Today's class began with the usual, "early-morning" exercise for the brains, (i.e), reading the newspapers.
One participant read aloud a news report of a young IT professional who stepped into a pool of water on a rainy day and was electrocuted by a 'live' wire' that must have existed on the road. This took place in Velachery.
To test our writing skills, we were asked to jot down the facts as quickly as possible, while the reader read the report again, slowly.
Then there was a brief talk on local history and how the Britishers set up a post in Madras and started to trade in textiles. This topic was actually triggered of by the reference to Chintadripet in a news report and what 'pettai' or 'pett' means. This aside was beautifully linked to the lesson of the day without going off tangentially.
Then, an interesting assignment was given to us - think of story leads tn our neighborhood, based on Wednesday's rains. We read out our story leads and they were discussed briefly. We have been asked to report on our leads and they will be posted on this blog!
The story leads were varied - uprooted trees, power breakdown, flooded streets, garbage and sewage mixing with rainwater and polluting the area, delayed buses, open man-holes, fishermen who had to stay away from fishing . .
The day's session also touched on how a reporter works at a newspaper. Of the need for friendly contacts with people (either a policeman, watchmen, friends or colleagues) of the area ( which the reporter is assigned to) which helps in gathering information and being tipped to happenings in and around that area.
The class ended with the Adyar Times photographer taking the photos of each one of us. They will be posted on this blog.
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