Dissertations: Opportunity at Department of Journalism

Students of JOURNALISM have a chance to come up with their own dissertation. This may be both fascinating and challenging. You will have an opportunity to write about a subject that you find interesting and want to learn more about. But identifying a research subject is not always easy; especially if you do not have a clue what to write about.

You will have to do some research to identify areas and questions which have not been explored in the existing literature. But once you have chosen your topic, the floor is yours. You can approach your research from the angle you want and explore questions that you find interesting. This being your piece of work you can pour your ideas, thought and heart out. After talking

Developing skills

You will possibly spend most of your final year working on your dissertation but do not forget that you will also have other course work to complete. This will require a great deal of planning and organisation. You will have to learn how to prioritise your work and keep the balance between your work and rest time. You will learn how to manage your time effectively and will develop your critical thinking.

These are the transferable skills that many employers are looking for. They will also add to your personal development and will help you perform well at work and in everyday tasks.

Sense of belonging

The dissertation will become one of the most popular discussion topics in thefinal year. You will realise that there are many others who have similar concerns and questions like you. You can share ideas and exchange guidance provided by your supervisors. This will strengthen the sense of belonging and may help build connections with your course mates as a department.

Satisfaction

Writing a dissertation is a rewarding experience; you will be proud of your achievements. You will conduct your independent research and will collect and analyse your own data. Your work will contribute to the existing research and you will gain specialised knowledge in your study area.

What is Tabloid Press?

The 1980s saw the popular press retreat from political journalism towards an increasing dependence on sex, sensation and symbiosis with tv’s brand of mass popular culture. They were more dependent on circulation than advertising and this circulation was boosted by more reliance on celebrity gossips, scandals and non-serious news. This trend resulted in the emergence of the concept of tabloidization .

Tabloidization may refer to an increase in news about celebs , entertainment, lifestyle features, personal issues, an increase in sensationalism, in the use of pictures and sloganized  headlines ,vulgar language and a decrese in international news, public affairs news including politics, the redction in the length of words in a story, the reduction of the complexity of langage and also a convergence with agendas of popular, and in particular, tv culture.

Tabloid journalism often concerns itself with the private lives of celebrities, including their sexual practices and drug use. It contains stories and gossip columns about celebrities and sports stars, junk food news and astrology. Some small-format papers with a high standard of journalism refer to themselves as compact newspapers to distinguish them from tabloids.

Notable publications engaging in tabloid journalism include the National Enquirer, National Examiner, Globe and New York Post in North America; and the Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, Daily Star, Daily Record, Sunday Mail, The Sun and the former News of the World in the United Kingdom.

BEGINNINGS

The beginnings of early tabloid journalism can be traced back to Alfred Harmsworth. A successful newspaper publisher in the United Kingdom, during the late 1800's and early 1900's, Harmsworth purchased a few newspapers, which were not financially successful and on the verge of failing. Transforming them into what we now classify as tabloids, the public's ever growing hunger for dirty laundry increased circulation, sales, and of course, advertising revenue. One of his best known publications still survives today, and is one of the most popular publications in the U.K.; this newspaper is known as "The Daily Mail."

SUPERMARKET TABLOIDS

In the United States and Canada, "supermarket tabloids" are large, national versions of these tabloids, usually published weekly. They are named for their prominent placement along the checkout lines of supermarkets. Supermarket tabloids are particularly notorious for the over-the-top sensationalizing of stories, the facts of which can often be called into question.[citation needed] These tabloids—such as The Globe  The National Enquirer—often use aggressive and usually mean-spirited tactics to sell their issues.

RED TOPS

Tabloid newspapers in the United Kingdom, tend to be simply and sensationally written and to give more prominence than broadsheets to celebrities, sports, crime stories, and even hoaxes. They are so named due to their tendency, in British and Commonwealth usage, to have their mastheads printed in red ink.

These tabloids take political positions on news stories: ridiculing politicians, demanding resignations, and predicting election results.

Examples are The Sun, the Daily Star, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Record and the Daily Sport.

FEATURES OF A TABLOID

Tabloids tend to be irreverent and slangy in their writing style. They tend to be written with a simplistic, straightforward vocabulary and grammar language to appeal to as wide a readership as possible. while a broadsheet might spend dozens of column inches on "serious" news - say, a major bill being debated in Congress - a tabloid is more likely to zero in on a heinous sensational crime story or celebrity gossip. Since tabloids are smaller, their stories tend to be shorter than those found in broadsheets.

beyond the front page, they tend to focus on human interest stories with a lot of celebrity gossip and show business news. Their layout tends to give greater prominence to the picture than to the word. Tabloids tend to rely on brash headlines and large dramatic pictures to hook their readers.

