In my decade-long career as a business journalist, I have interviewed many personalities--some famous and many not so famous. Some of the interviews are memorable for various reasons but yesterday I recorded probably the funniest interview of my lifetime so far.
The person we met wanted to give us some inside information about a company but he was so scared that he refused to say anything. He felt we were recording the conversation and will use it against him. In spite of repeatedly ensuring him that we are not recording he was not convinced. The result: silent interview. We would ask a question and get a written reply on a piece of paper with the person not muttering a single syllable. Any question will lead to total silence for about 10 minutes till the person finished writing the answer on paper. I felt as I was doing some sting operation.
I used to feel I have experienced everything in journalism but incidents like these remind you that picture abhi baaki hai...
The person we met wanted to give us some inside information about a company but he was so scared that he refused to say anything. He felt we were recording the conversation and will use it against him. In spite of repeatedly ensuring him that we are not recording he was not convinced. The result: silent interview. We would ask a question and get a written reply on a piece of paper with the person not muttering a single syllable. Any question will lead to total silence for about 10 minutes till the person finished writing the answer on paper. I felt as I was doing some sting operation.
I used to feel I have experienced everything in journalism but incidents like these remind you that picture abhi baaki hai...
No comments:
Post a Comment