Stories from the other side of the fence

Meena Menon, a senior journalist who started her career in Bombay Magazine, unveiled her fourth book in the city, on Wednesday.

Reporting Pakistan is her account of the nine months she had spent reporting about Pakistan from Islamabad. In May 2014, the Pakistani authorities without any specific reason, expelled her. In spite of her truncated stay, and the restrictions placed on her movements, Menon managed to write on a range of subjects covering swathes of life in Islamabad. She spoke to people from the persecuted Ahmadi community, covered protests, interviewed victims of bomb blasts, spoke to partition survivors, visited the sprawling, crowded Afghan refugee camp on the outskirts of the capital, wrote about the Murree Brewery, and described political events, including the high-treason trial of General Musharraf.

Meena said, “This is a pure reportage on Pakistan. I saw many things from the ground up, many things I wish I had not seen.” The book her experiences from the struggle to get a visa, covering terrorism, her experience of being followed, the revival of leftist politics in Pakistan, and the conflict in Balochistan.

Commenting on the life that she witnessed during her stay in the city, Meena said, “The ordinary people whom I had met in Pakistan were not quite interested in Kashmir, in fact, they were more interested in Bollywood and its gossip ­­– why would this actor not marry the other, and so on. They love Indian television.”

Speaking at the launch, Kumar Ketkar, former editor of Loksatta and Divya Marathi, and president of Mumbai Press Club said, “Most often what the electronic media tries to make us believe is that all Pakistanis are warmongers. In fact, this war-like situation is important for those who rule and often they benefit from it, including certain sections in the military on both sides of the fence.”