The majority of tabloids report in a lurid or "slimy" style, concentrating on the darker side of the lives of celebrities. These publications are usually published on a weekly basis, and the attention grabbing headlines are almost always about a dysfunctional family, divorce, drinking problem, etc. Tabloids rarely report on anything which may be considered "positive."

These newspapers are distinguished from the major daily newspapers, in that they purport to offer an "alternative" viewpoint, either in the sense that the paper's editors are more locally oriented, or that the paper is editorially independent from major media conglomerates.

 READERSHIP

Broadsheets have been associated with a high-minded approach to the dissemination of news, and with an upscale readership. Their readers often tend to be fairly affluent and educated, with many of them living in the suburbs.

In contrast , tabloid readers are often working-class residents of big cities. Indeed, many city dwellers prefer tabloids because they are easy to carry and read on the subway or bus.

CHALLENGES

Tabloid Journalism is a specific type of journalism which is often discounted by what many consider to be "true journalism. Usually placed at grocery store checkout counters  many give these papers very little credibility

The writing style of tabloids is accused of sensationalism; in other words,they have been accused of deliberately igniting controversy and selectively reporting on attention-grabbing stories, or those with shock value. In the extreme case, they tabloids have been accused of lying or misrepresenting the truth to increase circulation.

THE MOST NOTABLE CONTROVERSY REGARDING TABLOIDS WAS THE  ​phone-hacking scandal and the closing of the News of the World, one of Britain's biggest tabs. In many cases, celebrities have even sued these tabloids, demonstrating that tabloid stories have defamed them.

THEIR RECENT challenge is the growth of online news, which has made gossips readily available to the public thus impact their circulation and popularity.  The erosion of print advertising revenues and the expansion of celebrity and lifestyle magazines have also affected their traditional business model.

FUTURE

While tabloid journalism may not be perceived as important or credible, the truth is that this style of reporting does hold a place in our world and is not likely to go away any time soon. It is a very profitable industry that helps fuel the economy, and it gives ordinary people the kind of stuff that they wish to know about.

 

-Compiled by Nimisha Bansal, Student of Journalism, LSR

Penny Press

The Penny Press was the term used to describe the revolutionary business tactic of producing newspapers which sold for one cent. The Penny Press is generally considered to have started in 1833, when Benjamin Day founded The Sun, a New York City newspaper.

Day, who had been working in the printing business, started a newspaper as a way to salvage his business. He had nearly gone broke after losing much of his business during a local financial panic caused by the cholera epidemic of 1832.

Penny press newspapers were cheap, tabloid-style newspapers mass-produced in the United States from the 1830s onwards. Mass production of inexpensive newspapers became possible following the shift from hand-crafted to steam-powered printing. Famous for costing one cent while other newspapers cost around 6 cents, penny press papers were revolutionary in making the news accessible to middle class citizens for a reasonable price.

Though Day merely saw it as a business strategy to salvage his business, his analysis touched upon a class divide in society. Newspapers that sold for six cents were simply beyond the reach of many readers.

Day reasoned that many working class people were literate, but were not newspaper customers simply because no one had published a newspaper targeted to them. By launching The Sun, Day was taking a gamble. But it proved successful.

The Sun by Benjamin Day

ANOTHER INNOVATION- NEWSBOY

Besides making the newspaper very affordable, Day instituted another innovation, the newsboy. By hiring boys to hawk copies on street corners, The Sun was both affordable and readily available. People wouldn’t even have to step into a shop to buy it.

INFLUENCE OF THE SUN

The success of The Sun encouraged James Gordon Bennett, who had serious journalistic experience, to found The Herald, another newspaper priced at one cent. Bennett was quickly successful and before long he could charge two cents for a single copy of his paper.

Subsequent newspapers, including the New York Tribune of Horace Greeley and the New York Times of Henry J. Raymond, also began publication as penny papers. But by the time of the Civil War, the standard price of a New York City newspaper was two cents. 

