Vijay Yadav was from Patna, Bihar, and Sufian Momin was from Maldah, West Bengal. They became friends while working at a multi-storey-building construction site in Mumbai. On Monday (April 13) evening, Momin gets a call from Vijay; later, other labourers from Maldah who were staying in Bandra east also receive similar phone-calls. Calls were also received by labourers from other states with a message for them to assemble at the bus stop near Bandra railway station on Tuesday afternoon with a demand: “either arrange our food, or arrange our return home”. Thus, the migrants from Maldah joined workers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, others, at the said bus stop in Mumbai. 'THE INVISIBLES' by GOPAL DUTT SHARMA  The labourers later said that instead of either proving food or a passage home, police dispersed them with baton charge. Some were injured by the caning; but scared of being nabbed by the police, most preferred to suffer quietly at the shanties that are their temp...

When Messenger Is News  In media industry, the present will pass; but the past is likely to lay heavy on the future. While some publications have announced closure – mostly “temporary” – many have announced pay cuts (“temporary”) and some, even job cuts. A message went viral on Sunday; that a certain Hindi news channel has fired its “entire Digital English team (15ppl)… without any prior notice… they just got an email on Friday evening. They are just paying one month’s basic salary and nothing else”. The three-para message was shared by others over various social media platforms. People started asking those in-the-know for details… and re-shared the incident with their “followers and friends”. Soon there followed other messages … National, regional, vernacular... Whether a "big house" or not-so-big-house... salary-cut, job-cut, leave-without-pay… most tightening their belts any which way during the lockdown. Those sacked were also part of the pro...

To colleagues working in their newsrooms or on the field in these days of Corona scare… To those comrades who will not or cannot isolate or quarantine themselves… To associates who will tomorrow again “cover” Parliament, the offices on Raisina Hill, or various hospitals, or other ‘beats’… From my hardworking young friend @IamNaveenKapoor handle I may not be anywhere there, but my thoughts, my wishes, my applause are always for you, with you… When countrymen open their newspapers, switch on to a news channel or log onto a news-site, they will know what they want to know because you were there to source out what you know they will want to know… When such calamities strike, editors scramble reporters to ground zero. And this time, it’s ground zero everywhere! What is worse – and what I can understand – your beat, your daily reporting will become tougher and tougher as the “society is walled off”. And the times aren’t good for either news or for the media industry a...