Her immediate impulse was to either choke or spit it out, but neither was possible on-air. Stupefied, she stared blankly at the camera for the ensuing half minute. Then, she gulped the insect down. [break]
“It was literally a bitter pill to swallow,” Singh said, her lips twisting in disgust. “Did I tell you I was a vegetarian? What a weird way to break the vow.”
To many who think reading news on television is always serious work, Rama Singh’s story gives a different view. News, considered a “serious business of glamour and journalism” is less so, especially during those brief moments of funny, and sometimes not-so-funny, weird situations that creep into the lives of almost every newsreader.
Nepal´s-own Katie Couric, Singh has worked in Nepal Television (NTV) for over two decades now. She reminisces about her early days when she began her career under all limitations and compromises. Newsreaders had to stop recording the news whenever an aeroplane flew overhead, or dog barked nearby. The studio doors and windows were too thin and walls not insulated.
She also remembers the era before 1992 when newsreaders had to read handwritten news, full of colorful inks, commas, proofreading and copy marks. They only started reading from teleprompters in the early 90s.
“You might not believe me, but once I had to read a whole two-page news without a single full stop,” Singh shared, who was also a former member of the first Nepali football team.
Another embarrassing on-air encounter Singh underwent was when she accidently entered a male restroom with the late king Birendra Shah at the Berlin Municipality hall during his visit to Germany in 1986.
“I was just doing my job, trying to report. I saw the king on the move and jumped at the occasion. I did not know His Majesty was going to the loo!” Singh exclaimed, seeming embarrassed.
Another funny incident happened to an even funnier Durga Nath Sharma, one of Nepal’s first, and probably most popular, newsreaders. Sharma walked into the studio to read the news half-drenched one day. Once the news was read, the weather forecast by the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) read, “Weather will be clear today.”It was more than ironic for Sharma to laugh. “I was flabbergasted,” he said. A quick–thinking Sharma immediately corrected the mistake, “Even though DHM said the weather will be clear in Kathmandu today, it is actually raining here.”
Maybe he was not thinking about how DHM would react to this. It was after this “incident” that Nepali newsreaders began to add, “according to the forecast made by DHM 24 hours ago…” to the end of their broadcast.
Sharma was with the NTV since its inception in 1985, and worked as its general manager before leaving television. The early days were the best in terms of weird incidents in Nepali television history. One in particular which still amuses Sharma happened during the late king Birendra Shah’s visit to Australia in 1985. It was also the first satellite broadcast in the history of Nepali television. Sharma left for Sydney early to arrange the coverage for the much-hyped visit.
Since the NTV had a VHS camera only, which was not accepted in satellite broadcasting, Neer Shah brought a digital video camera from Singapore. Unfortunately, the camera got lost somewhere along the way.
On the day of the king’s arrival, Sharma started looking for shops which would rent out a digital video camera.
Luckily, they found one. Sadly, Shyam Chitrakar, the NTV cameraman, had never seen a digital camera in his life and did not know how to operate one. The shopkeeper neither had a manual for the camera, nor did he know anything about it.
Dewy-eyed and uncertain, Chitrakar took the risk of his life and shot the historic moment. “Maybe it was Shyam´s promise to offer one hundred thousand oil lamps if it would go smoothly, but the digital broadcasting worked,” Sharma said humorously. Nobody knows whether Chitrakar kept his promise.
During the same visit, Sharma wrapped the microphone in his handkerchief as they did not have a muffler and the wind was too strong to record his voice.
“Instead of His Majesty´s visit, the Australian newspapers carried stories of our ‘indigenous technology’ during Nepal´s first attempt at satellite broadcast, which was, if anything, embarrassing.”
Of course, this was not even close to being as embarrassing as the day Sharma read the evening news drunk. While returning from Bangladesh after attending the second SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Summit with late king Birendra, the king shared his champagne on the flight to mark the 25th anniversary of Panchayat. When they landed, most were quite sloshed, and as another newsreader had called in sick, Sharma had to take the place while still drunk (corrected).
“In the evening, I did get some calls from my friends saying I was reading the news as if I was drunk. Of course I was. I could hardly see the letters!” Sharma said, who now works for News Nepal, an upcoming news channel, as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Dil Bhushan Pathak, a former newsreader with the Kantipur Television (KTV), has had a few of his own weird and “absurd” moments on television.
“My phone rang once when I was reading the evening news one day,” the newsreader-turned documentary filmmaker said. Instead of getting blue-faced and awestruck, he threw his amazing ‘Dil Bhushan smile’. No wonder Pathak is known as one of among only a few media persons in Nepal who can handle the camera in any situation.
His colleague from the English news department Somesh Verma had the laugh of his life when the computer UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) suddenly went off while he was still reading the news, live on air.
“It was even more hilarious because just one day before, at the same time, I had read that from the next day the power would cut off at exactly the same time.”
For another legendary newsreader with Radio Nepal Hari Sharan Lamichhane, the pressure of working on the news desk as a radio anchor gives him recurring nightmares.“I often dream that I go to read the news and there is no script. So, I make up my own news script, trying to remember all kinds of news of the past, no matter how old or where I´ve heard it, and blurt it out on the radio. I know this wouldn’t happen. But this shows my deepest fears.”
For some newsreaders, their worst nightmare has actually taken place. Bijay Poudyal, a newsreader with Kantipur TV, often fancied what he might do if he was attacked while reading the news. And it happened, much to his dismay, when an unruly mob attacked the Kantipur building on September 2, 2004.
“We were not sure whether to broadcast the news about us being under attack, physically. The mob was vandalizing the complex. After much discussion, we decided to go ahead with the news. As soon as I had completed reading the sentence - ‘an unidentified mob is vandalizing the Kantipur complex’, the mob entered the newsroom. I jumped out of my chair to run away before realizing that the mike was still hanging on my coat. I did manage to say that ´we are under attack NOW´ and fled.”
Newsreaders have done it all, whether it´s pronouncing Acharya Desmond Tutu for Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu, or fainting while reading the news on-air. There has even been the case of a funny ringtone screaming, “Phone aayo, Phone aayo, Gharbata phone Aayo!” over the air while the evening news was being read live.
However, no matter how funny or unfunny incidents materialize in the newsroom or the studio, news still makes news and is a serious business.
And the show goes on.
bhushita@myrepublica.com
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