The transition from print journalism to book writing.
Having been a print media journalist for over 25 years one had the satisfaction of seeing immediate results. You researched your story, wrote it up, filed it the same evening and then presided over the results next morning.
Making a recent transition to book writing, the experience is wholly different.
In writing my first book, the training in print journalism was useful and the research and writing was quickly accomplished. Then, in my case, started a painful process that went on for several years. The writing, rewriting, editing, polishing, proofing process went on and on. By the time authors, editors, publishers got their act together the process had already been ongoing for five years! This first is now finally nearing completion and will be out in a month or so.
Called 'Putting women first', I am one of the co-authors with Dr. Rani Bang, a gynaecologist who works in Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra. The book, published by Stree in Kolkata, is about Rani's experience of being a woman doctor in rural India and the stories of the patients who pass through her clinic. Not much is known about the health issues of rural Indian women patients and Rani's story provides many new insights, more from a sociological, anthropological perspective, not so much medical.
Although I have also contributed to some of the investigations and explorations of Gadchiroli district, I have basically sought to use my writing skills to enable Rani to tell her story. People who have been inspired by Gandhian ideals and have demonstrated how it works, are also people who have understood India and what its people need, particularly its poorest. Such insight and experience is urgently needed in today's India. I believe Rani's story is of great relevance to those who want to understand the universality of women's health issues and the diverse responses needed in meeting their challenges.
The second book, basically written, but quite a way before the final outcome, is a Travelogue on North-East India. This one is based on 25 years of research. Its a collection drawn from my personal journal and journalistic writings, based on my travels in this sensitive and little known part of our easter border area since 1980. Very few journalists from mainland India have had an opportunity to know this beautiful region and its amazing people and record the sweeping changes seen over such a long span. I have done several studies there related to their unique environmental, agricultural, community, health traditions, for instance.
For me the North-East region is always special and its people are precious. Knowing them, the diversity of their culture makes India a richer, more interesting country for me. Learning to stand in their shoes and understand why it pinches, helps one to see India from a different light and to understand what it means to respect the rights of a people who seek to create a nation within a nation.
