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By Jayanthi Liyanage 

The interview was in progress, yet not in full swing. Start talking to Nirupama Subramaniam and you feel a shutter opening and closing. Within her, an astute element weighs the consequences of each word before it slips out, brisk, snappy - and flawless in construct. Almost. She is determined not to leave any room for boomerangs. But touch the willy-nillies of her profession and her precise sentences become laced with throaty, quicksilver laughter.

Due to leave our shores after six years, the more recent of which was as the "Hindu" correspondent in Sri Lanka, Nirupama has established herself as a journalist who managed to creep in with her coverage, where others did not. Demonstrating the power of a "single career-woman," Nirupama is known for her analytical coverage of political mileage and effects of war on people in Southern and Northern parts of Sri Lanka. She also covered the PA Government's attempts for devolution to frame a new constitution and efforts of the present government and the LTTE to finally reach a feasible ceasefire agreement.

Nirupama grew up in New Delhi and her love for the written word came through writing to friends as a kid. "My father was in the city government where people were constantly getting transferred. The only way to keep in touch was to write letters."

Nirupama first came to Sri Lanka as a visiting journalist for the magazine "India Today", to cover the previous peace process which dwindled away in April 1995. "They wanted substantial amounts of analysing and interpreting. It was quite a scramble for four days and I don't think I wrote a very good story as I got a shell blast from Delhi saying I didn't understand the story." She laughed. "I don't have a very good memory of that first visit story-wise, but people-wise, they were very pleasant and I made a couple of friends who are my friends, even today."

When Rita Sebastian, the then Sri Lankan correspondent for the Indian Express newspaper passed away in early 1996, Nirupama was offered the post. Her tenure was to end in November 1999 when the presidential elections were announced and she stayed on to cover it. And prompt came the offer from The Hindu.

Nirupama departs for a year of leave on a Fellowship to USA for studies on the "Role of Religion in Political Conflict with a comparison of India and Sri Lanka" but plays with the idea of coming back for holidays. "Sri Lanka is a fantastic holiday destination. When you are working daily, it's difficult to enjoy what is on offer."

She did her first degree in Sociology at St. Xavier's College, Bombay. "A posh, monied place where life was sheltered and not concerned with affairs of the nation," Nirupama says. "People from various walks of life came back to the college to hang out - journalists, television and theatre people. Looking at them, you think of becoming one of them." One ran a workshop called the "Blue Pencil" at the college and she tried her hand at a feature story. "When it came out in print, it was nothing like what I had written." By 1986, she was completing her training as a journalist at the "Times of India" newspaper and has been in the game ever since.

Nirupama says that the academic rigour and discipline of a post-graduate degree in Sociology at one of the finest institute of India - Delhi Institute of Economics at New Delhi University - influenced the rounding her as a journalist. The University, steeped in politics and exposure to outside elements, was in total contrast to her college life. "One of the defining moments was the riots in 1994 following the assasination of Mrs. Gandhi. I remember working in the relief camps and hearing stories from people."

Coming to her days at the Indian Express, Nirupama says that the majority of its women journalists were truly outstanding in contact, depth, perspective and the intriguing content of stories. "I wanted to become all of them in part." Her writing is proof that she did.

Nirupama talks to the Sunday Observer about journalism, journalists, ethics, life in India and what it means to be a woman in India and Sri Lanka.

Q. Nirupama, does an average individual in India speak more languages than in Sri Lanka?

A. We have to survive with more languages. I studied in English with Hindi as a second language and Tamil is my mother tongue. Delhi is basically a migrant city with people from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra and with very few Delhites. I suppose in their own homes, they speak a whole lot of languages but outside one hears mostly Panjabi and Hindi.

Q. Where would you say your home is?

A. My parents are in Madras so you could say my home is there. But I am an outsider in Madras as I am in any other part of the world. I really don't belong any where. I grew up in Delhi but I am a Tamilian so I am really not a "Delhi-walla." When I came to Colombo, I was an outsider again.

Q. May be that makes you a perfect journalist?

A. A colleague of mine with whom I discussed this aspect says only when you belong to a place, you get to know the subtleties and nuances of the place, so you can get into the story properly. The view of the outsider, the bird's eye view, the macro view is equally important though at times, you may be looked at with suspicion. In Sri Lanka, my endeavour is to give that big picture to my readers.

Q. How far would you go to get your story?

A. If it's going to be life-threatening, I think I would come back. I like to live. The biggest draw back I had in Sri Lanka was not being allowed to the Wanni at a crucial period and covering the conflict without being able to go to the conflict area. Somebody told me, " You could have tried to go if you were a great journalist." She had seen films where journalists take risks and come back with a smashing story.

If you are a foreigner here, your job is not that one story. If I break rules for one story, the rest of the story is finished for me. When you indulge in adventure journalism, the journalist becomes bigger than the story. Marie Colvin went across the military lines and was in Wanni for 14 days. She came back, badly injured, but did she write one piece on what Wanni was about ? By that time, she had become the story, so there was no point in writing about Wanni, thereafter! Marie Colvin's journalism is getting to places where no one else has got before. If Sri Lankan Government had not barred journalists from going to the Wanni, she would not have come here.

