By the second day, I managed to release one of my tapes through a senior Banker staying in my hotel. He and his family were airlifted by a private helicopter hired by his bank from mumbai. He kindly agreed to deliver my tape at the mumbai office. And to my relief, all the human angle stories that I had shot could go on air that day.
But the water were showing no signs of receding.By the third day I had no hopes of sending my second tape with no one else expected to be airlifted from the hotel. By that time, the 100 odd guests staying at Gateway Hotel had realised that they had a TV news team staying with them in the hotel. They all had only one question to ask...When will the waters recede?. Sadly we had no answer since ironically like them we were also stuck.
Suddenly one of the guests had a brainwave and he asked us to show them what we had shot. Usually we do not show our unedited visuals to anyone. But they requested us since they were all tired of waiting endlessly with no news from the outside world. The cable network had completely failed and even radio service was out of order. The only hope was the good old mobile phone which was also facing problems of poor network connecitivity. We agreed to connect our camera to the Plasma TV but had to back out after one of the guests objected saying that the flood visuals could disturb the already panicked residents in the hotel.
By the fourth day, the already bored and tired residents, desperate of seeing some news got in touch with the hotel management and requested them to grant us permission to show them the stories we had shot. They finally agreed and a projector was put up by the hotel employees.Our camera was connected and two big speakers were also aligned to get the sound. We showed them visuals of people picking up food packets dropped by army helicopters, flooded houses with about 4 to 5 ft of water, desperate angry voices from surat residents wating for the waters to recede and help from the administration. There were also shots of people stranded on the top of building terraces and petrol pumps wating for the water to recede.
Though I did not realise, by the time we were half way through, about 50 to 60 hotel guests had gathered to see the footage. For the first time in four days since they were stuck, I could witness their sense of relief for being stuck in the hotel and not in a flooded locality. Atleast in the hotel, they had the luxury of electricity during the night with the help of diesel generators, proper meal three times a day and clean drinking water. All the frustration gave way to relief and they thanked us for giving them a true picture of a flooded Surat city.
For us, it was satisfaction at a different level.For any journalist, there cannot be anything worse than not being able to put stories on air which he had shot taking so much efforts. Though our stories were being seen by a smaller audience, we felt good that atleast someone could see them.At the end of the day, isnt that something that all Television journalists look for?
About the AuthorJency Jacob Straight from Maximum City....Read Morefirst published:August 18, 2006, 15:32 ISTlast updated:August 18, 2006, 15:32 IST
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What do you do when you are stuck in floods and unable to move out anywhere. I was faced with this dilemma last week when I was in Surat. Due to some strange reasons, before I could reach the OB van(Satellite van), water from the Tapti river rushed into the city and put us on opposite sides of the city. My OB van was stuck somewhere close to Surat Station and I was in the heart of the city shooting stories but with no medium to release those visuals.
By the second day, I managed to release one of my tapes through a senior Banker staying in my hotel. He and his family were airlifted by a private helicopter hired by his bank from mumbai. He kindly agreed to deliver my tape at the mumbai office. And to my relief, all the human angle stories that I had shot could go on air that day.
But the water were showing no signs of receding.By the third day I had no hopes of sending my second tape with no one else expected to be airlifted from the hotel. By that time, the 100 odd guests staying at Gateway Hotel had realised that they had a TV news team staying with them in the hotel. They all had only one question to ask...When will the waters recede?. Sadly we had no answer since ironically like them we were also stuck.
Suddenly one of the guests had a brainwave and he asked us to show them what we had shot. Usually we do not show our unedited visuals to anyone. But they requested us since they were all tired of waiting endlessly with no news from the outside world. The cable network had completely failed and even radio service was out of order. The only hope was the good old mobile phone which was also facing problems of poor network connecitivity. We agreed to connect our camera to the Plasma TV but had to back out after one of the guests objected saying that the flood visuals could disturb the already panicked residents in the hotel.
By the fourth day, the already bored and tired residents, desperate of seeing some news got in touch with the hotel management and requested them to grant us permission to show them the stories we had shot. They finally agreed and a projector was put up by the hotel employees.Our camera was connected and two big speakers were also aligned to get the sound. We showed them visuals of people picking up food packets dropped by army helicopters, flooded houses with about 4 to 5 ft of water, desperate angry voices from surat residents wating for the waters to recede and help from the administration. There were also shots of people stranded on the top of building terraces and petrol pumps wating for the water to recede.
Though I did not realise, by the time we were half way through, about 50 to 60 hotel guests had gathered to see the footage. For the first time in four days since they were stuck, I could witness their sense of relief for being stuck in the hotel and not in a flooded locality. Atleast in the hotel, they had the luxury of electricity during the night with the help of diesel generators, proper meal three times a day and clean drinking water. All the frustration gave way to relief and they thanked us for giving them a true picture of a flooded Surat city.
For us, it was satisfaction at a different level.For any journalist, there cannot be anything worse than not being able to put stories on air which he had shot taking so much efforts. Though our stories were being seen by a smaller audience, we felt good that atleast someone could see them.At the end of the day, isnt that something that all Television journalists look for?
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