Acc.Com/2002/3502] The Government of Goa, in supersession of all previous notifications published in the Official Gazette, in this behalf, hereby makes the following rules, namely:-

1. SHORT TITLE AND COMMENCEMENT: (1) These rules may be called the Goa State Media Representative Accreditation Rules, 2002.

(2) They shall come into force from the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. DEFINITION: In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires:

(a) "Committee" means the Press Accreditation Committee constituted by the Government to advise the Government in respect of accreditation of media representatives working at the headquarters of the Government;

(b) "Government" means the Government of Goa;

(c) "editor" means the person defined as editor under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 (25 of 1867);

(d) "media representatives" means the correspondent, press photographer, sports journalist or representative of any newspaper, news agencies, broadcasting concern or electronic media, provided he/she is a working journalist;

(e) "Member Secretary" means the Director of Information of the Government;

(f) "newspaper" means any publication, printed and distributed at fixed intervals, which contains news and comment of public interest as defined in the Press and Registration of Books Act (25 of 1867) but not a publication containing information of sectional interest such as house journals;

(g) "State" means the State of Goa;

(h) "working journalist" means a working journalist as defined in the Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955 (45 of 1955), as amended from time to time;

(i) "accreditation" means recognition of media representatives by the Government for the purpose of access to sources of information in the Government and also to news materials, written or pictorial, released by the Department of Information and/or other agencies of the Government.

3. AMENDMENT TO RULES: These rules may be amended/altered/modified/added to on the recommendation of the Committee, if a proposal to this effect is made to the Committee, by at least three of its members or the Member Secretary.

4. APPLICATION OF RULES: These rules shall apply to the accreditation of media representatives to the Government at headquarters at Panaji.

5. CONSTITUTION OF COMMITTEE: (1) The committee shall consist of nine members including the Member Secretary.

(2) Three members shall be the nominees of the Goa Editors' Guild, or, in its absence, of the editors of daily newspapers published from Goa and four members will be nominees of the Goa Union of Journalists which shall include one photographer, besides one sports journalist, nominated by the Sports Journalists Association of Goa.

(3) The members of the Committee shall elect a Chairman from among themselves by a simple majority.

6 TERM OF COMMITTEE: (1) The normal term of the Committee shall be two years commencing from the date of its first meeting, but shall continue till a new Committee is constituted.

(2) The constitution of the new Committee shall not be delayed for more than three months after the expiry of the term of the existing Committee.

7 MEETINGS: The Committee shall meet once in every three months. The Member Secretary shall convene the meeting by fixing the date of the meeting and the agenda, inc consultation with the Chairman of the Committee.

8 QUORUM: Five members, excluding the Member Secretary, shall form a quorum of a meeting;

Provided that, if a meeting be adjourned to some other date for want of quorum, the adjourned meeting shall be held on such other date whether there be quorum present or not.

9 NOTICE: Seven clear days notice shall be given for convening a meeting of the Committee. But emergent meeting may however, be held after giving a 48 hour's notice.

10 APPLICATION FOR ACCREDITATION: (1) The application for the accreditation shall be submitted by the Editor of the newspaper, editor of a news agency, in-charge of news unit of the broadcasting concern and by the concerned head of news unit of the electronic media, etc., to the Member Secretary. Full details about the professional experience of the media representative shall be furnished with the application for accreditation, on a prescribed form available with the Member Secretary. The Member Secretary shall refer the applications to the Committee for consideration in its next meeting;

(2) The application referred to in sub-rule (1) shall also be accompanied by a letter from the Editor (or Resident Editor in case of outstation newspapers), recommending accreditation on behalf of the newspaper concerned. The application shall be accompanied by a letter from the in-charge of news unit of the broadcasting concern, concerned head of news unit in case of electronic media, and by the editor in case of a news agency.

(3) Accreditation on a provisional/temporary basis may be granted by the Member Secretary in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee, till such time as the committee meets thereafter, provided the applicant fulfils the conditions laid down for grant of accreditation on a regular basis and provided that he/she was accredited earlier to any other media organisation or has been posted as a replacement for a duly accredited correspondent and the media organisation concerned has no other accredited correspondent in Goa. No provisional accreditation shall be granted to a fresh applicant.

11. CONDITIONS FOR ACCREDITATION: (1) The media representative shall fulfil the following conditions for accreditation --

(i) His/her office should be normally in Panaji and he/she should submit contact address in Panaji at the time of application for accreditation and thereafter during the period of accreditation for the purpose of official correspondence.

