News Reporting Article

This is an article I wrote as an assignment for the News Reporting module. Please submit your feedback. I have also attached Pundit Anand Thakore's reply email. 

Quality of cultural activities dropping, says singer Pundit Anand Thakore

“St. Xavier’s College was one of the few colleges in which it was possible to meet young people like me who studied, lived and longed to share music and literature. The numbers of such people were as few as anywhere, but Xavier’s had an atmosphere where we could meet and share our ideas, music and have long discussions in the canteen and eventually perform from a semi-professional platform”, says Hindustani classical singer and English poet, Pundit Anand Thakore (37), about changing cultural trends and his affiliation with St. Xavier’s College for the last 20 years on Friday October 30, 2009 in a personal interview.
Thakore spoke about how St. Xavier’s College and the Indian Music Group (IMG) used to be a meeting place for young talent and how the scenario has changed today. “The Xavier’s canteen used to be alive with discussions about literature, music, poetry and theatre and the environment promoted talent unlike other colleges”, says Thakore who had one of first performances as a classical singer at the age of 17 at IMG. Even though Thakore studied at Elphinstone College, Mumbai, his association with Xavier’s brought him out of isolation as he met young people with similar interest in classical music and literature.
“I attribute it to the superficial Americanization of contemporary college life in Xavier’s which is devoid of any deeper cultural awareness either eastern or western”, says Thakore about the dropping levels of cultural awareness, activities and interest. There have been a few good performances in IMG recently, he admitted, however it is not a far cry from how it used to be 15 years ago. When questioned about why the intensity of music and literature are dropping, Thakore stated that there were no absolute remarks which can explain the drop. He did, however, mention that even abroad in Europe and the United States of America there have been very few cultural developments and the intensity has just not remained the same. Old supporters of music and literature, like himself, are not motivated enough to keep the show running as they are all busy with their own lives, Thakore said. “Artists are not good at creating awareness or promoting art”, Thakore said, “There is a need for awareness programs to improve the situation.”
Thakore still believes that the culture and way of life that so many students prided themselves about has a shot of reviving itself with a bit of support and enthusiasm from today’s youngsters. He says, “Just the fact that Malhar and IMG still exist and are active, is a good sign. There is hope for things to pick up and improve again. “

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Anand's reply:

This is on the whole competent writing, Pooja, that demonstrates basic linguistic control, (grammar, sentence formation etc with a few notable mistakes...) I am impressed by your simplicity and directness of expression, the clarity of thought and fidelity to what the person interviewed has said about himself and the situation......of course i am only impressed because standards of journalistic writing in India particularly in English have always been appalling and have turned worse in recent years- people simple have no sense of the finer nuances of the English language, a terrible disregard for the niceties of diction, precision of meaning and grammar ( prepositions in particular). What i like is that youre not going out of your way to achieve special stylistic effects ( which, without clarity and control, are usually disastrous) and you are staying true to your conversation-reportage tone which is confident and self assured- apart from which i can point out several clear mistakes or shortcomings of style when we meet and go over the piece together, if of course you wish to benefit from a little constructive criticism.
I cant say how relieved i am to receive a piece of reported in which i haven't been misrepresented. I can show you lots of newspaper cuttings over the years when things i have said have been manipulated, distorted and misrepresented completely- i don't even expect correct representation of any sort in the media anymore- television experiences have been even worse than the papers.
With lots of work, guidance and plenty of the 'right' kind of reading you might write quite 'well' one day- hope that isn't too condescending but art is a difficult business and writing, like everything else, remains an art- Anand.

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