MiDDAY shock in middle of the day

I was just driving to office, on 4 Dec 2011, when the call came. It was past 4 pm and there were only two things on my mind; a political story on the design of B Sriramulu, who had just won the Bellary bypoll, and happiness to work for a newspaper such as MiDDAY. There was no hint on its funeral preparation.

Irony is that I was thinking how fortunate I was to be a part of MiDDAY because it looked more stable than the papers recently launched editions in Bangalore and struggling for existence and the journalistic freedom I was enjoying was not to be seen anywhere in the leading newspapers. Just the previous day, the city editor Aditya Anand had called me to his chamber to tell that he had met the group editor Sachin Kalbag and the owner Mahendra Gupta, and they had told him MiDDAY Bangalore was on top of their priority and it would be stronger by next April.

The caller, Anand, our designer in MiDDAY, said he was hearing some corridor talks about shutting down of Bangalore operations and the next day edition was the last one. In fact, I had missed the call because I was busy on the mobile phone negotiating car loan with a bank executive, who had found MiDDAY as A1 Company on his priority list and was enthusiastic to lend. On seeing his name in the missed calls list, I called Anand casually and he gave me the death message with half confirmation.

Feeling an ice mountain on the chest, I called Susheelan, our admin head, who confirmed the news.  Aditya said the announcement was just made and he was not sure about the fate of the editorial staff although Sachin was in talks with the management about a possible re-absorption.

So, where was the space for the story of instability of the government, when my own position was unstable? A moment before I was the Brahma foreseeing the death of D V Sadananda Gowda government coming in the form of Bellary Yama Sriramulu. A moment after I was a petty creature praying for survival ( yet, I filed the story as the last one in MiDDAY Bangalore).

With a blank on the mind, I turned the direction to The Times of India after asking a bosom friend to come down. She was in tears. How many times she could see me jobless and help to find a new job. It is coming to me in cycles with an average interval of two years; this time for none of my fault, previous cases were nothing to do with professional reasons though. I had offers in other news papers, but had let them go. I had joined Bangalore Mirror, but came back within hours of signing the joining report after the then group editor Abhijit requested.

When I reached the office at 5.30, it seemed a burial ground with the staffers wearing mourning look. An official mail from the CEO said he was happy to move on to strengthen MiDDAY Mumbai after closing operations at Bangalore and Delhi. He had cheered us at the end.

It was funnier, the day after when the publisher descended to address us. When everyone was leering at him in hope that he would announce the re-absorption plans, the publisher dropped hints at ditching us with a month’s salary. And he was ready with the draft of our resignation letters. The CEO had written them and we just needed to sign.

The meeting scheduled for 10.30 was called at 4.30 and no one was in a mood to have breakfast or lunch. When the video conferencing was on, the HR officials connected from Mumbai just delivered a cold funeral speech that had nothing for us. And the HR head said they had to wait till 4.30 because they were deliberating on the ways to protect our interest and finally figured out paying a month’s salary and writing resignation letters for us. There was no question of re-absorbing the existing staff that was only ten in number.

It was the scenario that we witnessed in the morning and why they took so long to arrive at the same conclusion? This absurdity explains the decline of a strong brand such as MiDDAY, I thought. A mediocre leadership would be potential enough to sink a ship as large as Titanic, but it would not be able to float a blade of grass.

A girl, who was yet to complete a month with MiDDAY, was not able to make the HR understand her problem. She had managed to find a job for her and the new employer was asking for three months’ salary slip. She could not say her company shut shop even before she could get the first month’s salary because on records she had resigned and was relieved from the company. She wept, but there were no takers. The HR head stuck to his framed language and showed his readiness to repeat it for any number of times.    

I was not in a position to seek solace from my friends outside because they were long ago rendered jobless by their employer. They are my TV channel friends and we were trying to figure out job opportunities for them and it was precarious that all of a sudden I stood jobless before them. And it was their turn to console me. It was when my eyes got moisture after one of them told me I would get a job and he was with me to share the agony. At the moment he had forgotten his own agony and tried to cheer me up. He is one of the finest sports journalists on TV. His honesty and passion for journalism are unblemished. Yet, he was thrown out of the job and there is no placement for him even after six months.

Why this Kolavery in the media? Why we are so insensitive and brutally unprofessional?

But, the response I got from the fraternity was appreciable. Many sympathised with me, while some of them helped in fixing appointments with editors. The first confirmation call came from The Times of India Hyderabad. Although my love is with Bangalore, I have no option left with but to pack up for Hyderabad.