The business I love has put a lot of good people on the street and left behind a lot of empty buildings. I love it anyway, and so do the people who came by the paper Thursday, not so much to say goodbye to the old building but to say hello again to one another. I did most of the best work of my life with those people, and had most of the good times I’ll ever have, and met the woman I married. Newspapers can break your heart. But I’ll let it be broken every time for what I got out of the deal.
Of my 26 years in journalism, 20 have been spent in the digital space — and it’s been good. Mostly. Yet it is the time I spent in newspapers — the daily Indian Post, the Mumbai-based Mid-Day and its ambitious Sunday offering, the then Ambani-owned Sunday Observer — that provided the best memories.
This piece says everything I want to say about the magic of the newspaper office — and the sense of loss at the realisation that time has passed.
Smoke Signals 