Story: Culture hurdle for media outsourcer

From Sunday's paper, a feature story on media outsourcing.

Story: Manmohan Singh or Cyndi Lauper?

A brief write-up about my first Indian Independence Day. Nice to get a byline for something I would've attended anyway.

Story: Dalrymple, Rushdie & a book on AIDS

Here's a day story from Wednesday. Mukul Kesavan was supposed to show up but didn't. Dalrymple was really entertaining, though.

Story: Myanmarese mark 20th yr of "8888"

There is text-message speak in the headline of this story.

Story: Tibetan hunger protest enters ninth day

Never go to report on a hunger strike without first having breakfast.

Story: Fledgling Delhi acting schools get mixed marks on placement

Although online it looks like it ends at the end of Page 1, there are two pages to this story, which was arguably the most fun to report out of the ones I've done so far.

Story: e-filing or e-failing?

Like that headline? Sadly, I can't take any credit for it -- they ran this story as a package with a bunch of boxes, photos, graphics and such, and I think the print layout team put it all together.

If I ever pay taxes in India, I will definitely hire an accountant, if only so I don't have to brave the line.

Story: After the scare, flight delay

I went out yesterday to get some "color" for this story, a woeful travelers' tale. Most of what I got was cut for lack of space. Fortunately, I have this blog, on which I can post whatever occurs to me.

Here is my dispatch from deep inside Le Meridien Hotel, New Delhi:

Anne-Marie Guillet could have done without the last two days of her Indian vacation. The 55-year-old Frenchwoman was among the 241 passengers who on Thursday evacuated an Air Mauritius flight that caught fire when a bird flew into its wheel. She spent Friday shuttling between Le Meridien Hotel and the Delhi airport after a second flight was canceled due to mechanical trouble.

“I really do like India,” said Guillet, who spent two weeks touring Rajasthan and is now heading home to Reunion Island. “But I really want to go back to my country.”

After Thursday’s emergency evacuation, some passengers waited more than four hours for their luggage before buses escorted them to Le Meridien. They received phone calls at 1:30 a.m. Friday telling them to return to the airport for an early morning flight. They then spent two hours waiting on the plane before officials told them the flight had been canceled.

“We waited, we waited and we waited,” Guillet said Friday afternoon. “Now we don’t know if we can take another plane.”

Ratnesh Verma, one of 90 HDFC Standard Life Insurance employees headed to Mauritius for a holiday, spent Friday resting and nursing cuts sustained while sliding down the emergency escape chute during Thursday’s evacuation. He said his family has encouraged him not to board any more planes.

“They say, ‘If this type of thing keeps happening, then why risk your life?’” he said. “But it is a part of life. If you worry about this type of thing, you will be living in fear.”

So Verma joined the scores of bleary-eyed travelers who gathered in front of Le Meridien early Friday evening. With luggage in hand, they boarded the buses and left for a third trip to the airport.

Story: U.S. papers, Indian copy editors

Writing about the troubles plaguing my chosen field is so much less depressing here.

UPDATE: This story appeared on Romenesko Monday.

Newsman: What will be outsourced next? Newspaper editors?
Eureka Reporter
"When newspapers lay off someone here and hire someone in India, they are breaking their trust with the American public in order to pinch pennies," writes Dave Stancliff. "As an old newspaper man, I find it difficult to see what’s happening to such an important part of our society because of lack of imagination in solving money problems." || Hindustan Times: It remains to be seen whether outsourcing will cause a dip in editorial quality.

Story: Two employees of fraud loan firm held

I've missed racketeering. This is the e-paper version, so just scroll over to page six.

Story: Can Delhi become a caffeinated capital?

My first HT business story. Also the first in a series I'm considering pitching titled "Things I like to consume."

And I helped Michelle Stockman with videos. She gave me producer credits:

Video 1
Video 2

Multimedia is somewhat new here, and sometimes the videos struggle to load. But there are YouTube versions. Second one here.

Story: Sparkle murder case trial begins

A brief story from Sunday's paper. The Internet situation at our house is currently touch-and-go, so I have had trouble getting photos and other posts up. But they are coming.

Story: Auto lifting gang leader was hired to kill Arun Gupta

I can't find this tiny crime story online, but you can read it -- and also get a good sense of what the print edition looks like each day -- by clicking here and flipping to page 6.

"Auto lifting" = car stealing.

Story: Biggest hurdle for foreigners: how to apply

The first person is necessarily ridiculous. But also sort of great.

Story: Foreign students find DU quite unfriendly

A story on the treatment of foreign students at Delhi University can be read here.

This was an interesting story in that quite a bit of the attribution was edited out, which would not have happened at an American paper. Particularly given that headline.

Story: Indian workers to suspend strike

A new story on the Indian migrant workers demonstrating in DC can be read here.

My first story on the workers, written from New York with Michelle, can be read here.

HT is running these stories under the tag "Mississippi Burning." I'd be lying if I said I completely understood the tag.

Story: Visa racket busted, four held

A second story from the crime desk. I'm officially on the racketeering beat.

"Four alleged fraudsters operating a phony travel agency that supplied fake foreign visas were arrested on Wednesday after police ensnared two suspects in a trap laid near south Delhi’s Defence Colony market..."

Story: Friendship racket busted, six held

A story from my first night on the desk, my third for the Hindustan Times (I wrote two from New York):

"One man and five women were arrested on Wednesday for their involvement in a fake friendship racket that promised gullible callers seeking a massage and 'complete satisfaction' the opportunity to meet women in exchange for up to Rs 29,000...

Note to self: Get a hindustantimes.com e-mail account so that my gmail account is not printed in a newspaper with a circulation of more than 1.2 million readers.