James Gordon Bennett

REASON FOR PENNY PRESS’S SUCCESS

The heavy dependence on advertising as a major source of revenue was a main reason that the Penny Press was able to sell papers for a lower price than anyone else. Other papers relied heavily on subscriptions and daily sales.

Newspapers rely heavily on advertising as a main source of income and that is also a major reason that they are still being offered at relatively low prices today.

POLITICAL FACTORS

Political and demographic changes were also significant. Much of the success of the newspaper in the early United States owed itself to the attitude of the Founding Fathers toward the press. Many of them saw a free press as one of the most essential elements in maintaining the liberty and social equality of citizens. Thomas Jefferson said he considered a free press as even more important than the government itself: "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate any moment to prefer the latter." It was because of his attitude that freedom of the press gained mention in the First Amendment to the Constitution, and though early politicians, including Jefferson, occasionally made attempts to rein in the press, newspapers flourished in the new nation.

CHANGE IN ROLE OF JOURNALISTS

In the early 1800s, newspapers were largely for the elite and took two forms – mercantile sheets that were intended for the business community and contained ship schedules, wholesale product prices, advertisements and some stale foreign news, and political newspapers that were controlled by political parties or their editors as a means of sharing their views with elite stakeholders. Journalists reported the party line and editorialized in favour of party positions. The emergence of the penny press greatly influenced communication technologies by covering news outside those of government interests. The first penny paper, the Sun, was founded in New York in September 1833. 

After that time, newspapers became nonpartisan since they were not supported by political parties. Penny papers hired reporters and correspondents to seek out and write the news, while at the same time, started to sound more journalistic than editorial. Reporters were assigned to beats and were involved in the conduct of local interaction. The penny press contributed to changes in newspaper content and structure. New journalism practices resulted in the development of concepts such as news reporting, emphasizing the importance of timeliness, and appealing to wider audiences. These newspapers, though not completely uninfluenced by political parties and their views, were self-funded and not party-funded. This allowed them to shift allegiance on political issues that the papers dealt with quite easily, which also aided in their success and acceptance by the general public.

IMPACTS

With these new publications, the lower classes were newly introduced to the latest information unlike before.

The spark of the new penny presses began a new revolution in the world of journalism. The whole content and structure began to completely change, allowing new material to be released more quickly and efficiently. Penny presses began to allow news to reach larger and wider audiences, expanding publication size and influences.

The period between 1833 and 1860 is often referred to by historians as a "spectacular phenomenon" for it revolutionized American journalism. Since the mid-eighteenth century, the population in America had been growing steadily. In 1833, there were 650 weeklies and 65 dailies in distribution, each with an average circulation of 1,200 (Martin, 1988). The advent of the "penny newspaper" (the colloquial name given to newspapers sold at one penny when contemporary newspapers cost 6 cents) in 1833 was to transform not only the delivery and the content of the news, but also those who for the first time had access to the news, which was no longer limited to the mercantile and political elite. According to Emery and Emery (1996), there are three factors which are essential to the successful development of a newspaper: readership, delivery, and production improvements. In the early nineteenth century, all of these factors played an important role in the development of the newspaper. Consequently, as a new economic level of the population was introduced to the newspaper, this came to have profound effects on mass literacy and society.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND

Changes began to appear in the workforce in terms of service and technology, and functional and practical needs for literacy grew. "Economic needs for reading and writing reached unprecedented levels" (Graff, 1987, p. 261). Accordingly, the elite's fears toward educating the masses began to subside, and it was slowly becoming accepted that they too should be educated.

The early nineteenth century also saw an explosion of print. Numerous religious groups, political parties, educational groups and cultural promoters pervaded the market with print in search of sales and influence (Graff, 1987). Technological advances in printing also paved the way for the development and proliferation of the newspaper. The wooden, hand-powered press which had remained unchanged since Gutenberg, was transformed in this century. The printing press frame was converted from wood to steel, the press became steam powered, and the print surface became a cylindrical cast of letter punches. More innovations would follow, including the switch from printing on discrete pieces of paper to printing on continuous rolls (Carroll, n.d.). These developments were vital to the rise of newspaper circulation in order to print larger quantities of papers and sell them at a reduced cost.