(ii) The applicant should be a working journalist.

(iii) At the time of the application, the applicant who seeks accreditation should have spent not less than five years as a journalist. However, these requirements may be waived in case of new newspapers.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in clauses (i) and (iii) of sub-rule (1), the Committee shall be guided by the following aspect in recommending either grant or withdrawal of accreditation;

(a) regularity of newspaper/news agencies;

(b) submission of necessary papers in respect of salary, income, etc, by the applicant whenever the Committee so requires

(c) Newspapers shall publish minimum 350 issues, a weekly shall publish minimum 50 issues, a monthly shall publish minimum 12 issues and a fortnightly shall publish minimum 23 issues, per annum.

(3) In case of news agencies, etc, the factors to be taken into consideration to determine accreditation are:

(i) nature and type of the agency

(ii) method of distribution of its service

12 VALIDITY OF ACCREDITATION: accreditation shall be valid for a period of one year with effect from 30th June.

13 NUMBER OF CORRESPONDENTS TO BE ACCREDITED: (1) Newspapers shall not be entitled to have more than three accreditations for the daily published and printed in Goa. All other media organisations, including outstation daily newspapers, shall be entitled to one accreditation only.

(2) Any publication printed and published in Goa, which fulfils the conditions laid down in rule 11(2)(c), shall have, in addition to the above one accreditation each for a photographer and a sports journalist.

(3) A senior journalist may be granted accreditation on account of his/her retirement or otherwise, provided he/she has completed 25 years in the profession and 15 years as an accredited journalist or editor of a daily newspaper, and continues to be active as a journalist.

(4) Notwithstanding anything contained in subrules (1) and (2) above, the committee may change the number of accreditations for any daily newspaper arising out of its professional requirements after recording reasons in writing and being satisfied about the same.

14 EFFECT OF ACCREDITATIONS: (1) Accreditation does not confer any official status on the media representatives but shall recognise and identify him/her as a professional journalist dealing with news of public interest. He/she should not have letter heads, visiting cards and display boards with the words "Accredited to the Government of Goa" or any words to similar effect.

(2) Accreditation shall be used for journalistic purposes and for no other purposes.

15. ACCREDITATION IS PERSONAL: Accreditation is personal and not transferable.

16. ACCREDITATION CARD FOR PRESS REPRESENTATIVES: (1) Accreditation card bearing a passport size photograph of the media representatives will be issued to an accredited media representative by the Member Secretary.

(2) The accreditation card will normally be utilised for attending press conferences convened by the Government, or any authorised Government officer and for entry into Government offices.

(3) The accreditation card shall not be admissible for attending special functions or conferences, where entry is covered by special invitation cards and security passes.

(4) The accreditation card will entitle the holder to receive the facilities provided to him/her by the Government from time to time in respect of medical, transport, housing, Government accommodation in the State of Goa.

(5) Accreditation card shall be renewed each year between 1st June to 10th June.

17 LIST OF ACCREDITED MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES: The Member Secretary shall maintain a list of accredited media representatives representing any newspapers or news agency or a broadcasting concern or electronic media.

18 REVIEW OF LIST OF ACCREDITED MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES: (1) The list of accredited media representatives will be brought upto date once during the year by the Member Secretary in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee, in the light of changes in respect of accredited media representatives of outside newspapers, and dailies of the State.

(2) For the purpose of such a review, information regarding circulation may be called for and media representatives be asked to provide clippings of published dispatches or photographic or audio/visual clips from the news media organisation concerned.

19 WITHDRAWAL OF ACCREDITATION OF MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES: A media representative will be liable to dis-accreditation, if:

(a) he/she uses the information and facilities accorded to him/her for non-journalistic purposes;

(b) in the course of his/her duties as a correspondent, he/she behaves in an undignified or unprofessional manner;

(c) he/she ignores or violates the condition on which information and facilities are provided by the Government, or acts contrary to any provisions of these rules;

(d) the organisation on whose behalf the representative is accredited ceases its publication or the network ceases to function except for a short period for reasons of industrial disputes or natural calamities.

(e) the accredited representative is found to have given false information about himself/herself or about his/her organisation and if the Committee, after giving a reasonable opportunity to the representative concerned to defend himself/herself, is satisfied that the charges are true, the accreditation may be suspended/withdrawn for a period not exceeding two years, and during this period he/she shall not be eligible for the grant of further accreditation.