Q. What are your ethics in getting a story?

A. I don't pay to get a story.

Q. How would you rate Indian Press and Sri Lankan Press on the scale of Press Freedom?

A. Indian Press is definitely free. The Sri Lankan Press I see from 1995 is free and vibrant although there were some bad moments. Like when Udayan and Sunday Leader were sealed and the criminal defamation issue. But these are defining moments that shapes the future of the press. Now you have media reforms coming up and these changes happen because a crisis was there.

Q. How do you find Sri Lankan Journalists compared to Indian Journalists?

A. Sri Lankan journalists are very hard working. Here, a lot of youngsters are doing the biggest stories. In India, journalists are put through their paces from the simplest of stories and progress gradually to the top. But your kids are very hard working, curious and eager to know. The crucial thing for a journalist is to be able to ask any question from any body.

I read only the English newspapers here. There seems to be a diversity of stories, an attempt to get behind the story. When I first came here, the newspapers were really polarised. In reading, you could see Paper A taking one stand and in order to balance you had read Paper B and to balance that, Paper C. I think Sunday papers are really good and they give you a lot of reading material. I used to balk when I first came, because even at 12 noon Sunday I was reading the newspapers. I used to think, My Goodness, people can really write here! What amazes me in Sri Lankan newspapers is the people's ability to write really well and it is extremely readable. I write 500 words and I am drained. I enjoy reading the Sunday news papers although at the beginning I found it hard work. Now after six years, I am quite used to it and if I don't get my Sunday fix, I get withdrawal symptoms.

Q. Do you still find the Sunday papers polarised?

A. I don't find them polarised to the extent they were but they still have subtle differences - not that subtle either. Still you can see shades of differing opinion in the seemingly solid block of newspapers.

Q. How do you look at the fine balance the President from a PA government and the Prime Minister from a UNP government is trying to achieve?

A. I think they are trying hard to exist together. All credit to both of them. They tided over very difficult moments to themselves. I guess both of them have a mandate. They recognise each other's mandate and are trying to make it work.

Q. How does Indian Press look at Sri Lanka?

A. Indian Press covers Sri Lanka but you don't find that much of Sri Lanka. Those newspapers which cover Sri Lanka do understand the nuances of the cohabitation exercise that is happening here and its difficulties and they have been portraying those nuances to their readers. But Indian preoccupation is really Pakistan. Even readers would be more interested in Pakistan as a story than Sri Lanka as a story. They pick up Sri Lanka when something sensational happens. The last occasion was the press conference in Killinocchchi by the LTTE leader.

We have a lot of problems at home and too much happenings in India. If you are a foreign journalist in New Delhi, you will go mad, doing seven different stories seven days of the week. Indians are quite obsessed with what is happening internally. Sri Lanka though quite close is sligtly remote, specially to North India. Even in South India, interest in Sri Lankan happenings are sporadic and not continuous.

Q. What impression have you formed of Mr. Velupillai Prabakharan?

A. He successfully led his cadre but led his people into ruin. I have not interviewed him but I was at Killinochchi and the press conference seemed like a huge ordeal of logistical problems, security checks and catching deadlines. But you can put it down to valuable experience as to how LTTE conduct themselves and relate to outside world. I found it most surprising that they were not prepared for the most obvious questions from the lot of Indians present. When the question about Rajiv Gandhi was asked, they went into a huddle and it seemed like ages before they came out with a response and that they didn't want to comment on it because it was sub judice. But it was really post judice as the convictions had been handed out. As long as Prabhakaran was in shadows, the Indian public seemed to have forgotten him. But his sudden appearance on Indian TV screens brought the whole issue up front again.

Q. How do you look at Sri Lankan women?

A. Sri Lankan women are streets ahead compared to India, Pakistan, Bangla Desh and Nepal in literacy, education and attitudes toward traditional concepts. Your country is actually powered by women. You have women in garment and tea industries and women working in the Middle East. In social indicators of literacy, health and nutrition, Sri Lankan women are better of than Indian women. But despite high literacy, one finds that gender discrimination still exists here in work place and at home. It surprises me that despite a strong tradition of family planning, abortion is still illegal in this country.

Q. And the position of women in India?

A. Indian women are still grappling with the fundamental issues - literacy, nutrition, female infanticide, dowry and caste oppression. Somebody was saying the other day that in a particular community in India, men are finding it diificult to find women to marry. Perhaps because of female infanticide as it is a community which does not favour female children. The practice is well-documented in a district in Tamil Nadu and in many parts of Rajasthan. It is also an urban phenomenon where you find a lot of educated people aborting a female foetus.

In India, the women are very hard working journalists. A lot of front page stories are by women - they go the extra mile to get a well-researched, in-depth story. Unfortunately, employers do not think of them in long term, as an Editor or an employer - it is assumed that in 3-4 years, she would get married and go away. Women have a tougher task of convincing their employers that they are there to stay and committed to work. In India, the question of posting a married woman to an overseas posting would never arise. The system is still loaded against women.

Q. Have you ever regretted becoming a journalist?

A. At times, yes. The fact that I can't be like other people and not lead this odd and eccentric life style. Sometimes I wish I had a job that took me to the office at nine and brought me back at five and I didn't have to think about work till the next day. But overall, I have no regrets.

Q. How do you visualise yourself in future?

A. I think once you are a journalist, that finishes you for anything else. That's what has happened to me. I can't finish off at five. I am too thickly into journalism to do anything else. 

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