A PRESS FOR THE MASSES

The penny papers flourished based on increased circulation, but also due to a new importance being placed on advertising. Unlike their predecessors, the penny papers did not rely on annual subscriptions or subsidies from political parties. Advertising began targeting the working class readership’s needs. While in the past newspapers did not print advertisements they did not agree with, the penny papers relinquished their "authority" on moral judgement, leaving this up to its readers. "The cheap press had emphasized technological improvements and recognized the importance of news as a device for advertising the paper as an advertising medium" (Innis, 1951, p. 162). The penny papers made advertisement available to more people, to an entire new economic class, thereby enlarging the potential market for manufactured goods (Shudson, 1978).

The writing in the penny papers was yet another novel concept that added a new dimension to journalism as we know it today. Particularly in the beginning, the stories were sensationalist and were selected to draw in the readers. Stories were often detailed and included brutal accounts of murders and household disputes. Along with the sensationalism, came an emphasis on local and human interest stories (Mott, 1978). The penny papers broke from the traditional newspapers of the time and began reporting "interesting" stories regardless of their relevance. When the penny newspapers did report on serious issues, they were often treated with less "heaviness" than their 6 cents counterparts (Mott, 1978). As it relied on sales and advertising, the penny press was free to publish whatever stories it thought interesting or pertinent, but ultimately selection was based on what would garner more advertisement revenues. Bennett was quoted as saying that only the penny press could be considered a free press because it was deferential only to its readers, but really it deferred a great deal to its advertisers. Before the 1830s, newspapers were not even expected to be objective, but rather to present a partisan viewpoint (Shudson, 1978). Mott says of Bennett’s endeavour that it represented half sheer opportunism and half humanitarian idealism(Mott, 1978, p. 232). Bennett tried to sell as many papers as possible, and therefore adapted the stories for the less educated working class, but he was also a democrat at heart, and applied the doctrine vox populi vox dei (the voice of the people is the voice of god) to the running of his paper (Mott, 1978).

THE IMPACT ON LITERACY AND SOCIETY

All this, then, resulted in the fact that the mass public could now not only afford to buy the newspaper, but its needs were being taken into consideration. Was the penny paper then instrumental in increasing literacy levels, and/or did increased literacy levels of the early nineteenth century make the penny newspaper possible and successful?

History shows that the penny papers were conducive in expanding America’s newspaper readership. In his book, American Journalism, Mott cites from the Public Leger, a penny newspaper in Philadelphia in 1936:

In the cities of New York and Brooklyn, containing a population of 300,000 the daily circulation of the penny papers is not less than 70,000. This is nearly sufficient to place a newspaper in the hands of every man in the two cities, and even of every boy old enough to read (Mott, 1978, p. 241).

One out of three Americans were reading the newspaper daily. America's literacy levels were already on the rise when the penny paper was launched, however, the penny press played a key role in pushing literacy levels higher, at an accelerated rate. Since the penny newspapers were simply written, and affordable, they may have incited more people to read daily, thus allowing them to improve their own literacy. It should be noted that as literacy levels grew among the population, the quality of the writing in the penny press also improved. Furthermore, when the penny newspaper brought the news to the masses, it gave them "a new consciousness and new ideas". The penny papers placed an importance on the voice of the common people, and often published that people should be provided with a realistic view of contemporary life; that abuses by authority (such as banks, churches, courts, etc) should be exposed; and that the newspaper has a duty to give readers the news and not to support a political party. The penny press was instrumental in increasing literacy levels in a pragmatic society that was technologically ready to move forward.

SUMMARY

History shows that American journalism was indeed revolutionized during the nineteenth century, particularly with the introduction of the penny newspaper. Shudson (1978) explains the evolution of the newspaper in three sequential stages:

� the press is a monopoly controlled by the government;

� the press is controlled by political parties;

� the press finally breaks free from both government and politics by enlisting the commercial profitability of advertising and appealing to a much wider audience.

Several other factors played an important part in the development of the newspaper in the nineteenth century: the country's growth in population, the establishment of public education and increased literacy, democratic forms of government, increased popular interest in public affairs, and lastly the reduction of price (Mott, 1987). However, providing an affordable and easy-to-read newspaper to the mass public can obviously be attributed to the penny newspaper's legacy.

SOURCES

1)http://courses.educ.ubc.ca/etec540/Sep02/ResearchAssignment/LattucaM/full.htm

2) https://www.openschoolofjournalism.com/resources/encyclopedia/penny-press - OPEN SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM

3) https://www.dawn.com/news/801366  - DAWN

4) WIKIPEDIA

5) https://www.thoughtco.com/penny-press-definition-1773293  THOUGHTCo.

