10/10/2024
CHASING A DREAM: MY JOURNALISTIC JOURNEY
I first went to Mumbai 40 years ago as a jobless youth. It was at the insistence of my cousin Satish Ganapathy (to whom this book is dedicated) that I left my native place Kodagu (Coorg) in Karnataka and went to Mumbai, then known as Bombay. There I managed to get a temporary job as a time-keeper on daily wages.
Like most of the Kodavas (Coorgs) of those days who went to Mumbai looking for employment, I too went and met K.M. Chinnappa (who incidentally belonged to the Kuppanda clan of Kodagu). This legendary managing director of Tata Electric it is said, was once involved in mentoring one of India's leading industrialists, Ratan Tata. Much to my delight, Chinnappa gave me a decent job in his company.
However, being an idealistic youth, I wanted to ‘change the world’ and thought of taking up journalism, at that point I knew very little about the profession. Becoming a journalist was a tall order for me as I had studied in the Kannada medium at school and had not yet written anything significant enough to claim that I had the required writing skills.
Despite all the insecurities and inadequacies, the only thing I had in plenty was the passion to pursue my dream. I enrolled myself at Mumbai’s well-known institute Bhavan’s College of journalism for an evening course. After completing the one year post-graduate course, I headed home to Kodagu. I was again back to square one as a jobless person. It must have been frustrating for my parents to see their son with a master’s degree and a post-graduate diploma sitting ‘idle’ at home.
As months passed by without any job prospects in sight,
I went to meet K.M. Nanjappa, the younger brother of field marshal K.M. Cariappa, he had retired as chairman (custodian) of the Allahabad Bank. Nanjappa wrote a letter to the owners of The Hindu newspaper who offered me a job as their Mercara (now Madikeri) correspondent. There was no looking back after that.
After three decades of a journalistic career, having worked mainly for The Times of India (at Bengaluru) and The Pioneer,
I quit active journalism about a decade ago to become an author. I have authored six books and a couple of books is on the way. A book of mine titled ‘The Romance of Indian Coffee’ won a recognition from the international food business, a Gourmand Award. I am currently active on social media and run five Coorg-centric websites.
At the time of writing, I am back in the City of Dreams, the happening city of Mumbai where it all began. Thank you Mumbai and thanks to all those who made it possible for me to fulfill my dream.
Source: My Coorg Chronicles by P.T. Bopanna, 2020, Rolling Stone Publications. Paperback copies of the book available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.in/My-Coorg-Chronicles-Bopanna-P-T/dp/9385741004
