In Kerala's ghats: the newspaper still holds prime space

Election posters in Wayanad, Kerala

I am headed to the ghats. Western Ghats. Our destination for the night is Kozhikode ( Calicut) but I'd like to stop at Kalpetta, the district headquarters of Wayanad in Kerala.

Wayanad rose to the top on the election news agenda after Congress president Rahul Gandhi decided to contest from a second constituency and chose Wayanad, the hill country in south India.

The dry, sun-burnt landscape of Bandipur borders Kerala. This is a busy tourist destination but recently, a intense forest fire did considerable damage. As we drive through the forest zone we see Fire Service teams posted at a few places off the main road.

Colour posters of Rahul Gandhi and the Congress symbol greet us on the border and there are dozens of them all along the main road as we motor into town. The posters of the CPI(M) challenger here are few and far between. But they get our attention.

Evening isn't the best time to catch journalists. That too at election time. On my tour, I have had to gatecrash into newsrooms or corner local reporters or stringers. Because this is more of a road trip and I am happy to meet and talk to any journalist on my topic.

Kalpetta office of 'Mathrubhumi' newspaper

A. K. Sujit heads the Wayanad bureau of 'Mathrubhumi', one of Kerala's leading Malayalam newspapers. He is busy in an editorial meeting when I call. And minutes later, he is off on an assignment. Ever since Rahul Gandhi formally announced his intention to contest from Wayanad, newspeople here have much on their hands. There is more to report at every turn.

Sujit is kind: he puts me on to his colleague Neenu Mohan. So we head to the Mathrubhuni office located on the Kalpetta main road. On the first floor, in one single room are a few terminals on the desk where people are at work. A TV fixed to the wall is on silent mode: Mathrubhumi's TV channel is 'live', reporting the election scenario from across the state that evening. ( www.tv.mathrubhumi.com).

Neenu Mohan has lots to file but takes a break to talk to me.  She says that bureau teams like this one in Kalpetta are busy all the time since they are based in district headquarters and because the dailies have editions from every zone of the state. So print is demanding, and that demand increases at election time. She says the Internet Desk seeks inputs when a story breaks locally and the bureau can provide additional details on the run.

Clearly, in a state where people consume news a lot and are said to read more than one newspaper, in a state where people debate and discuss politics hard and long, print journalists continue to pay a lot of attention to stories they file for the daily. 

The newspaper is as important as the daily's web site and its TV channel.