COMPILED BY:

SHRADDHA ACHARYA

Bells and Music of Tinka Tinka in Tihar: जब जेल के नाम हुआ तिनका तिनका तिहाड़: Location: Tihar

Year: 2017

तिहाड़ की सभी जेलों के करीब 15,000 बंदियों ने अपनी बैरक में एक साथ बैठकर जिस गीत को सुना और गुनगुनाया, वो था- तिनका तिनका तिहाड़। तिहाड़ के जेल नंबर एक में अलग ही रौनक थी जहां बंदियों ने मिलकर वो गाना गया जो अब तिहाड़ की पहचान है।

2015 में तिहाड़ जेल में ही शूट हुए गीत “तिनका तिनका तिहाड़” को जेल सुधारक वर्तिका नन्दा ने लिखा था। तिनका तिनका तिहाड़ 2015 में तिहाड़ जेल में ही शूट हुआ था। लोकसभा टीवी के सहयोग से बने इस गाने का विमोचन लोक सभा अध्यक्ष श्रीमती सुमित्रा महाजन ने किया था,इसी साल यह गाना अपने अनूठेपन के चलते लिम्का बुक ऑफ़ रिकॉर्ड्स में शामिल हुआ। 

गाने की धुन को संजोए जाने और बाद में शूट का हिस्सा बने 16 में से 13 बंदी छूट चुके हैं, लेकिन गाने के तीनों प्रमुख गायक अभी जेल में ही हैं। ऋषभ, आरती और सन्नी ने इस मौके पर गाने के जरिए अपने विचारों की अभिव्यक्ति की। उनके लिए यह उत्सव का मौका था।

तिहाड़ के महानिदेशक सुधीर यादव ने इस मौके पर कहा कि तिनका तिनका जेलों में सुधार लाने में कारगर साबित होता रहा है। उन्होंने कहा कि जेलों में सृजन और साहित्य को बढ़ावा देने से स्थितियां बदलेंगी। 

2013 में शुरू हुए इस प्रयोग के तहत तिनका तिनका तिहाड़ शीर्षक से आई किताब का विमोचन तत्कालीन गृहमंत्री ने किया और बाद में यह किताब भी लिम्का बुक ऑफ़ रिकॉर्ड्स में शामिल हुई। वर्तिका नंदा “तिनका तिनका तिहाड़”, “तिनका तिनका आगरा”, “तिनका तिनका आगरा” का सृजन कर चुकी हैं। इसके अलावा वे हर साल बंदियों के लिए दो विशेष अवार्ड भी देती हैं – तिनका तिनका इंडिया औऱ तिनका तिनका बंदिनी अवार्ड।

When the jail sang in chorus, the song, Tinka Tinka Tihar

A Musical Milestone:  Location: Tihar Jail: Year: 2017
Collaboration: Delhi Prisons and Tinka Tinka Foundation

Press Release Sept 28, 2017 

15,000 inmates of all the jails of Tihar tuned in to the musical video “Tinka Tinka Tihar” while sitting in their respective barracks. Tihar Prisons and Tinka Tinka Foundation joined hands in celebrating this success on the occasion of ongoing Durga Puja celebrations. Inmates who have been a part of this project, performed on this occasion.

Tinka Tinka Tihar, the song sung by the inmates and written by Vartika Nanda, was released in Tihar Prisons on Thursday. The song entered the Limca Book of Records recently. 

Speaking on the occasion, Sudhir Yadav, DG Prisons, said that the song echoed the theme of prison reforms and has played a vital role in bringing positive change in the lives of inmates. He stressed that initiatives like Tinka Tinka have the potential to instill hopes in the lives of the inmates and give them the strength to create art and literature from behind the bars.

 

Tinka Tinka is a unique series on jails to bring change in the lives of the inmates. Founded by Vartika Nanda, a prison reformer, this project has created important milestones.

The book with the same title was co-edited by Vartika Nanda and Vimla Mehra, IPS, then DG, Delhi Prisons in 2013 and that too entered in the Limca Book of Records in 2015.

 

The song, Tinka Tinka Tihar, is a living document of the musical wealth of Tihar inmates.This film was released in Parliament House Chamber by Smt Sumitra Mahajan,  Speaker, Lok Sabha in May 2015.

