Election time in India: Young Kiwi works a busy Bangalore newsroom

Dominion Post journalist Kate Newton spent eight weeks in India from March to May 2009. She went to Bangalore on an Asia:NZ foundation-supported internship at the Deccan Herald as a 2008 Massey University journalism graduate. Here is the account of her trip.

I think the moment I realised I loved India was the day I threw caution to the wind, my hands in the air, and let out a yelp of exhilaration while pelting along a Bangalore highway, helmetless, on the back of a motorcycle. I got some weird looks from the locals, but that signalled the end of a settling-in period and the beginning of my “real” journey to India.

I arrived in Bangalore, India, in the middle of March on an eight-week trip, six of which I spent as an intern reporter at local English-language daily paper, the Deccan Herald. My weekdays while in Bangalore were spent at the paper’s offices in the heart of the city, writing news for the metro desk and the occasional arts piece for the paper’s ‘Metrolife’ supplement. Apart from laboured attempts to twist my New Zealand accent into something vaguely sensible to Indian ears, the most challenging aspect of working for the DH was writing to fit the paper’s style. Unlike New Zealand papers, where the emphasis is often on colour, or the most attention-grabbing angle, I found Indian journalists tend to stick to a “straight” style, which can be much harder to master than it sounds! Working for the city desk was a great crash-course in what was making Bangalore buzz – whether it was the daily planned power cuts, window-shoppers clogging busy Brigade Rd, or the closure of the city’s beloved Indian Coffee House. It also made good fodder for my blog, Indian Ink, which ran on the Dominion Post’s website while I was overseas.

The news story swamping the paper while I was there, though, was the upcoming general election. Winston Peters isn’t a patch on India’s politicians – the bribery, the jaded pasts, the booming rhetoric; all turned the election into a riveting drama on a scale I couldn’t have imagined without seeing it for myself. I had done my best to absorb as many parties’ and politicians’ names as possible before I left New Zealand, but the intricacies and complexities of Indian politics meant I had to stick to covering some of the peripheral issues – including talking to students and expats about how they intended to vote and what they considered to be the key issues. The highlight of my time at the DH was being taken by a colleague (again, on the back of his motorcycle!) to a rally being held by the main opposition party, BJP. The rally, which about 50,000 supporters attended, was part of party leader L K Advani’s whistle-stop tour around the country and I think part of my blog entry from that night captures the atmosphere best:

After making our way through security and into the compound at National College, we were herded into the press pen along with a hundred-odd other journalists and a bevy of cameramen and photographers, elbowing and shoving each other to gain prime position.

Tucking into the snack boxes handed out by party workers, we settled down to wait for Advani and watched the venue rapidly swell with people. In what (for India) was a remarkable display of punctuality, our man arrived a mere 23 minutes after the rally was due to start, to the crackle of fireworks - which made me just a tad jumpy - and the roar of the crowd.

His mouth and the heavens opened at precisely the same moment.

Within seconds, everyone was soaked, the fine red dirt was churned to mud and a hundred reporters' notebooks were rendered completely useless. The journalist next to me put a plastic bag on his head. I crawled under the table. Undeterred, the crowd merely stood up, held the plastic chairs they'd been sitting on over their heads, and kept on cheering.

The chance to learn and debate about Indian politics was one I relished – in five years’ time when the next election rolls around, I’m hoping to head back and take a more active reporting role.

I’d been warned that trying to organise anything in India would test my patience and it’s true that arranging interviews and trips from Bangalore could be frustratingly difficult at times. The assistant editor’s offer to take me with him when he travelled round the state for a few days, covering the elections, sadly never came to fruition despite my polite nagging. A trip to visit the Bangalore-based space programme was ultimately stymied by a satellite launch (which I was desperate to see but was told would be breaching national security!). ANZ’s Bangalore call centre proved an impenetrable fortress.