(f) He/she causes wilful publication of news that is incorrect or false, in so far as Government is concerned. But in case the newspaper itself is responsible and not the accredited media representatives for such wilful publication of false, malafide or incorrect reports, or abuse of confidence, the newspaper concerned shall be liable to dis-accreditation i.e. an action under these rules shall be taken by the Chairman of the Committee after the matter has been referred to him in writing by the aggrieved party. The Committee, after due study of the complaint, shall recommend appropriate action to be taken by the Government against the concerned media representative or newspaper and the Government decision in this regard shall be final.

(g) Provided that no decision to suspend/withdraw the accreditation of a media representative shall be taken by the committee except at a meeting attended by at least two-third of its members.

20 NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF ACCREDITATION OF A PRESS REPRESENTATIVE: When an accredited media representative ceases to represent a newspaper, news agency, broadcasting concern or electronic media on behalf of which he is accredited, the fact should be brought to the notice of the Member Secretary in writing by the media representative, or by the Editor, or the Manager concerned, within fifteen days, failing which the matter may be reported to the Committee by the Member Secretary for necessary action.

21 CONTINUOUS ABSENCE FROM THE HEADQUARTERS: An accredited media representative who is continuously absent for three months from the headquarters shall forfeit his/her accreditation, except on a written permission from the Editor or the Manager of the newspaper concerned to that effect, duly conveyed to the Member Secretary.

22 REPRESENTATION AGAINST DECISION: Newspapers/agencies and correspondents can make representation to the Secretary of Information to the Government against any decision related to dis-accreditation which is prejudicial to them. Such representation should reach the Secretary of Information to the Government within two calendar months from the date on which such decision was communicated to the newspaper, agency or media representative concerned.

23 POWER OF GOVERNMENT TO TAKE ACTION DEEMED FIT: Notwithstanding anything contained in these rules, the Government shall be free to take any action warranted by circumstances in matters relating to accreditation and dis-accreditation and in giving press facilities and in all these cases, the Government decision shall be final.

By order and in the name of the Governor of Goa.

Rajesh Singh, Director of Information and Publicity.

Panaji, 17th December, 2002.

Seeing the world through a camera: V B Anand

[By Frederick Noronha] If you came across Verapaneni Brahmanandrao Anand, the name wouldn't strike you as familiar. But when a slim South Indian was introduced to me at V.B.Anand -- outside that age-old resource of reading material, Varsha Book Stall in Panjim -- the name immediately struck a bell. My mind immediately went back to all those scenic picture post-cards I had come across years ago. This was a photographer one was just waiting to meet.

V B Anand's claim to fame is that he showcased Goa (he subsequently moved on to other areas) in a way few did. Not only was his photography markedly superior, but he also moved away from the low-quality, low-cost viewcards that earlier dominated the market here.

How and why did he enter this field? "My father was a photography. From childhood, photography has been a passion. I was interested in it since my schooldays. Then, I joined a fine arts college in Madras (subsequently renamed to Chennai), and learnt painting and drawing. But I've stopped using the brush and shifted to 'painting' with the camera," he explains.

Being an artist by training does help, he feels, specially since 'writing with light' involves creating the right effect, the right mood, and the apt composition in the world of photography.

V B Anand has an interesting story of how he got involved with the world of the viewcard. "I once went on a trekking trip to Himachal Pradesh, that was around 1988. It was in my college days, and I wanted to send some viewcards home to my dad. But I simply couldn't find any good ones. On returning home, I mentioned this to my father, and he shot back to say, 'Why don't *you* make some viewcards of your own)?'"

As fate would have it, V B Anand already had made some very good photographs of his trip to Kulu Manali (in Himachal). "So I made some post-cards and took them back there there (to market them). Then the craze started. There was a very good response (to that set of cards)," he elaborates.

Back home, his sights next settled on Goa, which was suddenly booming as a tourist-destination-in-the-making in the 'eighties. "It was my second place (for entering the viewcards market), starting from 1988. First I started with six postcards. Now I have about 120 designs (on Goa). Goa Tourism map also carries my photographs. Likewise, a lot of Indian tourism offices also use my photographs," he adds.

What are his most-liked settings in Goa? Without hesitation, V B Anand replies: "Palolem and, in the north, Vagator. I like nature and beauty more. People and markets also fascinates me."

Like many other visitors here, he finds the people here "frank, loving and affectionate". Is this for real? Or is this just a case of running into what we expect to see? But V B Anand also says he got an encouragement in Goa which cannot be compared to the feedback in other destinations.

