eamline the whole process.

All in all, I feel my tenure at The Herald was a
fruitful one. That is not to deny that the paper has
its troubles, but to an extent newspapers (like
politicians) are merely mirrors of the society they
serve. The fact that it has been a part of the Goan
social and political landscape for the last twenty
years is, if nothing more, testament to its success
within the community.

Chapter 10:
Growing up with the Herald...

Visvas Paul D KarraVPDK was an outspoken sub-editor at the Herald, where
he also covered sports for the daily's special
supplement. Subsequently, he has shifted to working at
the prominent Bangalore-based daily, Deccan Herald.

After the Herald, journalism seemed to me like a dress
rehearsal. Always a bridesmaid, never quite the bride.

Surviving months of introductory sessions with Francis Ribeiro,
I was firmly convinced that I had a role in nation
building. I started behaving my age and silently
promised to skip rum the next Saturday night. And on
moon-less nights, I stayed awake thinking about the
burden of the Fourth Estate, lying face down on my
leased estate. At the office there were daily hunting
trips, as I went on poaching for angles and words from
the alphabet forest.

In short, Herald was the 'journalism school' where I
learnt all the elementary tricks of the trade. But what
set apart this journalism school was its sense of
applied practical nightmares. None wanted you to come
up with a neat circle. If it got a reader's attention,
rhombus would do, this I learned from the Herald.

The continuous slogging on the desk, day in and day
out, soon scratched away the sheen off a 'oh-you-are a
journalist' comment and introduced me to a world of
words. This wordy world consisted of stories and
stories, each of them carrying a life of their own,
each one clamouring for attention. The more attention a
story deserved, the higher in the page it appeared. The
less attention the story received, down in the scale
you go.

My 'studies' did not end with desk itself. I did my
internship on the field as 'unofficial special stories
reporter'. The love for writing prompted me to scan the
paper for interesting news and do follow-up on these.
This in the long run gave me the rich experience of a
deskie as well as reporting, something which no
journalism school would probably offer.

But I was not prepared for all this when I applied for
the job of a sub-editor. Neithe