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TOW SAJA Convention 2008

By: Anantha :+: Under: Blogs, Brown in America, Culture, SAJA
On: ⋅ July 10, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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Last year was fun. So three weeks ago, when one saw Sree’s email wondering if someone would represent this Über blog at SAJA’s annual conference this year, disappointment arose. With work being the dampener during the week and cricket occupying much of the weekend these days, it was natural that the timing of the invite left one confused. But with some deft juggling, time was set aside on Saturday for a trip down to the intersection of 115th and Broadway. However nothing similar could be managed for Friday (or Sunday for that matter).

But before Saturday’s activities, there was the small matter of the convention’s opening act - the Thursday showing of Brick Lane, the big screen version of Monica Ali’s eponymous novel. And after a crazy day which extended right through a rush hour taxi ride through Broadway, the feel good story of a Bangla immigrant (to the UK) and the question and answer session with the movie’s lead actress and the director of the movie, did their bit to improve one’s demeanor.

The perfunctory celebrity sighting happened (as did the first of two Love Guru related conversations of the weekend) when just before the show began, Manu Narayan (yes THAT Manu Narayan) politely asked this blogger if the seat down the row was taken. Oh yes, that was a Love Guru related conversation. Oh, enough already. Let’s not argue semantics now.

After a dreary Friday, Saturday found me up and about early, just like a normal workday. With NYC’s famed transport system seemingly in chaos, with subway closings and at least one tunnel closure all happening on the same day, it was a tense bus ride into the city that set the ball rolling on what proved to be a fulfilling day. But thanks to my decision to take a cab (and a misjudgment about the day’s schedule) I was one of the earliest to collect UD’s press pass. Yup, like last year, I was imitating a press pass carrying citizen journalist. But unlike last year, when I sleepwalked wide-eyed through most parts of the convention, this year was that I actually was expecting to hobnob with the best of them.

The first session of the day was a panel discussion about the historic Presidential campaign this year. Leslie Wayne (NY Times), Aswini Anburajan (NBC), Nick Timiraos (WSJ); Rebecca Kutler (CNN) and Andrea Bernstein (WNYC) shared their experiences while on the road with the candidates. One of the interesting points to come out of the session was the universal agreement among the panelists that campaign meetings akin to tourist attractions with entire families using their vacations to drive long distances to listen to stump speeches.

Then sports won over politics. The unique opportunity to interact with a sportscaster with a unique perspective drove me toward the East Lounge where Kevin Negandhi, ESPN’s first desi anchor was waiting for us. Kevin, a graduate from Philadelphia’s Temple University has been anchoring on the ESPN Networks for more than a year now. An entertaining hour and a half with him followed - filled with the couple of the common (and a few uncommon) desi backstories. Yours truly managed to shoot a few questions at him, more as a sports fan (and perpetual ESPN viewer) than a desi, though I did manage to slip in a cricket question.

Another panel, this time geared more toward true blooded journalists than hacks like me, titled Blogging To Augment Your Reporting, followed. Sewell Chan and Jennifer Lee (of the NY Times’s City Room blog) and Mark Seibel, (of McClatchy’s Washington Bureau) discussed their experiences while blogging to supplement their reportage and presented a tidy how-to on efficient usage of blogs for journalists. As for me, certainly not part of the target audience, this panel introduced me to City Room, which in the two weeks since has become a must read on my feed reader.

And then came the session that I was mostly looking forward to - a salon with Fox News’s Jerusalem based Middle East correspondent, Reena Ninan. However having been sidetracked into an interesting discussion with someone, I walked in late to the session only to find it metamorphing into a lecture on India (not really because of Reena, who was mostly a silent spectator).

Coming to the fag end of the day, I wanted out earlier than last year to go and meet up with my boss and some clients for dinner. Waiting around to thank Sree and take my leave for the day, I found myself standing next to a gentleman who was in a conversation with someone else. And then a glance at his id tag made me do a double take. I had found myself standing right next to Vineet Chander, the Communications Director for ISKCON (America).

Once I got past my excited surprise, I waited around and once he got done with his conversation, I pounced on him and told him about UD being Love Guru Central. He said he knew about UD and appreciated our finding our niche among all the desi blogs. He graciously agreed to talk to me about The Love Guru and the various related issues that plague Hindu American society in general.

That last conversation with Vineet brought the curtain down personally on an interesting SAJA weekend. Sunday being match day (I play in a local tennis ball cricket league), I had to give the traditional Sunday brunch a miss. Next year though, we will be there for sure through the whole convention.

Thanks Sree. Our calendars are already marked!

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