Some memories are like snapchats- once you open it it is gone. Some are like your grand-mother’s photo-albums - worn out, but you keep revisiting it - when your family gathers after a long time, or you take a quick look while dusting off your selves, sometimes someone else opens it and you give a quick glance at the page as you pass by it, you go back to it when you feel attached and you go back to it when you feel detached. The year 2022 was a mixed bag- like my grandmother's album.
It treasured the memory of a young school girl trying to dry her textbook after a devastating flood when I went to Nagaon district of Assam to cover the devastating flood. In an August morning, I met this 90-year-old woman rebel in Kohima who is still continuing her battle for an independent Naga nation.
As journalists we are supposed to carry a story till we write about it, but the blank gaze of a 4-year old who just saw his his house getting demolished in an eviction drive in September and an interview with a now 65-year-old woman in December who got separated as a child from her parents during the 1962 Indo-China war- will always remain as memories that makes one feel heavy.
The past one year made me realize the importance of a magazine in an era of fast news- the importance of research and analysis amidst the rate race of breaking a news first. It amazed me when I worked on the different versions of Ramayanas in Northeast India, spent nights trying to make sense of the importance of folk tales in the history of tribes, and how the Gen Z can pull off an entire WhatsApp conversation in Korean without formal language training.
The year 2022 surprised me in my own land Northeast India- where I grew up. It gave me hundreds of reasons as to why there should be much more reporting from the eight states and why one should look beyond insurgency and ethnic conflicts.
Working in The Outlook Magazine amongst some of the finest editors and colleagues, I grew up as a journalist in 2022 or I can say 2022 grew up on me- like my grandmother's album in a calm afternoon.
