Introduction
Here’s advice from a veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas. For a journalist, she says, the seven most important words are: You’re as good as your last story! No wonder then, even at age 89, she refuses to put away her reporter’s pad and pen. I hope all of us can follow her in lighting up the path to truth.
My journalistic career began way back in 1984. I was hired by the Pakistan Herald Publications Ltd as an editorial assistant for their evening paper The Star. It was the best thing that could happen to someone searching for adventure. Each day was packed with excitement and a sense of wonderment, which 25 years later, still greets me when I wake up in the morning. There’s work to do, people to meet, stuff to read, and stories to write. One is evolving all the time and the best part of this profession is that yesterday’s stories never lose their thrill.
I have loved writing with a passion that increases with time. All these columns that I have written over the decades stay lodged in my heart and soul. I remember each one so vividly, so fondly and with such pride. Each column forms an intrinsic whole informing me of who I am. It is a marvelous feeling which neither money nor power can bestow. It is pure joy and those who have it are indeed blessed.
For five years I was the editor of Dawn Magazine. While I rarely wrote during that time, my pride and joy was the weekly eight page supplement that I would put together along with my team. My reward would come each week when I’d take the printed Magazine to Editor DAWN, the late Mr Ahmed Ali Khan for approval. No matter how busy, Khan Sahib, as we called him, would go through all the pages keenly. Rarely would he disapprove and even when he did, he’d do ever so gently. His praise and encouragement meant the world to me.
When I relocated to Islamabad from Karachi in 1993, I began reporting foreign affairs for Dawn. In 1996, I resigned to become a free lance columnist. It was the most challenging time of my career. I wrote a weekly social/political column for the Dawn Magazine and a purely political one for The Friday Times. When people began to comment upon them, I knew I had arrived.
Interviews have always been my all time favourites. In 1985 I interviewed Cory Aquino when she was on the threshold to becoming the first woman president of the Philippines. I chased her down to Makati Medical Centre in downtown Manila where she was tending to her ailing mother. We clicked right away and when she became the president she wrote me a letter I have saved.
In 1999 I relocated to the US and began my View from America that I continued writing every week until I returned to Islamabad beginning of 2006. In May 2007 I began contributing a weekly column for The News International Op-Ed pages.
The only regret I have is that I could never get down to writing a book! Who knows, maybe one day…? |
