Her statement of purpose

Surprisingly, her entry into journalism was the result of a series of happy accidents. It was as a lecturer of English literature that Pandey began her career at the Allahabad University. “I was 21 then and a lot of my students were my age,” she remembers with a smile. After marriage and a stint as lecturer in Delhi’s Jesus and Mary College, Pandey followed her husband to Bhopal. “One wove one’s career around marriage and I had no focused goal in mind at the time,” she says. Her appointment as teacher at the Maulana Technical Institute was to prove a turning point in her life.

“It was here that I realised that there were several bright students who were unable to express themselves or make an impression because they came from a vernacular background. At a time when the vernacular language is the medium of teaching in 90 per cent of government schools, this accent on English was unfair.”

At the insistence of poet-friend Shrikant Varma, in whom she had confided her uneasiness on the issue, Pandey joined the news agency, Samachar Bharati. “I had a master’s degree in literature and one in music, I had done a course in the history of art and architecture when my husband was posted in the United States of America. So I was thought it fit to join as senior reporter on the culture beat,” she says, her wry sense of humour underlining the conversation.

Hindi literature has been part of her background – her mother, Shivani, is a celebrated Hindi writer and Pandey, herself, had studied in the Hindi medium, so it was natural for her to be fluent in the language. The year and a half at Samachar Bharati proved to be a learning experience. “Women in the Hindi press were rare, and as someone who had lived in Lutyen’s Delhi, I was an irritation to the others at office. They could not understand my stand that it was only through Hindi that I could communicate to a larger number of people,” she says.

It is obvious that Pandey feels strongly about Hindi journalism not being given its due. “Most of our time was spent translating copies from English to Hindi. It irritated me to be treated as a mere appendage to the English media despite the fact that we were just as intelligent. Another factor was the totally unnecessary role of the underdog’ that the journalists in the Hindi press took upon themselves, even dressing shoddily. This only perpetuated the myth of the down-at-heel Hindi journalist, who wallowed in being kicked around,” she says.

Women’s issues and their reflection in the media is another point that Pandey is vocal about. “When I was appointed editor of Vama, a women’s monthly that the Bennett and Coleman Group was coming out with, people laughed when I insisted that the magazine be targetted at thinking women. I remember the circulation manager accusing the magazine of making his wife quarrelsome. "When we thought of doing a story on rape, the argument we had to counter was that rape did not occur in middle-class families. They did not believe that abuse within the family was possible. There was a lot of anger directed against pro-women stories.” Journalism in India has come a long way since then. “In recent times, the media has sensitised people to women-related issues,” she says. Pandey’s own attempt in that direction came by way of a serial called Adhikar, which related to women and the law.

Pandey’s one-year stint with NDTV as a news anchor in 1996, while giving her insight into the working of the broadcast media, has left her disappointed. “The priorities in the broadcast media are no different – all the resources are directed to the production of the English news. What we need is more journalists who can think indigenously and converse intelligently with politicians in Hindi.

"Priorities get misplaced when due to a smaller staff, more news items get translated, ironically enough, from Hindi to English and back to Hindi. I think that those involved with the broadcast media are a pampered lot. The ground wisdom, so much a part of becoming a mature journalist, is lacking,” she laments.

The compulsions of TV journalism is something else she feels strongly about. “The TV journalist has no time for briefings, and without knowing the inner mechanics of the issue or party he/she has to cover, is sent gun-mike-in-hand in search of a prey. Snap decisions of what report to file, especially of a breaking story, are taken by someone sitting far away in a newsroom who may not be familiar with the mechanics of the political situation,” she says.

Pandey, however, is optimistic, hoping that through the process of trial and error, a more responsible media will assume shape. Meanwhile, Pandey has taken time off for her favourite activity – writing. “I am currently engaged in revising the draft of a novel based on the war-of-languages issue,” she says. When not chasing deadlines, Pandey, a trained vocalist, finds music a soothing diversion. “I trained for myself, not for public performance,” she reveals.