Meeting people in Bangalore also proved hard, but a couple of wonderful people took me under their wing. The first was Lalitha S, the Deccan Herald’s transport reporter, who suggested books for me to read, bought me innumerable cups of coffee and took me for that first memorable motorbike ride. The second was Sudha Ramchandran, a former journo now teaching international relations and ethics at a college in Pondicherry. Her advice and kindness were invaluable.

I spent my Bangalore weekends and the fortnight at the end of my trip travelling around South India and then to Delhi to research some features for the Dominion Post. My first stop was a Madurai-based NGO, Shepherd, where I stayed for three days with Shepherd’s secretary, M Paramasamy, and his family. With Paramasamy acting as ad hoc translator, I was able to visit several villages to talk to the people living there about the impact of the NGO’s work, which is partly funded by the New Zealand High Commission. I spent one unforgettable evening sitting under a village’s sole street lamp while the entire village explained how they made a living by collecting scrap metal from the neighbouring rubbish dump. I had expected to find them unwilling to talk to me, but was surprised and humbled by how open and eager they were to share their story.

2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s exile from Tibet, so at the last minute I decided to visit Bylakuppe, the second largest Tibetan settlement in India, to learn about its history and meet some of the people living there. I was amazed by the strength of their bond to Tibet: despite the fact that many of the people living in Bylakuppe were born in the settlement and had lived there all their lives, everyone I asked responded without hesitation that if they could return to Tibet tomorrow, they would. It was a fascinating insight into the way so many different cultures, languages, ethnicities and religions live cheek by jowl in India, without much of the animosity you might expect.

After a detour to Darjeeling and a 33-hour train ride that at times felt like it would never end, I made it to Delhi, my final stop before flying home to New Zealand. Everyone I spoke to before I left home told me I would hate Delhi, but I adored it – and was surprised by how much green space there was. For me, Delhi epitomised the contrasts of India: New Delhi, with its wide, planned streets, monuments and shining new subway (complete with ‘Mind the gap’ delivered in a crisp British accent) rubs up against Old Delhi’s rambling, centuries-old network of lanes and alleys, in the shadow of the Red Fort and the main mosque, Jama Masjid. I spent an entire day eating my way through Old Delhi. I would highly recommend the experience.

While in Delhi I was able to meet with Gavin Wall, an expat Kiwi and former Massey University professor who has spent the last half-decade working for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. Gavin is currently FAO’s representative to India and Bhutan and as such, is effectively charged with the responsibility of making sure a billion people have food. I spent an afternoon interviewing him for a profile feature and he was able to talk about many of the things I had seen while in Madurai on an India-wide scale. I also visited New Zealand’s High Commission while in Delhi to meet with high commissioner Rupert Holborow, who, along with second secretary Michelle Wanwimolruk, had provided me with contacts and story ideas before and during my trip.

My trip to India was not without hitches. I managed to pick up a mystery illness in my first week, which knocked me flat for about three days. I threw a rock (and missed) at a man who groped me in Hampi. At the same time India dazzled and amazed me, it also made me a lot more resilient and fearless. Going there as a reporter opened my eyes to a lot of people, places and issues that I might otherwise have missed had I simply been there on a backpacking holiday. I’m already planning the next trip – thank you Asia New Zealand for providing the means and the method to make the first.

Photo captions

1. Women creating kolam (a traditional form of art) at the model village run by Madurai NGO Shepherd.

2. Election officials on polling day in Delhi.

3. Supporters and journalists brave the rain at a BJP election rally in Bangalore.

4. Kate Newton with Shepherd secretary M Paramasamy and the agriculture faculty at a Madurai state college.

5. Monks at Sera Jey monastery in Bylakuppe share breakfast after dawn prayers.

6. Kelsang Dolma, left, and Nyima Youdon, both 19, were sent to Bylakuppe from Tibet as 9-year-olds by their families.

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Read Kate's blog. Asia:NZ offers four annual internship scholarships to the Massey University School of Journalism. Further information on media grants