Inmates were given certificates of appreciation by Tinka Tinka Foundation on this occasion. Certificates were presented to them  by Sudhir Yadav and Vartika Nanda.

जेल हमेशा अंत हो, यह जरूरी नहीं...

23 सितंबर की सुबह नई दिल्‍ली के एक बड़े सभागार में एक खास समारोह था. तिहाड़ जेल और पुलिस अनुसंधान एवं विकास ब्यूरो, गृह मंत्रालय द्वारा आयोजित इस बड़े सम्मेलन में जेल सुधारों को लेकर जरूरी चर्चाएं होनी थीं. इस सभागार में सामने बैठने की जगह को तीन हिस्‍सों में बांटा गया था. एकदम बाईं ओर आम जनता और समाजसेवी, बीच के हिस्‍से में पुलिस के अधिकारी, बंदियों के रिश्‍तेदार और मीडिया, वहींएकदम दाहिनी ओर पुलिस और जेलकर्मियों के बीचोंबीच बैठे बंदी. जिन लोगों को जेल के कामकाज का अंदाजा है, वे जानते हैं कि जेल से बाहर लाने पर बंदियों को पुलिस के बीचोंबीच ही बैठाया जाता है. हर बेंच पर दो से तीन पुलिसकर्मियों के बीच बंदी बैठे थे. इनमें से एक था- महमूद फारुखी.

बाहरी दुनिया के लिए महमूद के दो परिचय हैं- एक परिचय उसकी फिल्म पीपली लाइव और उसकी दास्तानगोई और दूसरा परिचय बलात्कार के मामले में उसका तिहाड़ जेल में बंद होना. लेकिन अपने दोस्तों के लिए महमूद इससे कहीं ज्यादा था और रहेगा.

शायद 2000 के आस-पास की बात है. एनडीटीवी के रात नौ बजे के बुलेटिन में एक स्टोरी का पीटूसी मुझे हैरान कर देता है. शेक्सपीयर की पंक्तियों को कहता आत्मविश्वास से भरा युवक नाटकों पर एक स्टोरी की शुरूआत कर रहा है. मैं ठिठक जाती हूं. यह कौन है. कुछ पलों बात पता चलता है. यह है – महमूद फारुखी.

महमूद और अनुषा- हम तीनों एक ही जगह काम करते थे. हम सब साथी थे. बाद के सालों में महमूद और अनुषा की फिल्म आई, तब मैनें उनसे आग्रह किया कि वे राजकमल प्रकाशन से आई मेरी नई किताब 'टेलीविजन और अपराध पत्रकारिता' के विमोचन के कार्यक्रम के मुख्य अतिथि बनें. वह कार्यक्रम शानदार रहा. बीच के सालों में संपर्क बना रहा- कभी कम, कभी ज्यादा और इस बीच महमूद की गिरफ्तारी की खबर आई. जाहिर है दोनों की जिंदगी में बहुत कुछ बदला.

23 सितंबर के कार्यक्रम के दौरान कई बड़े जज मौजूद थे. यहां तक कि जस्टिस मदन बी लोकुर भी जिन्होंने हाल ही में जस्टिस दीपक गुप्ता के साथ जेल सुधारों के बारे में विस्तार से दिशा-निर्देश जारी किए हैं. पुलिस और एनजीओ की बातचीत के बीच महिला और पुरुष बंदियों ने दो नाटक भी प्रस्तुत किए, जिसे महमूद ने खुद संजोया था. जब बंदियों को मंच पर लाया गया, महमूद पूरी तरह से निर्देशक की भूमिका में दिखाई दिया. बंदियों की कला को देखकर यह अंदाजा लगाना जरा भी मुश्किल नहीं था कि उन दोनों नाटकों के सूत्र पिरोने में महमूद ने कितनी मेहनत की होगी. उन बंदियों को देखकर ऐसा लगता ही नहीं था कि उन्‍होंने पहली बार इतने बड़े स्तर पर मंच का या फिर जनता का सामना किया होगा. मैं और मेरे साथ बैठी अनुषा महमूद की इस मेहनत को देखकर बेहद खुश थे.