His cards were among the very first set of quality, if higher-priced viewcards put out in India. At a time when poorly printed cards were sold at fifty paise to a rupee, his sold for many times that price.

Says he: "Earlier, the potentiality on this front (quality viewcards) was not explored, and nobody seemed to know the need of the customers." Initially, his stockists were worried about the price. "But when they put it out for sale, these viewcards started moving fast. Many then stopped stocking the cheap cards and started selling my cards," he says.

After Goa, his next destination was the diverse south Indian state of Karnataka. "I started there in 1989. And, after that, almost every year I added one state. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, later North India. Rajasthan, Delhi and Maharashtra followed. Presently, I've started working in the east and north east (of India). And Kolkata, Darjeeling, Orissa, Bodh Gaya (Bihar), Varanasi (UP) too. Along with these, my main interest is to collect pictures for coffeetable books," he said in an interview.

Is working in a new place, specially in a country as diverse as India, really a challenge? Is it tough? Says V B Anand: "I never felt anything, probably because I'm so involved in the art. Taking photographs, so much so that nothing ever disturbs me. Language is never a barrier while taking photographs."

"They say love is blind. I say the same of photography," he says, suggesting the love of the art blinds you to many a problem. "I've been so much into it that I've never bothered where I've been and what I'm doing."

What are the main subjects he prefers to work on? Lifestyle, beauty of the place and landscapes, and places of historical importance are his priorities. "I prefer rural settings... places that depict that the real Indian culture is there."

Would he agree with the view that India is still a very under-photographed place?

"There's much to be done. In the meantime, we are also losing our photography heritage. Abroad, they have better collections (of early Indian photographs) than we ourselves have of India. In Mahabalipuriam for instance, in 1870s, there was an artist who has come and painted the place. But these works are not in India, but in a museum in London. Why not have similar museums collecting work here too?"

Of late, V B Anand says he's beginning to feel comfortable with digital photography. Says he: "Working with film involves a lot of constraints. Now, one feels (a sense of freedom). If you had ten rolls, you needed to think of 360 photographs. Now, if I go to any event, I take a thousand or twelve hundred pictures."

How does he store all this? On five cards that store a total of 3.5 GB of digital photos! Once each is filled, he downloads the pics to his laptop and then starts again!

When asked about his preferred camera, he shoots back without hesitation: "Nikon". His wife has been his strong supporter in his pictoral mission, says V B Anand, and she has also accompanied him on his travels.

His dad V K Rao died in 1990. He started in the career with still photograph for the then influential world of the movies. Then he left that and launched a portrait studio in Mylapore, Chennai, in 1959.

"He was a pioneer of sorts and produced educational film-strips for school students. These strips were made on 35 mm film. Instead of being sildes, they were on a film-roll. Each film had differing educational content. For instance, one would explain the growth of a butterfly. Teachers would display these in schools, helping students to remember better. That was in the 'sixties and 'seventies. A manual projector with a fan cost just Rs 1200 or so then. Dad had around 70 titles on different subjects," recalls V B Anand.

His next mission? Possibly working on Indian architecture and religious themes, with the foreign educational market in mind. He's also keen to look at travel CDs. Tamil Nadu Tourism, he explains, has made eight CDs of his photographs and supplied it to travel agents across the globe.

What are the nice and not-so-nice things about being a photographer in India? "Returns (can be low). Abroad, if you take a good picture, they pay you more. In India, that doesn't happen. India has both the talent and potentiality. There's a lot of scope for the new generation. Also, a lot of good colour printing priesses are coming up, some of which have international standards," says he. V B Anand sees the lack of respect for copyrights as one issue. "People copy my photos and put it up on their websites, which in other countries would not happen," he adds.

His plans also include a coffee-table book on Goa, depicting the beauty of the place and her people. Says he, with a smile: "I feel I have contributed to promote tourism through my postcards. The same happened with Varkala, beach near Quilon in Kerala. I made postcards of the place, and started selling in Kovalam beach, which is far south. Tourists started enquiring about how to go to that place. Along with the tourists the shop-owners also went. So I have now 40 card-outlets there now, selling my postcards."

Photography is still an envied profession, he feels. It gives him time to do things he loves and travel and meet so many people. "Earlier, I visited Goa upto five times each year. I would even come on long stints, and stay for 2-3 months. Lately because I'm doing work all over India, my trips have become less," says he.

CONTACTS: vbanand@hotmail.com 0938 1029496 vbanand.com

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By Frederick Noronha