From the B of 'Business' till the B of 'Brands'...

From the B of 'Business' till the B of 'Brands'...

23rd Feb, 2012

A year on...

They (mostly friends/colleagues) kept on telling me for the first couple of months: Why don't you put it on FB? then.. it went on to why the hell (with affection) did you not put it on FB yet! A silent me would give a blank look and an assurance that soon it would be up there!

So what is it that so needed to be known to them? And I realised with time while some wanted it out of joy, others wanted to let the enthusiasm spread out...

Yours lovingly had received the "Business Standard-Seema Nazareth Award for Excellence in Journalism for 2010" on 23 February 2011... from the then Water Resources Minister Salman Khursheed.

[Also Dhan Bhaina, my eldest bro, got married and Mithu bhabhi came home]...The whole family was just celebrating evreywhere; and thus, it continued.

To those many sweethearts, hunks ... here's the speech -

I was getting ready for office, and making Papa's lunch; and I got a call my boss (editor), and she said the then managing editor wanted to speak to me. Upon receiving my call, he asked, "Arunima. So, you are coming to day na! Have you prepared your speech? Will it be an extempore one?"... I just responded, "aaawww... I've not prepared anything... I think I'll talk about my team only." He quickly responded back, "Meet me at office. I heard your dad is in town. Pl extend our invitation to him for the function in the evening."

I reached office and went to meet him; and he briefed me how the function is going to be... etc etc... I wrap up work; and colleagues promise me to see me in the evening. Me and Papa start at around 4pm to reach the Assocham house. It starts with a delay of half hour as the chief guest,

then the Water Resources Minister Salman Khursheed was stuck in some meeting. The then Business Standard Editor Dr Sanjaya Baru introduce all with the guests and right after an opening song, Malavika Singh reads out the citation aloud (with all, I too happen to listen to it for the first time)...What profound words. And I'm called upon the stage to receive the award. All done. Now, the editor asks me to say "a few" words... And I approach towards the podium with a smile and my piece of paper where I'd jotted down some names @work -- the elements -- of my speech.

... Good evening Papa. First, I would like to thank Veenu, Aloka and Manisha for dressing up for the evening. My colleague from the Bombay office, Sayantani's first statement after hearing it: "This time, strat has got it." The award goes to team 'strat' [Strategist is referred to as, in-house]...I thank my team @Delhi: the editor, who had hired me in BS and my senior, Amit (an ace photographer he is; he writes as well) and my boss currently for letting me do what I wanted to. The design team too was big-time a help. Debu (who designs my magazine) supported throughout that helped me manage time between production and writing.

(As I kept thinking what to say now, an incident struck me where a junior had congratulated me after a couple of days post 9th Feb, 2011- when the announcement was made - that was with a subdued tone)

6th March:

And, the award was thus dedicated to the writers everywhere, desk people in particular ;-) To Maa, who calls me a senior editor when someone asks her my profile. [I was then a senior SUB-editor]...I'll soon become one senior editor that, Maa, you won't have to edit a lot. To My juniors, seniors and batchmates from IIMC, who have read all that I write diligently and give their feedback to have made who I am today...

And to all, this is dedicated to, who know how to write, who wants to write and who have got the urge to write, there are still kind-hearted editors who will let you write. I've got some, so far! You got to manage your production, pages, editing, assignments, research, stories etc etc... but believe me, it happens if you want to let it happen...

[Now, happy b'day to you Deepa, again...] :) Guys, I'll write the rest of it in a while...