अ‍ब महमूद रिहा हो रहा है. हाईकोर्ट ने उसे संदेह का लाभ देते हुए बरी किया है. मीडिया की दुनिया के लिए यह एक बड़ी खबर है. फिल्‍मी दुनिया के लिए भी क्‍योंकि कोई कलाकार किसी भी परिस्थिति में जहां भी रहता है, वह सृजन ही करता है. जेल में रहते हुए महमूद ने एक नई दुनिया को गढ़ा है. इससे ठीक दो दिन पहले 21 सितंबर को जेल नंबर तीन में जब महमूद से मेरी मुलाकात हुई थी तो वह बेहद मायूस था. उसका वह चेहराजेल से लौटने के बाद भी जैसे मेरे साथ चलता रहा. मैंने प्रार्थना की कि वह जल्द मुक्त हो जाए. उस दिन मैंने एक अलग महमूद देखा. जेल में जब मेरी उससे मुलाकात हुई तो वह मुझे देखकर थोड़ा हिचका और फिर बातें होने लगीं. मैंने देखा कि उसके अंदर एक परेशानी थी. एक संकोच था. मेरे पास आकर वह जब एक बंदी की तरह स्‍टूल पर बैठने लगा तो मैंने थोड़ा-सा टोकते हुए उसे साथ बैठने को कहा. फिर हम पुराने साथी की ही तरह बैठकर तिनका तिनका के मेरे सपनों और उसके काम पर बात करने लगे.

जेल के उस कमरे में लैपटॉप पर मैं उसे बमुश्किल बंदियों के गाने का एक टुकड़ा सुना पाई. इस बीच कुछ और बंदी भी आ गए जो तिनका तिनका तिहाड़ की मुहिम का एक हिस्‍सा थे. मैं इस मुहिम के साथ महमूद को जोड़ना चाहती थी और महमूद ने भी हामी भर दी. महमूद ने उस दिन बताया कि वह जेल के अंदर क्‍या पढ़ रहा है. मुझे उस वक्‍त वह तमाम बंदी याद आए, जिन्‍होंने किसी अपराध की छाया में या फिर किसी और वजह से जेल के अंदर एक समय गुजारा और उस समय को एक सृजन से जोड़ा- चाहे वह रामवृक्ष बेनीपुरी हो या 

ऑस्‍कर वाइल्ड. इन सभी ने जेल के उस एकाकी पल को साधना के साथ जोड़ा और कुछ नया रचा.

महमूद, जेल में रहते हुए भी तमाम निराशाओं के बीच तुमने पलों को खोने नहीं दिया. तुमने उन पलों को संजोया और उन पलों से कुछ सीखा. उन पलों में तुमने जिंदगी के कई सबक सोख लिए. आज जब तुम वापसआ रहे हो, तब मीडिया जगत फिर से बांहे पसारकर तुम्हारा स्‍वागत करेगा. तुम्‍हारे साथी, तुम्‍हारे दोस्‍त भी स्‍वागत करेंगे. तुम्हारी हमसफर अनुषा और दास्तानगोई के तुम्हारे साथी और पुराने दोस्त दारेन शाहिदी के लिए यह नए सफर की शुरुआत है. 

लेकिन मैं जेल सुधारक के तौर पर यह भी देख सकती हूं कि तुम्‍हारी जेल की यात्रा बेकार नहीं जाएगी. एक शिक्षित इंसान के तौर पर तुमने देख लिया होगा कि जेलें एक टापू हैं. यहां जाना कई दरवाजे बंद करता है लेकिन बरी होने पर भी तमाम दरवाजे बहुत आसानी से नहीं खुलते. ऐसा मैंने बहुत-से बंदियों के साथ होते हुए देखा है. वे जेल से लौटकर कई बार अपना पूरा वजूद ही बदल देते हैं लेकिन तुम ऐसा नहीं कर सकते. तुम्हारी सड़क, तुम्हारा घर, तुम्हारी पहचान कैसे मिट सकती है. 

बेशक जेल से लौटते इंसान को फिर से पूरी तरह से स्वीकार करने में समाज समय लेता है लेकिन तब भी मैं जानती हूं कि तुम अब पहले से भी ज्‍यादा मंझे हुए कलाकार, पहले से भी ज्‍यादा सधे हुए निर्देशक बनकर लौटोगे और यह लौटना एक मामूली लौटना नहीं है बशर्ते तुम भीड़ भरी जेल में खाली बर्तनों से पड़े दिनों और अंत होने के लिए दीवारों से टकराती रातों की अनबुझी राख को याद रख सको.

जेल हमेशा अंत हो, ऐसा जरूरी नहीं है दोस्त...